#episode: Evillustrator | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

miraculouslbcnreactions · 1 month

Note

I also saw someone say Adrien getting turned into a pigeon in the same Mr. Pigeon 72 episode was also foreshadowing for the sentitheory, what do you think?

I'm gonna be honest, I sat here staring at this ask for a solid minute trying to make sense of the words on my screen because this is one of the most nonsense things I've ever read. Media literacy can't actually be this bad, right?

No, Adrien being turned into a pigeon is not foreshadowing unless you think him being turned into a Reflecta clone and a Style Queen golden statue also mean something, which I highly doubt is the case. Turning people into things is just a standard akuma power and Adrien gets to be one of the victims from time to time in order to make an episode's plot work the same way he occasionally gets mind controlled. The fact that one of the things he got turned into was a bird doesn't foreshadow anything because that's not how foreshadowing works. Foreshadowing doesn't mean "I can find a way to loosely connect these two things!"

[image: the "I've connected two dots, you didn't connect shit" meme]

For the pigeon transformation to have meaning, it would - at the very least - need to be unique to Adrien in some way, but it's not. He's one of many identical pigeons and I'm guessing that this person wasn't claiming that they're all sentimonsters, right? If not, then how is it foreshadowing? What makes this transformation different on a rewatch now that we know Adrien's status? Because that's how foreshadowing works. It should play different once you know what it was setting up.

If you want an actual example of akuma-based foreshadowing, look at Wishmaker, which showed us Adrien's childhood dream vs everyone else's. The fact that Adrien has no hopes or dreams of his own while all of the real humans do is pretty clearly meant to make you go, "Huh, that's odd." Then, on a rewatch, you go, "Oh, this is because he's not a human!"

That's the way that foreshadowing is supposed to work. It's subtle or blatant highlighting of an oddity that will come to have meaning later on. You may be able to guess the meaning before the reveal, but it should play into the reveal in some way.

Another example of foreshadowing is how, in the later half of season four, the camera starts focusing on the Agreste's wedding rings every time Gabriel or Nathalie gives a command that Adrien then obeys. It's meant to make you go, "Huh, that's odd."

A weird*, but ultimately solid example of subtle foreshadowing is the butterfly logo on Adrien's shoes, hinting at his father's villain status. We know that Adrien probably only wears his father's brand and butterflies are a big deal in the show right from the start, so why would you give Adrien a butterfly on his outfit if that doesn't mean something about his father? You wouldn't, so it's obvious that this is a clue that Gabriel is Hawkmoth or at least involved with Hawkmoth. Let's compare that to the pigeon stuff to really highlight foreshadowing vs grasping at straws.

"Gabriel put subtle nods to his villainy in his clothing line because he's an egomaniac" is a really logical thing to assume. Similarly, "Everything on Adrien's body was put there with purpose by the animators because it had to be custom designed for him, so that butterfly is not an accident," is a solid logic. There is no reason for that butterfly to be there if it doesn't mean something.

"Emilie and Gabriel gave their magical designer baby a pigeon allergy to give viewers a subtle hint that he's a magical designer baby made from a peacock feather," sounds like the ramblings of a mad person. Do you also think that Adrien's inability to play soccer is going to come back to mean something outside of Penalteam? Or that him bragging about being good at physics in Evillustrator means that he's ultimately going to be a physicist*? You better or else you're cherry picking because the pigeon allergy is not given any more importance than those other little facts. Facts that were clearly only dropped for the sake of a joke.

Anyway, this is the problem with trying to claim that a random joke from a random episode must have deeper meaning. It certainly can, that's how subtle foreshadowing works, but for a thing to be foreshadowing, it has to create a clear association between A and B. It also needs to be logical. The pigeon stuff is neither clear nor logical.

Pigeon-related things that would actually count as foreshadowing in Mr. Pigeon 72 if they had been included:

Adrien!pigeon not responding to Mr. Pigeon's commands because Mr. Pigeon doesn't have Adrien's amok and that's the only way to control a sentimonster no matter their form (this would go against established lore since Adrien has been able to be mind controlled in the past, but I'm just spit-balling ideas here, okay? Work with me people! Miracular and the Paris special let him get cataclysmed without breaking like a normal senti, so retconing the rules for the sake of the plot is par for the course in my book)

Mr. Pigeon being unable to have a sentimonster because they're allergic to feathers combined with Adrien!Pigeon constantly sneezing, making him standout and be useless

Kagami being established to also have feather allergies since she's also at the pool in this episode, making it really freaking easy to establish this since Marinette is listing off random ass things that Kagami and Adrien have in common

If it doesn't result in an "oh!" or "I knew it" moment later on, then it ain't foreshadowing. But it could be something else.

*Let's circle back to the physics thing briefly because you might have thought, "Wait, that could be foreshadowing if he goes into physics, couldn't it?" And kind of! You're thinking of foreshadowing's parent technique, setup and payoff (or, at least, I've never seen it called something else.) The difference between general S&P and foreshadowing is that foreshadowing should stand out as odd like Adrien's shoes or the rings. It's something that's there to make you go, "Huh." Meanwhile, many of techniques used for setup and payoff don't require a "huh" feeling.

Allow me to explain!

Adrien being good at physics isn't weird, it's just a fun fact about him and it's normal to develop your characters as a story goes on just to flesh them out and make them feel more real. Every little thing you learn doesn't have to mean something about their ultimate fate. But sometimes the things you learn do lead to something bigger. That's just crafting a good, logical story. Knowing Adrien enjoyed physics class at 14 means nothing for his eventual career path, but if he does go into physics, it's now no longer out of the blue.

But it's also not foreshadowed. It's just setup.

An actual example of this type of thing is Marinette's diary. Her diary has been used as a nice little character quirk throughout the show. Then we get to the Paris special and - suddenly - the diary actually matters to the plot.

This isn't foreshadowing. The diary was never presented in a way that would make you think, "Huh, that's coming back later" or "Hmmm, that's odd." But it's still a satisfying moment to see her diary lead to something since it's been around for so long.

If we were never told that Marinette kept a diary and we only ever saw her hiding this pink book, then that would have been foreshadowing as we'd be thinking, "Huh, that's odd." Then we'd get to the Paris special and go, "Oh! That's what the book was!"

In other words, foreshadowing requires a reveal. I'll also note that there's no hard rules for this stuff. I tried to pick good examples that were clearly foreshadowing and clearly not, but there's grey area here, so it's okay if you disagree about some of these being foreshadowing. (except for if you disagree on the pigeon stuff. I will fight you about the pigeons!)

Another example of setup and payoff is Gabriel getting cataclysmed and then slowly dying throughout the season. His death isn't foreshadowed, it's just a thing that's happening. On the other hand, Nathalie dying via the peacock is used for foreshadowing because it leads to Adrien comparing Nathalie's illness to Emilie's, which is the setup for the reveal that Emilie used the peacock. Nathalie's illness is also just a non-foreshadowed setup for Emilie's reveal so that the peacock hurting people doesn't come out of nowhere, which is why setups are important. You can skip all foreshadowing and only use setups and still tell a good story.

The pigeon stuff was never foreshadowing, but if any of it had been revealed to mean something by the show, then it could be argued to be a situation where it was introduced as a setup for a later payoff. But the pigeon thing has f-all to do with sentimonsters, so once again, it's nonsense and people need to let it die! The pigeon thing has been used for its intended purpose: gags. That's why it came back in Mr. Pigeon 72! Mr. Pigeon 1 didn't foreshadow that, it just setup a gag that they decided to revisit it because this is a comedy and little kids probably find Adrien sneezing and messing things up funny.

*One final note: the reason I called Adrien's shoes "weird" is because the butterfly logo was great subtle foreshadowing back when people thought that was the logo for Gabriel's company. Now that the logo is a massive G, the butterfly raises questions about Gabriel's design choices since we never see it anywhere else. I've often wondered if this was originally meant to be Gabriel's logo, but they scrapped the idea for some reason. Either way, it's still foreshadowing, it's just slightly less good now that we have to ask, "Why did Gabriel put butterflies on these sneakers for teen boys and no where else?"

#ml writing salt #senti salt #ml writing critical #the pigeon thing #yeah it's getting a tag now!

39 notes · View notes

luka-couffaine-ship-tournament · 5 months

Text

Round 1 Side A - Pair 1

CAMPAIGN

Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng

-They‘re just so good for each other. Luka is such a calming presence in Marinette‘s chaotic life and helps her relax when she feels anxious and unsure of herself, always willing to be there for her and offer a helping hand during tough times. Marinette has a deep appreciation not only for Luka‘s ability to play music but also hear heart songs, as if she understood immediately what he meant after listening to him play for the first time. They feed off each other‘s creative energy and are just generally so wholesome together. I could talk about them forever, they make me so happy!!

-Luka is the best boy, and deserves love from the girl he adores

-I just woke up and am too lazy to think of words for my favorite couple so here's some gifs as propaganda

Gif de gifs-misc

Gif de bizarrelovesquare

Gif de notasiren21

Gif de ouiladybug

Gif de kochengnoir

Gif de jeldraximo14

Gif de notasiren21

Luka Couffaine/Sabrina Raincomprix

-Listen, Sabrina needs someone who treats her well, she needs someone who considers her an equal and someone to show her what real love is like. And I truly and honestly think that she would try her best to understand and appreciate Luka but who he really is (if she can see the good in Chloe she is capable of seeing a God when she meets one)

-Vote lukabrina people. We cant lose this!

-This is just unfair we need to help our girl out!

I'll start!

Item Number One: Viperhound Is S Tier

This is the fucking duo right here, this is endlessly clever and positive tag team action, this is a pair who will NOT fail the mission alright?

They are designed so interestingly parallel and then put right next to each other in this sweeping shot of the new miraculous squad???

Like, am I supposed to not assume something about it??

Item Number Two: opposites contrast

Orange and Blue, extremely Sun and Moon energy, but I don't think that would make this ship sail smoothly. See, Luka likes being a moon. He is happy to support and enjoys being someone's shining beacon in the endless dark of night, and no one needs that kind of anchor to hold onto more than Sabrina right now. Sabrina cut ties with her best and only friend and while we see her hanging out with other classmates just fine, we don't really know how she is with being actual friends with people. I don't think anyone has tries to reach out to her since evillustrator and we saw in that episode how she approaches new potential connections. Overwhelmingly cheerful and warm and oppressively clingy, like a ray of sunlight that won't leave your eyesight on the hottest day of the year. She means well but, boy, she can be a lot. And more importantly, she needs to be the one helping because, what kind of friend is she if she isn't? Who is she if she's not doing everything for everybody else? It would, amusingly and annoyingly and endearingly, put her into conflict with Luka, who is similarly always pushing his own problems aside to help people with theirs. This would lead them into a loving rivalry of "take care of yourself" "no u" that goes both ways, a back and forth that ends with them reluctantly letting the other help them. And after so many years as someone's shadow, Sabrina deserves to have someone in her orbit, someone she shines a light on when he needs to be seen.

Item Number Three: YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE

Look I'm SORRY okay, but I have to say this even tho I also think their ship got done dirty by the show, I still think they wouldn't have lasted. I think Marinette and Luka being "too easy" is exactly their problem, as even if they didn't have everything else to worry about Marinette needs complexity or she starts to lose her mind overthinking things and goes looking for it. The simple nature of her relationship with Luka is what 13 year old Marinette needed, the Marinette who wasn't Ladybug yet, who hadn't stood up to Chloe and maybe even just had her heart broken in a mean prank. It makes sense she'd fall in love with and gravitate towards this living embodiment of all the comfort and security she wished she had, she had desperately needed at that time. But that's just it, she needed it then. And now she can rely on herself a lot better, she has a whole support system to fall back on, and what she needs from a romantic partner is something else. But Sabrina? She's done horrible things in the name of her friendship with Chloe and even enjoyed some of them, but had finally hit her limit of how much abuse she can both dish out and take herself. Sabrina can definitely recognize that Luka is a good person, but more importantly Luka would have to actually try to sympathize with a person, rather than just immedietely like them. Lest we forget, Sabrina is the one who locked Juleka in the bathroom on picture day. Chloe told her to but Sabrina physically did it. Being confronted with someone who hurt his sister but is, herself, hurting, and is determined to help everyone but herself will be a lot of conflicting emotions for Luka, and Sabrina would need to get used to being the center of someone else's attention in a way not entirely dissimilar to how Chloe was for her, although significantly less codependent.

What makes Lukabrina interesting isn't that they're perfect for each other or that it's immedietly easy.

It's awkward and messy and they clash, they push each other out of their comfort zones and find a new one to settle in together.

It isn't instant or love at first sight, but by resolving their issues with each other through communication, honesty and trust, they are able to become a happy and wholesome couple.

Don't fucking tell me the odds lol, I know they're probably not winning but they deserve a fighting chance. So please feel free to add your own Lukabrina Viperhound propaganda!

TAG:

Luka/Marinette - @mikoriin

Luka - Twitter @Karma_sensei_

@lukacouffaineappreciation

#luka couffaine #miraculous ladybug #viperion #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #ship tournament #tournament poll #tumblr polls #tumblr tournament #fandom polls #polls #luka x marinette #lukanette #luka x sabrina #sabrina raincomprix #marinette dupain cheng #mlb marinette #mlb sabrina

65 notes · View notes

character-fan19 · 11 days

Text

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.

21 notes · View notes

gee-arid · 2 months

Note

Do you have any plans about Akumanette's "cameo" in yours AU's version of Gamer 2.0 episode?

Thanks for this ask! I got excited about a Gamer 2.0 episode lmao.

Gamer 2.0 but its just streetfighter.

Regarding SeamStress- Pit her against Volpina ofcourse! In place of Evillustrator, makes sense right?

Unsure whether in this au Lila has anything against Nath or Marc or the other way round, but i imagine her and Marinette still are at eachothers throats.

I did start this a while ago, then got tired and did other stuff, so if theres a bit of a weird style change or whatev- dooont worry about it.

35 notes · View notes

byoldervine · 24 days

Text

Writing Tips - The Dos And Don’ts Of Writing Foils (with examples from Miraculous Ladybug)

TL;DR at the bottom for those who don’t wanna listen to my rambles first

A writing foil is when two characters are compared and contrasted in order to highlight the qualities of one of them, usually done to highlight the positive traits of the protagonist against the negative traits of the antagonist. But there are times when foils can miss their mark, and I can’t think of more blatant examples than in the show Miraculous Ladybug to show the difference between good and bad use of foils with protagonist Marinette and antagonist Chloé

I’m a firm believer in analysing bad examples of writing as well as good ones, and as much as I can enjoy watching MLB it’s good to acknowledge its weaker points when they come up

Comparison 1 - Evillustrator

Episode Summary:

The titular villain-of-the-week, aka Nathaniel, wants to get revenge on Chloé after she outed and mocked his crush on Marinette - and at the same time, Chloé’s undervalued friend/lackey Sabrina latches onto Marinette as a new friend now that she realises how toxic and manipulative Chloé is

Foil 1 - What Chloé Did:

At the start of the episode, Chloé, Sabrina and Marinette are made partners for a class project, much to Marinette’s dismay. Chloé starts insisting that Sabrina and Marinette do all the work, and when Marinette says this isn’t fair, she’s assured by both girls that this is the way it’s always been since they started school and that if Chloé presents the work that Sabrina and Marinette produce then it’ll all be fair. Marinette again refutes this and says Sabrina is being used by Chloé, not treated like a real friend, especially when Chloé tries to bribe Sabrina with a hat. Sabrina is incredibly touched and inspired when Marinette stands up for her and quickly rejects Chloé, instead latching on to Marinette

Foil 1 - What Marinette Did:

A couple of hours later at most, Sabrina shows up at Marinette’s house to work on their project. Sabrina also did Marinette’s geography homework for her since that’s what was expected of her during her friendship with Chloé, which Marinette initially tries to politely refuse, but reluctantly accepts just this once when she sees how upset the refusal makes Sabrina. She then apologises to Sabrina but says she won’t be able to work on the project as something important just came up (a supervillain had just broken into her house) but offers to meet up with her later to get the work done. Sabrina responds by yelling at her that she’s making excuses to get out of doing work ‘just like Chloé’ always does. She takes back the homework and storms off to do the project on her own, fully done with Marinette, and later goes back to Chloé, who she believes was her real friend all along

Foil 1 - Assessment:

Chloé’s unapologetic history of dumping all the work on Sabrina, which has gone back years, is not the same as Marinette cancelling last-minute one single time. It’s frustrating, absolutely, but even if Chloé had genuinely good excuses and Marinette was just blowing her off, Marinette still didn’t have a habit of it and even offered to reschedule, which Chloé didn’t do. If memory serves Chloé didn’t even apologise, just said she wouldn’t do it and expected Sabrina to work it out. And not only does the comparison not work, it also drags Marinette down rather than building either character up; it makes out that our protagonist is manipulative without rectifying it or presenting it as a skewed perspective by Sabrina as she struggles to fully break away from Chloé. With this being all the foil achieves, I’m gonna say it’s a bad use of foil

Foil 2 - What Chloé Did:

At the start of the episode, Chloé discovers Nathaniel’s crush on Marinette and starts showing the whole class his art that depicts his crush, loudly mocking both his artwork and his taste in women. This is what leads Nathaniel to be turned into the titular villain Evillustrator, with the power to make anything he draws come to life, by our main superpower-dispensing supervillain

Foil 2 - What Marinette Did:

While working with one of the superheroes to try and defeat Evillustrator, which would turn him back into Nathaniel, Marinette agrees to go on a date with Evillustrator in order to steal the cursed object that gives him his superpowers. The plan is briefly successful, and when Evillustrator catches on, he laments that Marinette is just like Chloé because she was ‘teasing him, mocking him and leading him on’. Marinette even follows this up by complaining about the fact that people keep comparing her to Chloé tonight

Foil 2 - Assessment:

At no point did Marinette tease or mock Evillustrator, these were all things Chloé did but it’s shown multiple times that Marinette is genuinely impressed by Evillustrator and enjoying his company despite the situation. Moreover, at no point did Chloé lead Nathaniel on; she was purely insulting towards him, and only Marinette lead him on. The comparison falls very flat when all the reasons the two girls are apparently ‘just like one another’ weren’t mutually inclusive at any point. It’s like saying that Batman and Superman are just the same because they both live in ice fortresses and wear masks to fight crime

Comparison Summary:

Both attempts at foils drag Marinette down rather than building her or Chloé up, so why are we supposed to root for her over Chloé? I didn’t gloss over any narrative contrast where these comparisons are framed as wrong, these are supposed to be lessons that Marinette learns from, which supports the idea that these views are correct. Not to mention that both foils ignore the difference in intentions; Chloé is very blatantly bullying and using people, whereas Marinette was only trying to do what was right, even if someone felt hurt in the process there was always an intention to do good. These differences are never brought up, the foils are purely to make Marinette look bad with no nuance attached, and that alone is the mark of a failed foil in my opinion

Comparison 2 - Despair Bear

Episode Summary:

Chloé calls the fire department to the school in order to interrupt a special class, coincidentally taught by Marinette’s dad, and Marinette spots her in the act. Chloé blackmails the principal into letting her out of the school-wide punishment for this action, but this is the last straw for her childhood friend and crush, which results in Chloé hosting an extravagant party for the whole school in order to prove that she can be a good person and win her friend’s approval back

Foil 1 - What Chloé Did:

Chloé isn’t interested in the peasant work of a one-off baking class, and after complaining about it to all her classmates, she steps outside to call the fire department, informing them that there’s a fire at the school. Once the FD arrive, the whole school is gathered while the principal demands to know who called them. After nobody fesses up, the principal calls for the entire school to clean the premesis for the rest of the day as punishment - but Chloé threatens to call her father, the mayor, to complain about being punished for ‘someone else’s’ actions, and so she’s the only one who doesn’t have to clean

Foil 1 - What Marinette Did:

Marinette knew Chloé had been complaining about the class and wanting to get out of it, and she saw Chloé making a phone call a few minutes before the FD arrived. She was going to say this when the principal asked who had called the FD, but her friends told her to ‘not stoop to Chloé’s level’ and that it would make them just as bad as each other. At very least the class were all confident that Chloé did it, and she didn’t deny this afterwards, but the whole school was still punished regardless because Marinette didn’t speak up

Foil 1 - Assessment:

How is providing evidence that someone may have done something equivalent to abusing emergency services and blackmailing people? Genuinely don’t understand this. I have no idea what the comparison is supposed to be and that’s a pretty good sign of a bad use of foil

Foil 2 - What Chloé Did

Chloé and Marinette share a friend/crush, Adrien, who threatens to no longer be friends with Chloé if she can’t prove to him that she can be nice to people. This friendship means a huge deal to Chloé, so she throws an over-the-top, extravagant party and invites the entire school so that Adrien can see how nice she really is. She frequently starts to be mean to people again, but her butler helps encourage her to be nice by basically saying “Your teddy bear wouldn’t approve” and it actually works for a bit until this tactic is exposed and she fires the butler. She later helps the heroes defeat a supervillain and is deemed a good enough person for Adrien to forgive her and remain friends with her - which leads her to instantly start being mean to all her guests again, to which Adrien chuckles fondly about how she’ll never change

Foil 2 - What Marinette Did:

Marinette, like literally everyone else in the whole school, attended Chloé’s party, with Marinette only going after finding out that Adrien was going so that she could spend time with him. Despite also attending, Marinette’s friend remarks multiple times that Marinette attending the party makes her no better than Chloé because both are using this party as an excuse to improve their relationships with Adrien. She does make unkind remarks about Chloé during the episode, such as calling her a bratty snob and a faker for the ‘BFF act’ she’s putting on with her guests, but she never insults Chloé to her face or makes any baseless accusations all things considered, and she’s hardly the only one making these comments. She’s no more or less guilty in that regard than the majority of Chloé’s guests

Foil 2 - Assessment:

This one really frustrates me because they definitely could’ve gone somewhere with the whole ‘they’re only hosting/attending the party to improve their relationship with Adrien’ thing, but once again they failed to provide any nuance or divergence of intent/results. Marinette only going to the party because a guy she liked would be there is framed as a bad thing because it makes her ‘just like Chloé’ and drags Marinette down to Chloé’s level, but then Chloé is later rewarded for her efforts and praised as ‘a nice person deep down’ despite her frequently insulting her guests. Not to mention the context to this; Chloé is only throwing this party so she looks good, and admits as much, but of course Marinette wouldn’t want to attend the party of the biggest bully in the school who ruined her dad’s class and got her and all her friends in trouble for it just that same morning. Is it such a morally questionable thing to say “I won’t attend this party unless I’ll be in good company”?

Comparison Summary:

The comparisons are mostly fabricated and baseless, with circumstances once again being ignored. Like many aspects of this show, there’s some interesting setup and potential that is sadly either not followed through on or poorly executed, and it hurts the writing. And once more, the foils focus more on dragging our protagonist down and not building either character up, yet Marinette is still the hero while Chloé is still the villain

✨ TL;DR: ✨

So what can we learn from two of Miraculous Ladybug’s most prominent foil episodes when it comes to writing foils?

Remember the surrounding context. Looking into why your characters think and act the way they do is often key for comparing them

Consider intentions, executions and outcomes individually. Just because characters had the same intentions or performed the same actions doesn’t mean that they’re ’just the same’; similar intentions may be executed differently and similar executions may have been inspired through different intentions, and of course the outcomes should reflect both of these

Recognise the purpose of your foil. Do you want to build someone up? Drag someone down? Both at once? It helps to know what you’re aiming to achieve to ensure that the foil has the desired impact on your reader

Assess the validity of your comparison. If a character in-universe is making the comparison, it has to be understandable why they would see things that way, even if it’s not wholly accurate. The narrative should generally try to take a truthful perspective on it as well, rather than agreeing with the unreliable narrator that two actions or intentions are just the same regardless of context. Especially avoid making a comparison where your examples don’t apply to both characters unless to highlight them as different

23 notes · View notes