@cloudbends I'm Sorry To Tell You This...

i hate miraculous ladybug but i disagree with everyone else who hates miraculous ladybug and that's my true real problem. no video essay does it for me because they're literally wrong (because my opinion is always right btw) and every salt blog is wrong. "adrien should be the main protagonist" wrong. "the biggest problem is marinette being a stalker" wrong bad faith argument not understanding the genre (though it is a valid criticism to be uncomfortable with it personally) "marinette is a mary sue" literally wrong. "adrien is a gary stu" wrong. "adrien sucks and this is why marinette should get with some random guy named robin." what the fuck are you talking about.

there's a timeline where instead of lila, emilie is the bbeg. please god bring me there

So there's a strange "defense" of Miraculous I've seen crop up on occasion. The idea that everything wrong about the Lovesquare powerdynamic is deliberate and will all be explored next season (lets put aside that this defense has been cropping up for 3 seasons now). The claim that Soon(TM), the writers are gonna make the characters face the concequences and explore the fallout of the entire jenga-tower of BS they've been "carefully" setting up all along... Which... isnt a defense I vibe with, cause it fundamentally boils down to "its not a Kids Rolemodel Show, its a deconstruction of a Kids Rolemodel Show". It's a defence that would place Marinette alongside Tyler Durden, Walter White and Rick Sanchez in the "you werent supposed to relate to them" pantheon. And while i think there are plenty of reasons that deconstruction is a usefull tool (even if i hate the dime-a-dozen "Childrens Fairytale but its depression" and "Superman, but psycho"' decon-stories out there). I'd argue 'Kids Rolemodel Show' is the one genre that should never be deconstructed, or at least not in the slow-burn,long-form way the people arguing this claim the show to be doing. And i hold that stance for one simple two-part reason: Poe's law, and the fact that the deconstructed genre is aimed at an audience with absolute zero media-literacy. (reminder: "5-6 year old kids" is the one audience where that is not an insult, simply a statement of fact.) A show aimed deconstructing a genre with an audience for whom it may actually be their first big piece of media is legitimately dangerous. Because there is no way a 5 year old can be expected to tell "deconstruction of a formulaic kids cartoon" from "Formulaic kids cartoon". The idea that "they've been making Marinette into a bad example deliberately and are going to reveal the entire show to have been a carefull ruse in season 6/7" is supposed to be a defense? Its frankly absurd. A 6 year kid who watched the show when it first aired and idolised Ladybug, could be old enough to drink by the time S6 reveals she was supposed to be a bad example. A little girl who based her relationships on the way Mari pursues romance would have a restraining order by the time the show indends to pull this twist. And some of y'all are claiming that "actually its a long-form deconstruction" is a defense? I legit don't get y'all.

miraculous ladybug is a soap opera

ik its a kids show so theyd probably never delve into this. but in the universe where chat noir and hawkmoths identity were revealed to the public, i cannot fucking imagine the media circus that would go on. the court case alone would be so bad… “hawkmoth vs chat noir: domestic terrorism or domestic abuse?” itd be soooo awful they should make it happen. paris’ most fucked up family. the youtube videos. someone would request to make a documentary. and after all gabriels shit is revealed publicly he still only goes to jail for tax evasion à la al capone.

[ID: Two images of art of Marinette Dupain-Cheng from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Chat Noir. In the first image, there are 7 headshots of Marinette, all of them smiling softly, with different hairstyles, masks, and eye colors for her Ladybug outfit, with text describing each. The first headshot is labeled, “0. A Marinette for comparison.” The next says, “1. Classic Ladybug,” where she has her original pigtails and mask. The next is labeled “2.” and describes her changed appearance as having “higher pigtails, ribbons as antenna, eyes become black.” The next headshot is labeled, “3.” and says she has a “ponytail, ribbons as antenna, eyes become red like an anime character.” The next is labeled, “4.” and says she has a “bun, ribbons as antenna, black and white mask like the face of a ladybug, purely white eyes (like spiderman lol.)” The next is labeled, “5.” and says she has “two braids, antenna attached to mask,” and “fully black eyes.” The last is labeled “6.” and says she has her “hair pushed back, antenna attached to mask,” and her “irises are white & sclera black.” The text also says, “honestly the look i go for with my akumabug design.” 

The next image is the same as the first, but without the text. End ID]  

marinette… my beloved… i think she’s really cute with the original pigtails and red mask, but i was thinking about how chat noir changes a lot about his appearance when he transforms, including eyes, hairstyle, the cat ears, etc… so i just drew a bunch of alternatives of her outfit all together! ladybugs in particular are such a nice theme, because bugs have that creepy/cool factor because they’re just very different than humans, but they can also be really cute! especially with their compound eyes!!! 

number 4 with the bun and black mask is usually what i go for when drawing a redesign of her outfit, but i’m fond of the alternatives here too. 

as a bonus: 

[ID: Ladybug with the redesign of her appearance from the above images, with braids and fully black eyes. Her eyes are big and shiny, as if about to cry, and her antenna are down as she pouts. Chat Noir is looking at her and says, “bug i’m sorry i won’t overuse the kitty eyes please just stop making that face.” End ID]

gabriel is fascinating in that he is a deeply fucked up guy. can't believe they let him win they should've shot him like old yeller. he needed to be put down

i get a direct message. "cal what is this april fools joke" im genuinely confused---"what april fools joke?" "t-the sideblog. its an april fools joke, right?" so i have poor timing, okay?

miraculous ladybug asks a brave question. what if being a teenage girl was worse than being a terrorist?

i want this with marinette and gabriel too but it's much harder than with adrien because the show doesn't give much to work with. alas i try to build something in a rewrite bc the protagonist and antagonist should have fun dynamics or it kills me.

marinette and gabriel: a girl and her hero. what she strives to be. a man who made his own fashion house and is a household name. she loves his work, wants to be him. gabriel sees a lot of himself in this girl his son brings around-his childhood, before he was successful. with superpowers that give access to emotions, it's hard Not to feel empathy, and there's a reason gabriel stays mostly in his house. but... shes talented. when he's not hawkmoth, all he does is necessary work, but it wouldn't hurt to let her shadow him doing things he already has to do anyways.

ladybug and hawkmoth: i hate you give me your miraculous (starting out with hawkmoth seeing her as a child who simply can be manipulated into doing what he wants. and marinette, who is used to kind adults who have her best interests in mind, is vehemently betrayed by the notion of an adult so horrible - despises him. the manipulation doesn't work, it becomes more and more vitriolic. theyre so similar, and they hate that about one another. it doesn't matter she's a child anymore; she's a brat with a weapon too powerful for her to understand, etc.)

marinette and hawkmoth: marinette despises him as always, but the power imbalance makes her incapable of doing anything. marinettes less of a fawner though. less conversation, more her considering ways to escape. meanwhile hawkmoth still has a soft spot for the fashion girl his son likes - so he isn't as horrid as he Could be.

ladybug and gabriel: gabriel is marinettes hero and ladybug is gabriels fucking worst nightmare and both of them have to tamper it down. ladybug can't hero worship, she's the hero! gabriel can't openly show any disdain -- who the fuck hates ladybug! similar to chat noir and gabriel, it's a power reversal where ladybug technically has more power over gabriel, but gabriel has the potential to use her seeking adult validation and approval to try and learn more about her. especially since marinette looks up to him. becomes more sour as marinette becomes more disillusioned with his parenting style; she would ask questions as ladybug she would never dare as marinette.

okay i will say one of the least utilized parts of ml is that the lovesquare isn't the only characters that can have multiple dynamics at once. and in fact one of my things i wanna do in a rewrite is have gabriel/hawkmoth have different dynamics with the main characters depending on persona.

for example; what is an interaction between hawkmoth and adrien agreste actually like? in a scenario where potentially hawkmoth finds out about ladybug being attached to a civilian AND having the excuse of knowing it because it's a popular model so it wouldn't out his identity, would he choose to endanger his son? or maybe would he do it himself instead of trusting an akuma, knowing he won't actually follow through with a threat to adriens life while an akuma would?

what's a dynamic between chat noir and gabriel? that's a superhero gabriel wants the miraculous from, but he can't be blatant about it, and more than that, he has no power over a superhero and no reason to dislike him. it's fascinating.

one of my fav fucked up things is the concept of adrien talking more to hawkmoth than his own father because gabriel learns that adrien is one of the most effective ways to bait ladybug. hawkmoth can read emotions, and one day he reads ladybugs enough when Adrien is in the vicinity- and woah, her emotions are so strong about him it's readable through the magical cloaking, even! he even justifies it morally because it's not like adrien is ever hurt. is it kidnapping if it's your own son? is it really hurting him if all your doing is playing chess with him on top of the eiffel tower, an unspoken threat of super powered violence enough to keep him from doing anything reckless? gabriel is spending time with his son /and/ getting the miraculous. and at the end of the day... when gabriel gets the wish, he can fix it all - so it'll be okay! :)