I think one of Miraculous' biggest problems is that it's terrible at creating compelling drama. Instead of letting conflict arise naturally from the characters, it relies on flimsy excuses, unnecessary lies, and secrets that exist purely for the sake of prolonging the plot. Unfortunately, that has ended up hurting the very thing the show is supposed to be built around: its central love story.
Adrien is constantly treated like an idiot. He's belittled, lied to, and kept in the dark by everyone around him. Whenever people criticize this, the fandom responds with, "But Nathalie cares," "Félix cares," or "Marinette loves him." But does that really matter? Marinette doing these things out of love doesn't automatically make them okay. Good intentions don't erase the fact that she's still taking away his agency.
He's controlling him in every possible way, both as Chat Noir and as Adrien, when he was supposed to be freer after Gabriel's death. Yet that freedom never came. And the show refuses to give him that freedom because it refuses to give him even five minutes of genuine focus. Five minutes where he can actually process everything that's happened to him, question who he is, figure out what he wants, rediscover his own interests, and build a life outside of both his relationship with Marinette and his role as Chat Noir. Instead, every aspect of his development is filtered through someone else. His family drama becomes someone else's story. His identity crisis gets ignored. His grief gets rushed past. His dreams, hobbies, and ambitions are barely acknowledged anymore. For a character whose biggest struggle has always been finding his own identity beyond the expectations placed on him, the story never actually lets him do it. It just takes him from Gabriel and give him to Marinette and say your new owner is kinder.
Nathalie's and Félix's care also feels very one-dimensional to me. We're told they care, but we rarely get to see that care expressed in ways that genuinely respect Adrien as a person. Even Plagg doesn't care because the show only allows him to seriously care about Adrien once every couple of seasons, usually for a five-minute scene before turning him back into comic relief. Their relationship never gets the emotional depth it deserves.
Adrien doesn't really have friends either. The show wants us to believe he and Nino are incredibly close, but we almost never actually see that friendship developed in a meaningful way.
As controversial as it sounds, I honestly think Adrienette has done a lot of damage to Adrien's character. He would almost be better off without the romance because now he's been reduced to Marinette's pet boyfriend first and his own character second.
None of Chat Noir's issues are ever truly resolved. His relationship with Ladybug is "fixed" only because he learns to stop questioning her, suppress his feelings, and simply do what she's asking. He's rarely allowed meaningful interactions with other characters. His existence increasingly revolves around her.
Even his own family drama somehow became Marinette's trauma instead of his. Adrien is manipulated into believing that his abuser was ultimately a good father, and his grief and confusion surrounding Gabriel's death are constantly sidelined or dismissed. His entire life is literally tied to a single object, yet Marinette, Félix, and Kagami continue keeping him in the dark about the rings while expecting him to react appropriately to situations he has absolutely no context for. Then they get frustrated with him for not understanding.
The part that bothers me the most is Chat Noir himself. Since day one, he's stood beside Ladybug. He's protected her, encouraged her, sacrificed for her, and endured being beaten, manipulated, traumatized, tortured, and even killed by Hawk Moth. Yet despite everything they've been through together, everything he suffered at the hands of the villain, Ladybug still decides that he doesn't deserve to know the truth. And it hurts more becuase that means Ladybug is willing to sacrifice Chat in every possible way for his relationship with Adrien and she doesn't respect him enough.
For a relationship that's supposed to represent trust, partnership, and unconditional love, that's a horrible way to write it.
