I want to genuinely say that was the one of the best de-akumatisation sequences I’ve scene. Adrien being finally able to say the things he has been feeling since the S5 Finale about his father! And Theo breaking out of his parasocial relationship with that man realising he isn’t perfect?!
Honestly, it was a very satisfying watch!
This was such an Adrien episode! I feel like all the thoughts I was having about Adrien’s feelings since the S5 Finale were addressed perfectly!
His internal conflict brought by people telling him his father was a hero and he saved Ladybug vs his own experience of his father’s bad parenting was so well done. Because yeah! So what if people tell him he was a hero in the end! Does it necessarily erase the way Gabriel treated Adrien all this years?
Also, Adrien is so emotionally intelligent and we do not talk about it enough. He came to the conclusion on his own the Ladybug is not telling him the full truth. He wishes he was there to experience it so he could know the full truth! I am so happy seeing him shine this episode!
I rewatched lemonade mouth, listened to nerdcore and got this au
Adrien transfers schools halfway through seventh grade. Him being Adrien Agreste on top of being the new kid, makes him the talk of the school. It only lasts for two days before people lose interest and move on. Adrien, while polite, is visibly more guarded towards people than when he first started out in dupont. For one of his classes, he's paired with Zack for a project. Though he instantly clicks with him, he still doesn't let is guard down and keeps him at arm's length.
It takes a month and a half for him to fully feel comfortable around him. Once he sees that Adrien's comfortable with him, Zack invites him to meet the rest of his friends. Adrien, though hesitant, takes a chance and agrees to meet them during lunch. During lunch, Adrien meets, Jason, Faye, and Cleo. Just like when he first met Zack, Adrien was guarded when meeting them, but he was especially warry of Cleo and Faye. It took a while, but he eventually warmed up to all of them, letting his walls down. After months of knowing them and really feeling like he belongs with them, he feels safe enough to tell them why he transferred in the middle of the school year.
Chloe had found out Marinette was stalking him and everyone's involvement in it. She knew he would have a hard time believing her, so, she showed him recordings she and Sabrina had taken. The recordings were telling, he listened to the girls talk about where he would be at a certain time and how they would ambush him with a date, Marinette ranting about a future with him and the kids they'll have, and the girls talking about how he'll definitely accept Marinette's feelings as if it was the only outcome. The guys knew some of the things Marinette and the girls did in an effort to get her close to him, but they never thought to tell him anything. He felt betrayed, he spent his entire sixth grade with them and not once did he think they would do something like this. He decided to get away from them by transferring schools. He knew if he told his father the truth, he would be home schooled again, which was the last thing he wanted. So, he made up a lie that wouldn't make him question him.
After learning about the reason behind his transfer, they felt bad for him, though they finally understood why he was so cautious around Faye and Cleo. Those girls didn't hesitate to help their friend in stalking him, even the girl named Alix, who Adrien described as not being into romance or crushes, helped. They were touched that Adrien felt comfortable enough to share with them something that was clearly still affecting him and this only brought them closer. Eventually, they ask Adrien about his schedule, noticing they only get to hang out with him during school. He shares that his father overworks him and that even when there's nothing planned, he still gives him something to do. Talking to him wasn't an option either because he's ignored or threatened to be pulled out of school.
The others immediately see the red flags and began planning ways to get Adrien more freedom. They eventually come up with the idea that Adrien should record his father the next time he threatens him to use as blackmail. Adrien is hesitant because if this fails, he would be taken out of school, but he decides to do it, wanting to be in control for once. The next day when he shows them the recording, it was much worse than what they've imagined. Not only was Gabriel threating to take away his freedom, but he was also talking down and demeaning him. This was the ammo they needed, so, later when Adrien finally got to talk with his father, he had said, not asked, that he was going to hang out with his friends. When he was denied, he threatened to release the audio of him and that if he thought about brushing him off and taking him out of school, he had sent the audio to his friends, and they would release it if he didn't show up after a couple of days. Gabriel had been furious but had no choice but to back down, this was the first taste of freedom Adrien ever had.
Since then, the dynamic had shifted between Adrien and his father. He got a lot more freedom and could hang out with his friends whenever, even having sleepovers at their houses. Still, he didn't want to push too far, so, he still did modeling for his father, he just wasn't overworked anymore. Everything changed a few weeks into their eighth grade. It was during one of their free periods, they were hanging out in the music room when Zack randomly said, "Let's start a band". It's not like any of them didn't know how to play any instruments, but Zack suggesting it came out of nowhere. He eventually convinces them, citing that it would be fun and they could look back on this when they're older. With everything decided, they started practicing, with Zack on guitar, Jason on bass, Adrien on keyboard, Faye on drums, and Cleo as the main vocalist.
The start of the band is slow; their first performance is when they convinced one of their friends to play at their party. From there, after each performance, they became known in the school. If anyone wanted good live music, they would go to them. One of their firsts big milestones was preforming at their schools Halloween bash. They eventually started uploading their songs when their performance started making waves and had people wondering where they could listen to the song. At first, they only uploaded their audio, but it soon transformed into them making music videos. The music videos themselves were no budget and shot by one of their friends who was good with a camera.
When they got to high school, they started entering battle of the band's contests, drawing more attention to their music. When they started making money off their music videos, they invested back into their videos to make them better and buying fabric for their outfits that they'd wear on stage and in music videos. Cleo, being the fashionista of the group, was the one to suggest they go all out with their outfits. Their clothes would always match the theme/vibe of the song or set of songs they were performing (think love live level of commitment to their outfits).
During this era, Adrien reunited with Chloe and told his friends about him being chat noir. Though he and Chloe never stopped seeing each other, high school was the first time they were going to school together again. She had transferred to the school he was going to, and at first, he was nervous how she would fit in. He knew how she could be and though she had changed over time, he was still nervous for her. He didn't realize how much she had changed until he saw her in a school setting. She was a bit prickly but otherwise she found her footing and didn't have much trouble making her own friends.
Around this time, he was getting more stressed out being a hero and his friends had noticed. They worried about him but never pushed for him to tell them, instead they reassured him that he could tell them anything and they would be there for him. He wanted to tell them because unlike ladybug, he had no one. She had master fu, and when he would try to reach out to her, he was brushed off because she thought he was flirting. With the threat of akumatization, he hesitated in telling them, not wanting to risk his or their safety.
It was then he remembered his father's book and how it seemed to have information about the miraculous. He got plagg to short the cameras for a bit while he took pictures of the book before putting it back in the safe. He was able to loosely translate the pages based of context clues and looking up ancient translations. He was able to find two ways to protect yourself from akumatization. The first being a charm from the ladybug miraculous and the second being a mix of herbs and potions to create a charm.
He knew ladybug wouldn't help him and would only scold him for wanting to share his identity, plus he was sure she didn't know anything about her other powers, or she would have used it by now. It did strike him as odd that master fu hadn't shared her upgrades with her. By now he understood why he wasn't told anything, that being he wasn't favored. He had only met master fu once and that was so he could give him upgrades to use with plagg, which was a couple years ago. So, he went with the second option of gathering the materials he needed to make the charm.
Once he made the charms, he wore one and passed the rest to his friends while telling them that he was chat noir. His friends didn't hesitate to help him by making excuses for his absence/tardiness to class and picking up his homework and notes. At Zack's house they had a hidden board of their investigation of hawkmoth and suspects. One of the suspects being his father. Before, when ladybug had first brought up his father as a suspect, it had really hurt him, but now, having grown as a person, it stings but otherwise he felt nothing. Now at seventeen, Adrien is proud of what he and his friends had built. Their band was popular and well known locally and they had done it themselves. Of course, they had the support of their friends and Zack, Jason, Faye, and Cleo's family, who had practically adopted him. His name didn't help them and in fact probably did the opposite. Once people saw that Adrien Agreste was a part of a band, a lot assumed it was an ad or some sort of gimmick and brushed it off without listening to any of their songs. It took a while and was slow, but this was truly something they built themselves.
Adrien has always known that hero's and vigilantes will always have their critics, him being no exception, but for the first time he's seeing how bad it can get. Online he watches as people rip apart superman after his battle with brainiac. Some of it is out of touch and makes no sense and some are people blatantly being racist saying he should "go home". It was jarring to see people spitting out visceral hate when just the other day right after the battle, people were praising him for saving them. He was lucky since most if not all of the heat was rightfully on ladybug.
Over the years, his relationship with ladybug had deteriorated to the point they barely had a functioning work relationship. Once he came to the realization that he wasn't actually in love with her, it was like the rose-tinted glasses had come off and he could actually see her. She was reckless when fighting and came up with absurd plans that almost always ended in unnecessary casualties. Sure, the miracle cure would bring them back, but it did nothing to erase the trauma. In the beginning, he tried talking to her about it, but it only led to her yelling at him about how she knows what she's doing. It reminded him of his father, how he hated being questioned and always wanted to be in control, and he knew from experience that there was no reasoning with someone like that.
So, whenever she would come up with a plan, he would deviate and evacuate the civilians as far away from the area as possible. It was why his reputation was a lot better than hers. Though, some people criticized him for not being able to stop her, most saw the work he was putting in to lower the casualties. Plus, with the videos of her yelling at him going around, most were aware that he's tried to talk to her and that she won't listen. Seeing the amount of hate superman was getting, he felt it was unfair and he wanted to do something to change it.
That's when he got the idea to make a superman song. He went to the others to tell them his idea of making a superman song, which they were excitably on board for. Though their voice may be small, it could still make a difference. It didn't take long to have their first superman song with how inspired they were (some lyrics obviously changed since they don't know his identity). They weren't expecting much since they were only a popular band locally, but a couple days later, one of their friend's had come up to them and showed them that their song went viral. That was the moment they realized they could really make a difference, so, they continued and made another superman song.
They went on to make songs about other heroes and vigilantes like Nightwing and even two Batman songs. They even made one for catwoman, who isn't a hero/vigilante but not really a villain either. She's a jewel thief who occasionally helps the bats. They wanted people to not blindly idolize heroes and vigilantes, but to appreciate them. To see them as people with feelings and not gods, even when some of them have godlike powers. To show them that they put their lives on the line despite everything thrown at them when they don't have to, but they do it because they love their home and want to protect it. That they can't be everywhere at once, but they try to save everyone. With the release of their songs, it not only brought more attention to them, but started a movement of people looking at their own city's hero/vigilante and really seeing them. Their hero/vigilante goes out and protects them every day, the least they could do is protect their name and not let it be dragged through the mud by people who only want to spread hatred.
Everything was great for Adrien and his friends, util, an akuma attack happened. It was a normal attack, and everything was going how it usually would during fights. Chat noir was evacuating people out of the area and ladybug was already putting her bad plan in action. During the fight, despite chat noir trying to stop her, ladybug had brought down a building on the akuma. The akuma escaped unharmed, however, the people around the building weren't so lucky. One of those people who were injured in the aftermath of the building falling was Zack and his grandma. Zack had some scrapes and bruises, but his grandma was bleeding out, fast. Adrien, seeing this, quickly took care of the akuma, breaking the item and all but yelled at ladybug to cast the cure. When the cure is casted, it heals her of all her wounds, but she stops breathing.
Adrien quickly takes action by picking up his grandma and telling Zack to get on his back and quickly rushes off to the hospital. He leaves when he sees he's about to transform back but quickly goes back in as himself. Family and friends were gathered and comforting Zack when they were told that she had passed. It wasn't long before news of her death got out, and people were terrified. No one liked how ladybug dealt with akumas because it always ended in casualties, but the miracle cure was like a safety net. With it, they at least got their loved ones back when they died or healed when they were injured. So, hearing that this woman died because of a heart attack caused by shock was terrifying. Anyone with a medical condition or if their body couldn't handle it would die regardless of the cure, and that made everyone realize that their safety net never existed. People were scared and furious, demanding that ladybug give up her miraculous to someone more capable. While this was happening, Adrien and his friends had posted on their social medias that their band would be on a hiatus for a while following Zack's grandmas' death, which got them sympathy and their fans mad at ladybug.
Though the group were taking a break from music, they focused all of their energy on finding hawkmoth. They needed to find him and quickly put an end to this, because if they didn't more people were likely to die due to ladybug's carelessness. Through their grief and rage, they worked themselves to the point of exhaustion during their investigation. After three months, they finally released a song where they wrote down everything they were feeling. The song exploded in popularity due to the story behind it as well as add fuel to the fire of people's anger towards ladybug.
Heroes and vigilantes everywhere have noticed people being kinder to them. Though people were always grateful when they saved them, that kindness never lasted and was often drowned out. This was different, it was louder and seemed like it would stay. Clark had noticed it when some people had given him homemade sweets but brushed it off. He only really started paying attention when, after another battle, a man had started yelling at him for the damage caused to his car. He didn't even get to respond before a group of teens and young adults formed a barrier in front of him and berated the man for yelling at him. They defended him saying how he tried his best and how he should be thankful it was his car and not him. Then an older woman had turned to him, holding his hand, telling him that he should take care of himself and to get plenty of rest. After that, he started paying more attention and noticed the overwhelming amount of support, love, and gifts. He was touched.
Bruce had noticed immediately when a group of teenagers on top of their apartment building had flagged him down. Initially, he was concerned they needed help, but when he got to them, they gave him a goodie basket. He was confused and suspicious but accepted it anyway while telling them to go back inside for their safety. When he inspected it back in the cave, it was exactly what they said it was. The basket was filled with cookies, chocolates, thank you letters, and even a plush of him. Like Clark, he was touched.
For everyone, this was a welcomed surprise that came of nowhere. The teens and young adults were the first to find out why, and from there it spread like wildfire in the hero/vigilante world, with Tim showing Bruce and Lois showing Clark. In the batcave, everyone was present and talking about the band that had become popular in the hero community. Tim was looking into them, not because they were suspicious, but because he was curious. Dick was being insufferable, going on about the song they had made for him. As Tim was looking into them, he discovered the situation in paris. Going through news articles, videos, and cameras, they got an understanding of what was happening and what led up to everyone's breaking point. As they listened to the band's most recent song after their hiatus, they all felt sad for them and angry at the ladybug hero. Because of her recklessness, these kids had lost their loved one. Listening to the song, they could all hear the grief in their voices, and this is when Bruce decided it was time to intervene, starting by getting in contact with chat noir.
new Adrien but Marinette will not accept him (writing my prompt because I have more time)
Adrien wants to figure out himself and he starts his edgy phase.
Adrien now looks like an edgy jester.
Nino when he first saw him: "You look AMAZING!"
Chloe was confused by Adrien's new look and behaviour but if it makes adrikins happy then why not?
Marinette couldn't handle that "Adrien isn't edgy! he is sweet and kind and not edgy! there's definitely an akuma around here that makes everyone edgy or something like that!"
Nino: "dudette, what is wrong? Adrien is exploring himself!"
Marinette: "WHAT IS THERE TO EXPLORE!? ADRIEN IS SIMPLY PERFECT!!"
Adrien: "Marinette...I honestly disappointed..."
Marinette: "don't worry Adrien! Ladybug will soon free you from this curse!"
Adrien: "I AM NOT CURSED!!! IT'S THE REAL ME! THE PERSON YOU THOUGHT AS PERFECT ADRIEN WAS JUST A MASK FORCED BY MY FATHER!!!"
You know, I remember seeing a bunch of salt stories where Marinette was being forcibly tied to Adrien by fate itself (usually symbolised by red string), usually created because Adrien said one time that they were "meant to be together" and took that as entitlement. Of course, these fics were Adrien salt as it were.
Now look at the show 6 seasons later.
Adrien is pretty much tied to Marinette at the hip. His girlfriend and foster mother keep the truth about his father's villainy hidden from him. Any friends Adrien makes suddenly now have to be Marinette's otherwise she will follow them till they either submit or stop being friends with Adrien. She even risks breaking Adrien's amok just to stop a villain. Worst of all, Marinette is a horrible girlfriend, literally running off on an event if everything doesn't go picture fucking perfect and leaving Adrien to pick up the pieces. Adrien is being treated like a cross between manequin and a porcalein doll, made to dress up and wow Marinette's life while being treated with lies and deception so that he doesn't "break".
The only difference between the show and the salt fics (aside from the target) is the method: salt fics have Adrien forcing himself on Marinette; canon has Marinette gaslight Adrien's entire life to pretend everything is fine, either because out of a misplace sense of love or because of the fact that it would ruin her own happy goddamn ending.
MLB Fandom: Why is Adrien always so passive and nice? Why doesn't he stand up for himself or others?
Adrien: *gets angry, stands his ground and/or calls someone out*
MLB Fandom: OMG he's turning into Gabriel!
So if Marinette is one of the least resilient characters in the Miraculous cast, who do you think is the most resilient?
Easy pick. It's Adrien.
Even with the lack of support network or resources for recovery, he has a lot of protective factors. His optimism, emotional intelligence, ability to forgive and skill in emotional regulation all go far to make him a resilient person.
Now granted, some of the side characters who come from a stable home, have a support system and are more well adjusted could be more resilient than him, since they have they have that external support he doesn't have.
Alya is a top candidate considering the emotional intelligence she displayed so far in s6. However, I can't say for sure because we didn't get to see how she would handle a truly distressing situation yet.
With Adrien on the other hand...
People bring up Chat Blanc and Ephemeral as gotchas to try and prove that Adrien is emotionally fragile, but those episodes say fuck all. In both we only got to see Adrien's immediate reaction to being blindsided by some truly distressing revelations, which were deliberately done in the most traumatic way possible. Adrien being affected strongly by them only proves that he has normal human emotions, congrats.
Resiliency isn't about not being affected by a stressful or traumatic situation. It's about how you respond to the distress and whether said response allows you to move forward or leaves you stuck inside the traumatic situation.
And with Adrien we have a lot of examples of him processing distressing situations in ways that allow him to move forward. Often all by himself and with no external support.
His mother's death is an obvious example, especially when contrasted against Gabriel's inability to let go. The loss of his mother was a double whammy because he also effectively lost his father at the same time with how preoccupied Gabriel was with his own grief.
His support system to cope with this was... lacking, to say the least. If we're being (very) generous, he had Nathalie, Felix and Chloe. Of them, we only see Chloe ever actually expressing support for his grief.
And yet, only a year later, he can literally hold in the palm of his hand the power to prevent another parental figure from going through the exact same fate, a power that his father terrorizes the city for, and still say "I'm not going to use this, this is wrong."
We see this with Gabriel's death too. Adrien is pretty clearly depressed in s6, but that's a very normal reaction to the death of a parent. Especially when it happened less than 2 years after the death of another parent. Nevermind all the extra baggage he has from the Big Lie and his role in everything as Chat Noir.
Yet we still get to see him slowly processing it in various ways.
Mister Agreste is choke full of that, considering... basically everything Adrien says about his father. But this exchange really jumped out to me:
Plagg: At least you got to tell that statue how you feel.
Adrien: It won't bring my father back. And it won't help me figure out who he was either. I guess I'm going to have to live with unanswered questions.
He not only verbalizes his emotions and acknowledges them, but he accepts that it's something he can't change and would just have to learn to live with.
In Wreckless Driver we see that not only he's good at processing his emotions (all by himself, if I might add), but that he's actively taking steps to manage his emotions better. He's the one who comes up with the idea of going to therapy all by himself, showing he's completely willing to rely on resources he has and reach out to try and get better.
If you want another example of just how well (and quickly) he can process his emotions, you can look at The Collector. An episode where Adrien had to deal with the idea that his father may be Hawkmoth.
His response his to Ladybug bringing up Gabriel as a suspect is to ask for proof, and once she gives him some evidence (which is absolutely flimsy btw, and he would've had every right to dismiss it) he says this:
Cat Noir: (with grim determination) It's time to get the bottom of this.
It took the dude less than two minutes to accept the idea and be willing to investigate.
If anything this shows us the opposite of what Chat Blanc and Ephemeral claim. Adrien can deal with the idea his father is Hawkmoth incredibly well. He just needs to not have it dropped on him in the most traumatizing way possible.
Look I'm trying to save identities here as much as possible, but this does keep showing up so I think a fair amount of people in the Miraculous fandom may have seen some of that. But like can you not see the hypocrisies here? Like the scary patriarchal support when you say things like Marinette Salt goes hand in hand with Adrien Sugar? Does that not strike you as a concerning factor?
Does the dislike of the female lead and want for focus or love towards the male lead not strike you as a kinda misogynistic thing to do? Do you not question how it is weird to be mad at a female leading the spot light and demand that the male take the spot light from her?
I'm just saying there are things that could and should concern you if your stance is a dislike of the writing or character of Marinette but a love of the writing or character of Adrien. If the writing is bad for Marinette then it would also make sense for it to be bad for Adrien and since the characters are so tied together if Marinette is a bad character then by linking so is Adrien.
