Does Su Han taking the Miracle Box away from Marinette in Furious Fu count as her losing the miraculous? How about when Furious Fu manages to get his hands on the box? Because if either of those count then she's canonically lost the box and the miraculous on three separate occasions! First in Miracle Queen, then Furious Fu, and finally Strike Back.
I bring this up because Adrien used to get his miraculous revoked in salt fics for the pettiest of reasons, some reasons being made up purely for the salt fics, but Marinette's canonical irresponsibility over incredibly powerful jewellery gets a pass both in salt fanon where Marinette is a "precious angel who can do no wrong how dare you suggest she could ever do anything other than good" and the canon show itself.
I barely remember anything about this episode, that's how useless it is to the narrative as a whole despite it being Fu getting akumatized and the introduction of Su Han who should've been a massive plot altering character but was reduced to nothing but a "fuck you" to the audience and a way to prop up how "special" Marinette is and how she's "the best guardian ever."
Let's see how the writers reduced what should've been a permanent plot alteration to the status quo into forgettable set dressing they discarded until they need a way to prop up their Golden Child Protagonist.
Miraculous Ladybug Season 4 Furious Fu - Miraculous Live Notes and Opinions.
Begins in Marinette's room with the kwamis begging her for something.
Exposition about how Fu lost his memories.
The kwamis want to see Fu to make sure he's ok.
Wayzz is hit the hardest since he considered Fu his friend and misses him.
The kwamis look so uncanny when they try to do the "baby doll eyes", I think it's because of how there aren't any eye shines so they look empty and soulless. Only Trixx has an eye shine but only in one of her eyes. The side with the eye shine looks decent when you cover the other half of her face and like an uncanny plastic toy when the other half is shown.
I think I'll have to make a separate post about how I feel about each individual kwamis design because I need time to figure out how I feel about them and how to sort my opinions into words.
Barkk watching some knight show on Marinette's computer, were the knight models reused from Dark Blade? Smart reuse of models that not everyone would pick up on to save on the budget.
Marinette takes all the kwamis save for Barkk who wanted to stay behind with her in her backpack. Wait a minute, as I'm typing this out I thought of something, is it meant to be a joke that Barkk is a guard dog?
"Funny scene" where Marinette freaks out about the kwamis making noise so she blames it on her phone when two bystanders are watching her panic over her backpack.
The first shot we ever see of Su Han is when he's hiding in a metal rubbish bin. Wow. Real subtle about how the writers want us to view this character.
Fu and Marianne exit the train to meet Marinette.
So they're saying Fu's amnesia was caused by a paddle boating accident? That's certainly a cover story.
So they were on a trip to London, wonder if they ever met Felix?
Wayzz pretending to be a doll so he can see Fu again. Honestly, it makes me question how deep the memory erasure goes, does it replace the memories with ordinary explanations and mundane circumstances or does it leave a massive unexplainable void where years of memories are just, gone.
Fu paints a picture of Marinette and Marianne on the bench, it's a nice picture, I like the watercolour style they went with. Now I'm questioning if the memories can slowly return over time, imagine if Fu started painting the kwamis into all of his pictures and when people ask what they are, he tells them he doesn't know what they are but that the paintings feel incomplete without them included.
Proper introduction to Su Han in Marinette's bedroom where he has Barkk and questions why she has the mother box.
Exposition about how Fu was incompetent and should've never had the box with Marinette trying to defend him plus her status as the new guardian.
Su Han not understanding modern technology.
Ladybug transformation sequence where her face is changed to be worried.
Su Han follows Ladybug to see Chat Noir.
Su Han asks for their miraculous to assign them to adults because he doesn't approve of them being children.
Ladybug throws a pity party about how maybe Fu was wrong and that's how they can't beat Shadow Moth and Chat Noir has to cheer her up by telling her how great of a guardian she is.
I don't get why neither of them ask Su Han to train them after beating them so easily or asking for his help with Shadow Moth. They could've spun it like "hey, we can't renounce our miraculous until Shadow Moth is defeated and we get the butterfly back, please help us out with Shadow Moth so we can safely give you the miraculous without putting Paris in danger if he decides to attack." It's questionable whether it would've worked but they never try to voice that line of reasoning.
Ladybug gets the bag with the box, Chat Noir gets the staff, and Ladybug destroys a chimney to bury Su Han in rubble. Remember when Adrien salters wouldn't shut up about how he destroyed a chimney in Senti Bubbler? They never bring up how Ladybug has done the same thing.
Shadow Moth scene.
Su Han tried to take Fu's staff/ walking cane.
Su Han makes the akuma avoid him. I can't remember if this technique comes up again or not because it feels too important and useful to be forgotten about (at least in a better written show).
Su Han takes Fu's cane which has a mother box compass inside. Did Fu ever accidentally open it and wonder why his cane has a seemingly broken compass inside?
Side note, but the original Order of the Guardians could've been portrayed as a toxic environment with unfair expectations that only hurt those it claimed to protect. Imagine if Su Han slowly realised he'd been indoctrinated into the Guardian's toxic environment and that's what led to Fu leaving and he has a mini crisis over how many people and kwamis he's hurt over the years for the sake of Guardian duties, with Su Han, (possibly Fu and Marianne), Ladybug, and Chat Noir forging a new age of the Guardians with far healthier ways of protecting the miraculous and the world so that another Feast accident never happens again. That could've given so much depth to Fu, Su Han, and the Order as a whole, but since it doesn't revolve around Marinette, the writers don't give a shit about it.
Another Shadow Moth scene where he strangely doesn't question how Su Han was able to repel the akuma.
We only get the akumatization 13 and a half minutes into the 22 minute episode.
As Chat Noir and Ladybug are questioning what to do with the box, it made me realise that the compass only tracks the box, not the miraculous themselves. They could've taken the miraculous out, hid the box in bumfuck nowhere, and if they worried about Su Han finding them with Ladybug since he knows who she is, let Chat Noir take them since Su Han doesn't know who he is yet.
Furious Fu summons a storm to shoot lightning, it's nice seeing weather other than a permanently sunny in mlb.
Everyone fighting over the box.
Chat Noir clearly knows what football is here when he kicked the box into the goal so why did the writers make him pick up the football with his hands in Penalteam, an episode set after this one?
Why doesn't Shadow Moth order Furious Fu to run away once he has the box? Because he's an idiot and Ladybug still has to prove that she's the best guardian ever. In other words, it's because of plot armour.
We've barely seen Su Han but it feels Out of Character that he'd hide and take a backseat and let the heroes fight Furious Fu alone until they call him out on it, from previous characterization, it should've been a 3v1.
Why doesn't Shadow Moth take the box and staff when the akuma has them? So the S4 finale doesn't happen early. Shadow Moth is so incompetent and dumbed down purely so Ladybug never loses to any of the akumas.
Fight scene.
Lucky Charm scene.
Marianne got to the stadium in less than a minute to help with the plan.
Purification and Miracle Cure scene.
Magical charm.
Su Han apologises for taking Fu's staff.
Now that Shadow Moth knows that Ladybug definitely has the box containing most of the miraculous, he could easily create an amok to follow Ladybug to her home, see where she hides it, then break in to steal it, if he times it right he could even steal the Ladybug earrings while she sleeps. It sounds a lot like Optigami but the only reason the villains don't rework their smarter plans is purely to drag out the already dragged out plot. Also if the villains end up being too smart, they might *gasp* actually defeat Maribug through their cunning wit and intelligence.
Scene with Fu, Marianne, and Marinette at the train station.
Su Han accepts Marinette as the guardian but it feels like the Hand Of God forced it because of the whole "Marinette must always be sympathetic and in the right" clause the writers have.
“One failure and I will take the miracle box back.” So the writers forgot this line during the S4 finale and the S5 premier.
Su Han says he's going to try getting used to the new world. We missed out on an arc where Su Han trains the heroes while they help him with adapting to modern life. Were the writers too scared to give Chat Noir a confidant that wasn't Ladybug or that Su Han would instantly realise Gabriel is Shadow Moth if he ever saw him or if they shared a scene together? Or does it go against Marinette being the best guardian to ever exist if she needs help from someone who's clearly more experienced than her? They introduced the concept of the old guardians returning then did fuck all with anything Guardian related.
Just over two hours to watch through that.
For what promising changes and lore the episode hinted at, it didn't really delve into anything substantial. What should've been an exploration into the old guardian ways, why Fu left, and how the old guardian methods clash with the modern day, ended up as another "look at how special Marinette is" episode. Su Han should've become a major pillar of support for both Ladybug and Chat Noir but he gets chucked to the curb because *gasp* he might disagree with Marinette's methods.
This episode should've been an exploration of the guardians and the miraculous as a whole but it ended up squandering the ideas by ignoring them to prop up Marinette since she's the only thing the writers care about to the detriment of the show.
thank u u're so kind!! honestly i had dropped miraculous after watching the half of s4 cuz that season was so horrible but i decided to start watching again after seeing lila's shenanigans in s6 cuz she's genuinely really enjoyable to me this season and yeah thats basically why im watching it now😭 but yeah the lie plot is very annoying, especially cuz all the fandom talks abt is 'oh poor marinette shes just 15 she doesnt deserve this :((' after every ep
side characters getting more attention is also good but as u said its kinda insane that theyre just doing that now after 6 seasons. also bc marinette has her own annoying unnecessary subplots in those eps and some of them are genuinely so stupid lmao. that being said its so much better than s4-5 to me i cant express how much i hate those seasons😭 but as i said i really look forward to your posts 🫶
Yeah, I dropped mlb around S3 ish due to irl things and not finding the episodes online like I could for S1 and some of S2. I heard about events through youtube and fanfics but my memory of those times are hazy so I can't say for certain though I do remember how the S5 bible leaked which sent a lot of fans into an outrage due to the ending but I never saw the leaks myself.
I started the Live Notes and Opinions series to get back into the show, to remember how the characters are written, and for salt fic ideas since I found most of the Lila/class salt fics blurred together in how badly everyone except Marinette and her supporters are portrayed and treated. I couldn't find many Marinette salt fics or prompts so I decided to throw my hat into the ring but wanted to find new material and interpretations for other Marinette salters to enjoy while avoiding accidentally copying from other people or making anyone so out of character it becomes uncomfortable to read.
I like Lila Rossi and I really like her designs. The only minor nitpick I have with her first design is that the side parts framing her face are slightly too short, I'd've preferred if they went past her shoulders but that's a personal preference. Not too fond of how the writers retconned her backstory from being a lonely child with a workaholic ambassador mother who lies for attention to a mastermind who somehow convinced three separate women that she's their daughter (now 4 with Tomoe) with more identities than stars in the sky.
I believe the reason the "Marinette is only 14/15, stop being so mean to her🥺" excuse riles so many people (including me) up is because the Maripologists never extended that grace to any other character in their salt fics where they decimate everyone's lives beyond repair while Marinette lives the good life simply due to how they didn't socially ostracize Lila when Marinette demanded they do simply because she shrieked that she was a liar while refusing to back up any of her claims. A lot of the fandom forget that Marinette was the instigator in Chameleon when writing their salt fics about how Marinette was wronged while conveniently leaving out how she won in the end when Adrien sat with her at the back of the class, which is what she wanted at the beginning of the episode.
As you said, I have made separate posts about how it shouldn't have taken eleven years/ until S6 to finally get some growth for the supporting cast and another comparing how Thomas the Tank Engine balanced the supporting cast which spiraled into a full on essay which took 5 or 6 hours to type out because I kept adding and expanding upon details. Originally, I was only going to mention the episode titles but I included why I chose to mention those episodes in particular for people who aren't in the Thomas fandom and my thoughts on whether the series can be enjoyed if you do or don't like the titular protagonist and it grew far longer than I anticipated, and that's after I didn't mention "Luke's New Friend" which was in the draft but I cut due to the shear length the rant had gained already. For those curious, it's about Luke (a CGI era character) finding a deer in the quarry and keeping them around because it reminds him of when he first came to Sodor but learns that a loud quarry is no place for a deer so takes it up to Ulfstead Castle where it's quiet and the deer reunites with its mother. It's a sweet episode that focuses solely on the narrow gauge engines.
I probably should've included examples of mlb episodes that are hindered by Marinette plots taking up time that should've gone to other places but that's only in hindsight. Crocoduel is the first one I think of but that's due to how recently I've seen it.
will you do s6?? sorry if youve answered this before. also with so many marinette glazers lately your posts are so refreshing to see
I'm completely open to reviewing S6 episodes but there's only 13 episodes currently available on Disney+ so I'd have to wait for the later releases such as Queen Of The Dreadzone to arrive before I can watch them in full but I have seen posts about S6 episodes around Tumblr and I can tell that while the animation improved tremendously, the writing refused to follow. I don't think I've brought up my stance on reviewing S6 before this, no need to apologise for asking to make sure.
From what I've seen, S6 has dedicated itself to Marinette wangsting over the multiple lies she herself willingly created to paint a terrorist and abusive father as a hero and the writers bending over backwards to show how much she's "suffering" with multiple models of her with runny mascara and dedicating an entire episode to killing her grandad that was only present in 4 episodes before hand and who she only knew for a few months.
Thank you for your ask, it means a lot to me that people enjoy what I post/ genuine.
For liveblog suggestions what about “Frightengale”? That definitely feels like a “Marinette gets rewarded for just existing despite doing the wrong thing” episode (seriously, getting hired to replace someone who showed actual dance skills and rightly won the contest over “vibes” was such a nonsensical idea!).
Cheers for the recommendation /genuinely. I shall add it to my list but be mindful that it will take some time to watch all the episodes I'm thankful people have asked me to review.
I remember this episode as being a semi musical with characters having to sing, rhyme and dance after they were hit with the akuma power or else they'd be turned to statues, and it's an episode where another famous celebrity loves Marinette who the show is desperate to say is "just a normal girl with a normal life" despite how many direct ties to famous elite she gains throughout the series.
Isn't the only reason Marinette took Clara's offer to star as Ladybug in the music video after initially turning it down was because she learned that Chloe would've gotten the role instead? I may be misremembering this part but doesn't she say something similar to "I doubt Ladybug would want a spoiled girl like her portraying her" or some other type of insult to Chloe when someone asks why she suddenly wants the role she initially turned down.
Fuck, isn't the only reason Clara offered Marinette the role was because she caught her when she tripped and had "vibes" while Chloe had actual talent as a dancer and even came in her own Ladybug costume? Marinette didn't want to star in the video because the costumes might reveal her true identity but she disregards it simply because she doesn't want Chloe to play Ladybug in a music video and went out of her way to kick Chloe out of the role she already proved herself capable of fulfilling. It reinforces how Marinette has never lost to Chloe in the show in a way that matters.
Remember what caused Clara to get akumatized? Andre threatened to (or did) revoke permissions to use the building when Chloe got kicked out of the role, which is another display of his corrupt utilisation of his position as mayor the show conveniently forgets when they want to pull the "Andre is a sympathetic man" bullshit.
Yeah, I'll add Frightengale to the recommendations and I'll share the updated list here. Furious Fu and Oblivio have been watched and are the next in line to be posted. Just know that I'll be prioritising the episodes in blue because I received those when I was compiling my first list and have been there the longest, after those are done, I'll be doing the episodes in red and future recommendations in the order I receive them.
Ephemeral, Catalyst and Mayura, Risk and Strike back, Mr Pigeon 72, Kuro Neko, Reflekdoll, The Kwamis Choice 2 parter, Elation, The Mime, Copycat, Derision, Simple man, Queen Banana, Frightengale.
Question. What would be the possible consequences, legal consequences, of the whole Andre swapping Chloe for Zoe? Because unless he's magically her legal guardian I don't think he could get away with it. Like, if Mr Lee wished so, as Zoe's bio parent, he could present charges against Andre and he could lose everything. Or if Andre decides to take it further he could get involved in a full custody battle, in which the Chloe/Zoe swap would come to bite his ass since it could prove Andre is not a fit guardian for Zoe. IDK, I really want to read an Andre/Audrey salt fic of them suffering the consequences of their bad parenting, and possibly losing both Chloe and Zoe to the Child Protection Services
I'm not sure about the specifics on how Andre got custody over Zoe, whether by being the step parent through his marriage to Audrey, or if Mr Lee is unavailable or unfit to look after Zoe, or if it could be argued that he outright kidnapped her in some way such as through obtaining custody rights through shady means. Due to MLB's shitty continuity and wonky pacing, I can't tell how many months it's been since Zoe arrived in Paris or how long she's been with Andre in the theatre but it's definitely been months since she left New York.
Quick question, has Mr Lee ever been mentioned directly in canon, hell, has his name ever been said? I'm racking my brain but I can't think of the show ever acknowledging his existence. He could have died and that's why Zoe's in Paris for all we know since she never talks about him or is shown to still be in touch with him. If he's alive and at least attempting to be there for his kid, the months-long radio silence since she moved to Paris would send him into a full blown panic and the discovery that another man he has zero connections to has somehow gained full custody of her without his knowledge or consent would send him steaming to the most trusted lawyers he knows to fight tooth and nail to get his daughter back.
If Mr Lee decided to go through with a custody battle then a lot of the shit Andre pulled as mayor and how much he fucked up Chloe's development would be dragged into the limelight for all the world to see.
If it's before the S5 episode where he leaves office he'd try to throw his power around and inadvertently prove how corrupt he truly is, thus losing the custody battle and all political power in one fell swoop while most likely getting thrown in prison for his actions as a corrupt mayor. If it's after S5, he wouldn't have the political sway to cover his past misdeeds anymore so the full extent of the means he consistently failed Chloe would be exposed and examined in great detail, leading to the courts granting Mr Lee full custody of Zoe to avoid the same thing happening to her.
In both versions I can imagine Mr Lee taking Zoe back with him to New York to keep her as far away from Andre (and most likely Audrey but she was never really bothered about Zoe to begin with) as possible. If Audrey's included in losing custody over Chloe along with Zoe, I could imagine Mr Lee asking if he could take Chloe as well to give her a fresh start in a place without the negative stigma she has in Paris and to be the parental figure which both Andre and Audrey refused to be for years.
Fuck, I can imagine a scene where Mr Lee learns the true extent of Chloe's abuse and mistreatment while alongside his lawyers building the case and he can't stand the thought of leaving her behind in a city that despises and blames her for Andre and Audrey's years of shitty parenting while ignoring their involvement in her behaviour. It's then that he decides he's not leaving Paris until both of his girls are safely under his custody where neither Andre or Audrey can ever harm them again.
Cheers for the inbox ask @pokespe-rainbow , hope you enjoy this.
I think the reason I couldn't bring myself to watch the show for so long was because I'd been burnt out from MLB in general but I'm back now with a clearer head to better process the shit shows I'll be watching. Anyway, this is Juleka's introduction as Purple Tigress and the episode where Marinette tries to convince her to uninvite Luka from his own birthday party since she doesn't want to see him because "what if he gets akumatized because he's not over me after we broke up 🥺" while ignoring how getting kicked out of your own birthday party because your ex didn't want you there is far more likely to decimate anyone's mood and more likely to get akumatized.
I'm getting ahead of myself since I know that the birthday related events are the most remembered parts of this episode, so let's go over this shit show together.
Miraculous Ladybug Season 4 Crocoduel - Miraculous Live Notes and Opinions.
Begins with Kitty Section performing on the boat in front of Zoe, Mylene, Alya, Alix, and Nino recording on his phone.
Luka notices Marinette hasn't shown up recently because he's still in love with her.
Rose lies about Marinette being busy with an aqua pony but Luka knows she's lying and leaves.
The others discuss how to make Marinette and Luka friends again. Marinette comes off as a Black Hole character since the supporting cast isn't allowed to be on screen without her if they don't center their conversations around her.
The original birthday plans are cancelled so the party can be held on the boat so Marinette and Luka can talk to eachother; they plan to usurp Juleka's birthday for Marinette's gain, I can't get angry at the characters for this because The Hand of God is so blatantly visibly bending the characters out of shape to fit the plot when it should be the characters shaping the plot instead.
Juleka's practically strong armed into agreeing to the new plans.
Marinette's room where Alya told her about the house boat party.
Did she not realise that Luka would've been involved in the original plans as well since, y'know, it's his birthday party too. Did she think he'd be at home doing nothing while everyone else went to the movies?
If Marinette really doesn't want to make the birthday party awkward when she talks to Luka she could A, talk to him before the party to get the jitters out, B, talk at the beginning of the party to get it over with early and if it gets too much for her she can leave early, or C, don't go at all if you can't handle it! I fucking hate how the writers made Juleka's birthday revolve around Marinette and her "oh, woe is me" attitude since it's completely unnecessary to the plot as a whole and cuts into time that should've gone to Juleka and the akumas.
Marinette hiding behind a rubbish bin as she tries to guilt trip Juleka into kicking Luka out of his own birthday party because "you wouldn't want him to be sad when he sees me, his ex-girlfriend, at the party that I could easily skip but am actively choosing to attend, would you 🥺?" She's so fucking vile for this, why did the writers think this was ok?
Her guilt tripping goes on for 36 seconds (I double checked) and she talks so quickly piling everything onto Juleka in a way that pressures Juleka into agreeing to her outlandish and insensitive demand.
Juleka and Luka scene where Jagged comes in and only pays attention to Luka. I made a post around a year ago about how much I hate this blatant retcon which turns Jagged into yet another shitty parent and if he had to be related to them I'd've preferred if he was their uncle.
Anarka comes in.
I feel for Juleka, she's either ignored or walked over by everyone. Everyone's ganging up on her, pulling her in different directions and she's guilted into agreeing to everything.
Everyone arrives with gifts as Alya's praising Marinette for being "brave enough to face Luka" and she's acting humbly brave because she thinks Luka got kicked out of his own party.
If Marinette was that freaked out about seeing Luka, why didn't she leave the boat instead of going below the deck since the plank to leave was three steps away from her, she had to pass the exit in order to go below the boat's main deck! She could've said her parents needed her if she needed an excuse and left without anyone stopping her. The writers made her absolutely detestable this episode.
Everyone gets bummed out due to Marinette's antics, she once again makes an unrelated event revolve around her problems and emotions.
Shadow Moth scene.
Everyone circles Luka and tries to cheer him up, they literally surround the chair he's on to tell him "Marinette doesn't hate him" but is "just awkward". This apparently works.
Do we need the cutaways to Shadow Moth every time an emotion changes? It's getting fucking annoying now.
Marinette asks Juleka "why is he here" angrily and only stops when she sees Juleka's visibly and undeniably upset.
Fuck off Shadow Moth! Why are the writers allergic to letting a scene sit so the audience has time to feel something about a scene?
If Marinette wasn't the Creator's Pet Black Hole Sue, Juleka would've stayed angry and upset with her about how she wanted to kick Luka out of his birthday party simply because she "couldn't handle seeing him right now" instead of being mature and not coming to the party at all if she realised she couldn't handle seeing her ex. Think about it, if any other character asked Juleka to uninvite Luka, they'd be portrayed as in the wrong by the narrative and Juleka would've been rightfully angry at them, but since it's the writers favourite Marinette, she gets away with everything scott free.
Another fucking Shadow Moth cutaway! Stop!
Jagged arrives and everyone is shocked that he's the twin's dad. Didn't the characters learn this in Truth? Did the writers themselves forget and wanted a "shock about famous person" joke that didn't work in the slightest?
We get it! Shadow Moth sent an akuma! Can the screen time be given to something that matters now?!
Why the fuck is Marinette surprised? She was there in Truth! The writers don't watch their own show or read their own scripts.
Jagged gives Luka a guitar case and says "not a word of this to your sister."
Enough! With! The Shadow Moth Cutaways!
Marinette buts into family drama without asking again. She just assumes she knows what's best for everyone.
The guitar is for Juleka and was meant to be a surprise for her but Marinette ruined it.
This is the sixth fucking cutaway to Shadow Moth and it's pissing me right the fuck off!
Anarka and Jagged fight over who left who.
Seven. Seven fucking cutaways.
The akuma enters the vinyl record before it breaks, by the show's own logic the akuma should've left the vinyl but the writers don't give a shit about consistency if it gets in the way of their plot instead of finding creative work arounds.
The "I am Shadow Moth" speech is the eighth cutaway and eight too fucking many!
No one thought to try and get the vinyl pieces before they transformed? No one?
Everyone manages to get off the boat in time before it transforms. Wonder how the plot could've been altered if someone couldn't get off the boat in time, or if all of them couldn't.
Imagine if instead of the 12 minutes of set up we began with the akumas fighting and then learned later on it was caused by Jagged and Anarka fighting at the twin's birthday party. Look, I think two akumas fighting each other is an interesting idea and I wish we got more time with that idea instead of the Marinette hijinx we're suck with.
"You know who needs a little help to slip away." Everyone is distracted by the akuma, just run away, or say you're going for help and run away. None of the distraction bluff is needed because everyone is already distracted by the obvious akumas fighting each other!
Alya fibs that she sprained her ankle and everyone goes to check on her while Marinette leaves. Shouldn't this be a blow to her reputation since if people realise she's missing right after her Alya is injured they'll think she ditched her supposed best friend in the middle of an active akuma attack in order to save herself which is really shitty friend behaviour. Yeah she's Ladybug but the others don't know that.
She transforms as Ivan and Nino help Alya up the stairs where Alix, Rose, and Zoe are waiting for them. Luka and Juleka haven't moved.
I'm losing it with these cutaways- can they fuck off already!
It takes nearly 13 minutes for Adrien to appear on screen but the writers can't let a minute pass without Marinette's presence to remind us who should be the favourite.
Ladybug gets blasted through a wall.
Chat Noir shows up and the two of them leave the roof.
The akumas fly into the sky above the clouds. Forgot to mention that the animators remembered that "sunny" isn't the only type of weather to exist and let the sky be cloudy after the akumatization. Good on you, animators.
The tenth fucking cutaway! Why did we need ten fucking cuts to Shadow Moth? We didn't need any of them!
Heroes saving people from cannonballs.
Lucky charm scene.
Ladybug making it obvious that she picked Juleka to be the hero of the day to Luka and Chat Noir when she took her. She also slipped up and said "we'll talk later" to Luka. If Juleka and Luka were allowed to put their heads together and cross examine the facts they'd figure out Ladybug is Marinette.
Ladybug gives Juleka the Tiger Miraculous. I still hold the opinion that the Tiger's power should've been invisibility due to a tiger's actual ability to camouflage in order to hunt prey instead of a knock off cataclysm in practice. Imagine if Purple Tigress stole the akumatized objects without either akuma realising so Ladybug could purify them without interruption, plus the power would've been foreshadowed by people not noticing Juleka until direct attention was pointed towards her. It was a missed opportunity all around.
Roarr and Juleka only get 25 seconds of screen time together.
Purple Tigress transformation sequence. I love her design, I love the gold around the black tinted purple stripes, the hair is gorgeous, the mask and makeup are stunning, her eyes are amazing. The suit is everything and it actually makes an effort to hide her identity. It's still Juleka but it would take some time to realise that while being understandable why characters in-universe wouldn't instantly make the connection. Shame we'll only get this show stopping design for what, 3 minutes?
More Chat Noir and Purple Tigress interactions please, please let them joke about being cat partners, please.
Chat Noir launches Purple Tigress and Ladybug into the sky.
Real nice they landed on the akumas but the terror they could've gone through if they missed.
Purple Tigress nearly calls Guitar Villain "dad". If Shadow Moth bothered to pay attention he'd've caught the slip and figured out that Jagged's daughter is Purple Tigress and close to Ladybug, narrowing down who could have one of the miraculous he wants.
By the show's own logic, breaking the vinyl pieces should've released the akuma, but the writers don't care about consistency when they want their plot.
Fight scene with Purple Tigress' power which wouldn't have been needed if the writers followed the logic they've had for 4 seasons straight at this point.
The cataclysm wasn't needed either but yay, Chat Noir gets to do something, he's totally not an after thought for the writers.
Purification and Miracle Cure scene.
The magical charms that do fuck all, yay.
This better be the last fucking cutaway because this is the eleventh time in a single fucking episode!
Yeah, we only got 3 minutes with Purple Tigress, that sucks. The writers obviously want us to care about the temp heroes but then refuse to give them enough screen time for the audience to know and care about them. I want to care about them, I do care about them, but it's so blatantly obvious that the writers don't give a shit about them in the slightest.
It's suddenly sunset and Anarka and Jagged are arguing about whose fault their akumatization belongs to.
They were arguing in front of the whole party? Oh, that must've been awkward.
Juleka yells at them to stop fighting.
Cuts to night at the party and Jagged is playing guitar with Juleka and it's a genuinely sweet moment. I understand why others would hate it though due to the "Jagged's and absentee dad" retcon which I also despise. An alternative take for Jagged could've been that he's their uncle trying to reconnect after managing to end a suffocating contract that kept him away from his sister Anarka and his niece and nephew. Yeah it's the uncle idea again but did the show really need another shitty dad?
Marinette apologises for avoiding Luka but conveniently withholds the detail that she tried to guilt trip Juleka into kicking him out of his own birthday party because she didn't want to deal with anything uncomfortable for a second, and how convenient that he never learns this information so he'll never think that the Creator's Pet Marinette is anything but a perfect angel who deserves the world simply because she exists.
And Luka and Marinette are friends again with zero effort on her end, yay, who could've seen this coming? Who could've possibly seen that Marinette's self made issues are solved without any effort on her end in a single episode?
Three hours and ten minutes. That's how long it took to sit through this.
Final thoughts, Juleka is the saving grace of this episode, I love her both as a civilian and as Purple Tigress and I wish she got more screen time. The Jagged and Anarka plot was ok but tainted by the retcon. I fucking despised the Shadow Moth cutaways because of how much they disrupt the pacing and ruin whatever mood the episode was trying to go for. Not fond of how out of character a majority of the characters are purely for the sake of the plot.
I despise how vile Marinette is and how she treated Juleka while getting away with her insensitive and shitty actions. So much of the run time is dedicated to "oh, woe is me, feel bad for me" Marinette bullshit it cuts into time that should've gone elsewhere like the akuma fight and Purple Tigress who needed the development more. The writer's favouritism is so blatant they can't go a single minute without the plot warping around Marinette but it takes 13 minutes for Adrien to appear and Chat Noir only gets 3 minutes of screen time.
The only reason this episode is somewhat tolerable is due to Purple Tigress and Juleka, but even then you'd better be ok with watching everyone trample all over her for two thirds of the episode.
the show is like "name someone who's suffered more than her" and put up a pic of zoe and anyone with common sense would just reply with chloe's picture
Bet. Think about it, both were/are bullies but which one of them has to keep dealing with her victims, especially now that they've grown a spine and fight back on her? Which one of them gives a nothingburger of an apology for her past as a bully to a bunch of people she never really bullied while the other can be doing nothing malicious for a change and still gets mocked or is faced with judgement (both justified and not, seriously)? While both have used the bee miraculous to cause harm, which one of them can at least say they were manipulated by an adult (mostly Gabriel) during vulnerable times involving their parents? This is why Zoe gives me the ick. Anything I can say about her highlights something about Chloe that deserved to be treated with nuance but isn't. The annoying part is the show acts like Zoe is the better person cause she came out "good" despite coming from the same place when their situations are different. If Chloe ain't justified to almost crash a train believing she could save everyone or for siding with Hawkmoth after he meticulously planned for her to be in a vulnerable position knowing who she is, then Zoe sure as fuck ain't justified for her "Fury" era which I highly doubt will be addressed in the new episode.
The Fury point made me think of a nightmare scenario where Chloe tries to point out Zoe's vile actions as Fury but everyone instantly forgives and defends her because "Zoe had good intentions" and further villainize Chloe because the show believes intentions outweigh any action imaginable and can't help itself from going "see, isn't Zoe so much better than Chloe because look at how nice she is. Ignore how we character assassinated your favourite and stripped away all her development we spent multiple episodes on, look at how nice this new character is." It doesn't help that the writers keep digging up Chloe's grave to further beat her mangled corpse while everyone is begging them to let her rest.
After watching Guilt Trip for my Live Notes and Opinions, it clicked in my head the true extent of how little the supporting cast interact with each other without Marinette or Hawkmoth/Shadow Moth hogging screen time because Rose and Daizzi only got 15 seconds together and barely had three lines of dialogue between them.
Have they ever been allowed to hold a meaningful conversation that wasn't the generic "wow, a magic being tied to the miraculous Ladybug trusted me with" that every temporary hero got? How about Juleka and Roarr? Kim and Xuppu? Mylene and Mullo? Ivan and Stompp? Was Alya allowed to hold conversations with the other kwamis when she was helping Marinette in S4, or were the kwamis treated as little more than power granting set dressing by the writers? Fuck, are the classmates or other school peers themselves allowed to have meaningful character building scenes together without being swallowed up by Marinette shenanigans or akuma plots? Isn't the appeal of a large cast watching the various characters engage with each other, especially with pairings the audience wouldn't think of at first to see how different personalities mesh or conflict with each other? Those types of plots can practically write themselves if the writers can put at least two characters with different personalities or worldviews or work ethics in a situation together and watch the sparks fly.
With how all interactions must be filtered through Marinette, it takes away opportunities for the supporting cast to authentically grow, removes interesting plot lines that could've been told because the writers can't stand the idea of Marinette not being the main character for a single episode, thus leading to the show having worse quality over all because the supporting cast aren't allowed to be well rounded characters and due to the writers limiting who each character "can" or "can't" interact with because they're reduced to their tropes or bog standard plot lines which the writer vehemently refused to part from for well over a decade. Most of the interactions we get are only through the lens of Marinette and her interference so what little we get doesn't feel authentic to the characters even when they haven't been portrayed as Out of Character purely for the plot to occur. What little growth they're given often comes off as hollow because they're often solely used for Marinette plots or to be the akuma victim of the day that's forgotten about in the next episode.
Taking another series I grew up with and am still fond of to shine a light on how poor I find MLB's writing to be in comparison, imagine if the Thomas the Tank Engine series latched itself to Thomas the way MLB latched itself to Marinette and how many stories wouldn't have been able to be written because Thomas wasn't the main character of every single story. I'll tell you now that there's a lot of episodes I can use for examples, I even double checked the Thomas TV Tropes pages to make sure I got the episode names and general plot points correct and to see if other characters still got spotlight episodes as the series continued after I stopped watching the show proper, which they do.
In the Model Series, we would have missed out on episodes such as:
"Edward's Exploit" where it's storming and he struggles to bring a coach full of train enthusiasts home when his side rod comes off making the journey far harder than before but he carries on and gets his passengers home safely. I believe this is considered one of Edward's best episodes by fans because of how it highlights his perseverance in the face of extreme adversity. It's included in The Railway Series book and the illustration accompanying the story showing that Edward's side had been ripped open due to the broken side rod which the models couldn't adapt when translating the story to the show but still included that his side rod had come off, making the journey that much harder for him to complete.
"Saved From Scrap" introduces Trevor the Traction Engine waiting to be scrapped because his old master considered him "old fashioned" so Edward helps by convincing the church vicar into looking at Trevor who then decides to buy Trevor who's delighted at being useful again, and now lives at the vicarage orchard. Edward and Trevor pair well together as they're both considered old by those around them but are still useful. That and the "I like children" jokes people used often in YTP's back in the day.
The entire Duck and Diesel trilogy that introduces the entire Steam vs Diesel conflict to the series as dieselization began in the 1960's and was adapted to the show later on. "Pop Goes The Diesel" introduces Diesel who brags about being revolutionary and making a fool of himself by trying to pull old trucks with Duck simply watching because Diesel never asked him about the trucks. In "Dirty Work" Diesel spreads lies about the big engines and Duck gets the blame for the insults the trucks call them, with Duck getting sent to Wellsworth by Sir Topham Hatt until he can get to the bottom of the issue. "A Close Shave" includes Duck's crash into a barber shop (which I think was based on a real crash but I'm struggling to find the exact details) when trying to stop a runaway train and the reveal that Topham figured out Diesel lied and sent him away, with the episode ending with Duck returning to the sheds. This is a well liked trilogy with one of the most well known crashes in the series.
The duology of "Brake van" and "The Deputation" introduced Donald and Douglas and their plight to escape scrap by removing their numbers in hopes of buying enough time to prove to the Fat Controller that they're both really useful to avoid one of them being sent away since he only ordered a single engine, which was Donald but he refused to leave Douglas behind to be scrapped. It includes the signal box crash which was based on a real event with a (somewhat niche to my understanding) headcanon being that Donald purposefully crashed in order to buy Douglas more time on the railway since he was being sabotaged by the spiteful brake van. Plus I think they were the first set of twin engines introduced in the Railway Series but I may be mistaken since I can't remember exactly when Bill and Ben were introduced.
"Escape" is where Douglas meets Oliver and Toad in a scrapyard on the mainland when he takes a train over and decides to help them to Sodor since Oliver is out of coal and water after being on the run for months. It's a solid Douglas episode and one that shapes his dynamic with Oliver since they're both connected to escaping from scrap.
Hell, we'd have lost out on every single narrow gauge engine episode if the show refused to focus on anyone other than Thomas in the way Miraculous Ladybug refuses to focus on anyone other than Marinette. Remember Smudger, the engine who got turned into a generator for constantly being too reckless on the tracks and pops up in clickbait articles about how "dark" the Thomas series is? Smudger only existed in a single episode but he would've never existed at all if Thomas shared MLB's style of writing.
In the CGI series (for this I'm choosing to focus on the Renaissance Era since that's considered by the fans to be the best CGI Era) we'd have missed out on episodes such as:
"Henry's Hero" which focuses on Henry and Hiro after they accidentally take on bad coal when they need to make a massive delivery. It's well regarded because neither character is considered to be in the completely in the wrong or right for the decisions they make when the writers could've easily made Henry in the wrong for giving up to avoid hurting himself due to the bad coal, or they could've made Hiro be in the wrong for pushing himself past his limits while he took on bad coal, but the writers didn't take the "easy" option any other show would've gone for. Another plus is that the character's choices aren't different for the sake of the plot but stem directly from their personalities and pasts. Hiro is determined so wants to push through to finish the job while Henry has a history of being a bad steamer before his famous flying kipper crash and rebuild at Crewe so he wants to wait for fresh coal instead. (Also it's Duck's first appearance since S12 which from what I understand was highly celebrated since Duck was and still is a fan favourite (understandable since I like him as well))
"Bill or Ben?" Is a fun episode where Bill and Ben prank Conner (a character introduced in the CGI era) by challenging him to a race while the other is already at the end and joke that he's slow but the trick is revealed when Connor nearly crashes into Henry. Topham sends Bill to be painted a different colour to stop the twins pulling tricks but they subvert the punishment when Ben pretends to be Bill and also gets repainted blue and ends with Bill pulling the same prank on Connor who falls for it again since he believes only Bill had been repainted. I remember watching this episode when it popped up on YouTube a few years ago and enjoying it despite not watching any official Thomas episodes for at least 8 or so years at that point. Thomas is in the episode but he's only near the beginning for at most 30 seconds to try and tell the twins that Connor's a pleasant engine but the twins choose to ignore his words because they believe Connor is conceited because of his speed.
"Love Me Tender" centers on Donald and Douglas having an argument while plowing snow and making up in the end when Donald realises he's accidentally left Douglas behind while taking his tender then going on a mad search trying to find him in the snow. This is considered a great episode though there are some people who aren't fond of how Donald and Douglas are portrayed as constantly bickering with each other in later seasons which started with "Twin Trouble" in S6 and made worse with "Emily In The Middle" with some saying their bickering is closer to Bill and Ben than themselves but I may be misremembering the last part. Again, Thomas is present but only as a side character.
"The Railcar and the Coaches" focuses on Daisy, Annie, and Clarabel with the plot being based on a single line of dialogue far back in Daisy's introduction episode in S2 when she insults Annie, Clarabel, and Henrietta in the coach shed by referring to them as rubbish. Annie and Clarabel play a mean trick on Daisy to get her back for her insults earlier in the episode but get left at a station when Daisy runs off to find her fitter. Sure, Thomas is present, the main characters of the episode are still Annie, Clarabel, and Daisy.
The final example I'm choosing to highlight to stop myself from continuing forever is "Dowager Hatt's Busy Day" which focuses on the titular Dowager Hatt as she substitutes for the sick Topham but assigns engines for jobs they're unsuited for and causes confusion and delay, with Emily stepping in to help sort the engines back into their regular duties. Once again, Thomas is present, but he takes a back seat so other characters can shine.
There are so many stories where Thomas isn't present or even mentioned but I can't think of a single MLB episode where Marinette isn't front and center as either the main focus or hogging screen time in the B plot, it's like the writers are petrified that the audience will forget that Marinette is the star of the show if she's not present or mentioned for longer that 5 minutes or that she'll stop being "the favourite" if she's not shoved down the audience's throat in every single episode, because MLB falls apart at the seams if Marinette isn't everyone's absolute favourite character. It's like the MLB writers can't fathom that people can have favourite characters and still like the other characters enough to enjoy episodes where their favourite isn't present or even mentioned.
Even with some episodes being considered "bad" or not as highly regarded as the fan favourites, they all still utilise the other characters present in the series which not only helps to avoid the audience becoming fatigued by Thomas always being the focus but also helps flesh out the world and make it more well rounded. Even if the episodes aren't liked, they can still be appreciated for allowing other characters to be the stars. The characters aren't reduced to one note caricatures or to a single trope or relegated to a single location where they only engage with the same character over and over. (Yes, I'm aware that the Thomas series has had its fair share of truly horrendous episodes in the HIT and Nitrogen eras and I'm not going to mention the BWBA rebranding and how they handled the series.)
This line of thought made a question form about both series, could you still find enjoyment in the majority of the show if the main protagonist isn't your favourite character?
For the Thomas series, I'd say yes because of how fleshed out all the other characters are that if you don't like Thomas and the episodes he's in, there are still so many other episodes that feature other characters that there's a high chance that you stick around for another character. Even if you have a ride or die favourite that isn't Thomas, you can still enjoy so many other characters and their dynamics that the show can still be liked even when your favourite doesn't show up in a while due to how many other likable characters and stories there are. James could be someone's favourite and they can still adore the narrow gauge engines, or have Duck as their favourite and still enjoy episodes with the diesel characters, or be fond of the classic era characters while liking those introduced in the CGI era, the examples could continue for ages.
With Miraculous Ladybug, I'd say no due to how much the narrative warps and contorts itself around Marinette to make her the center of the universe to the point she winds up usurping the other characters and their plot points, like the S5 finale where Adrien should've been allowed to confront Gabriel, the main villain for 5 straight seasons and his abusive father, but was locked away in a padded room while Marinette faced him alone because the writers wanted Marinette to turn into Bug Noire and didn't give a shit about which characters they threw away in order to get their desired outcome. Even with episodes that should be fully centered around members of the supporting cast, the writers still bend the plot to focus on Marinette and the stunts she pulls to the point where the other characters only get a few minutes of broken screen time and barely any dialogue that isn't filtered through Marinette. They barely socialise with each other if at all if Marinette isn't there, and if she's not then their conversations revolve around Marinette. Have fun having other favourites because they'll either barely get screen time and thus be underdeveloped, become so warped around Marinette they only exist to make Marinette look good, be nothing but akuma fodder that's cast aside until the writers decide to use them for cheap drama, or the worst option of all, the writers will despise that you and so many others prefer them to the main protagonist that they're character assassinated in their attempt to force you to stop liking them in hopes of forcing you to like the "better" character.
One of MLB's biggest writing issues is its adamant refusal to utilise the vast supporting cast it has accumulated in six seasons over the eleven years the show has been running because the writers vehemently refuse to use the characters who aren't Marinette or characters that exist solely to prop up Marinette's character. By writing Marinette the way they have for so many years, the writers have inadvertently made Marinette a blatant and text book definition of a Black Hole Sue in the way TV Tropes describes the term.
Please DON'T tag anything related to the Thomas the Tank Engine fandom because I don't want to expose them to any potential MLB related toxicity, I've heard some horror stories related to MLB and other fandoms and don't want anyone to go through that for any reason. I'm only using the Thomas series to compare how MLB's writing falls flat in a way other people can understand my viewpoint on the matter. Cheers and thank you for reading my rant that ended up far longer than I first anticipated because I couldn't stop adding onto it when I remembered different tidbits and details.
Had to take a break from MLB because I could not stomach watching the show due to general apathy and the news of how S6 was shitting the bed with how it was handling the Big Lie narrative with the break ending up lasting roughly 2 months... Longer than I anticipated keeping everyone waiting to which I apologise but hopefully my time away has left me with more patience to sit through the more horrendous episodes people have recommended to me because I don't want to rage quit a recommendation the way I had to stop watching Chameleon.
Preamble unrelated to the episode aside, this is the introduction to Pigella and Rose's spotlight episode which reveals she has an unspecified illness, I think it's only in S6 where it's confirmed to be cancer but I may be misremembered since it could've been in a tweet I've seen reposted or because of the scene where Juleka is helping Rose choose a wig. With all that said, let's review Guilt Trip to get me back into posting my thoughts about MLB episodes for everyone to read and enjoy.
Miraculous Ladybug Season 4 Guilt Trip - Miraculous Live Notes and Opinions.
Begins with Marinette staring at Adrien in the classroom and showing the class "as usual".
Rose asks to go to the nurse's office since "Ms. Heady" is back, Ms. Bustier asks Marinette to take her to the nurse's office. Oh, I see Lila at the back of the class in the frame I paused on. Is she going to be a character in this episode or only be a background element that's easily missed by people not actively looking for her and meant to be ignored? She's forgotten and ignored? Oh... Ok. Also, Marinette's pigtails are straight up in the scene as if they've never been introduced to the concept of gravity.
Ms. Bustier needs to practically yell Marinette's name to snap her out of her daydream.
Marinette asks Rose about Ms. Heady and if she's "an imaginary friend like Unicorn Lily you had in sixth grade?" I had to check because I can never remember the ages of the grade system but Wikipedia says that sixth grade is 11-12 years old.
Marinette says "I love how you see the world through rose coloured glasses" but isn't that a term used to warn against being blinded by ignorance or nostalgia? Could that be considered a back handed compliment?
Cafeteria scene where Juleka gets a text from Rose and gets upset.
Marinette makes an insensitive joke to Juleka about Ms. Heady visiting her if she skips "Mr. Mealy" while she's visibly distressed and Juleka runs out of the cafeteria crying.
"I was just trying to make a joke." Marinette runs after Juleka but thankfully loses her. Side note, Juleka must be fast if she could leave the cafeteria and sprint down the stairs across the courtyard and through a door in the time it took for Marinette to leave the cafeteria, especially since Marinette was only seconds behind Juleka.
Shadow Moth scene.
Marinette bumps into Adrien and has a "cute and quirky" moment of stumbling over her words before telling him she's looking for Juleka.
The way Adrien instantly knew she was in the boiler room because the door was ajar - wait a minute why is the boiler room so easy to access? It's three steps away from the entrance and doesn't have a lock on so any old plonker can get in and potentially sabotage whatever the school keeps in the boiler room as well as the boiler itself.
For fuck's sake, Marinette has an "uwu, so clumsy" moment where she trips on the stairs and falls into Adrien's arms and the pink background is there and this is not the time for it.
Adrien genuinely comforts Juleka while Marinette's in the background on her phone sending a text to the entire class about where Juleka is without any thoughts or care about how Juleka most likely wants to be left alone.
"I'm so sorry. I really am the worst class rep ever." Self flagellation is not a proper apology, it's only forcing the situation to revolve around you instead of the person you hurt.
Marinette forces Juleka to tell her about Rose's illness. "Juleka, you know you can tell us anything, we're your friends. I promise we won't tell anyone else." All with this shot where her face is right in the camera and staring straight into it, it creeped me out. The whole "we're your friends" bit is just guilting Juleka into sharing information she's not comfortable sharing yet or if at all. Could this be a point on the "Marinette is a bad friend" tally or am I stretching a little?
Juleka shows the photo of Rose in a hospital bed and in Marinette's reaction shot the entire class has just materialised behind her, fuck, it feels like the class is ganging up on her due to Marinette's text about her being in the boiler room.
Another Shadow Moth scene.
Juleka meets Rose at some subway stairs and they hug.
Look, I get the scenes of the class helping Rose out with mundane things is supposed to show how much they care about her but none of them directly asked Rose about how they could genuinely help, they just come across as only helping Rose to feed their own egos and appear like good people in front of others. Not one of them spoke to Rose to say "Juleka told us about your illness, is there anything we should keep in mind so we can help in the future?" All the things they do come off as trivial bullshit with the veneer of accommodation. If they just talked to Rose then the plot would have been avoided, but the writers want their plot more than they want character consistency.
Everyone (except Adrien) went back on their word about not treating Rose differently and they go to such extremes to be "accommodating" that it comes across as out of character purely so the plot can happen, did they really need to wait outside of the bathroom for her?
They promise not to go overboard and then instantly go overboard at the next possible opportunity, it's so fucking forced and I hate it!
Did we need another Shadow Moth scene?
9:33 into the episode and I've been watching for an hour and 20 minutes AAAAHHHH
Akumatization scene.
I guess Reflekta works here since reflections can also be linked to self reflection about one's actions and circumstances. It's probably more thought than the writers made as it's yet another reuse of Reflekta, was it too hard to make a colour palette swap? Sure, it's still written off as lazy but it would've been something!
Shadow Moth didn't consider that Reflekta would've been victim to Guilt Trip despite her guilt getting her akumatized in the first place? He's allergic to well thought out strategies, isn't he?
Everyone except Chloe, Sabrina, and Lila run out of Mendeleiev's class to check on Juleka. It's because they're the "villains", isn't it? Or because the writers couldn't break them into the plot they needed or didn't care to include them in the plot.
Chat Noir and Ladybug transform without the sequence in the bathroom and a locker respectively. Also, they're responding to an incident that just happened and hasn't had time nor opportunity to be known by anyone outside of the class. I'm saying the heroes' potential identities could be whittled down if people paid attention to response times to under the radar akumas.
Everyone getting sucked into Guilt Trip including Mendeleiev who came to tell them to get back to class. Are Chloe, Sabrina, and Lila still in class or did they decide to leave since everyone else did?
Missed opportunity to have the characters say things they wouldn't usually admit due to the guilt the amok is making them go through. We could've had some major character revelations about their deepest regrets but we're stuck with the most bland and basic things like "I should've never let them leave the classroom" or "I should've never opened the door."
Ok, Nino regrets not helping Adrien with Gabriel which is something but even that's surface level because we knew that since season 1.
Did the writers really write Chat Noir try to cataclysm himself? What the fuck?
A single cookie cutter positive thought can push away every single negative thought? I get what moral the episode is going for but it feels so bland and one note for me.
Lucky Charm scene.
Oh, it's the shot, it's the shot of Ladybug's hand where her thumb looks stretched that had twitter and videos freaking out about when the episode released, it's the episode where the shot comes from.
Pigella transformation sequence. I've seen split opinions about the design and I'm... Alright with it. Yeah I'm alright with it, it's passable. I prefer it to Ladybug's design but that's an obvious statement.
We get Pigella at 16:30 so we only get her for a few minutes which is a thing I'm noticing where we don't really get much time with the new heroes because so much of the run time is catered to the bloated setup with the majority of it being bland padding purely to fill the runtime.
Pigella using Gift, Purification scene.
Miracle Cure scene after Ladybug leaves Guilt Trip.
Did we need another fucking Shadow Moth scene?
We only got 3 minutes with Pigella.
I forgot about the magical charms again, that's how little they effect the narrative because they do fuck all.
Shot of the heroes overlooking the courtyard where everyone is with Rose except for Chloe and Sabrina who are on the balcony above them looking down. Lila is visibly missing from the shot despite being present in previous classes. I guess she really did ditch. It has given me a salt prompt idea of Lila using times where people are distracted by akumas to sneak into places to dig up dirt on her enemies without being noticed. I'll probably expand on this idea later.
Even when Chloe was non existent in the plot prior to this, the episode deliberately goes out of its way to jab at her and the episode ends with the whole class laughing at her.
It's over? Oh thank fuck it's over because the episode dragged itself out to an aggravating degree. Only took me 2 hours and 20 minutes to slog through all of that.
Most of the episode was dedicated to painfully slow set up to the point we barely got to see the akuma, amok, and Pigella. The characters were bent so far out of character purely for the badly written plot that I'm surprised none of them broke. I couldn't stand Marinette or the wince-worthy Adrinette scenes that were supposed to be cute but came off as ill timed and irritating. I'd've preferred it if the focus was actually on Rose and Juleka rather than the class trying to "accommodate" her or have the akumatization happen earlier, I just fucking hated this episode which barely does anything, you could skip it and miss pretty much nothing since it's obvious Rose is Pigella and she only has 2 minutes of screen time anyway.
This episode was that fucking bad I managed to articulate my thoughts in a way to pin point why a certain part of Miraculous Ladybug's writing continues to anger me in such a consistent way but it grew so long it turned into a mini rant spanning a little over 3 A4 pages long so I'll make that a separate post because I wound up comparing MLB to a different show/series I had growing up.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to sharing it with everyone but please don't tag the fandom when I do because I don't want to expose them to any potential toxicity or flood their fandom spaces with unrelated media, I'm only using the show/series as a comparison to how MLB's writing falls flat at similar things, I'll put this on the rant post itself to reiterate to please leave the other fandom out of anything MLB related. Thank you for reading.
As much as I'm thankful that the writers are finally focusing some of their time to the miraculous class and other teen characters, it shouldn't have taken us until Season 6 of the show for the writers to start caring about them enough to write about their issues and expand on their characters in more detail.
To put things into perspective, S1 began in 2015 and S6 began in 2025. It shouldn't have taken an entire fucking decade to shine some light on characters that have been present since the very beginning of the show, and even then most of the screen time is getting swallowed up by Marinette shenanigans™ that were getting old in S3 because the writers refuse to let other characters shine for even a moment if their Super Special Protagonist isn't the center of attention 24/7. They did make a mild attempt to flesh out some characters in 2021 when S4 began with Guilt Trip and Crocoduel for example but even then a majority of the screen time was still eaten up by Marinette plots, did we really need the plot where Marinette tried to strongarm Juleka to kick Luka out of his own birthday party because she projected her own emotions onto him?
Personally, it feels too little too late to become truly invested in how S6 is writing the supporting cast because of how long the writers took to remember that they had a supporting cast and characters beyond Marinette.
Is anyone else getting YouTube video ads about the release of Miraculous Ladybug Season 5 on Netflix? I don't know why they're popping up four years later when Season 5 aired in 2022 (I checked the release date) and Season 6 is close to releasing the last few episodes. They started showing up a week ago and I thought it was a one time thing but I get at least one a day now. I usually skip them but I watched on to the end out of confused curiosity and it's only clips of season five scenes that we've already had access to for years. Idk why I'm sharing this, I just thought the timing of it all was a bit strange.
Been thinking about how hated the "it was all a dream" plot twist is again for how it retroactively decimates a story by stating "none of what you read and was invested in mattered because it never happened" and how often it feels tacked on as well as being generally considered a lazy way to end a story, but could it work if the story was centered completely around dreams and sleep?
For example, maybe it begins with a character falling asleep and they "wake up" in a dream world with some control over themselves but they instantly know that something's off because they've never had lucid dreams before, and they have to navigate their way through the dream world in order to wake up in the real world.
I was at first thinking about how it fits with horror or other darker genres by having the character constantly worry about sleeping so long their body atrophies due to dehydration/starvation because they can't tell how long they've been asleep or by being confronted by their fears or their past actions but it could also fit into lighter stories where they meet other people trapped alongside them and help them wake up as well.
From what I understand, most of the hatred towards the "it was all a dream" twist is due to how it comes out of nowhere and undermines the whole story through how , so would letting the audience know it's a dream from the get go and going through the dreams alongside the character avoid some of the issues the trope has?
They could've gone the Meta Knight route and let the capes turn into wings and back for miraculous based on animals with wings or for the space power ups. If they were concerned about animation difficulties they could've made the capes shorter or incorporate Victorian capelets into the suits, then again I may be biased because I think Victorian capes are neat.
Scarabella's introduction episode. Never seen Hack San in full and only know what happens due to reviews and I'm predicting that I'm not going to like how Chat Noir's going to be sidelined and his concerns dismissed by the narrative simply to let Maribug avoid the consequences of not telling her superhero partner that she's bringing in a temporary replacement due to civilian events, nor how he's instantly beaten by Scarabella because the writers don't care about Adrichat.
Let's hope there's some enjoyable moments to carry us through this.
Miraculous Ladybug Season 4 Hack San - Miraculous Live Notes and Opinions.
Oh yeah, S4 has a different intro animation doesn't it? Forgot about that.
Marinette fakes an illness to get out of visiting her aunt in London.
Oh, it's a yearly trip. I get she could've forgotten but plans involving visiting a different country are told in advance so there's time to prepare for it. She definitely had the time to come up with a better plan than "fake an illness the day we're supposed to leave."
Marinette has a list of excuses on hand. "I used up an entire month's worth of excuses in one go and it still wasn't enough." Maybe because you couldn't decide on one and the constantly changing stories gave you away? Aren't you supposed to stick to a single story or explanation when you want to get away with a lie so it's consistent and there's fewer chances to accidentally contradict and expose the lies?
"I'll have to come up with a better excuse on the way." At this point, nothing you say will get you out of that trip. She should've called someone she trusted the day before and given them the earrings temporarily so the earrings stay in Paris.
Gabriel monologuing about Markov with Nooroo and Duusuu in the back. Also, if Gabriel wanted to use Robustus again, why not make a sentimonster Markov and akumatize that, that way he's in complete control and it can't rebel against him?
Park scene.
Kim and Alix making a light hearted dare together while Max and Markov are with them.
"Let me guess, Marinette's going to be late?" So she didn't tell any of her friends that she was leaving for a trip? It's not like she didn't know about it until the last second because A, it's a yearly trip and B, trips out of the country take time to plan and prepare for so her parents would've definitely told her about it in advance so she could prepare her luggage for it.
Marinette texts Alya to meet her at the train station before she leaves. What would her plan have been if Alya couldn't make it to the station in time and she left with the earrings? Would she have turned into Pegabug if an akuma appeared or to find Alya and give her the earrings that way? She really shouldn't have left this to the last second.
Marinette gives Alya the earrings and her keys. She foists the responsibilities of the Ladybug Miraculous and feeding the kwamis onto Alya without asking if she's willing to step in for her with zero time for Alya to say anything before Marinette leaves her. Marinette should've called Alya at least a day earlier and told her about what's happening so Alya could know the circumstances and mentally prepare for the responsibilities she's being trusted with. With how it happens, Marinette denied Alya the chance to say no by thrusting responsibility onto her last second without any preparation then instantly leaving so Alya couldn't back out of Marinette's last second plan.
Bus scene with Alya, Trixx and Tikki.
Park scene. Alya's scared about any negative emotions from anyone because Marinette didn't give her time to mentally prepare for the responsibilities she was ditching her with.
Nino notices and asks about Alya's odd behaviour.
Train scene.
Virus gets into Markov.
Shadow Moth scene.
"Pro tip 675... Don't forget to give them the magical charm." It took her that long to get to the basics of the job? What other "pro tips" were more important?
Rest of train scene.
Alya's transformation sequence; It's similar to Ladybug's regular sequence. I love Scarabella's design (except for the placement of the yo-yo, why couldn't it have gone on her side?) Scarabella is an A+ design while Ladybug's is a resounding F-.
Really like how Alya struggles to come up with a name, it's cute. I'm still referring to her as Scarabella even though they haven't said it in the show yet.
The entire Chat Noir fight could've been avoided if Ladybug valued Chat Noir enough to tell him what the fuck was going on! She didn't care about him so she didn't leave him a message about how a temporary ladybug would be filling in for her due to civilian identity reasons. It would've taken her less than a minute to do but she never bothered to.
People give Chat Noir shit for fighting Scarabella but all the other fake Ladybug previous to this were either sentimonsters or akumas so it's completely understandable why he'd think the same about Scarabella. It's also a missed opportunity for her to see first hand how much Chat Noir is needlessly kept in the dark about things he needs to know and question Marinette about why she's keeping her day 1 superhero partner at an arm's distance despite working together for months.
Still miffed that Chat Noir, with 4 seasons worth of experience, lost to Scarabella - no, miffed at the writers for making him lose so quickly. They can't let Adrichat have anything, can they?
They said Scarabella.
Chat Noir is rightfully angry that he's been left out of important information yet again.
Another fucking train scene.
The hypnotised people just stood there for a good 10 seconds instead of immediately going for Scarabella.
Chat Noir catches on that Scarabella might know Ladybug's identity since she was trusted with her Miraculous.
The hypnotised people just wait instead of going for the heroes while they're surrounded.
Lucky Charm scene.
Chat Noir encourages Scarabella when she's struggling with the Lucky Charm.
Why couldn't it have been Scarabella that hit Hack San with the Lucky Charm? Why did it have to be Marinette? Are the writers allergic to letting other characters shine? Any other character could've done what Marinette did! Why does it have to be Marinette that beats the akuma every time?
Purification and Miracle Cure scene.
Shadow Moth scene. Once again sad they missed the opportunity to base his design on a peacock butterfly.
Time skip to when Marinette returns from her trip and is showing photos to Alya.
Alya tells Marinette she should talk to Chat Noir. "It's important." And Marinette looks genuinely surprised at that.
Ladybug apologises for not telling Chat Noir about the temporary replacement and hurting his feelings but it's instantly negated with "you did everything right" which is utter bullshit! Ladybug is in the wrong but she gets away with it.
"I'll never abandon you, kitty cat" right after she abandoned him. Fuck, I'm sure she'd've never gone to talk to him about the shit she pulled if Alya didn't tell her she should.
Chat Noir shouldn't have forgiven her that easily.
I didn't like this episode due to how much it needlessly shoved Marinette into the limelight when it should've been Alya/Scarabella and Chat Noir taking center stage. Maribug should've been held accountable for not telling Chat Noir about Scarabella which led to them fighting. This should've been where Chat Noir's crush on Ladybug begins to crack as he realises how much Ladybug hides from him and how she'd ditch him without a word of warning and expect him to be alright with it. This should've been where Chat Noir realises how little Ladybug values him as a superhero partner.
I haven't been able to bring myself to watch any of mlb for roughly a month since I've heard how bad and questionably written the S6 episodes are and due to general apathy towards the show that's been going on for well over a month. Anyways, I have some Marinette salt prompts based or inspired by some of the episodes I've watched, so, yeah. Feel free to use any of them if you like them as long as they're not put through any type of AI.
Do NOT put my work through AI. I do not consent to anything I post being put through AI.
1. Chameleon. After Marinette throws a napkin at Lila in the cafeteria, one of her classmates questions if she's targeting Lila because she sat next to Adrien, since they barely know each other as they only met in class and Marinette has a history of being jealous of girls who get close to Adrien. Marinette panics but scoffs, yelling for all to hear that Lila is obviously lying about her sprained wrist to get others to carry her tray and oh so clearly lying about her tinnitus so she could sit in the front row next to Adrien.
She smugly expects everyone to side with "their everyday Ladybug" but is shocked when they call out how blatantly ableist she sounds, with a few of the girls taking Lila to the bathroom as she's nearly in tears over Marinette's accusations of faking her disabilities to garner attention. Everyone begins keeping their distance from Marinette since they don't want to associate with an ableist bully.
(Inspired by how Marinette was never called out for any of her ableism this episode, and how I hated the episode in general)
2. Felix. Felix shows Adrien the love confession Marinette sent which breaks Adrien's heart as he thought she was a genuine friend but is really a creepy fangirl trying to take advantage of his grief to "confess her love for him". Felix suggests keeping his distance from her and anyone who let her take the video to which Adrien agrees, sending a video to his classmates telling them he doesn't want to be around Marinette due to her video and sending them the love confession as evidence.
Everyone is horrified that Marinette tried to confess to Adrien on the anniversary of his mother's disappearance, some rushing off to try and apologise to Adrien in person and the rest text and video their apologies for not realising why Marinette wanted to record her message in private.
Marinette refuses to believe that Adrien doesn't want to see her and is convinced that someone is forcing him to say such things since "the real Adrien would never do something like this" and gets annoyed when the others point out how that she shouldn't have confessed on a day when Adrien is clearly grieving. When it's clear that Marinette refuses to listen to anyone, Juleka kicks her off the boat while telling her they won't be friends again if Marinette doesn't realise what she did was wrong and genuinely apologises to Adrien for trying to confess on the anniversary of his mother's disappearance.
(I was going for mild Class sugar as well with this one alongside the salt, hope it's visible in the prompt itself.)
3. Felix again. Felix dresses like Adrien to confront Marinette about why she thought it was a good idea to send "him" a love confession on the anniversary of "his" mother's disappearance. Marinette is shocked that "her perfect Adrien" is mad at her with everyone else on the boat realising why she wanted to be alone for her message and grows uncomfortable with her presence. "Adrien" tells Marinette he doesn't want to be friends with someone who tries to take advantage of other people's grief for their own benefit which makes her very Upsette.
She lets herself get akumatized and has the power to turn people into minions who love her and bend to her every whim. Felix manages to escape and finds Chat Noir who found out about the akuma from Alya's livestream. They team up to defeat Akumanette with Chat Noir discovering how to purify akumas and cast his own Miracle Cure when Ladybug doesn't turn up.
Felix genuinely apologises to everyone for pretending to be Adrien and deceiving them in order to confront Marinette which they accept. Marinette thinks Adrien still likes her but is horrified to learn that he agrees with Felix and doesn't want to be around her anymore, with the rest of the class, and even the other classes in school, keeping their distance too.
Even worse, her miraculous is revoked and a new Ladybug hero is chosen to replace her, much to her sadness and anger.
(Does this count as Felix sugar if he's so out of character he's an OC? Canon Felix, especially S5 and onward, don't know him and don't like him.)
I do have more salt prompts but I want to space them out a little bit so this doesn't get too long. Yeah, hope you enjoyed these.
Looking through the recommendations list again and I know each episode will bring me all sorts of agony to sit through; only the heroes day 2 parter appears decent in what little memory I hold of them so I'll save those as intermission episodes for after a long string of painful entries. For my sanity, let's hope there are bright spots to counteract the wince-worthy statue scene which became the only thing people remember this episode for.
Miraculous Ladybug Season 3 Puppeteer 2 - Miraculous Live Notes and Opinions.
Opens on Adrien playing on the piano.
Nathalie comes to collect him and Adrien asks if he can bring a friend since the event is due to be long.
Alya and Nino are playing a dance game. The in game models are just them whited out with coloured glows around them, the silhouettes are the exact same.
Adrien calls Nino to invite him to the wax museum, Nino says he's hanging with Alya but asks if she can come as well, Nathalie agrees.
Alya calls Marinette and tells her about how they're all heading to the wax museum.
Nino nearly tells Adrien about Marinette's crush but Alya stops him from doing so.
Oh, Marinette is babysitting Manon who asks about her hero costume then sulks as "everyone always forgets about me." Also, Marinette is sewing with pink plaid fabric, is it plaid, it has pale pink and dark pink stripes on pink?
Nathalie says "I'll see what I can do" and it cuts to all of them in the car with Marinette staring at Adrien with a lovestruck face.
Manon asking why Alya and Nino plan on leaving Marinette alone with Nino trying to come up with an excuse to appease Manon and hide the plan to let Marinette share some time alone with Adrien.
Manon telling Adrien about the photos with hearts on them, Marinette trying to lie about how the hearts are upside down spades.
Why does she think Alya or Nino told Adrien anything when Manon voiced her observations about Marinette's photos that could've come from fashion magazines? Idk.
"I'm sorry but a piece of your statue went missing yet again. Just goes to show how popular you are." So there are people in MLB who are so obsessed with Adrien that they'll break pieces off of a wax statue just to have a piece of him? And this happens regularly enough that it's treated as no big deal? I'm not overreacting when I find that unnerving, right?
Marinette is walking after Adrien with a personally off-putting smile as she ignores everything Manon says.
Alya telling Nino it has to be Marinette who tells Adrien about her feelings and to deny everything if he asks.
Veronique telling Manon about how it's not the real Jagged but a wax statue.
Veronique explaining the history of the wax museum and how Adrien is their most recently added celebrity. Side note but it doesn't take much heat to make wax melt. Don't know if it comes up later but I'd've liked it if a character mentioned how cold the wax museum is compared to outside.
Nino taking Alya's instructions literally and denying everything Adrien says, much to his confusion.
A single sad look from Adrien who thinks Marinette doesn't like him since Nino said she didn't want to be alone with him is enough to send her panicking and running away.
Everyone gets on the lift.
Alya trying to convince Marinette to tell Adrien how she feels and denying that she told Nino anything.
The wax statues are just out in the open where anyone could bump into one and knock them over? Wouldn't they be behind barriers or on elevated platforms? I'm just saying it would be easy for some git with a lighter to easily melt parts of the statues and ruin countless hours of work.
They enter the workshop. Theo works here.
I'm saying this now, the reuse of models for the wax statues was a smart way to save money on making completely new assets, but then again, how often does the museum itself appear as a location. There's here, the episode where Veronique is akumatized, and Destruction. Are there others I'm missing because it feels like I am?
Nino and Alya take Manon to keep her company and to let Marinette be with Adrien.
Marinette freaks out and says "No! Don't leave me alone with him!" No wonder Adrien "doesn't realise Marinette has a crush on him" when he believes Marinette doesn't like him as a friend. All he's seen in this episode is Marinette constantly trying to get away from him and verbally saying so, I fully believe those who hold the "Adrien believes Marinette hates him" headcanon.
Marinette denies having feelings for Adrien to his face before running off. Adrien's not oblivious to Marinette's crush because he's being told by Marinette herself that she doesn't like him.
Adrien and Plagg scene.
This episode has unintended dread baked into it due to the knowledge that that scene is approaching.
Manon playing hide and seek with Alya and Nino.
I wish the moment of Alya remembering her time as Lady Wifi and her possible emotions connected to that lasted longer and we got the same for Nino with the Bubbler. I like the two of them flirting and having fun but I feel like their emotions to seeing their akumatized forms and how they dealt with it should've played a major part in the episode.
They accidentally leave Manon behind, she gets sad then sees the Puppeteer statue and takes the wand.
Hawkmoth scene 10 minutes in.
Marinette and Tikki scene where Marinette is scared that Adrien will reject her.
Oh Fuck, we've arrived at That Scene.
"It even smells exactly like him." This is worse because she took a massive sniff of him.
Marinette plucks a hair from Adrien and puts it in her purse. Not only is she stealing from what she believes is the museum's property but it's flat out creepy. Adrien's eyes twitch while she does this. This is behaviour a single episode character would have when the moral is to respect people's boundaries and to avoid behaviour that will make those around you feel unsafe and uncomfortable. Why did the writers make Marinette not only do this, but get away with this? Remember, the writers retconned this scene to be where Adrien apparently fell in love with Marinette.
Marinette still believes Adrien's a statue as she goes to kiss him. She doesn't care that it could damage the statue, which has been previously stated to be a reoccurring issue the museum has with the Adrien statue. She doesn't care about what gets damaged or who has to clean up the messes she makes as long as she gets wants she wants out of it.
Marinette acts like the victim and runs off when Adrien pulls back from the kiss and says it was a prank. Marinette put herself in the situation when she touched up Adrien, plucked out his hair, and tried to kiss him and it's Adrien that has to apologise when she runs off crying? Adrien should want nothing to do with Marinette after she felt him up and tried to kiss him, he should be creeped out and unnerved by her behaviour. And the writers decided this was when he fell in love with her? Did they really think any of this is ok?
Nino is found paused by Alya who's then paused and bubbled.
Would the wax miraculous work for the wish since the other wax powers are identical to the real ones? Would removing the miraculous from the wax statues reveal their identity?
Marinette lies and says she knew he was pretending to be a statue because she was roleplaying. If anything, that makes everything worse. She once again says to Adrien's face that she doesn't like him. She says "I like you a little bit, like a regular human being" when asked if she likes him.
How do the wax sculptors know exactly what Hawkmoth looks like- oh, right, the heroes' day 2 parter, yeah.
Adrien fights wax Hawkmoth with a wax umbrella.
Marinette transforms in the lift as does Adrien after she saves him from getting hit by wax Hawkmoth.
They get Lady Wifi and the Bubbler to defeat each other by jumping over the surprise attack.
Ladybug mistakes the wax statue for the real Puppeteer.
Fight scene.
Of course Chat gets captured while Ladybug runs off ahead.
Lucky Charm scene.
Ladybug is easily duped by the wax Chat Noir and yells "What's wrong with you" before realising it's a fake.
Chat Noir figured out wax Ladybug quicker than she did but only due to the smell when the fake went in for the kiss.
Ladybug's miraculous is nearly taken before Chat Noir saves her. They'd have been taken sooner if the wax statues weren't so obviously slower than previously shown.
Puppeteer threatens to drop Theo and Veronique into the boiling wax. Brutal.
Purification and Miracle Cure scene.
Hawkmoth scene where he's only focused on Ladybug.
The Adrien statue is finished and put on display.
Adrien takes Marinette home after dropping off the others.
Once again, Adrien is apologising for Marinette's behaviour. Her apology of "I wouldn't have kissed the statue had I known it was you" was tossed aside as quickly as it came up in favour of Adrien's apology. Due to the wording of her apology, it comes off like she'd've still tried to kiss the actual statue if given the opportunity and doesn't care if her actions could've damaged it while fully knowing the museum has to constantly fix it due to people damaging and stealing pieces from it.
Marinette acts hurt when Adrien says "The girl I'm in live with doesn't like jokes either" and sulks as if she hasn't denied liking Adrien multiple times to his face!
She sulks when she says that Adrien views her as a friend!? She knows most healthy and successful romantic relationships often begin as friendships, right? Or does she view all friendships as "lesser" than romantic relationships?
She's smiling at the memory of nearly kissing Adrien pretending to be a statue, ew.
A mid episode dragged down by the horrendous statue scene and dragged even lower by how Marinette not only gets away with being a creep towards Adrien, but how the show endorses her behaviour by retconning this scene to be where Adrien "fell in love" with her. She's god awful here both in that scene and at the end where she comes off as entitled to Adrien's romantic feelings despite denying to like him romantically to his face constantly and sulks when she "only" gets his friendship. The Marinette favouritism is on full blast here because any other character would never have gotten away with any of the shit she pulled in that scene.
