Right? Like It Was Fun Theorizing With The Images We Have Been Given, But We Didn't Actually Want To

Right? Like it was fun theorizing with the images we have been given, but we didn't actually want to find out until the episode actually aired!

That everything could have been a mystery!

It doesn't even have to be about our theories, just us being excited to see what happens next!

i saw the trailer

i'm not gonna say anything

but at the end they spoiled a pretty big point in the episode and lemme tell y'all

it sucks a lot.

This is exactly what I have been thinking this whole time!

they literally spell it out for you in the kagami art scene but everyone is watching it with kagami hating goggles and instead of seeing the scene for what it is

- kagami asking for adrien to be himself and him first striking a model pose which she rejects and then him striking a chat noir pose which she also rejects and then pushes him to find the in-between -

we get dumbass takes like uwu she doesn’t like his real self

like no? that was very much not what the scene was about?

adrien poses like a model because that’s what he thinks other people want him to be

adrien poses like chat noir which is what he thinks he wants to be/is an aggrandized version of what he wants to be

and adrien the person is somewhere in the uncertain in-between. chat noir’s swagger is just as much an act as adrien’s poise and the moments of doubt and uncertainty and shyness and cunning that peek through that is his fucking character so don’t sit here and tell me true selves this and true selves that ya’ll are wild and clearly watching a different show

Ever since Rocketear, when I see people talking about the Ladynoir conflict, I don’t see enough people pointing out that Rena Furtive’s existence would be basically impossible for Ladybug to explain to Chat Noir without it coming across as “I just don’t trust you”

The thing is, the Gang of Secrets reveal would already hurt him enough— especially knowing how he reacted to the fact Rena Rouge and Carapace know each other’s identities. We know it hurts him to realize that identities weren’t as important as everyone was making them out to be, and that he was really the only person really beholden to the rule. It sucks. It feels like he was lied to. 

However, Ladybug can try to explain that! When Chat Noir discovers that someone knows her identity, she could, theoretically, explain clearly to Chat Noir that “I was having breakdowns every day, Chat. I wasn’t doing well. I was scared and I was losing all my civilian friends. I was crying and my best friend was there. I was crying and I broke down and it wasn’t planned. I blurted out my identity. She’s been helping me give excuses in my civilian life for why I’m so flaky with being Ladybug and the Guardian. It never came up and it was never relevant to what was going on, so I didn’t tell you because I was scared to, because I knew it’d hurt you. I’m really sorry.” And you know what? I think it’d still hurt him. Maybe a lot. But if Ladybug chooses her words carefully, I think Chat Noir can understand that Ladybug was scared and stressed, and he can understand that she needed someone specifically from her civilian life for that. And I think he would forgive her.

But…. guys. Guys. How on earth would she explain Rena Furtive to him in a way that sounds reasonable? That she not only gave a miraculous to someone else permanently, but that she didn’t tell him? That this person is secretly acting as their third partner for every battle and patrol, and that she actively hides it from him? That the reason for his poor performance in future battles might be because she is literally Hiding what the plan is from him so he doesn’t notice the illusions?

There’s no coming back from that. You can make the argument that who Ladybug tells her identity to isn’t necessarily Chat Noir’s business…. but you can’t make the argument that someone secretly watching them and joining them in battle and patrols isn’t his business, or that it’s not his business to know that there are illusions on the battlefield that he’s fighting in. That’s absolutely his business. And while Ladybug can say “It was a private matter, so that’s why I didn’t tell you that I told someone my identity”, she can’t say the same about Rena Furtive. Because that’s not a private matter. And it’s not something she just chose to omit— it’s something she chose to actively hide from him.

Now, we know the reason she’s doing this. She’s doing it because of Chat Blanc, because she’s literally traumatized by visions of herself and all the citizens of Paris turned to ash. She’s doing it because she’s afraid of a timeline that has long since passed, of an endgame that she never really learned the trigger to. All she knows about Chat Blanc was that Chat Noir found out more about her and then the world ended. We don’t know exactly her reasoning for keeping Rena Furtive from Chat Noir, but I think it’s because she knows it’ll hurt him, and she knows a hurt Chat Noir could become an akumatized Chat Noir. 

…. However. “I kept this secret from you because I was afraid it’d upset you and akumatize you” doesn’t sound like a great excuse. It really doesn’t. It sounds like an excuse, and there’s an underlying admission of distrust there with “I don’t think you’d be able to resist akumatization”. And that… sucks. The best she could do to explain herself in a way he’d forgive her is to explain the whole Chat Blanc scenario in detail to him, but that would hurt him even more! Chat Noir already gave up his miraculous when he accidentally killed an android— how is he gonna feel if he finds out that, if he has a bad day, he could kill everyone on earth?

When people treat the Ladynoir conflict like “if Chat Noir just told Ladybug that he was upset, she’d explain everything and then it’d be okay!” I think they’re missing a substantial part of the conflict. Because Chat Noir can’t tell Ladybug that Rena Furtive upsets him when he doesn’t know about it. And if he DID find out and confront Ladybug about it, there’s nothing she could say to make him feel trusted as a partner.

Ok, I'll be waiting so I can respond to you with a "thank you" 🙂

ha?

every single person who reblogs this

every

single

person

will get “doot doot” in their ask box

So I watched the English dub of Rocketear. It really stands out how Adrien says that he “played the charming kitty cat one too many times”. That whole thing IS an act, an act he enjoys, but an act nonetheless.

Are you going to make a part 2?

Missed Connection

Author’s note: This is set in @buggachat’s bakery enemies au. If you’ve never heard of it before, check the bottom of this fic for a brief summary. (You’ll need it for context.)

Based off buggachat’s comment about Adrien’s wardrobe in her au: “He owns a lot of black. Something about… increasing the chances of being recognized in a crowd. By someone. Perhaps.”

–

It had been years, but Marinette’s grief still hit her at odd times. With the smell of hot coffee or the plinking of rain on a metal roof, she’d be fifteen again, overlooking the city with him on a misty Saturday morning. Or the shriek of children playing would jolt her dusty battle nerves back to life and she would suddenly miss the feel of him at her back. Or she would see someone with a smile that was just close enough to his that it made her heart hurt.

Today, it was a glimpse of blond hair.

The crowd was thick as she waited at the crosswalk next to the bakery. It was a fleeting glance through a sea of people. The exact right color. The same style, like he’d kept it the same all these years so she would recognize it. The perfect length to run her fingers through. Pushing on her tiptoes for a better view, Marinette could barely see his shoulders. Black cloth over the right build. The same hair. She could practically see where cat ears would have sat.

The light changed. Strangers brushed past her as she stood there, transfixed. Was it possible? In a city of two million, had she finally found the one she’d been searching for? Marinette blinked, and he disappeared in the stream of people.

Her voice came out in a whisper. “Wait.” And then a shout. “Wait!”

That was him. She’d found him! And she wasn’t going to let him get away again! She scrambled through the crowd, pushing past elbows and skirting around glares.

She reached for him when she saw him, stomach swooping, heart beating.

He turned. Green eyes, warm and trusting.

“Marinette?” he said.

She blinked.

Adrien. It was only Adrien. It hadn’t been- He wasn’t- Marinette’s heart collapsed back in on itself.

He put a steadying hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?” he asked in the same concerned tone her partner would have used.

Her former partner.

“I’m fine,” Marinette lied. She brushed her cheek, surprised to find it dry.

–

Author’s other note: This is based on buggachat’s bakery enemies au here on tumblr (which you seriously need to check out if you haven’t seen yet). For those who are unaware, here’s the gist: Adrien and Marinette never met. Ladynoir was kinda sorta canon-ish. They never traded identities, took Hawk Moth down, and in the final battle the kwamis all went into hibernation. Ladybug and Chat Noir never saw each other again. Fast forward a couple years. Marinette has just moved back to Paris to find out that her parents have hired someone to help out in the bakery: the son of Hawk Moth himself! And Marinette’s sure he must have been in on Hawk Moth’s plans.

Now, go check out the au! It’s one of my most favoritest things to ever come out of this or any other fandom.