I started to losing faith in Gabenath (Bc Gabriel is more crazy with each season) but in the other hand, I feel that their dynamic is one of the most important in the show and their scenes are going to end in something good
I do throughly believe that the relationship between Gabriel and Nathalie is one of the subtler and more compelling aspects of the show, and it’s had an immense amount of development with very, very little screen time. I do believe they are meant to parallel Marinette and Adrien (even if that parallel isn’t perfect), and I feel like that is supposed to bode well unless they intend Gabriel and Nathalie’s story to end in tragedy.
When I say tragedy, I mean genuine, hard-hitting tragedy, because it would be lazy and bad and boring if things just didn’t work out because, oh no! they were thwarted and thrown and prison and that’s the end of them! The dilemma a lot of us Gabenath shippers are facing is not with the pair, because the pair continues to be framed as a positive thing for not only Gabriel, but for Adrien and the Agreste household as a whole - even as a positive thing for the entirety of Paris, because canon Gabenath would mean no more magical terrorism. The dilemma is with Gabriel and the rather flippant way the show likes to portray the extent of his villainy. I still think the Chat Blanc characterization is dismissible with the right analysis, which I attempted, but from what I hear about the special (that I have not watched) is that Hawk Moth almost starts nuclear war?? and yes, that’s less explicable when there's no super symbolic eraser lucky charm to make everyone forget that ever happened.
So the difficulty is reconciling Gabriel’s over-the-top atrocious acts of evil with the actually heartfelt and authentic and comforting depiction of his relationship with Nathalie. I don’t know how I’m supposed to be receiving the characterization - am I meant to take it seriously or am I meant to think it as absurd and inane as I do that Hawk Moth has akumatized Mr. Pigeon 51 times? Where does the moustache-twirling cartoony nonsense end and the actual depth of character begin? That’s the show’s problem with Gabriel and it’s making it a problem for Gabenath even when Gabenath has a positive connotation and fantastic development and depth.
The show keeps telling me to ship Gabenath. And in good faith I will continue to ship Gabenath in hopes I won’t be made a fool of by some absolutely irreverent and shallow conclusion to their storyline.
