#thanks thomas

[7yearsofdele]

‘Driving the team forwards.’

Yeah, sometimes quite literally through the other team 💀

Love you Cuti 💙🤍

[fabioquartararhoe]

😐😀🥺

[yolowritter]

A few other lucky accidents in MLB I have noticed:

Nora is a kickboxer, wears those weird armbands, and insists to be called by her ring name. To a martial arts buff, that means she practices Muay Thai and got really serious about the culture, that includes those armbands (called pra jiad) and immense importance for the ring name (in Thailand a Nak Muay will often change their legal name to match, and will ALWAYS include their training camp in their name). It also explains why a bulldozer like her has a trickster name: the ring name is given by fans, and whoever gave it must have decided she looked like a deadly spider but didn't know Anansi is a trickster.

Marinette's grandmother is named Gina Misurati. Because in neither Italy nor France one changes their name to match their spouse (mrs. HUSBAND NAME is a courtesy title), and her bike, a Moto Guzzi V7 Sport (it's identical), has written Misurati on it (it was obviously a reference to Maserati, but they stopped making motorbikes in 1960, and none of their bikes looked like Gina's anyway).

Diplomats have horrible working hours that get worse with higher rank, and diplomat kids are often "weird" and forced to grow up too fast. By happenstance, Lila's first mother is barely home, and Lila shows surprising maturity at the oddest moments (like when she flat-out told Marinette that a boy wasn't worth fighting over and offered to help her with Adrien in exchange of friendship).

Paris didn't have their own city police until 2021. Roger is from the NATIONAL police, meaning he shouldn't answer to the mayor... But he does, so SOMETHING must have happened to cause this transfer of authority.

Felix' outfit is identical to Eton's uniform minus the ridiculous hat and overcoat. I suppose it fits his social standing.

Sabine can use her spatula as a weapon. That spatula is nearly identical to a Monk's Spade, a weapon used in Shaolinquan.

Speaking of martial arts, in Chameleon Lila uses actual MMA techniques to overpower Ladybug, and Felix' claim of using Karate points to Wado Ryu thanks to those dodging moves of his.

And the big missed chance: Savate. Not only it's France's national martial art, Paris is where it was improved in the street fights of the Belle Epoque... But nobody in the show practices it. The old non-sport style includes the ancestor of Parkour, cane fighting (now mostly practiced separatedly as La Canne), garrote (the contribution of Paris' gangs), throws (already present in Paris, where Greco-Roman Wrestling was born and practiced before being rebranded), and elbow and knee strikes. It would be perfect for out heroes, both of them... Yet they don't practice it.

Yeah, it's honestly such a shame that these awesome details/references are just either never used or a one-and-done deal just to make a cool easter egg. And sure, Gina's bike for example could be just that, a cool little character detail. Maybe while the bikes did stop getting made in the 60s, she got herself an old one and re-vamped it as the years went by. Adds flavor to her character. Admittedly I don't know enough to talk about the model, but I trust your skills when it comes to identifying the make. Also, I was always sure that changing your last name to a spouse's (like mrs Dupain-Cheng) is optional, like a courtesy as you said. I don't know enough French people to tell if it's a rare occurance or otherwise, but still a nice tidbit of info I'll file away.

Nora is honestly another prime example of wasting some awesome character building because they can't bother to do the research behind the design. Sure, she looks cool and somebody might have said "give her wrappings on the arms, that's awesome" and the designers went with it, but we clearly see that she is a Martial Arts buff even in the way she talks to Alya and co. Why they never bothered to lean in on that even as a background detail, I'll never know. I know it's unreasonable to expect any group of writers to focus on every single character beat, and that Nora doesn't appear enough to really warrant the focus, but it still would be cool to see even through like, one or two lines from Alya. A reference to the Anansi metaphor you mentioned or a word from Nora about the cultural inspiration. It would have been cool.

Continuing down the martial arts road, I did notice Lila's MMA moves in Chameleon, but it seemed more like a case of the writers/animators deciding on cool moves than them paying proper attention and using the correct style of fighting. Sure, they might have and in that case kudos to whoever greenlight that decision, but it always felt a little accidental to me, just for the sake of the action scene itself, you know? At least with Felix we get a proper explanation, and it does honestly build up his character with a cool detail. Not sure if Karate was the best fit for the reasoning here, but any explanation is a step in the right direction at least.

About Savate...it honestly would be an awesome inclusion. Sure, the heroes fight with their superpowers and weapons most of the time, but some the close-quarters moments like the rooftop scene in "Ladybug" was the perfect chance for Adrien to bust out a good throw at Hawkmoth. Speaking of, one might make the argument of Gabriel using La Canne moves, (and I honestly haven't seen enough to dispute that), but to me it looks like he handles his weapon more like a sword? Sure, fits in nicely with Adrien's fencing allowing him to fight back in a 1 vs 1, but we already have quite a few characters who swordfight this way. Tomoe and Kagami do, as does Adrien like I mentioned. It would have been much more visually interesting to give Gabriel a separate style of bladework, especially since his weapon is in the name. In general, I'd love to see a good knee-cracking kick from Ladybug, so I totally agree with you.

I do love Felix's outfit though. It's a cool reference to those who get it, but also stands on it's own as a cornerstone of his design and adds more to his character and personality. Especially with the entire fandom (me, I'm the fandom) writing about him habitually keeping wrinkles off his suit at all times and staying perfect. I refuse to believe Colt Fathom did not do a number on this kid. But yeah it's also just a cool outfit to put him in, and I appreciate that!

In terms of Roger and the police...I'm going to be frank with you, the show handles that aspect horribly. Sure, you could assume that they answer to Andre because he's the immediate authority figure and also a corrupt politician, but that's first of all not even remotely possibly without serious internal corruption of National Police, and second of all completely unreasonable! The police force's reaction to Akuma attacks used to be a big thing in Season 1. In Origins, they tried fighting Stoneheart on their own. And in Copycat, they try to apprehend "Chat Noir" for stealing the Mona Lisa. There's the seeds of an interesting dynamic between the heroes in masks and the boys in blue! But in Rogercop, they're being made into utter fools! Andre is very obviously under duress when he tells them to apprehend Ladybug and Chat Noir, and they just...start listening to the villain like mindless drones? In Maledictator I can excuse it, his whole powerset revolves around making new "laws" that those he blasts have to follow. Makes sense that Roger and co. would be the first responders and get beamed in 5 minutes flat. But in any case where an authority figure is forcibly giving orders, there is a protocol! A procedure to follow! A plan to be made! But...nothing! The show does absolutely nothing, and then beyond this point the vanish apart from another 2 or 3 times where police officers show up in the background somewhere, or as Akuma goons because we need grunts for an action scene. As much as I love "show don't tell", in this case I'd be happy with tell! A comment from a news report about how police have been instructed to stay out of the Akumas' way and help civilians evacuate is so easy to add, and it would change nothing except making Roger and his team actually usefull! As it stands, the entire concept of a police force exists only the few times Astruc needs it to. And don't even get me started on Chloe's coup of the Captial City of France!! I'm convinced this universe has no goverments, no presidents and no first responders for any situation, I swear...

About Lila's mother, yes! Finally somebody says it! Lila's mother is obviously overworked, she clearly does love her daughter but is physically unable to make time for her! This could be such a cool dynamic to see with Lila's home life, and like you said it perfectly explains why sometimes amidst her psychopathic tendencies there's a moment of unexpected maturity from her. Exploring this even gradually, even with us literally being drip-fed information, would have made Lila a much better character! There are so many layers here that remain unexplored, and I can smell the good content like a bloodhound! Sure is a shame that Thomas never bothered to include any of it... I swear, every fault this show has goes like this:

Cool Idea + Good Introduction + (Botched Everything-Else * No Follow-Up) = Miraculous Ladybug

Can't believe the writers made me do math for this show...or that when S6 releases we'll be able to make the "Six seasons and a movie" joke from Community. At least that's a silver lining...

P.S: I love Sabine's spatula. An elegant weapon, from a more civilized age...

[genderfluid-and-confuzled]

*listens to a song* this slaps

*looks up what the lyrics mean* this slaps

[okaybutmakeitgayer]

Thor: what did you do this weekend?

Loki: I did jack shit

Thor: oh?

Loki: yeah, it’s a weird last name isn’t it, Jack?

Jack Shit: yep

[fl0wer-boy]

Maybe it’s because I’ve watched too many episodes of ghosts, but good lord I would love to be a drag king that only wears regency attire

[sadlittledib]

[duskyducky]