Scrunkly

So… what’s next?

Also idk if I should have included this on the main post or not, but the main reason why Alya doesn’t approve of Ladybug at first is (along with her not liking secret identities) she feels that Ladybug’s Miracle Cure/Miraculous Ladybugs are causing the city to become more complacent, expecting everything to get fixed rather than trying to protect themselves. Just like Chat Noir’s Wildcats lend credence to Alya’s concerns over his destructive potential, Marinette eventually having to give up the Miracle Cure kinda prove Alya’s point, even if she’s still wrong about wanting to expose them. (MTS has a lot of conflicts where both sides have a point/there isn’t a clear “bad guy” in the argument.)

Alright, breaking out of my procrastination bubble to finally do:

Alya MTS!

As per usual, the four categories:

1. General Info

2. Personality

3. Key Relationships

4. Character Growth

1. General Info

I kinda feel like I should preface this with a massive “hear me out”, because her character goes in a VERY different direction from most Alyas.

Not only does she only become Marinette’s best friend at the end of season 2 (as both characters have a lot they need to do first), but “Alya the fangirl” isn’t really a part of her MTS character. She still runs a blog, but it probably won’t be titled “The Ladyblog” (which is sad, because that name is ICONIC), because she focuses on the two heroes pretty equally, and doesn’t want to seem “unprofessional”.

Basically, we took the “Alya is sometimes presented as the practical voice of reason character” and “Alya initially wants to find Ladybug’s identity”, along with the MTS LB and CN getting into some mishaps early in their career, and made her much more skeptical and critical of the heroes. She doesn’t think the safety of the city should be placed in the hands of two strange teenagers (she especially doesn’t trust Chat Noir, since his power is pretty dangerous and he’s pretty reckless with it at first) and wants to find out all of their secrets. Is she in the right? Not completely, but she isn’t 100% wrong to have criticisms of the heroes either.

She fills a pretty interesting role in the earlier portion of the show, where she is technically an (initial) antagonist to the heroes, but isn’t a bad person (in fact, she’s fairly altruistic), as a contrast to Chloe (Marinette’s initial civilian antagonist) and Felix (Adrien’s initial civilian antagonist) who are more morally grey/not concerned with doing “the right thing”.

This is also a bit more of a minor note, but while Alya’s family still moved to France from Martinique, they did so much earlier than they did in the original, (likely when Alya was around ten), so she has lived in France for a few years now.

2. Personality

As I mentioned, this iteration of Alya is a bit more grounded, and tries to be logical and mature. She cares a lot about morality, ethics, and safety, with helping people being her top priority. Her fixation on the truth extends to this, as she believes that knowledge is the only way people can take care of themselves. She’s still very passionate, but tries to direct her energy into trying to be a “legitimate journalist” and often forgets to just let herself be a kid.

Her viewpoints do lack a bit of nuance at first, as she doesn’t realize how important secrets can be, and can get a bit too caught up in her own judgments (in hindsight, MTS Marinette is a lot more understanding than her canon counterpart due to her new backstory, while MTS Alya is kind of the reverse). It’s worth noting that a lot of Alya’s more intense traits are amplified by her fear. Having your city bombarded with demon butterfly possessed supervillains with your only source of protection being mysterious animal-themed teenagers with overwhelming power isn’t very good for your mental health.

Because of these fixations, she often struggles with the more “normal teenager stuff” like friendships and romance. Her blunt nature also makes it difficult to socialize, but her earnest, loyal, honest, and slightly awkward demeanor make her quite endearing once you get to know her (this might not be completely essential to one’s understanding of her character, but MTS Alya likely falls somewhere on the autistic spectrum).

3. Key Relationships

Marinette: These two have occasionally crossed paths in their more recent years (Nora would frequently take Alya with her to the same gym Kim and Marinette go to together), but never really noticed each other until now. Alya mostly sees Marinette as the kind but nervous girl who sits next to her, and is especially worried about her safety after Alya realizes that her “new best friend” Lila is bad news. Marinette is still pretty nervous about Alya finding out she’s Ladybug (although she’s stopped trying to find out the heroes’ identities at this point). After the two (unknowingly on Alya’s part) take down Lila and stop her villainy, the two become proper friends. Marinette helps Alya get more accustomed to the more casual aspects of being a teenager, and Alya helps Marinette begin to recover from her friendship issues. They help each other let their guard a bit more, despite both being such high strung individuals.

Nino: Unlike the original show, Alya and Nino never have a romantic relationship (no hate on DJ-WiFi, the MTS iterations of their characters just aren’t compatible romantically; believe me, we tried!) but do form a strong bond nonetheless. They do get to a rocky start (as Nino mistakens Rena Rouge for Volpina and tries to take her down as Carapace), but after better understanding each other, they team up and build a friendship. Nino makes Alya realize that she doesn’t have to be responsible for everything 24/7, while Alya shows him the importance of putting more effort into things (besides his brother and heroing). Their differing personalities balance each other really well, and while they aren’t hero partners (Nino’s a lone turtle), they work really well as a team.

Chloe: They start off with a small rivalry (which I alluded to in my Chloe post), but quickly form a common enemy. That, alongside Chloe’s arc about caring for others as an actual hero, and Alya’s arc about being more patient with others, and they have a lot to offer each other. For these reasons (and then being the only two heroes with public identities), they are a superhero duo much like Ladybug and Chat Noir. Though Alya gradually accepts Chloe’s dramatics, she doesn’t tolerate her slacking off or making things about herself during an active threat to the city (has the energy of “she’ll fix herself if she knows what’s good for her”). That being said, she does come to enjoy Chloe’s peppy nature and (surprising) ability to be supportive. (However, Chloe’s attempts to get Alya to take “spa days” with her and “treat herself” are met with a mixed reception!)

Lila: Fox versus Fox, Lila and Alya are full-on archenemies. It starts out with Alya simply getting slightly off-putting vibes from Lila, but when she discovers she’s Volpina (after managing to obtain her miraculous that got lost in a fight), she does everything in her power to get her exposed. Likewise, Lila is doing everything she can to get her miraculous back and ruin Alya’s life while she’s at it. Lila coming off as a sweet girl with a lot of friends while Alya’s initial hostility to the heroes and accidentally jarring personality do stack the odds in Lila’s favor, often leading to severe consequences, but Alya is eventually able to team up with the other heroes to take her down. Though Lila is taken into custody, she manages to escape with a dangerous vendetta against Alya…

Other key relationships include her family (particularly Nora and her mom), the heroes (duh), and Zoe.

4. Character Growth

Her main arc is pretty apparent by now. She generally needs to learn to not jump to extreme conclusions when she doesn’t have all the information, as well as be more accepting that people have their reasons for not sharing everything. The two main sequences that help her learn this are her Alakumatization and the Lila/Volpina experience.

Alya gets akumatized when an akuma she captured (attempting to study it to find more about the source of the problem) escapes and corrupts her. She also tries to end the akumatization when Hawk Moth orders her to potentially endanger civilians, but his control over the miraculous (and her) are too strong. After being deakumatized, Alya is a bit more careful in her investigations, and a lot more willing to hear the heroes out (while Alya doesn’t remember being an akuma, just the knowledge that she was corrupted, and the video footage of her as a villain is enough to rattle her).

When dealing with Lila, Alya tries to take the direct approach, both in trying to publically confront Lila for her crimes and by telling the city that she’s the hero Rena Rouge. This inevitably backfires when Lila manages to use her manipulation to avoid being found out and getting Alya in trouble instead. Lila also teams up with Hawk Moth to target Alya’s family, even managing to get Alya akumatized into Vixen Vermillion at her lowest point. She does overcome this, and becomes a lot more tactical with her knowledge in the future. (Alya’s development into tolerating secrets is completed when she finds out that Nino is Carapace, but keeps his secret). She’ll also rename her blog to “The Miracle Blog” after forming a proper respect and camaraderie for the other Miraculous heroes, and shifts from trying to expose or criticize Ladybug and Chat Noir to simply posting any relevant information needed to keep the public safe (which she was doing in the first place but now it’s more of a focus).

Alya also gets the smaller character progression of relaxing a little more, both because she feels safer with her fellow heroes and due to her new friendships helping her appreciate the smaller things in life.

Conclusion:

And that’s a wrap! I know that she might seem a bit odd for an Alya, and her slightly more difficult tendencies may make it seem like we don’t like her very much, but not only was the shift away from her original character intentional (we realize how different we made her), it was not meant to salt on her in any way. On the contrary, we wanted to give her more of a story as her own character, not basing her entire life to revolve around someone else (heck, sometimes she feels like the deuteragonist to Ladybug and Chat Noir’s co-protagonist statuses!). This is particularly what I mean when I said that us rebooting the characters often drastically changed up their original personalities and roles (like many reboots do). Not to hate on what they were, but to tell a different story.

After this I’ll probably explain the new Tikki and Plagg personalities, roles, and development. Then maybe explain the MTS Love Square after that. Thanks for staying patient everyone!

(One more thing: I’m also releasing Alya’s akuma design shortly after this post, so if you enjoy seeing character designs, I’d recommend checking it out!)

Alright lads (gender neutral), time to start some controversy.

Totally normal and unoriginal take: I think Marinette and Adrien are relatively equal in physical strength. (Not who would win in a fight, the show has shown multiple times that it would be LB, I’m just saying realistically, in terms of exerting one’s muscles).

I often hear arguments that Marinette would be super strong due to being Ladybug, but the same should apply to Adrien, right? Sure he gets blipped out of some fights, but there’s also plenty of fights where he’s present (still physically active) but mind-controlled by the villain of the week. Furthermore, there’s plenty of episodes where Chat Noir has to hold off the villain while Ladybug focuses on problem solving (which requires a lot less physical exertion). Therefore, if Marinette is strong because she’s Ladybug, that alone cannot justify her being stronger than Adrien due to him also being a superhero (her being stronger than her usually-civilian classmates however, I can easily get behind).

I suppose if we’re using the argument that she’s stronger due to doing things like lifting bags of flour in the bakery, then maybe, but the show only has her occasionally helping her parents in the bakery (not that it’s her fault she has other stuff to do, just saying that it doesn’t fully work as a reason for her being physically stronger), and even then it’s usually managing the counter and sometimes baking some of the goods.

There’s also technically the diet factor, as people will say that she’s stronger due to getting to eat normal foods that build muscles better, while Adrien eats smaller meals due to being a model. However, from personal experience (I have a pretty unimpressive diet and sometimes forget to eat three meals a day), my scrawny noodle arms can lift a surprisingly amount to most people, so I don’t think his diet would keep him from being able to do muscle-intensive activities. If anything, I maintain that Marinette and Adrien would have equal physical abilities, Marinette would have more muscle mass (if they didn’t insist on giving her toothpick arms to be more marketable), but Adrien’s muscles would be more pronounced/defined (skinny people’s muscles usually stick out more due to having low amounts of body fat).

On the one hand, I get the “haha little girl wearing pink is actually an absolute unit and stronger than all the boys” joke, but on the other hand, I think I find the “supermodel is actually as strong as baker” joke even funnier. (Like you mean to tell me that the class would underestimate Marinette, their over-achieving “everyday Ladybug”/class rep, more than Adrien, that one rich boy they’ve known for less than a year and constantly typecast as a helpless damsel in distress? I don’t think so.)

Woo, Bubbler!!! (I love this episode sm) I wonder what Gabriel meant by “being disrespected”, as Nino didn’t really say anything rude; then again, it makes sense that he’s so defensive against anything that might even slightly resemble a critique of his (let’s be real) rather flawed parenting style.

Alright, you all voted (in spite of my prediction) and so I am more than happy to deliver!

Adrien MTS

His character notes are organized into four categories:

1. General info

2. Personality

3. Key relationships

4. Planned character growth

(This post may be a bit long, so the rest is under the cut)

1. General Info

I‘ll start with the biggest overall changes:

Adrien now has an equal importance to the story as Marinette (they are both the main protags of the show). This is because MTS has certain relevant plot lines that wouldn’t work with Marinette as the POV character. For example, the Agreste family backstory heavily impacts him and his life, so making Marinette the focus doesn’t work. This change was also made because duality and balance are major thematic motifs in the show, and having two MCs was one of the best ways we could implement this idea. (Also he’s just a fun character to write plots around!) On average he and Marinette would get equal screen time, but it fluctuates depending on the particular story (ex: he has a slightly smaller role in season 2 since he has less of a connection to Lila, a major antagonist in that season).

We are also not using the SentiAdrien plotline. This is due to it not being confirmed as canon at the time we began conceptualizing MTS, so we didn’t include it. And now the story doesn’t have room for it and all all the other aspects of the series that are more integral.

2. Personality

Adrien, while still trying to be nice to most of the people he meets, is a lot less mild mannered than his OG counterpart. A bit like the OG show’s S1 Adrien, only slightly more chaotic. He’s generally cheerful, enjoys making jokes (mainly as CN) and trying new things, and affectionate with his loved ones. Freedom is very important to Adrien, and he’ll often go to great lengths to try to hold on to it. Sometimes Chat Noir tries to put on a bit of a “tough guy persona”, but often melts at the first compliment or gesture from his partner.

Adrien does have the tendency to be very assertive and a tad brash (especially in the first season) because he worries that any sign of weakness will cause others to want to make decisions for him to “protect him”. Similarly, he hates being put on a pedestal, especially when it causes others to dismiss any part of him that doesn’t fit the image they have in their head (basically him being a famous model has greatly impacted how he wants to be perceived with others). He also can’t stand it when people close to him (mainly his father and initially his brother) hide things from him and try to control his actions and behavior.

3. Key Relationships

This is actually only a couple of his relevant relationships, seeing as there are a lot of them in MTS. If you want to know about a specific relationship I didn’t mention (or want more detail on a one I did mention, feel free to send me an ask!)

Marinette: The two start off with a casual friendship, as Marinette doesn’t really care that he’s a model. This actually makes Adrien more interested in hanging out with her, as she’s someone who sees Adrien as a person rather than a celebrity. He doesn’t really see her in a romantic light (or at least realize he does) until toward the end of the show, but still values her a lot. He also won’t be as oblivious as the OG Adrien about Mari’s feelings, and even though he doesn’t reciprocate them (consciously anyway), he appreciates that she actually likes him for who he is.

Ladybug: These two sort of get off on the wrong foot. Partially because of their Kwami’s influence (we may have given them some issues for the plot) and partially because Chat initially thinks Ladybug is a lot like his brother, the two don’t really work together, and often quarrel. He gets very paranoid about her wanting him to go along with her plans (due to his fear of being controlled) and thinks she’s bossy. After the midpoint of the S1 though, they get to know each other better. He learns that she is very different from who he thought she was. Realizing that she’s actually a vulnerable girl trying her best to be a hero and do right by others, causes him to become more concerned about her wellbeing. The two will also start to confide in each other about their insecurities, and near the end of S1, he finally falls in love with her. (He’ll be a lot less outspoken about it than the OG though, due to an incident that happened prior to this.) He wants to be the hero partner she deserves first and foremost.

Felix: The twins were very close growing up, especially the death of their mother and their father becoming more distant, but over the years, Felix began to change. He started to treat Adrien more like their father does, which caused Adrien to feel betrayed by his brother. Initially their relationship is cordial, with a bit of resentment on Adrien’s side, which grows until it reaches a breaking point. The two end up getting into a (somewhat one-sided) fight, that Adrien comes to regret. Fortunately the two end up getting a bit closer after this, before finally resolving their issues in the season finale (Felix learns Chat Noir’s identity, which changes how he perceives his brother, and Adrien realized that there’s been more going on with Felix than he thought after he gets akumatized into Calamity). From there the two regain their lost relationship, and do anything for each other.

Gabriel: Adrien’s feelings about his father are… complicated. On the one hand, he understands how hard things have been for his dad after losing the love of his life. In the other hand, Adrien can’t stand the way he’s acted for the past several years: isolating himself from everyone else, constantly trying to keep Adrien locked away and micromanaged, never just being there for his son, which is all Adrien really wants. On the other other hand, Adrien has a much harder time speaking up to him than he did with Felix (because well, it’s much easier to rebel against your twin sibling than your controlling father), and still wants to see the best in his dad (both because he cares about him and because Felix showed Adrien that change is possible). Throughout the third season, Adrien is able to learn a bit more about Gabriel and even confront him for how he’s treated Adrien (and Felix, but that’s another post). His father even seems like he’s starting to change after this, but… let’s just say something goes wrong.

Nino: Adrien is instantly charmed by his new “best bro”, who tries to teach him a bit more about normal kids work. Adrien tries to inspire Nino to apply himself a little more, at least when it comes to things that are clearly important to him. The fact that Nino likes his jokes definitely boosts his spirits. Adrien does start to worry about Nino after the Bubbler, as Nino’s extreme reaction (seeing as people usually can’t be akumatized unless it relates to a core issue that’s been festering for years) suggests that there may be more to his “cool dude” best friend than he thought.

Other notable Adrien/Chat Noir dynamics (for better or worse) include Plagg, Alya, Kagami, Luka, Chloe, Mylene (it’s a long story), Emilie, and Hawk Moth (he is their nemesis after all).

4. Character Growth

Ah yes, the bread and butter of storytelling. Adrien receives two major character arcs in the series. One principally taking place during season one, while the other is much longer. (He also gets minor, non-arc related growth, but I’m highlighting the most important details)

Arc #1: Adrien undergoes some pretty major changes in the first season. He starts off as the usual sweet, sophisticated, “perfect” Adrien who tries to smile through the loneliness and suffocating rules. When he meets Plagg, he gets a change to show how capable he can truly be, while getting the power to free himself from these confines. He especially loves using his Prime Ability, Wildcat (his equivalent to the Miraculous Ladybugs) to do so. It essentially turns him into an unbeatable fighting machine! Unfortunately, this power is more than a mortal being can handle, and slowly chips away at his sanity, amplifying his feelings of anger and determination to be free. Plagg also eggs him on, warning him that giving up on using Wildcats will make him “weak again”, which will cause him to go back to being helpless and submissive (MTS Plagg and Tikki are kinda jerks at first). He realizes that it’s too much for him to handle in the first midseason finale, and renounces the power. This causes his body to fall into a state of withdrawal and fatigue that takes multiple episodes to recover from. During this time, he learns the value of stability, responsibility, and that he can be empathetic while also not letting others control him. His arc culminates at the end of season 1, where he unlocks the power to purify akuma, understanding that destruction can be used for good when maintaining an inner balance.

Arc 2: The seeds of this arc are planted from the beginning, as using Wildcat caused him to unintentionally become destructive and dangerous, but the episode Copycat is what launches the arc. Facing someone who looks exactly like you, has all of your powers, who you (unintentionally) lead to get akumatized does a lot to a person’s self esteem. Even though he hasn’t fallen in love with Ladybug yet, he cares about their friendship, so fighting an imposter who completely obsessed with her causes him to fear becoming the same way. Naturally this causes him to panic when he does fall in love with her, making him take longer to even admit how he feels about her. (He also struggles after she rejects him, but is more worried about her potentially being afraid of him than the rejection itself.) The New York Special also deals with his insecurities, as he almost quits being a hero due to not wanting to hurt anyone else. Fortunately Felix (who he tried to give the ring to instead) talks him out of it. Finally he manages to overcome his fears in the final season, after he faces his nightmare in Sandboy (that being a Ladybug who believes he’s a monster), and acknowledges that he’ll never be that kind of person.

Conclusion:

Alright, that finishes a (general) overview of Adrien’s character in Miraculous: The Series. To anyone who actually had the patience to read all of this, thank you for listening to my ramble (believe it or not but there’s even more details I could have mentioned!)

Marinette is gonna be the next character I talk about (idk when I’ll actually write her notes out, but she is next) as a planned post. After that… I’ll probably either discuss the MTS love square, Tikki and Plagg’s changes, or one of the fabled Season One trio characters (Alya, Chloe, or Felix). As for now… stay miraculous!

Poll time!

I uhhhh, may or may not have given Nathaniel a new miraculous…

Here’s the basic rundown:

Animal: Octopus

Kwami: Okttō

Jewelry: Armband (at least, I’m pretty sure that’s what this is)

Concept: Abstraction

Power: Osmosis (works exactly the same way as my OG ideas for the MTS Goat Miraculous, where the user can freely phase in and out of matter for the five minutes. And yes, the Goat Miraculous is still a thing.)

Miracle Box: Other person thinks it should be a part of the European Continental Miracle Box, and I’m inclined to agree. (Also like the idea of its lore being tied to Atlantis, as that’s an actual place in ML.)

Hero Name: Neptune

Weapon: Trident

And finally, here’s a close up on just Neptune:

Was practicing drawing with a larger scale and also wanted to try a few ideas I had to refine the Calamity design. Hopefully his details are more noticeable now!

At what point in the story do Night Light and Greyhound come into play for the story?

Ooh, I’ve been wanting to talk about this one for quite a bit!!! Okay, this may be a bit confusing, but here goes:

While Greyhound and Night Light are partners who also share a focus season (that being Season 3), they actually get their Miraculous at different points of MTS.

Felix finds his Miraculous in the premiere of Season 3 (which is in the show’s time, during the winter, as each MTS season would be a literal season, with summer being both the first and final season of the show, that being S1 and S5). The first episode would basically be a Greyhound debut episode, with Night Light taking the lead in the second episode of S3.

Zoe gets her Miraculous as a gift from her sister (who is unaware that said gift is a Miraculous), shortly after Chloe herself gets a Miraculous. She is the only hero to get their Miraculous in Season 2 (which is during the autumn) who isn’t a strong focus in that season (LB and CN got their Miraculous in S1 obviously, and CP, RR, and QB all have far stronger plots in S2, while NL is just kinda there with only a little focus). Like the other Season 2 heroes (aside from the elusive Turquoise, who only occupies the first half of Season 2), Zoe becomes a hero in the second half of S2.

Thanks for the ask!

So what has changed for your European Miracle box?

Here’s what’s been established:

The prime Kwami (a duo of Kwami who are the most powerful in their given box) are Nooroo and Duusu (they got moved to this box so that they can be primes when Tikki and Plagg are the Celestial Box’s prine Kwami and because it doesn’t make sense for Emilie and Gabriel to get them otherwise, since the Feast incident never occurred in MTS).

For similar reasons, Trixx is one of the European Miracle Box’s Elder Kwami, and was stolen many centuries ago… There will be 2 or 3 other Elder Kwami for the EMB, but like the minor Kwami, we haven’t created them yet.

As I’ve said previously, Miracle Box and general Kwami lore mostly gets explored in Miraculous: Unlimited, which would be a sequel to Miraculous: The Series. Because it’s a sequel, it (and the lore found within it) is a lot hazier and more incomplete than the story of MTS. Basically, be prepared to be a little bit disappointed when asking about Miracle Boxes and Kwami, because other than the canon Kwami and Flicc, we haven’t fully developed these elements yet. If you have questions about the show’s characters, I will probably be able to answer those since character work is a huge part of MTS, which we’ve more or less figured out.

Thanks for the ask!