Writing Salt - Blog Posts

Gabriel overhears Ladybug saying "my Lady" to an akuma or smthn and concludes that she is Chat Noir

(Alya): "Chat Noir, what would you say would be your first defining trait?" (Chat Noir): "My special, one of a kind, trademarked phrase of 'my lady.' " (Felix): "I'm gonna to steal that. In fact, Lila, you look wonderful, my lady." (Lila): "Stop mocking me, kitty. Or else, I'll have to throw you in a trash can." (Gabriel): "Felix is Chat Noir? And Lila is Ladybug? Even though this makes no sense, I've likely found their identities. They'll pay for deceiving me."

New fic prompt: how many ways Gabriel can overhear someone say “my Lady” and conclude that they’re CN.

#no but legit allll of this because it makes it really hard to side with Alya in 'Revealator' despite her being in the right#because Alya is the LAST person who has the right to spout off any tirade about The Truth and giving people The Right to Choose#She wants to berate Ladybug for her choice in Season 5 when SHE. WASN'T. THERE.#and she wasn't there because she didn't have the Fox Miraculous#and she didn't have the Fox Miraculous because she gave it up despite having it 'permanently' due because she told Nino who outed her#what it comes down too is that both Nino AND Alya can't really be trusted to keep secrets#not between each other for sure (see Alya telling Nino about MARINETTE'S crush despite being EXPLICTLY told not to)#and NINO can't keep a secret PERIOD#so like Boo hoo Alya doesn't like to lie but she does NOT protect people's autonomy to 'choose' what to do with the truth

Just gotta say, in addition to everything in the post, those tags bring up an excellent point.

Alya thinks Marinette should tell Adrien that his dad was Hawkmoth because he has a right to know.

And, I would agree, to a point.

But, there is still a villain out there with the power to turn people into villains, and Adrien is still in a fragile state after having lost both of his parents. The revelation that Gabriel was Hawkmoth would destroy him.

And, if it got out to anyone else, the media could latch onto that. He's having a hard enough time avoiding the paparazzi, they'd certainly never leave him alone about a story like that.

Marinette wants to tell Adrien at some point. She just wants to make sure it's done in the right way to hurt him less.

I fear that the show is going to frame Marinette as wrong for keeping that secret, but we'll wait and see.

And, yeah, Alya doesn't respect people's privacy. Alya shouldn't be telling Nino about Marinette's crush on Adrien, even if he is her boyfriend.

At least with Nino he seems kinda clueless, like he doesn't actually know what's wrong. Alya is being deliberately told not to tell anyone and doing it anyways.

What are your thoughts on Alyno's relationship, and do you think the good aspects about them outweight the toxic ones? I mean they're definitely at least less toxic than current canon Lovesquare, but that bar is pretty much subterranean. 😬

(Also sorry if you've already been asked this, I found your blog relatively recently and I love reading through your thoughts and critiques! It's always interesting reading through your takes <3)

I'm so glad that you like the blog and, no, I don't think I've been asked this so let's talk about it!

DJWifi or Alyno is a fine couple most of the time. There are really only two major flaws in how they're written and one minor flaw that gets elevated to a major flaw because of the other flaws. I think it's pretty easy to take them and make them into a great couple, but canon has squandered that potential making them into a couple that is just kind of there because everyone needs to be paired off to earn a happy ending, I guess. (This show is incredibly amatonormative.)

Let's go through all of those items one by one.

Flaw One: How They Got Together

Alya and Nino get together in Animan, the episode that starts with Nino having a crush on Marinette. Of course, when Nino is prompted to tell Marinette about this crush, he chokes and says it's on Alya instead:

Marinette: Uhh... Can't wait to hear... about this lucky girl! Nino: Oh, yeah... Adrien:(from the earpiece) Tell her it's you! Nino: It's youuu...uur best friend Alya! Adrien, Alya and Marinette: What?! Marinette: Alya? Awesome! Alya: No! No! It's not awesome! Marinette: I can fix up a date for you guys! Alya: Say what?! Seriously?! (calls Nino from the earpiece) You didn't even ask me first! (calls Marinette back from the earpiece) Uh-uh! Nino's like... a brother to me! Bleugh! No! End of discussion!

This leads Marinette to lock Alya in a cage with Nino in spite of the fact that Alya is clearly not interested in Nino:

Ladybug:(takes Nino and Alya to the empty gorilla habitat and locks the cage) Stay put and you'll be safe. (then leaves) Nino:(he looks at Alya) Uhh... Hey, what's up? (Alya lets out a disgusted groan.)

This questionable series of events somehow leads Alya and Nino to get together off screen:

Alya: Ladybug locked us up together in the same cage all afternoon. Nino: It turns out we have tons in common. You know, Marinette, the girl I've got a crush on? Marinette: Oh, yeah! Nino: Actually, it was you. Marinette: Huh? Nino: Or that's what I thought. But after chilling with Alya that whole time... Alya:(interrupts) Yeah, well...we don't have to give her all the deets, do we? Nino: Oh, yeah, my bad.

What an incredibly lackluster romance! Alya and Nino deserve better than this! I actually don't mind Nino having a crush on Marinette, but if you want to go that route, then there needs to be a bigger gap between him crushing on Marinette and Alya. As is, it makes Alya feel like a consolation prize which is not cool.

I'm also not wild about Alya's change of heart. How the heck did she go from "he's like a brother" to "I want to date him" in the course of an hour? If you're going to give us such a dramatic change of heart, then you need to actually show the change happening. At the very least, explain why! They might not need to give Marinette the details, but they do need to give them to the audience!

Alya and Nino generally feel like a fine couple after this episode, so if you missed Animan then you'd have no reason to question their love, but this being the start of their relationship really undermines the romance for me. It's way too lackluster for one of the show's main couples!

Flaw Two: Nino's Blabbermouth

Season five was the season of character assassination and the episode Illusion was dedicated to ruining Nino, giving us many questionable moments including this scene where Nino outs his and Alya's secret identities in a crowded cafeteria:

Nino: What's up is Ladybug and Cat Noir don't have us to help them anymore. Alya: (nervously) Um, um— uh— what do you mean, "us"? Nino: Well, us, you Rena Rouge, me Carapace! (Alya kicks his leg underneath the table) Ouch! What's the big deal? We can tell Marinette and Adrien we used to be superheroes. (The camera pans to a shocked Marinette.) Nino: It's not like we have any Miraculous that Monarch could steal from us. The only ones who need to protect their secret identities are Ladybug and Cat Noir, not us. And anyway, I already told Adrien about Carapace. (Adrien laughs red-handed.) Marinette: Adrien knew? (furiously) Alya, did you know that he knew? Alya: What, no, I swear I didn't know at all! (kicks Nino's leg for the second time) Nino: Ow! Come on! He's my best bud, I can tell him stuff! You and Marinette tell each other stuff, don't you?

Yes, this reveal was only to Marinette and Adrien, but holy shit a crowded cafeteria is not the place to be talking about this kind of thing! Nino, what are you doing? We even see Lila overhear a later part of the conversation, making it clear that wasn't one of those confusing moments where the show used a seemingly public place for a confrontation or reveal, but later context makes it clear that it should be read as a private moment.*

Because the show let there be consequences for Nino using this location AND let the group use the extremely private boiler room later on, Nino comes across terribly! He is so gods damn lucky that Lila only overheard the part about Gabriel (as far as we know.) This scene is a pretty massive betrayal of Alya's trust and Nino never even apologizes for it. It makes him come across as a bad friend, a bad hero, and a bad boyfriend.

I would never include a moment like this unless it was part of a character arc where Nino learned the error of his way or part of a plotline where Alyno breaks up. Because the show never gave this moment proper consequences or payoff, it just makes Nino look like a terrible hero for no good reason and it makes Alya's choice to stay with him pretty questionable. Can she really trust him when he's been shown to treat her most precious secrets with such casual disregard?

*Note: this really only happened in the early seasons when the show didn't have more private locations animated, Volpina and Miracle Queen being prime examples. Both episodes contain a scene that seems extremely public, but later episodes make it clear that the events were only known to the characters who were present in the scene.

Flaw Three: Why Do They Even Like Each Other?

This is the minor issue I mentioned at the start. I don't think side couples need to be deeply developed and sometimes crushes just happen, but when you introduce issues like how the couple got together and Nino being a questionable partner for a superhero, then you do start to wonder why Alya is sticking with this guy? What does she see in him? Why should we want them to stay together outside of amatonormativity?

I don't have a good answer for those questions and it really undermines them as couple. If you're going to do things like mutual identity reveals and episodes centered on their relationship, then you do need to give their relationship some substance because you're giving it too much narrative weight for something so underdeveloped. That's extra true when you're denying the lead couple their own identity reveal! Alyno being fully revealed while also full time heroes is a massive insult to the love square from a narrative perspective and just further cheapens the square's eventual identity reveal.

Fixing Alyno

In spite of all these issues, I do actually like Alyno and tend to put them together in my own stuff. They have the potential to be a fantastic couple. I even use their relationship to help guide how I write Nino because he has so little substance in canon!

For those who don't want to read the massive post I just linked, my main inspiration for Alyno is the fact that canon made Nino a film buff. That's a fantastic match for a nascent vlogger! I love to include scenes of him teaching her how to frame certain types of shots or him helping her learn how to edit footage into an engaging story. It's such an obvious way to let them bond and I'm so disappointed that canon never went there. I actually make the Ladyblog the reason they got together by having Nino help with the filming and by having him run along after Alya in the early story because he's trying to keep her safe. Dude needs to earn his miraculous somehow!

Final Thoughts

I'm pretty neutral on canon Alyno because canon has given them so little substance while also introducing some pretty major flaws, but I like their potential and happily ship them in the realms of fanon. One of the many cases where it's less a love of canon and more a love of the potential I see in canon. Much like the love square, I'd be totally fine with canon Alyno breaking up forever, but I like to give them a happily ever after together in my own stuff.

As much as I've criticized the writing of Kim Possible at times, I do have to agree that they resolved this issue better than Miraculous did.

Of course, that's because they actually resolved the issue.

Miraculous did not.

And after five seasons, we should already have good team dynamics.

And we don't.

It's all massively disappointing and underwhelming.

The Best Friend Showdown

Season four had many, many flaws. One of the big ones was the Rena Rouge vs Chat Noir conflict where Ladybug starts relying on Alya more and more, basically using her to replace Master Fu. We get a sense that Chat Noir feels inferior to Rena Rouge because of this change, but it’s never directly addressed. The most we get is this conversation from Hack-San:

Ladybug: I'm really sorry, Cat Noir. I should've told you. I mean, if I found out that you told someone about your secret identity, I'd... probably be upset, too. I'm really sorry I hurt your feelings. Cat Noir: You didn't hurt my feelings. You did everything right. 

Which is actually a really weird bit of dialogue because - as far as I can tell - nothing in the episode revealed that Scarabella knew Ladybug's identity. She hands out miraculous all the time and no one knows who she really is. Why would this time be different? Ladybug could just show up in costume, explain what's up, and then hand off the earrings while using yet another miraculous.

Anyway, the Rena Rouge vs Chat Noir conflict is “resolved” by Rena Rouge being outed again (and I guess that matters this time), leading her to give up her miraculous so that Gabriel can’t steal it away, which of course leads Gabriel to steal it away and fully disempower Ladybug’s larger team, leaving Chat Noir her only teammate.

How satisfying! This is such good, character-driven story telling!

It’s not. This is plot contrivances to the max with no meaningful character beats, but we’re not here to talk about that. We’re here to do one of my favorite things: gush about a relevant Kim Possible episode! Today’s topic is episode 12 of season one: Pain King vs. Cleopatra, the episode that introduces Kim’s female BFF, Monique!

This was a bit of a shocker for me because I didn’t realize that Kim and Monique weren’t pre-series friends. Turns out that, much like Alya, Monique is a new girl, which isn’t a bad call. This was a nice way to delay Monique’s introduction for a few episodes so that the writers could focus on establishing Kim’s relationship with other key members of the cast like her partner, Ron. Spacing out your intros is the way to go whenever you can pull it off as it’s a kindness to your audience that keeps them from feeling overwhelmed, making it more likely that they’ll remember your cast.

The other, more important similarity between Alya and Monique is that, when Kim’s hero partner and life-long friend finds out about Monique, he is less than thrilled:

Kim: I barely got to see them. Right after I hooked up with Monique, the museum was robbed by some glowing-headed animal guy. Ron: Oh, that's nice. Ron: Wait a minute, who's Monique? Kim New friend, really great. Anyway, the thief stole an enchanted ancient talisman. Ron: Whoa, whoa, back up! How can I not know about a new friend? Kim: I met her at Club Banana, then again at the museum before I chased the glowing robber. Ron: So what's she like? Kim: The robber? Ron: The friend, Kim, the "new friend".

Throughout the episode, Kim and Monique continue to bond without Ron, leaving Ron feeling left out:

Ron: Seein' a pattern here, Rufus: Kim does her thing, I do my thing, and pretty soon - we're doing different things.

Which leads him to get a little territorial:

Kim Ron! What are you doing here? Ron: Can I dine with my best friend and her new friend? Kim: Uuh, Ron, Monique, and vice versa. Ron: Bearclaw? Monique: No, thanks, I'm vegetarian. Ron: Uhm, I'm pretty sure it's imitation bear? Kim: She's joking, Ron. Ron: Good one, hahaha, ha, good one. So, did Kim tell you that I'm her sidekick? Cause that role is definitely taken by me. Monique: Riiiight. Well, in... you know I better get to class. Later, Kim. Um, n-nice meeting you, Ron. Ron: Likewise, I'm sure! Kim: What is your problem? You're acting really weird. Ron: Well, let's see. You went to the museum with Monique, not me. Monique was with you this morning, not me. Hmm, pattern? Kim: Yeah. You. Weird. Ron: No, we're drifting apart because you're excluding me. Kim: I am not excluding you. It's just that you and Monique are... different.

Noticing some similarities to Miraculous here?

So how does Kim Possible resolve this conflict?

Well, the plot of this episode resolves around Kim Possible’s version of professional wrestling, the GWA. There’s a competition going on that Kim has no interest in watching (mood), but when Kim mentions the GWA to Monique:

Monique: Why didn't you bring [Ron] along? Kim: Unless someone put a waiter in a headlock, this is definitely not Ron's scene. Besides, he had a date with "Steel Toe". Monique: He scored tickets to Mayhem in Middleton? The GWA rocks! Kim: What?

It turns out that Monique and Ron have a shared interest! Multiple shared interests, in fact! Interests that Kim does not share:

Monique: You know, I still can't believe you met Pain King and Steel Toe. Ron: I can't believe you're into wrestling. Kim: I can't believe I know either one of you.

By the end of the episode, the conflict is resolved not with Kim having to pick a BFF or with Monique somehow being demoted, but by showing that this didn’t need to be a conflict at all. Kim can have multiple close friends that she shares different interests with without any of those friends being lesser. Those friends can, in turn, have their own friendships that don’t always involve her.

It’s a genuinely lovely resolution that makes me love this little friend group because it now has added complexity. Monique and Ron are friends in their own right! Kim is not the center of the universe in spite of her main character status!

I also love that Kim isn’t vilified for having other friends or portrayed as constantly leaving Ron out of things that he'd want to do in favor of Monique. Ron genuinely would not enjoy most of the things that the girls love to do together. At the same time, Ron’s feeling aren’t treated as totally irrational either and Kim even admits to ditching him. It’s a genuine, complex conflict that is super common when someone enters a new relationship be it platonic or romantic.

Obviously Kim Possible’s version of this conflict feels far less complex than Miraculous’ because Kim Possible understood that Ron should be Kim’s one-and-only partner, so his position was really never threatened. Monique does not want to be an action hero and is never given the sort narrative weight that elevates her to Ron’s level or higher, but that doesn't matter. The basic lesson here is still relevant and super important for the intended audience of both of these shows.

There did not need to be a Rena Rouge vs Chat Noir conflict that never got properly resolved. Miraculous could have made these two friends and no, Scarabella doesn't count because Chat Noir has no idea that Scarabella is Rena Rouge/Furtive. Their relationship ended at the end of Hack-San. He didn't even know that Rena Furtive was a thing until she was in the process of being benched and that's the problem.

Kim Possible is not a team show, Miraculous is, and yet Kim Possible has better team dynamics than Miraculous. Monique could have joined Kim's team at the end of Pain King vs. Cleopatra and it would have felt natural because both Kim and Ron had welcomed Monique and formed a genuine bond with her. This is a true friend group that Miraculous can only dream of even though they've been adding new superheroes since season two.

We're going into a season with a full, massive team and yet that team has no established dynamics on the hero side. It's not a functional team! None of these characters have meaningful relationships with each other as heroes save for Alya and Nino since they know each other’s secret identities. The only relationships Miraculous cares about are the various romances and everyone's relationship to Marinette and everyone suffers for it.

The show would not have been harmed by Rena Rouge, Chat Noir, and Ladybug being a team. It was the thing I kept think after watching the Kim Possible episode. Since the team is the end game, why aren't we seeing them? It would have been so nice to have Hack-San end with Ladybug introducing Chat Noir to Rena Furtive instead of a nonsense discussion about an issue the episode didn't even address.

Yeah, I think the creators don't really understand who's deserving of sympathy.

I mean, Gabriel is so obsessed with his goal that he's willing to put Adrien in danger. That's not a father deserving of sympathy.

He's so controlling that he's going to pick his son's girlfriend for him. He doesn't deserve sympathy for that.

And they forget that Emilie having been missing for only a year means she couldn't have possibly been the saint mom she was supposed to be.

Adrien never had a party before? Gabriel's a dick, sure, but Emilie was also around most of the time, and she wasn't throwing him a party either.

Adrien's never been to public school or had friends? That sucks! Why didn't Emilie let him do that?

The writers tell us Emilie was a saint, but based on what's actually in the show, she was far from it.

I wonder what change would've you make Gabriel if he was an actual effective sympathetic villain the show seem to think instead of the pathetic display of canon. On the other note, what would've you make to actually have Emilie be this saint like character the show keep saying she is

To start, there'd have to be lines that Gabriel just *wouldn't* cross. No akumas that target his son, for starters, no "Chat Blanc" scenario where he finds out Chat's identity and then beats the shit out of him, and no making ridiculous decisions for Adrien like deciding his girlfriend.

Season 5 Gabriel cannot exist, it was actually inSANE of the writer's to put the worst version of him on display...and then play him off as the hero. Like, wut? WHAT?!

I fully admit that in the earlier seasons, I didn't consider Gabriel an abuser. I considered him a dick, but abuser felt too...top shelf of a word to use, though I also contend that his behavior felt like the starting signs. Mostly I just considered him pathetic and like Kids Tv Exaggerated Version of a Strict Parent.

But Season 5??? Uh, yeah, no discussion, this guy is an abusive dickbag and can burn in hell.

Just make it so the reason Hawkmoth fails as often as he does is because sometimes he holds back. Sometimes he gets close to the line and remembers his wife and just can't make himself do something SO heinous that his wife would be disappointed.

As for ACTUALLY selling the Emilie is a Saint Mom, it's super easy. Just have flashbacks. Where she's interacting with her husband and child and sorta not girlfriend? Like, they revealed these video recordings of Emilie in SEASON 5! It took FIVE SEASONS for us to hear Emilie's voice from Emilie herself! (Amelie doesn't count)

And, uh, maybe as a writer think about what you're implying with the things you include in your story. Like, maybe EITHER have Adrien not ever have a birthday party OR have his mom missing for only a year, so it doesn't seem like Emilie *also* didn't care about his birthday. Just, you know. Little things like that that don't accidentally inform us of her character.

First thought:

This one of the hardest parts of writing an AU.

For Chloe to face consequences, Andre would have to be less willing to break rules and laws for her.

But that leads to the problem of how did her reign of terror even last so long in the first place?

If the teachers don't need to worry about losing their jobs for disciplining Chloe, then how could she have gotten away with so much?

I have ideas, but putting it all together in a way that works is difficult.

Second thought:

This is a super annoying thing about canon: Andre and Gabriel are redeemable, but Chloe and Lila aren't.

Two grown adults are redeemable, but teenage girls aren't.

Neither Andre or Gabriel is shown doing anything worthy of redemption, but, sure, they get a pass.

Chloe is a literal child who is shown, on occasion, to feel bad for hurting others, but she's somehow irredeemable.

Lila's debut episode just had her lying about knowing celebrities which, though bad, doesn't make her the villain they turned her into.

(I have changes for her in my AU too.)

The men writing this show think grown adult men who hurt children are redeemable, but not literal children.

Gee, I wonder why that is? /s

What are your thoughts on what happened to Chloe at the end of Season 5? Do you plan on watching Season 6?

Like as IF that's the last we'll see of her.

I was gonna wait to give my review of Season 5 - I wanted a release date for Season 6 and then drop them like a count down leading up to the new season - which is why I haven't delved in much and talked about my opinions.

But Chloe's ending was bullshit, and we all know it. Not because she leaves Paris, not because she loses the few friends and connections she has, and not even because she's a massive brat who finally gets some form of comeuppance.

But because of the form that comeuppance comes in.

Why on God's Green Earth is ANDRE the one? ANDRE is the one to drag her ass out of Paris and condemn her publicly and gets to act like the big hero, doing the right thing and putting Chloe in her place? ANDRE. The one who GAVE her her place and covered it in gold leaf and never once until this whack-job of a season considered that a bad thing?!

Appropriate, appropriate face Caline.

The absolute absurdity of them to write THIS MAN in any sort of correct light, the one who from Day 1, Season 1 has been a solid and complete background for why Chloe is...Chloe. Who spoiled and abused his power to make sure she never felt an ounce of consequences or remorse or backlash. How dare they try and pull this move on us when they could remove Audrey from the story entirely and no one would second guess Chloe's entire personality or upbringing?

These writers have somehow convinced themselves that Andre is not only without any guilt in the outcome of this situation, but that he's redeemable! Redeemable through the act of shipping off his daughter, whom he's been nothing but devoted to, and sending her off to a boarding school with her (AS HE ADMITS) just as awful mother as her chaperone, while he abducts casually replaces her with his new better daughter, Zoé.

I'm sure that won't have an adverse effect on your child who is used to absolute and unconditional love for her whole life, you are definitely a good person who's finally figured out how to do the right thing.

/s

These writers have somehow convinced themselves that Chloe is absolutely hopeless and evil and has reached the point of no return, but ANDRE. Andre's fine.

And Gabriel too, apparently. Hm, seems to be a theme with these worthless male parents and getting off scott free....

Rainbow World is Tonal Dissonance

Starting off with a quick definition: tonal dissonance is when there is a sudden, jarring shift in the overall tone of the show, movie, book, etc.

And it's the biggest reason I can't stand Rainbow World.

Every episode up to that point was about the adventures of teenagers at an elite arts high school that was also a boarding school.

And that was the concept that originally appealed to people.

And then, we have Rainbow World.

Now the show is about the whacky adventures of high schoolers in a magical world where they have cute pets made of crystal and magical missions to help people.

Not a terrible concept, but after four seasons of the show going one way, I'm not interested in suddenly changing the overall tone and premise of the series.

Rainbow World is such a different idea, it would've been better off as a different series.

And, honestly, the way it was introduced doesn't help either.

But that's for a different post.

About the "kwamis as mentors" angle: Interesting to read and analyse, yet I can't help but feel they were not necessarily meant to be seen as mentors. At least to me, they seemed to be kind of whacky mascot characters who are tied to the lore, who have a personality to crack a joke or point something out or cause a little situation or be cute, but nothing more.

They are rather naive magical entities chained to jewelry (a fact they don't seem to mind that much or think about at all except for Plagg) and all that talk about "being around for 5000 years" and having seen many holders before is just there to make them seem more wise than they actually act like. From what I've seen on the show I would even assume there's a threshold to how much they can even mature emotionally and understand humans. Sometimes Tikki and Plagg even come off as indifferent and egoistical towards their holders (like an example you gave with Tikki, or Plagg's fixation on cheese over Adrien at times).

So...sorry if I missed it, but why do you view them as mentor characters? You made an interesting post about rom-com vs magical girl and the magical girl part is exactly why I always viewed them just as critters to appeal to kids, but nothing more. I can see that the show's writing is so inconsistent that sometimes they are portrayed as wise but more often then not they are just background noise to get a little interaction on screen so that the characters are not talking to themselves about miraculous stuff or to point something out for the audience.

The show's writing is pretty weird, so there are elements that are hard to get a clear read on. The Kwamis are one such element. When they're one-on-one with their chosen, they often feel like mentors to me. When they're all together, they almost always read like "critters to appeal to kids" (mostly because there are too many of them to let them have individual personalities when they're all together). So while I think that they're supposed to be mentors, it's not like that's the only canon-accurate read.

To dig into what I mean by the one-on-one writing, let's look at this exchange from Feast:

Master Fu: See, Wayzz? If Marinette had kept her Miraculous, the sentimonster would have swallowed her right up. Wayzz: Or she would have transformed into Ladybug and fought it. Master Fu: Sometimes fighting is futile, Wayzz.

And then later on we get this:

Wayzz: Master, look! Ladybug and Cat Noir, despite their ridiculous costumes, they haven't let you down! Wang Fu: That's impossible! They don't have their Miraculous! Wayzz: Master, it's obvious it's them—who else would do something so crazy? Cat Noir (Adrien): Hey, have a taste of this! Some exploding banana split from Bananoir! Ladybug (Marinette): Much tastier than any Miraculous! Wayzz: Look, Master, there's no use in running! Your disciples never give up the fight, no matter what! With or without their Miraculous, they are Ladybug and Cat Noir!

That's some pretty active mentoring right there.

Wayzz is probably the character that feels the most like a mentor to me. When he's with Fu, he feels like Fu's partner or adviser, which is why I think that the Kwami's aren't supposed to just be cute critters. They're regular ol' Jimmy Crickets meant to act as a conscience that the characters can talk to since this is visual media and you want a way for the characters to talk through their thoughts instead of having them do it all internally.

I also present this exchange from Desperada as evidence:

Adrien: Plagg, Ladybug needs me. She needs "Adrien"! Plagg: If you asked me, this whole idea is worse than cheese in a can. Adrien: She thinks I'm the perfect guy for this mission. Plagg: You can't be Cat Noir and another superhero at the same time! Which means that you're not the perfect guy for this mission. Adrien: The Lucky Charm told her I am. Plagg: That's not how it works. Why am I bothering? You're not even listening.

We then get Plagg reiterating that this is a bad idea through multiple loops, ending with this:

Plagg: Ah! At last, you've come to your senses. Adrien: I'm not sure Ladybug will have very fond memories of her experience with "Adrien Agreste". Plagg: Then make up for it as Cat Noir.

See? I told you Plagg can be a good mentor when he wants to! Tikki, take notes!

I'd even call this bit from Sapitos some quality subtle mentoring from Trixx:

Alya: Oh please, Ladybug! We'd make a great team! I could help Cat Noir and you every day! Ladybug:(her earrings ring) I'm about to transform back! Hurry! Alya: Please? Ladybug: I have to go! I'm trusting you! (opens a nearby door and goes inside, so she can detransform) Trixx: You're absolutely right, Alya. I'm sure the three of you would make quite the team! You have all the makings of a true superhero. You're strong, brave; but most of all, you're trustworthy.

Way to both build Alya up and reminder her of her duty, Trixx. Gold star. Quality mentorship!

So are the Kwamis supposed to be mentors? Who knows! I just see them fill the role often enough to feel comfortable judging them through that lens.

Miraculous also isn't the only magical girl team show to make the cute critters into mentors. That's a pretty standard path even though it's also common to see the critters used to sell merch/appeal to kids and nothing more. In terms of classic magical girl team shows, I'd say that the Kwamis are written way more like Luna and Artemis from Sailor Moon than Mini Mew from Tokyo Mew Mew.

Did... Did Nathalie stealth use That Guy's emotions to make Animaestro or does she just have such perfect control over the Peacock that he didn't need to be anything more than inspiration?

Honestly, does anyone really get how the Peacock works on it's own? I just assume that if Emilie can make An Adrien based off her own or Gabriel's emotions, it's not unthinkable that Nathalie wouldn't even need the director to be involved in creating a Sentimonster from his emotions or just in his likeness.

Unfortunately, all the examples we physically get to see In Canon has Mayura channeling through an akuma or through Hawkmoth himself, making them packaged deals.

Pick One: Magical Girl Show or Rom-com. You cannot be both.

Early in season four we get the episode Gang of Secrets. An episode that ends with Marinette outing her secret identity to Alya. A touching moment that sparked outrage across the fandom because it meant that Marinette had made the choice to reveal her identity to her best friend while keeping her hero partner in the dark.

This choice spat in the face of the exceptions that many fans had for the series. Thousands of pre-season-four fanfics feature moments where Ladybug and Chat Noir promise each other that they'll be the first to know each other's identities. After the Alya reveal, scores of fanfics were written to salt on Marinette's choice to tell the "wrong" person.

Most of these fics feature a betrayed Chat Noir quitting or otherwise punishing Ladybug for breaking their promise to be each other's first, thereby destroying his faith in their partnership. But that promise was never made on screen. It only existed in the realms of fanfic and, when Chat Noir finally found out in canon, his reaction was largely neutral. He never once blamed Ladybug for her choice or pushed for a reveal or even asked for the right to tell one of his friends.

So what happened here? Why did the fans have such wildly unrealistic expectations of canon? Were their expectations even unrealistic or did canon betray them? The answer to that is not as straight forward as you might think because it all comes back to one of Miraculous' many, many, many writing problems: Miraculous is trying to be both a Magical Girl Show and a romantic comedy, but those are not genres that mesh. You can only be one (or you can be a third thing that we'll get to at the end as it's the easiest way to fix this mess, but I want to mostly focus on where the anger is coming from and why the writing is to blame.)

To discuss this mismatch, we're going to do something that breaks my heart and talk about some of Origins flaws. While I love that episode and unironically refer to it as the best writing the show ever gave us, it's not perfect and its flaws are all focused around trying to set up both genres. Do note that I'm going to use a lot of gender binary language here as magical girl shows have a strong focus on gender segregation and rarely if ever acknowledge gender diversity.

Let's Talk Magical Girls

Magical girl shows are shows that center on young women and their friendships. While male love interests are often present in these shows, the boys tend to take a backseat and function primarily as arm candy while the girls save the day and carry the narrative.

A great example of this is the show Winx Club. This show features a large cast of teenage girls who save the magical universe from various threats with their magical powers. Each girl has a love interest, but the boys are usually off doing their own thing and only occasionally show up for a date or to give the girls a ride on their cool bikes or magical spaceship. I don't even think that we see the guys fight or, if we do, it's a rare thing. They are not there to save the day. They are there to be shipping fodder.

Like most magical girl shows, Winx Club starts with the main character making friends with one of the girls who will eventually become part of her magical girl squad. This brings us back to Miraculous.

Did you ever find it weird that Origins implies that Marinette has no friends? She doesn't even have a backbone until new girl Alya shows up to become Marinette's First Real Friend:

Marinette: I so wish I can handle Chloé the way you do. Alya: You mean the way Majestia does it. She says all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing. (pointing at Chloé) Well, that girl over there is evil, and we are the good people. We can't let her get away with it.

This is a bizarre opening because Miraculous is not about Marinette making friends or learning to stand up for herself. If you skipped Origins and just watched the rest of the show, then you'd have no clue that Marinette wasn't close with her classmates before this year. You also wouldn't know that Alya was new in town and you definitely wouldn't know that Marinette had never stood up to Chloé before this year. So why is this here? Why waste screen time setting up elements that aren't actually important to canon?

Miraculous did it for the same reason that Winx Club did it: magical girl shows traditionally start with the main character making friends with at least one of her eventual female teammates because Magical Girl shows are all about the girls and their relationships. The boys are just arm candy.

But Miraculous isn't a magical girl show. The writers have explicitly stated that it's a rom-com and romantic comedies aren't about female friendship. They might have female friendships in them, but that's not where the focus is. The focus of a rom-com is on the romance and Origins is very clearly all about the romance.

Origins as a Rom-com

Origins has a lot on its plate. It has to establish the villain's motivation for the first time, show us how the heroes got their miraculous, show us how the heroes first met on both sides of the mask, show us how they met their respective best friends, and show us how the heroes dealt with their first akuma. It would be perfectly understandable if this 40 minute two-parter didn't do anything with the romance. They have a full show to give us that!

In spite of this, Origins has some incredibly touching moments for both Ladynoir and Adrienette because romance is the heart of Miraculous. It is the main focus of the show. The driving motivation for both of our leads and the majority of the show's episodes. To tell the story of how their journey started without at least one of them falling in love would feel wrong. That's why we see both of them fall in love!

First we get Chat Noir giving his heart to his bold and brilliant lady, then we get Marinette's heart being stolen by the shy sweet boy who never once thought to blame her for her snap judgement of his character. We even get a touching moment where Chat Noir inspires his lady to accept her role and be Ladybug, leading her to boldly face their enemy and call him out:

Roger: I have a new plan, unlike you! Move aside and let the pros do their thing. You've already failed once! Ladybug: …He's right, you know. If I'd captured Stoneheart's akuma the first time around, none of this would have happened! I knew I wasn't the right one for this job… Cat Noir: No. He's wrong, because without you, she'd no longer be here. (they look at Chloe) And because without us, they won't make it, and we'll prove that to 'em. Trust me on this. Okay? Ladybug: Okay.

I love this moment, but it does lose a little of its power when you remember that we had an Alya-driven variation of this exact same thing five minutes prior:

Alya: HELP!! (Marinette suddenly gets filled with courage. She gets the case out of Alya's bag and puts on the Miraculous. Then, Tikki appears, happy to see Marinette again.) Tikki:(raising her arms) Mmmm! Marinette: I think I need Ladybug! Tikki: I knew you'd come around! Marinette: Well, I'm still not sure I'm up for this, but Alya's in danger. I can't sit back and do nothing.

This scene initially confused me because - if Miraculous is a rom-com - then why would you make Alya the reason that Marinette became Ladybug? Why wouldn't you have Chat Noir be the one in danger so that Marinette chose to fight because of her love interest and then encourage that bond with the later scene of him encouraging her? Why split the focus like this? Why give Alya so much attention?

In case you haven't figured it out, it's because Origins is trying to establish two different genres of show. Two genres that will continue to fight for the rest of the series (or at least the first five seasons).

Magical Girls Vs Rom-com

Why is Alya the one to shake off the nightmare dust and inspire the others during the season five finale? Why is Alya the one that Marinette trusts with all of her plans while Chat Noir is kept in the dark? Why does Alya and Marinette's friendship get so much more focus than Adrien and Nino's? Why was Alya the only temp hero who got upgraded to full time hero?

It's because Alya is Marinette's second in command in a magical girl show and magical girl shows focus on female friendships while the boys are just there to be cute and support the girls.

Why do most of Marinette's talks with Alya focus on Adrien? Why is Chat Noir the only other full time holder of a Miraculous for the first three seasons and then again for the final season? Why do Marinette's friends become more and more obsessed with Adrienentte as the show goes on? Why is the love square's identity reveal given so much more narrative weight than any other identity reveal?

It's because Miraculous is a rom-com and the love square is our end game couple, so of course the story focuses on their relationship above all else!

Are you starting to see the problem?

Circling back to our original question: no, it was not unreasonable for the fans to expect that the Alya reveal would have massive negative consequences for Ladynoir. That is what should happen in a rom-com and Miraculous is mainly written like a rom-com. But the writers are also trying to write a magical girl show and, in a magical girl show, Alya and Marinette's friendship should be the most important relationship in the show, so it makes perfect sense that the show treats the Alya reveal as perfectly fine because the Alya reveal was written from the magical girl show perspective.

When it comes to Miraculous, if you ever feel like a writing choice makes no sense for genre A, re-frame it as a thing from genre B and it suddenly makes perfect sense which is fascinatingly terrible writing! It's no wonder there are people who hate the Alya reveal and people who will defend it with their life. It all depends on which genre elements you've picked up on and clung to. Neither side is right, they've both been set up to have perfectly valid expectations. Whether those expectations are valid for a given episode is entirely up to the mercurial whims of the writers!

How Do We Fix This Mess

At this point, I don't think that we can, the show is too far gone, but if someone gave me the power to change one element of Miraculous, that element would be this: scrap both the magical girl stuff and the rom-com stuff and turn Miraculous into a team show where the friendships transcend gender.

At this point, I've written over a quarter of a million words of fanfic focused on these characters (the brain rot is real) and one thing I've discovered is that it is damn near impossible to keep Adrien and Alya from becoming friends. They're both new to their school while Marinette and Nino have gone to the same school for at least a few years. Alya and Adrien are both obsessed with Ladybug plus Adrien is a natural hype man who loves to support his friends and Alya loves to talk about her blog. Alya is dating Adrien's best friend. On top of that, Alya, Adrien, Nino, and Marinette are all in the same class, meaning that they pretty much have to be spending time together five days a week unless French school don't give kids a chance to socialize or do group projects. If so, then judging them for the first issue, but super jealous of the latter.

Given all of that, why in the world is does it feel like Alya is Marinette's close friend while Adrien is just some guy who goes to Alya's school? Along similar lines, while canon Marinette barely talks to Nino, I've found that Marinette and Nino tend to get along smashingly, especially if you embrace the fact that they have to have known each other for at least a few years.

If you embrace this wider friendship dynamic and scrap the girl squad, replacing it with Alya, Adrien, Marinette, and Nino, then the fight for narrative importance quickly goes away. It's no longer a question of is this episode trying to be a magical girl show or a rom-com? Instead, the question is: which element of the friend group is getting focused on today? The romance or the friendship?

A lot of hero shows do this and do it well. I think that one of the most well known examples is Teen Titans. That show has five main characters and the focus is usually on their friendships, but there is a very clear running romantic tension between the characters Robin and Starfire with several episodes giving a good deal of focus to their romance. I'd say that this element really starts in the show's the 19th episode - Date with Destiny - and it all culminates in the movie that capstones the series: Trouble in Tokyo. The character Beast Boy also gets a romance arc and, while it's more short lived, it's further evidence that you can have strong romances and strong friendships in the same show and even the same episode. You just have to own the fact that boys and girls can be friends with each other, a very logical thing to embrace when your show has decided to have a diverse cast of heroes instead of imposing arbitrary gender limitations on its magical powers.

I couldn't figure out a way to work this into the main essay, but it's relevant so I wanted to quickly point it out and give you more to think about re Origins. Have you ever found it weird how Origins gives both Adrien AND Marinette the "I've never had friends before" backstory and yet wider canon acts like Marinette has this strong amazing friend group while Adrien doesn't seem to care about making friends and instead focuses all his energy on romance? Why give both the protagonist and the supposed deuteragonist this kind of origin if it's not going to be a major element of the show? It makes so much more sense to only give one of them this backstory and then focus that person's character arc on learning about friendship.

And it's especially a problem in situations where Marinette isn't actually wrong, so they need to warp the universe to make her wrong.

Marinette's not wrong for saying Chloe had no heart in "Zombizou" because Chloe was certainly acting like it.

Marinette's not wrong for disbelieving Chloe in "Antibug", Chloe had previously lied to them in that episode about the akuma.

Marinette's not wrong for being confused over her feelings for Luka and Adrien, she's a teenage girl.

Marinette's not wrong for wanting to call out Lila for lying and manipulating, she's a liar and manipulative.

Marinette's not wrong for not taking Chat Noir's flirtations seriously, he flirts with a lot of people and doesn't take his job seriously.

Marinette's not wrong for not showing up for Chat Noir's date, she had already told him she wouldn't be there.

She's certainly not wrong for not wanting ice cream when she's too upset to eat it.

It's not just that they wrote over 100 ways for Marinette to do something wrong, it's that they wrote 100 episodes that portray Marinette as wrong, even when she isn't.

I can understand the "lesson of the day" formula, but the writers of Miraculous drastically misunderstood the assignment.

In Defense of Marinette

I like Marinette. While there are many valid criticisms of her writing, the same can be said for literally every other character and she's actually doing pretty well given that she's the main character. After all, in a show where consistent characterization is an ongoing issue, the one with the most screen time will probably be the one who's the biggest victim of the issue.

This is heavily exacerbated by the rule that supposedly governs Miraculous. Namely that, in each story, Marinette must make a mistake. Or, at least, so says the head writer:

I really do not care what this guy says on Twitter or anywhere else. I only care about what's in the show because, if you have to go outside the text to understand the text, then you have no idea how to tell a good story.

However, unlike many of the tweets that I've seen, this one isn't some BS bit of lore. It's a writing rule and it has substantial backing in the text. It's extremely rare to have an episode where Marinette comes out smelling like roses and that's a problem because Miraculous has over 100 episodes. In other words, to follow this rule, the writers have to come up with over 100 ways for Marinette to be wrong so of course she's going to come across poorly. Why would you do this to your main character?

It's extremely common for kids shows to have a "lesson of the day" element to them. Someone always needs to learn something, but I've never seen a show misunderstand the assignment so badly. Learning a lesson is not the same as doing something wrong.

It's been a while since I watched the 2010 version of My Little Pony, but it really leaned into that whole "lesson of the day" thing and it actually knew what it was doing, so I'm going to talk about it briefly to discuss things that Miraculous should have done.

The first thing to note is that MLP had an unambiguous main character - Twilight Sparkle - but Twilight was not the one who learned all of the lessons. She had a pet dragon and a crew of five friends who would, occasionally, be the ones to learn the lesson because there were lots of lessons that simply didn't fit Twilight's character. Instead of warping Twilight to make the idea work (cough cough Ikari Gozen cough), the writers just let someone else have the spotlight for a bit.

This is an excellent way to build out your cast and Miraculous had plenty of opportunities to do it. For example, Lila should not have been Marinette's issue. The fact that Lila hates Marinette could have certainly stuck around, but the one who takes her down and learns to investigate her sources? That should have been Alya. A liar is the perfect enemy for an investigative journalist, but a poor enemy for someone who shines as a battlefield commander and overthinks when she's given too much time.

Another way that MLP would teach lessons was to have someone other than Twilight or the main crew cause the issue that they then had to deal with. This leads to one of the best moments in children's television:

And, frankly? Marinette deserves a moment like this. That poor girl has been through hell and is never allowed to make the right call when it really matters. The show will even completely rewrite its lore to make her fail (see: Strike Back). That is such an awful thing to do to your lead! Shows about female empowerment should include women feeling powerful and, no, Lila and Chloe don't count!

Also, the show is literally about Gabriel taking advantage of people who are upset. You don't need to have Marinette make a mistake to shoehorn in a life lesson. Akumas are life lesson fodder and season 1 actually seemed to get this. I'm not sure why they switched gears to "Marinette is the star and, therefore, must always be wrong."

The final way that MLP taught lessons was to have Twilight do something wrong because having your main character do something wrong is a totally valid way to teach lessons. It just shouldn't be your only way because you know who is always wrong in children's media?

Villains.

They wrote Marinette like a villain.

And a large part of the fandom hates her for it because of course they do.

You're not supposed to like villains.

This is probably small in the grand scheme of things, but how did Emilie being noble play any impact in the story at all?

I mean, I'd get it if it was just a small detail to help deepen Emilie's character, but why nobility of all things? I don't know, from what I'm seeing so far, the whole "Emilie renounced her noble title" shtick just feels worthless if it's not going to impact the story or add depth to Emilie's character (like maybe upbringing or personal values?).

I don't know. Like everything else, the noble part just feels shallow and means nothing to the story, especially for a character like Emilie, who is the plot device for the whole show. Any detail about her, like her personality and life story, is supposed to influence the story and characters one way or another, namely Hawkmoth since she's his driving force.

So what was the point?

For context, this ask is about Félix's play which says that Emilie gave up her title to be with Gabriel. I'm gonna give a slightly larger section of the transcript of the play for full context, but the relevant but is at the end of the last paragraph:

Félix: The king and queen's twins grew up, each day as different in heart as they were similar in body. The firstborn, curious and brazen, despised life at court and escaped at every opportunity. The younger daughter, well-behaved and respectful, did everything she could to please her parents, and stayed quietly in the castle. Félix: (as Mr. Graham de Vanily) Oh, my queen. Did we entrust our legacy to the right princess? Kagami: (as Mrs. Graham de Vanily) She will fall in line, eventually. Félix: Confident that she would settle down as she matured, the king and queen allowed the curious princess to leave to study beyond the sea in another kingdom. There, she immediately found true love in a humble tailor. Félix: The tailor was making clothes so magnificent that they revealed the beauty of the soul of anyone who wore them. Although it made her parents furious, the curious princess gave up her rank, her wealth and her kingdom to live a bohemian life with the tailor.

Story wise, I have no idea why any of this was added since it adds nothing to canon. It's not like this finally explains why Gabriel and Emilie are poor while Amelie is wealthy. Along similar lines, it's not like Amelie's title has ever mattered. Prior to this play, I don't think that we even knew that she had a title or that she was the younger sister. The play is all about explaining things that we never had reasons to question in the first place.

My best guess as to why the writers wrote this pointless backstory is that they wanted to make Emilie seem even more pure and perfect so they went with the tired old trope of a rich girl giving up material things for the sake of love and art because good pure women don't care about material things! Only nasty, shallow women care about money. (Way to play into sexist tropes, guys.)

There may also be cultural elements at play here given that France doesn't have the greatest history with nobility, so giving up a noble title may be seen as good and pure to a French writer, but I don't know enough about French culture to say that with any certainty. If anyone who reads this blog is French and would like to chime in, then feel free!

While we're on the topic of the play, I wanted to point out that the above quoted passage is why I say that the Graham de Vanily parents can be as kind or as abusive as you'd like to make them. It's incredibly vague and you can read into it whatever you want to read into it. Were they good loving parents who were just upset about their daughter living in poverty or were they miserable controlling classist who Emilie fled England to get away from? It's up to you because you can get both reads from this. The play commits to almost nothing of value. Politicians could take lessons from this impressive level of noncommittal writing.

A better version of the play would have focused on things that actually matter to canon like the details of finding the miraculous and/or Emilie learning she's sick, but you could only have those details if they were coming from Nathalie or Gabriel. Félix is a terrible choice for a character to tell us the show's backstory because he knows so little of it, thus the play focusing on his largely pointless backstory.

I’m always wondering if it was better or worse for BBT and Young Sheldon creators to say that Sheldon is NOT on the spectrum. But then I see how they treat neurodivergence on shows like Miraculous, and go probably better they keep away from stuff they don’t understand.

I suspect what happened with Sheldon’s character is that they probably modeled him after people they either didn’t know or didn’t care were on the spectrum and by the time everyone was like “hey this guy is obviously autistic” they’d made fun of him too many times to suddenly claim being pioneers of sitcom neurodivergent representation without also having to accept responsibility for their past attitudes towards him

I do, however, think the red itchy sweater episode was fantastic in delivering a message regarding some forms of neurosis

As for ML, it is, at its core, a tell don’t show series. These characters are in love, are close friends, are good at X and Y, are passionate about this and that, hate Z, so on and so forth. We rarely learn about characters and happenstances through actions, to the point where very clear irrefutable events are verbally retconned by random characters and we’re supposed to accept what they say as canon over what we saw. It doesn’t matter if characters are noticeably queer, neurodivergent, good/bad at something, biased about certain people/subjects, struggling with XYZ, etc. If someone doesn’t outright state it, it isn’t canon. This is where the crew loves to claim brownie points for representation but doesn’t actually do anything that might upset the Suits and their bigotry. They have an ethnically diverse character lineup but they’re all perfectly assimilated to white french culture and rarely acknowledge their own supposed heritage. They criticize police abuse but have the victims apologize to their assailants. They have queer characters but their relationships are mostly implied off-screen so they have plausible deniability. They have kids whose parents are clearly mistreating them to the point of leaving lifelong scars and affecting their ability to become functional members of society but it’s obviously not abuse.

I swear there’s some kind of disconnect between the dialogue and the action lines on the script, like no one member of the crew knows what the other is doing and everything is just taped together at the end with no revisions