Remember that little anecdote Sabine shared in Glaciator? The one about Tom's proposal? He hid the ring in an ice-cream scoop and Sabine almost swallowed it. Yeah, I think the history might repeat itself. Telling Adrien putting a ring in a puree, or any food at all, is romantic will have consequences!
I did not mean to wait eight days to post the next entry of MLB notes, apologies for the wait. I'll try not to go more than a week without posting something related to the show but I can't make any guarantees or promises.
Glaciator is another shipping episode solely focused on the "will they, won't they" of the love square and introduced another character called Andre who's designed to be liked but there are those who despise him and the writing around him, especially due to writing choices made in later episodes. I can't say for certain but I believe this episode was well received because of the Marichat and Ladynoir fuel but cracks have started to show, or at least be noticed upon review, as season 2 gets older and the hindsight of where MLB has taken its story decisions.
Well, time to reread my notes and recall if I'm merely indifferent to this episode or if i don't like it.
Miraculous Ladybug Season 2 Glaciator - Miraculous Live Notes and Opinions.
Cold open to an out of control bus due to busted breaks.
Chat Noir's staff bends but doesn't break, magic.
Why didn't the background characters on the zebra crossing move out of the way when a speeding bus is approaching them? They still don't move when it stops inches from their faces.
Ladynoir scene as they're helping people off the bus. Chat Noir asks Ladybug to meet him for dinner since "we're only together when we're saving Paris, I mean, wouldn't you actually get to know one other?" I think I missed a word or two when writing since it sounds a bit clunky but it's canon they only meet when there's an active threat.
Ladybug says she has plans with friends, Chat Noir offers that she can still visit if her plans end early. She says "We'll see." Before leaving. People rag on Adrichat for being upset Ladybug never turned up but she never explicitly told him she wouldn't join him later on if her plans fell through, she only told him "We'll see." Sure, it's not explicit confirmation but it's not explicit denial either. Since she never wanted or planned to go, she should've explicitly said "no" instead of leaving him to guess if she was ever going to arrive. I'll be honest, I'm projecting a slight bit since I need to be told an explicit yes or no if events are happening in advance or I'll have zero clue what's going on or how much mental energy I need for said events. I'm stopping myself here or else this point will derail for a while.
Scene in Marinette's house where we get exposition about Andre's Ice-cream. I don't know why they named another character Andre instead of searching for a different name, maybe one with meanings linked to ice or love. Just an idea.
Scene of Adrien alone at the dining table.
"She didn't say she wasn't coming" And Plagg trying to prepare Adrien for the possibility of disappointment with "But she didn't say she was either." Why did the writers stop feeding us Adrien and Plagg interactions where they genuinely care about each other? Was it purely so Marinette would be his only(or at least the main) pillar of support post season 5 finale?
Chat Noir transformation sequence.
More Andre exposition about how he's always moving around.
"Last time we wanted Andre's ice cream, it took us three hours to find it." It seems the appeal of Andre's isn't the ice cream itself but the thrill of finding him in the first place. Look, it might be a me thing, but I'm not running around a city for three hours chasing clues to find some ice cream I might not even like. If I wanted ice cream that badly, I'd go to the store and get a tub in a flavour I know I'd like, plus I'd be able to save it for later if I wasn't as hungry as I thought.
The rooftop is really pretty, and Chat Noir is cute when he sits criss-cross. I don't know where the food is though since he said it would be dinner, maybe it's a picnic style affair with a basket off screen; it's never bought up in canon so I'm just filling in holes at this point.
Andre introduction scene.
"What's the point? Adrien won't be coming." Didn't you join your friends to get Andre's ice cream in the first place, or did Marinette only agree to the outing because she thought Adrien would be there?
Andre gives Marinette ice cream with her denying that she's in love and trying to give it back. I haven't seen any exchange of money so we as the audience are led to believe the ice cream is free. At that point, just walk away with the ice cream with your friends, if you still don't want it, either give it to one of your friends or toss it in the bin. It's obvious Andre isn't taking it back.
Marinette gets shoved after the weird "it's Adrien, sike, it's someone else" bit and drops the ice cream.
Andre seems to actually believe his ice cream is magical as he explains how so many couples have visited him.
Marinette leaves her friends to have her "Adrien couldn't be here so we'll never be together" sulk fest, she straight up leaves her friends in the middle of their hangout because the crush she sees five days a week at school wasn't there. You can see on their faces as she leaves, they're sad that she's walking away.
They leave Andre to run after her as he says his ice cream isn't magic anymore. Dude, it was a single insult from an angsting teenager, has everyone else before this absolutely loved the ice cream 100%? I completely understand those who despise this character.
Hawkmoth scene. The orange yellow lighting instead of the usual blue is a nice alternative, even the butterflies have a whitish yellow glow to them. The suit in the different lighting appears to be a vintage brown instead of purple. It's so pleasing to look at for me.
It cut from the beginning of a sunset to the middle of the night before Andre got akumatized in the same position as we left him. What held the akuma for so long, traffic?
The Glaciator design is one I like, it could almost be an ice cream company's mascot if the frown was turned into a smile, is it just me thinking that?
I have heard people ask "wouldn't turning the heroes into ice cream also turn their miraculous into ice cream?" And it makes me wish the episode (and others with similar powers e.g. Style Queen) showed someone getting hit and their jewelry staying the same.
Marinette throwing a pity party for herself for ruining the night for her friends and being mean to Andre.
"I'll never be able to eat ice cream with Adrien." Is Marinette more Upsette that she didn't spend time with Adrien than with ruining the night for her friends? Wow.
Chat Noir playing "she loves me, she loves me not" with the candles but can't blow out the last one which landed on "not" in disappointment.
The Marichat balcony scene. I'd probably feel something if I wasn't someone who alternates between being apathetic to downright hating the love square.
Marinette is surprised Chat Noir is "in love with Ladybug? For real?"
Rooftop scene where Marinette realises she stood Chat Noir up. She tries to comfort him without revealing she's Ladybug.
Glaciator scene before Ladybug transformation sequence.
The "pretend to be a couple" scene. I think this is an episode where Adrien salters went rabid and used this as "proof" that Ladybug deserves better than Chat Noir; they blatantly ignore how he apologises for his attitude 20 seconds later.
Lucky charm scene.
Why can't Glaciator's ice cream body pass through the yo yo string when the yo yo was shown to pass through it easily earlier? It's how Ladybug figured out the ice cream was only a shell around Andre. It probably can't cut through now because of plot reasons.
Miracle cure scene.
Hawkmoth scene.
Ladybug joins Chat Noir on the rooftop.
"I'd never want to lie to a friend." Ooohhh, this did not age well.
Ladybug reinforcing the "we can't know anything about each other" mantra, this is before Syren so she made this decision on her own.
Adrien and Plagg scene, back when the writers remembered to let the kwamis be characters and have distinct personalities beyond supportive yes-men.
Marinette gets ice cream from Andre, I guess she apologised to him by trying the ice cream because the words "I'm sorry" doesn't leave her lips.
Adrien gets ice cream after she leaves.
Was Andre made purely for shipping fuel? The ice creams are modelled to resemble Adrien and Ladybug so... Maybe?
If you don't like Andre or you hate or are apathetic towards the love square shenanigans, you won't like this episode. The plot hinges on the audience being totally invested in the love square and since there's not much else to this plot, I've gained nothing from that part of the story, but the crumbs of the non love square plot we received aggravated me.
We never see Nino, Alya, Mylene, or Ivan again after Marinette ditched them to throw herself a wangst fest because the crush she sees five days a week at school couldn't join them for a friendly hangout. They're not present in the "everything is solved" ending, they're forgotten, or better yet, abandoned by the narrative. We never see on screen Marinette apologising to her friends for ruining the hangout because of her fixation on Adrien, it's never bought up again at all since everyone's still happy with Marinette in the very next episode as if the ruined hangout never happened in the first place. Think of it this way, would the narrative have been as lenient on any other character if they behaved the way Marinette did? The narrative certainly wouldn't have let the episode end without them apologising for ruining the hangout but since it was Marinette that did so... She gets away with it scot free.
If people used this episode as evidence that Marinette is a bad friend, I wouldn't blame them in the slightest. Now it's making me wonder how often Marinette is explicitly shown to be a bad friend in the canon show.
So yeah, I don't like Glaciator and will be skipping it if/when I want to rewatch episodes I've already taken notes on.
