She would be *confused*. She would be *suspicious*. She would have *questions*. Bit at the end of the day Luka is Luka and they share a very strong bond. She trusts him. I think that trust is more powerful than middle school pettiness.
Aside from that, Luka would totally try to climb the wall of the hotel with his guitar on his back to 'rescue' her.
He beings her to the ship to hide her and both Jules and Anarka get so caught up in the lawbreaking/rebel aspect of it they jump right in without worrying about *who* it is.
Anarka would smuggle anything given a chance. And it's going to be *called* a kidnapping by authorities so Juleka gets to live out her dream.
you once said you're not a fan of Marinette being a fashion designer because of the show being 3D. do you have an idea of what you think would've worked better?
Honestly, I'd rather the show was 2D animated. It's not just the fashion designer thing, the show also does a ton of anime-esque visual gags that straight-up don't work in 3D. That being said, if the crew really wanted the show to be 3D, they should've had Marinette design literally anything other than clothing. I'd go with Marinette wanting to become an engineer and designing a lot of Rube Goldberg machines, mostly because we already have some of that in canon with her diary box in Darkblade.
Also, while we're on this topic, I just can't see Marinette being a fashion designer in the traditional sense. She strikes me as the type to have a small tailor's shop where she designs custom-made clothing, not really making the kind of (un)wearable art pieces you see on runways. And the show seems to agree with me, because in Pretension, she has this to say to Gabe: "You're wrong! Fashion is about listening to people, it's about understanding who they are, what excites them and creating the clothes that will help them express their inner world. Help them connect with others and make their dreams come true."
Oh but there's the fun! There's the long term angst! Marinette would definitely do better as a bespoke designer but she would also absolutely succumb to pressure to join the corporate death battle. Once there she would throw herself into it heart and soul, forsaking all healthy relationships to hit the top. She could do it, too. Even if it wasn't her taste she could warp herself into the right shape and excell.
All it would cost her to achieve something she never wanted is everything she had.
I agree here, I do not mind Marinette being a fashion designer. And I do think the show being 3D does not hinder it; there are many anime that are using 3d graphics instead of the traditional 2d animation.
If you mean in terms of clothes design options due to model limitations, even 2D shows have characters that never wear new clothes, so I do not think that is a sole 3D limitation.
I do like the idea of Marinete trying to be an independent designer, trying to get commission works, but due to her networking limitations, she never gets much of the spotlight.
So her friends signed her up for a competition where she could show her talents and get her name out there. That accidentally causes her to get an internship in one of the Mega Corp Fashion Brands. She feels pressured into accepting it and ends up taking it, telling herself it's just for the experience and networking. Kind of a Devil Wears Prada scenario.
Marinette ultimately abandons her ideals to gain the prestige she has always sought. But before the end, she takes back the pride she had in her work and leaves to go back to her little shop. The difference now is that her name is out there, and she got a full list of commission work.
Marinette has been on a tear of 'mistakes have no consequences for me personally' for multiple seasons now. Her mistakes have consequences for other people, but plot keeps allowing her to dodge them. It makes sense in a way she has progressed this way.
So yes, she needs some consequence she can't undo in the medium term at least. She needs that wake up call, for personal growth. She needs it to undo the damage that having a personal fixit button and a rewind-time minion on speed dial has done to her perceptions of the impact her actions have.
She needs to face a level of consequences solid enough to narratively be a wake up call but not one that strays into 'punishment'. Punishment will just feed into her persecution issues and inhibit growth and healing.
And very importantly, while the consequences should linger for longer than an episode or two(perhaps a season?) They shouldn't be unfixable. We don't want to teach kids anything is hopeless. (Especially the kids themselves)
I do think the main issue comes from the first season's "target audience" story structure.
When Miraculous was stated, it felt its main target audience was kids, and I mean little kids. The show was just a monster-of-the-week with a moral message, where the status quo had to be restored by the end of the episode.
Season 1's lack of serialization does support that strategy. It was a superhero show where not much ever happened.
The problem is that as the seasons progressed, the story started to add serialization, and by season 4, the whole target audience moved up to Teens. You can see that the focus is on the mysteries and the overarching story that happened in the background of the "monster of the week" plot.
The thing is. Marinette and many of the characters never left the "return to status quo" mentality. Marinette always has her friends, and conflicts that might disrupt her friend group always get resolved by the end of the episode (Unless is a 2-part story). The antagonists always get foiled before the end of the episode, but only receive a slap on the wrist (Chloe and Lila) unless it's the end of the season.
I feel that Marinette suffers from being a "Kid's Show Protagonist" in a show that has moved to a Teen Target audience.
She is friends with everyone in class. But they get easily tricked by Lila into believing her lies about Marinette
Adults are incompetent and are blind to what happens in the kids' social circle
Marinette's "quirks" are played for laughs, but any traumatic backstory of hers is to be taken seriously.
What I am trying to say is that, premise-wise, the show has a lot of "potential" and nuggets of good plot. But due to the limitations of the type of show this started as, it keeps hitting walls to fulfill the tropes it tied itself with.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 14/14
Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Summary: What if there was a unification that was more dangerous than the bug and cat? What would be the consequences? How will Ladybug and Chat Noir be able to repair the damage? Takes place in the middle of season 4 and has the love square in one form or another ;)
I just finished binge-reading Certain by Soliea0death, and honestly, I need to scream about it for a minute. Especially if you like when stories dive more into the consequences of Chat Blanc.
One thing to keep in mind is that this story actually came way before the Paris Special.Ā
ā ļø SPOILERS FOR CERTAIN BY SOLIEA0DEATH BELOW ā ļø
I absolutelyĀ lovedĀ this fic. Multiverse stories can be messy, but the way this one uses the trope really reminds me of the Paris Special.Ā
It basically starts with the Spiderman pointing meme (Chat Noir, Tigre Mauve, Ebony Mao), all just at each otherās throats because they think the others are sentimonster impostors.
Well, it technically starts with an Akuma attack, then after they fix the issue, Chat Blanc makes an appearance, triggering MarinetteāsĀ PTSD. THEN we get to see the additional Black Cat holders showing up.
The variants have quite an interesting backstory, and I kind of wish the OC universes had a fic of their own. You have:
Red Beetle & Ebony Mao: A universe where Adrien has the Ladybug and Marinette has the Black Cat (and their dynamic is so sweet and awkward!).
Marigold & Tigre Mauve:Ā They are from theĀ @zoe-oneesamaĀ comic. A world where Chloe is "Scarlet Lady".
We then find out that the main antagonist, who brought all the variants to the main universe, is an Akumatized Marinette, Miracle, who holds all the Miraculous and is looking for a specific variant. I really liked her design and wish I could find art of her!
The story then has all the variants split up with their versions and compares their universes/lives to see what they have in common. All so they can figure out why Miracle chose their universes.
That's kind of the main mystery of the fic: Why and what is Miracleās plan? She temporarily joins forces with Shadowmoth just so he would stop interfering with her plans.
The author does an amazing job exploring the fears/regrets characters have, but they are not fully developed in the show due to the rating, like the fear of killing your partner or becoming a villain. It makes the eventual team-up against Miracle feel so earned.Ā
Speaking of Shadowmoth, seeing how Marinette got akumatized was quite interesting. She kind of comes from a worse Chat Blanc timeline. Watching her absolutely beat Gabriel, turn him to stone, and basically tell him heās a "coward" and a "monster" was incredibly satisfying.
Iāll admit, for most of the story, I thought Miracle was looking for the "correct memories" to fix her Adrien. I wasn't expecting her final plan to be literally replacing her broken Adrien with the "erased timeline" version of Chat Blanc. The "time law" explanation, how taking someone out of their timeline for too long makes them vanish, was a bit... āconvenientā in a way (mainly that it goes against the showās time-travel rules), but it does work to fit the story's needs.
The ending is bittersweet because, like inĀ Oblivio, they have to reset everything and forget what happened. But seeing what happens in each universe after they return was amazing!!! It does give you a little taste of how a fic set in those universes would be.
If you want a fic that treats the psychological consequences of Gabrielās abuse and the burden of the Guardian role with the weight they deserve,Ā go read this.
No but actually I feel like ive been kind of disconnected from the rest of the fandom so if you or someone you know posts about ladybug especially if ur in ur late 20s early 30s drop a comment or something I want to have more mutuals around my age to be friendly w :)
Sorry can i quickly talk about how much this affected Doctor Whoā¦
We used to have 13 episodes per season and a holiday special that were ~40 minutes long. When Disney+ took over this changed to 9 episodes, no holiday special (unless you argue that the first episode of the season was the holiday special), and maintained the 40 minute episodes.
ADDITIONALLY, all Doctors (with the exception of g.o.a.t Eccleston) got 3 seasons to be the Doctor. Thatās 42 total episodes. Thatās ~1,680 minutes. Thats ~28 hours.
NCUTIāS RUN HAD 2 SEASONS. Thats 18 episodes. Thats ~720 minutes. Thatās ~12 hours. Thatās less than HALF of the time we got with the other doctors!!! Thatās just a smidge more than Ecclestonās run!!! Not to mention we only get 1 season per companion!! They used to average around 2 seasons. If my math is correct, theyāre getting a THIRD of the time the companions from the OG reboot had!
This is insane. One of my favorite things about the OG reboot was that each Doctor had their own main plot line. Alongside that, each companion also had their own plot line. And guess what?? It worked. Because we had so much time. And they were able to fit in fun, small side quests that had nothing to do with either of their plot lines. Just a little thing here and there. You could go to a random episode in a random season and just enjoy without feeling so completely lost by the plot.
All of this for what??? Better production quality?? Doctor Who fans never cared about production quality and itās just so annoying to see everything that made the show so unique just go down the drainā¦
Also, to add to that, companions would most of the time carry over between Doctors. Their reaction to seeing their beloved doctor regenerate created great character moments.
Let's not forget how they also sprinkled some "specials" in other seasons to extend the story progression: the final 5 episodes of Tennant's doctor (The Next Doctor, Planet of the Dead, Waters of Mars, The End of Time), The Snowmen, The Night/Day/Time of the Doctor...
I do have to add that starting with Capaldi, each season went to 12 episodes instead of 13, but we got TWO specials, one at the start of the season (Christmas special) and an ending special.
They really did Jodie Whittaker dirty. Her run as the 13th Doctor had 3 seasons, but two of them had 10 episodes, and the last one was just 6 episodes. Heck, and if you count how season 13 had "6 specials", The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder, and the Giggle, were Tennant's episodes.
Hello, this is a modest little fanart for @bloodinthetides whose chapter The Most Expensive Peep Show in the Caldera for her fic Flashpoint Act I: Kindling possessed me and did not let go of my brain until I had doodle this, thank you for writing and thank you for sharing
I Don't Need Lila's to be an Actual Master Manipulator
I've spent a lot of time talking about the issues with Lila's writing, so I wanted to step back and talk about reasonable exceptions for a character like Lila. My stance is not that the writers needed to create a true master manipulator for her to work. My stance is that her writing only needed to be strong enough for me to suspend my disbelief.
Suspension of Disbelief
"Suspension of disbelief" is the technical term for an audience being willing to play along with whatever BS the writers are feeding them. It's most often referenced in stories with magic as magic obviously doesn't exist. To enjoy a story with magic, you have to be willing to suspend your understanding that magic isn't real. If you can't do that, then you can't enjoy the story.
Suspension of disbelief applies to far more than magic, though. Stories are full of absurd coincidences, insane luck, and non-magical things that wouldn't work in real life, all of which require suspension of disbelief. Lila's lies are a perfect example. As far as we know, they're not magical. She's just a really good liar. The writers presumably know that they're not writing her like an actual good liar. They're asking us to play along and pretend that she is one. Here's the question: is that a reasonable ask?
Reasonable Expectations
Suspension of disbelief isn't a carte blanche to write whatever you want and blame the audience if they won't play along. It's a contract between the audience and the writers that the audience will play along for the sake of the story, but the writers still owe the audience their best effort. If the writers give a character that is so poorly written that the vast majority of the audience can't believe her supposed role for a second, then the writers have failed. This is where Lila falls.
The problem is not that Lila's lies aren't master class in manipulation. A show meant for young children was never going to give us a true master manipulator. Lila was always going to be simple enough that a child could follow her lies and the adult viewers always needed to be willing to play along even if the lies weren't that good. The problem is that the lies feel like the writers weren't even trying to make Lila work, a stance that is shared by a large number of viewers given the overwhelming amount of Lila salt in the fandom. Most plausible Lila take downs feature something as simple as a character talking to Jagged Stone about his cat or Rose texting her friend Prince Ali about his good friend Lila and learning that he's never met Lila.
When it's that easy for fans to spot ways to take Lila down and canon never acknowledges the problem, then the issue isn't fans asking for too much from a story. It's a story failing to even try to let fans engage their suspension of disbelief. This is why I often suggest fixes as simple as changing Lila's lie from "Jagged Stone wrote a song about me after I saved his cat!" to "I met Jagged Stone backstage at his latest concert." Neither of those lies is particularly impressive, but the second is strong enough for me to play along. The first is not.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to suspension of disbelief, there's always going to be an element of subjectivity. Every person has their own level where the BS gets to be too much and they can't enjoy a story, but I do think the average person is willing to give writers a good amount of grace. We know that any given writer probably isn't an expert scientist or a master manipulator, but we also know that stories need characters like that, so we go into stories with those kinds of characters expecting that there will be some weak points. There are stories where those kinds of characters need to be extremely well done for the story to work, but in many cases, that's not true! We know the hacker isn't actually hacking into a bank, but we'll play along because showing accurate hacking isn't as fun to watch.
I can think of several stories I adore where a character is supposed to be a master manipulator, but the writing falls short of that goal, yet I'm willing to play along because the lies work well enough. One of my favorite characters - Gen from Dr Stone - is a master manipulator with several scenes where his writing falls short of that goal yet I still love him and think he works well enough for the show he's in.
Even when my suspension of disbelief breaks to the point where I can't enjoy a story or plotline, I can usually see that the writers were trying, it just didn't work for me. I can name several stories that I found extremely silly where I'm quite critical of the writing, but none of them annoy me the way Lila annoys me because all of them feel like the writers were at least trying, they were just in over their heads. Lila is the rare case where the lies are so low-effort that they feel like an insult and that is my issue with her. I didn't need her to be a true master. I just needed her to feel like she was written by someone who respected the intelligence of the children the show was written for.
I was even willing to play along with the ridiculous classroom lies. I figure they wanted lies easy enough for a 6yr old to spot so no one would think 'Maybe she is telling the truth?' Was it the best route? Maybe not. I was willing to give a lot though, this was still just the bug and cat show.
What broke me was when Lila's lies had actual power. Lila with 3 mothers who just all believed her. Lila with multiple identities attending multiple schools. We'd gone outside the small scale classroom-kid oral transmission lies to 'No, that requires actual paperwork and there are checks in place specifically to prevent this.' It stopped being about believing Lila was a good liar to where you had to believe the world at large was just broken in nonsensical ways. Trying to weave that into my suspension meant simply considering none of the world worth caring about. If you don't care about the world, then there are no stakes.
So instead I stopped caring about Lila. She's a collection of powers and contrivances, nothing more. She used to be interesting as a 'pretty little liar', now she's boring.
I have to agree on that, the scale of the lies Lila performs kind of jumped the shark. We went from High School Gossip Lies to the Moriarty Shadow Games in a single episode.
There is one thing about making personal lies about what you did during the summer or that you are sick to go to class. But the moment Lila took off that wig, and we found out that she has 3 mothers... Those are levels of professional coon artists.
Heck, just the length she went to acquire the Butterfly miraculous just feels a totally different level of character.
I have seen this topic being mentioned before. Where the Akuma forms for the female characters are just their normal model with a colour swap. It lacks some originality in its design.
I feel the Heartfixer's design felt out of place and didn't complement Marinette's personality. It's just her bare character with barbed wire in metallic pink.
I think her design could have been improved by a single word change. Instead of Heartfixer, it would have been Heartmender.
I think that "mender" alludes more to Marinette's clothing-making skills and her desire to put things together. It's still the same meaning as Fixer, but the theme shifts to sewing.
She could have had a costume made of cloth patches stitched together. Maybe a dress with panniers that resembled a Pincushion where she would keep her weapon. Instead of the barbed-wire handbag for a weapon, she would have used sewing pins that made things stick to the surface they were pinned on.
I kind of felt her Akuma design a bit disappointing and unimaginative. I kind of understand why they went with this barebones look (It's not your usual Akuma fight in public with the heroes). It's a 1-on-1 between Adrein and Mirinette, as he is trying to bring her back from her spiral of despair. So I think they decided to not give her an iconic form.
It's Marinette's first full akumatization, so having her just be a Chrome mannequin is quite disatisfying.
[Video Description: An ad with piano music over it all, showing an elderly woman in her home, knitting, when two younger men walk by her window, which catches her attention. She stares out her window at them as they kiss each other while walking, the old lady staring in disbelief. Cut to the old woman approaching a residence with a broom in hand, staring up at the second floor window where a small rainbow Pride flag is hanging. The old woman stares up at it and mutters "Ridiculo", before getting up on a ladder with her broom to remove the flag. Focus on the flag fluttering to the ground as church bells chime. The scene then cuts to the couple from before, approaching their home with grocery bags in hand before one stops and stares at the second floor, stopping his partner who then drops the groceries as he too stares up. It's then revealed that the small pride flag had been replaced with a gigantic, hand-knit pride flag. It then cuts back to the old woman's home, where a tin of rainbow-colored yarn sits on her table. The hands of the old woman are holding and fondly touching an old black and white photo of two young smiling women, leaning against each other. Cut to the old woman's face as she stares out with a look of happy pride on her face. At the end of the video, the name "Idealista" appears on screen, followed by "buon pride" along with a rainbow. End VD.]
The old lady is not in her home. She is at work. She's meant to be what in Italian is called "la portinaia", aka a cross between a doorwoman and cleaner of a residential building. She's in her small "office" space, at the entrance of the building, from where she can survey the coming and goings of the inhabitants. It's a job that has mostly disappeared, but is culturally very clear to us as having the connotation of "potentially gossipy, one-million-percent judgmental woman who sees everything that goes on in the apartment complex, knows everyone and their secrets, and has Strong Opinionsā¢ļø".
In this case, thankfully, the Strong Opinionā¢ļø is that those two men are ridiculous with their teeny tiny flag for ants.
I love how we don't even need Apollo to be captioned, it's just "he's holding a dodgeball and looks Greek statue, of COURSE it's Apollo delivering the gift of prophecy unto unsuspecting tumblr users"
Disclaimer: These reactions are taken directly from Discord DMs. Originally, I decided to liveblog TADC to the friend who begged me to watch it. I'm now releasing those liveblogs to the public. At the moment, I have finished the series, so I cannot be spoiled BUT OTHERS IN THE COMMENTS MAY STILL BE WATCHING. Please keep your spoilery commentary to a minimum for maximum liveblog enjoyment for all. :)
The person I am liveblogging this to, @axedanner, also had really great commentary which I've chosen to keep in for maximum entertainment. Please go show him some love on tumblr and on his twitch channel.
Context: This was a completely blind liveblog. I had not really interacted with TADC AT ALL in any capacity prior to this. I think my understanding of its contents was something like.... The Yu Gi Oh Abridged series? I thought it was just edgy jokes and clowns, for extra edge.
i started āThe Blockā and i really like it but im a little bothered by the part where zuko tells katara she hurt him in the catacombs too but she didnāt do anything?
Oh! I'm so glad you asked, because I have many Thoughts and Feelingsā¢ about this. Coincidentally, @justzutara made a post of similar nature to what I'm about to talk about. You can check it here for a visual, if you'd like.
I'd like to thank @soopersara for helping me find the right pictures! You're the best š
This got a bit long, so you can read the whole thing under the cut.
Zuko tells Katara she hurt him in the Catacombs, but she didn't do anything?
See, that's kind of the point: she didn't do anything.
The Crossroads of Destiny episode is a barrage of emotions, plotpoints, and gutpunches, one right after the other. It's logical, given that right here is where all the crossroads (pun intended) for the characters involved take place. But I digress.
Literal thousands of words have been written about Zuko and Katara's interaction in the Crystal Catacombs, as well as Zuko's subsequent betrayal (which wasn't as straightforward as most people thinkāmore on this later). However, I've seen very little discussion regarding one of the things I find most intriguing about CoD: the non-collision of glances.
One of the things I find most fascinating about CoD is this interaction, because it's easy to focus on Katara's longing/regretful glanceāthe fact that she looks back in the first placeāand miss that, because he's looking away, Zuko doesn't know she was reluctant to leave.
And it seems like something unimportant, small in the scope of everything that's happening; but when you think of Zuko's state of mind during this scene, that missed glance gains so much weight.
During the rest of the series, we witness a lot of Katara's feelings regarding CoD, but don't see much from Zuko beyond his guilt and regret. So let's try to revisit that experience through his eyes.
What did the Catacombs mean for Zuko, personally?
Openly sharing his grief about his mother for the first time in the entire series. Reaching out for the sake of another person, and having them reach back. Not only that, but he was also offered what amounts to a miracle, something Zuko only ever dared wish for in a literal fever dream: getting rid of his scar.
It's in the Catacombs that he allows someone to touch his scar, something we don't ever see happening before or again until S3. This is undeniable evidence of Zuko's chosen emotional vulnerability during CoD.
And what does the waterbender do with this connectionāwith her promise to heal him?
Ignores it.
When Aang and Iroh burst in, the very first thing Katara does is rush to the Avatar. Zuko's reaction? To stare in confusion and dismay. He laid his emotions bare, was thoughtful and contemplativeānot even snarling at the Avatar before or after Aang snaps at him. He just seems...lost.
Weren't you hoping I'd turn against my family and nation out of gratitude? Didn't you think that if you made me feel like I was special, I'd refuse my only chance to go home to run away with you?
Zuko...you can't possibly believe...
What am I supposed to think, then?! That you suddenly forgave the man who hunted you across the world? That you'd heal my scar for no reason other than empathy? That for a delirious moment you cared about me?!
(...)
You promised, Katara. You took out that stupid spirit water and said you'd been saving it for something important and then offered to heal me, and I thought...it made me... For a second, you made me feel like I was that something important. And I'd never... But then the Avatar showed up, you jumped into his arms, turned your back on me, and left without a second glance.
This scene in The Block explores (rather clearly, I believe) what I think would've been Zuko's thought process during this scene. Mainly, coming up with a reasoning behind Katara's behavior that made sense to him.
The idea of the betrayal in CoD flowing both ways is enthralling to me, because it depends their conflict even more than we see in canon. It also brings Zuko's upbringing into the game, and shows us the subtle consequences it has in his psyche.
But beyond all that (and regarding Zuko's betrayal of Katara in the Catacombs) there's a little truth in this headcanon.
Because Zuko didn't promise that he'd choose to join the Avatar and fight by her sideābut Katara did offer to try to heal him, and then left without further word.
To Zuko, who has been lied to and manipulated so many times in his life, that sort of promise/refusal back and forth must've felt familiar. He rationalizes that Katara wanted him to join the Avatar and used the promise of healing as a reward, a bait.
Which she didn't, of course; the reluctance to leave Zuko is evident in her body language when Aang rushes out of the Caves.
But Zuko has no way of knowing that, because he himself was looking away, having already decided that Katara would break her half-made promise. Because, really, why would she follow through? He's a failure, her enemy, and he doesn't deserve healing.
Ironically (or perhaps naturally) accusing her of this is what allows Katara to start forgiving him in The Block. It proves to her that he was hurt by what happened, too, and confirms that he hadn't lied to her or tried to trick her into lowering her guard in the Catacombs. He had been vulnerable, genuinely vulnerable, and it makes all the difference.
This misunderstanding opens the way for honest, healthy communication regarding what happened under Ba Sing Se, which is something I would've loved to see in canon.
.
I'm not shutting Katara down with this take. She did look back for Zuko and she did feel betrayed and she had all the right reasons for it. But Zuko had no way of knowing all that, and making their conflict run even deeper than it already does was an opportunity I just couldn't deny myself.
Just finished watching Season Two of NATLA, and I want you guys to know that this little theory doesn't apply there and I'm both so happy it doesn't but also DEVASTATED over this version of CoD.
no Dema you cannot say all that and leave us hanging there without elaborating a little bit!! šš like I need to know your favorite line/addition from these catacombs scenes at leastš¤ ( and your top notch analysis - with always a layered approach- always make my day)
