I Don't Remember The Exact Phrasing Anymore, But I Remember Seeing Something That Said: Plot Twists Are

I don't remember the exact phrasing anymore, but I remember seeing something that said: plot twists are not there to surprise the audience or shock them. They're there to enrich the story.

Basically, don't focus on the shock value. Focus on how the plot twist impacts your story and the characters in it. If your audience guesses your plot twist from subtle foreshadowing, then that's good. If your plot twist has shock value but none of the enrichment, then it's a useless foreshadow.

I miss the "Gabriel is Hawkmoth" foreshadow during Simon Says and the book Adrien found in Volpina. Since the episodes are pretty close together, it works. But then later episodes with plot twists just fail miserably, with no other answer except "we already wrote the script, so deal with it".

I think part of what fails in the Chloé betrayal and Adrien/Felix sentimonster thing is that in order to foreshadow correctly, attention needs to be paid to these specific characters, so the screen has to shift to them and their personal lives. But 99% of the episodes center around Marinette and how she navigates life, so there's next to no focus set on them unless she's involved—and unfortunately, putting her in the loop would be too problematic to address in the show's long run.

The reason behind using Chloé early on is actually pretty simple. The writers for ML have never met a twist they didn't like. they seem obsessed with outsmarting their audience. ( target 6-10yr olds, go team) Everything is a red herring of some kind until it isn't bit it is but not and whoa did we blow your mind yet?

I'm reminded of an OSP quote along the lines of 'You can only surprise your audience on the first viewing, but a good narrative can be enjoyed any number of times.'

Exactly. Plot twists aren't just there to surprise the audience. They also give rewatch value to the work.

Take Puss in Boots: The Last Wish for example. The twist of the Wolf actually being the Grim Reaper is shocking, yes, but rewatching the movie gives new meaning to the things he does. Just rewatch his first scene and see what I mean. Not only does the Wolf appear from out of nowhere like a ghost, he also points to the word "Dead" in the "Dead or Alive" on Puss' wanted poster, and wields a pair of sickles as his weapons.

It also makes you rethink the things he says to Puss during their conversation.

"Been following you for a long time." - The Wolf has taken eight of Puss' nine lives, so he's more than familiar with him.

"Everyone thinks they'll be the one to defeat me. But no one's escaped me yet." - Being Death itself, the Wolf has been there for everyone's eventual passing.

"So I've heard..." - A direct response to Puss' claim that he laughs in the face of death, which the Wolf is naturally insulted by.

Plot twists and foreshadowing go together well, but you need to make sure the audience has enough hints to either figure it out themselves or to recognize the buildup to the twist on a second viewing. Miraculous Ladybug does neither of those. Things like Chloe's betrayal and the other rich kids being Sentimonsters just come out of nowhere and don't hold up when you rewatch earlier episodes and see no foreshadowing for those revelations.

Orange

Even with the concept itself being overall problematic, it's so weird too when taking the characters into context. I can see why Colt Fathom would do this (he is a whole other can of worms here) but I don't understand why Emilie and Gabriel would do it.

With the little information we have of Emilie's character, she's supposed to be the kindest, most loving person anybody's ever known. I just don't understand how they're so desperate to have a child that turning to magic is their go-to. Is there no IVF? If not IVF, why not adoption? Based on how Emilie is painted to be, I'm sure she can still wholeheartedly love a child she didn't birth.

So why even make Adrien a sentimonster? What's the point?

And as for Félix... the idea that Colt, with or without his wife's permission, can basically make her pregnant with a sentimonster is kind of disturbing to say the least. And why would Emilie give him the Peacock Miraculous to get Amelie pregnant, knowing how he is, when she's basically been described to be a literal angel?

Tell me, do you think making human babies with the Peacock Miraculous is pretty f*cked up?

On both paper and in the deeper narrative - extremely so. You've basically created a living, breathing, growing creature you can control and delete on command once you get bored (and with a very fragile remote control depending on what gets used as a amok). The show says that they're no different from humans, but the way they present the entire thing sure doesn't match the claim (or at least for the non-human looking sentis).

And the controversies with it get worse when you consider that there's no actual permanent solution to the above - your only options as a Senti are basically "put your amok in a secure place no one can find and hope for the best" or "pray that the next Peacock holder isn't a complete psychopath who hates your kind/see you as fakes rather than real people."

Can someone explain to me why sometimes, it just feels like my heart stopped. I mean, it's still beating, but it's like I can't feel it, and there's no drive to do something, but at the same time, I want to do something.

Please, I want to know.

For me: Miraculous Ladybug and High Guardian Spice (both of which I have fanfics for)

I think I finally understand why people write fanfiction. it’s so aggravating when a piece of media doesn’t engage with its premise - like maybe the implications were too dark, maybe if we followed it to its logical conclusion the main character would be irredeemable, maybe it’s too complicated, maybe it’s too flavourful (weird, horny, unflattering) so we only get a liiiitle bit of it sprinkled on top of an otherwise generic story

whatever the reason, we end up with a diet lite homogenized version of what the initial story promised us. it makes me pace around my house biting at my thumb, going “no…..no it could’ve been better…..I could’ve made it better…..”

Almost.... depression is trying to get back into my life after years of no contact, and I don't want to open the door.

Unfortunately the little bitch keeps tapping on my windows.