Every time I see Marinette being called "the best Ladybug/Guardian ever" all I can think is: "…how badly did her predecessors do for this to be considered "the best"?"
Yeah this is the problem with them wanting to have their cake and eat it too.
Marinette can be the best ever, super awesome, and so cool. That is fine! But then she has to BE that. She can't ALSO be struggling and making bad choices left and right. It's one or the other.
You get your girlboss wish fullfilment(which is a valid choice!)
or you get your relatable 'normal girl' thrust into responsibility over her head. (also a valid choice!)
You don't get to switch from moment to moment at your convenience.
This is a personal oneshot (hoping it'll be like 20k words by the end? Yeah) I'm working on focusing on Marinette after she confesses everything to Adrien, followed by a certain villain taking a different approach to achieving her goal.
Basically, it'll be a toxic lilanette fic ahaha
But i wanted to post a snippet here to see if its anything??? Like at all???
Working Title: Musings on the Aposematic Coloring of a Ladbug's Elytra
Coccinella septempunctata, family Coccinellidae, is one of the most widely recognized coccinellid species in the world despite it being one of approximately 5,000.
It is the first image of a ladybug to rise in one’s conscious, it is the poster child of the beetle family, and it selfishly stole all the glory from its sibling species as the best example of its heritage. The shiny, red shell and mirrored black dots completed by its twin-spotted helmet made for a timeless specimen among thousands.
This was a generalization based on centuries of studies and countless entomologists scrabbling to argue the semantics of global population distribution with anthropogenic sociological determinism. Marinette recalled reading such things in the school library, in a book titled The Encyclopedia of Insects. It had been rather mundane to parse for someone so disused to biological jargon, bordering tedium by the end of her visit.
Back then, she had curiously plucked the book from its dusty resting place, the wood of the sagging shelf creaking in relief from the release of pressure. It was well-worn, whereas the earrings she wore were brand new as was her interest in ladybugs. Marinette had stood on the precipice of naïve and stalwart, fingers clumsy while she located the letter ‘C’ in the glossary. Her pride had inspired her to memorize everything about coccinellids to the point of annoyance, if only to make better puns to spite her partner. And perhaps get a better handle on being a ladybug-themed superhero.
Yet, even after urging from Tikki and precious hours spent reading, nothing had caught her fancy.
The only thing she really gleaned from the subject matter was how wildly compressed the family of beetles seemed to be based on one subset of ladybug, erasing any memorable phylogeny from the average layperson’s cognizance. Most of her classmates shared a passing interest in the colorful insect, but it proved to be an unimportant read against the more pressing tasks of their scholarly courses. Marinette wrote off the ladybug miraculous and coccinellids as a poorly coordinated coincidence, opting to roll with the punches more so than to study her new theme as a serious subject.
There was nothing all that special about ladybugs, just as there was nothing special about the pages that housed the entirety of their evolution as a species.
Just as there was, and always had been, nothing special about Marinette. Presently, that was where her self-esteem was at, obviously plummeting to newer depths than she ever previously dreamt. It was selfish of her, really, to think of herself at a moment in times such as this. It was ridiculous to fancy ladybug factoids when her world had just burned to cinders before the person she loved most, position now pending. Ladybugs, insignificant critters in the food web, creatures deemed to have no effect on her life as of late.
Well.
That was an unfair assumption, though, since she had learned a rather interesting fact about ladybugs as a whole after that arduous day in the library archives.
It was the only biology that had stuck with her long after the ramblings of ecological hermits departed from her prefrontal cortex, everything else already replaced by thoughts of long, humid patrols along the Seine and torrid conversations shared over sugary beverages. In fact, the knowledge was stark against the backdrop of her mind, the lone survivor in the war zone that was her haunted and hormone-addled thoughts.
A girl and a ladybug, sharing a single evolutionary trait between them.
It was the very same etching from long-forgotten pages that echoed in Marinette’s head now, standing alone in the shadow of the Agreste manor. The company she had shared just minutes prior had vacated her presence completely, utterly, along with the letter that had been burning holes in her person since its discovery. The words he had screamed at her, acidic and full of hurt, were permanently lodged in her heart as she stared uncomprehending at the shoe prints that lingered in the lawn. Silver glinted in the darkening twilight, a few paces from her position.
She moved to collect the unwanted bounty, every step laced with an unshakable heaviness.
What he said rang true, as she had lied and built their relationship on a foundation made from deceit and acute betrayal. Marinette had carried the torch for Gabriel, had continued the cycle of abuse and neglect by giving Adrien the illusion of freedom. One gilded cage broken, another one renewed.
What had made her so special, so knowing, so important that she thought it was just to keep Adrien from the truth.
It had been an ugly affair, coming clean to Adrien by means of a rusty knife re-opening festering wounds.
Things hadn’t been the same between then since the events of Heartfixer, and Marinette had tired of the skeletons clawing at her closet door. Her sanity had been circling the drain since the first lie told in London, while her sense of self had been at odds after her argument with Nathalie over the truth. If Atlas was condemned to hold the weight of the world for siding with the Titans against the Olympians, well, then she could accept whatever divine punishment the universe doled out.
She would accept it, even if it meant succumbing to the pressure to join the other fallen gods. It was her word to break and her word to swallow, key and all. The path those before her had paved still had cracks from old lies and begotten promises, what was another between ghosts?
He had been leaning towards her, lips puckered around goodbye, cheeks flushed from their previous exchange. There was no right or wrong time for an ending, not that timing mattered in her case. Her venom, evidentiary on his person as she stopped him with firm hands and a glass heart. Adrien must have known right then that things were about to change, she could see it in the way he held her hand before she clenched the pin between her teeth and pulled.
The debris from the fallout had all but turned her to ribbons, slivers and pieces of who she used to be, now adrift in the ocean that now separated Adrien from herself. As for Adrien, he was fine porcelain now shattered at the base of the twin statues that depicted the late Agreste parentage; the finer shards were jagged and hurt to touch, yet they reflected the granite visage of Gabriel and Emilie so beautifully from all the wrong angles. Marinette was torn and taped back together, only vaguely shaped like the person she was before the knowledge of other people’s sins had placed pressure on her faultlines.
But her feelings didn’t matter, not at all. This wasn’t about her. Yet, the inane and unimportant fact about ladybugs still drifted within her psyche despite it all…
Adrien deserved the truth. It was as simple as that. She had given it freely, but not without layering other lies between to cushion the blow.
How did she know about his father? Why, the letter of course. Adrien fisted his hands at this and looked away, his face holding a torrent of complex and unfathomable emotions. Something darker brewed behind his eyes than Marinette knew she was privy to, the secrets between them coming off a simmer to a full on, explosive boil. Adrien asked with a throat tight with tears if his father had ever intended to be a father, his father; Marinette had no answer except for thinly veiled pity with eyes sparkling in fresh tears, unscheduled.
His mother? Adrien staggered back at the monument of information, the weight of it too great to handle. Marinette caught him before he imploded, however he jerked away just as fast like her touch was branded and his person was an unwilling canvas, which twisted her heart into ugly shapes beyond what words could express.
Adrien took a few minutes to digest that particular nugget, speed running grief that deserved a longer resting period than he was offered. Brittle and wounded like a trapped animal, Marinette wished it was anyone else (his guardian, his parents) telling him these blackened and blood stained truths. Adrien seemed like he wished it as well, if the mix of loathing and sympathetic glances he kept throwing her way were any indication. Even to the end, he had kept some semblance of care for her when it was all wholly undeserved.
Who told her about the miraculous of the peacock? Well, Félix had told her the night of the final attack. It was cowardly, but Marinette, voice bitter as the bile in her throat, told him to ask Félix what he knew about sentimonsters. In response, Adrien had taken his rings and flung them on the ground between their shadows.
Why did Ladybug lie to him? Marinette begged her to keep the peace, to shield him from the horrible truth of it all. She placed herself as a bystander to Hawk Moth's defeat, a victim to his terrible rings broken free by Bug Noire before the two enemies had dueled. She watched from the mangled hole in their house, long broken before any physicality began to show, as he made his true wish, made Bug Noire swear to destroy all evidence of his sins. It was a flimsy lie, her worst yet, but it landed with the same gravity.
Why didn’t she tell him the truth?
Marinette could say nothing that would satisfy the question. Any words she tried to form turned to ash on her tongue, and from the corner of her eye she had glimpsed Nathalie staring down at them from the window of Gabriel's study.
A silent and steady sentry, poised as she had been since Gabriel’s departure. Nathalie had turned away then, likely preparing herself for the second act of Adrien’s grief. Marinette despised her with every fiber of her being and then some, though still resentful of herself more than anything.
Adrien, after emptying his clip of words into Marinette, had stole away into the creeping darkness; escaped like a ghoul in the night, running from the picketing villagers. Nathalie must have noticed and swiftly sent Gorilla after him, the latter not even looking in Marinette’s direction as he took to the streets with a single goal in mind. Marinette hadn’t even considered chasing him down to beg for forgiveness nor did she have the particular desire. It was far too late for apologies.
It remained an ugly affair, as she stared down at the departed rings. Twin rings, both holding the most precious thing in the world, abandoned all at once before her pitiful figure. The light they reflected was like a beacon in the fog, except it was luring in the wrong ship to moor.
Adrien had thrown the rings like they burned to touch, ripping them off like it was welded to his skin. He had looked at her with contempt, disgust, and worst of all, anguish.
Marinette, feeling like poison, had tried to reach a hand towards him. Her olive branch splayed and defenseless, battered and dying; the wind could snap it in two if given the chance. In the depths of her mind, that damned ladybug fact had blitzed across the darkened panes like a meteor. The trail it left made her hands shake.
Understandably, Adrien rejected her white flag.
Adrien, overwhelmed and cracked beyond repair, had wielded his pointed words and cleaved Marinette in two; Marinette was one half and Ladybug was the other. It was all she could do, to hold her insides in her hands, as she braced for every verbal strike from the boy that had only ever been as gentle as his smile.
The olive branch, the small kernel of hope, dust in the ushering night.
There was nothing left for her to do, nothing left for her to take from Adrien other than the sight of her. Marinette, eyes brimming with tears, finally stooped to collect the rings that laid stricken in the grass. Clutching them close to her chest, she began the long walk back to the bakery, hoping the cover of dark would mask any indication of what just transpired.
Adrien knew the truth, or the closest that she could get.
Ladybug would have to make an announcement, lest Paris hear it from fraught lips. She would keep it short, simple; Tomoe would have no mention nor would Nathalie. She couldn’t orphan Kagami and Adrien twice nor would she rob them of the choice. Chat Noir would have to hear it before anyone else, and she knew better than to hope for understanding.
The words from oh, so long ago fully surfaced then.
A ladybug’s elytra possess aposematic coloring to inform predators and likened company of its toxicity; its shell, first and last defense, warns before its poisoned blood can taint any friend or foe.
Marinette, with her heart on her sleeve and her true colors on full display, had never related more to such an ‘insignificant’ creature than in that moment.
She fisted the rings in her palm so hard that her nails drew blood, marring the silver surfaces with streaks of red. Tears blurred her vision and she finally let them fall freely, the pit in her stomach opening into a maw of darker emotions. The sentiment hurt her so much, so deeply, that she could scarcely breath.
Ladybug and Marinette, despite their good intentions, fooled themselves into thinking they were safe for others to consume. The heroine of Paris, beloved partner, cherished friend, keeper of the peace, the Harold of justice; every title, every relationship had been tainted by her inherently toxic nature.
The people she loved and cared for had suffered by her hand and balancing scale, with Lady justice peeling the wool back from her eyes to cheat in lieu of barring fear, favor, and bias.
Why had she let things go so wrong?
Marinette ached the whole way home, the new sensation seemingly there to stay, unaware of the shadow that stalked just beyond the light of the street lamps.
A woman in black smiled triumphantly as she watched Marinette enter the bakery, who didn’t bother to check behind for any hint of danger that may have followed her back. Her mark had been so distraught, she hadn’t even noticed she was being tailed all the way back to the Dupain-Cheng residence. It made her own work all the more easy, especially since Cerise had been unaware of Marinette’s intentions as she dutifully followed her back from school earlier in the evening.
Like a canary in a coal mine, Marinette had sang beautifully. Exactly like a canary in a coal mine, since the deadly fumes had choked her out before she could realize what caught in her throat. Cerise had wondered what would happen if her old enemy was to confess, and she has ardently hoped it would backfire if so.
Oh, and backfire it did.
Adrien Agreste, the unknowing epicenter of all matters involving supervillains and seedy shadow governments, had performed so spectacularly that Cerise could not have done better herself. His genuine hurt, his anguish, his fury had toppled every pyre Marinette had hoped to build. Cerise knew whatever was left between them was unsalvageable and could only be left to rot with the rest of their lots secrets.
Cerise, of course, had been privy to all the information Marinette had reluctantly bestowed upon Adrien. She knew about the letter, the keepsakes, the rings, everything; all the cards had always been in her hands, she just didn’t see the point in showing them without good reason.
It was a delicious turn of events.
If everyone at school found out about Marinette’s lying and betrayal, who would be left to pick up the pieces? And wouldn’t it be a shame if little snippets of information were leaked to the press before Ladybug could make a statement? Better yet, what if she could catch Marinette in the act before then?
Cerise turned on her heel and headed back to her hideout, humming faintly to herself as she passed beneath empty storefronts and through narrow alleyways. The rush of the commuter crowd had died down significantly since the sun dipped below the horizon. After all, no one wants to be caught out after dark by the boogeyman or otherwise. The palpable fear in the air was a wonderful salve on her burned ego, still smarting from the disastrous attempt that was Heartfixer. Time had passed since then, too much, yet Cerise had failed to re-create such a near win.
Ladybug and Chat Noir skirted her at every corner, time and time again. It was hard not to despair when she had been no closer to finding out their true identities than when she first acquired the butterfly miraculous.
Cerise felt her temperature rise at the thought of Ladybug’s identity. She knew Marinette was connected somehow, there was no one else it could have been. Yet, Ladybug and Marinette continue to evade her most covert tactics of espionage as if they knew every move before it happened.
But now…
Poor Marinette, alone and stoned in the town square, bruised by her own morality. There would be no righteous vindication nor would there be any loving arms to flee to, no, she would be utterly abandoned. Vulnerable.
It would be all too easy to capitalize on the situation as Chrysalis, but she couldn’t risk using the best move she had. Not yet. Sure, the wounds were fresh, but emotions like this were about as stable a the tides and twice as fickle. Marinette was too strong as she was now to try to ultrakumatize, and Adrien would only make her more wary.
It was time for Cerise to give up direct conflict and slip into her wooden horse, so to speak. An enemy and an enemy can just as soon be friends if she played the situation carefully. Marinette, as she was now, was her battered instrument to tune until perfection; what was the rush?
Cerise allowed herself a grin, teeth catching on the passing lamps. The night was moonless and starless with the gathering clouds beginning to form, heavy with the promise of rain. She didn’t even mind when droplets started gathering on her person, wetting her beyond any true comfort. It was no matter, she was too excited by her prospects.
"Oh, those supple lips, that smooth skin! His face, it's a perfect replica!" she cooed, tracing a finger over her child's cheek like it was the edge of a mirror. "Perhaps I've changed my mind, Gabriel. I must name him Emilie."
"You must give him right to be his own person, mon coeur."
Gabriel stood far from his wife and their creation, looming with hands behind his back. It was the child's golden hair that had caught his eye—with the purity of unimaginable riches. Emilie's own hair, now fading to flaxen, curled around the child's face as she bent down to examine his eyes, prying them open with her fingers.
"Perhaps just this once," she smiled. "But he'll always be 'Emilie' to me."
I don't know if this is a Hot Take, but I think these guys should be Kingdom's creation.
I mean, they have these things—the Sprites, as Thomas once called them—Kwami-like creatures that basically work the same way, the main difference being that they seem to be made of technology and are based on the Western Zodiac instead of the Chinese Zodiac.
On their own, it seems like a blatant recycling of ideas, almost a carbon copy of their ideas for the main show in their new IP/spin-off. Now, what if we give them a reason for this resemblance? I mean, they're practically a "technological" copy of the Miraculous. Who had the Miraculous for a long time, experimented with them and their cosmic energies, and is also known for working in the fields of high technology in a industrial level? A character who has an indirect presence in the special and is a native of the country where it takes place? Tomoe.
She's part of Kingdom, and she helped Gabriel create the Alliance Rings that grant access to the power of the Miraculous. We even saw her working with what was literally a sentient spaceship. It's not unreasonable to think that, with the almost limitless resources of an evil organization of wealthy people and the Miraculous in their possession, they could create pseudo-Kwamis and artificial Miraculous.
Why would they do it? I don't know, super cops? Their own super army? Special forces to defend them from other evils like the Supreme or monsters? Even having them as a backup plan in case they fail to obtain the two main Miraculous sounds like a good reason to create them. They release them in Japan to test them and/or gain public approval, thus allowing them to manipulate the masses with figures that would win the trust of many (I think it would work much better than a crappy "What If?" movie).
It explains the similarities, it can create expectations of what will happen in the future when the groups inevitably cross paths again, people will generate concern for the future of the poor kids in Tokyo who were used as test objets/weapons, and you also avoid overloading you main show. Seriously, did they really plan Lila as Hawk Moth's replacement just to go and introduce Temu's Illuminati in less than 10 episodes? We already have enough with the big lie plot and whatever Lila is, they didn't need to introduce a second or even a third villain, especially not in a single season.
Make Kingdom the sponsors of Stellar Force in their fight against the Supreme, add the plot twist that they're villains, and then you have the big crossover event that Thomas wants so badly. We literally saw how they promoted the end of season 5 as this Miraculous Endgame-type event. The man wants an event like that, but he keeps putting all his eggs in one basket.
Chapter Four is on Ao3 featuring a deep cut of a cameo yknow for some light hearted fun before the horror sets in
Melody and I talked for a while longer, mostly about the town and the weather, and a bit about my travels. I learned that even though she had pursued an education in hopes of traveling, she had ended up working in a local bookshop instead. I asked her about the name of the pub, and she told me that when summer arrived, the place practically bloomed with butterflies. As we talked, I could tell there was a question on her mind, and I assumed she wanted to ask me about Paris but was not sure how to bring up the conversation. So I shared about my parents’ bakery, and how much I missed their bread, and a little about the dances I had attended. She smiled, but this did not seem to be what she wanted.
Finally, as both of our cups emptied, she bit down on her lip and asked, “Did you come for the…” She paused again, and I was uncertain if she was searching for a word or for courage. Finally, hesitantly, she said something that sounded like, “funeral?”
I repeated it to clarify, and she nodded.
“You missed it by just a couple days,” she continued. “With the awful weather, no one could get there at first, and the ground was half-frozen when they tried to dig. We weren’t sure if there was any family that had been notified, but—”
I was already on my feet. “I have to go.”
“In this weather—”
But I was no longer listening. My only objective was to get to Graham de Vanily Place.
next update the corpses come into play so enjoy the good stuff before it gets too dark
Miraculous Ladybug has a problem with its writing.
The biggest problem is that the writing has this NEED to justify itself, justify its actions.
Oh Chloé not getting a redemption, lets make her so much worse than she was so we can drive the point home.
Lila is this manipulative mastermind? Lets make it so every single person believes her and she actually has multiple identities.
Gabriel is actually redeemable because his motive is saving his wife, Lets have him Monologue in nearly EVERY episode that this is the reason. Who cares if all his other actions go against this noble goal and that he only shows Adrien care when he wants to manipulate him.
Oh people are judging our stuff without seeing the end, lets make an episode (several) calling out that criticisms.
I guess we can all stop pretending that this finale isn't exactly what it says on the tin now that the writers have kindly destroyed any and all defenses for this sorry excuse of writing. How does one mess up so badly. Seriously.
