#mlb pretention

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[paracosmicat]

Further proof that Nino and Felix would get along: They both only needed one episode to get with their girlfriends in a stark contrast to the main couple AND refused to hide hero identities because their relationship is built on trust

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I LOVE Y’ALL ALREADY

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Sometimes a family can be a boy, his cool dragon girlfriend, his cousin/twin/clone, his talking bird, and his mum who possibly probably definitely stabbed a bitch for him

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*Inhales*

Listen

Did Felix constantly push Adrien under the bus in order to secure his own safety and freedom throughout S3 and S4? Yes.

Did he do all of this with the understanding that this short-term damage wouldn’t matter in the long run, because he always planned on coming back for him? Also yes.

A lot of the criticism I’m seeing against his arc recently seems to spark from people not sharing the same experiences he had, of being abused and isolated from his sibling cousin. And while that’s absolutely fine (good for you, that should be the norm), his story actually makes a lot of sense to a lot of people. It’s different from the abuse narratives we’re used to seeing onscreen, with victim profiles that are closer to Adrien and Kagami — people we’re supposed to be rooting for since the very beginning — but it is SO well done and realistic and nuanced I’m actually surprised to be getting this from Miraculous of all shows.

It’s not that Felix’s characterisation changed after Emotion. It’s that we’re finally starting to see the full picture.

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How it started:

How it’s going:

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The thing is: Felix never actually acted out of jealousy. Not even once.

Of course, when I first saw his debut episode, I thought jealousy towards Adrien was the reason he sent that video, but that was a red herring all along: if anything, Felix is jealous of the people in Adrien’s life, because they get to be in Adrien’s life. Even then, the reason behind his actions was to get them akumatised so he could talk to Hawkmoth and strike a deal for the Peacock — “punishing” the other kids was a nice bonus, but it wasn’t his primary motivation.

What he is motivated by is a longing for safety, for freedom, for happiness. Things he strives to create for himself and share with the people he cares about — things he want to gift, not steal. The mean video, the whole business with the Dog, Red Moon — those are simply means to an end, and that end is love.

Kagami is the jealous one.

She doesn’t want to be, but it always comes back. In fact, it is at the core of all of her akumatisations: she wants to be the best, wants her friends to make her a priority, wants a form of love she knows they can’t give her.

Hey Miraculous team, I’ve got a wild concept for you: how about you give her a break from this point onwards please and thank you 😭

It makes her miserable, and she doesn’t want it to make her a bad friend. So she tries again and again to suppress it: rejecting the akuma in Perfection, consolidating bridges that were almost destroyed, burying her feelings in the hope that it will never happen again. Because she hates that part of herself, and how it seems to always find a way to consume her.

You know who should be terrified of this trait, but isn’t? THAT’S RIGHT. FELIX.

Colt’s jealousy is the reason Felix was brought into a world he has no control over; the reason he has known nothing but pain and fear and anger for the first fourteen years of his life. But emotions — a concept he embodies as the Peacock holder — are just that: emotions. What an individual does with their negative feelings is entirely up to them: it does not have to, and should not, result in unbearable harm to others. So when Felix sees Kagami struggling to keep a lid on her own heart, he doesn’t flinch and recoil in terror like one might expect; he finds it admirable.

They are not what their parents made them from; they are not what their parents made them for. They both chose, separately, to break the cycle of abuse, but it’s a hard and messy and painful endeavour, and they only truly succeeded when they found each other and agreed to walk this road together.

So much care and love went into telling this story which is absolutely not getting the appreciation it deserves, but that’s OK. It makes all the difference in the world to these characters and, most importantly, to the children in similar situations who will grow up with their example, and to the adults who get to find some healing through them now.

They made it. So can you. ❤️💜

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Felix often becomes Angry when he hears the word “Monster” since that’s the word Colt called him. However he remains calm when Kagami called him a “Monster” in Emotion.

Any thoughts about this?

I’ve actually been scratching my head over this one for a while! But I think it comes down to a few key parametres.

By the time Kagami confronts him in Emotion, Felix has just snapped what we can only assume is the entirety of Paris out of existence. As far as he’s concerned, all threats to his existence are gone; so the insult doesn’t carry any risk of real harm anymore.

Seriously, look at my child. You can tell from the look in his eyes that he’s feeling a sense of peace for what is probably the first time in his life. GET HIM TO THERAPY

Because yes, Kagami is ready to bludgeon him to death with a sword, but — she’s just like him! She’s only being hostile because she’s hurt and scared, and boy can he relate to that. From his perspective, it’s all just one big misunderstanding! She doesn’t know he’s been doing all of this to protect the three of them yet!

So he immediately brings Adrien back, convinced that will be enough to make her feel happy and safe. Surely she’ll be sooo down to live in this perfect post-apocalyptic world he made for them now. And she’s definitely going to be SO chill about him throwing her other crush best friend into a trashcan!

✨ TADAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!! ✨

But… when we meet the kids again in Pretension, they’re not safe anymore: in fact, they’re literally being hunted for not conforming to the expectations that have been placed upon them since birth (sweet sweet queer-coding, how I love you). So, when Kagami uses the term “Sentimonster” without even thinking about it, the hurt on Felix’s face is immediately apparent. There’s anger there, but it’s not directed at her: he’s angry at his father, at her mother, at Gabriel — the people who created them and continue to abuse them.

This ties back to Felix’s relationship with Adrien and how we were led to believe he might hold some resentment and jealousy towards him, when in fact… not at all! He loves his cousin! He’s willing to destroy the entire world to keep him safe! Their relationship has just been put under so much strain because of the abuse they’ve both been subjected to. And Felix sees this and recognises it for what it is!

The bottomline, I think, is that abused kids lash out sometimes, or don’t stand up for each other as much as they should, or unintentionally hurt each other when they meant to do good. Felix, for all his flaws and his misconceptions as to how the world works, understands this and would never put the blame on Kagami: it’s the adults’ fault, and now they have to heal from it, together.