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.
