#zagulous fandom

[miraculosus]

Hiiii @sunsunnysideup it’s me! Your ashville secret santa (again)! Back at it with more sweet LadyNoir 🥰 I hope they bring you joy and you have/had a happy Christmas. Btw, you haven’t seen the last of me.. look out for bonus content in the server later :P

[ilikekidsshows]

Can you elaborate more about how Adrien used to act with Plagg and Nino? I could really use the pick-me-up to help with the mourning of what we lost. 😔

---

Adrien used to be just so familiar with Nino. Whenever they hung out together, the chances of one of them having their arm around the other's shoulder were pretty high. Adrien doesn't have this ease of comforting touch with anyone else in the entire cast. In ‘The Bubbler’, when his dad is being a jerk, he practically clings to Nino’s shoulder for comfort. In ‘Animan’ he leans on Nino a lot and is really playful around him. With Nino, Adrien trusts that his touch will be welcomed and his vulnerability or sillier impulses won't be rejected. In the original show, Adrien can be himself with Nino.

Similarly, Nino has some insecurity over not appearing cool enough. He came across as an aloof loner in 'Origins', earphones on and not making contact with his classmates. Him taking a chance on Adrien, seeing him almost get isolated due to who he knows, helped him open up too. He never appears that standoffish in the show again, and he's able to open up to Adrien about his crush on Marinette and let him help him in 'Animan'. And, considering how easily he moved on, this wasn't some big problem that was really bothering Nino that he absolutely had to get off his chest, he can talk to Adrien about inconsequential, embarrassing stuff. The trust there is real.

With Plagg, Adrien is the most honest he is with anyone in the show. Plagg knows every secret he keeps from anybody else. He talks to Plagg about things that upset him instead of pretending to be fine. They tease each other. When they played the piano together in ‘Puppeteer 2’, it was one of the most heartwarming scenes in the series.

[miraculosus]

Merry Christmas @sunsunnysideup ‼️🎄🔔🎁🍾‼️ for you, LadyNoir being silly and cute in a photobooth :3

I drew this as part of the Secret Santa exchange in frostedpuffs’s lovely Ashville Discord Server!

[ilikekidsshows]

The Totally Spies-ification of Adrien

Okay, it's been long enough that I can actually discuss how Adrien's slavery is depicted in the show without anger-fueled exaggerations and hyperbole. I want to discuss how Miraculous treats Adrien's slavery very flippantly and how it is, like everything in this show post-retool, all about Marinette. The show has a lot of stuff that hints that the writers intend for Adrien to be viewed a very certain way. I believe the writers made Adrien a slave for Marinette’s benefit and I will explain how I came to this conclusion.

I’ve joked before about how Astruc has worked on Totally Spies, “one of the kinkiest cartoons ever made”. I’d like to tackle this idea and how it relates to Miraculous more seriously. I’d like to tackle the topic of titillation and how it relates to how this show approaches slavery with such flippancy. My claim is that Adrien being a slave is not meant to be horrifying, which is why the story doesn't treat it as such; it's meant to be titillating.

I usually don't use Read Mores, since they can lead to broken links later, but this is really long. Strap in, folks.

Titillation for the context of this analysis means “content with the intention to excite romantically or sexually”, basically it’s about “kinky” stuff. The purpose of talking about sexuality in relation to Miraculous is not to paint the writers as some kind of fiends, but to present the fact that many teenagers are curious about romance and sex and will think about sex unprompted. This means titillating content in cartoons doesn’t even need to be related to sex to be titillating. And Astruc has a history of putting titillating stuff in his work, with Totally Spies being a very notable example of how you can include non-sexual titillating content in a kids’ show.

It all comes down to expected audience reactions. Adrien is meant to be sexy. I don’t mean that in a “the writers think this is sexy” way, but a “the writers think the projected audience of straight teenage girls will think this is sexy” way. He gets put into bondage three times in ‘Copycat’, ‘Anti-Bug’ and ‘Reverser’ and all three times the camera seems to like to show him off. He is meant to be an object of attraction for the audience. The people criticizing this show have been pointing out how Ladybug's costume accentuates her butt for years, but this is not something that occurs with just Ladybug. When he isn't posing for the viewers, Cat Noir gets whacked around by Akuma’s a lot, but a lot of the time it ends with him in a prone position that is also titillating, in ‘Pixelator’ it goes as far as having his butt jut out. However, the idea that Cat Noir is the one who gets hit when an Akuma needs to show off how dangerous they are is also part of the power dynamic where Marinette or Ladybug gets to show off, so it’s not purely for titillation, which is why other examples, like ‘Stormy Weather’ are more comedic.

It’s likely that Adrien-as-Adrien doesn’t get to participate in the show’s slapstick much, since that aspect of the character is presented as the perfect beauty, a role usually reserved for female characters who only ever get a little bit flustered or banged up to make sure they keep looking attractive. Marinette screams "waack" and runs face first into a wall in the same episode where the silliest thing Adrien gets to do is sneeze (Mr Pigeon). Adrien is meant to be attractive, sexy, titillating, in different ways in his different forms. As Cat Noir he is more active and more sexy, as Adrien he’s more passive and pretty, much like how female love interests can fall into these categories. It’s the Betty and Veronica dichotomy; in the Archie franchise Betty and Veronica are shown as the wholesome and sexy romance options and the reason the writers go out of their way not to resolve the love triangle is to keep the appeal of these both options going. People’s tastes differ, so it would alienate some audiences to pick one over the other. With Miraculous they solved the problem by having the two romance options be the different identities of a single character.

Frankly, as of the season five finale, Adrien is approaching “sexy lamp” levels of replicating sexist ways of writing a female character but just changing the gender. What else do you call him lying on the floor in despair while his love interest gets his superpowers and uses them to beat up his abusive father, while somehow being perfectly fine and happily kissing Marinette later after said father is dead and gone? Adrien’s trauma is debilitating when it serves the writers’ purposes, but stops being a problem as soon as they need him to smile and look pretty. The main reason Adrien’s trauma is so inconsistent is so that he can act as Marinette’s trophy so that Marinette has somebody to kiss in the final shot. If Adrien was despairing about not being good enough for her, or grossly crying about being an orphan, Marinette wouldn’t have a fun time kissing him. And if Marinette isn’t having fun, the members of the audience projecting onto her aren’t having fun either.

Speaking of how Adrien’s depiction relates to Marinette, here comes the controversial part of this post: while Marinette is not depicted as a literal slave owner in-story, narratively, she is very much treated as Adrien's owner from a meta perspective. We, the viewers, are meant to see Adrien as Marinette's property, and the twist of Adrien being a part of a slave race in a dynamic where Marinette holds all the cards is meant to be a good thing. We have been primed to view everything about Adrien to actually be about Marinette, because Marinette is the center of the universe of Miraculous and Adrien belongs to her because he’s the main character’s love interest. Adrien being revealed to be a slave that Marinette could control but then chooses to “merely” manipulate is meant to be glorifying to Marinette and titillating to the viewer. I will elaborate.

Marinette has been incredibly possessive of Adrien since day one and she is only occasionally depicted as being in the wrong about this, when she goes too far by the show’s standards. She stalks Lila and Adrien whenever she sees them hanging out together and she’s unreasonably jealous of Kagami. The only time she is depicted as being in the wrong is not when she's sniffing Adrien's pillow after breaking into his room, but when she actually bullies Kagami out of jealousy, and even that is depicted as more of an unfortunate misunderstanding than Marinette actively doing something wrong. Marinette is more sympathetic towards Kagami when she finds out she and Adrien aren't as close as she thought, that Kagami’s pursuit of Adrien is more hopeless than hers. Basically, Marinette is only in the wrong because Kagami isn't a threat, not because she was doing anything wrong by bullying her to defend her “territory”.

This gets flipped near the end of the season, though. When Adrien and Kagami do start dating, it's depicted as this big tragedy even more so than Master Fu losing his memories. Master Fu going missing is an afterthought, while Adrien choosing someone else over Marinette is the big “darkest hour” moment of the season three mid-finale, the cliffhanger moment of her crying in Luka’s arms while all hope is lost. Marinette isn’t directly crying about this, she is crying from “all the pressure”, but Marinette breaking down happens immediately after a scene of Kagami leaning in to kiss Adrien that has a somber dirge playing in the background. The first part of the finale has everything going wrong at the end; Master Fu is missing, Chloé gets willingly Akumatized, Marinette breaks down, and Kagami leans in to kiss Adrien. These scenes being put closely together is telling us that these are all bad things to happen.

Adrien ending up with Marinette is a given, but it's also taken for granted. Every girl with an interest in Adrien is depicted as an antagonist, while Marinette can do whatever she wants in pursuit of Adrien and will still be morally correct. Chloé and Lila, even Kagami to a degree, are villainized for their attraction to Adrien in a way Nathaniel, Luka or Zoé are not with their attraction to Marinette. Chloé and Lila are full-blown villains while Luka and Zoé are some of the most selfless members of the cast. Kagami is aggressive and socially awkward in a way that is used to justify Marinette's initial distrust and dislike of her (in ‘Ikari Gozen’ Alya voices her pity towards Marinette for having to spend time with her) while Nathaniel is just the pitiful bullied loner who’s still a liked member of the class friend group. Girls who want Adrien are bad for trespassing on Marinette’s territory and trying to “steal” something that “belongs” to Marinette.

The writers thinking Adrien belongs to Marinette is also not just subtext. Later in season five, when Marinette and Adrien finally start dating, Marinette even outright states that Adrien “kinda does a little” belong to her when she’s scared that Zoé has a crush on him. The fumbling of the line means that the writers are aware of how toxic it is to consider your partner your property, but they want to include that sentiment anyway, because that’s how they view the situation. Marinette’s boyfriend is her property and other people can’t even look at her property. ‘Emotion’ continues on this increased possessiveness by having the entire Marinette plot happen because she can’t conceive Adrien keeping things from her, because he isn’t allowed privacy from her while Marinette lying to Adrien (or Cat Noir) is a show staple.

This same attitude of Adrien not being allowed to have romantic options outside of Marinette has also been in the fandom for years. Every time a new female character was introduced, there was a worry that she’d “try to steal Adrien from Marinette”. Marinette and Adrien are endgame, the writers know this and the fandom knows this. The characters don't know this, but it doesn't matter because Adrien was already seen as Marinette's (future) boyfriend even back in season one when he barely knew her. And this attitude the writers and audience have is extended to the characters more and more as the show goes on, as almost every single character becomes an Adrinette shipper in support of Marinette in season five, while no one thinks to ask Adrien what he thinks about this. Only once, in ‘Desperada’ did Alya suggest that Adrien could make his own choice on who to date, but it was implied the choice should be Marinette specifically (Marinette smiles at this, while Kagami frowns). The cast is lucky the writers have decided Adrien already is Marinette's, or he’d be really uncomfortable.

Season five episode ‘Pretension’ goes as far with this as having Marinette basically ask Gabriel for permission to be with Adrien, convinced that she and Adrien can be together with no problems if she can just get him to approve of her. And then Gabriel tells her he’s promised Adrien to Kagami. You know, like a piece of property women were treated as before women were allowed to live without a man to control them. The finale then ultimately does have Gabriel agree to hand Adrien over to Marinette by dying and leaving her in charge of Adrien. Just because she uses the privilege to do some things for Adrien’s benefit doesn’t make what happened any less of a patriarchal transaction. In fact, the writers wrote it that way on purpose, with the knight and princess parallels they set up between Marinette and Adrien earlier in the show being something they are prominently proud of (the “reverse fairytale” as they put it). Adrien is the princess the dashing hero Marinette gets to earn with her feats of bravery; he’s handed to her like a piece of property and Marinette is too happy with her acquisition to even be outraged on Adrien’s behalf. And Adrien wasn’t even allowed to know about any of this, instead it gets handled solely between Marinette and Gabriel, like his opinion on the matter didn’t even matter. And why would his opinion matter, since he already is ready to promise himself to Marinette, even as the writers deny him the agency to actually make such a promise.

The goal of making it obvious that Adrien is cool with being objectified like this is probably why they make Adrien so obsessed with Marinette in season five, constantly repeating her name to himself and saying stuff like: “I can’t stop thinking about you” in ‘Pretension’. They need to drive it home to the audience exactly how okay Adrien is with everyone forcing him to be with Marinette. After all, you can’t force the willing. As of ‘Confrontation’, Adrien’s official goals for the future are: “I love Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” I guess, from the perspective of the writers, the childhood dream of wanting to be what his parents wanted from ‘Wishmaker’ wasn’t sad because of Adrien’s lack of agency; it was sad because he wasn’t forsaking all of his personal pursuits for Marinette specifically. As far as the writers are concerned, Adrien should only care about Marinette and nothing else.

This same entitlement is also present in Ladybug and Cat Noir's relationship. Every time Cat Noir is upset with Ladybug, like in Frozer, Glaciator, Syren, The New York Special or even Kuro Neko, they never talk about what caused it. This is especially blatant in cases where Ladybug has wronged Cat Noir personally, like Kuro Neko or the NY Special, where she never has to face up to what she did wrong because Cat Noir comes back because she “needs him”.  Cat Noir will always come back to her without her having to do anything because she is the main character and she says she needs him. He exists for her and her needs. He exists for her; it’s just another way he’s hers.

Speaking of how Adrien is treated affects Marinette, even Adrien’s trauma actually belongs to her in the writing.  I pointed out earlier that Adrien’s trauma shows up when the writers need to put him out of commission, but disappears as soon as he needs to be Marinette’s trophy, but it goes further than just inconsistency. The early seasons spend several episodes on how Adrien is being locked up by his father and unable to hang out with his friends and, between him and Marinette, Marinette is the one shown to be more upset and hurt by this. They don’t do this in every episode, as ‘The Bubbler’ actually does a phenomenal job of making Adrien’s upset actually about him, but the big point in ‘Glaciator’ is that Marinette is so upset that she can’t see Adrien that she accidentally leaves Cat Noir on read so he’s upset about that. Adrien is only upset because he didn’t get attention from Marinette, while Adrien’s literal abuse at the hands of his father is only important because it makes Marinette upset. Even Adrien himself gets in on this action in ‘Conformation’ when the writers go as far as having Adrien chastise himself of not being more worthy of Marinette’s love when his dad is once again busy ruining his life. Even Adrien himself makes his abuse about Marinette; him being abused is bad because it’s inconveniencing Marinette and inconveniencing Marinette makes him less worthy of her.

‘Cat Blanc’ is possibly the worst offender of all, though. This episode should be all about how Adrien is abused by Gabriel, culminating with Gabriel turning him into a monster that destroys the world. And yet, what is the episode actually about? It’s about Marinette. The worst thing that could happen to Adrien is about Marinette. Only Marinette gets to remember or even know about the possibility of Cat Noir getting Akumatized and only Marinette is traumatized by it happening. After all that the writers later dare to use this event that didn’t actually happen anymore, that Adrien doesn’t know about, to justify him giving his powers to Marinette, because he’s “scared of getting Akumatized” when something like that has never happened as far as he knows. But the writers had him reason this way anyway, because apparently the culmination of Marinette’s character development in the show means taking Adrien’s power as her own and then failing to win even with that at her disposal.

Another note about ‘The Bubbler’ that has to be pointed out is that it’s also the first example of Marinette being presented as good for Adrien simply because she treats him better than Gabriel. The final scene of Marinette giving Adrien his best birthday present yet and letting him think it comes from Gabriel is done to show how selfless Marinette is by letting Adrien keep thinking good things about his abuser. This idea that Marinette is morally good simply because she’s better than pond scum Gabriel is also present in the season five finale, where Marinette manipulates, gaslights and keeps important information from her abused slave boyfriend. Marinette is presented as being in the right because at least she didn’t literally control him with a magical geas like Gabriel did and gave him the object with which to do so (while notably not telling him what it does). Marinette will do the bare minimum of not taking literal ownership of Adrien and we’re meant to see her as a paragon of goodness for it, while she still has no respect for Adrien’s autonomy and hasn’t had any since the show started.

The way the Sentimonster “reveal” is handled shows this utter lack of respect for Adrien’s autonomy that the writers, and Marinette by extension, have. The reveal is not for Adrien, but for Marinette, just like every other piece of Adrien has been made to be about Marinette. Marinette gets to know and she gets to decide if Adrien gets to know, and she decides “no”. She will manipulate him and lie to him to keep him happy for herself, she will keep important information about him to herself that he might never find out if anything happens to her, because Adrien is hers and no one else’s and she has the right to make that decision because the world revolves around her because the world of Miraculous was created to be her playground. “Adrien” is just a toy on that playground for Marinette to play with as the writers see fit.

Now we’re coming back to Adrien’s role as the sexy, titillating love interest character that I talked about at the start of this essay. If Marinette granting Adrien the bare minimum of freedoms as a slave while manipulating him “for his own good” is meant to be a good thing, why is Adrien even a slave? Well, outside of the writers wanting to add a plot twist that doesn’t come with any messy plot they’d have to write about characters other than Marinette, Adrien being a slave is also meant to be titillating. What really is magical super slavery than very, very off the wall bondage and power play stuff? The idea that Marinette could rob her love interest of his free will with ease but won’t because she cares about him so much is very empowering in two different ways. It gives Marinette all the power in the relationship and it makes her out to be such a good person that even having ultimate power over another person won’t corrupt her. Adding to that, we have Adrien’s people pleaser abuse victim personality, which makes him fawn over the people he loves. If Marinette ever wanted to have control over Adrien, Adrien would give it to her of his own volition, no need for magical super slavery or unbreakable geases.

As I stated earlier, Marinette is meant to be the point of view main character the audience of teen girls projects themselves onto. So, really, Adrien’s slavery and abuse responses are all about that fantasy of having a cute boy you have all the power over but not needing to use it because the boy is so nice and devoted to you anyway. Adrien really is “perfect”, the perfect object of attraction, a being who technically has free will but whose free will you never have to take into account because he’s been designed and trained to value other people’s wants and needs over his own.

Marinette doesn't literally own Adrien within the story, but the writers make it very clear that they think she should. In fact, in all ways except the literal, she already does.

[ilikekidsshows]

What pokemon do you think the miraculous kids would have? :o

---

Oh, this is a good question! I love thinking about what Pokémon Types would suit different characters the best.

Frankly, I think Marinette’s thing would really be Pokémon Contests, which would mean that she wouldn’t be too likely to settle on a single Type. She definitely would have the required planning and dedication required to obtain her own Feebas and evolve it to Milotic to function as the star of her Contest team. My experience says Rapidash is also an excellent Contest Pokémon for Beauty Category Contests.

If Marinette was a battle trainer, though, she’d be obsessed with finding a Type/Pokémon with no weaknesses. So she’d have stuff like Spiritomb, Dragapult, Aggron or Aegislash. The thing about Marinette is that, even as a gym leader, she’d try to minmax her team to try to remove any weaknesses, so expect weird stuff like Fire Types with Grass Knot to take out Water Types. The type she’s most likely to specialize in is Steel Types, I think, due to their absolutely absurd amount of resistances. Once again, we come to Aggron or Aegislash as possible Pokémon for her. I also see Mawile, Empoleon or Lucario suiting her. The Lucario would have started as a Riolu, and would be the Tikki equivalent.

Adrien is so very, very likely to gravitate towards Dark Types due to how they often get misunderstood as evil omens. I absolutely see him having an Absol and an Incineroar, the two go-to misunderstood Dark Types. A Zorua or Zoroark would also be thematically a perfect match for him, due to his own ability to change himself to try to please those around him. The Impidimp line would also suit him, because Adrien likes little imps (in a Pokémon setting, I’d see Plagg as an Impidimp rather than a cat Pokémon). He would have very likely started with an Eevee he then lovingly raised into an Umbreon.

Alya is a seeker of truth and she loves discovering new knowledge, so I see her with Psychic Type Pokémon that are associated with knowledge and intelligence, like Alakazam, Orbeetle and Musharna. The Musharna would be the Trixx, since it has the ability to create illusions. I would also give her a Starmie due to its ability to emit radio waves (haha, Lady Wifi reference). Alya also gets an Exeggutor because its theme is “getting along with your siblings”, but we’ll break the pattern a bit and give her the Alolan Exeggutor, because I have other plans for the regular one.

Nino is the character most likely to remain calm in any situation, and the Psychic Type has a move literally called Calm Mind, so he’s another one I’d match with the Psychic Type. He’d have both a Gardevoir and a Gallade to work in tandem to match his balanced but protective personality. In addition he’d have the skateboard buddy Pokémon Alolan Raichu. I also see Nino with a Slowpoke/Slowbro due to his transformation from an unmotivated person to someone who really wants to help others, which is something the Slowbro transformation does for Slowpoke too. Nino also gets the regular Exeggutor for the “getting along with your siblings” theming. Slowbro would be the Wayzz equivalent.

Chloé gets Steel Types like Marinette for those parallels. The Steel Type comes with some really fitting picks, like the Pawniard line that goes with her obsession over status, and Tinkatink, whose hammer keeps getting bigger like the writers keep hammering the point about Chloé. Chloé’s partner Pokémon is Togedemaru, who’s cute but prickly and gets into territory disputes over electricity. It’s perfect for the Pollen equivalent. I’d also give her a Copperajah because that Pokémon treats looks as a reason to boast. Meowth is a good match for that Pokémon's association with wealth, though, I’d pick specifically the Galarian variant both for the typing and its more aggressive temperament.

Kagami gets Dragon Types, not because of her Miraculous, but because Dragon Type trainers are often really classy and rather prideful, much like Kagami herself. There’s a kind of legacy factor to how many Dragon Type users present themselves, using Dragon Types is basically the Pokémon equivalent of the family trade. Much like with her fencing legacy, Kagami would train Dragon Types with dedication and she’d be incredibly good at it and proud of her accomplishments. A Kommo-o is my number one pick for all of these reasons, since it’s a Dragon/Fighting Type. Garchomp is another strong pick. Salamence and Dragapult are the perfect fit color scheme-wise, while Haxorus is a very classic Dragon. Kommo-o would be the Longg equivalent.

Luka is well matched with Normal Types, because the Normal Type is usually matched with people who have their life figured out, or people who are into cute things. Both of these descriptions are pretty apt for Luka. For the party makeup, a Loudred would be great for its resemblance to an amp. An Ambipom would be fun because it looks like the Pokémon most likely to be able to play an instrument. The Jigglypuff line is great for its pronounced cuteness and connection with the Sing move. I’d love to give him a Drampa for how helpful he is a person, and I think a Drampa would fit the Sass role. An Obstagoon would also be a fun pick, because it’s the punk rock Pokémon and Luka’s style is rather Punk Rock.

Rose would have Fairy Types because this girl has an aesthetic and she’s committed to it. Clefairy is definitely a given, it’s the go-to Fairy Type Pokémon and would serve as Daizzi’s equivalent. Granbull is also a good pick to match her hobby as a member of a punk band. Considering the lyrics of the song she sings in the band, Galarian Rapidash is another way too fitting pick. A Mawile isn’t quite her style but would suit how she’s also not all she seems, how she’s tougher than she looks. The final member of her team would be a Mimikyu because I’m giving Juleka Ghost Types and a Mimikyu is a fun Pokémon to share between the two.

Speaking of Juleka and Ghost Types, the match is obvious; Juleka loves creepy things, so creepy Pokémon would be perfect for her. As I stated in Rose’s segment, Juleka would have a Mimikyu. Mismagius would suit her aesthetic the best, with Sableye being another good aesthetic pick. Sableye would also be good for the Roarr role. Gourgeist would be a fun pick with their similar hairstyles, while Sandygast would be a fun pick for the environmental horror it represents.

For Alix, I’d pick the fiery Fire Type because it works both for her own spunky attitude as well as design-wise. She also has an attitude well-suited for a Fighting Type trainer, so we’ll split the difference with one of my favorite Fire-Fighters, Blaziken. She would also have a Cinderace, because I still remember that interview about Scorbunny’s sporty personality type and that’s just perfect. It would also be a good stand-in for Fluff. I’d also give her a Coalossal because it’s huge but peaceful, so it’s the perfect balance to Alix, who’s small but spunky. Considering her role as the last resort Miraculous user, a Volcarona would also be a good match for her, since Volcarona’s mythology is that it can serve as a substitute sun during extremely cold conditions, a type of savior. Lastly, she’d have a Charizard, because of course she would.

Max would have a Rotom, because Rotom Dex reminds me a bit of Markov in how it looks. Electrode and Magneton are really iconic device Pokémon, so those are good picks for him too and a stoic Magneton would also be haughty enough to fit the Kaalki role. A Heliosk would be a good pick for its compatibility with machines, since it can generate usable electricity. I’d also like to give him a Dracozolt or Artozolt for that “what has science wrought?” factor. Pawmot would be a fitting fighter gamer-like Pokémon for him to have due to its Fighting Typing.

Kim would have Fighting Types. He’s a meathead whose interests include dares and all forms of physical exercise. He’d definitely prefer Pokémon that can keep up with him. He’d have a Hitmon, and I’m tempted to pick Hitmontop for how insane the stat balancing is to get one, which would show off his dedication to his training. He’d also have a Pangoro, which would signify his tendency of falling in with the wrong crowd earlier in the series. Riolu, in turn, would show off his hidden depths of kindness, and Riolu evolving into Lucario would coincide with his development into a kinder person. This duality of his character is also why Scrafty suits him, since it’s a ruffian who’s also protective of its friends and territory. This temperamental Pokémon would also serve as Xuppu. Heracross is the beetle fighting Pokémon, it’s a Pokémon directly tied into a hobby, so it’s a fun pick for Kim.

A fun fact about Ivan: before Luka’s introduction, he was the show’s go-to music guy. He tried to sing his love confession to Mylène. So we need a music-themed Pokémon with the Type to match Ivan. It’s actually the Grass Type that has a lot of music-themed Pokémon, so stuff like Ludicolo, Rillaboom and Maractus would be great. You have big and strong-looking Pokémon and cute Pokémon, since I do also think Ivan would like cute things (like Mylène). I think his team would also fit stuff like Abomasnow, Whimsicott and Dhelmise, with Dhelmise’s surprising strength being the Stompp equivalent.

Mylène is easy: the cutest, tiniest stuff you can find, with something big and scary that’s actually a huge sweetheart. Mylène is also the type to raise Pokémon from an egg/baby, so picking a type with a lot of baby Pokémon makes sense, which is Fairy Type. So, Mylène will have raised a Cleffa, Igglybuff, Togepi, Azurill and Mime Jr. from a baby, with Granbull as the Ivan reference and a Tinkaton as a reference to her own surprising strength.

Nathaniel is a bit on the harder side, since the only real artist Pokémon for the longest time was Smeargle, so I guess we’ll just build a team around Smeargle, aka Normal Types. Snorlax or Ursaring is a go-to tough-looking Normal Type that Nathaniel would pick in order to get taken more seriously as a trainer. A Furfrou might be fun for him to style, along with Cinccino. Finally, Dubwool would be a good reference to Ziggy because of the color scheme.

I’d give Sabrina a Type that compliments Chloé’s steel, due to her basing so much of herself around supporting Chloé. As such, Water and Ground Types would work best to cover the weaknesses of the team I gave to Chloé. I decided to go with Water Type, due to there being some thematically appropriate Pokémon in that Type. Seismitoad is likely to be her ace, due to the powerful dual typing it shares. It’s also extra appropriate cause it kinda looks like it’s wearing a police uniform like her dad. Another thematic pick is Simipour, which is modeled after one of the three wise monkeys, who guide someone on a path to avoiding evil thoughts and deeds. The opposite of this would be a Crawdaunt, who’s a bit of a bully Pokémon, and Sharpedo, who is literally called “The Bully of the Sea”. A Wimpod that evolves into Golisopod, meanwhile, would be a good match for her path of self-discovery and finding her own worth outside of Chloé.

It was hard to settle on a main type for Lila, since I feel she’s too duplicitous to make herself predictable like that. However, she’s also kinda lazy, so she’d go for the easiest options. As such Malamar would suit, as it’s a common Pokémon abused for nefarious deeds. However, considering the effort needed to evolve one, she’d most likely have stolen it instead of training it herself from an Inkay. Both of Malamar’s Types also make sense with Lila’s character, the Dark Type matched Gabriel, who she’s modeling herself after, and Adrien, whose “dark mirror” she appeared to be in her first appearances, while the Psychic Type matched Alya, who many fans noticed parallels with. Then I remembered that Lila has been connected to scorpions on this blog before and thought: “which Type has more dual types with Poison?” and so Dark Type it was. Of course, she gets Drapion, the big mean scorpion in the flesh, but I’ll also match her with an Alolan Muk that she uses to wow people with stories about her “travels”. I also want to give her Scrafty and Houndoom for type coverage against Marinette’s Steel Types, symbolizing how Marinette doesn’t really know how to match Lila in many situations. A Zorua or a Zoroark would be a good a good addition too, to keep the illusion/fox allusions with her character.

I also had a lot of ideas for Gabriel, even though he isn’t a kid, so I'll cover him too. Gabriel would have a Hydreigon, because I associate that Pokémon with absolute scum of the earth abusive dads. He’s very likely to utilize Dark Types in general because he’s an edgelord who calls out “Dark Wings Rise,” as his super transformation tagline. Said Hydreigon would be his ace and it would have a maximum powered Frustration Move, and it would be the Nooroo. Other Pokémon to accompany his Hydreigon ace could include Houndoom (a literal attack dog to match his attack dog parenting), an Obstagoon (because he’s such an obstruction, am I right?) and Morpeko for its two-facedness. A Drapion would also suit his team, due to its intimidating nature, though a Honchkrow would also suit in this role.

Another possible Type for Gabriel to specialize in is Dragons, due to their perceived power and prestige, but I attached those to the Tsurugis and, while I don’t mind the more numerous heroes overlapping, the few villains should have more variety.

[ilikekidsshows]

Top 5 most understandable canon reasons for a character to get akumatized (excluding Marinette's/Adrien's akumatizations cause they'd probably be at the top).

Reflekta: LET THE GIRL BE IN A PHOTOSHOOT. IT'S SUCH A SMALL THING BUT APPARENTLY IT'S TOO MUCH TO ASK FROM SOME PEOPLE

Frozer: The category of "got royally screwed up by Chloé" has so many characters, but I decided to limit myself to one per same type of Akuma motive, and here we have a guy who lost his job, had something he valued be destroyed, and he's defending an important public facility from being turning into a private luxury location that will never be used.

The Mime: He got set up by someone who he thought was his friend so that said friend could steal his job. If I was him, I wouldn't have forgiven the guy.

Stormy Weather: She was publically humiliated in a rigged contest, all done on purpose. She can go off.

Santa Claws: The abusive father of the one person who treated him nice that evening accused him of committing a crime for wanting to help his son. Anyone wanting to deck Gabriel is fully justified.

[ilikekidsshows]

Rate the Drip: Adrien Agreste

Rate the Drip ask game

“I need eye bleach” | “ Garbage! Just straight trash” | “That aint it” | “I see you are a background character.” | “ The sex appeal of a celery stick” | “Mid” | “ Not my style, but I respect it.” |“Solid fit.” | “Understood the Assignment” | “Straight Fire fit” | “ Main character Drip” | “ Dripped out of his mind” | “Stealing yo girl/man and all your friends. |

It's fine, as far as casual wear goes. There's a bit of duality going on here, with it being so put-together with the whole two-layers of shirts and belt with the pants while also being relaxed with his top shirt being open. Adrien is tightly controlled but approachable.

The true genius of this outfit comes out when you match it next to Marinette's, however. Our two main leads' civilian wear are perfectly matched piece to piece while their colors are picked to contrast each other.

White versus black, black versus white, blue versus pink, polka dots versus stripes. This is the good shit that caught my attention when I first started watching this show.

[ilikekidsshows]

Okay, I think I got it.

I've said before that we need a "genwunner" like term for Miraculous fans like me who loved the original show and concept but who then dropped the show because of the retooling that started with season four. I've figured out what type of Miraculous content appeals to these fans, so I propose the term

Zagulous Fans

Because clearly the show's quality went downhill for us as soon as Zag became less involved with the writing, and the movie that is specifically his vision is more to our tastes than the current show. Therefore, we're fans of Miraculous content Jeremy Zag had direct creative input in.

You're welcome.