A Hard Pill To Swallow: If An Audience Can Pick Up On Where The Story Is Going, It’s A Good Story.

i think we as a fandom need to appreciate how important and rare it is to have such a strong female character who not only stands on her own, is a role model, AND doesn’t rely on men to have a likable personality. 

julie molina is such a strong female character, and is a perfect template for all women in the media. 

anyway stan kenny ortega and jatp for giving us nontoxic male characters, not one, not two, but THREE amazing and spectacular female characters, and one of the best tv show soundtracks that i’ve ever heard.

Im a Girl Meets World defender til I die. They speak in a manner so unlike any living person and I fucking love it.

tom after chat turns marinette down

RIARKLE AND LUCAYA DESERVED BETTER

thank you

ML Fic Recs - AUs

Last week was crazy and I didn’t get around to posting, but now I’m back with your weekly rec list. As usual, I’m trying to rec fics that readers are less likely to have read. (I base that off of kudos on AO3. The general rule is fics under 1000 kudos, but usually I try to keep it under 500!) You can find my other rec lists on my blog at #jennarecsml

If you enjoy these, please reblog so more readers can find these awesome fics!

I love the what ifs of taking are characters and changing something–or everything!–of their circumstances. What if Adrien never went to school? What if soulmates were real? What if there weren’t miraculous? There are so many ways things could have gone differently and I love these explorations. Here are some of my favourite alternate universes!

like poles of a magnet by @rosekasa

ladybug spat her blood at chat noir. invincibility was only granted to the ladybug and black cat that worked together. not even the miraculous cure could heal them, otherwise.

(or, five times they didn’t hate each other, and one time it was love).

Multi-chapter. Enemies AU.  The enemies dynamic here is AMAZING!! Adrien is so in character even when he’s a “bad guy”, and the backstory of how he ended up working with Hawkmoth is perfect. (Also, how is Gabriel even worse??) I love the way the identities are played with, and especially the repercussions of Chat working for Hawkmoth on what Adrien is allowed to do.

I Love You To Pieces by marichatting

Marinette’s wrist is blank. She knows that one day, she will kiss her soulmate for the first time, and her soulmate tattoo will appear on her wrist, but how is she supposed to wait patiently for that day to come?

She is dying to know whether or not Adrien is her soulmate. Meanwhile, a certain cat has the same burning question about Ladybug.

One-shot. Soulmates AU. This is so freaking sweet, I can’t even. I love when an author takes the rules of the AU and thinks through how they might play out with our characters and their dynamic, and that’s what we have here. Love the interaction between the soulmate kiss and secret identities!

A Series of Meets: Postcards by @damagectrlwrites

When Adrien moves into his first flat, he discovers postcards already in his mail box addressed to someone none of the neighbors seem to know. The postcards come from a young woman traveling the world for a few months named ’M’ and her diligent, once a week cards make Adrien decide to hold on to them in hopes of delivering them to the correct receiver. However, with each postcard he gets, he learns more and more about ’M’ and soon finds himself falling for the postcard’s mysterious writer.

One-shot. No powers/Never met AU. Okay, technically this is a chapter in a collection of AU one-shots, but it deserves individual attention. I loved the mystery of this one, and watching Adrien slowly fall for someone he’s never even met. I don’t want to give away too much with this one, but when I finished reading it the first time I had to go back and give it another read to see how everything connected.

Footsteps by @sariahsue

“I’m not sneaking!” Marinette blurted out as soon as she saw him. She noticed three things instantly. He was blond. He was holding his hands around his eyes like binoculars, and he was in the nicest tuxedo she had ever seen.

(Marinette’s about to get married to her soulmate, a man she’s never met before. Too bad she meets that cute groomsman in the hallway first.)

One-shot. Soulmates AU. This is ridiculously, impossibly sweet. I love how even in a world where they’ve never met and things are clearly very different (marrying someone you’ve never met??), they’re still so very recognizable as themselves. I love this.

A Series of Meets: Reach by @damagectrlwrites

Paris is safe, except from the rivalry of its two superhero guardians: Ladybug and Chat Noir.  Since they were teenagers, the two have raced around Paris, trying to out do-good each other.  

After Chat Noir saves a bus of people from falling into the Seine before Ladybug can even get there, Adrien is in high spirits.  He helps a young woman reach some chips high on a shelf, kicking off a friendly conversation that ends with a coffee date.  

It’s a terrible day for Marinette.  First she had a hectic day at work, then Chat Noir gets all the praise for saving a bus of people, and then she nearly topples over trying to reach some chips.  At the very least, a nice guy helps her and asks her to coffee. Surely, things will get better, right?

One-shot. Enemies/Never met AU. Okay, technically this is a chapter in a collection of AU one-shots, but it deserves individual attention. This one is absolutely amazing and hilarious and YOU NEED TO READ IT!! Ladybug and Chat Noir are superhero rivals, always trying to outdo each other, and being annoyed at the other. Marinette and Adrien get a meet-cute and fall in love. The juxtaposition is perfect and ridiculous and THAT IDENTITY REVEAL OMG.

The Soul System by @peppermint-shamrock  

A series of fics taking place in the same soulmate AU, where soulmates experience an intense feeling of connection and recognition upon first contact - and only first contact. With no lasting proof beyond memories, things don’t always go smoothly.

Series. Soulmates AU. This one is full of angst and heartbreak, but it’s so good. The worldbuilding is phenomenal. This is one where the author has really thought through the consequences of the alternate world, and then figured out how to inflict those on our canon dynamics in such a way that they inflict maximum hurt. Ladybug and Chat Noir are soulmates, but Marinette’s in love with someone else. Someone who already has a soulmate. 

lost without the shape of your heart by @beaubcxton

“I heard you today at the coffee shop.” Ladybug whispered, and noticed the way he stiffened immediately. “Don’t worry, I didn’t figure out who you were but I saw the back of your head as you left.”

“Oh.” He pulled away then, and offered her a wobbling charming smile. “You didn’t happen to hear anything I said, did you?”

Four times Marinette stumbles onto the boy behind the mask, and the one time she meets him.

One-shot.  Never met AU. This is such beautiful ladynoir, and I love how that relationship grows and deepens. Meanwhile, of course, they’ve never met as civilians, but there’s nothing stopping them from recognizing each other. The ending absolutely sent me.

The following fics is amazing and absolutely worth reading, but does feature sexual content, so minors beware.

Overheard by @ghostlyhamburger 

Marinette and Adrien are roommates. Adrien overhears some odd sounds from Marinette’s room.

Rated E. Multi-chapter. Roommates/Housemates AU. This is really hot and sweet, and then the angst hammer comes in. I just really enjoyed the entire thing, watching these two be idiots and seeing how the misunderstandings arise.

I’m not surprised a movie as terrible as Emilia Perez is being awarded by mostly white audiences and white film critics, it gives them exactly what they want on how they perceive Mexico. A French man had not business doing this movie. Particularly when it admitted not to feel the need to do research since he already knew “enough” hence why the movie is filled with so many harmful stereotypes. And heavy on how the casting director insinuated there wasn’t good Mexican actors to star in this movie outside of the half white/American ones it got for this film. The movie is absolutely trash from acting to script. Not wonder they released the movie in European countries first before going into Mexico - they knew the reception it was gonna get from Latin countries and didn’t want the bad reviews and opinions to affect their award buzz - and it worked. The award shows will never convince me it was a good movie with performances worthy of acclaim. The movie was at best another over-dramatic romanticization musical of cartel violence and we were supposed to think it was progressive because of the main character. Hopefully Fernanda Torres’ win allows I’m Still Here to get a bigger leap into that Best Foreign Film win at the Oscars. The rightful Latin representation.

not to be dramatic but the super trouper lights are gonna find me shining like the sun smiling having fun feeling like a number one and tonight the super trouper beams are gonna blind me but i won’t feel blue like i always do cause somewhere in the crowd there’s you

me: carrie never had a good connection to her mother. in fact, rose was her mother figure. carrie’s real mom left due to her finding out about trevor’s past. and trevor never told carrie the real reason why her mom left, and carrie thought it was because of herself. when rose died, carrie was still feeling guilty/sad about her mom but she never brought it up around julie, because her mother was still alive and julie’s wasn’t. so i think that’s why they stopped being friends. carrie needed someone to talk to, and she didn’t think julie or flynn was that someone.

waiter: ma’am i asked you if you wanted a table or booth

I will die on the hill that Julie and the phantoms went about the act of creating a gay character so flawlessly. When you first found out he was gay it was just acknowledged and then left alone until he was given a love interest. His sexuality wasn’t made to be a big deal or constantly talked about but rather something normal (which it is). And they didn’t try to make him based off of a stereotype. They created the character and then added him simply liking boys. I feel like in lots of shows they make being gay like it’s own personality so characters don’t have a fully formed personality with likes or dislikes but Alex does.

Larry your waiter: *dies*

Me: