The Random Ramblings of a Fangirl

[thecloister]

Sir Lancelot, did you ever meet Guenevere? What was she like?

Not something Lancelot can answer because I don't intend to have a Guinevere on this blog.

For the purpose of this story Guinevere's role is filled by Camelot itself, as that fits Shadow's story (Protector of Earth after losing Maria) and Sir Lancelot's character arc in the end of SATBK.

Sir Lancelot's love for Camelot outweighed his loyalty for his King. Sonic was the usurper, the Mordred of the story, and Lancelot's story always concludes with his avenging King Arthurs death. He rallies the last remnants of those loyal to him for it, and loses the few remaining things he values to this final war of vengeance before wandering from the battlefield mad with grief and finally becoming a hermit in a small church and seeking penance for his sins the rest of his life.

But Spnic disrupts that grief, that sense of loss, by telling Lancelot that a knight's Loyalty should be to the people, not a ruler. Reminding Lancelot that his love lies in the Land and not his Lord.

Guinevere not as a romance, but as a place, a people, a culture. Guinevere as a kongdom that betrayed its King, a King that sentenced his Kingdom to death for it, and a Knight whose Loyalty and Heart would always be torn between them.

[bovid-beauty]

"Fascism"—New Federal Rule Would Require Federal Funding Recipients To Deny Trans People Exist

The rule could have heavy impacts towards trans people across society.

Last week, the Trump administration quietly released a sweeping new federal rule that would use funding threats to force institutions across the country to reject transgender people. The 400-page proposed regulation would codify the administration's anti-trans executive orders into binding federal policy, imposing a blanket prohibition on federal funds going toward "gender ideology"

The proposed rule, formally titled "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance," rewrites the government-wide framework governing all federal grants across every agency. Among its most consequential provisions, it requires that before a federal grant recipient can receive money, the award must pass a "pre-issuance review" conducted by a political appointee—not a career expert or peer reviewer—to ensure it is "consistent with applicable law, Federal agency priorities, and the national interest." The regulation explicitly instructs these appointees to screen for "denial by the recipient of the sex binary in humans or the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic." [...] An institution that acknowledges transgender people exist—through its policies, its training, its healthcare, its bathroom access, its HR procedures, its name-change processes—could be deemed to "deny the sex binary" or to “support the notion that sex is mutable” and have its federal funding blocked.

Importantly, the gender ideology prohibition has no age limitation—hospitals could be targeted not just for providing care to minors but for providing gender-affirming care to adults, because prescribing hormone therapy to a transgender patient of any age could be deemed promoting the belief that "sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic."

[junequeer]

THIS IS OPEN TO COMMENT UNTIL JULY 13, 2026

[featherandstorm]

This is all very bad and horrible, but I want to be clear that it’s worse and more sweeping than just eliminating trans research.

This torches everything. And I do mean everything.

A very abbreviated list of its ramifications include (but are not limited to):

ending funding for ALL DEI related initiatives

allowing the government to terminate grants at any point for any reason

preventing researchers from publishing, going to conferences, and being part of academic societies

requiring that topics must support the president’s agenda.

What this means, and if anything I’m under selling it, is the death of science and research in America. It allows the government to restrict any topic they please at a whims notice, putting officials who have no background in the topic in charge of deciding funding continuity. It controls what gets researched and if/how researchers are allowed to share their discoveries. There are no books to burn if the government never allows them to be written. This is fascism plain and simple.

Please, if you only ever write one public comment, this is the one to do.

[genderkoolaid]

Bringing back this guide to writing an effective public comment. This gives you the basics you need to know, what you need to include, a basic outline you can follow, etc.

Public comments are not a vote, it is a chance for you to say "here is an issue with this law I think you need to address" and provide justification for legal challenges if it goes forward:

"Comments raise the bar that agencies have to meet when making a rule; “if an agency fails to adequately respond to significant, relevant comments in a final rule, members of the public may seek to challenge the rule in court on that basis and claim it could be struck down.ˮ"

But also, if possible, don't stop at writing a comment. Don't stop at calling your representatives. You should ideally be talking to people in your community about this and organizing resistance on-the-ground; there is a good chance people are already doing that even if you aren't hearing about it.

[cherrispryte]

Some added 101-level context from someone (me) who’s worked in federal grantmaking for 20 years and is literally certified on this document - this is a document that governs all federal grantmaking. It’s been around for over a decade and is a mega-document that combine multiple previous smaller documents that have been around for ages. It is updated every few years and generally the updates are minor - a notable change in the previous update was raising the small procurement threshold from $10,000 to $15,000 for example. Deeply dry boring minutiae that no one outside of federal grantmakers need concern themselves with. It was also federal GUIDELINES, which means there was flexibility.

This year’s is different. They are now federal REQUIREMENTS, which means there’s no flexibility. As was said previously, the 400 pages are not singularly devoted to being absolute shitheads to trans people. Theres a lot of stuff in there, some of which is the standard dry boring grants stuff, some of which is the horrible ideological warfare outlined above.

This document is issued by the OMB, the Office of Management and Budget, which is currently lead by fucking Russell Vought, the principal architect of Project 2025. This is how they’re going to implement all the horrible shit in there that wasn’t covered by Executive Order. Russell Vought is actively coming for my job, my marriage, and my kid, and most of my friends lost their jobs last year because of him. He is the fucking arch villain behind the heinous shit the current regime is doing.

So yes, please comment. You don’t have to read all 400 pages before doing so, it’s dry and dense as fuck, but I thought this information might be helpful. Also, while there is a public comment period, this isn’t voted on by Congress. The OMB just fucking issues it. Pressuring your elected officials into publicly saying “hey what the fuck are you doing here” is good, though.

[mikkeneko]

Please note the comment period is open through JULY 13th, not JUNE 13th. I saw a lot of relogs yesterday saying "last day!" and I just want to say it is very much not too late.

[grison-in-space]

As of today, 7/8/26, we have five days for public commentary on this to go through. I am begging y'all: if you care about independent science in the country that produces the most global science funding in the world, please leave a comment.

[birdsareblooming]

yada yada shadow is a demon made in heaven silver is an angel born in hell but sonic just spawned in one day

[birdsareblooming]

Alright everyone else pack it up

[shadowheritageposts]

Shadow Heritage Post

[daco-showman]

why can rockstar games institutionalise you for life like nikita kruschev for being autistic

[ivy-michaels]

He didn't steal 10 million dollars. They made that number up as a loss, they never fucking had it. Rockstar has spent more than a billion fucking dollars on GTA VI and will likely make billions more when it gets released.

Uber is a fucking shell game of a company designed to leech investor capital and output bootleg cabs.

Nvidia posted a profit in 2023 of $4.37 billion. This is like someone stealing less than a penny from me.

And they lock this kid in a prison hospital for LIFE?

Capitalism is disgusting.

[fuckblast]

Nobody should buy GTA til they free Arion Kurtaj

[ivy-michaels]

What with GTA VI going up for pre-order i'd just like to remind everyone that rockstar conspired with the UK government to lock an 18-year-old away for life for hacking them.

[gaslit-dipshits]

[appalachian-werewolf]

PoweredByWho — Who's Building Data Centers in Your Backyard?

Follow the money behind America's data center boom. Track 2,300+ projects, PAC spending, and the politicians who sign off on it.

[reasonsforhope]

Reasons for hope: Lots of amazing people did a ton of work to make this fantastic, fully interactive resource available - because no matter how bleak things seem, there are millions, and millions of people doing everything they can to protect both the world and their own communities.

You can use this to view and subscribe to updates, project statuses, and for at least some of them even whole dossiers. This is an amazing resource, I highly recommend checking it out

[celestialtitania]

rewatching ephemeral and chat blanc is realizing that they were never showing us that it would be catastrophic if adrien and marinette knew each other's identities. it was always that it would be catastrophic if adrien was around when they had that final battle with hawkmoth. and that is horrifying. They were always telling us in the end, when it concerns adrien's family, when adrien's name would be used to convince gabriel to choose otherwise, that adrien's presence would always tip the scales in the opposite direction... because gabriel doesn't view adrien as having agency. he never has. yielding to his son is a concept so outlandish he can't even imagine it.

if adrien had been there? no matter how much they fought, no matter how they appealed to him, gabriel would have never reconsidered. and thats why, adrien being forced to acknowledge him as a hero, beating himself up for not being there, is so awful, because we know that it would have turned out much worse.

there never was a chance of complete victory for our heroes. gabriel wouldn't have allowed it.

[generalluxun]

The only thing more outlandish than taking this away from those episodes is thinking this is the message they *Deliberately put into* a magical girl show for 6-10yr olds.

I understand loving the show. I understand WANTING it to make sense. I understand trying to forge meaning in the incomprehensible. Sometimes you need to step back though. Sometimes you have to accept that whatever was intended it they just didn't pull it off, or at worst, their intention was just a bad story beat. If you don't, you'll end up in string-on-corkboard unhinged takes land.

It's healthier to accept that a show can make missteps. There can be problems, but a single problem doesn't mean the downfall of everything. Some shows have entire seasons that are dead weight, or lasting plotlines that are remembered poorly. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't. ML is not immune.

In the end though, we should look forward, not back. We should want for the future, not try to read the bones of the past.

[lilacblossomdreams]

Yeah, "the bad guy wins" is just not the kind of ending that belongs in a kids' show, especially when said bad guy is an abusive parent.

I'm also giggling a bit at "Gabriel doesn't view Adrien as having agency" and "Gabriel would have never reconsidered". Adrien can have agency regardless of what Gabriel thinks of him. What, does Gabriel need to consent to Adrien punching him in the face and taking his Miraculous? It's the writers that aren't allowing him agency. And why does Gabriel even need to reconsider? Like, he can just be defeated. Why's that the only ending we're going with?

[sairenharia]

Gabriel would have never relented, with or without Ladybug involved. He was always going to make a wish, all Ladybug did was make him change what the wish was. However, he was ALWAYS going to make a world HE wanted, irregardless of Adrien's wants. Adrien was never coming out of this fight as a winner, just as a hero.

Also I think people forget that there IS a third instance of us seeing a final fight with Adrien in the mix with revealed identities.

The Collector.

In Chat Blanc, Adrien is caught off guard by Gabriel being the villain. (HOW when the basement is over his house, I have NO idea, but he didn't know until the reveal, so that is the case.) Adrien being blindsided puts him into a vulnerable position to be taken advantage of, ESPECIALLY when Gabriel knows its him ahead of time. Adrien is able to be overtaken.

This is the same case in Ephemeral. Gabriel knows ahead of time. Gabriel is able to plan. He knows to expect Adrien. The man is ready and planning to use Adrien and catches Adrien entirely off guard, and of course he's in an emotionally vulnerable space.

But compare that to the Collector.

Is Adrien upset? Yes. But he's not COMPROMISED. He is ready to fight. He is ready to investigate. He is prepared, because he isn't being blindsided by his father being Hawk Moth. He's revealed when he thinks he ISN'T the villain, but Chat Noir is still operating at usual Chat Noir levels in this fight, he's just not making jokes. He's focused and ready.

And Gabriel doesn't know who Chat Noir is.

Even with Night Tormentor, Chat Noir is very on point. He only falters when Gabriel happens to say something that throws off ADRIEN and he got lucky or at least picked up Chat Noir has daddy issues, but it still wasn't a huge mistake on Chat Noir.

So the real take away is the fight is always going to go badly...when GABRIEL is the one with information. When Gabriel is in control, things go poorly.

Adrien? Adrien just needed that few minute warning to be ready. He was more than capable of fighting his father. He was always going to be hurt by the outcome, but it was a fight Adrien could win.

[whimsy-flags]

Pride Flamingo Emojis! Enjoy~

[glasshomewrecker]

Breaking news: Another maia arson crimew win (Wired)

The incredible tgirl hacker has hacked Dialog, a secretive retreat for 222 of the world's most powerful, including Peter Thiel and many of his friends. The purpose of the retreat is to give these people an "off the record" space to discuss handling the future. (Unrelated email from the Epstein estate.)

Some of the sessions are “Money (Does?) Buy Happiness,” “Bring Back Nuclear,” “Navigating WWIII,” “Battlefield Technologies,” and “How’s Your Sex Life?” The session “Build-a-Cult” will be moderated by the founder of the Christian networking site Pray.com, and “Build-a-Party” will be run by a former White House national security official.

"What ties the roster together more than any title or office is a shared preoccupation with artificial intelligence, longevity, and the near future. Asked on a sign-up form to predict the future, registrants returned again and again to the same theme: that AI will reorder work, war, education, and belief within a few years. Several foresee mass labor displacement and a swing back toward unions and government programs; others predict an “AI winter,” domestic terrorism targeting data centers, criminal defendants choosing AI lawyers over public defenders, or religious revival provoked by the disruption."

Attendees can also experience matchmating and dating opportunities with each other.

The site is shockingly poorly coded, with names being embedded in plaintext and fully searchable. maia is still digging through the information and verifying its contents. You can follow along on her profile here, where she has published a list of the attendees.

In addition to the "Paypal mafia," attendees include Sam Harris, Wes Moore, Cory Booker, a large number of Stanford alumns, active government officials, quite a few authors, some Hollywood faces, and a heap of CEOs.

[insertusernameici]

[unicornempire]

I love that Leverage really goes out of it’s way to show us that just because you break the ‘rules’, it doesn’t mean you’re breaking the rules. Rules and laws and society are all made up, at the end of the day, and all you really have is your own moral compass and sense of justice; is this just to you? Is it right? Should it be OK for companies to put people in insurmountable debt for the rest of their lives just because our medical care is so expensive in this modern day and age? No law or rule should change what you know in your heart is right and wrong, and I think that’s the key thing that makes someone a good person in my eyes.

[theheroheart]

#there was a time when parker wouldn’t have noticed, #not because she lacked the capacity to care, #but because she had narrowed herself, #to stay alive she cut off as many unnecessary things as possible, #watching her get them all back, #is one of the glories of this show (via @seananmcguire)

[jack-the-bear]

Leverage hands down has the best character development I’ve ever seen.

[lets-go-steal-an-ot3]

This scene hit me like a brick. My parents were hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt when I was 16 bc I’d had cancer the year before (my treatment ended up being free but the initial ER bills and such were not).

But somewhere along the line they just… Disappeared. My mom says they’re not being paid and they’re not in collections. It’s almost as if someone out there did…exactly what Parker did.

Ever since I saw this the first time, I’ve imagined it was Parker doing it. That she and Hardison had a free weekend and decided to take it out on a collections agency. That I was one of the lucky ones who got a little Leverage.

[gay-jesus-probably]

Okay but like yeah, that is actually a thing that happens, albeit not exactly like this. I don’t remember the exact process but basically there’s a booming industry to sell peoples debt - the business you owe money to sells it to someone else for a fraction of the money owed, wipes their hands of the whole affair, and now whoever bought your debt is riding your ass to get you to give the money to the. But it’s also entirely possible for people to just… buy up massive amounts of debt for pennies on the dollar, and then just. Forgive it. Because capitalism is a living nightmare, but the system is broken enough that it’s possible to exploit it for good sometimes.

Like, the main reason I know about this is because John Oliver did a piece on debt buying a few years ago, and ended it by revealing that he’d bought 15 million dollars worth of medical debt just so he could forgive all of it. Both to expose how broken the system was because some random fucker like him could buy millions of dollars in peoples debt with zero regulations, and also just to take the record for biggest TV giveaway in history.

[mikkeneko]

A charity where you can do this, right here.

Be Parker! Be somebody else’s Leverage!

[melyzard]

Reblogging for the website.

[nianeyna]

yes! if you want to help with the medical debt crisis in the US and have some extra money please donate to RIP Medical Debt if you can. They’re completely legit and really do what they say - you really CAN relieve an incredible amount of debt for the needy with even a small donation. I’m a monthly donor and receive a quarterly report of the debt they’ve abolished, and it truly is amazing. Based on those reports the average amount of debt abolished per person is actually I would say about $600 - which means, if you’re doing the math, that with a $6 donation to RIP Medical Debt, you can potentially pull one person out of a poverty spiral - maybe even one family. For six dollars. that’s a pretty good deal, I think.

[bethanyactually]

RIP Medical Debt is now called Undue Medical Debt!

Undue Medical Debt Homepage

Undue Medical Debt makes it easy for donors to make an impactful difference in the lives of those struggling with medical debt.

[thecloister]

Yes, there are 3 scenes meant to parallel the start of this arc.

The shift in your relationship, how Sonic handles your teasing, and even the Portal now appearing on the other side of the tree, away from the cliff and on "stable ground"

Sonic also no longer uses your asks as a chair, he treats you guys as fellow characters and not props.

[sairenharia]

Watched the Queen of the Dreadzone trailer and being reminded again of how much Zoe is Tell and Never, Ever, EVER Show.

We are almost definitely going to hear about how great and so much better Vesperia is as a hero versus Queen Bee.

Queen Bee who almost beat Mayura and FORCED her retreat because Mayura realized any chance of convincing her would risk losing the peacock because Chloe GOT CLOSE. Queen Bee who kept cool emotions on Heroes Day and fought off two extremely dangerous Akumas who psychologically weaken her specifically on her own. Who worked well as partners with Ladybug, following her lead, but hand not held.

Versus Vesperia.

In the trailer, Pegasus is called too.

After all, Vesperia's go to tactic is....open a portal and directly jump at the target where it doesn't have a chance to dodge the one hit KO.

They have used this move SO MUCH.

It's effective, I won't say no.

But they keep doing this with Vesperia who is supposed to be Better.

But she has unlimited venoms which means literally all the girl has to do is be able to land a single punch to win against most any opponent and it doesn't have major risks to missing most of the time.

Instead she has to be literally teleported.

It's like Marinette knows Zoe is kind of trash in a fight because even for Queen of handholding herself, this is insanely extreme. She doesn't believe she can land a punch.

Dear Lord if they can't even show Zoe can scrap in this fight then what are they even doing.

[aquaaquila]

Oh, please, Mayura dominated the entire fight; just because Chloe was giving it all doesn't mean she ever stood a chance. Sure, Maura did overestimate Chloe enough to let her touch the brooch, but the moment it happened, Mayura immediately flipped the script and bounced. In the end, the plan was to get Queen Bee on their side, and the bee miraculous at best would be a bonus and potentially another leverage point for Chloe to be convinced, as seen in Heart Hunter, but since Chloe wasn't in the mindset to listen, there was no point.

It's not fair to say Chloe kept control of her emotions when one of the heroes got shot by an arrow that magically makes you lose your cool. And she certainly wasn't this confident when Style Queen and Malediktator appeared, so do we mind not glazing Chloe at the expense of Rena and Carapace when all 3 of them did poorly?

And "hand not held" isn't particularly good when she gave away her and LB's position to Malediktator. Then again, it's not like LB didn't have to save her from running into a wall. The whole point of Chloe's redemption was all about LB giving a chance by giving Chloe the bee miraculous, no bee miraculous meant Chloe didn't put much work otherwise, so figuratively, LB really has to hold Chloe's hand for her to improve as a person.

And let's be real, if Queen Bee DID stay, she'd have the same team-ups as Vesperia with Pegasus, as it's not about if she can land a hit. It's not like Vesperia can't do anything Chloe couldn't do either (if anything, she's actually using her power appropriately, as Venom would certainly have a better shot at capturing Mayura and getting her miraculous rather than trying to engage in an actual fight). Queen Bee's venom landed only once, and it still took both LB and CN to clear the path for QB and Malediktator, already standing in place and unable to move. Vesperia, outside of her team-ups with Pegasus, also gets a chance to land her own hits, too, and end the battles, which I also would remind you is why Bee Miraculous is considered one of the more powerful miraculouses, but Chloe needs to flex, I guess¯\_(ツ)_/¯ like who cares about actually doing the job.

[sairenharia]

One, here is more indepth of my opinion of how Queen Bee fights versus Vesperia. Admittedly, doesn't factor in Season Six, but also Vesperia hasn't....really shown too much off in Season Six either. The most impressive stuff she's done against unpowered civilians. Malediktator is her one ACTUAL escape while acting as a HERO. (Queen Wasp was a crash out, not a hero outing.) Also, as a note, her FIRST outing as a hero. Some aid in a fight is expected in a superhero team fight. But Chloe was still doing more than LAUNCH THROUGH A HOLE. And again, Vesperia has MANY shots. Queen Bee had ONE and missing puts her on a dangerous timer. If she missed Mayura, even if SHE wasn't stung by a reversal, it meant she had FIVE MINUTES and Mayura just has to run out her clock then. Chloe's mission was to keep on Mayura and this was her THIRD outing, she can't be sure she CAN beat Mayura, so her priority is making sure she CAN keep on Mayura and using Venom is tactically a terrible move. Vesperia probably would have used Venom in that fight, Chloe knew better.

Two, here is the whole "Marinette holds Chloe's hand to improve" and how that entire premise is BS because actually, no one had to hold Chloe's hand THAT hard to be a better person, they just had to hold it for literally more than two seconds at a time and not encourage her to be like her abusive mother. Keep in mind! Zuko had Uncle Iroh to learn from! Chloe took literally a grand total of maybe Three Minutes and One Mister Cuddly Party and got pretty far while also trying to bond with her nightmare of a mother. Chloe needed GUIDANCE and she went FAR with her LITERAL CRUMBS of it and ACTIVE FORCES TRYING TO DISCOURAGE IT CONSTANTLY. Girl didn't need hand holding, she needed someone to actually be helping with even a tiny bit of consistency.

But in specific response to Mayura dominating the fight?

Oh, she absolutely wasn't, because if she was, the best move to do in that moment would have been to steal the Bee.

And we know this because that was the plan in Heart Hunter and Miracle Queen.

Think of this situation from the villains' perspective. They DO NOT know what Ladybug is thinking and will do in the future. They don't know if she hesitated to share the Bee with Chloe because of safety concerns, if she didn't think she was best, personality, they DON'T have this perspective, especially since the only two she does actively recruit is Carapace and Rena Rouge. Everyone else has been a one or two off, so it could be simply about utility.

They DON'T KNOW Ladybug is going to take back the Bee and say she can't give it over again after Miraculer.

Miraculer is about sowing doubt in Chloe. In what Ladybug thinks and herself.

Akumatize Chloe? Oh, look at you, how can Ladybug TRUST you if you let your negative emotions win like this. A point of pride for Chloe in Hero's Day, clearly a thing Chloe sees as a selling point to Ladybug.

Well, shoot, didn't get her, but we DID get Sabrina. So let's see what Ladybug does.

Doesn't give the Bee? Oh look, she won't even let you help your BEST FRIEND.

DOES give the Bee? Test her loyalty, make promises, see how much she is swayed.

But why does Mayura need to take the Bee?

Because they don't know Ladybug's follow up. For all they know, this could turn things around between Ladybug and Chloe. This could make Chloe trusted. This could get her the Bee Miraculous more. Or it could strain things. They CAN'T BE SURE what the outcome is if Ladybug gets the Bee back.

But if THEY have the Bee by the end?

How can Ladybug ever trust you again after you lost the Miraculous?

They know Ladybug doesn't jump to Chloe, so more than likely if she lost the Miraculous, she wouldn't call on her again. Especially since Ladybug clearly has favorites already.

Mayura letting Chloe walk away with the Bee is FAR more risky for the villains. It leaves a power WITH the heroes, and could ruin their manipulations of Chloe entirely. Stealing the Bee, at minimum, they have another Miraculous on their side, if not the ability to manipulate Chloe.

If Mayura was dominating that fight, she'd have the Bee.

And we see this in Heart Hunter because think about Miracle Queen for a moment.

The villains plan is very dumb. You find all the Miraculous, you find the Guardian, and you....DON'T bring him to a third location to pry him for information and make a plan with all the Miraculous? You bring him to a final battle so the heroes could potentially save him AND all the Miraculous, which they DID? Like they don't know about the memory wiping, for all they knew, they had a man they could work on for forever until they got him to talk.

Unless, of course, they didn't plan Miracle Queen to go that way.

Or rather, they had TWO PLANS for what could happen.

See, for these plans, the villains CANNOT rely on Ladybug's actions as a win condition. They can't be sure how Ladybug will treat Chloe, and more over, they can't be CERTAIN they will follow Ladybug to the Guardian.

But they can recreate scenarios that HAVE worked in the past to try and get a win EITHER way.

Step 1! Recreate Miraculer. With what Ladybug did before, because they don't know Ladybug said she can't be Queen Bee anymore, she will recruit Chloe to fight her parents. So if Ladybug is pressured, she will attempt to retrieve the Bee to recruit Chloe and this is where we get into the TWO PLANS.

Plan A! They manage to follow Ladybug to the Guardian. They let Ladybug go off after Heart Hunter and jump Fu. Guardian and Miraculous secure! Off to a third location for questioning!

But oh no, what if they lose Ladybug on the way because she detransformed.

Plan B! We are between Ladybug and Chloe either way and are in place to spot her again. We get in the middle, steal the Bee from her (and maybe the earrings, but the Bee is very probable since that isn't ATTACHED to her) and Miracle Queen proceeds much the same way minus all the other Miraculous users. Make a very strong Akuma mixed with a Miraculous with a more curated power.

After all, they've been working on making Chloe feel she has no control this entire season, likely that will be how her power manifests. They play on all the cracks and insecurities they've seen and made in this girl to supercharge the Akuma, especially when they're more prepared instead of taking of an opportunity in Queen Wasp.

In the end, Plan B rests on Chloe never getting the Bee again, never mind if the villains stole it. If Mayura had taken it in Miraculer, things would be EVEN BETTER because they could have mentally compromised Chloe MORE.

And Plan A could have happened in loads of other places. Doing it with Chloe just means they one, know where Ladybug is GOING to be moving, and two, have a decent back up plan.

So why the messy final plan in Miracle Queen?

Because they suddenly realized they could do Plan A AND Plan B.

Because Ladybug didn't take the Bee and instead of defaulting to Plan A LIKE THEY SHOULD HAVE, they go 'well, we had two good plans, why not combine them' for extra ego points for Gabriel.

Except putting the two together actually compromises Plan A HEAVILY and Plan A was the far more important plan.

No, Mayura wasn't dominating that fight, because they had EVER advantage if they could steal the Bee from Chloe and had FAR too much to lose if they didn't.

Mayura ran because Chloe was way more capable than she was counting on, and had gotten far too close for her to be sure she could turn it around.

As for Queen Bee probably being teamed up with Pegasus later? Maybe, but also Queen Bee is more likely to go 'we CAN do more than just have portals solve all our problems, what happens if he gets a cold?' Chloe likes fighting, she'd actually push for training. Girl was in ballet for eight years, she isn't afraid of a physical work out.

Honestly, Max is being overworked overall. Yeah, portals make things easy, THAT'S WHY YOU DON'T USE PORTALS ALL THE TIME, find a reason to justify why Max can't be there, it makes for boring fights.

But it also means if Max isn't around, Vesperia is shit out of luck. She straight up does NOT have the skills for a real fight.

[sairenharia]

Watched the Queen of the Dreadzone trailer and being reminded again of how much Zoe is Tell and Never, Ever, EVER Show.

We are almost definitely going to hear about how great and so much better Vesperia is as a hero versus Queen Bee.

Queen Bee who almost beat Mayura and FORCED her retreat because Mayura realized any chance of convincing her would risk losing the peacock because Chloe GOT CLOSE. Queen Bee who kept cool emotions on Heroes Day and fought off two extremely dangerous Akumas who psychologically weaken her specifically on her own. Who worked well as partners with Ladybug, following her lead, but hand not held.

Versus Vesperia.

In the trailer, Pegasus is called too.

After all, Vesperia's go to tactic is....open a portal and directly jump at the target where it doesn't have a chance to dodge the one hit KO.

They have used this move SO MUCH.

It's effective, I won't say no.

But they keep doing this with Vesperia who is supposed to be Better.

But she has unlimited venoms which means literally all the girl has to do is be able to land a single punch to win against most any opponent and it doesn't have major risks to missing most of the time.

Instead she has to be literally teleported.

It's like Marinette knows Zoe is kind of trash in a fight because even for Queen of handholding herself, this is insanely extreme. She doesn't believe she can land a punch.

Dear Lord if they can't even show Zoe can scrap in this fight then what are they even doing.

[flightfoot]

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).

[generalluxun]

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.

[sairenharia]

There's also the thing I see lacking in a lot of discussion about Marinette's poor decision making...

Marinette is a character in a show.

And that does matter. Because! If Marinette was truly a fourteen year old with all this happening to her, please, god, get a responsible adult to help her and actually do what Su Han tried and don't put all the fighting on a literal child?!

But that is the problem of ONLY looking at shows at a Watson and not a Doyle.

From Watson perspective, sure, that all makes sense, because Marinette is fourteen and that is a nightmare for a real one.

But she is not a real fourteen year old. She is a character in a show.

Suspension of disbelief is a powerful tool and its used for more than just 'yes, I will just go with the fact there are superpowers, that this makes sense in the world.' Its also to believe people are in situations they absolutely have no right to be in.

Like a young girl being in charge of over a dozen nuclear bombs of magic power and fighting a magical terrorist. We press the 'yes, we will just go with the fact this is happening, it makes sense in the world.' But that suspension of disbelief has COST.

We believe in magic powers being real, but you need to keep those powers FAIRLY consistent. If someone goes 'you can't turn a dog into a cat' for ages upon ages as a restriction on magic and then someone DOES turn a dog into a cat, you either have to explain why this rule is broken now of all times, or you break that suspension of disbelief because you took us just going along with something as making sense in the world and then threw it in our faces.

It breaks a fundamental rule.

Its like when you write a mystery, the characters, the narrator, everyone WITHIN the confines of the story can lie and say someone can't be the killer, but if the AUTHOR tells you from page one so-and-so isn't the killer and then that person IS the killer, that breaks a fundamental rule.

It is the author LYING to you. They are BREAKING your immersion into their work by saying a rule is one thing and then throwing it out the window without any proper justification.

If you break a rule as the author, you HAVE to justify it.

And that is the problem with acting like Marinette is a normal fourteen year old girl without any caveats.

The suspension of disbelief for Miraculous is so: Marinette has powers. Marinette is given these responsibilities. Marinette is the Best One To Have These Responsibilities. (Now, that isn't written well, but that is what the show wants us to suspend over.) Marinette has been approved to do all this by several authority figures. Marinette as Ladybug is a very well trusted and respected authority figure.

With these specifics in Miraculous, there are the suspensions that come with them that is expected and is found in almost every other media where a child is a protag that isn't deconstructing the trope.

Marinette is capable of handling this responsibility. Marinette should be expected to be able to find the best way to handle these situations. Marinette is not intrinsically incapable of dealing with all this due to her age.

Marinette is the protag and the main hero. She SHOULD be able to make the right decision. She SHOULD be able to handle the burden. She SHOULD be able to rise up.

Her failure to do so will be because of her flaws and shortcomings.

NOT because a child should not be expected to handle all this.

Her age can be used to inform and affect flaws and shortcomings, this is what we call a deconstruction of the child hero trope.

But that is only if THE SHOW ITSELF says it is a factor.

Which Miraculous has not, at least not to a significant degree. The closest is from Su Han thinking children shouldn't do this, but then he accepted it.

That is the show saying 'her failure is not due to age.'

And since her failure is not due to age, saying there should be ADULTS BEARING RESPONSIBILITY is going against what we are suspending our belief about. No, there SHOULDN'T be an adult taking responsibility. Our hero is a teenager and she can handle it, because that is what we are suspending our disbelief FOR.

A responsible adult can HELP and AID her. Think Max Tennyson in Ben Ten. He was responsible and helped Ben and Gwen with all their alien problems plenty, but Ben is the one with the watch on his wrist, so he had to be doing the lion's share. Max could aid and help and do all he could to help, but the one being the hero and responsible party is the kid.

When the hero is a teenage girl, an adult cannot take on the responsibility. An adult can HELP. They can AID. They can give GUIDANCE. (They can make it worse.) But they do NOT take RESPONSIBILITY. Because the show is the teenage girl is the hero.

(This is also different from the Chloe situation. In these shows, yes, a teenage villain can indeed be an irredeemable monster, but the fact was, the show itself did not show an irredeemable monster, the show itself showed us a girl being manipulated and abused and her actions coming from that abuse, and then went around and redeemed several people who did do a lot more horrific things.

You can say villains are irredeemable, you can even say children villains are irredeemable in this type of story, but then the children are judged by the SAME METRIC as the adult villains, and Chloe was judged far more harshly than anyone else.

And the message her story sent from a doylist perspective was utterly horrific and you can't send such a harmful message in a kid's cartoon without being judged.)

The fact is, Marinette is the hero and she is meant to be a strong and capable one. Any failure on her part is NOT meant to be based on her AGE. It is meant to be based on her character. And while her age can be a factor for it, it CANNOT be the deciding factor.

These stories are meant to say children can be capable and powerful.

To base it on their age is to undercut that very premise.

So no.

Marinette's issues aren't Nathalie's fault or anyone else.

Marinette has to be responsible for her own actions, because that is what believing her a capable hero costs.

[sairenharia]

The thought that Zoe and Chloe are Gamora and Nebula in that one scene.

The you wanted to win and I wanted a sister one.

Zoe is absolutely Gamora and Chloe is Nebula.

Complete with the seemingly villainous sister was the one who actually wanted a family.

[cock-holliday]

Per GLAAD, the FCC is accepting public comments until May 22nd on their decision whether or not to mark LGBT stories with a content label.

In a Public Notice released on April 22, 2026, the FCC is asking Americans to submit comments about whether the TV Oversight Management Board (TVOMB) should create new TV ratings to alert viewers to “transgender and gender non-binary programming” and “the discussion or promotion of gender identity themes.”

Here is the comment form (also listed on the GLAAD link that tumblr refuses to link correctly)

Critics Slam FCC Move to Update Ratings System to Include Trans Content Warnings

This is a solution in search of a problem," the lone Democratic member of the FCC said.

[cock-holliday]

The deadline is tomorrow, May 22nd

[cosmonaut-observer]

If you live in the UK you need to see this

Protect Internet Freedom from now until forever. It's important existentially! Americans stand with UK citizens in our struggle against government censorship

[russettrush]

Growing up in the online world: a national consultation

We are consulting on further measures to prepare children for the future in an age of rapid technological change. This includes potential ag

Got the link via @finalducc

If you live in the UK, please be sure to take part in this!

[fading-bisexual-queen-milkshake]

@daysleftofsecondterm

[starlightshadowsworld]

You guys have my whole heart for sharing this I had no idea will be filling this out and encourage all my fellow brits to do soo too. If you’re not from the UK please keep sharing this around we have till the 26th May to submit these in.

This whole thing was set up without our say we all need to make sure we’re heard.

[autisticadvocacy]

If you live in Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, South Dakota, or Texas, we need you to take action to protect disability rights! ASAN’s plain language action alert explains what’s happening and how you can help. https://autisticadvocacy.org/2026/02/take-action-to-protect-disability-rights/

If you don’t live in these states, share this post with someone who does!

[autisticadvocacy]

Update on Texas v Kennedy — advocates in Indiana convinced their state to drop out of this case!

Let’s keep going — if you live in Alaska, Montana, South Carolina, Kansas, Missouri, Texas, Louisiana, or Florida, take action to get your state to do the same! https://autisticadvocacy.org/2026/02/take-action-to-protect-disability-rights/