Miraculous Ladybug - my thoughts.
Hello!
It's been a while, I know. But I come back to rant yet again! I'm sorry for any mistakes in advance - its 2am and the thoughts won't let me sleep so I have to get them out there somewhere. If you don't want to waste your time - skip it. If you actually want to read it, I'll have a cookie waiting for you at the end of this. :3
My journey with MLB.
Miraculous was that one show that I got to know about through a parody of it on polish yt channel called Surreactor. I didn't know what it was about but it looked interesting and that was a point in time when season 3 was just starting to come out. Sooo, as the curious child I was - I gave it a go. And it captured me very easily.
At first all I wanted is for Adrien and Mari to finally get together. I never had big thoughts about it. Then I got bored between new episodes and just... forgot about it.
After some time however I came back to it. It was somewhere around 4th season airing. I returned to it, watched it all over again and it captured me yet again. I completely fell in love with Adrien as character and started to read loads of fanfiction about the two main heroes. I got invested, started to draw the characters in different settings and what not. I started even posting here on tumblr the rants that blew out about Adrien and about Black Cat holders as a whole just because I was frustrated on how little love he got or that I couldn't find any theories that would make sense.
I made new friend, started to plan stories more than I did before, returned to RP with my old friend through messenger and more.
It was a blow of creativity of mine at that time. You maybe you know of "Sky Is The Limit"? That was the point for me where I had so many ideas that I had to do something with at least one of them. Talking about an overload, right?
Season 4 finale - the best finale in this show in my honest opinion. Though I am based so who cares.
The point is - I deeply fell in love with this fandom for the most part.
And then... season 5 happened.
At first I was hooked. Really. I felt that it was going in the right direction and I even wanted to watch it later so I could see it in order.
Oh boy, did I get disappointed. Very disappointed.
I was never a Senti-Adrien fan, let's be real. But the execution? Even worse.
The finale? The fight yea, fun. But why cut out Adrien out of it???
Chloe as mayor? ARE YOU FOR FUCKING REAL? It's losing braincells more and more.
And I know the plot armor was always evident in this show and all.... but i feel like it was knocked up 10 times or more in season 5 to the point it could beat Game of Thrones seasons 7 and 8. (Yeah, I know what should compare two shows where one is fenomenal and the other has always been trash, but you can't argue with me that seasons 7 and 8 weren't rushed and had very poor execution)
To say that I was angry is an understatement. I HATED season 5 with every fiber of my existence. I still do, but I'm far more calm about it than I was originally. Believe it or not.
I saw all the drama in the fandom. When people complained about the show and other people came in to defend it. And I have to say - I can see where both sides are coming from.
To the people who enjoy it, all of it - I'm glad you do! I really am!
However.
I can clearly see where the hate is coming from and anytime I saw a valid critique I couldn't help but agree with it. There were some awesome responses to that critique even from people who do enjoy the show still, but there were always people who I'll call "white knights".
Aka people who will ride-or-die for the show and always say there is nothing wrong with it!
Oh how I hate this way of thinking....
Little message to those white knights - yes there are pure haters that hate just to hate, but in the spectrum of people who are critiquing the show are also people who loved it and got disappointed. When people are angry/dissapointed they usually feel the need to express themselves and forums like Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter, are just perfect for ranting. I have spent fair share in the horse gaming community to know that every flop will have a retaliation and shutting up people will make them only more angry. :|
I stopped liking the show. Why am I coming back to it?
That's a question that started to bother me just as I was going to sleep.
I have watched Hazbin Hotel (Lucifer my beloved) and fell deeply in love with it. I always liked Vivzie's Hellaverse being it Helluva Boss and now Hazbin, but there is something that just came back to me.
I started yet again imagining Adrien and Marinette but in the helllaverse. Or what if I merged hellaverse and Miraculous together in some way. Or other crazy ideas that will never see the light of day.
It's always those two characters for the most part. But the moment those two show up, the rest of Miraculous cast does too.
I fell put of the show. I don't like it. Why do I keep coming back?
My thought is - the fandom and the work it did for the characters.
I have always loved to read fanfiction even it came to miraculous. And it's always SO MANY! With many different variants of the world or entirely different settings. Ofc there are some bad fics, but the good ones are those that captured my heart and made me love the characters even more.
Let's put in some examples (and recommendations if you want to check them out):
Happiness by Somewhere_Out_Here
Once a Thief, always a Thief by @saijspellhart
Bakery Enemies by @buggachat
Heaven in hiding by @livinglittlelie
I'll guess your heart, if you guess mine by PurpleHeartsOne
Chat Blanc's Moon Waltz by @rileyclaw
The comic dubs by PhantomSavage
The little comics like "Passionate Kiss" by @edendaphne
All of these are just very few examples from multitude of content I devoured when I was in the love stage for MLB. And those things are STILL SO GOOD. (You have to check it out if you haven't already)
The point is - the fandom fell in love with the concept and if not that, then the characters. Yes, they aren't perfect. Some would say they are very much Mary Sue-ish. Some would say they are badly written. While the fact is - the characters themselves aren't badly written, the plot is just badly handled.
I can see why people love Marinette, she is quirky, funny and her ideas, while absurd most of the time, they work. And that's fine! She is supposed to be creative and what not. A great friend to have in corner, that for sure :3
Adrien on the other hand is supposed to be a bundle of issues that come with living a sheltered life and the want to be free.
(The movie handled Marinette much better than the show, let's be real here)
Sad fact - the writers of the show couldn't handle all of the potential they set up. But the fandom could and that's what's beautiful in my opinion.
The show may not be a masterpiece but they made some aspects of it so enjoyable and investing (love-square) that other people decided to execute those good things in their own stories and create something else.
The characters are just so easy to put into other stories too. Because they are written in the way they are (even if poorly handled at times) the aspects of them are very flexible, which in turn makes them easy to incorporate into other AUs.
For me it proves that you don't need a very complicated and deep character to make your story memorable. Even tho that certainly helps depending on your story. Miraculous was really lucky it got that creative fandom in the first place.
And this is what is beautiful.
Ending, some plans of mine that who knows if they will see the light of day. :]
This is only for those who are interested what I have been up to and what do i plan with this blog:
I am not quitting tumblr, oh no. I'll be probably reposting some stuff that I like from time to time.
I am returning to write "Sky Is The Limit", however I am completely rewriting it for the.... 7th time? Something like that. I doubt I'll finish it anytime soon at this rate and if I get the need to draw I might draw few characters from there or designs I have planned.
I have a very big project in mind that I might probably make a new blog for. It's still just an idea but I getting closer to actually being made so stay tuned.
I will start posting stuff from Hazbin Hotel. I fell deeply in love with Lucifer's character and you can't unglue me from that duck man!!
Other than that I went to university and I'm enjoying my time here so yeah.
And here is your cookie for reading all that! You're a legend!
(I'm open for any discussions as long as they stay respectful. Feel free to DM me :>)