So I was thinking about THEM.
Which then led me to thinking about how someone i know recently said this about Chat Noir:
“[Ladybug] doesnt really need [Chat Noir]. Like he’s nice, but she doesn’t really need him.”
…They say as we wrap up Pupeteer of s1–an episode in which Chat Noir is hit by an akuma attack and used against Ladybug.
Needless to say I’m not looking forward to how this person reacts to s2 where that happens A LOT.
But anyhoo, back on topic. I would like to point out this little moment from Reflekdoll and how it kinda depicts LB and CN’s respective roles in a nutshell:
She does actually, kitty–she pokes fun at you and various little things from time to time.
But yes, for the most part Marinette takes her role as Ladybug very seriously.
These are a couple of children at war with a psychopath who would even akumatize a little girl and, although neither of them know it yet, his own son.
Marinette’s role as Ladybug means she is the last line of defense and the one responsible for restoring damages, reviving those killed in akuma attacks, and capturing akumas before they can multiply. For all of s1 she had to operate without Master Fu, meaning she had to act with the knowledge that she was the last line of defense
And we saw how she reacted to not being able to fix things in the New York Special.
Her life as Ladybug isn’t the highlight of her day, the way it is for Adrien. Being LB isn’t her chance for freedom, or her escape from a toxic household, or her path to the one connection she has that lacks silly preconceptions (i.e. “Adrien is perfection.”)
She has a warm home and a loving family to get back to. She has an ideal occupation she’s working towards.
Does Adrien even know what he wants to go to college for? Or did Gabriel decide that for him already?
Thus Marinette who started out her role as Ladybug saying “Clumsy, I’m so clumsy” is now at “It requires a sense of responsibility.” She takes her job seriously because she can’t really see it as anything other than that–a serious task which she cannot fail at lest dangerous consequences befall Paris. And possibly the world.
So Ladybug became “all work, no play.” The leader. The serious one. Because she felt that’s what she had to become.
It’s different for Adrien tho.
What does he have to look forward to at home? The shattered remnants of his family, haunted by the absence of Emilie?
How does he get to spend his free time? He doesn’t have any. His dad has him booked solid throughout the day.
Adrien didn’t become Chat Noir out of sense of duty or obligation. He was offered a chance to wriggle out from under the thumb of his father and the “fashion model” scrutiny and what did he receive in exchange?
The chance to be himself, or to at least figure out who that was.
Really what did Plagg say in the origins special?
He was offered an opportunity to be a little less lonely.
And what did this path lead him to?
Chat Noir is his break from being an overworked, love-starved kid. It’s his chance for freedom and fun. It’s his reminder that there’s a whole world and plenty of wholesome people outside his dad’s shadow and the cold walls of the too-big, too-cold mansion which serves as the constant reminder not only of his mother’s absence but his father’s maltreatment of him
For Adrien being Chat Noir, despite all the risks involved, is fun.
And that’s what he brings to their duo–a chance to laugh, a breath of fresh air, the reassurance that all will be okay in the end. Fun, freedom, reassurance. Most important–what he brings is a very literal sense of lightheartedness.
Yes they’re at war, indefinitely. No they can’t afford to fail. Yes, it’s a serious situation. But they can get through it together because he’s here and he has faith in her. He will never not have faith in her. Even though his own undying loyalty and faith in her may cause her some fear, he knows she will never fail him when it matters
He is the support she needs to get through an otherwise paralyzing situation.
Which, added to her more serious attitude as the leader, results in a balance.
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