If you don't mind me asking ( and you really don't have to answer if it makes uncomfortable or would bring up pointless discourse in your blog ) a lot of people call thomas islamphobic , but like when did that even happen ? Like him not being able to add Muslim characters in the show because he isn't allowed to , isn't islamphobic .
Hi! I don't mind, but I don't think I am the best person to talk about this matter. I'll try to explain, but if my followers have more informations, please feel free to join the conversation.
Thomas has explained on Twitter that no, they cannot put religion of any kind in Miraculous. It is one of the 9 kids show taboos, which are summarize in this illustration. Plus, France has secular laws. One of which voted in the early 2000s notably states it is forbidden to wear visible religious signs inside schools and said law affects the students. So you could imagine the reaction of France if a French kids show -- on a tv channel which probably receives some public funding from the French government -- was showing teenagers wearing a religious symbol inside the collège. That's one reality they are dealing with unfortunately.
Some people respond that is it hypocrite because we have seen the Notre-Dame Cathedral in the show and we did got episodes celebrating Christmas or the Saint-Valentin.
Except, in the show, we have never seen any close-ups of the Cathedral aside of a gargoyle when LB is first testing her yoyo during Origins, nor did we got a scene on or inside Notre-Dame. The closer of the Cathedral was in the background was during Sandboy, and notice how many details are missing.
No statues of angels nor saint patrons. Notre-Dame is visually there because it is huge monument in the landscape of Paris, but the model is reduced to its basic shape with minimal ornaments (archs, columns, and stained glass). You won't find any cross on it (or anywhere in ML Paris) either.
As for the Christmas special, there were no mention to the nativity either. They keep the celebration to its pagan origins. "Yule logs", "peace and thruce", âdecorated treesâ, "presents" and "time and dinner with family" along with favoring the commercially red and white representation of Santa Claus over any bible character.
And Valentine's Day, despite being called Saint Valentin in French, is nowadays not consider a holy day in France at all. There is no prayer nor mass for that particular day. School and commercial activities still are open. People just send letters or buy heart shaped products. However, Dark Cupid is of course based on Cupid, the roman deitity of desire and attraction. Mythological deities as inspiration seems to pass. The Old Egyptian gods, Sapotis, Anansi and Oni-Chan along with some of the superheroes like King Monkey are also based on mythic figures. I guess so long no one is using them as holy idol, they fall more under the "folklore" category which appears more acceptable.
Heck, if we see a wedding, it's a civil marriage in the Mayor's office instead of a religious ceremony.
We have Jeanne D'Arc as historical figure who battled to free France and Thomas depicted her as a previous Ladybug Holder, thus removing the religious elements of her "adventures" who get rewritten to fit the Miraculous Lore.
We got Nathaniel whose familly name is a hommage to Jacob Kurtzberg (AKA Jake Kirby) and since Jake Kirby is a jew, they made Nathaniel's heritage be jew by extension. Thus why we don't see Nate in the xmas episode. And Evillustrator's beret subtly ressembles a kippa in its shape. But those are really small details that can easily be missed.
And we do have Prince Ali's Chaperonne who do have her hair wrapped inside some cloth but it appears to be aesthetic more than anything else. Also, both Ali and his chaperonne come from an invented country.
So we can rise the question : without the religious symbols and beliefs, without the prayers and other religious aspects put behind celebrations, can they still be able to put characters to which people can still identify as Muslim or Hindu for example? After all, someone's culture doesn't revolve around just religion.
Food, language, arts, clothing, gestures, habits and customs.
Those do give some representation. It would be a start but would it be satisfying? Or will something appear to be missing?
Anyway, context wise, there are way more factors than just creator's decisions to take into account. People really need to stop thinking that everything in the production of a TV show or movie falls on the shoulder of one sole individual. It isn't a self publish novel or comic. It's a product supervised by powerful people from different corporations. As a creator, Thomas can propose and push some ideas, but if there is no support from the higher ups, he is powerless too and must propose something else. Even within his own TV show.
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