#Marinette trying to figure stuff out

[marimbles]

happy holidays @0ellestrid0! I was your secret santa for @mlsecretsanta 💜

I don’t know much about solarpunk but I was intrigued by the concept and wanted to give it a shot! hopefully this is ok. random silly solarpunk AU ideas under the cut hehe

since solarpunk is about solar power and green/eco-friendly societal structure, I figured plants would be central to an ML solarpunk AU. it’s cool to imagine a version of Paris with lots of green areas and clever, space-saving, clean-energy solutions. I like the idea of the dupain-chengs having their own greenhouse where they grow ingredients for use in the bakery. And I wanted marinette to have her own greenhouse too where she grows plants that she uses as fibers and dyes for making clothes! So that’s what I drew here. Chat Noir likes to help marinette in her garden and he nerds out about the plants which she thinks is very cute:)

The plant in the middle is associated with ladybug and chat noir. I love sun/moon symbolism and that seemed to fit a solarpunk AU really well so I ran with it haha. in this AU I thought tikki could be a spotted sun beetle and plagg could be a black moon cat (or panther?). sun beetles would be associated with the sundrop plant (first image), and moon cats would be associated with moonflowers (second image). chat noir’s tattoo is a moonflower and in my mind ladybug would have a matching one that’s a sundrop.

The moonflower is inspired by the actual plant of the same name, which blooms only at night, except I wanted to also make it bioluminescent bc that’s cool lol. (I’ve been playing lots of tears of the kingdom and I always love the blue nightshades and silent princesses that glow blue in the dark!) irl moonflowers are actually a type of morning glory, which typically bloom in the morning in full sunlight and then close up at night. so in this AU the sundrop is the corresponding plant (since “sunflower” is already taken, haha) and it would also glow, but only during the day when it’s blooming.

I thought maybe sundrops and moonflowers could have magical effects and marinette is experimenting to discover them. maybe there’s stuff about them in the grimoire and she’s trying to unlock special powers for her and chat noir. maybe those effects and the symbolism of the plants could help her understand more about her and chat’s roles and abilities and potential and even help her discover the key to defeating hawkmoth…hmm… (I really haven’t thought too deeply about it lol I just like glowing plants)

As for their outfits…I was just trying to make them look sort of “punk”-y 😂 I feel like in all the punk AUs like steampunk, cyberpunk, etc, people are always wearing goggles and boots and aprons and vests and stuff with pockets and zippers and arm braces. So. I made a vague attempt fjdkkd

anyway thanks for humoring me with my rambling lol I hope you enjoy and that you had a good holiday!

#also sorry this is a little late!! #ml #marichat #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #solarpunk #mine #my art

[kari-go]

So I have been trying to figure out the location of Francois Dupont and Marinette's house for you know, AU stuff and I have come to the conclusion that

The Eiffel Tower cannot be fucking seen from Place des Vosges and it's making things very fucking difficult

#i know that she lives in 21st arrondissement #which doesnt exist irl #but still #i need it for my brain #at least i know where adrien lives #which isnt relevant at all since i removed him lmao #miraculous ladybug #miraculous disaster au

[artzychic27]

Here’s more Favoritism AU stuff

The police have received many anonymous calls telling them that Marc has drugs in his locker at DuPont. An hour of searching later, they haven’t found anything, but due to his record caused by you-know-who, they usually come running any time his name is mentioned

It’s given Marc a reputation as a “badass criminal,” which is not what Marinette intended, but at least people think he’s capable of committing crimes

Nathaniel, Lila, Chloé, and Félix are trying to figure out which gym Marc does to so they can watch him work out

Nathaniel: *Staring at a map* Okay! I think I’ve narrowed it down! He’s at the one near the pool hall!

Félix: Ah, of course! It’s the one furthest away from the wretched shrew’s bakery!

Chloé: We’re so stupid! It makes perfect sense! It opens in ten minutes!

Lila: Let’s go see dem biceps!

Little do they know, he’s joined an underground fight club as an outlet for his anger

Marc barely flinches anymore when Marinette insults him. He honestly stopped caring about what she had to say when he was eight

Now he just listens to death metal on his AirPods whenever she talks

He actually threw a printer at Mme. Bustier after she compared him to his cousin. She dodged, unfortunately

Marc REFUSES to leave Kiran alone with Marinette for even a second, and he most certainly is not letting him play with any of the kids she babysits. Lord knows what poison she’s been feeding them

Carrie Powers AU ⬇️

Discovered his powers when he was seven and a rock nearly hit Marinette

Marc does arson with his mind. There’s no evidence so no one can convince him

Lila’s the only one who knows about his telekinesis and being her chaotic neutral self, she convinces him to cause a little chaos around DuPont

So far he’s tripped Damocles, kept the lockers of Marinette’s lackeys permanently locked, tore up Marinette’s homework, and ruined Marinette’s outfits with paint

Lila: See? I told you revenge could be fun.

Marc: Okay, I stood corrected.

Lila: Yeah, you did. Now let’s flush some phones!

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous #marc anciel #Lila Rossi #favoritism au #Marinette bashing #Marinette salt #mlb au #chaotic besties

[revengemicrowave]

So continues my attempt to not be aaaaapanic by actually posting stuff haha and feed the Lukadrien tag, my true motive

Another older doodle when I was still figuring out Luka's hair, from Zombie!AU I have all the ideas but no time to do the comic for. Ahh, the endless struggle...

Premise (completely spoiled lol) under the cut. tw: body horror, parasites/bugs, usual zombie stuff, talk of mercy killing a bitten

On a particularly warm day in April, a sudden outbreak sweeps through Paris. People turn wildly aggressive, biting and killing others - who then get back up to do the same hours later. The dead are controlled by a parasite that pupates and hatches from the face of it's host into a stunning, shimmering purple moth. It's wings extend over the face, like when Shadowmoth controls the akumas.

When the host makes a kill, the moth detaches to lay eggs in the new body and die, leaving a shambling biter with other larvae (potentially) still to hatch. However, rarely some stay in rooted to the host brain and become more intelligent, more dangerous zombie variants (like the really mushroomy clickers in Last of Us).

Luka gets seperated from Juleka and Rose on a supply run into the city, the Liberty a safe haven on the water with a small community of other boats. Has a chance run in with Adrien's group when Adrien saves him from one of the first of the more dangerous variants. Everyone is strangers in this AU, besides Luka, Juleka and Rose (and Anarka!), and Adrien, Alya, Nino and Marinette. There are other survivors, but small main group. In the group, Kagami carries a bow and insists she doesn't view the infected as human anymore. Marinette is their medic, Nino is the defender and they're trying to find Alya (who is with Chloe, driving eachother insane). I was also considering Weyham or Max or someone, make it more of a mixed group. Luka is a very reluctant zombie slayer, which is what nearly gets him killed when he first meets Adrien. He has an axe because I'm hilarious. Juleka carries a baseball bat with nails and Rose a can of mace and bugspray (which ends up being suprisingly effective). Rose the alchemist surprise-making a flamethrower, please. So, Luka joins Adrien's group and tells them there's a safe place on the Liberty, but they need to get to it and signal from shore without drawing attention. Because of the cluster of survivors on the river, the banks of the Seine are swarming with zombies, but the moths won't go in the water.

A sneak-through a building goes wrong and Luka gets bit. Marinette patches him up despite his protest about using the supplies, because he 'still shouldn't be in pain'. Kagami reminds them what a bite means, but finally softens when he jokingly tells her to look after the kids (they bond as the two most emotionally mature). The group have to say goodbye, and still in denial and shock, Adrien offers to be the one to 'take care of it'.

At first, it's assumed the bite is what turns you, as no moths have hatched and the first people killed turned after 18-24hrs. Adrien has to come to terms with leaving the guy he's falling in love with in a locked room to turn into a monster, or put him out of his misery.

But Luka doesn't turn (come on as if I'd turn favourite bluebell into a zombie and do that to Adrien) and over summer the hoardes thin as the bodies start to rot. They just need to make it to winter.

#lukadrien #miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #adrien agreste

[heartfulselkie]

I know people mostly follow me for art stuff now, but I do have a couple of fics on AO3 if anyone's interested! My name over on AO3 is Selkie077

Citrus and Lavender (Ongoing, Rated T)

Enemies AU with Chat Noir working with Hawk Moth from the beginning. Even though the "enemies" part is mainly on the Ladynoir side, there's interaction between all sides of the love square as they awkwardly fumble around and try to figure each other out.

Bell The Cat (Ongoing, Rated T)

Fantasy/Knight AU with a dash of enemies to reluctant allies then friends to lovers. Hawk Moth, tyrant of the kingdom, is dead. Slain by his own champion Chat Blanc of all things. But as the renowned Hero of Gallia, Ladybug knows the war against the Akumas is far from over. With a lot of questions remaining, she decides that the first step to getting answers is to save Chat Blanc from death row.

Dream A Little Dream of Me (One Shot, Rated T)

Marinette tries to forget about Chat Blanc as much as possible, but that doesn't stop her from dreaming about him.

Glass Cages (One Shot, Rated T)

Adrien is struggling against the isolation his celebrity status forces on him and the constant expectation of perfection. Luckily he's not alone in this, as Ladybug also knows what it's like to be kept on a pedestal.

Priceless (One Shot, Rated G)

Based on a Tumblr prompt. Upon discovering that Marinette made an expensive (and somewhat secretive) purchase, Adrien has a lot of questions.

Penumbra (Complete, Rated M)

Check tags carefully for this one as it deals with some heavy themes. Adrien is haunted by an experience he can never forget, so he turns to being Chat Noir as much as possible to escape it. As Marinette's relationship deepens with both Adrien and Chat Noir, she starts to realise there's something hidden behind their smiles.

And I'm Still Breathless (Complete, Rated T)

A oneshot written as part of a series for the Littlebug Valentine's Zine.

It was only a couple of kisses and they had been for the photoshoot. But Adrien is a romantic at heart, and when he falls he falls hard.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous fanfic #miraculous ladybug fanfic #miraculous fanfiction #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #fic: one shot #fic: penumbra #fic: citrus and lavender #fic: bell the cat

[batsandbugs]

Daminette Headcanon #??

Meet cute/meet disaster opportunity in Gotham. So Marinette is new to the city, and her stash of fabric and notions is completely depleted because she had to downsize when moving across the Atlantic (she had way too much stuff to ship with her.) So she's trying to find Gotham's fabric district which does exist... but it's frequented mainly by villains or henchpeople who need fabric for their costumes. Otherwise, everyone just buys online. Marnette though needs to see her stuff in person, needs to feel the fabric and test stretch and shit. So she's struggling down the street burdened by like five bags and a whole bolt of fabric and Damian (overachiever that he is) is doing an early evening patrol as Robin, and sees this little slip-of-nothing girl walking out of a fabric store that is definitely only frequented by villains and is a front for a local gang, and thinks 'oh, this is a new villain and/or she's being blackmailed to create new outfits' and so he prepares to swing down and interrogate her. Now Marinette, total badass that she is, can handle herself (yes, all her friends and family told her she shouldn't move to Gotham, but she's a hero too and Gotham ain't got shit on Hawkmoth) and she knows this isn't the best part of town, but it's the only place that has fabric stores, and the prices are really good so of course, she's gonna stock up. She knows she looks like an easy target but she is not. But bad guys don't know that, so a pair of idiots come up to her on the street and start harassing her and trying to rob her. One goes to hit her, and she totally backhands them and then knocks them both out flat in under 30 seconds. Not a hair out of place and all of her purchases are still safe and sound. And Robin is shocked up above (and kinda turned on) and is now definitely thinking that this girl is the newest up-and-coming supervillain, and he hears her mutter, "these fools have nothing on Paris." And so he swings down, intrigued, and wanting to know who this new danger is. He doesn't want to be too sus at first though and asks if she's fine (Richard would be proud of how far he's come at interpersonal skills) Of course, Marinette knows who the local heroes are (she doesn't want to step on anyone's toes after all) and so is very friendly at first, and basically says, "I'm okay and don't need any help, after all, you don't survive long in Paris if you can't handle yourself, but it's nice to know Gotham's heroes are looking out." And Robin doesn't know if that's meant to be a threat or sincere. And so he offers to walk her home because that's what a hero would do with a normal civilian right?? Not one that he was trying to gauge what their notorious schemes are, right?? But Marinette easily agrees, and in her mind, is just happy to get a read on the local heroes, and just chats with Robin the whole way home about Gotham and what amazing styles she can get from its local design and architecture. And Damian is so?? confused??? Is this girl an artist? IS she a villain artist?? What kind of schemes are going to happen here. And so he obviously has to know more about this amazi- he means potentially dangerous woman, and so when he sees her safely home asks to maybe, visit? Again? And Marinette is all like 😁😁 Sure, happy to help Gotham's heroes however she can. Damian is like 'perfect, I have managed to open a line of inquiry into a potential threat, now I just need to visit often- I mean monitor her carefully to figure out her plans' and Marinette is just like, 'The Gotham heroes are much more welcoming than I thought they would be. I got fabric, beat up some baddies, and made a new friend all in one evening!'

Their falling in love is kinda inevitable.

#damianette #daminette headcannons #daminette #maribat #marinette is a artist #marinette dupain cheng x damian wayne #damian x marinette #mlb crossover #maridami #damimari #ml x dc #marinette dupain-cheng x damian wayne

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

This is related to the Season Finale/Child abuse thing somewhat, but also kind of tangential so I thought I would submit it in an ask instead of a reply.

It's worth examining that it's *largely* because of TA's own bile that we had this S5 situation as an 'endpoint' and writer's intent. If we stripped all of his commentary out of the equation there is still some stuff, but ML undercuts it as well.

Chloe is framed as a Villain? Felix was a Villain until he was a hero, with about 2 minutes between the two.

Everything framed as her fault? Well, ML has a history of swapping framing. Mari's antics were farce for 4 and a half SEASONS, then poof, now it's Trauma. Without TA's word, reframing Chloe from 'She's evil!' to 'Well actually no one paid attention and she's been a victim' would be easy. Heck that's Felix 2.0 but with more weight to it.

ML loves it's twists. Burying a character to pull them back out in a 'You didn't think we'd do it!' moment is right up their alley.

If we look at what's put *on screen* it *feels* like the writers are aware of what they're showing, of how she's being abused and no one sees. Yes they crammed Marinette's mouth full of TA's tweets about how Chloe has no problems only privileges, but again, without those tweets it's just Mari being unable to see things from someone else's PoV, which is normal for her. (a very reasonable Achilles heel)

All of this could easily be building into something, if we didn't have TA warbling on the internet. Though, it's worth noting he once warbled about Felix too, and 🤷‍♀️

Not that it matters that much, since a topic like this *especially aimed at kids* is time sensitive. You can't run a 4-5 year arc in a kids show without some payoff in the middle. By the time you go 'no wait, we were just setting up for this!' your demo has aged out, or gone through something where that information *would have already been helpful* and your incomplete lesson might even have them acting on the misinformation you've left them with.

It's just... kind of baffling.

I don't know if this is something you'd want to touch on in your finale review,or just answer, but it struck me and I figured it was worth sharing.

I get what you're trying to say, don't worry.

The show has always shown it believes in a "good victim, bad victim" mindset, and nowhere is it more obvious with Chloe and Felix. It doesn't matter how poorly Chloe is treated by her mother, she's seen as bad, so she deserves it, while Felix doesn't deserve to be abused by his father at all.

Put aside the fact that it's easier to connect with Chloe because we actually see her abusive parent on screen, it's clear that both of them are victims of terrible parenting, but for some reason, only Felix is allowed to be seen as an actual victim of child abuse.

#immaturity of thomas astruc #iota #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug salt #chloe bourgeois #queen bee #queen b #felix graham de vanily #argos #child abuse in miraculous ladybug

[mikodrawnnarratives]

I finished the pretty gorls ON TIME!

2022 Version

2021 Version

(I'm also going to reblog them right after this is posted)

I'm gonna ramble under the cut about the designs n stuff but you can scroll past that to get to the timelapse if u want.

@jotg-miraculousrewriteau is where you'll see any updates about this story/au/rewrite I have going on if you get interested. It'll take some time before I get around to writing it but I'll be trying to draw more. I'll list some reasons for why I haven't gotten much out recently under the cut. Not abandoning the au tho!

This one was a STRUGGLE and part of it was because I still liked last year's and because my interest in ml has taken a back burner with other interests BARGING IN this year.

Not to say that I don't want to work on my rewrite anymore, but I'm probably gonna do some more rewatching so I can get fully back into it again. I can't really plop down what I've come up with for the rewrite and be satisfied anyway, so I'm stuck until I get the thing written and drawn.

THAT ASIDE, I changed up their posing again and included updates to the character design. I don't know if what I've drawn Marinette in here will stick for her redesign as far as outfits are concerned, but I don't really like the previous outfit I gave her anymore so I needed to work with something new.

Overall I like how this turned out, even if I'm a bit unsure abt other areas.

Specifics: Once again, I liked coloring and drawing Marinette more which shouldn't be a surprise since I have more to work with in her design. I made the foolish mistake of not including her freckles in the past, so now I'm amending for that. She's sort of matching her bf now.

I included some lore bits abt Tikki and Marinette's complicated relationship here that I haven't talked abt before. Marinette is not doing anything to Tikki intentionally, but I have a plot line in the story I have planned that involves how the kwamis went from deities to kwamis. Got caged in the miraculous. And the consequences that follow.

INcluding Marinette and Tikki gaining a strained relationship for the majority of the story.

But that's all I'll say on that for now.

You might notice Marinette's skintone has changed a bit from other redesigns. What happened was, when I was first coming up with ideas for the rewrite, I was going off of critisysms I saw a lot and noting them down. One, was that Mari didn't look like she was biracial and her skin tone should reflect that. Now. I was young and figured "Oh okay! So. Lets look up what average chinese skintones are!" ...I found the racist color swatches that got pretty close to yellow and I ignorantly changed her skin tone to that.

So! Now her skin tone is closer to canon's and I've decided anything about her heritage isn't something I'll tackle in my rewrite/au since I'm not qualified. I still have some things I've changed so she looks similar to both parents, but no more of that skin tone.

Lol I didn't get the timelapse started until the basic sketches were completed

#Reblogs >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> LIKES #even if don't have many followers! #Likes don't do anything to help share my art! #there is no algorithm! #MDN art tag #my art #marinette dupain-cheng #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #ladybelle #marinette redesign #ladybug redesign #miraculous ladybug #jotgAU #journals of the guardian au #miraculous ladybug au #miraculous ladybug rewrite #digital art #redraw #yearly redraw #tikki #tikki redesign

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Do you think Gabriel and Tomoe trying to force their kids together when they never seemed to care about that before season 5 was too much drama? @tallwriter

Yes.

Here's a little writing tip: if you want to keep your audience emotionally invested, make the drama build and try to keep most of it tied to the plot. Miraculous is really, really bad at this. It has no idea how to build the drama up to a solid, satisfying, logical conclusion. Instead, it tries to keep people invested through extremely cheap, pointless drama that goes nowhere. I'll use season five to explain.

Season five's conflict is that Gabriel has all of the miraculous and the heroes want the miraculous back. Season five ends with that happening. But does anything in the season actually lead to that ending?

Here's a list of all (or at least most) of the multi-episode conflicts introduced and arguably resolved in season five:

Nathalie no longer blindly supporting Gabriel

Gabriel getting cataclysmed and slowly dying

Nathalie slowly dying

The reverse crush drama

Kagami having a crush on Adrien (and Marinette?)

Lila's lies and team up with Chloe

Gabriel and Tomoe wanting their kids together

Felix having the peacock miraculous

Marinette being unable to say that she loves Adrien

The senti plot

Adrinette getting together

The only thing on that list that kind of mattered to the final was Gabriel getting cataclysmed because it meant that he could die without it feeling like suicide since he was already dying. Everything else on that list could be cut and the ending would not meaningfully change because there is no story arc for season five. Stuff just happens.

This is what I mean by cheap, pointless drama. Season five doesn't care about setting up a good, powerful ending. It just cares about keeping you invested and asking "what's going to happen next?"

The is not how epic stories are told. This is how soap operas are told. The entire draw of that genre is melodrama. In other words, it's for people who enjoy drama just for the sake of drama. People who don't care if the characters are mostly shitty, awful people or if plots get dropped mid-season or resolved in wacky ways because the audience is not here to fall in love with the characters or to hear an epic story. They're here for the drama and that's about it.

To be clear, there's nothing wrong with soap operas. It's a massively popular genre for a reason. I'm sure that there are even standout examples that have fantastic plots, but that's simple not a requirement for something to be a good soap opera any more than a good romance requires the main couple to be healthy. The problem with Miraculous having a soap opera structure is that - as far as I can tell - Miraculous is not trying to be a soap opera. It's trying to be a serious narrative (which is why you have the writers claiming things like Marinette and Gabriel are supposed to represent individual creative spirit versus corporate greed), but it's failing and failing hard.

A show that was succeeding at telling a good, logical plot would have had multi-episode conflicts like:

Chat Noir and Ladybug figuring out how the miraculous powers are being given to people

Chat Noir and Ladybug trying to figure out if Tomoe knew that her rings got hacked/assuming the Tsurugi tech is behind everything and somehow infuriating the company, likely with Kagami's help

Chat Noir and Ladybug learning the truth of the butterfly and peacock and dealing with that/going to the mansion with purpose

Felix, Chat Noir, and Ladybug playing a season long game of cat and mouse

You know, stuff that would actually lead to the ending of the season instead of Felix randomly telling Ladybug what she needs to know right before the final without her actually doing anything to make that happen. (But don't forget that she's smart and clever guys. I promise you that she's smart and clever! The writers totally know how to write a smart and clever character!)

Another thing you may have noticed is that most of those suggested plot points build on each other. This is how good stories work. You should be constantly resolving subplots and, in the process of the resolution, you introduce new subplots. For example, they figure out that the rings are how the akumas are getting their powers, which leads to the investigation of Tsurugi tech. Two separate subplots that naturally link together to allow for a logical story flow while keeping things interesting.

This was a big problem with season four, which introduced the Ladynoir conflict that was just kind of there, looming over the story, but not doing anything for 20-something episodes. For all of season five's flaws, at the very least the writers kept things interesting. They just didn't keep it interesting in particularly talented way. It's all bullshit melodrama and, while I truly have nothing against soap operas, I'm not a fan of the genre.

All of the above is why I don't have any faith in the next season of miraculous. They writers clearly cannot handle conflicts that last longer than an episode because literally nothing they introduced set up the final. It actually weakened the final because season five spent a lot of time making Gabriel worse than he's ever been, which is not how you setup a dramatic, last-minute change of heart.

To end on a positive note, the one thing that I will give the writers some credit for is the reverse crush BS. Rumor has it that this season was originally supposed to have The Reveal and, if that had happened right after all of the crush stuff, then it would have been more satisfying than a reveal without the reverse crush.

While Adrien has always been a Marinette fan and him eventually developing a crush feels logical, Ladybug has been really anti Ladynoir for a while now, so having her backtrack that stance pre-reveal would have strengthened the reveal and the relationship that follows. It still will even though Ladybug's Chat Noir crush is now nothing more than a brief rebound that was quickly forgotten. That doesn't change the fact that it happened which means that we now know that she's okay with her and Chat Noir being in a romantic relationship no matter his identity when it previously came across like she was completely opposed to the idea until she learned that it was Adrien under the mask, which was something I always viewed as a terrible writing choice, so I'm glad they backtracked it instead of trying to solve it post-reveal.

#ml writing salt #ml writing critical #ml season 5 salt

[tumblingxelian]

Alternate Season 3 ML Ending

I have been musing on an alt Season 3 finale that could catch the same general vibes while also perhaps serving as a culmination of Chloe's redemption arc efforts, Lila's whole 'thing' and while still shaking up the status quo as canons kind of did, here's what I have:

Post Ikari Gozen, there's a minor subplot in Party Crasher of Chloe trying to get in contact with Kagami who assumes its to shout at her about hero stuff. She's half right as at the end of the episode Chloe uses Adrien's mobile to lure Kagami in & says they need to talk, hero to hero.

Post Party Crasher, through The Puppeteer 2, a spin on Cat Blanc (Maybe) and Félix there's little scenes of them meeting to discuss their findings. These relate to feeling like Akuma are around them at night, finding Lila suspicious as fuck cos either Ladybug's bestie is too loose with details or Lila knows way too much and is trying to make Akuma happen.

They agree to keep watch over Marinette. Barring Chloe & Kagami, she seems to be her main target.

The next three episodes all fit together, with Heart Hunter first.

Heart Hunter changes:

Lila cuts the Bee Signal before the Akuma arrives, negs Chloe & then stalks Marinette, Adrien & Kagami.

When Kagami speaks to Ladybug she figures out its Marinette & while hurt at the sabotage date she still shares what she & Chloe think & they both realize today is an ambush.

Not having seen Ryuko, Chloe's not totally given into despair & upon claiming Pollen tries to fight Hawk Moth. She but gets injured reclaiming the Miracle Box & has to be saved by Kagami.

Hawk Moth & Mayura retreat with the tablet and Fu gives up being Guardian due to the strain of the battle nearly killing him.

Chloe's hospitalized as she tried to use Venom more than once. Ryuko is still upset with Marinette, Chat's upset about Chloe, Marinette is upset about Fu & feels incredibly alone.

A terrified Lila assures Hawk Moth she knows 'another' Miraculous Wielder and this one will break, Marinette.

Ladybug

Marinette tries to adjust to having all the Kwami with her & with translating the book.

Chat & other heroes are cycling in and out of Chloe's hospital room where she remains unconscious.

Despite going through a day from hell, Marinette still has to go to school the next day cos she can't even tell her parents what's wrong.

At school only Alya is present (She did her shift) Adrien's visiting Chloe as a civilian and Nino is (Sick) guarding Chloe.

Then everything goes to hell when Lila presents a video of Marinette stealing from her locker. They are sent to the principle.

Alya realizes something is sus.

Marinette 'can' get super jealous and see the worst in people but she isn't a thief. So Alya follows them.

She arrives in time to see Lila reveal an Akumatized appendage that jabs a needle into Marinette & sends her into a nightmare (Basically the rest of the canon episode) then tries to steal her ear rings.

Lila only gets one before Alya tackles the fuck out of her and then Lila starts vomiting up an Akuma that infests Marinette's remain ear ring much to her despair.

"I needed that!"

Cue half transformed, fully Akumatized Ladybug, partialy trapped in a nightmare despair mode going on a rampage.

The Battle of the Miraculous:

Lila flees, carrying Alya & a fading Tikki who explains Lila's being turned into an Akuma, & that they need to call in 'everyone', revealing IDs.

Hawk Moth sends Mayura and a fake Sentimonster Ladybug to get the Miraculous (Having realized Lila was covering for having figured out Ladybug's identity to steal the miraculous for herself) While he takes Marinette towards the hospital to kill Chloe & lure out Chat Noir.

Ryuko, Alya & a partially feral Lila defend the Miraculous Box, with the other heroes showing up to help after Mayura is driven off.

Lila also reveals Hawk Moth's identity, so Chat knows via phone call.

Chloe awakens in time to finish her redemption arc by basically goading Marinette & HK into focusing on her over Chat.

Nino catches Hawk Moth in a bubble shield and Chat has to destroy the ear ring to free Marinette & everyone gangs up on Hawk Moth.

He is un-masked publicly but manages to escape, despite Chloe's murder effort, thanks to unleashing a swarm of Akuma from Lila.

The Akuma are captured and purified before they can do much harm, but the Miraculous Cure is not working properly. The ear rings are only half usable at best. Worse, if they want to avoid Lila becoming a permanent Akuma she needs the remaining one to stay herself.

The heroes get Marinette out of the public eye before her ID can be revealed & she's allowed to have a good fucking cry. Adrien reveals his ID & he probably has a small breakdown too. But everyone resolves to go to the Agreste Manor & end things.

Sadly, Hawk Moth has fled, blowing up the manor and sending an Akumatized Gorrila to collect Adrien. Leaving behind only a weird basement ruin with no sign of his plans.

Epilogue:

Because of this, the Miraculous are divided up with their various users, though some are likely swapped or have other security precautions.

Until Marinette decodes the book & fixes Tikki's Miraculous she is left as Multi-Mouse and with a half functional Miracle Cure courtesy of Lila who 100% cannot fight but is hiding out with their crew anyway.

Hawk Moth is shown repairing the Peacock Miraculous and unveiling his Unification/Rebrand. Though where he is or who is harboring him is still a mystery. His identity may be publicly unknown to protect Adrien who has moved in with his aunt and cousin.

This leaves us with a massively shaken status quo, a full hero team, an empowered but no longer anonymous and much more personal villain, no more school rivals and no more mentors or secret identities among friend or foes.

#ML #Text Post #miraculous ladybug #miraculous au #marinette dupain cheng #chloe bourgeois #kagami tsurugi #hawk moth #adrien agreste #Yes I know he didn't feature much overtly #But I figure Season 4 would deal with the fallout from all this

[dnpanimationstudioclone]

Rewrite Ideas for Lila Rossi

I know there’s been a lot of criticism about Lila’s lies and how Marinette’s friends and other people trust Lila’s word over hers, especially Alya her best friend and journalist. What if Lila wasn’t just more careful with her lies(telling more believable lies with fake proof or atleast have benefit of the doubt, more cautious about threats and frame ups), but instead of telling negative lies about someone people should know better about, she instead uses already known truths against them. Does still manipulate certain things but also make those are unto her or see as a threat, dig their own graves, expose their own issues.  Ex, Like how Lila made Aya think the issue was just Marinette having a crush on Adrien and being jealous.

I think it would’ve worked more if Lila actually played into this more. Not just using Marinette’s crush on Adrien but her and the other’s biggest flaws(overthinking things, insecurity, digging herself deeper into her problems, etc) Using their issues and past mistakes to manipulate things in her benefit or atleast make people consider past issues that would make people have to also consider.

Marinette if she decided to just come out and say why she doesn’t trust Lila when she comes back as a new classmate, similar to when she talked to Alya and Nino.

Lila-I really dont get where all this skepticism’s coming from. I was only here one day and I don’t think we even got to meet, let alone talk, so how could you know anything I did-

Marinette-BECAUSE I FOLLOWED YOU!

Class-What!?

Lila-I’m sorry, what?😈

Marinette-I said I…oh boy. Realizes how bad that sounds and can’t really tell them the stuff she’d have to known as Ladybug.

Adrien-Wait I don’t get it, why follow us?

Class knowing Marinette’s huge crush on Adrien and the crazy things she has done involving him-…nervous coughs.

Ayla who also knows this and who Marinette told she was gonna follow them-Oh boy.

Later

Ayla-Listen Lila I’m really sorry, I should’ve stopped her. Are you gonna bring this up with the teachers?

Lila- Hey, don’t worry about it. I mean you’re her friend, not her mom, it’s not your responsibility to watch what she’s up to. I’m just happy this was simply because she likes Adrien and not because she really thinks I’m some “evil manipulative mastermind”, this doesn’t feel like anything I need to involve a teacher with, not like anyone got really hurt. I’ll be honest I have a problem sometimes being fully honest, I may exaggerate or tell a few white lies just simply to fit in, I’m not trying to hurt anyone. But seriously, we've only hung out like only a few times, he really is just a friend to me at this point. I’m sorry for all the trouble.

Alya- Don’t worry about it, honestly this isn’t really ur fault.

Lila-Well thanks and seriously, this isn’t really your fault either. Alya- Thank you. Still, maybe I should’ve been more concerned.

Lila- I mean these things happen, We’re teens, sometimes we might let our hormones get the better of us but I doubt this stuff happen all the time, she seems like a good person. Besides if she did do something that really crossed the line, as her best friend, I’m sure you def would call her out or atleast make it clear u don’t support it, right?

Ayla-…

Lila-Do you think I should talk to Marinette?

Alya- No, no don’t worry about that. Maybe I should though.

Lila-Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. she’d probably listen better to a friend anyway 😈

and doesn’t just do this kinda stuff with Marinette but can pit the whole class against eachother If she plays the cards right, full on Mean Girls Watch The World Burn🔥🔥🔥. All while, looking completely inconspicuous and whatever she could’ve done would be seen as simply indirect or unintentional and certainly no way she could’ve known it would lead to such an outcome…right?

Lila-As such a great designer Marinette, I’d figure you’d understand that rather try to make something completely new, better to make the best out of the materials you already have! And there is just so much to work with, especially with you😈

And rather Marinette not trying to expose her because of Adrien's advice but rather her own self doubt. “What if I really am just jealous and overthinking this whole thing”, “I technically was in the wrong first for following them, granted I had to for the book but I didn’t know that at first”, “what if I make things worse and Alya…won’t be my friend anymore”…”she’s probably right, maybe Lila’s just harmless and it really is all in my head”…”maybe it is just me”.

I just like antagonists who make the protagonists consider their own moral character and actions, if they’re really as good as they think they are. Even if they’re manipulative liars who are trying to be dishonest, there’s always that certain part of what they say that can’t be fully brushed off as entirely wrong, sometimes even being the ones to call out the protagonists’s less moral actions and mistakes.  And I think Lila could’ve really had that sort of potential with Marinette. For better or for worse, her impact could make Marinette reflect on herself.

Lila-You’re the type of person who sees themselves as the hero in their own story and that everything you do is right, but truth is you can just as easily be the villain! You think my lies are bad? Half of what I say is just calling you out on your own mistakes. You just can’t handle the TRUTH!😈

what do u think? How’d u wanna rewrite Lila? I’d love to know💖

#miraculous ladybug #lila rossi #mlb lila #mlb rewrite #alya cesaire #marinette dupen chang #mlb marinette #marinette #lila #alya

[princess-of-the-corner]

Glad you liked the submission, as I have more on the Aware of Abuse AU!

I think it would be really interesting to reflect on how this situation would be kind of a drawn out grapple for Marinette. This is in no way salt and I think if it was written she'd both warrant having hear grievances hear, but also could definitely come off as a bit antagonistic, or at least wary.

(Exactly how hostile she defaulted to with Chloe tended to oscillate episode to episode so ya know how it be)

Marinette would have the easiest time getting close with Kagami. She has no history like with Chloe & no baggage, IE friendship with Chloe, like Adrien. Tomoe is not someone Marinette admires and its much easier to see abuse in the physicals side. While she'd struggle to see it more in the verbal or negligence side; or otherwise be able to rationalize the negative behaviors such as over protectiveness.

Meanwhile Adrien would be tied a lot closer to Chloe going into school as she'd be being less overtly antagonistic or vain. Plus, they'd have a much stronger "We need each other to keep from falling back into old patterns and to survive" mentality.

Plus Adrien would be a bit more overtly snarky and less respectful to authority or stuff like Gabriel's fashion shows. He still is very nice and super wants to be liked by everyone all the time, but it'd be a lot easier for her to see the negatives in his behavior.

Chloe meanwhile would probably rankle and outright frustrate her the most. Not just because she'd still be hard to get along with in general, or because she still is not against ignoring rules or disrespecting authority figures. But because...

No clue what your religious views may or may not be, but have you heard those talks of "Catholic guilt" and the idea of needing to suffer, do penance, ETC before one can be redeemed?

Marinette wouldn't strictly think or want that, but there would be a part of her that would sort of... Well resent that Chloe is seemingly just choosing to change and not even necessarily enough.

That is to say, Chloe might still rudely reject Sabrina's cookies out of hand but then instantly walk it back and have some.

But more in that she's suffered no defeat, she's not been taken from her previous luxurious circumstances, she hasn't seemingly lost anything and even more she'd not even be overtly contrite.

That is to say, Chloe wouldn't be doing stuff akin to the Lady Luck AU (Nothing against it, great fic!) where she'd frequently reflect on how much of a 'fuck up' she was. Or or say stuff like, "I know I was a bitch but I am trying to be better". Or feel guilt in the "I can't even be mad they assume the worst of me cos I probably would have done X."

She's just choosing to be different and on some level its deeply unsatisfying and even frustrating.

(Where is the arc, the climax, the catharsis!?)

Especially if some people roll with it or let her get away with it when she starts falling into old habits.

Marinette doesn't want Chloe to suffer or beg forgiveness or hate herself she doesn't. She just doesn't understand why now? Why at all? Why because of her friend? Why because of how she was treated and not how she treated others?

Why couldn't she care enough about hurting Marinette to change!?

That I think would be the lynch-pin and one that is, from Marinette's perspective, as well as others in and out of universe entirely sympathetic, she was hurt after all.

But in that same vain Chloe's an abused child lashing out due to trauma and taught such terrible lessons she sometimes couldn't process that she wasn't doing 'right'.

Marinette's been hurt, and that would need to be properly addressed. But it wouldn't need to happen in a self recriminating manner necessarily.

Not that I don't love those, self hating characters rife with issues are fun to explore. It is just that I think it'd be interesting to explore both, changing as a person, and a "Bad" victim getting help before they actually even start processing over much how others might warrant reoperations.

Does that make sense?

The story "restorative Justice" sort of dips into this from a different middle ground angle and most stuff by Generalluxun often have elements of it too.

Oh yeah no it's.

Marinette doesn't understand why Chloé is Like That™ in the first place, so she can't fathom her wanting to change.

From Mari's perspective, Chloé's life is pretty perfect. She's beautiful, she's rich. She can do whatever she wants whenever she wants and always gets her way through money or influence. She's always bragging about how she's so much better than everyone. Clearly her parents must adore her because they spoil her with gifts and never tell her 'no'. Any 'hardships' are just minor inconveniences that Chloé brought upon herself by being mean.

So why would Chloé choose to change? If it's not broke, don't fix it. Chloé's life is Perfect™, why would she do something to make it different?

It's not that she wants Chloé to suffer, or thinks that she /should/ suffer. She just doesn't understand why someone with a Perfect Life™ would change without going through some kind of suffering that forces introspection.

#aware au

[character-fan19]

Optimizing Viewing Experience for Love Square Shippers

You guys have previously seen me make a post on the love square screen time records based on the data I collected on how much screen time each love square ship has in each episode and special and in each season exactly and now we're going to be putting that data to more practical use and using it to figure out what are the best seasons, episodes and specials for shippers of certain sides of the love square to watch when binging through Miraculous.

Adrienette

You don't need to know the exact screen time for Adrienette in every season to know that season 5 is the best season for Adrienette shippers to watch. Not only is it the season with the most Adrienette screen time, but it's also the season where Adrienette finally becomes canon which is yet another plus.

For episodes that feature particularly large amounts of Adrienette screen time you can look to "Gamer" (6 min 28 sec) in season 1; "Riposte" (4 min 14 sec), "Gorizilla" (4 min 11 sec) and "Frozer" (4 min 10 sec) in season 2; "Oblivio" (9 min 3 sec) and "The Puppeteer 2" (4 min 27 sec) in season 3; "Mr. Pigeon 72" (2 min 23 sec), "Psycomedian" (2 min 19 sec) and "Simpleman" (2 min 8 sec) in season 4; and "Determination" (4 min 46 sec), "Transmission" (4 min 49 sec) and "Protection" (4 min 19 sec) in season 5.

In terms of Miraculous World specials, you're best bet is the New York Special which has 7 min 40 sec of screen time which has the whole storyline of Marinette trying remain friends with Adrien.

Ladynoir

Really you can pick any season since Ladynoir dominates all of them but the best season for Ladynoir shippers would be season 1 which not only has the most Ladynoir out of all the seasons but also has that classic Ladynoir dynamic I've seen certain Ladynoir fans crave in the later seasons: fighting villains and just being a dynamic duo in general, Cat Noir making the puns and Ladybug getting annoyed with him, those kind of stuff.

For episodes with particularly high amounts of Ladynoir check out "Stormy Weather" (6 min 7 sec), "Mr. Pigeon" (6 min 10 sec), "Horrificator" (6 min 8 sec), "Kung Food" (7 min 3 sec), "Animan" (8 min 28 sec), and "Volpina" (6 min 7 sec) in season 1; "Prime Queen" (8 min 19 sec), "The Dark Owl" (8 min 14 sec), and "Mayura" (8 min 32 sec) in season 2; "Reflekdoll" (7 min 19 sec), "Timetagger" (6 min 22 sec), and "Cat Blanc" (6 min 35 sec) in season 3; "Truth" (4 min 4 sec), "Psycomedian" (5 min 40 sec), "Furious Fu" (4 min 57 sec), "Kuro Neko" (7 min 23 sec), and "Strikeback" (4 min 14 sec) in season 4; and "Evolution" (7 min 50 sec), "Multiplication" (7 min 36 sec), and "Passion" (7 min 4 sec) in season 5.

In terms of Miraculous World specials, you can go for the New York special which has 6 min 29 sec of screen time and gives us some good Ladynoir angst with Cat Noir betraying Ladybug's trust and feeling so guilty about that he gave up his Miraculous.

Maricat

For Maricat, the season of you're choice would be season 4, even though most of the screen time there is concentrated in "Glaciator 2". This season even has the episode with the most Maricat screen time in all of the show so far, that is, "Glaciator 2".

Episodes with particularly high amounts of Maricat screen time include "Evillustrator" (2 min 17 sec) and "Gamer" (54 sec) in season 1, "Glaciator" (3 min 29 sec) and "Befana" (36 sec) in season 2, "Weredad" (3 min 57 sec) and "Kwamibuster" (44 sec) in season 3, "Sentibubbler" (1 min 24 sec) and "Glaciator 2" (8 min 14 sec) in season 4, and "Elation" (5 min 37 sec) and "Protection" (48 sec) in season 5.

Ladrien

For Ladrien shippers, the best seasons for you guys to watch are seasons 2 and 3, moreso season 2, where Ladrien was at the peak of its screen time until it dwindled into nothingness in seasons 4 and 5.

For episodes with a particularly large amount of screen time we have "Simon Says" (1 min 22 sec) and "Volpina" (1 min 23 sec) in season 1, "Riposte" (3 min 42 sec) and "Gorizilla" (3 min 58 sec) in season 2, "Oblivio" (1 min 40 sec) and "Desparada" (5 min 35 sec) in season 3, "Strikeback" (37 sec) in season 4, and "Passion" (17 sec) in season 5.

Conclusion

Well, that's it. Hope this was helpful to some love square shippers who want to binge through Miraculous.

#miraculous ladybug #ml love square #adrienette #ladynoir #maricat #ladrien #ml analysis #ml season 5 #ml season 1 #ml season 4 #ml season 2 #ml gamer #ml riposte #ml gorizilla #ml frozer #ml oblivio #ml the puppeteer 2 #ml psycomedian #ml simpleman #ml determination #ml transmission #ml protection #miraculous new york #ml new york special #ml stormy weather #ml mr pigeon #ml horrificator #ml kung food #ml volpina #ml prime queen

[ladybeug]

Speech bubbles

I put together some thoughts on how I fit speech bubbles into my comic panels after a conversation with @carpisuns! Sharing it here :)

Section 1: some general rules to consider, and then to break literally whenever, for any reason:

(1) Leave more room for the speech bubbles than you think you need. ANNOYING I know.

like look at how much of these panels are actual drawing, vs text. its like a quarter each:

(personally I think these have too much dialogue to be good panels. but theyre good examples of how dialogue can take up a lot of room)

THE REST IS UNDER A CUT BECAUSE IT GETS LONG

(2) Speech bubbles should be positioned in the order you want them to be read, left to right, top to bottom.

(3) Speech bubbles should line up to where the characters are standing, which helps show who is saying what.

I am actually really bad at following #3. its something I try to do, but a lot of the time I end up with confusing stuff like this:

I end up doing this in an attempt to follow rule 2, so you can easily read right to left up to down, but this is just a mess, i cant believe their speech bubbles cross over like that, its a big mess and its hard to tell who's saying what.

this is kinda what I'm going for. adrien's speech bubbles on the adrien side of the panel, alya's on the alya side:

(4) Speech bubbles should not obscure any drawings that are doing important communication work. This sounds obvious but we're putting it in the rules anyways.

TYPES OF DRAWINGS THAT DO COMMUNICATION WORK:

Faces, usually. Often the focal point of a panel. This can be really effectively broken if you want it to feel like someone is being interrupted or overridden by the words that are spoken.

If someone is nervous and wringing their hands, then their hands are now doing important communication work and shouldn't be blocked by the speech bubble

I have good and bad examples of this one.

BAD EXAMPLES:

look at this mess of a panel where I ran out of space and did a speech bubble over adrien's face. adrien's face could have been telling us how he feels in this moment, but instead he seems squished and unimportant:

And this panel, where I ran out of space and had to cover chat noir's tall ears, which should have been uncovered because they are communicating a VERY Important thing to the audience, which is: chat noir made his ears long. that's the point of the comic. and its only communicated in this panel. and i covered it with a speech bubble. not my best work:

GOOD EXAMPLES:

This panel where I purposefully made the speech bubble get in marinette's face, to show that the words are pressuring her:

this works bc you can still see how marinette feels (thats the communication work the drawing is doing).

here's one where a lot of the figures are blocked, but the important communication pieces are visible. you can see chat noir's face to see how he feels, and his hand taking the card from alya. alya doesnt even have to be in this one, you dont need to know anything about her, just that she's giving the card to chat noir:

(5) Speech bubbles go on the top of the panel or at the bottom. That way they read in longer rows, and stay out of the picture. Also faces are usually in the middle.

(6) Less is always better to read. This is a hard rule to follow and I rarely follow it, but it's worth saying.

like its so easy to digest a comic panel with a small amount of text:

and so much more work to do the opposite:

same example, I know, but its a good one. these are hard to read because theres so much text. a tired reader will just skip this so they can have a better day.

there's like a 75% chance you didn't even read the words in this example image, but I bet you read the one that says 'I was born to be a cat model".

(7) if the speaker is going to change how they feel when they say two separate speech bubbles, put those speech bubbles in two separate panels. having the same picture attached to both speech bubbles can be confusing.

here's a time I messed that up:

See?? looks like marinette is mad when she says 'oh good', when my intention was actually for her to not get mad until after nino says chat noir was playing video games. confusing.

Section 2: HELP I HAVE TOO MUCH TEXT AND CANT FIT EVERYTHING IN!!!!! WHERE DOES IT GO! HOW!

Something's gotta go. Can you stretch the content out over 2 panels? or can you say it in fewer words? do you need everything you're showing in the picture, is it all doing important communication work?

If m worried, I like to write in all of the words before I draw the speech bubbles around the words, or add pictures. This makes sure the words are all readable and I can overlap bubbles to take up less space in between paragraphs of text. sometimes I'll also end up putting the bubbles behind the pictures in the comic, to make more room.

I was thinking about this as I drew a comic earlier this week and captured some of my process. First thing I did was draw in the text:

and then once it was written I was like shoot thats the whole panel HOW am I supposed to fit the people in!!!! my original panel idea had been like:

theres no way both girls were going to fit comfortably in the picture. so I thought about what NEEDED to be in the picture in order for the panel to make sense. and that was marinettes face, marinettes hands holding the card, and alya's hand on marinette's shoulder.

so

I gave alya REALLY LONG ARMS so her face wouldn't be cut off by the speech bubble and you still got the idea that she's comforting marinette.

Section 3: That was a lot. What am I supposed to do. Synthesize this into concrete instructions please

(1) Be deliberate with your writing: know what the dialogue will be before you draw the panel. If you're not sure how you'll fit it all in, write it down in a brainstorm. like write down what the drawing will be and where the words will go.

(2) If you're worried you won't have space for the words, draw the words first. it's usually easier to make the drawing smaller than it is to cut down the text.

(3) Ask yourself, can you say this in fewer words? Fewer pictures? What does the reader need to see in the panel, or read in the panel, to get the point. (you can't always say it in fewer words, dont stress yourself out about this one.)

And last step, dont worry about it too much. if it really matters you can find a way to edit it, and otherwise who cares. Have fun!

#my art #not sure how else to tag this

[uptoolateart]

Having now seen the finale three times, details have popped out. I still hate hate hate that Adrien was not there in the final battle...but I think I see what the writers were trying to do.

As we know, there is so much fairytale imagery / allusion in the show, like Rapunzel, Bluebeard, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Pinocchio in a way, Cinderella, etc.

At the start of Conformation, Adrien has been removed from Paris and the mansion - effectively, his kingdom.

He's locked in that room, plagued with his own worst thoughts. He only has his painful unconscious to keep him company. This mirrors Snow White being cast into the woods, running in terror from shadows, the woods and shadows being a classic symbol for parts of our unconscious we are afraid to acknowledge.

He is then tempted with the Alliance and eventually gives in, in mimicry of Snow White accepting the poisoned apple offered by the witch. The apple puts her to sleep. The ring seems to hypnotise Adrien, dulling his senses like sleep.

The action then happens without him, just as in Snow White and Sleeping Beauty the action is all done by the prince.

I said in a previous post (non-ml, just looking at fairytales) that there have been psychoanalytical studies of fairytales to show that they work like dreams - every character is an aspect of one person, so the prince is another part of the princess taking over, to help her break free and mature beyond the child stage. The witch is also the princess, but the part tentative about growing up - and also represents all the adults in her life, afraid to let go of their child.

In Miraculous, though, it really is just Marinette being the prince saving the unconscious princess, and this is what irks me. We will come back to this.

After the Wish, we see Adrien asleep. Marinette leans over to kiss him and he wakes up. It's an odd little moment at a noisy pool party, which is what made it stand out to me. It's the kiss of true love waking him from the spell after the witch / dragon has been defeated. And really, this is where it becomes more like Sleeping Beauty, because that involved a real battle.

And if that's Emilie by the pool, she too is a Sleeping Beauty figure who's just been brought back.

The implication is supposed to be that Adrien has grown up a lot through this, and the demons in his life and mind have been vanquished..although I guess time will tell if this is true.

There was also a lot in the finale about nightmares, like think of this as a nightmare and the Alliance will free you from it, etc etc. When Adrien wakes, it's like everything before it was a bad dream.

But, as my husband commented, all that bad dream stuff is what MADE Ladybug and Cat Noir's relationship. It's what led to them being chosen. It's what changed their lives and helped them grow, so arguably it's what brought them together as Adrien and Marinette.

These bad experiences shape us. We can use them to become better people. Without them, we change.

Adrien cannot be the same person, if his mother is alive...especially if they all believe she's been there the whole time. I guess we will see about that, too. His mother's absence was the initial catalyst for all his growth as a person. He actually needed the dragons. He needs to KNOW about those dragons.

I said ages back that we had a classic Bluebeard scenario, where we were waiting for the princess to open the forbidden door and find all the skeletons in the evil husband's closet. By keeping Adrien out of the basement, he never opened that door.

In some way, he needs to be the prince who vanquishes the monster. Otherwise, he hasn't truly woken up. I don't care how good Marinette's kisses are. He is stuck in an infantile state and unable to grow.

Okay, I...managed to talk myself back round to finding his absence in the battle seriously irritating. But listen - maybe it's frustrating on purpose because they are using this as a plot point for the next stage of the story. I have no idea. But this is why it is so frustrating and doesn't hit the emotional mark. This is what needs to be addressed.

Because right now...Marinette has taken over the Bluebeard story. She is the one with the locked secret room containing all the skeletons of HIS past. We NEED him to open this door and have a genuine awakening. She is taking the Guardian thing too far, watching over rather than simply supporting. She is doing to Adrien what he accuses her of as Ladybug - forgetting he's her partner and leaving him out of vital information.

#miraculous ladybug #adrien agreste #mlb #ml fandom #ml meta #ml analysis #ml spoilers #ml s5 spoilers #ml s5 #ml recreation #ml conformation #ml adrien #ml marinette #adrinette #ml ladybug

[verfound]

WIP Wednesday: 03.20.2024

The full scene from last Sunday 😇

Marinette had a soulmate.

Luka stared at the dark pink words on his arm, swallowing thickly as the words rattled around in his head.  It didn’t matter if she didn’t know them.  She had still found them, at least once, and they were out there, somewhere, waiting to find their fairy again.  She’d met them years ago.

…Luka didn’t even remember the last time he’d been in the city.  He had been what?  Three, four when they’d left?  Definitely not long enough to find his soulmate, and he’d only had his words for a few months now besides.

Still.

He had hoped…

That day had been so crazy.  It was only a few weeks into the school year, but there had been a delay and their flight had gotten in late.  The mayor’s daughter was supposed to show them around the school, but even though Chloé Bourgeois always seemed to be sniffing around for social clout apparently Jagged Stone’s kids had nothing on the model son of Gabriel Agreste, some big wig fashion somebody.  She had ditched them the moment she had spotted the model’s golden hair glinting in the sun, and Juleka and him had been left to figure out the bustling campus of Françoise Dupont themselves.

Which was fine.  They were used to being ditched.  Fending for themselves.  That’s what happened when your dad tended to be too famous to bother with you.

But just because Chloé hadn’t been interested in the Rock Giant’s kids didn’t mean others – nearly everyone else – wasn’t.  There had been so many people that day, and it had all been a little overwhelming.  They had been swarmed, because even though Penny had always done her best to keep them out of the spotlight everyone knew Jagged Stone’s kids.  Penny was good, but there was only so much even someone as good as Penny could do.

He’d lost track of how many people had spoken to him that day, vying for introductions and trying to suck up in the hopes of meeting his famous dad.  When they’d finally gotten home and he’d shrugged off his hoodie, he’d been shocked to find the words glimmering on his arm.

Thank you.

They were so…so…generic.  There was nothing special or unique about them, and they could have come from anyone.  There was nothing about them that made any one person stand out, even if one person that day had stood out.

The cute 5ème girl, the one he would later learn was friends with his sister’s soulmate, from the library.  He’d been waiting for the librarian at the desk when he’d seen her struggling to reach something on a top shelf, and he had gone to help.

“Here, let me help,” he’d said, laying a hand on her shoulder as he’d reached above them to snatch the book she’d wanted.

“Th-th-thank you,” she’d squeaked, staring up at him with impossibly blue eyes and the prettiest blush he’d ever seen dusting her cheeks.

He had hoped…he had really hoped…but he hadn’t said anything about fairies, so there was no way the thank you burned into his arm could be hers.  His first words had been an offer of assistance, not a greeting.

And now he knew she already had a soulmate.

Someone she had met long before he’d ever come into the picture.

…he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed.  Marinette was an amazing girl with a beautiful song.  He hadn’t been able to get her song – to get her – out of his head since that first day, and even if she was sometimes shy and anxious around him, they had struck up an easy friendship – one that had quickly turned into an easy crush, at least for him.

But Marinette, like Rose, was a romantic.  She firmly believed in all that soulmate stuff, and why shouldn’t she?  She’d had her words for years.

He was happy for her.  He was.

He tugged his hoodie back on, not really wanting to see those taunting pink words anymore.  Either way, their very existence let him know that his soulmate was somewhere in Paris.  At his new school.

…he just…was it so wrong, wishing that that someone was Marinette?

#wip wednesday #miraculous ladybug #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #lukanette #endgame lukanette #lukanette endgame #wip fic #all these signs #soulmate au #hey I said it's endgame I never said it'd be an easy ride getting there 😝