ML Watchthrough | S1E1: Stormy Weather
You ever do four separate posts before realizing you hate the format you picked? Couldn’t be me. /s
Anyway, this will be a series of episode reviews of sorts for Miraculous Ladybug. I’ll be going in production order, and will be primarily using the English dub, but I will compare it to the French dub, as well as reference other dubs whenever I stumble onto something interesting.
Lastly, those are written with the assumption that you’ve already seen the show, or are currently watching it. I reference things from future episodes a lot.
Ah, S1. I’ve missed you so.
This was the very first episode to air, having premiered on September 1st 2015 on South Korea’s EBS1. It is credited to director Thomas Astruc, who will be directing every episode here on out unless specified otherwise, and to writer Fred Lenoir. Fans of Code Lyoko might recognize this as the same writer-director pair behind that series’ pilot, “Teddygodzilla”.
The title is not the same in all dubs, which will be the case for most of the series. South Korea calls this episode “Storm Rage”, while the Dutch dub goes with “Nice Weather”, because I guess Dutch people really wanna watch the world burn.
First things first, the intro. Marinette says “In the daytime, I'm Marinette.” This is probably supposed to make her sound like a badass vigilante, but becomes kinda silly when you remember most akuma attacks take place during the day. The French dub just has her say “My name is Marinette.”, which is a lot better. On the flipside, French Marinette says "But when destiny chooses me to fight against the forces of evil...", which. Wat. Destiny didn't choose you, Marinette; an old man did. Saying destiny had anything to do with this implies you got the Miraculous accidentally, which would have honestly been a much better plot point. English Marinette just says, "But there's something about me that no one knows yet", which is slightly better, but just becomes more and more untrue with each passing season.
Marinette trips over a black cat. Is this supposed to be in reference to Cat Noir or just the fact that she has bad luck?
The premise of this contest is weird. I can’t be the only one who thinks this, right? Like who holds a talent show type contest to pick a weather presenter of all things? That would've never in a million years occured to me if I was the one writing this episode, and I don't think it would've occured to many of you, either. There are so many ideas that are so much more straightforward, like an art or design contest where the edition's theme is "weather", or a Greta Thunberg environmentalist type getting really mad that no one listens to her, or a group of schoolchildren doing a science project and one of them getting really mad that no one likes her idea, or even an actual weather presenter being fired in favor of someone else.
In Lenoir's defense, I looked it up and about a month before this episode aired there was a real contest in the UK where a kid aged 8–12 would get to be a weather presenter for one day only. Then again, this might not even be on Lenoir—it's most likely Sébastien Thibaudeau who pitches and/or approves episode ideas, being the head writer.
“Aurore Beauréal”, really? As far as weather-themed names go, “Alizé Beaufort” would’ve been so much cooler. The writers wouldn’t even have had to change her initials or anything. The Serbian dub doesn’t even bother entertaining this nonsense and instead just calls her “Aurora Borealis”. Lazy translator FTW. Truly, zero fucks were given in Serbia that day.
Aurore and Marinette have basically the same hairstyle. I wonder if this means something.
“Manon, please, it’s not finished! You’re gonna ruin it!” Marinette, sweetie. I’m pretty sure she’d ruin that hat even if it was finished.
Marinette wants to be a fashion designer, which I'm not the biggest fan of. For one, the show is 3D animated—it’s tad hard to do anything with fashion in a medium where even the smallest change in a character’s appearance is murder on the budget. This is how we get weirdness like Adrien modeling his everyday outfit. For another thing, it was done for a parallel with Gabriel, which. No? I mean, I have heard people say he should’ve been Marinette’s fashion mentor or something, but, like. No? I’ll get into this in more detail when we get to Origins, but Marinette really doesn’t need to be involved in the Agreste plot. Give her someone else to fight.
Ouch, that’s gotta hurt. I headcanon that reason for why Marinette is, well, like that, is that she’s got brain damage from how much she hits her head on things.
“Why did I agree to do this again?” Money?
Nadja and Sabine are friends. Noted.
Alya is such a bro (gender neutral).
“... disguised as a totally fabulous human girl.” Confidence. (ding!)
No way Aurore lost by that much. She made it to the final out of 5000 people! Some people headcanon that the competition was rigged in Mireille's favor for the drama, and I totally believe that. Not only does it make sense, but would also explain why we don’t see a single ad of Aurore for the entire episode while Mireille’s face is plastered everywhere.
How does Alec still have a job? He bullies kids on live TV. In all seriousness, though, I read somewhere that Alec was initially supposed to be a 13 year old boy, and it was Lenoir’s idea to make him an adult, so this was probably dialogue that the writers forgot to change. This is something you’re going to see a lot of as we go through these.
“What's the big deal? You only lost by half a million votes!” I love him. The difference between Aurore and Mireille is 64% of the vote. That's not a small amount, Alec! French Alec says “There's only a million vote difference between you two”, which is even worse. That poor girl.
Hawk Moth monologues to an empty room like an absolute drama queen.
Antoine Tomé's Hawk Moth sounds more menacing, whereas Keith Silverstein's sounds more slimy.
This elevator scene is high-key reminiscent of the Black Rose arc of Revolutionary Girl Utena.
Aurore is way more fired up in French. English Aurore says “I should've won. I had the talent, the star looks, everything... But she took everything away from me. They took everything away from me, they—”, while French Aurore says “It's me who should've won. I have the talent, I'm super pretty, I have star looks and she has nothing at all, absolutely nothing! It was my victory, they stole it from me!”
Aurore is being a wee bit dramatic, but I can't blame her. From the design of her dress to the umbrella, she put a lot of effort into fitting the theme of the contest. She tried very hard to win.
While the butterfly slipping through the doors makes for one hell of a creepy visual, can’t those things just phase through? They’re magic! … I’m gonna have to eat my words in three seasons, aren’t I?
In French, Hawk Moth's name is simply "The Butterfly" (Le Papillon), which is just weaksauce.
Aurore tries to shoo the akuma, but then immediately gives up the moment the thing makes contact. If she was so desperate to get the akuma away from her, you’d expect she would’ve put up more of a fight. This is the first of my many, many problems with the lore in this show. You'd think that after the first three or four akumatizations, people would realize that teaming up with Hawk Moth turns them into monsters who terrorize Paris, and would simply refuse to do that, so why don't they? Astruc said that Hawk Moth's powers don't involve mind control, but if Hawky isn't brainwashing people that'd make everyone who's ever been akumatized kind of an asshole. My headcanon and frankly the only thing that makes sense here is that Astruc is being honest on a technicality. Hawk Moth isn't mind controlling people because his powers work on more of an emotional level. He doesn't ensnare his victims by making them offers that they consciously accept, he does so by stoking their negative emotions—once they fully give in to what they're feeling, it's all over. This would mean that, theoretically, it's possible to de-akumatize someone by talking to them about why they're upset and getting them to see another perspective, as well as for someone to resist akumatization by working through what they're feeling and letting it go, and we do see that later in the series.
"That's my weather girl." To quote Smarty Pants on YT, that sounds vaguely dirty.
“I'll invite him out for a fruit smoothie at the end of the photo shoot! Then, we'll get married…” Don't you think you skipped a couple of steps there, Marinette?
English Alya seems to think so too, since she considerably dials back Marinette’s ambitions compared to French Alya. In French, Alya says “If you don’t mind we’ll start by getting close to him. For the hamster, we’ll see afterwards.”, while English Alya says “We’ll start with ‘just happened to be passing by’ and see if we can get to that smoothie.”
French Marinette says “We'll have a kid—no, three!”. while English Marinette says they'll have two kids before correcting to three, which would make a lot more sense.
Marinette wants a hamster. She also wants three children, which. As we’ve just seen this very episode, she can’t even handle one.
The kids are named Emma, Louis, and Hugo. If you ever wondered why Adrien and Marinette’s kids are invariably named that in every next gen fic and why there’s always exactly three of them, well, now you know. All three names are of Germanic origin, and were most likely picked because they have a variety of different associations, from fashion (Louis Vuitton and Hugo Boss) to literature (Lewis Carroll, Victor Hugo) to history (Hugh the Great, Queen Emma of France, Duchess Emma of Paris, the long list of French kings named Louis), et cetera. Emma also sounds a lot like Émilie, the name of Adrien’s mother, even though the etymologies are completely different—Émilie comes from a Latin word meaning “rival”, while Emma is from a Germanic word meaning “whole, entire”. And speaking of etymologies, Louis means “famous in battle”, while Hugo means “mind, heart, spirit”. I’m calling it now: with names like this, when they become Miraculous holders like their parents, Hugo is most likely going to be the strategist, Louis is gonna be the bruiser, and Emma will be the Guardian coordinating between them.
"Nah, forget the cat!" Excuse you? French Marinette says “We'll have a cat! No, two cats!”, which I like a lot better.
Aurore, sweetie. Meteorologists make forecasts, weather presenters just communicate them.
That attack honestly feels like it should’ve frozen Mireille solid, not frozen the elevator across the opening? W/e. Plot.
Aurore and Mireille have the same English VA: Mela Lee, who also voices Tikki.
Italian-accented French sounds so weird.
Alya’s snark would be funny and relatable if it weren’t for the fact that she herself is the sole reason Marinette is even subjecting us all to this pain to begin with. Look, I’ve held this off until now, but this feels like the best moment to say it: this episode is bizarre as an introduction to Alya. On one hand, she's mocking Marinette's eccentricities and seems to be 1000% done with her shenaniganery, but on the other hand, this whole operation was her idea! Marinette didn't even know Adrien was in the park until Alya mentioned it, and Alya was the one to convince her to go, even offering to take care of Manon. Alya changes personalities based on what makes the best sounding board for Marinette at any given moment and I hate it. Someone get my girl a solid characterization, stat.
“Give me the smile when your mom brings in spaghetti! Okay! And now, Oh no! Mama dropped the spaghetti!” If I could yoink a line from Miraculous Sins, his mom is dead.
Also, how does Adrien get anger from the idea of being made to eat spaghetti off the floor? Knowing his personality, he’d be more resigned than anything. Well, the answer is that he doesn’t. French Vincent says "And now, mama dropped the spaghetti. You're surprised. Play me surprise. And now anger! You're very angry! There you go... You're brilliant!", which is a lot better.
“But what about Adrien?” There's being a wingman and there's whatever Alya's got going on. What about Adrien, Alya? Seriously, you come off like you care more about him than Marinette does. Are you sure you're not the one with the crush on him? … actually, fuck it, new headcanon.
Manon, when did Marinette promise you anything?
Manon wasn’t doing the baby doll eyes until the moment Marinette mentioned it. Congrats, Marinette, you played yourself. Hilariously, the French dub calls them baby cat eyes instead (“les yeux de petits chats”). Marinette can’t resist kitten eyes, pass it on.
According to the French transcript on the wiki, Vincent's saying “J'ai besoin d'une fille courante.”, but I clearly hear “figurante”; the transcript even has Alya use this exact word later, so…???? Someone fix that, pretty please with a cherry on top.
Similarly, the English transcript says “Hold that thought!”, but I'm pretty sure Alya's saying “Hold on tight!”
You know, in hindsight, it’s no wonder Alya got the Fox Miraculous. A lot of people got stuck on the “revealer of the truth” journalist thing from Lady Wifi, but the first thing we ever actually learned about Alya is that she’s both able and willing to BS her way out of any situation. In this episode, feeding someone a story is her go-to solution to every problem.
French Alya tells Marinette to let her climb the merry-go-round. This line that does not exist in the English dub.
Aurore takes her anger out on the merry-go-round for some reason, instead of the guy who was selling balloons with Mireille's face on them. You know, even though we just had a scene of her being annoyed at the balloons specifically.I think the only reason this was done was to put Alya and Manon in danger and raise the stakes for Marinette, not because it makes sense in any way whatsoever.
Manon wasn't holding that balloon earlier. It teleported into the scene purely to serve as visual aid.
Great hiding spot. /s Writers, hear me out: if large parts of your show are contingent on secret identities staying secret, do not have your heroes transform where literally anyone can see them. This shouldn’t be rocket surgery, and yet. Me duele la cabeza.
Ladybug looks pretty awful. I’m sorry, she does. First of all, her costume is really bland and not a lot of thought seems to have been put into it. To quote Fallen Gale, it’s like Astruc stopped at “superhero is Ladybug, put spots on spandex” and turned in his first draft as the final product. Second of all, it looks like body paint. Now, Marinette wouldn’t be the first superhero to wear form-fitting spandex as a costume—heck, she wouldn’t even be the first teenage superhero to wear form-fitting spandex as a costume. The thing is, though, costumes like Spider-Man’s are designed with different sections that at least give the illusion of clothing, while Ladybug’s is the same thing everywhere and it makes her look naked. We’ll get to that, trust me. And third, it’s tiring to look at. That unbroken pattern of black spots on bright red spandex is the costume design equivalent of staring directly at the sun.
The French automatic subtitles call Plagg “blague”, meaning “joke”. Hilarious.
Man, I forgot how grating Plagg’s French voice was.
“I’m not here, I’m sleeping!” I like this line in the Polish dub, because it rhymes (“Nie ma mnie! Teraz spię!”, emphasis mine.)
Sneaky Adrien is best Adrien.
Let Plagg eat his cheese, you monster!
Adrien transforms right out in the open. Marinette, perhaps I treated you too harshly.
In English everyone has their own unique transformation phrase, while in French it's just "transform me". Boring!
Marinette, what are you doing? Even if you do manage to cut the dome, Alya and Manon are now at risk of being crushed by falling blocks of ice. Not only that, but if that yo-yo can slice through a thick ice sheet, it can easily slice through a person. The way it's positioned, it'll get pulled tighter and tighter around Alya and “swish!” goes the fox. Fortunately, this move doesn’t work. Ice is slippery, more at 11.
Cat Noir sounds so punchable in French. Apparently Benjamin Bollen also voiced Prince Wu in The Legend of Korra, which really doesn't surprise me.
I’m sorry, Adrien, but you deserved to be blasted across Paris. Just use the element of surprise like a normal person.
Am I high or does Adrien look like Grumpy Cat.
English Cat says “Thanks, m’Ladybug, but I had it covered.” French Cat on the other hand says “It was on purpose, my lady, for the pleasure of meeting you again.” I’ve heard people say that the French version sounds cuter while English Adrien acts like a “cool guy ladies’ man”, but honestly? If any one of these immediately sets off my BS sensors and makes me wanna ask “How many other girls have you tried that on, my guy?”, it’s the French one. It’s so saccharine and so cheesy that it doesn’t ever not sound fake. Seriously, no wonder Ladybug doesn’t think this guy’s feelings are legit. The English version meanwhile is what a normal dude would say, and that makes Cat Noir sound much more earnest. Then again, I’m also the type of person for whom quiet everyday support matters a lot more than sappy pick up lines or grand gestures of affection, so…
French Ladybug tells Cat Noir that this isn’t the time to “play the charmer”, which I’m pretty sure is supposed to be a pun—the first syllable of “charmeur” sounds a lot like “chat” (cat). She’s basically telling him to quit being a Catsanova.
Ladybug rejects Cat Noir's attempt to kiss her hand, but on the other hand, she gives him affectionate looks and flirty smiles. Sweetie, make up your mind! Yeah, you can tell she was written by a bunch of middle-aged dudes.
Stormy, why not just blast them directly? If you want to get rid of them, this is a really amateur way of doing it.
French Ladybug panics and yells at Cat Noir to wait. This line doesn’t exist in the English dub.
“She's just won herself a cat fight!” In French, that's “Oh, so she wants to play cat and mouse.”
"Mon minou" makes its first appearance. Aside from the usual meaning of "small cat", it's a synonym for "chéri(e)". It's very much the kind of pet name a girl would use for her boyfriend. It's also a word used to refer to one's ladybits, though, so, uh... proceed with caution, I guess?
“Not you again!” Girl, what? Taking their Miraculous is literally your only job! What do you mean, “not you again”?!
Je remue le ciel, le jour, la nuit [I stir the sky, the day, the night] Je danse avec le vent, la pluie [I dance with the wind, the rain] ... sorry, where was I again? (That’s from Indila’s “Derniere Danse”, btw.)
Ladybug, sweetie. Please dodge like a normal person.
Forget what I said about Marinette trying to cut the dome and how that wouldn't work—she at least has the excuse of being 13 and dumb. Here, we see professional firefighters hacking at the dome with axes. I just. Use a blowtorch!
"Hey, no fair! You always win, uni!" This totally won't come back in The Puppeteer.
The ice is growing. Definitely don't think about what's happening to poor Mireille right now. Yeah, on second thoughts, Aurore freezing the elevator the way she did was most likely on purpose.
"Maybe she's got some unresolved anger issues." French Ladybug says “Is it me or does she have a bit of a stormy personality?”
It's the first day of summer, which would put this episode an entire school year after Origins. Also, from what I’ve heard, in France the first day of summer is considered to be the summer solstice, the 20th or 21st of June. Keep that date in mind, it's gonna come back when we get to Captain Hardrock.
The map Stormy is using is just insane. Just at first glance, mainland France is highlighted but not Corsica, The Netherlands seems to have eaten Flanders, Poland took a huge bite out of Ukraine, Serbia and Montenegro are one country again, Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Oblast are too far south, and Turkey is straight-up gone. How hard would it have been to trace a map of Europe, I wonder?
“Already? But I look so good in a swimsuit.” That definitely won’t come back in Mr. Pigeon 72.
“The catsuit will do, thanks.” In French, Ladybug says something like “Thanks to her, I won’t have to see that.” Rude.
“Frosty the Snowgirl’s getting away!” French Cat calls her Lady Glagla, a play on “glace” (ice). Hilarious.
Both Alya and Cat Noir have trouble getting Marinette to let them help her, and "Trust me!" is a line said by both. In any other show, Marinette is a character you’d expect to have an arc about being a team player and learning to rely on other people. This is especially when you factor in how bloated her team ends up becoming in later seasons, and believe me, we’ll get to that.Not so in Miraculous. Marinette does more and more things by herself and keeps more and more secrets.
What story are you even telling her, Alya? Honestly, I think that's the writing philosophy of the show itself. We're writing for kids, so who cares about the story making sense?
"I think I can manage to..." Manage to what, Marinette? You can't even see.
"You fell right into my trap" cliché. (ding!)
"There's no way out. Party's over, fools!" French Aurore says "It's over for you. You'll never escape the eye of the storm!" I like this a lot better. Honestly, "Eye of the Storm" would have been a good title for the episode as a whole.
"Great. So we're about to be obliterated, but at least we'll be dry." I freaking love him.
French Cat says "Nice. That's exactly what I needed right now, to dry my hair." Boring!
In the Greek dub, Cataclysm is called "Katastrofí" ("Καταστροφή"), because the Greek word "kataklismós" has retained the more specific meaning of "flood" or "deluge". Incidentally, the translator missed the opportunity to call it "Gatastrofí" (basically, "Cat-astrophe"), and I will never not be salty about that.
That plan had no business actually working. Seriously, tying a large weight to Stormy's leg Looney Tunes style would've accomplished the same thing and been way funnier.
"Time to de-evilize!" The French dub has her say "I free you from evil!", which I like a lot better. It's very magical girl-y.
It was Miraculous Sins who pointed this out, but shouldn't it be "Miraculous Ladybugs", since there's more than one of 'em?
Everything else is fixed immediately, but the ice dome takes its sweet time to melt.
The firefighters celebrate as if they had anything to do with the dome melting.
"You saved Manon, and the whole world for that matter!" In a reversal of Alya’s line earlier, French Tikki scales that down to just "You saved Manon, and the whole city of Paris…".
"Ladybug is your best friend!" This totally won't come back in Hack-San.
