Sorry For The Long Rant - Tumblr Posts

As a writer, I don't like the idea of placing abuse just to make a character more relatable or more pathetic just so people could sympathize with them. Arguably, Felix's abuse story could've been used to expand on his ideologies and his behaviors, and to explain them—but I would never use the "oh he's an abused child so you can't blame him" bs. The abuse is a reason, never an excuse.

Felix's abuse narrative could've explained why he was such a little shit, because some reactions to abuse is to lash out and take it out on the world. But then comes the "down with the oppressors" vigilante shit that DOESN'T IN ANY WAY RELATE TO HIS PREVIOUS BEHAVIOR and after that, "oh poor widdle me I was so horribly abused I get a get out of jail-free card"... smh

And as for Emilie and Amelie..... where do I even start? Amelie's background plays some significance regarding the abuse narrative, but there's too many holes and contradictions and she doesn't show up enough to justify giving a damn about her. Just to play the "my poor baby" role.

Emilie, also, is arguably the most worthless goalpoint ever. She is literally just a plot device. We never learned anything about her, just that she's apparently "nice" and "a good mother". Gabriel and Adrien bemoaning her loss isn't enough to explain why she's in such a high regard for both of them, and their grief over her loss isn't used unless (in Gabriel's case) it's to justify terrorism or (in Adrien's case) to play the sympathy card. In both cases, she's a means to an end, and we learn nothing about her as a person that could make us care so damn bad.

The whole thing is just bs, and frankly, using a play instead of having Felix summarize it is so useless. I don't even understand why TA wasted more time trying to animate that, like all that hard work only for it to turn out utterly ridiculous in the end.

Some people think the reason they had Felix tell his story through that weird play was because the details were too graphic for younger kids, do you think that's a good excuse?

No because the details of Felix's abuse weren't narratively necessary. Felix suffering any abuse wasn't narratively necessary. I'd even say it was a bad thing to add because I doubt that the show is planning to deal with that issue by putting Felix into therapy or the like. It's going to be resolved by Kagami's love and was arguably only added to make Felix a sad little uwu who we can't blame for his actions.

All the play actually needed to do was:

Establish who the sentimonsters are (which it arguably failed at)

Establish that Gabriel is the butterfly holder (which the next episode does anyway)

Even outside of the abuse issue, most of what we see in the play was pointless. Giving us Emilie and Amelie's backstory would have only mattered if Emilie was brought back to life, which seems to not be the case? Even if she was brought back to life, what did we really learn about her? If we removed this play from the story, what would the narrative lose? Maybe season six will surprise me, but my guess is nothing.

You want to know why the play was really added? It's there so that Marinette wasn't able to defeat the akuma and free Chat Noir from his nightmare dust, making sure that there was no identity reveal and that he didn't show up for the final. That's it. That's the whole point.

What's sad too is that all Marinette had ever done was talk about how smart and perfect and amazing Adrien is without the emotional payoff of actually getting to know him. It's why Gamer was my favorite episode of Season 1 (and likely the whole show) because their interactions were sweet and genuinely heart-fluttering for me. They talked like normal teenagers, the awkwardness between them didn't feel forced, and Marinette's parents actually felt real, embarrassing their daughter at every turn while she tries to talk to her crush.

But then as the seasons pile on, that died away, and the romance didn't feel earned at all. There was this constant underlying connotation that Marinette and Adrien will be endgame anyway, so the journey didn't matter, because that was always always going to be what they become.

I used to love their romance. The love square was amazing to me, it was (for me) a new concept of two people but with four faces, because I wanted to see how it was like for them to see the sides of each other's coins where the sun don't shine. It was actually one of the draws for me. But as the seasons went on, the romance began to feel forced. The point of a romance is to root for the characters, but you might as well have tattooed "ADRIENETTE 4EVER" on their foreheads.

TA said that the main genre was always romance, the main plot point was the romance. But in a story like MLB, with superpowers and secret identities, you can't hold onto the romance genre forever. You need to adapt and grow with the story. Just because the story derails for a moment to become action or mystery or whatever, it doesn't mean the romance disappears.

Unfortunately, that's not what happens, because every interaction from Season 2 onwards (gradually so) begins to feel like an attempt to convince us they're meant to be, without putting in the actual work. So when the switch happened mid-Season 4, I was honestly disgusted, because it didn't feel earned. I wanted to see more of Adrien genuinely struggling with his feelings for Marinette, or Marinette realizing that maybe she might like Cat Noir more than Adrien after all.

I would've liked to see how their relationships survive the overarching plot and how it shapes them, to see the changes and the realizations, and then looking at the end product that finally finished running through the wringer.

Do you think Marinette really loves Adrien or does she loves the idea of him in her head?

Idk but I'm agree with Alya in Elation that you can't really love someone you don't know and Marinette arguably know Adrien only on surface level, either from the magazines or stalking him. We never got a scene where they talk together to get to know each other and then BAM! They just get together.

I also feels like Adrien's love for Marinette also more a rebound than anything. The writers can say anything they want, that Adrien fell in love with Marinette in Pupeteer2. But you don't develop feelings for someone you barely know, especially when in that said episode Adrien still think Marinette hate him. It's just weird. But again, idk, maybe it just me because I don't catch feelings to someone I barely talk to. That's just creepy AF no offense.

It's really hard to say because canon is all over the place when it comes to how close Adrien and Marinette are. Season three and four make them feel like little more than acquaintances, but if you think back to seasons one and two, they legitimately were friends.

Adrien turned to Marinette for dating advice (Frozer). Marinette and Adrien gamed for hours to prepare for a tournament (Gamer). Marinette and Adrien went to a party with their friends and danced together (Despair Bear). Marinette, Adrien, and their friends worked together to make a movie (Horrificator). I could go on, but the general gist is that it feels disingenuous to say that they barely interact. They interact a lot! It's just limited to the first two seasons.

I scanned through the episode list while writing this and seasons one and two have them interact in a meaningful way in about half of the episodes while seasons three and four got distracted by the new love interests, Lila, and the awful broken Ladynoir dynamic, dramatically cutting back on the Adrinette content to the show's detriment.

The other issue is that Marinette's crush is written more and more like a celebrity crush as the seasons go on, making it feel less and less genuine. So it's understandable to feel like she doesn't really love Adrien given how the show presents her, but if you tone down the crush to a non-comedic level, it does feel earned to me and I am also the kind of person that needs to know someone before developing feelings. Celebrity crushes and instant love are things I rarely enjoy in media probably at least in part because I'm ace.

I actually didn't get truly invested in the love square until Origins showed us why they first developed feelings. There's a reason I treat that episode as the golden standard for characterization. It's some of the best writing Miraculous has ever done. The writers crammed an impressive amount of content into 40 minutes and elevated the silly teen crushes into something with real substance. I will forever be sad that the rest of the show falls so short of that episode.

Moving on!

The Puppeteer 2 thing feels like a bad joke and it might be? It's hard to tell given how weird this show can get with its humor. Either way, it would have made a lot more sense and been much cuter if Adrien fell for Marinette when she unknowingly confessed her crush to him Glaciator 2 instead of falling for her after she accidentally forces a kiss on him during a prank gone wrong.

As for the rebound element... yeah, I don't disagree. Everything about the reverse crush was just weird because Ladybug falling for Chat Noir felt way more honest and earned than Adrien falling for Marinette given the way seasons five plays. I mean, the episode right before the reverse saw Ladynoir get married and have children, but Adrien is the one whose feelings are true and Marinette is the one having a rebound? Sure, writers. Sure.

If the reverse had happened right off of the season four finale, though? Then that actually could have worked. In those episodes, Marinette supported Adrien while their friends were oblivious to his true feelings, Adrien finally saw just how much pressure Ladybug was under, and Chat Noir supported Ladybug unconditionally in her darkest hour. I'm personally not a fan of the crushes switching mid-show, but I'd be lying if I said that wasn't a solid setup to lead into it. Adrienette and Ladynoir had never felt closer.

I think it's fair to say that this is why Miraculous is such a complex show for a lot of fans. It has truly spectacular setups, but the payoff always seems to fall flat on its face.

I barely even talk to my friend's bfs/gfs unless said friend is part of the conversation. Why wouldn't you just trust that if your friend dumps their partner they probably had a reason (especially if you don't like the friend??)

I respect Tim because if my girlfriend ghosted me, broke up with me multiple times, and hit me in the face not once but three separate times when the idea of getting back together came up and no one said shit, but when I broke up with her one time and I had Oralce, Batgirl, Superboy and Impulse on my back for it I’d of gone full supervillain