the miraculous au in my head where chloe and marinette are actually both into fashion and their school rivalry also becomes an actual rivalry in the fashion world but marinette wins that hat competition and impresses gabriel enough that she eventually becomes his apprentice, slowly entangling marinette in gabriel’s webs and manipulation not unlike adrien, lila, and even the other rich kids such as chloe n kagami. ties marinette closer to the main conflict in her civilian form. so i dont have to see marinette sneak into the agreste mansion for the 500th time, she’d just be there. also just because i think the drama would be insane.
[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]
the actual reason I consume mediocre media is because I have bad taste. the deeper secret pretentious reason is because I think there’s something very revealing about bad media that you don’t get with good media. when you watch a poorly executed plot point unfold, you see the machinery behind it. you see the gap between what’s actually on screen and the true goal the author is striving for. if it’s particularly awful, you can even measure just how poorly mismatched the author’s skills are with the story they’re trying to tell you. watching a poorly executed narrative play out feels like you’re discovering something, because you see all the wiring and guts underneath that better authors hide from you, in the same way that movies hide boom mics and books make you forget you’re turning the pages. if a story is good and executed well you just see the story. but I want to see the guts and wires!
im gonna finish my ml google doc rewrite because now that adrien is confirmed a senti i finally have closure on what to do with it. its gonna be all the changes + the outline and im gonna pin it to this blog like martin luther and that damn church door. so far i have 5 seasons planned and i have no intention of 14 so we're automatically winning.
WHY DID HE GET SUDDEN GOOD VIBES??? AT THE END OF THE EP???? WHEN DID HE SHOW THE CAPACITY TO FROLICK AMONGST THE COMMON FOLK??????????? NO MORE RANDOM REDEMPTION ARCS FOR OLD WHITE MEN MLB WHAT THE HECK
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?
s6 making lila the main antagonist (probably) is so sad like the excessive fake identities and such... it's not the same as it is s1-s4 its just not the same flavor. I need her petty 14 yo beef to stay petty 14 yo beef. can s6 at least have adrien and lila fight with nails behind the lycee. or have marinette teach adrien how to drive her scooter and adrien runs over lila mako-asami style like "oops sorry ^_^" i need their beef to be astronomical but also on a civilian level. like lila should be a normal 14 yo girl who just so happens to push people down staircases Not a supervillain. In my opinion.
im coming back to her she'll never steer me wrong. my document will be opened again
i wanted to post something to give context to art i post so here it is! i think you can consider this my "miraculous rewrite" if you want to call it that...? but its just me wanting everyone trying to steal each others miraculous. that's literally it. i love drama. details under the cut:
The Premise:
When Fu was a child training with the Order, they left him to guard a Miracle Box for as long as possible without food or water. Eventually, Fu got curious - he opened the box and a beautiful array of animals spilled out. Tikki and Plagg act like the angel and devil on Fu's shoulder: Plagg, along with many of the other kwamis, urge Fu to use his Miraculous to transform in order to get food from the kitchens. Tikki warns him otherwise, but Fu transforms with the Peacock and the Black Cat, and the destructive power of his emotions go on a rampage, destroying the Order.
In the destruction, Fu loses most of the miraculous and the grimoire. They're scattered all across the world, falling into different people's hands. Tikki vows to help Fu rectify his mistake of trusting Plagg and help recover the lost miraculous.
What Does This Change?
Miraculouses and grimoire pages are spread around the world, so magic is pretty commonplace. Superheroes and supervillains have existed in Paris before "canon."
Adrien finds the Black Cat independently from the Guardian. He makes a deal with Plagg - freedom for freedom. Plagg gives Adrien powers that allow Adrien to get out of the house, and Adrien lets Plagg do whatever otherwise - no commands, unlike his past holders.
Hints of the Black Cat hit the news and Fu sees it. Fu is out of shape, and the Black Cat holder looks young. Tikki goes out to choose a new holder - Marinette. Marinette is mostly the same in this; she uses the Ladybug for stopping supervillains, but this time she doesn't have a partner.
The Black Cat has a terrible reputation... After all, Plagg was locked up in the Miracle Box and never used for a reason. Ever since its been out, people have used it for horrific purposes. Fu and TIkki are sure that Chat Noir must be up to something. If he's not, then it'd still be safer to keep Plagg in the box. Marinette, with no experience, takes their advice to heart.
Instead, she and CN are 'frenemies.' They end up working together to defeat supervillains, but before Ladybug gets the chance to take his Miraculous, something always goes wrong!
Chat Noir is unaware that Ladybug is working for the Guardian. He assumes she also gained her miraculous independently and he wants to be friends! He's never made friends before, though... why do his attempts keep going so poorly!?
When Chat Noir does figure out what Ladybug is trying to do, it turns into a competition on who can steal one another's Miraculous first. Plagg is adamant to never be put back in the box again.
When Chat Noir is first spotted in Paris, Hawkmoth doesn't reveal himself at all. Instead, he akumatizes people to try and lure CN (+LB) out and assess them. LB + CN are both unaware that the supervillains they put behind bars are actually akumatized. He tries to pit them against each other until the two accidentally break an object and discover an akuma. Oops :/
Eventually, after discovering Hawkmoth's existence, Ladybug and Chat Noir make a "truce" to work together to defeat him before getting back to their business (trying to take each other's miraculous lmao).
i have so many little things in this au and a bunch of doodles that i'll finish one day, but that's the general gist. later on, other characters get miraculous (also independently) which you know... it adds to it. writing isn't my personal forte and this is too much for more than the occasional comic from me. so i might write an outline for how i'd write the full thing at some point. (shrug)
TLDR: Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Hawkmoth all want each other's miraculous and team up and break up in different combos until eventually Ladybug and Chat Noir team up like in canon.
edit:
the thing is that i actually love moral grayness. and i actually don't personally believe lying is always wrong. sometimes lying is necessary in the society we live in. sometimes people that want to hurt us want to use information we have against us, and there's no reason to tell the truth to those people. it's just self defense. so mls secret identity rules have never been a problem to me ever. in fact i think the superhero genre is a perfect avenue for exploring the topic of what is and isn't okay to lie about. but there are some things that are just so fucking crazy to me to keep secret and ml has reached the point where it's like Jesus fucking Christ.
miraculous ladybug season 6 but instead of marinette panicking and sabotaging her confessions of love. now every episode she is panicking and sabotaging her confession that adrien is a little boy made of duct tape, a feather, and a dream.