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Feligami Analysis

Feligami, after almost 3 years of being together, is still for many the most controversial canon ship of the franchise. Peoples criticism often focuses on the ships fast pacing, the "lack of sense"/any types of similarities between them and "ruining" of their characters. Quite frankly, as someone who ships them for their entire existence as an official pair, I believe all of these points are false. Here, I would like to analyse the ship based on:

personal values + things they want in their potential partner, Focused on Kagami here, as a lot of her past arcs focused on her difficulties with finding her significant other

With that, we will look into ways Felix fills the requirements we saw Kagami look for in her past candidates (mostly Adrien, as Kazuno was more of a crush that established early on that he is into another girl)

step by step of how those characters ended up being together, with a few of them being my personal strings I pull to things leading to their canonisation in Season 5

Why mutual TRUST and UNDERSTANDING are the core aspects of the charm behind Feligamis relationship

1. Kagamis Values + things she expects from her potential partner

Ever since debut Kagami had a strong and very stubborn mindset. She knows what she wants, she hates hesitation, even from others.

Her debut episode, Riposte, showed very clearly how much determination Kagami has to get what she wants. She walked into the fencing practice, demanded a spot on the team and was willing to prove her worth here and there.

As she started to catch interest in Adrien, she was straight forward in her attempts to win him over, already telling him to "change targets" during Frozer. Kagami: "Hey, you! Are you Mr. D'Argencourt, the fencing master? I wanna join your team." Armand: "Only the best are admitted here, you knave." Kagami: "And I was, everywhere I went." (Riposte)

Kagami: "Adrien, the biggest mistake a fencer can make isn't choosing the wrong technique. It's choosing the wrong target. Change targets." (Frozer)

She values her freedom and autonomy

Kagami, unlike Adrien prior to Gabriels death, had full access to her Senti-ring. This had one condition: Satisfying her mother with excellent behaviour, her fencing performance, basically still obeying her while she was given the false hope of being able to have control over herself. Kagami would not date someone who would give her the same feeling of false freedom and respects when people seek said freedom for themselves as well.

perfectionist in everything she does

Being raised by her mother to do everything with precision, Kagami is not afraid of a challenge. Everything from getting along with a girl that doesn't like her (at first) to win a competition, do what her mother expects from her, seeing a small mistake as a complete failure and not accepting second chances. (f.e. Riposte as she lost her spot to Adrien, even though Adrien swore she won and wanted to re-do the fight)

Kagami: "If I fail with Adrien's quirky friend, I'll never pull it off." (Ikari Gozen) Kagami: "Your "being late" was a brilliant way to infuriate our parents, but the hand-kissing might've been too much." (Emotion)

The latter though, is not seen as an entirely negative thing. Later on she speaks about how she actually likes the way he is acting now. She seems to value the confidence, charm and willingness to defy expectations, and wishes he did so while they were together. (we will talk about this one later on)

Honesty in expression of feelings

Having learned her lesson after putting back expressing her feelings towards Kazuno, she was pretty forward about it to Adrien. Alas, his unclear feelings towards her were one of the aspects that lead to the ships fall.

Adrien: "No. I mean... I mean yes! I mean, it's the first time that I... thought it would be different" Kagami: "So you're not happy." Adrien: "Yes, I am! It's just that... I think I wasn't really ready." Kagami: "So, when will you be ready? Your indecision is hurtful, Adrien." (Miracle Queen)

Emotional Support, Loyalty, Simply someone there for her

Growing up home-schooled and not having attended school until age 14, Kagami had difficulties meeting people and had a hard time regulating her emotions. She didn't know how to properly act in certain situations, seeks help from apps and other tutorial on how to make friends. She's awkward about it, she fails multiple times.

Seeing people like Marinette befriend people so easily, she got easily jealous. She yearned for someone to call her own. The countless times she tried to make moves on Adrien (telling him to switch targets in Frozer, getting affectionate in the S3 finale) she hoped for him to return those moves, but he doesn't.

So, how does Felix match up to this? Is his personality/behaviour fitting to it?

2. Felix matching up the values

Will do whatever it takes in order to achieve his goals, without hesitation

Take the Graham de Vanily rings from Gabriel, steal the Miraculous to secure his own, Adriens and later on Kagamis safety from getting snapped out of existence, knowing he is going to betray Ladybug and many other people, Felix is ready to do it all to make things go his way. He spent multiple weeks outside of his home, making his mother worry about his whereabouts, simply to perfect his red moon plan. Not even his uncle being Monarch stopped him from going through with his plans.

Equal view on freedom and autonomy as Kagami

Both Felix and Kagami, as senti-humans, have experience with being controlled by the people who were supposed to raise and love them. Unlike Kagami though, Felix' every move was being controlled by his Father up until Colts passing. This founded his believe of never wanting to control anyone or anything the same way he was, wanting to rescue Adrien, and later on Kagami, from their controlling parents' grasps.

Loves and cares about the people close to him, especially the ones robbed from their freedom and autonomy

All the people that are dear to him have been manipulated/controlled in their lives. Examples being: Amelies forced marriage with Colt and years of abuse she went through, Adrien being controlled by Gabriel and later on Tomoe giving Kagami the false feeling of freedom but handing her the Tsurugi ring, but then threatening taking it back multiple times, thus manipulating her "free choices".

During Emotion, when Kagami chases after Argos and tries to attack him, he only dodges her attack, not even trying to fight her back, unlike when he was fighting Ladybug earlier on, showing no interest in harming her, even to defend himself.

Honest about his goals and his feelings

Already seen in quotes above, Felix is honest about his goals. He is clear that kidnapping Kagami had a set goal, taking the rings, the miraculous, had a set goal. He is clear about his feelings towards her from the moment they were alone in the Eiffel tower. He is clear that he is willing to sacrifice anything for the safety of himself and his loved ones.

Kagami: "What is it you want to tell me?!" Félix: "I... I don't know. But ever since I saw you, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you. I've felt that... you and I... were the same. "(pretension)

Similar lack of social experiences

Felix, having rushed through his education and becoming UKs youngest graduate, suffered from a lack of peers his age around him. The only people we are aware he knew back then were Adrien and very likely Chloe (Félix "Chloé. Just as annoying as usual.", implying he has had experience with Chloe prior to the episode, very likely through Adrien being her childhood friend.)

His social skills are lacking, so much even Kagami pointed it out herself.

Kagami: "You are utterly incompetent at social relations. (Sighs.) You can't take someone away against their will!" (pretension)

even if she means it as a slight insult, she cannot stop herself from eventually seeing how similar they are/were in terms of socializing. He is awkward, doesn't understand certain social queues, is very unsure at times. But how did we even get here? What actions and events lead to Feligamis eventual meeting?

3. Feligami step-by-step

Kagamis on-screen love life has always been rocky. From seeing her regrets of never telling Kazuno her true feelings, to then doing a complete 180° on Adrien and being honest with her intensions.

Throughout Season 2 and 3, Kagami tried to get closer and closer to Agreste. From Marinettes perspective, we are supposed to see her as this mean Femme Fatale-esque girl who wants to lure Adrien into her grasps and steal him from Marinette forever. The entire time though, in front of her was an insecure girl who was taught that perfection is the only way to get things done properly. She was never taught how to properly interact with her peers and a lot of her knowledge came from manga or simply trusting the confidence mask she hid behind.

As Season 4, and with that the episode Lies, hit and her 'relationship' with Adrien officially came to an end, that is when Kagamis confident and cold persona started to crack. She grew more vulnerable, her emotions she pushed back, being taught those made her weak, started to overwhelm her.

In the same Season, during the Gabriel Agreste episode, Feligami gets their first official screen time together. Both of them have to attend a gathering at the Agreste mansion, during which the kids of the guests all spent time in Adriens room. There, the two sit together on the couch and face each other with intense stares. Already peeking some peoples interest back then, it still wasn't a moment people would expect to mark Feligamis first future ship content.

As Season 5 hit, specifically during the Perfection-Protection era, Kagami has hit her lowest point. Having been convinced by Lila that Marinette ignored her efforts of becoming her friend, Kagami decided to give up with trying to befriend people. But instead of being mad at others, she blamed herself.

She got akumatized into Ryukomori and isolated herself from everyone. She thought she wasn't good enough to have friends. Other people made it feel so effortless, why couldn't she? She did everything she could, after all.

After being saved, she is still left unsure about many things. Yes, people do want to spend time with her and be her friend, but is she going to be anyones first choice?

Protection was the last big hit towards Kagamis low before she met Felix. Her attempts at pushing her feelings towards Adrien aside out of loyalty to her friend, Marinette, were unsuccessful. The fact her mother and Gabriel still tried to arrange her and Adrien made her fail in carrying on further. But then having been manipulated by Lila to distrust Marinette again, her feelings for Adrien finally took over her again and made her act up on it.

Finally being able to show her vulnerable side to Adrien and Marinette, she started to finally accept that her feelings shouldn't be a weakness.

Soon after, the Episode Emotion rolled around, and with it the Diamonds Dance. There, Kagami faces Adrien again. But he seems.. different. He's charismatic, bold, not scared to do something that could piss their parents off. At the event, she even admits to being impressed by the 'change', Felix playing along, compliments how admirable she is for putting her feelings aside to let Marinette be with Adrien.

After he reveals him self as Argos, thus Felix, and snaps out her mother with the power of the red moon, she is devastated. As much as her mother was controlling to her, she was all she knew and all she had. Having snapped out everyone but her and Adrien, with his reasonings unclear, her alignment towards him is negative.

As the Red Moon situation gets resolved, her impression of him stays negative. Little does she know, that boy will steal her heart (and her from her mothers car) really soon. During the episode pretension, Argos causes the Tsurugi car to crash, breaking the sunroof and taking her to the Eiffel Tower.

Felix has a clear goal: Show Kagami how the freedom of choice can look like. Even if his ways of doing so aren't ideal and cause her to get mad at him. To help the situation out, Felix does something one wouldn't expect: He makes himself vulnerable. He transforms back out of Argos to his civilian self, wanting to carefully explain to her what his intensions are. He wants Kagami to know that he isn't here to hurt her, he wants her to realize how suffocating her mother is for her.

At first, she doesn't want to hear any of it. As controlling her mother might be at times, she wouldn't do anything to hurt her. Until her mother, now Matagi Gozen, starts running through all of Paris to find them two and almost harms them in the process.

Felix, instead of running away, stays true to his main goal of protecting Kagami from her mother, and making her realize that she is the one to write her own faith. He knows how it feels to live like a trained dog, having no control over his own actions and feeling like an object. He didn't want anyone to suffer the same faith, especially after seeing how extreme Kagamis mother was getting.

As the episode goes on, he opens up to her about his own past, helps her realize how insane her mothers behaviour is and that she deserves better treatment. Thus, her opinion on him starts to shift: She stops seeing him as the red moon casting Argos who wants to snap out the entire universe, she sees the boy who shows understanding in her situation from experiencing a similar fate.

With now both of them realizing their romantic sentiment towards each other, I will now start talking about the importance of the mutual trust and understanding between Feligami in the episode from Pretension onward, and why its the main charm behind the ship.

4. Importance of mutual trust and understanding

Both Kagami and Felix come from control and emotional abuse, deeply connected to their origin as senti-humans. We can see Tomoe being emotionally unavailable for Kagami throughout the entire series, along her repeated threats of taking Kagamis ring away, and her control over her own life with it.

On the other hand, Felix hasn't had any control over himself since he was born up until his fathers death. Tasting freedom for the first time, now also aware of the truth behind his (and Adriens) existence, he made it his goal to free him from Gabriels control.

At the end of 'Pretension' Felix returns Kagami her REAL Tsurugi Crest at the movies after she was forced to hand it over to Tomoe. He had her entire life in his hands and did nothing malicious with it. He kept it save until he could return it to her so SHE can decide over her OWN faith.

Felix: "The last of the Tsurugis isn't your mother, it's you. The rules of your family no longer have to be created by your ancestors. From now on, they're yours to make." (pretension)

The motive of their trust around their rings, thus their lives, reoccurs throughout the series. Another instance of it was seen during 'Representation'. Right after Felix helped Kagami escape from her hotel room in London, the two decided to retell Marinette (in their own theatre kid way) the story of the Graham de Vanily rings.

Here, we also see a beautiful display of the importance of consent in their relationship. Felix pauses their doings at times to ask Kagami "Are you sure about this?" or "Are you ready?", simply to make sure she's still agreeing with the plan.

For the sake of it, Felix broke one of his personal values: he created a senti-being. As much as it probably hurt him to do so, he trusted Kagamis judgement and her trust in Ladybug that she could help them out to let them love each other freely.

He used Kagamis ring as the control object for the 'Once Upon a Time' senti-being. This shows how much trust they put into each other. Felix trusts Kagami with the control of something he cares about so deeply, and shows that he sees her as someone worthy of being entrusted with a fragile life. Kagami trusts Felix with putting the amok in her own ring, being assured that he wouldn't do anything to harm her and that he believes in the success of their plan.

The two are well aware how fragile and important their rings are to each other. Another major instance of the giant trust they have in each other with their lives is shown in their most recent episode together, Yaksi Gozen.

As Kagami was about to leave to pick up Felix from the train station, she ran into her mother. As Tomoe finds out about her plans of seeing the boy, she is enraged. She starts to verbally attack the couple, claiming Felix is not worth 'wasting' her time on and that he will betray her. Her words hit a nerve in Kagami. She knew very well Felix would never dare hurt her, let alone kill her.

She knew Felix well. She knew his vulnerable sides, his weaknesses. She knew he would never abuse the power of the Peacock Miraculous and only kept it to ensure their safety. As Kagami heavily disagrees with her and defends her boyfriends honour, Tomoe attempts on claiming the Tsurugi ring back from her once again. But this time, Kagami fights back. She transforms into Ryuko and sets her ground as someone with her own will and control over herself.

This is a revolutionary scene in Kagamis development. Through her relationship with Felix and the way she learned she should be treated, she finally was able to defend herself from her mothers manipulations and proves her personal growth. With that, she leaves her mother to think about her actions and picks up Felix from the startrain.

After months of long distance relationship with reoccurring video calls and astro form dates, the two meet up in person again. With the plan to seek help from Ladybug once more, they want to entrust her rings with her. Here, we also see the reoccurring motive of Felix pausing their plans to consent-check on Kagami. ("Are you sure Marinette will agree?")

But because of a small incident spiralling down to a close catastrophe their rings have swapped places, Kagamis ending up with Felix, who has been taken by Yaksi Gozen and Chrysalis. At the point the show is at as of now, they are unaware that this trust Kagami and Felix had with each others lives is actually why the situation was saved before Chrysalis' plan even properly started.

With Kagamis ring in his possession, the women couldn't carry through with their plan. Would the situation go differently, and Felix and Kagami would swap their rings back before Yaksi Gozens attack, the plan would be a quick success.

At the same time, Kagami has a hold of Felix' ring after taking it from Adrien. She puts so much care and effort in keeping it save even Adrien (who is unaware of the true importance of it) admits to her actions being honourable. ("Wow! She treats her boyfriend's ring with so much care! Do you think that's what being romantic looks like?")

5. Final thoughts

That being said, Felix' and Kagamis relationship might have been sudden, but deliberate. Their relationship is built up on mutual consent, truth and recognition. It relies on making their own choices. Kagami, growing up with a mother who gave her the illusion of control over herself while still pulling the strings above and Felix, growing up with a father who blamed him for his own mistakes, now fighting for the safety of people that are in his old shoes. Both of them need someone who listens, understands, respects. They don't need to be perfect with each other: they just need to be themselves.

Aaand that's the end of my analysis :) Thank you so much for reading it if you got to the end! Likes, reblogs and comments are really appreciated, especially with feedback or further questions! ~ Berry

jplupine

So apparently some people new to Tumblr think a repost and a reblog are the same thing, so when they see creators asking for people to not repost, they're thinking the creators are saying to not reblog 😭

Y'all, a repost is when you copy/download the work and create a new post using the work making it seem as if it's yours. A reblog is you using a site provided feature to share the creator's post directly from the creator so that it's still credited to them and they still get all of the traction/notes from the work.

Please, reblog fics/art/etc. that you enjoy! Reblogging is not reposting! Creatives need support too, and reblogging is a way to do that!

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