at this point, i think the only logical course of action is that marinette is going to reach a breaking point, which causes her give up the guardianship and dump it on alya, in turn erasing her memories of lying.
lowkey… i had an inkling something like this was going to happen even in the latter half of s5, except then i assumed they were ramping up to push it on luka, because it almost felt “too perfect” that he knew both marinette and adrien’s identities.
it feels very poignant that marinette gave alya a kwatagama, and also that chat noir got a power to erase memories this season. they’re gearing up to do a soft-reset.
this shouldn’t bother me as much as it does, but it just feels so… cheap. literally the writers putting their hands up and nope-ing out of it. it’s been 3 real life years since the lie even started, which is a REALLY LONG TIME for a child, only for the plot line to be erased in the end? what lesson would this teach a little girl?? if you do a really bad thing to the people you love you should just keep it going until it breaks you and then forget about it?
I hadn't considered that Luka would replace Marinette as the guardian because I never thought that they'd let Marinette wipe her memories. Master Fu showed us that you lose absolutely everything and I have no idea how Miraculous could do something so dramatic without serious serialization. I still think that. I know season six has hinted at Alya becoming Guardian, but I don't see a way to do that in the show's existing framework. The show can't even handle reveals properly and those are largely expected to fizzle out to nothing. Like I don't think anyone expected Alya learning the truth to lead to a major change in her dynamic with Marinette and it didn't.
That being said, Luka does feel like the obvious choice to take over, doesn't he? I've always said that - in terms of personality - Luka gets my vote for being Guardian. That stance has only increased with him knowing both identities and getting training from Su-Han, the only fully trained Guardian in the show.
With all that setup, I don't know why the show is going the Alya route. Alya's awesome, but she never struck me as the ideal guardian. I don't think she'd be terrible at it, but it also doesn't feel like something the story set her up for in terms of who her character is. It's more like she's just getting the role because she's Marinette's bff and Alya deserves better than that. If she's next in line, then she should have received the guardian-themed development Luka got instead of having all her training off screen while Luka gets major moments that feel like setup to be the next guardian.
There's also the issue that the show hasn't really explained what it thinks makes a good guardian. I'm not even sure why one is needed with all the miraculous handed out. And how could Alya be guardian unless she knows every holder's identity? Does she know that? And why would Marinette want to make anyone she loves guardian when it's such a burden? Why not just give Su-Han the memory curse since he wanted it?
This lack of coherence is yet another example of one of Miraculous' defining issues: they don't seem to plan anything. They just throw shit at the wall because it's cool or shocking and hope that the pieces will come together somehow.
This is not an issue that's unique to Miraculous. I can think of many properties that fell apart for similar reasons. If you want to tell a big, complex story, then you need to make a plan and stick to it. Miraculous never does that which is why I wouldn't get too invested in anything season six gave us. Anything could matter and nothing could matter. There is genuinely no way to know. Like in the ask, you said:
it feels very poignant that marinette gave Alya a kwatagama, and also that chat noir got a power to erase memories this season. They’re gearing up to do a soft-reset.
This absolutely feels poignant, but the same could be said for so many things in previous seasons even though those things went nowhere. Here are just a few examples in reverse chronological order I'm curious how many my followers remember:
In the season five episode Confrontation we were introduced to the fact that magical charms can create a magical shield whenever a bunch of charm holders are grouped together.
[Gif description: Denis Damoclès' charm resonating with the charms of his students, creating a magical shield that purifies an akuma]
Confrontation is one of the last episodes of season five so this power being introduced right before the big final feels poignant. In a good show, this would be the setup for something big. In Miraculous, this is the setup for nothing. The power was not used in the season five final even though that episode saw lots of people teaming up to fight the villain. It was also not used in season six. Will it be used in season seven? Who knows, but if it is, that's way to late for it to count as payoff for the season five setup. To much time has passed. The poignancy is gone.
The season five episode Illusion introduced us to the resistance AND initiated both Lila and Gabriel into the resistance:
Gabriel: Of course, he can. Nino: You're so cool! I mean, kind. Thank you, it would be an honor if you would become Mr. Comrade Tartar Sauce, an honorary member of our resistance network!
Nino: Oh, my bad, I almost forgot to introduce Comrade Sweet and Sour. Lila: Hello, Comrade Béchamel. I know you haven't always seen me as your friend, but now that we're in the Resistance together, the war's behind us, right? Let's make peace.
Lila's reveal ends the episode and even includes dramatic music which makes it feel poignant, but it's not. The resistance is basically forgotten after this episode. Lila being a part of it affects nothing even though there was all sorts of potential with that idea. For example, Illusion was the episode that saw Nino happily spilling the beans about his and Alya's secret identities to Marinette and Adrien while recruiting then for the resistance, another action that feels poignant. You could pair that with Lila being in the resistance to have her know Nino and Alya's identities but we get nothing. Neither action has negative consequences because this site cannot make up its mind about identity reveals being good or bad.
In the season four episode Gabriel Agreste we get that weird party where everyone has to turn in their phones and wear a mask which is weird and dramatic and feels like it should go somewhere, but it doesn't. The party tells us nothing and hints at nothing even though we now have The Kingdom in play and that would have been a perfect way to hint at their existence.
Félix stealing Gabriel's ring in season three feels like it should have been used for something now that we know the ring's backstory, but it wasn't. Félix never used it to control Adrien and it wasn't even a meaningful bargaining chip in the season four final. Like does anyone think Gabriel would have said "no deal" if Félix only offered up the miraculous and kept the ring? And Félix offering the ring up so easily feels out of character when season five would see him go out of his way to steal Kagami's ring to protect her from her mother's control. Why is he so willing to risk everything to save this girl he just met and so unconcerned about his cousin's freedom?
My money is that Félix only offered up the ring it want an amok when it he style it. Once the writers reconned the ring into an amok, they needed Gabriel to get it back so that the amok could be used in season five without the story being meaningfully impacted (aka they need a way to let Nathalie undo every one of Gabriel's commands within minutes of them being issued which is the real reason there are two rings instead of one. Yet another example of something feeling poignant and going nowhere interesting.)
We even saw this issue back at the end of season one/start of season two with the reveal that Gabriel has the Guardian's book. That reveal is almost immediately hand waved away and never comes back. I bet many viewers have even forgotten that it happened.
The list goes on and on and you're right. Every one of these moments feels cheap because they are cheap. It's easy to write cheap drama that goes nowhere. It's hard to write good drama that matters. That's why so many shows fall victim to the cheap drama route.
I can think of multiple shows that end seasons on cliffhangers because that will make sure people tune in for the next season. The big problem is that many shows do that without planning how to resolve those cliffhangers, leading to absolutely nonsense payoffs. Miraculous does that all the time, but it's not limited to the season finales. They will do it with random episodes, too. So many episodes end with the promise that this will all mean something only for the episode to never come up again. I gave an example with Lila above, but I bet you can think of a dozen more to add to the list. Will the season six finale be yet another one of these?
Only time will tell, but my money would be on most of the finale's dramatic elements fizzling to nothing simply because that's the established pattern for this show. How many of the previous finales meaningful impacted the world and how many were immediately undone or ignored? That tells you how this show works. Expecting something different is just setting yourself up for disappointment. It doesn't mean that it won't happen, Miraculous occasionally has payoffs, but they're rare and you need to keep that in mind when watching this show. It's best enjoyed if you like cheap thrills and don't care if they go anywhere. If you want depth and quality writing, watch another show.
This is a little bit of a side track but reading the part about the miraculous charms making the akuma shield made me realize a huge ass plot hole for the s5 finale. I don‘t know if amyone already pointed that put so apologies if I just reiterate something that‘s already been said, but:
These fucking akuma shield charms could‘ve easily been used to protect Adrichat from akumatization, which was the one argument from the writers to not include him at all!
Think about it, LB and CN face off Monarch, then he‘s revealed to be Gabriel, Chat freaks out and Gabe tries to akumatize him and Chat tries his hardest to fight it and just before he gives in, the whole hero gang shows up and combine their charms so Chat can reject the akuma.
This would also tie in perfectly with the power of love theme with all his friends supporting him through a tough time. Because they care about him. The power of love can be both about romantic and platonic love that way!
The pieces were all laid out. It could‘ve all come together so neatly!
And yet the writers just… decided to do none of that.
