I see a lot of posts just sympathizing with Marinette about the amount of pressure and stress she's under and that she's only a teen and that the adults in her life aren't doing enough to help guide her in a better direction (so right now, basically just Nathalie, since she's the only one who knows about the Miraculous stuff), and on some level, I get it. She IS a teen, and she IS struggling, and messing up is normal for teens.
...but it also gets irritating to see because I've seen "Marinette is stressed" used as an excuse for everything iffy she's done for a long time. And, most importantly, we already HAD a storyline with Marinette keeping secrets from her partner that he had a right to know, lying to him, and even outright manipulating him. That was the whole Ladynoir Conflict of season 4.
That time, the adult who was blamed was Fu, because he told her to make sure to keep her identity secret, even from Chat Noir, and that spiralled into blaming him for her waaaaaay overdoing that and keeping it secret that she'd told someone else her identity and that that person was helping them fight. Plus her manipulating Chat Noir in Ephemeral, that was pretty bad.
And then it's just... in season 6, it's happening again, with even assigning a lot of blame to someone who isn't around to keep pressuring her or to tell her to do any of the specific stuff she's doing wrong, with Gabriel.
Marinette isn't a demon incarnate or anything, she genuinely wants Adrien to be happy, but... I'm also kind of annoyed seeing the ongoing trend of just making the way she reacts to things into everyone else's fault. Like, that would be a more compelling argument if this hadn't happened before, in slightly different circumstances.
I just really hope she actually grows from this after the season's over this time. Adrien's grown a lot from his flaws in earlier seasons, but Marinette seems stuck, and it's hurting both herself and the people around her.
(...also, I've gotta admit, part of it is also annoyance at how this attitude contrasts with the insane way Marinette's family and friends have been demonized with Chameleon salt. To be fair, most, though not all. of the people I've seen making these arguments detest those things as well, but I don't know whether it's because the people with this view of Marinette share this very forgiving and understanding view with all the kids, or whether it's because I've blocked most of the people who still inflict Ron the Death Eater on the characters due to a seven year old episode).
This trend frustrates me mostly because 'she's just teen' will be replaced with 'She's the Guardian/Ladybug!' the moment someone disagrees with her, or does things in their own way instead of following her every word like gospel.
Is she just a teen trying to get by, or is she the Guardian, Chosen of Destiny, and the best Ladybug across time and dimensions who always knows what's right?
I know where the show itself comes down on this. I just wish people talking about it would pick a lane.
