Latest Posts by reina-royale - Page 2

Constantly Torn Between...

Not wanting to reveal spoilers for my AU series and wanting people to ask about it so I can answer questions.

Wanting to make my AU a comic and knowing I don't have the time, skill, or energy to make it look like I want.

Wanting to read fanfiction for inspiration and feeling bad for not coming up with completely original ideas.

Wanting people to enjoy my content and not wanting to care about the approval of others.

One of the reasons I refuse to watch Rainbow World is because its introduction completely derailed a plot that could have led to character development.

"The Big Day Off" showed everyone getting a day off of classes and assignments, and showed them dealing with problems during them.

Jade and Skyler want to spend their time relaxing, but both have a hard time doing nothing so they keep finding new tasks to do.

Bella and Ruby are planning to revamp the Rainbow Union, but have gotten artist's block and can't come up with anything.

Poppy's planning to bake and Amaya's freaking out over an online personality test.

Violet and Sunny were planning to have a fun day together.

This where the problem arises.

When we make it to Violet and Sunny's part of the story, Violet realizes she lost her phone and freaks out about it.

Now, we could have had a plot of Violet struggling with her social media addiction while spending time with Sunny, but, instead, Sunny and Violet find a magic egg and spend the day taking care of it so any conflict that they might have had is overshadowed.

I would have liked it better if we had Sunny and Violet doing fun things together, and Violet keeps instinctively reaching for her phone. Sunny notices, and eventually she's just sad.

Violet: "Sunny, what's wrong? Aren't you having fun?"

Sunny: "I am. I just...I miss you."

Violet: "I've been right across the hall for months. I think it's the closest we've ever been. Aside from all those sleepovers."

Sunny: "I don't mean physical distance."

Violet: "What do you mean?"

Sunny: "I mean...I totally support your dream of being an influencer, but I miss being able to do things with you without you trying to get the best shot. I miss just having fun with you, without you worrying about showing the rest of the world. I miss you. I think I've seen your phone's camera more than you, lately."

Violet: "Oh. I didn't know you felt that way."

Sunny: "I'm trying to be supportive. You're my best friend and I want to support you."

Violet: "I don't want you to support me if it upsets you. I guess I do have a problem."

Sunny: "I mean, I wouldn't say it's a problem..."

Violet: "But it is, because it upsets you so much. I don't want to upset my friends, especially you. I'm going to try to do better, Sunny. I promise."

Sunny: "Thanks. And I guess I'll start telling you when you do something that upsets me."

Violet: "I'd like that."

Then, Sunny and Violet would hug and discuss their plans for the rest of the day.

See how interesting this would have been? We could have had acknowledgement of not just Violet's greatest flaw (social media addiction) but also Sunny's (overly forgiving and passive) with them both recognizing their flaws and promising to work on them.

Instead, we have Sunny and Violet taking care of an egg all day.

They deserved better.

You know, now that you mention it...

The girls at my elementary school had crushes, but definitely not on adults. Teenagers were the oldest they had crushes on. The boys were the same.

Adults just seem so old at that age, so Jimmy's mom, Beautiful Gorgeous, and Princess Quin Shi "Peggy" Sue should've just seemed old to them, not hot.

I mean, they are attractive, to adults. And teenagers. Prepubescent children, not so much.

And, while I'm sure 11-year-olds were allowed some freedom, "One of Us" has Cindy returning from a competition out of town, and she exits the bus alone. That's an amount of freedom Cindy wouldn't have been allowed for legal reasons.

Not to mention, "Men at Work" has them getting jobs, despite being 10 at that point. Again, legally, this would not have been allowed.

It's a cartoon, not everything has to be accurate, I know. I'm not asking for accuracy, I'm asking for shows about children to remember that the main characters are children.

The show had some great plots that make sense for 11-year-olds:

Jimmy's upset at being the shortest in class

Jimmy's upset over not being athletic

School science fair

Candy-selling competition

Trying to make the perfect candy

Sheen's afraid of being held back (again!)

Jimmy doesn't want to pick up his clothes

Sheen's action figure goes missing

And more

But as the show went on, the romance aspect got emphasized a lot more. Of course, by that time, most of us were invested in the main ships, but looking back, it seems weird how much romance they put in the show.

I don't hate romance, but it feels weird to make it a central plot element in a show about elementary school-aged children. Especially when some of those romantic feelings are directed at adults.

Not to mention having it be such a flip-flop, back and forth, will they won't they thing.

The show would have been fine if the romance aspect wasn't so heavily emphasized at the end. Even though we liked the main ships, they weren't why we watched the show.

Well, time for another opinion! This one's about an older Nickelodeon show, Jimmy Neutron! It's very simple: the show would've made way more sense if the characters were teenagers instead of 11-year-olds. Things like:

Jimmy being allowed to fly around the world in a homemade rocket

Jimmy being allowed to fly into space

Jimmy being allowed to work in his lab unsupervised

Pretty much anything Jimmy does

The kids routinely go places like amusement parks or Cafés by themselves

The boys developing crushes at the drop of a hat

Cindy & Jimmy flip-flopping back & forth on their feelings for each other

Carl's crush on Jimmy's mom (still creepy, but makes more sense if he's a hormonal teenager)

The boys' brief crushes on Beautiful Gorgeous

These are all things that would make sense if the characters were teenagers. 11-year-olds just don't act like this. Trust me, I was 11 when the show was airing. I was in that age group, no one at my school acted like that. Crushes were only on classmates or teenage celebrities, we weren't allowed to go out by ourselves, and we would've needed supervision just to cook, nevermind the kind of science Jimmy was doing.

This level of drama, romance, and personal freedom, would make more sense for teenagers than children. Shows about kids can be fun, but you need to remember to have them act like kids.

Rainbow World is Tonal Dissonance

Starting off with a quick definition: tonal dissonance is when there is a sudden, jarring shift in the overall tone of the show, movie, book, etc.

And it's the biggest reason I can't stand Rainbow World.

Every episode up to that point was about the adventures of teenagers at an elite arts high school that was also a boarding school.

And that was the concept that originally appealed to people.

And then, we have Rainbow World.

Now the show is about the whacky adventures of high schoolers in a magical world where they have cute pets made of crystal and magical missions to help people.

Not a terrible concept, but after four seasons of the show going one way, I'm not interested in suddenly changing the overall tone and premise of the series.

Rainbow World is such a different idea, it would've been better off as a different series.

And, honestly, the way it was introduced doesn't help either.

But that's for a different post.

About the "kwamis as mentors" angle: Interesting to read and analyse, yet I can't help but feel they were not necessarily meant to be seen as mentors. At least to me, they seemed to be kind of whacky mascot characters who are tied to the lore, who have a personality to crack a joke or point something out or cause a little situation or be cute, but nothing more.

They are rather naive magical entities chained to jewelry (a fact they don't seem to mind that much or think about at all except for Plagg) and all that talk about "being around for 5000 years" and having seen many holders before is just there to make them seem more wise than they actually act like. From what I've seen on the show I would even assume there's a threshold to how much they can even mature emotionally and understand humans. Sometimes Tikki and Plagg even come off as indifferent and egoistical towards their holders (like an example you gave with Tikki, or Plagg's fixation on cheese over Adrien at times).

So...sorry if I missed it, but why do you view them as mentor characters? You made an interesting post about rom-com vs magical girl and the magical girl part is exactly why I always viewed them just as critters to appeal to kids, but nothing more. I can see that the show's writing is so inconsistent that sometimes they are portrayed as wise but more often then not they are just background noise to get a little interaction on screen so that the characters are not talking to themselves about miraculous stuff or to point something out for the audience.

The show's writing is pretty weird, so there are elements that are hard to get a clear read on. The Kwamis are one such element. When they're one-on-one with their chosen, they often feel like mentors to me. When they're all together, they almost always read like "critters to appeal to kids" (mostly because there are too many of them to let them have individual personalities when they're all together). So while I think that they're supposed to be mentors, it's not like that's the only canon-accurate read.

To dig into what I mean by the one-on-one writing, let's look at this exchange from Feast:

Master Fu: See, Wayzz? If Marinette had kept her Miraculous, the sentimonster would have swallowed her right up. Wayzz: Or she would have transformed into Ladybug and fought it. Master Fu: Sometimes fighting is futile, Wayzz.

And then later on we get this:

Wayzz: Master, look! Ladybug and Cat Noir, despite their ridiculous costumes, they haven't let you down! Wang Fu: That's impossible! They don't have their Miraculous! Wayzz: Master, it's obvious it's them—who else would do something so crazy? Cat Noir (Adrien): Hey, have a taste of this! Some exploding banana split from Bananoir! Ladybug (Marinette): Much tastier than any Miraculous! Wayzz: Look, Master, there's no use in running! Your disciples never give up the fight, no matter what! With or without their Miraculous, they are Ladybug and Cat Noir!

That's some pretty active mentoring right there.

Wayzz is probably the character that feels the most like a mentor to me. When he's with Fu, he feels like Fu's partner or adviser, which is why I think that the Kwami's aren't supposed to just be cute critters. They're regular ol' Jimmy Crickets meant to act as a conscience that the characters can talk to since this is visual media and you want a way for the characters to talk through their thoughts instead of having them do it all internally.

I also present this exchange from Desperada as evidence:

Adrien: Plagg, Ladybug needs me. She needs "Adrien"! Plagg: If you asked me, this whole idea is worse than cheese in a can. Adrien: She thinks I'm the perfect guy for this mission. Plagg: You can't be Cat Noir and another superhero at the same time! Which means that you're not the perfect guy for this mission. Adrien: The Lucky Charm told her I am. Plagg: That's not how it works. Why am I bothering? You're not even listening.

We then get Plagg reiterating that this is a bad idea through multiple loops, ending with this:

Plagg: Ah! At last, you've come to your senses. Adrien: I'm not sure Ladybug will have very fond memories of her experience with "Adrien Agreste". Plagg: Then make up for it as Cat Noir.

See? I told you Plagg can be a good mentor when he wants to! Tikki, take notes!

I'd even call this bit from Sapitos some quality subtle mentoring from Trixx:

Alya: Oh please, Ladybug! We'd make a great team! I could help Cat Noir and you every day! Ladybug:(her earrings ring) I'm about to transform back! Hurry! Alya: Please? Ladybug: I have to go! I'm trusting you! (opens a nearby door and goes inside, so she can detransform) Trixx: You're absolutely right, Alya. I'm sure the three of you would make quite the team! You have all the makings of a true superhero. You're strong, brave; but most of all, you're trustworthy.

Way to both build Alya up and reminder her of her duty, Trixx. Gold star. Quality mentorship!

So are the Kwamis supposed to be mentors? Who knows! I just see them fill the role often enough to feel comfortable judging them through that lens.

Miraculous also isn't the only magical girl team show to make the cute critters into mentors. That's a pretty standard path even though it's also common to see the critters used to sell merch/appeal to kids and nothing more. In terms of classic magical girl team shows, I'd say that the Kwamis are written way more like Luna and Artemis from Sailor Moon than Mini Mew from Tokyo Mew Mew.

Did... Did Nathalie stealth use That Guy's emotions to make Animaestro or does she just have such perfect control over the Peacock that he didn't need to be anything more than inspiration?

Honestly, does anyone really get how the Peacock works on it's own? I just assume that if Emilie can make An Adrien based off her own or Gabriel's emotions, it's not unthinkable that Nathalie wouldn't even need the director to be involved in creating a Sentimonster from his emotions or just in his likeness.

Unfortunately, all the examples we physically get to see In Canon has Mayura channeling through an akuma or through Hawkmoth himself, making them packaged deals.

As a follow up to you post about mentors, just to make things fair, what are examples of Tikki being a bad mentor to Marinette?

Post in question for context.

Tikki often acts as the voice of the author. She's there to explain why Marinette is in the wrong. Since Miraculous has some wacky morals, that means we get a mix of good advice and wacky nonsense advice.

Two examples of bad advice that come to mind are Gamer and Strikeback. Gamer is the episode where Marinette stumbles upon an Ultimate Mecha Strike tournament, realizes that Adrien is taking part, and decides to compete so they can be on a team together. Marinette wins a spot through her own hard won skills and then this happens:

Tikki: All you wanted to do is spend time with Adrien, there are other ways to do that! Marinette: What are you getting at? Tikki: You know how much Max wanted to be in that tournament. Kim said he'd been training for it all year. Marinette: You're right. All I could think about was Adrien. 

This is how tournaments work, right? They're not tests of skill, but tests of who put in the most work or who wants to compete the most! That's why we had that scene with Marinette writing out her training schedule and motivations for evaluation, but she lied and that was wrong and...

Okay, I was the one lying here. There was no written evaluation because that's not how tournaments work. All anyone cares about is your skills. They don't care if you're doing this for personal glory or to get closer to a boy or whatever Adrien's motivation was because - notably - his motivation didn't matter in this episode about needing pure motives to be allowed to do things.

What if he didn't care about the competition and only did it to get closer to his classmates? That's not even a random guess. It's a valid read because Adrien ultimately gives his spot to Max while claiming that Max is the better player even though Adrien very clearly beat Max at the start of the episode. Ignoring that weird nonsense dialogue, why was it fine for Adrien to compete when he didn't care but wrong for Marinette to do the same? And Max wanting to compete to show off his skills is also a totally selfish motivation, so why does it matter that he wanted it more? Everything about this episode was nonsense and uncomfortably sexist. If Max wants to compete, then he needs to get better at the game. That's how competitions work.

Strikeback is the second part of the season four final and it starts with Marinette mourning the fact that "Adrien" has left Paris, leading to this:

Marinette: (crestfallen) It's all over, Tikki. Tikki: He'll be back, Marinette. He's just going on a voyage!

Which would be lovely advice if Adrien was a normal boy, but he's Chat Noir and Tikki knows that. She should be freaking out and trying to find a way to get him back to Paris, but then Tikki would have to support Marinette's actions and we can't have that, so instead Tikki gives this nonsense advice because she has to be against whatever "wrong" thing Marinette is doing today.

I could come up with a few more examples, but I think those two paint a pretty good picture of issue one re Tikki. However, when it comes to Tikki, my main issue with her is less a wealth of bad advice - unlike Plagg*, I think she's right more often than not - and more a lack of support. It feels like she's just here to judge Marinette and point out when she's doing something wrong, but a good mentor should be so much more than that.

Kuro Neko is a great example of this. When Chat Noir quits, Tikki just sits back and does nothing while her young charge is freaking out. She doesn't even try to defend Marinette when Plagg is going off about Chat Noir's "ill treatment". For all Plagg's faults in that episode, at least he's doing something about the situation. Meanwhile Tikki literally has two lines in the entire episode! A similar thing happens in Kwami's Choice where Plagg is the one driving them to act while Tikki just wrings her hands in despair.

Tikki: (sighs heavily) What can we do? Plagg: We must free them of that impossible choice. We must… free them of us.

These are not the actions of a mentor. Mentors aren't supposed to just offer judgement about things that their mentee has already done or is considering doing. They're supposed to be a source of support and guidance in hard times, but we never really see Tikki stepping in to give Marinette that kind of advice. If memory serves, she never offers solutions or acts as a sounding board. That role is mainly filled by Alya and I love Alya! It's good for Marinette to have support from a friend, but Alya is also a teenager while Tikki is an ancient being who has seen many Ladybugs go through the kind of struggles that Marinette is going through. I expect her to use that knowledge to help her charge, but she never does. This exchange from Passion perfectly highlights this problem:

Tikki: Don't worry, Plagg... my holder has decided to run away from her real feelings to pursue an impossible love with Cat Noir instead. Plagg: Uh, just to be sure, sugarcube, you do know that Cat Noir and my holder are one and the same person, right? Tikki: I do, but my holder doesn't. Plagg: If she declares her love to Cat Noir, something tells me she'll find out soon enough. Tikki: You have nothing to fear. When my holder is in love, she never gets anywhere. She'll just knit hats and make very complicated plans that will never come to fruition. Plagg: Hmm... ah, then everything's fine.

Tikki, I love you, but by the gods! With a mentor like you, Marinette doesn't need enemies to be miserable! Do you care about her at all??? What kind of mentor delights at their mentee's suffering? Not a good one, that's for sure.

*Quick note: I think that Plagg and Tikki are probably neck and neck for who has given the most bad advice, Plagg just feels like the bigger problem because we don't see him as much as we see Tikki. Since she's tied to the main character, Tikki gives advice in almost every episode and most episodes have decent morals.

Adrien's need for good advice can also feel more glaring because he's so isolated and passive. That makes Plagg's lack of good advice feel more harmful, but Marinette is just as isolated from real advice. Her mentor figures - Su Han, Fu, and Tikki - mostly give orders and judgement instead of support and guidance. It's just harder to spot that fact because Marinette is actively trying to do the right thing, meaning that she's more likely to make mistakes, and it's easy to see why she comes across as a lot less pathetic and a lot easier to judge.

Pick One: Magical Girl Show or Rom-com. You cannot be both.

Early in season four we get the episode Gang of Secrets. An episode that ends with Marinette outing her secret identity to Alya. A touching moment that sparked outrage across the fandom because it meant that Marinette had made the choice to reveal her identity to her best friend while keeping her hero partner in the dark.

This choice spat in the face of the exceptions that many fans had for the series. Thousands of pre-season-four fanfics feature moments where Ladybug and Chat Noir promise each other that they'll be the first to know each other's identities. After the Alya reveal, scores of fanfics were written to salt on Marinette's choice to tell the "wrong" person.

Most of these fics feature a betrayed Chat Noir quitting or otherwise punishing Ladybug for breaking their promise to be each other's first, thereby destroying his faith in their partnership. But that promise was never made on screen. It only existed in the realms of fanfic and, when Chat Noir finally found out in canon, his reaction was largely neutral. He never once blamed Ladybug for her choice or pushed for a reveal or even asked for the right to tell one of his friends.

So what happened here? Why did the fans have such wildly unrealistic expectations of canon? Were their expectations even unrealistic or did canon betray them? The answer to that is not as straight forward as you might think because it all comes back to one of Miraculous' many, many, many writing problems: Miraculous is trying to be both a Magical Girl Show and a romantic comedy, but those are not genres that mesh. You can only be one (or you can be a third thing that we'll get to at the end as it's the easiest way to fix this mess, but I want to mostly focus on where the anger is coming from and why the writing is to blame.)

To discuss this mismatch, we're going to do something that breaks my heart and talk about some of Origins flaws. While I love that episode and unironically refer to it as the best writing the show ever gave us, it's not perfect and its flaws are all focused around trying to set up both genres. Do note that I'm going to use a lot of gender binary language here as magical girl shows have a strong focus on gender segregation and rarely if ever acknowledge gender diversity.

Let's Talk Magical Girls

Magical girl shows are shows that center on young women and their friendships. While male love interests are often present in these shows, the boys tend to take a backseat and function primarily as arm candy while the girls save the day and carry the narrative.

A great example of this is the show Winx Club. This show features a large cast of teenage girls who save the magical universe from various threats with their magical powers. Each girl has a love interest, but the boys are usually off doing their own thing and only occasionally show up for a date or to give the girls a ride on their cool bikes or magical spaceship. I don't even think that we see the guys fight or, if we do, it's a rare thing. They are not there to save the day. They are there to be shipping fodder.

Like most magical girl shows, Winx Club starts with the main character making friends with one of the girls who will eventually become part of her magical girl squad. This brings us back to Miraculous.

Did you ever find it weird that Origins implies that Marinette has no friends? She doesn't even have a backbone until new girl Alya shows up to become Marinette's First Real Friend:

Marinette: I so wish I can handle Chloé the way you do. Alya: You mean the way Majestia does it. She says all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing. (pointing at Chloé) Well, that girl over there is evil, and we are the good people. We can't let her get away with it.

This is a bizarre opening because Miraculous is not about Marinette making friends or learning to stand up for herself. If you skipped Origins and just watched the rest of the show, then you'd have no clue that Marinette wasn't close with her classmates before this year. You also wouldn't know that Alya was new in town and you definitely wouldn't know that Marinette had never stood up to Chloé before this year. So why is this here? Why waste screen time setting up elements that aren't actually important to canon?

Miraculous did it for the same reason that Winx Club did it: magical girl shows traditionally start with the main character making friends with at least one of her eventual female teammates because Magical Girl shows are all about the girls and their relationships. The boys are just arm candy.

But Miraculous isn't a magical girl show. The writers have explicitly stated that it's a rom-com and romantic comedies aren't about female friendship. They might have female friendships in them, but that's not where the focus is. The focus of a rom-com is on the romance and Origins is very clearly all about the romance.

Origins as a Rom-com

Origins has a lot on its plate. It has to establish the villain's motivation for the first time, show us how the heroes got their miraculous, show us how the heroes first met on both sides of the mask, show us how they met their respective best friends, and show us how the heroes dealt with their first akuma. It would be perfectly understandable if this 40 minute two-parter didn't do anything with the romance. They have a full show to give us that!

In spite of this, Origins has some incredibly touching moments for both Ladynoir and Adrienette because romance is the heart of Miraculous. It is the main focus of the show. The driving motivation for both of our leads and the majority of the show's episodes. To tell the story of how their journey started without at least one of them falling in love would feel wrong. That's why we see both of them fall in love!

First we get Chat Noir giving his heart to his bold and brilliant lady, then we get Marinette's heart being stolen by the shy sweet boy who never once thought to blame her for her snap judgement of his character. We even get a touching moment where Chat Noir inspires his lady to accept her role and be Ladybug, leading her to boldly face their enemy and call him out:

Roger: I have a new plan, unlike you! Move aside and let the pros do their thing. You've already failed once! Ladybug: …He's right, you know. If I'd captured Stoneheart's akuma the first time around, none of this would have happened! I knew I wasn't the right one for this job… Cat Noir: No. He's wrong, because without you, she'd no longer be here. (they look at Chloe) And because without us, they won't make it, and we'll prove that to 'em. Trust me on this. Okay? Ladybug: Okay.

I love this moment, but it does lose a little of its power when you remember that we had an Alya-driven variation of this exact same thing five minutes prior:

Alya: HELP!! (Marinette suddenly gets filled with courage. She gets the case out of Alya's bag and puts on the Miraculous. Then, Tikki appears, happy to see Marinette again.) Tikki:(raising her arms) Mmmm! Marinette: I think I need Ladybug! Tikki: I knew you'd come around! Marinette: Well, I'm still not sure I'm up for this, but Alya's in danger. I can't sit back and do nothing.

This scene initially confused me because - if Miraculous is a rom-com - then why would you make Alya the reason that Marinette became Ladybug? Why wouldn't you have Chat Noir be the one in danger so that Marinette chose to fight because of her love interest and then encourage that bond with the later scene of him encouraging her? Why split the focus like this? Why give Alya so much attention?

In case you haven't figured it out, it's because Origins is trying to establish two different genres of show. Two genres that will continue to fight for the rest of the series (or at least the first five seasons).

Magical Girls Vs Rom-com

Why is Alya the one to shake off the nightmare dust and inspire the others during the season five finale? Why is Alya the one that Marinette trusts with all of her plans while Chat Noir is kept in the dark? Why does Alya and Marinette's friendship get so much more focus than Adrien and Nino's? Why was Alya the only temp hero who got upgraded to full time hero?

It's because Alya is Marinette's second in command in a magical girl show and magical girl shows focus on female friendships while the boys are just there to be cute and support the girls.

Why do most of Marinette's talks with Alya focus on Adrien? Why is Chat Noir the only other full time holder of a Miraculous for the first three seasons and then again for the final season? Why do Marinette's friends become more and more obsessed with Adrienentte as the show goes on? Why is the love square's identity reveal given so much more narrative weight than any other identity reveal?

It's because Miraculous is a rom-com and the love square is our end game couple, so of course the story focuses on their relationship above all else!

Are you starting to see the problem?

Circling back to our original question: no, it was not unreasonable for the fans to expect that the Alya reveal would have massive negative consequences for Ladynoir. That is what should happen in a rom-com and Miraculous is mainly written like a rom-com. But the writers are also trying to write a magical girl show and, in a magical girl show, Alya and Marinette's friendship should be the most important relationship in the show, so it makes perfect sense that the show treats the Alya reveal as perfectly fine because the Alya reveal was written from the magical girl show perspective.

When it comes to Miraculous, if you ever feel like a writing choice makes no sense for genre A, re-frame it as a thing from genre B and it suddenly makes perfect sense which is fascinatingly terrible writing! It's no wonder there are people who hate the Alya reveal and people who will defend it with their life. It all depends on which genre elements you've picked up on and clung to. Neither side is right, they've both been set up to have perfectly valid expectations. Whether those expectations are valid for a given episode is entirely up to the mercurial whims of the writers!

How Do We Fix This Mess

At this point, I don't think that we can, the show is too far gone, but if someone gave me the power to change one element of Miraculous, that element would be this: scrap both the magical girl stuff and the rom-com stuff and turn Miraculous into a team show where the friendships transcend gender.

At this point, I've written over a quarter of a million words of fanfic focused on these characters (the brain rot is real) and one thing I've discovered is that it is damn near impossible to keep Adrien and Alya from becoming friends. They're both new to their school while Marinette and Nino have gone to the same school for at least a few years. Alya and Adrien are both obsessed with Ladybug plus Adrien is a natural hype man who loves to support his friends and Alya loves to talk about her blog. Alya is dating Adrien's best friend. On top of that, Alya, Adrien, Nino, and Marinette are all in the same class, meaning that they pretty much have to be spending time together five days a week unless French school don't give kids a chance to socialize or do group projects. If so, then judging them for the first issue, but super jealous of the latter.

Given all of that, why in the world is does it feel like Alya is Marinette's close friend while Adrien is just some guy who goes to Alya's school? Along similar lines, while canon Marinette barely talks to Nino, I've found that Marinette and Nino tend to get along smashingly, especially if you embrace the fact that they have to have known each other for at least a few years.

If you embrace this wider friendship dynamic and scrap the girl squad, replacing it with Alya, Adrien, Marinette, and Nino, then the fight for narrative importance quickly goes away. It's no longer a question of is this episode trying to be a magical girl show or a rom-com? Instead, the question is: which element of the friend group is getting focused on today? The romance or the friendship?

A lot of hero shows do this and do it well. I think that one of the most well known examples is Teen Titans. That show has five main characters and the focus is usually on their friendships, but there is a very clear running romantic tension between the characters Robin and Starfire with several episodes giving a good deal of focus to their romance. I'd say that this element really starts in the show's the 19th episode - Date with Destiny - and it all culminates in the movie that capstones the series: Trouble in Tokyo. The character Beast Boy also gets a romance arc and, while it's more short lived, it's further evidence that you can have strong romances and strong friendships in the same show and even the same episode. You just have to own the fact that boys and girls can be friends with each other, a very logical thing to embrace when your show has decided to have a diverse cast of heroes instead of imposing arbitrary gender limitations on its magical powers.

I couldn't figure out a way to work this into the main essay, but it's relevant so I wanted to quickly point it out and give you more to think about re Origins. Have you ever found it weird how Origins gives both Adrien AND Marinette the "I've never had friends before" backstory and yet wider canon acts like Marinette has this strong amazing friend group while Adrien doesn't seem to care about making friends and instead focuses all his energy on romance? Why give both the protagonist and the supposed deuteragonist this kind of origin if it's not going to be a major element of the show? It makes so much more sense to only give one of them this backstory and then focus that person's character arc on learning about friendship.

So, it's not as though a fashion show isn't cool or anything, it's just that...

I feel like assigning each group to do a fashion show for their end of semester project is...limiting.

For example:

Ruby is a Mixed Media and Graphic Design focus. I literally cannot tell what her contribution to their final runway was.

(Someone tell me if they know what it is.)

Sunny's animations were good, but they weren't all that she could do. She could do more if she wasn't limited to doing a fashion show. A short film or animated music video would be cool.

And that's not even getting into some of the other people who's shows we didn't see.

What would Daria Roselyn, a Music Focus, and Georgia Bloom, a Performing Arts focus, do for a fashion show? Model?

What about Emi Vanda? Did she paint a set? Make props?

We don't even know who was in Colin's group, or what he did for his runway.

The point is, making everyone do a runway for their end of semester project can be limiting.

It also requires every group to have at least one Fashion focus, which seems a bit...unlikely.

A better system would be...well, it's complicated, but I'll do my best to explain it.

Everyone gets assigned a group. (I don't like this, but I'll leave it for now.)

The group has to agree on a project and submit their idea to a group supervisor for approval. (Our main girls would probably still do a fashion show.)

Their project proposal must say what each group member is going to contribute.

If it's approved, they get to start on it. If it's not approved, they have to make the changes their supervisor asks of them.

There's a deadline to get their proposals approved. If they're not approved by then, they'll be assigned a project. (I'm sure Miss Wright would have a few ideas.)

Regular check-ins would proceed as normal, with everyone showing the progress they made on their part of the project.

By the end of the semester, they have to have their project finished.

This could lead to some interesting ideas for projects, such as:

A museum exhibition

A clothing display

A mini concert

A short play

More ideas

This could be interesting. It could be fun to hear about groups doing something other than a fashion show.

And, like I said, giving the students a chance to pick their projects for themselves would give them better opportunities to show what they can do.

Also, even Ghoulia's texts were in "zombie", which isn't actually a great representation of non-verbal people.

The non-verbal people I knew, keeping in mind they were nowhere near as intelligent as Ghoulia, were still able to type and write.

G1 Ghoulia didn't have that. It sucks that there's no non-verbal representation, but g1 Ghoulia wasn't a great representation.

And the creators acknowledge that. So they changed it. Because they want to do a non-verbal character authentically.

One of the show runners even stated that this was the reason.

And, I still believe Ghoulia does represent some kind of disability.

In "Growing Ghoulia" she talks about how difficult it is for zombies to earn points at monster high because they're not as fast as other monsters.

That sounds familiar...

In "Flaunt Your Skeleton" we learn that Ghoulia has anxiety tics and, in "Dawn of the Dread" her anxiety manifests as a monster.

So, Ghoulia might not be non-verbal anymore, but she's still a good representation of disability.

People can be upset that she's no longer non-verbal, but she's still a great character.

And here's hoping that, when they include a non-verbal character, we love them as much as we love g1 Ghoulia.

Alright, time to share some thoughts. This is going to be about Monster High g3, specifically Ghoulia.

Now, I understand why people are upset that she can talk in this generation as there's now no representation for nonverbal characters, but I do love that they veered away stereotypical zombies that are super slow and can only communicate with grunts & other noises that aren't recognizable as words. But, more importantly, she wasn't intended to be representative of nonverbal people.

Now, I'm not saying that nonverbal shouldn't relate to her, that's not something anyone has control over. What I'm saying is this: the writers for the new generation likely decided to give her the ability to speak so that they could explore her character more, and so that when they eventually do add a nonverbal character, they can be sure to do it right & consult with nonverbal people about their lived experiences.

For example: when the live-action movie came out, I related to Frankie's struggles with social situations, but the creators said they're not autistic. (And my twin explained that Frankie's only 2 weeks old & it's hard to diagnose autism before 3 years). I was a little heartbroken, as they were the only character I sort of related to. Note: were.

And then g3 Twyla made her debut, and then had an episode about growing up, and it was like someone put my lived experience on the screen. I felt so seen & understood, as did many autistic fans of the show.

So, while I understand that the current lack of nonverbal representation is frustrating, I'm sure(ly hoping) that they will make a nonverbal character, and that they're just making sure they can make them accurate and not written as a harmful stereotype.

And it's especially a problem in situations where Marinette isn't actually wrong, so they need to warp the universe to make her wrong.

Marinette's not wrong for saying Chloe had no heart in "Zombizou" because Chloe was certainly acting like it.

Marinette's not wrong for disbelieving Chloe in "Antibug", Chloe had previously lied to them in that episode about the akuma.

Marinette's not wrong for being confused over her feelings for Luka and Adrien, she's a teenage girl.

Marinette's not wrong for wanting to call out Lila for lying and manipulating, she's a liar and manipulative.

Marinette's not wrong for not taking Chat Noir's flirtations seriously, he flirts with a lot of people and doesn't take his job seriously.

Marinette's not wrong for not showing up for Chat Noir's date, she had already told him she wouldn't be there.

She's certainly not wrong for not wanting ice cream when she's too upset to eat it.

It's not just that they wrote over 100 ways for Marinette to do something wrong, it's that they wrote 100 episodes that portray Marinette as wrong, even when she isn't.

I can understand the "lesson of the day" formula, but the writers of Miraculous drastically misunderstood the assignment.

In Defense of Marinette

I like Marinette. While there are many valid criticisms of her writing, the same can be said for literally every other character and she's actually doing pretty well given that she's the main character. After all, in a show where consistent characterization is an ongoing issue, the one with the most screen time will probably be the one who's the biggest victim of the issue.

This is heavily exacerbated by the rule that supposedly governs Miraculous. Namely that, in each story, Marinette must make a mistake. Or, at least, so says the head writer:

I really do not care what this guy says on Twitter or anywhere else. I only care about what's in the show because, if you have to go outside the text to understand the text, then you have no idea how to tell a good story.

However, unlike many of the tweets that I've seen, this one isn't some BS bit of lore. It's a writing rule and it has substantial backing in the text. It's extremely rare to have an episode where Marinette comes out smelling like roses and that's a problem because Miraculous has over 100 episodes. In other words, to follow this rule, the writers have to come up with over 100 ways for Marinette to be wrong so of course she's going to come across poorly. Why would you do this to your main character?

It's extremely common for kids shows to have a "lesson of the day" element to them. Someone always needs to learn something, but I've never seen a show misunderstand the assignment so badly. Learning a lesson is not the same as doing something wrong.

It's been a while since I watched the 2010 version of My Little Pony, but it really leaned into that whole "lesson of the day" thing and it actually knew what it was doing, so I'm going to talk about it briefly to discuss things that Miraculous should have done.

The first thing to note is that MLP had an unambiguous main character - Twilight Sparkle - but Twilight was not the one who learned all of the lessons. She had a pet dragon and a crew of five friends who would, occasionally, be the ones to learn the lesson because there were lots of lessons that simply didn't fit Twilight's character. Instead of warping Twilight to make the idea work (cough cough Ikari Gozen cough), the writers just let someone else have the spotlight for a bit.

This is an excellent way to build out your cast and Miraculous had plenty of opportunities to do it. For example, Lila should not have been Marinette's issue. The fact that Lila hates Marinette could have certainly stuck around, but the one who takes her down and learns to investigate her sources? That should have been Alya. A liar is the perfect enemy for an investigative journalist, but a poor enemy for someone who shines as a battlefield commander and overthinks when she's given too much time.

Another way that MLP would teach lessons was to have someone other than Twilight or the main crew cause the issue that they then had to deal with. This leads to one of the best moments in children's television:

And, frankly? Marinette deserves a moment like this. That poor girl has been through hell and is never allowed to make the right call when it really matters. The show will even completely rewrite its lore to make her fail (see: Strike Back). That is such an awful thing to do to your lead! Shows about female empowerment should include women feeling powerful and, no, Lila and Chloe don't count!

Also, the show is literally about Gabriel taking advantage of people who are upset. You don't need to have Marinette make a mistake to shoehorn in a life lesson. Akumas are life lesson fodder and season 1 actually seemed to get this. I'm not sure why they switched gears to "Marinette is the star and, therefore, must always be wrong."

The final way that MLP taught lessons was to have Twilight do something wrong because having your main character do something wrong is a totally valid way to teach lessons. It just shouldn't be your only way because you know who is always wrong in children's media?

Villains.

They wrote Marinette like a villain.

And a large part of the fandom hates her for it because of course they do.

You're not supposed to like villains.

It's so frustrating because we have characters like Marc and Nathaniel and Rose with powers that fit their personalities and interests and they don't get to use them very much.

Instead, we get a season where the villains get to use the powers, and they get to be much more creative with them.

It's frustrating. The villains were using the powers better than their chosen holders.

Nathaniel used Genesis to make a wand, but Nathalie used it to make a box of supplies.

Marc used Sublimation to give himself the power to always score a goal, but Tomoe used it to give herself an enhanced sense of smell, and Gabriel used it to give himself invisibility and flight.

Rose used it to make Juleka and Gigantitan calm down, but Mr. Damocles used it to distract multiple people and Miss Bustier used it to start a revolution.

The villains were using the powers more creatively than the heroes were.

(Note, it's not just a problem with these three, but they were the ones that best explained the problem.)

This makes it seem like the chosen holders aren't cut out to be heroes, despite what Ladybug says.

If Marinette and the villains are using the powers better than them, what's the point of them?

They could have been more, but the creators didn't want to work for that.

They want us to believe that these people are perfect for their Miraculouses because they said so, even when the show itself contradicts it.

And, honestly, that's terrible writing and unfair to the characters.

Ladybug Vs Avatar's use of the supporting cast and the problem thereof.

I'm not sure if this has been covered before, but there's a serious problem with Marinette being the be-all end-all of everything in Miaculous.

And it's not just because "she's stressed" or "it's all on her". Her being the most important, talented and plot-relevant character in every situation is.

Let's make a comparison to the Gold Standard:

In Avatar the Last Airbender, Aang is the axis of the story. He holds incredible powers beyond anyone else, can bend every element and could conceivably end the entire conflict that plagues his world with relative ease- which he eventually does.

However, for 99% of the story he cannot do so. Because Aang is untrained, he cannot access that divine win-button of the Avatar State at will, and using it carried enormous risks to himself and those around him- making it functionally unusable for common conflicts. Furthermore while he does technically have the capacity to use all four elements, he had only mastered one and needed to learn the remaining three.

Indeed, Aang has outright difficulty with learning Earthbending despite his innate talents and while he's a quick study for the other two, he doesn't demonstrate the same effectiveness with water and fire as Katara and Zuko.

This means that Aang cannot do certain things as well as the others in his team. This means that for the majority of the story, even though his first and preferred element provides him with useful abilities" Aang has weaknesses that he needs others to cover and provide for.

Enter Katara, Sokka, Toph and Zuko.

Katara is a waterbender who teaches Aang and later advances her powers to include the all-important power of healing and the disturbingly effective (though situational) Bloodbending.

Toph is an earthbender who is also one of Aang's teachers, and whose tremor sense later allows her to both detect liars and invent Metalbending.

Sokka is seemingly just the comic relief normie. However his technical mindset allows him to serve as the general of the group, and even plan and lead in that role for entire armies later in the show.

Even Zuko who joins later and becomes less a teacher but a fellow student alongside Aaang in firebending is a skilled infiltrator and melee weapon expert. (This is less of a case than the others since it's not used as much, but it's more of a concrete example than his insights into the fire nation and his potential utility as a replacement Fire Lord).

They each provide far more than those short summaries, but it's important to note that in each case, even when Aang does learn the elements and starts growing into his role as the Avatar: he never gains the full range of abilities that his team offers. He never assumes the fully strategic mindset of Sokka, and even though it's downright implausible that no Avatar before him never learnt healing, he never demonstrates that ability or any Metalbending prowess even in the Avatar state.

There's also the enemy trio of Azula, Ty Lee and Mai. Azula is a powerful firebending genius, but Mai's prowess with her throwing weapons are a close match- and Ty Lee's chi-blocking can outright cripple enemy benders for any given fight when combined with her insane agility: something that not even Azula can do with her firebending. They are an incredibly dangerous combination and when Azula loses them, she becomes far less effective for their absence.

In both teams despite the leader being a powerful, talented bender who is objectively the strongst person on their respective side: there's no doubt about each member of the team contributing something that said leader cannot.

-

Now let's look at Miraculous:

Marinette is the "Greatest Ladybug" of all time despite being fourteen, only having had the earrings for less than a year, and having a list of predecessors that go back literally thousands of years and include Joan of Arc.

She is also the Guardian of the Miracle Box. Specifically she is the Guardian of The Mother Box that is the most important of all the boxes, despite there being at least a full Temple's worth of actually trained candidates somewhere in Tibet who should be far and above more capable than her or her mentor Fu. However, her supposed superior Su-Han seems entirely convinced that she's already surpassed any teachings his order has by how often she breaks said teachings in his face only for him to roll over like a dog. There's not been a single time when Marinette has been confronted by some shortcoming in her responsibilities as a Guardian where she has had to learn anything from the multi-millennia old Order of Gurdians.

Marinette has also worn almost every single Miraculous in her Box at the same time, a feat that supposedly risked serious harm to her but merely made her woozy for an afternoon (if that). As of the season five Finale, she has also unified her earrings with her partner's ring: a scenario that in earlier seasons seemed to imply great risk: yet she was able to use the powers flawlessly.

As Ladybug, she is also the lone hero who has unlocked any new advanced powers with her Miraculous (unless you also include the arbitrary "adulthood" that she and Chat Noir achieved that allows them multiple uses of their Miraculous before detransforming), and on the occasions when she's used anyone else's powers has shown no sign of being any less capable than they are with them.

Ladybug does everything as well if not better than everyone else.

Marinette can not only unify with any Miraculous she needs for a given mission, she can use the powers as effectively as their "dedicated holder" can and without any restrictions. Unlike the majority of the cast who are still under the child-power limit. She can even unify with multiple miraculous at the same time without any drawbacks.

And without those drawbacks, without anyone on the cast being able to use the power of their Miraculous more effectively than Marinette: everyone else on the team is more or less superfluous.

Sure, Marinette has tossed out the Miraculous to her team like candy now. But when you get down to it: the real lesson that she should have learnt from Strikeback to just put some damn security on her Yo-yo/The Box. Because this just means that she has to wait for the hero in question to show up when she could have just pulled off whatever plan she has in mind herself.

And that superfluous label includes Chat Noir.

As frustrating as it is to come to the this conclusion: as of right now, there's no real reason for Adrien Agreste to be anything but a temporary holder. Certainly you can point to his experience with Plagg's power, and a few examples that seem to imply he can do more with it (in his second outing he was able to reconstruct part of the Eiffel Tower into a makeshift extension to catch someone from). Things that imply that if he perhaps received any actual training in the show like Marinette did from Fu, any guidance whatsoever from the Order or their Grimoire he might be able to achieve more.

But there's no solid evidence to expect that Marinette wouldn't be as effective, and the narrative precedent does not lend itself to the idea that anyone could overshadow Ladybug as a holder even of their own Miraculous. If anything, the sheer ability Marinette showed as Bug Noire implies that her having a partner instead of just keeping the ring herself is a detriment to any given situation.

If you can justify exposing the ring to potential capture in the first place considering that there seems to be no requirement to do. By all rights the practical thing to do is just keeping Plagg in the box instead of risking reality.

Of course we wanted to be generous, Adrien could still be of some use. He's the resident meatshield and narrative jobber. So long as he has a Miraculous he could continue faithfully serving in those roles, eating up mind-control beams and taking hits for Bug Noire so she can save the day as usual.

But everyone else on the Miraculous team might as well turn in their furry super-suits and go home.

-

You couldn't get a more black white depiction of the value of others outside of the protagonist. in Avatar, Aang is literally a semi-divine being who still needs to be humble and learn while the others around him still have useful special talents and prowess that he can't simply attain at will.

While in Miraculous, there's only one person of actual true competence. From Paris to Shanghai, Marinette alone is the capable one- barring the odd episode in the limelight (Alya and Felix stand up and take a bow. Adrien can stay seated).

There is a word for a character that is impossibly more capable than any other in spite of all reason and logic. And Marinette is increasingly fitting that mold as the show goes on. There's also a term for characters that ultimately contribute nothing good or bad to a story; wasted space. You can't have an entire ensemble of characters as part of the cast and have them provide nothing if they're supposed to have even a smidge of narrative value without making them something the story would be better off without.

Just as you can't just have one person at the centre of everything, make them capable of everything and not eventually have the story they're in turn into (at best) a power fantasy.

And it's a shame. Because Miraculous seemed like it could have been a lot more.

This is probably small in the grand scheme of things, but how did Emilie being noble play any impact in the story at all?

I mean, I'd get it if it was just a small detail to help deepen Emilie's character, but why nobility of all things? I don't know, from what I'm seeing so far, the whole "Emilie renounced her noble title" shtick just feels worthless if it's not going to impact the story or add depth to Emilie's character (like maybe upbringing or personal values?).

I don't know. Like everything else, the noble part just feels shallow and means nothing to the story, especially for a character like Emilie, who is the plot device for the whole show. Any detail about her, like her personality and life story, is supposed to influence the story and characters one way or another, namely Hawkmoth since she's his driving force.

So what was the point?

For context, this ask is about Félix's play which says that Emilie gave up her title to be with Gabriel. I'm gonna give a slightly larger section of the transcript of the play for full context, but the relevant but is at the end of the last paragraph:

Félix: The king and queen's twins grew up, each day as different in heart as they were similar in body. The firstborn, curious and brazen, despised life at court and escaped at every opportunity. The younger daughter, well-behaved and respectful, did everything she could to please her parents, and stayed quietly in the castle. Félix: (as Mr. Graham de Vanily) Oh, my queen. Did we entrust our legacy to the right princess? Kagami: (as Mrs. Graham de Vanily) She will fall in line, eventually. Félix: Confident that she would settle down as she matured, the king and queen allowed the curious princess to leave to study beyond the sea in another kingdom. There, she immediately found true love in a humble tailor. Félix: The tailor was making clothes so magnificent that they revealed the beauty of the soul of anyone who wore them. Although it made her parents furious, the curious princess gave up her rank, her wealth and her kingdom to live a bohemian life with the tailor.

Story wise, I have no idea why any of this was added since it adds nothing to canon. It's not like this finally explains why Gabriel and Emilie are poor while Amelie is wealthy. Along similar lines, it's not like Amelie's title has ever mattered. Prior to this play, I don't think that we even knew that she had a title or that she was the younger sister. The play is all about explaining things that we never had reasons to question in the first place.

My best guess as to why the writers wrote this pointless backstory is that they wanted to make Emilie seem even more pure and perfect so they went with the tired old trope of a rich girl giving up material things for the sake of love and art because good pure women don't care about material things! Only nasty, shallow women care about money. (Way to play into sexist tropes, guys.)

There may also be cultural elements at play here given that France doesn't have the greatest history with nobility, so giving up a noble title may be seen as good and pure to a French writer, but I don't know enough about French culture to say that with any certainty. If anyone who reads this blog is French and would like to chime in, then feel free!

While we're on the topic of the play, I wanted to point out that the above quoted passage is why I say that the Graham de Vanily parents can be as kind or as abusive as you'd like to make them. It's incredibly vague and you can read into it whatever you want to read into it. Were they good loving parents who were just upset about their daughter living in poverty or were they miserable controlling classist who Emilie fled England to get away from? It's up to you because you can get both reads from this. The play commits to almost nothing of value. Politicians could take lessons from this impressive level of noncommittal writing.

A better version of the play would have focused on things that actually matter to canon like the details of finding the miraculous and/or Emilie learning she's sick, but you could only have those details if they were coming from Nathalie or Gabriel. Félix is a terrible choice for a character to tell us the show's backstory because he knows so little of it, thus the play focusing on his largely pointless backstory.

I’m always wondering if it was better or worse for BBT and Young Sheldon creators to say that Sheldon is NOT on the spectrum. But then I see how they treat neurodivergence on shows like Miraculous, and go probably better they keep away from stuff they don’t understand.

I suspect what happened with Sheldon’s character is that they probably modeled him after people they either didn’t know or didn’t care were on the spectrum and by the time everyone was like “hey this guy is obviously autistic” they’d made fun of him too many times to suddenly claim being pioneers of sitcom neurodivergent representation without also having to accept responsibility for their past attitudes towards him

I do, however, think the red itchy sweater episode was fantastic in delivering a message regarding some forms of neurosis

As for ML, it is, at its core, a tell don’t show series. These characters are in love, are close friends, are good at X and Y, are passionate about this and that, hate Z, so on and so forth. We rarely learn about characters and happenstances through actions, to the point where very clear irrefutable events are verbally retconned by random characters and we’re supposed to accept what they say as canon over what we saw. It doesn’t matter if characters are noticeably queer, neurodivergent, good/bad at something, biased about certain people/subjects, struggling with XYZ, etc. If someone doesn’t outright state it, it isn’t canon. This is where the crew loves to claim brownie points for representation but doesn’t actually do anything that might upset the Suits and their bigotry. They have an ethnically diverse character lineup but they’re all perfectly assimilated to white french culture and rarely acknowledge their own supposed heritage. They criticize police abuse but have the victims apologize to their assailants. They have queer characters but their relationships are mostly implied off-screen so they have plausible deniability. They have kids whose parents are clearly mistreating them to the point of leaving lifelong scars and affecting their ability to become functional members of society but it’s obviously not abuse.

I swear there’s some kind of disconnect between the dialogue and the action lines on the script, like no one member of the crew knows what the other is doing and everything is just taped together at the end with no revisions

Don't you think you are missing the point? Because of how often Ron is overlooked whenever he gets any ounce of attention, it usually goes to his head. I think the chapter focused on this flaw not to make the conflict as one-sided on kim's end. Ron was being a bit patrionizing through the episode. So, Ron acknowladging it was the Kim factor, despite being Ron who defeated the villain showcase his character growth and is a sign of humilty and modesty.

Is one of my favorite moments of his character, I like how supportive and kind he is to Kim. Maybe what was missing was Kim acknowladging Ron more often? how would you've liked to see the episode/ending play out? What would you change?

I wouldn't say I'm missing the point. I'd say I'm saying it's stupid. Huge difference.

Furthermore, as I have rewatched the series recently, I can confidently say that, attention does not, actually, go to Ron's head when he receives it.

(And even if it did, that's not an excuse to constantly beat on the guy's self-esteem when even the anon asking this question admits he's constantly over looked.)

At this point in time, "Ron Millionaire" hasn't happened yet, so Kim's only examples would be "Bueno Nacho", "The New Ron", and "Two to Tutor", and in none of those did Ron get a big head.

(But if you're someone who's threatened by other people being successful and confident, it's the same thing.)

In "Bueno Nacho", Ron invented the Naco and got the job as the boss because of it. Being good at his job and actually enjoying it doesn't mean it went to his head, nor was asking Kim to do the job she originally signed them up for.

In "The New Ron", Ron started caring about fashion and hair-care, but this still doesn't mean he had an ego problem.

In "Two to Tutor", Ron was successful, popular, and confident because of his baking skills, and that still doesn't mean he had an ego problem.

Know why? Because he was enjoying the positive attention without putting down others or making fun of them.

Was Ron a little rude in this episode? Yes. But to say it's a recurring problem when it provably isn't shows more about Kim than Ron.

Namely that, to Kim, it doesn't matter if Ron actually has an ego problem or is just confident, it's unacceptable for Ron to be anything but her insecure, bumbling sidekick.

(Seriously, Kim is allowed to say she can do anything, but Ron isn't allowed to say he's good at one thing? How is that a fair and equal relationship?)

It's also worth mentioning that, yes, Ron is provably important to Kim's success, because she has failed any mission she tries to do alone.

Ron's already humble and modest, to the point of insecurity and self-deprecation. He really didn't need to be told, again, that he's nothing special.

How would I have liked this to go? Easy:

It starts out pretty much the same, but, at some point, Kim is watching feeds of her missions and sees, from an outside perspective, how important Ron actually is to her success.

*cue dawning look of realization*

At the end, after Gemini is defeated, we get an exchange like this:

Kim: "I was so upset about this whole Ron-factor thing at first, but, after watching some surveillance videos, I realized they're right."

Ron and Rufus: "Huh?!"

Kim: "I'm really good at the action stuff, but your quick-thinking and resourcefulness has been more helpful than I realized. I'm sorry I never acknowledged that before."

Ron: "Thanks, KP. That means a lot. Sorry I was kind of rude earlier. Friends?"

Kim: "The best."

*hug*

Ron: "But, for the record, it's not you or me, it's us. We're a team. It's not about a Kim Factor or a Ron Factor, it's us together that makes it work."

Dr. Director: "Hmm...perhaps we should spend time studying both of you."

Thoughts on "The Ron Factor"

So, obviously, this is an episode I have a lot of thoughts on.

I will acknowledge that Kim does have some cool moves in this episode.

But, it also seems fair to acknowledge that, despite those cool moves, Kim didn't defeat the bad guy.

That was done by Ron, with a little help from Rufus.

It's also worth mentioning that, yes, Kim is dependent on Ron to succeed on missions, as shown in "Bueno Nacho".

And it's not fair to anyone, Ron especially, that, after Ron defeats the bad guy, he decides to give Kim all the credit.

Kim has impressive skills and definitely demonstrated them in this episode, but that doesn't mean Ron isn't a factor in her success.

And a role model would recognize that yes, Ron is important to her success, but that doesn't mean she's not amazing too.

She'd be supportive of Ron and happy for him, while still making Global Justice see that she's still amazing.

(And, no one said she wasn't amazing, they just said Ron was probably the key factor to her success.)

Other thoughts, in no particular order:

So, did Betty and Sheldon actually lose their eyes, or are they just being dramatic?

(I wouldn't put it past them.)

Is Sheldon's robotic hand prosthetic or some kind of glove? If prosthetic, how did he lose it?

Realistic sibling relationship: Betty and Sheldon immediately resort to childish squabbling when near each other, despite having spent the entire rest of the episode being ominous and brooding.

(The Cain Instinct is strong with these two.)

Honestly, that Chaos Theory thing might not be far off. And if Wade thinks there's some merit to it, I'm inclined to believe him.

I realize they said Ron was a "non-factor" at the end, but there is canon evidence that contradicts this.

It's probably that Ron is a factor, but not in any way that would actually show up on tests.

Thus, they assumed there was no "Ron Factor".

I loved all three of the shows you mentioned. Though in Winx Club’s case I just love the earlier seasons they went off the rails.

I'm not sure "off the rails" is the term I'd use, but it did seem like some of the plots were pretty crazy towards the end.

Then again, it is a world of magic, so I guess crazy can be expected.

Still feels like a bit much at times though.

And, as I stated, I know Winx Club didn't handle everything perfectly all the time, but it still did "girl power" way better than Kim Possible did.

I have received a lot of backlash for criticizing Kim Possible as it was one of the most popular "girl power" shows of the time.

Not just here but in other internet spaces as well.

And, truly, I admit that, at the time, I admired Kim.

Emphasis: at the time.

But, as people tend to do, I grew up. I got older, learned more about the world, learned more about people, girls especially, and, when I started rewatching Kim Possible, came to a horrifying revelation:

Kim Possible is not a "girl power" show, it's just a show about a powerful girl.

What does a girl power show look like?

Well, it's best to explain with examples.

I'll keep them limited to crime-fighting shows that were on the air at around the same time Kim Possible was.

Shows being used as examples include:

Teen Titans

X-Men: Evolution

Winx Club

So, what is it that makes these shows girl power shows, but not Kim Possible?

Well, there's a lot, so it's best to grab a snack and a drink, this could be a while.

Let's begin:

Multiple Heroines

Teen Titans starts out with two awesome heroines, Raven and Starfire, and adds more to the cast later - Kole, Bumblebee, Terra, Argent, etc.

X-Men: Evolution had multiple heroines from the beginning, with more added later. And one of the original heroines was an older female mentor that everyone, including boys, looked up to.

Winx Club is a female-led show with five, later six, awesome female leads and powerful females in mentor roles that are admired and respected by men and women alike.

But Kim Possible only has one heroine for girls to look up to - Kim herself.

Sure, Yori's impressive, but she's not really her own character as she's meant to aid in Ron's development.

And while Dr. Director could be cool, we don't actually see her do more than delegate, which, while important, is hard for people to look up to.

And the professional heroes, Team Impossible, are an entirely male group.

Kim Possible only has one female for little girls to look up to.

So, if, for some reason, you find yourself not looking up to Kim, then you're out of luck with this show, because there's not any other girl for you to look up to.

It's not a girl power show if there's only one girl to look up to.

Complex Thoughts and Feelings

The girls of Teen Titans are shown with varied and complex thoughts and emotions. Starfire uses her feelings to fuel her powers, and, even though she's apathetic, there are multiple episodes that address that Raven has complex thoughts and feelings but has to keep them under control because of her powers.

In X-Men: Evolution all the characters, especially the girls, are shown with complex thoughts and feelings.

In Winx Club the girls are shown with thoughts and feelings, and it's established that their feelings fuel their magic.

But in Kim Possible, Kim's thoughts and feelings aren't very complex. Kim is shown to dislike something, or have strong opinions about something, but anything deeper is rarely explored.

When Kim didn't want Ron to be the mascot in "Attack of the Killer Bebes", there's no reason given.

When she's jealous of Yori in "Gorilla Fist", it's only hinted that it's because of her romantic feelings for Ron.

And she certainly doesn't actually talk about her feelings afterwards.

Her underlying thoughts, feelings, and motivations are rarely explored.

A girl power show should explore the thoughts and feelings of it's main character.

Competent Heroes

In Teen Titans, the Doom Patrol are in fact skilled and competent, even if they "die" a lot.

In X-Men: Evolution, the older heroes are actually good at what they do.

In Winx Club, the Specialists aren't considered less competent, they're just trained differently. And the older heroes are, in fact, very skilled.

In those shows, the more experienced and professional heroes are actually shown to be competent.

In Kim Possible, Agent Du and Team Impossible are (supposed to be) less skilled than Kim.

(Though, really, the laser web thing isn't a fair assessment of ability if they're not starting from the same place.)

While I get that Kim is supposed to be the hero, it'd be more impressive if the professional heroes were actually portrayed as good at their jobs.

The other shows don't require dumbing down the professionals to make the heroines shine, so Kim Possible shouldn't need that either.

A girl power show shouldn't need the professionals dumbed down for the girl to shine.

Independence

In the other shows, each girl is a formidable force on their own.

Maybe not able to take down every bad guy on their own, but certainly able to hold their own in a fight.

But in Kim Possible, Kim is dependent on Ron and Wade to succeed.

(As shown in "Bueno Nacho" and "A Sitch in Time".)

She is completely incapable of handling missions on her own, making her unable to be a stand-alone hero.

The main character of a girl power show should be capable of doing things without her sidekicks.

Kindness

In the other shows, the main heroines are shown to be kind to others, even those outside their immediate friend group.

A few missteps along the way, but rarely ever having malicious intentions.

Not never, but rarely.

And especially no ill intent towards their friends.

Being kind takes a lot of strength at times, so a heroine who is kind is strong and worth looking up to.

(Seriously, kindness is powerful. The world needs more of it.)

But Kim isn't very kind to her loved ones.

Don't get me wrong, she saves the world and does other things to help people, but the way she treats those closest to her is not kind, and not worth looking up to.

Hyper-competitive, bossy, controlling, condescending, judgmental, etc. These aren't actually behaviors we want little girls emulating.

A kind heroine is more powerful than a bossy, controlling, judgmental, overly-competitive one.

Acknowledgment

In the other shows, the heroines acknowledge their teammates' contributions, and don't feel jealous or threatened when one of them is better than them at something.

In Winx Club, Stella, a character who could have been a stereotypical vain, spoiled princess, is constantly praising her friends on their accomplishments.

In X-Men: Evolution, the girls acknowledge each other's strengths and skills.

And in Teen Titans, Starfire is constantly showing her friends affection and believing in their abilities. Raven too, but not quite as enthusiastically.

But in Kim Possible, Kim refuses to acknowledge Ron as important to her success, and never gives him credit for his contributions.

(Well, not to his face.)

And, while she might praise Wade when he does something cool, she clearly doesn't value him very much, as shown by her comment in "The Truth Hurts" and her disregard for his warnings in "Queen Bebe".

A role model has no problems acknowledging the contributions of others and respects her teammates.

Training

In the other shows, the heroines are shown training in the use of their powers.

But in Kim Possible, Kim is naturally good at everything.

Okay, maybe not driving or cooking, but Kung Fu and cheerleading, to name a few.

The only time we see Kim practice anything is cheerleading, but "A Sitch in Time" revealed that she was an expert from the beginning.

She was good enough at Kung Fu to impress Hirotaka, a life-long student of Kung Fu, despite saying herself that she only dabbles in it, and she's never seen training in it.

It's not even mentioned that she had any actual training in it.

And, honestly, "naturally good at everything" is hard to emulate. It's not easy to look up to "impossibly talented" when you're older.

A heroine who fails and keeps trying is more admirable than one who never fails.

Varied Interests

In the other shows, the female characters don't all have the same interests.

Teen Titans has Raven interested in things like books while Starfire is interested in cute animals.

X-Men: Evolution has Jean do basketball and soccer, Kitty enjoys theater and parties, and Rogue likes literature, to name a few.

Winx Club has Stella into fashion, Musa is interested in music, Tecna likes technology, Aisha likes sports, and Flora likes nature.

But in Kim Possible, the girls are all interested in the same things; boys, boy bands, pop music, fashion, celebrities, etc.

(Aside from Monique's interests in wrestling and extreme sports, which never get brought up more than once each.)

Despite Kim herself doing Kung Fu and other extreme sports on the regular, the other girls are shown to only be interested in stereotypical teenage girl things.

(Again, aside from Monique's interests that are only mentioned once each.)

(And also aside from Zita, who is stated as being interested in video games and on the swim team, but disappears after her second episode until "Graduation".)

A girl power show would have girls with a variety of interests, not just the stereotypical ones.

Romantic Relationships

The other shows have great romantic relationships.

In Teen Titans, Robin/Starfire had build-up, despite their interest in each other being obvious from the beginning.

In X-Men: Evolution, Jean/Scott had build-up despite their feelings being clear from the beginning, and Kurt/Kitty were never more than friends with them both ending up in relationships with other people.

In Winx Club, all the relationships took time to build up, and some don't stay together forever but neither half is entirely demonized for it.

But there wasn't a lot of build-up for Kim/Ron, with Kim insulting Ron for suggesting people might think they date and Ron expressing discomfort at the idea of dating Kim.

A girl power show should have a proper build up to a romantic relationship.

Lack of a Fool

In the other shows, there is no one "fool" character who is a majority of the humor.

There is no one character who is the butt of all the jokes.

Sure, Teen Titans has Beast Boy, who's pretty humorous and funny, but his abilities and skills as a hero are still acknowledged and respected.

And plenty of the humor comes from other characters as well.

X-Men: Evolution has Nightcrawler, who certainly jokes around a lot, but he's still taken seriously in serious moments.

And other characters contribute to the humor of the show to.

But in Kim Possible, Ron isn't taken seriously.

Ron, despite having many moments where he shows impressive skills, isn't taken seriously as a hero.

His feelings are also rarely taken seriously, even about things that are pretty serious.

And Ron is responsible for 90% of the show's humor, often at his expense.

Ron is meant to be a bumbling, clumsy, inept, incompetent character to emphasize how much Kim shines.

But a real girl power show doesn't need that, because the heroine(s) shine anyways.

Summary

Unlike some of the other "girl power" shows of the time, Kim Possible decided the only thing that's important is that Kim is capable of fighting bad guys.

But a strong female character is so much more than fighting bad guys.

Now, I'm not saying the other shows listed handled everything perfectly. I know some things were handled poorly, but in terms of "girl power", they were still handling it better than Kim Possible.

And, shockingly, only one of them was even intended to be a "girl power" show.

I guess a better girl power show would have girls as people first, icons second.

A criticism I’ve heard people say towards Ron’s character is that he was too caught up on his own anxieties and feelings through S4 and that he stopped being Kim’s emotional support, with there being no room for Kim’s own problems.

I’ve also seen people say Ron was much more competent on early seasons and that his characterization on later seasons was a downgrade. Do you think any of this is true?

Admittedly, I haven't watched every episode recently, but I think I've watched enough to comment.

Firstly:

Ron's always had massive insecurities to deal with.

Monique's debut episode, "Pain King vs Cleopatra", has him be afraid he's going to be replaced as Kim's best friend/sidekick.

"Exchange" has Ron show insecurity over his lack of ability in martial arts.

"Grudge Match" and "Virtu-Ron" show Ron has insecurities when it comes to dating.

So, it's not as though Ron having anxieties is a new thing.

Also, and this is a genuine question, but what problems does Kim have in S4 that Ron's not helping with?

He tries to help her feel better about her brothers being skipped ahead.

He tries to offer her advice about finding a new mission outfit. It was even his idea to go to The Fashionistas for it.

Remember, despite Monique having constructed the outfit, The Fashionistas had designed it.

So, it wasn't a bad idea.

The only problem he wasn't helping with was in "Fashion Victim", and it's not as though he didn't want to; he was locked in a crate with Barkin at the time and couldn't.

Also, the main personal conflict in that episode was between her and Monique. It's not as though Ron could've helped with that anyways.

Not to mention, after 3 seasons of Ron being Kim's emotional support, it's only fair that she start being his now that they're dating.

Secondly:

I wanted to argue against Ron getting a downgrade in S4, but I do see the point about Ron not having a lot of awesome moments in this season.

I'm just not sure if it was done with the intention of having Kim and Rufus shine more.

It could be because, to show the audience that Hana is a powerful weapon, they had her be the one dealing finishing blows to Monkey Fist, when typically that would've gone to Ron.

It could also be that they realize they made Ron too competent to be a sidekick, so they needed him to be less competent without explanation, and were just hoping that no one noticed.

Honestly, whatever the reason, it is kind of annoying. Ron is extremely competent at times, and he deserves to shine and be recognized for it.

He deserves to be Kim's partner, not her sidekick.

So, I do agree with the second criticism, though I'm not sure about the reason, but I don't really agree with the first.

But I do love when people send me asks! Feel free to send more!

Thoughts About "Clean Slate"

Obviously, I have thoughts.

And they're mostly about Kim/Ron.

More specifically, the fact that Kim doesn't remember the fact that she and Ron are dating.

Even more specifically, he reaction to being told they're dating.

Ron: No, not to worry. I’ll have KP back in time for dinner. After school I’ll give her a refresher around Middleton. It’ll be like a second first date.

Kim: Are you hitting on me?

Ron: Um, Kim, we are dating. I’m your boyfriend.

Kim: Boyfriend? Oh, wait, you’re serious?

So, here we have Kim finding the idea of her dating Ron amusing. She doesn't take it seriously, and doesn't seem interested in the idea.

I realize that Kim can't remember anything at the moment, and thus she's not really acting like herself.

But it's kind of unfair that Ron is the last thing Kim remembers.

Ron, who should be the most important person in Kim's life.

Ron, who is certainly the most integral person in Kim's life.

Ron, who is the biggest constant in Kim's life, the person she's spent the most time around, and she doesn't remember dating him until the end of the episode.

And it's annoying when we get scenes like this:

Ron: Hey, just take it slow, Kim. Nothing to worry about. You’re among friends.

Bonnie: Unh. Just learned to walk, K?

Ron: Except for Bonnie!

Kim: Bonnie? Oh, Bonnie! She and I are on the same cheer squad, right? So we’d be friends.

---

Monique: Ron, Wade told me. Lost memory. How’s she doing?

Ron: Eh, a little sketchy in some areas, particularly relationships. You know, she needs to remember things on her own, so don’t expect Kim to just--

Kim: Monique? Monique! I remember you! The first time I met you was at Club Banana. We’re, like, best friends.

---

Ron: Now, you can’t tell me that you don’t remember Bueno Nacho.

Kim: How could I forget? The center of the cheese and chip universe. Home of the naco and managed by Ned.

Ron: How is it you remember everything but the fact that we’re a couple?

Kim: Couple of what?

Ron: People who are dating.

Kim: Are you sure that we were dating? I mean sometimes people read a little more into things than they should, right?

Ron: OK, look, photo evidence, K.P.

Kim: Oh, wait a minute.

Ron: Prom, dancing, the kiss.

Kim: You called me in the middle of the night once to ask about us dating.

Ron: Yes!

Rufus: Yeah!

Kim: Then you said I melted.

Ron: No, ok, no, that was just a dream.

Kim: So we were dating in a dream you had?

Ron: Well, yes, in the dream, but also--

Kim: Why is my watch beeping?

Ron: Wade.

Kim: Hi, uh, Wade?

Ron: How did you remember his name?

Kim: You just said it.

Ron: Oh, right.

Wade: How are you doing, Kim?

Kim: Wade? Oh, Wade! Better. I’m starting to remember stuff.

---

Ron: Wait, wait, wait, wait! Shego, you tell her. Kim and I are dating, right?

Shego: What? For real? Oh, come on. That never made any sense to me. I mean--

Ron: See? That wasn’t a no. Unh.

Kim: Glowing hand. Glow…Go…Shego!

---

Wade: Ron? Ron fought Shego? Alone?

Kim: Well, I don’t know if fought is the right word.

Ron: Sure it is. I fought. Fought for my life.

Wade: Well, hopefully this will help Kim remember her fighting skills.

Kim: Cheer practice?

Wade: Well, so far all of your memories have been triggered by some event or meeting. Good luck.

Bonnie: Hello? Late for practice much?

Ron: OK, don’t let Bonnie get to you and whatever you do, don’t listen to anything she says. You’ll be fine.

Bonnie: I don’t know what your problem is, Kim. I knew this would happen when you started dating Naco Boy.

Ron: Aha, Kim, you see? Do you see? I’m Naco Boy.

Kim: Yeah, I shouldn’t listen to what Bonnie says.

It's not fair that Kim can't remember dating Ron, her best friend of 10+ years, someone who is extremely important to her, until he loses his pants again.

She remembers everything about Monique after just running into her in the halls.

She vaguely remembers Bonnie after running into her, and gets her full memory of Bonnie, including a complicated cheer routine, back after one try.

She remembers Bueno Nacho by just showing up.

She remembers Wade after a phone call.

She remembers Shego as soon as her hands start glowing.

And she remembers Drakken and how to fight before she even goes to confront him again.

But she can't remember Ron until the end of the episode?

This is unfair to everyone.

Especially since Kim is, for some reason, so resistant to the idea of them dating.

I mean, I guess I can understand not immediately believing you're dating some random guy, but Ron's not some random guy.

Kim still remembers their friendship, and trusts him on everything else.

But she doesn't accept that they're dating.

She won't even consider the idea.

And, if dating Ron was as important to her as cheerleading, fighting Shego, hanging out with Monique, or going to Bueno Nacho, shouldn't something have triggered her memory earlier?

Especially since Ron is involved in pretty much every aspect of Kim's life?

But, no, she doesn't remember until he loses his pants.

Not riding on the back of his scooter, which she did during the Li'l Diablos incident which, coincidentally, was the same day they started dating.

And did several other times before Kim got her own car.

Not going to Bueno Nacho, which they do all the time.

Not cheerleading, which Ron happens to be kind of involved in as the mascot.

Not even seeing Ron, which was enough for her to completely remember Monique and Wade (over video!) and kind of remember Bonnie.

No, the only thing that triggers Kim's memory of Ron is that he loses his pants.

And the fact that nothing but Ron losing his pants triggers her memory of them dating, implies that, on a subconscious level, that's how she views Ron.

Not as her boyfriend, but as her clumsy, bumbling, inept sidekick who's always losing his pants.

And everyone - Kim, Ron, us viewers - deserved better.

Thoughts on Dr. Bortel

People need to be watching this guy very closely. Because someone who builds mind-control devices in his free time isn't too far away from deciding to use them.

I mean, most scientists wouldn't even consider building something like that, not even once.

This guy did it twice.

(That we know of.)

And he's not even being paid to do it, or being forced to by a supervillain.

This guy chose to build those devices, for himself.

But I guess we're supposed to believe that he had no intention of using them.

I mean, surely someone would build such dangerous devices purely out of curiosity, right? /s

Honestly, while the guy may not be doing anything technically illegal, he is certainly doing stuff that's highly unethical.

And I don't believe there isn't any ulterior motive for making them.

I mean, would you?

Thoughts on "Emotion Sickness"

This is one of the most frequently-cited episodes for evidence that Kim's always been in love with Ron, even if she just didn't realize it. And, honestly, if that's how you choose to interpret it, fine.

But looking at it through adult eyes, and comparing it to the rest of the series, it doesn't quite fit.

But, before we begin, a thought:

It would have been better if they gave the little black dress scene to the fully grown woman instead of the teenage girl.

(Or not include it at all.)

Seriously. Gross.

Now, on to my analysis.

First, the outfit:

This is not the style of outfit Kim picks for dates. The dress is too short and too tight and there are too many accessories.

This is Kim's style for date outfits. Knee-length dress that doesn't hug her curves and minimal accessories.

Even her Junior Prom dress isn't quite like the one from "Emotion Sickness".

The dress Kim wore in "Emotion Sickness" isn't like one Kim would wear on a date.

At all.

Secondly, Kim's behavior:

Now, we've seen Kim on a few dates. She's usually nervous and afraid of messing up.

I'm not saying these are good traits to have, but they do coincide with another thing:

She's not usually the one initiating physical affection.

But under the effects of the Moodulator, she kisses Ron without even making sure it's something he'd want.

Conclusion:

Kim might have had some underlying feeling enhanced, but it doesn't appear to be romantic attraction, just physical attraction.

(Which, again, gross.)

Kim was attracted to Ron, but not in love with him.

Megamind 2 Concept

So, it's a few years after the end of the first movie. Megamind is starting to feel the same burnout Metroman felt.

Roxanne and Minion are trying to be supportive, but they don't really know how to help.

He's also moving into a more "heroic" lair, and is trying out more heroic suits. (White and blue instead of black and blue.)

Anyways, the container that held the powers given to Titan is being transported, admittedly not very carefully, when it breaks, releasing the powers into the city and granting other people powers.

Now, the powers had been harvested from Metroman's DNA. The thing about DNA is that it degrades over time. So, a few years prior it would have given people exact copies of Metroman's powers, it doesn't do that this time.

There are gaps in the DNA that's granting powers, and the recipient's DNA fills in the gaps, altering the powers they're granted.

This also means it'll be harder to remove them.

There will be a scene where Megamind and Minion need help, and Metroman shows up to save them.

Obviously, people are at first elated that Metroman is alive, but then react angrily at realizing he just left them.

Roxanne will give a great speech about how the public never cared about Megamind or Metroman, and they should be ashamed of themselves for it.

There will also be a few characters who want to be heroes, but are granted powers that are seemingly useless. Eventually, they realize their powers are more than that, they are more than that, and figure out all that their powers are capable of.

Metroman tells Megamind that he doesn't need a "heroic" lair or costume, that he's a better hero as himself than when he's trying to be like Metroman.

They defeat a big bad who'd been rallying up superpowered criminals for a big fight.

The final scene shows that the new lair has design elements from Megamind and Metroman. It would also show that they have more people with powers to track down and potentially fight.

The new team is called Megamind and the Metro Men.

And it could lead into a TV series if necessary.

Where do you think the belief that Ron isn’t good enough for Kim comes from? Do you agree with that claim?

I definitely disagree with that claim. As for where it came from...

I'm not sure.

I'm sure the fact that the narrative itself treats Ron like a loser has played a huge part in this.

Kim is treated like an all-star crimefighter who can do anything, and Ron is treated like her inept, bumbling sidekick.

So, obviously, Kim deserves a cooler boyfriend, right?

(That's sarcasm, for people who have trouble telling tone over text.)

Except, it's been shown that Ron is actually very capable when necessary, even if the narrative and the characters won't acknowledge it.

Not to mention, healthy relationships are built on more than just similar skill levels.

Healthy relationships are built on things like support, communication, and friendship. Those are all things Ron offers Kim constantly.

(I have made several posts about how Kim doesn't offer those things to Ron, so I'm not going to get into it here.)

Ultimately, Ron is too good for Kim, and he deserves someone who at least appreciates the effort he puts into the relationship, even if they can't quite match it.

So, I definitely disagree with that claim, even if I'm not sure where it came from.

(I have a fanfic series on AO3 that addresses a lot of my issues with Kim, but Kim and Ron break up in the first installment. If that's not your thing, I'm going to advise against it.)

Do you think Ron was a good sidekick for Kim?

I think Ron is too good a sidekick.

I think he's so good, in fact, that he deserves to be acknowledged as a partner.

Ron has impressive skills, and was shown to be able to handle missions on his own on several occasions.

He didn't have a problem following Kim's lead, though has expressed a desire to step out on his own as a hero.

My only problem with Ron as a sidekick is that he deserves better. An equal partnership, at least. With his own gadgets and battle suit and the same amount of recognition and gratitude that Kim gets.

Ron, even as "just a sidekick", is essential to Kim's success, even if she won't admit it.

So he is definitely a great sidekick, even though he deserves much better.

Thoughts on "Larry's Birthday"

First Thought: Who the fuck let an old lady own a puma?! How did this happen?! Just...what?!

And she owns an alligator too?!

And briefly owned a grizzly?!

Who is this woman?!

Second Thought: Wade should have told them it was a puma before they even went on that mission.

Kim might have had a battle suit to protect her, but Ron didn't, and should have been told ahead of time the kind of danger it really was so he could better prepare himself, even if it meant not going.

Third Thought: Since when does Kim have a Cuddle Buddy collection? I know it's been mentioned before, but her Pandaroo is the only one that's ever seen. I'd hardly call that a collection.

Not trying to be insulting, I'm saying it'd be nice to see Kim with other Cuddle Buddies. One Cuddle Buddy does not a collection make, so show us the other ones she has.

Fourth Thought: Ron needs to work on not telling other people about Kim's secrets. Not just about the battle suit, but her Cuddle Buddy collection was also meant to be a secret and he shouldn't have told Larry about that either.

Fifth Thought: Not really role model behavior from Kim here:

Says she and Larry don't share the same planet.

Runs out of the comic shop exclaiming "real world" as though spending time around geeks is physically harmful.

She apologizes for putting down Larry's interests at the end, but then makes a condescending comment about real life being cooler than science fiction.

(Kim's real life might be cooler than made-up scenarios, but the average person's real life isn't.)

Sixth Thought: Gotta agree with June here: a guy who willingly stands around during a fight, comments on how it's like a video game, ignores the suggestion to get to safety because "it's just getting good", and gets into a helicopter with strange people assuming it's a LARP for his birthday, is not someone who should be left alone.

Seventh Thought: Why is Larry's birthday party being thrown at Kim's house? Shouldn't it be thrown at Larry's house?

Kim's kind of condescending, but I feel bad that she has to either attend a party she, no doubt, doesn't want to go to, or spend the whole day out of her own house to avoid it.

Also, I feel bad for Kim, with her closet getting blown up. I know it probably gets fixed quickly, but I still feel bad for her.

Eighth Thought: Does June not have any pictures of Larry dressed in normal clothing to use for the posters? Is the wizard costume the only outfit he ever took a picture in?

Ninth Thought: Kim doesn't care about Ron or Hana. Okay, that's probably not true, but she should never have suggested that Ron bring his baby sister on a mission when he's supposed to be watching her.

(Would you be okay if your SO told you to bring your baby sister on a potentially life-threatening adventure?)

She called it "recon" and said it wouldn't be dangerous, but she was clearly expecting to run into Dementor and his henchman while doing it, and thus expecting a fight. And Ron would have had to protect himself and Hana while fighting. This is not the behavior of someone who cares about Ron or his loved ones.

(Especially when she will adamantly deny needing Ron on missions, so, if she had truly believed it wouldn't be dangerous, there was no reason to bring him along anyways. And if she had believed it would be dangerous, she should never have suggested bringing the baby.)

Also, it's not really fair of Kim to not believe Ron when he said he didn't blow up the lair. Ron is canonically a terrible liar, and he wouldn't lie in the first place. He'd own up to his mistake, like he's done every other time he accidentally destroyed something.

Final Thought: Regardless of Larry thinking the whole thing was a LARP, he was pretty badass at the end. He needs a reality check and his own battle suit. He would make great backup on a mission.

(Ron also needs his own battle suit, but that's a discussion for another time.)

Ah, yes… the old excuse of ‘Félix doesn’t have good chemistry with Marinette’. As someone who has written a 26+ chapters story with the setting in the Ladybug PV Universe, I have to say that I have never encountered any problems where it was “impossible” for me to write Félix and Bridgette’s dynamics without creating bad chemistry between them.

Although, maybe it’s because I’m using a very special and very unique writing technique known as - character development.

Honestly, the more I think about Miraculous Ladybug and its characters, the more I think that the only reason they decided to make Adrien a Nice Guy is because they couldn’t bother writing some actual character development for him and instead decided to just hand him everything he wants on a silver platter. After all, isn’t it easier when your character already is super cool and super special and has just the right amount of trauma to make people sympathize with him in order to let him get away with literal murder (on multiple occasions!)?

To me, Adrien is a very one-dimensional and bland character who has no progress aside from flipping an internal switch and no life aside from obsessing over a girl. Take away his role as Cat Noir and him being Gabriel Agreste’s (the main villain) son, and there is really nothing that makes him appealing nor interesting as a character. Even if he is given an opportunity to develop as a character, he whines until the universe bends backwards to reward him without doing anything to deserve it.

It is also hilarious how they brought back Félix to be the one to actually progress the plot instead of letting either of the main characters figure out that Gabriel is Hawk Moth/Shadow Moth/Monarch, because they need to focus on unnecessary drama instead of actual story progression.

Seriously, this screams “We couldn’t bother to put effort into writing Félix, so we gave up”.

Do you really think all of ML's problems would be fixed if Adrien never existed?

Good heavens, no.

Adrien isn't the problem. He's just a symptom of a much larger issue. That issue being laziness and poor writing that comes in the form of "tell, don't show", plot threads that go nowhere, and lack of character development or plot progression that leads to a setup of "Status Quo Is God". Removing Adrien wouldn't fix all of that. Heck, it wouldn't fix any of that.

I can't fault the writers for replacing Felix with Adrien. Even if I and others could write out a plot with Felix, that's not to say everyone could or that the writers could. It could very well be that Felix as he was in the PV simply didn't work for the setup they had in mind.

...the issue here is that the setup they had in mind seems to require stagnancy. Where Hawk Moth attacks without winning and the heroes fight off the akumas without really trying to track him as the source and the two leads chase each other around in circles without anyone making any headway in either of these battles. Marinette wants to date Adrien. Chat wants to date Ladybug. It's why all her plans to ask him out fail while his attempts to express his feelings aren't taken seriously. And there is no forward movement, whether in their arc or in the fight against Hawk Moth. There wasn't even build or lead up to the two falling in love. They just started out episode one with crushes on each other and remained having crushes on each other until arguably season 5.

But no good story is stagnant. In this setup, characters need to do things and there needs to be a feeling of forward momentum.

Break it down this way: What is Adrien's problem? What is his goal? What is the obstacle to his goal?

Yes, we could say Adrien's dad being a supervillain and a neglectful jerk is Adrien's main problem, but it's not the problem Adrien is actually focused on in the show. Instead, if we could say Adrien has a problem, it would be that he wants to date Ladybug. And his goal is to date Ladybug. And the source of the problem and obstacle to his goal is...Ladybug.

So his problem, his goal, and the obstacle are all the same thing. This ultimately seems to make his problems Ladybug’s fault then because the problem would be solved if she gives in to his wants rather than by any real effort on his part.

Adrien as he is in the show doesn't do anything. And he doesn't need to do anything because he is at his base a character that things are done for. He doesn't have a goal or direction or drive. He just comes out to deal with akumas as needed, flirt with Ladybug when he can, and then be sad because his life is so hard when he doesn't get what he wants. We don't see him doing anything else. We don't see him making friends. We don't see him engaging in school. We don't even really see how he interacts with the classmates he only recently met. Things happen around him, but he is not a driving force in anything in the show.

But Felix in the PV is a very driving character. He had a problem: he's cursed. What does he need to break the curse? A kiss from Ladybug. What are the obstacles to his goal: Ladybug refusing to kiss him and Hawk Moth trying to kill her. How does he get that kiss? By flirting with her and trying to earn her affections while protecting her and making sure she doesn't DIE against an akuma before he gets that special curse-breaking kiss.

It's the start of Felix's journey. His goal and the various obstacles to that goal that make his story interesting and his growth possible. As such, I see him as a character who would progress in his attempts to obtain his goal as well as one who would progress the storyline...which is also accurate of 3D Felix since that's kind of what he's done more in his relatively few appearances than the series has in 5 seasons.

Adrien didn't have to have Felix's personality. He didn't have to have the same goals or level of drive. But he could still have had things where he grows and helps to push the plot forward.

Adrien...

...just started school. He has no friends, knows no one, and is trying to learn the ins and outs of public education. How is he doing in the different setting with teachers instead of tutors? How is he trying to get along with his classmates? Does he experience bullying? Does anyone NOT like him? What is he going through as a new student who had been homeschooled all his life?

...is friends with Chloe. What's it like learning his "only friend" is a bully? How do people respond to this? Does anyone (besides Marinette) fear him or avoid him because if he's friends with Chloe, he must be just like her?

...is a superhero. He could have been spending time learning the history of the ring and trying to develop his powers. Trying to get stronger? Trying to get to know Plagg? What is he experiencing as a highly known model who is also a superhero and having to juggle those dual identities?

...has a dead mom who died of a "mysterious illness". Given that this loss supposedly occurred about a year prior, he could still be mourning her. Maybe trying to learn what happened to her.

...has a neglectful father. How is he trying to interact with his dad? How does he feel about his dad not being around? What is he doing to try to resolve this?

...has a supervillain father. Like, I cannot stress this enough! His dad is a SUPERVILLAIN! His dad is THE SUPERVILLAIN THEY ARE FIGHTING! People were predicting him finding out and joining Gabriel to try and revive his mom! People were living for the eventual heartbreak of when Adrien finds out the truth! Entire AUs, fan arts, and fanfics were born of this very idea! Going into the drama and struggle Adrien would be experiencing being caught between the "right thing" and the girl he loves and his duty vs his father and his mother and his family. HOW CAN THEY JUST IGNORE THIS?!

But we don't get any of that. Instead, we get Adrien...

...just acclimated with no issues in school and automatically friends with everyone. Good for him, I guess. Wish it was that easy for the rest of us.

...doing little besides occasional comments to Chloe as she is completely horrible for five seasons including Chloe stealing from classmates, getting the entire school punished for something she did, stealing a Miraculous, trying to crash a train, and betraying the city to Hawk Moth. But it takes him learning about something she did to Marinette a year ago for him to finally decide enough is enough and drop her as a friend.

...only goes out to deal with akumas as they come but does nothing to try and figure out his powers and history, get stronger, or try to track Hawk Moth.

...just moves on from dead mom. No relevance here aside from wanting to see a movie she was in or making a passing comment about how she got sick. No attempt to find out what happened to her. No questioning what she may have wanted for him.

...is just sad about his neglectful father neglecting him but seems to get over it rather quickly.

...never learns his father is a supervillain. Okay, I take it back. He learns twice and those timelines are erased with no real repercussions other than trauma for Marinette, so it really doesn't feel like they count. The pieces are all there, though! He knows his dad has the grimoire but never questions him about it! Never asks his dad what the deal was with Tibet! No question about how mom died or what is going on with Nathalie or what he's doing with a hidden mechanism in mom's portrait.

Adrien has potential. He has plot threads and aspects that could be used and goals he could have. But the writing does nothing with him, so while he has a number of things he COULD do to move forward and progress as a character or for the plot, nothing comes of it.

And that all boils down to a problem with the writing.

Adrien was chosen over Felix as an "easier" option to keep the story at a standstill so they could drag it out for as long as needed. That doesn't mean it should have been. There were so many paths that could have been taken, but Adrien was given the personality of a wet noodle, so he acts on none of them because that was what the writers wanted out of his character.

Do you think people cling on too much to Adrien's high road advice as a reason to salt on him?

Yes, especially when there are plenty of other reasons to salt him that have previously been ignored. But to that end, it DOES serve as the final straw for people after a SERIES of problems that had previously gone unaddressed.

Much like many aspects of the show, Adrien has displayed problematic behaviors that have been overlooked and waved off in the earlier seasons. This is likely or especially due to the way how in each and every incident, Adrien was narratively shown to be correct. In his stance. In his choices. In his behaviors. He was always right. It doesn't matter if he shouldn't be, because he is.

Now unless you're a hater or anti or salter or whatever negative name people tend to get for not liking a story as it's presented, readers and watchers tend to follow along with the narrative as it presents things and how it presents things. It's a common setup in any story. Protagonist Centered Morality, I feel framed best by Susan in the Discord series:

Susan: ...and then Jack chopped down the beanstalk, adding murder and ecological vandalism to the theft, enticement and trespass charges already mentioned, but he got away with it and lived happily ever after without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done. Which proves that you can be excused anything if you're a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions.

Pretty much this. Most people will follow what the narrative says because it's the narrative. If the narrative wants you to focus on Marinette being embarrassed, you're going to focus on how much she's cringe. And if the narrative wants you to view Adrien as a perfect sunshine boy who never does anything wrong, anything he does is going to be framed through that lens and it's difficult to break from that view and call out the times when he is wrong. Not unless he does something particularly severe.

It should be noted that outside of Chameleon, Adrien had, among other things: lied to his partner, caused someone to get akumatized and had his partner take the blame, was messing around during life-threatening and city-threatening situations, did nothing as Chloe tormented people right in front of him, DEFENDED Chloe after she tormented people right in front of him, bailed on an event with friends to set up a date with someone who said she had other plans and then got mad at HER for it, tried to flirt or confess in the middle of an active crisis which took necessary attention away from said crisis, caused himself AND his partner to get hit by akuma powers and needlessly be taken out of commission.

And yet people could mostly overlook these instances. They weren't his fault. Chloe is his friend. Marinette is worse. He's just a kid. He has a tragic backstory. So on and so forth. Easy to overlook. Easy to ignore in favor of the Sunshine Boy setup people were given and want to believe in.

But there were three major instances that really grabbed people's attention and stayed:

His attitude in Frozer. It probably wouldn't have been so bad except this rejection already happened in Glaciator, where he was supposed to have learned a lesson and accepted just being Ladybug's friend and now apparently didn't, despite it happening earlier that very season. Then in response, he decides to date Kagami as a rebound, drags Marinette with him on his date (without realizing how he's asking his friend to be a third wheel on a DATE) and focuses on her when he's supposed to be with Kagami, throws another tantrum in the middle of an akuma fight and refuses to work with his partner when the city is literally frozen, and requires Ladybug to apologize to him for hurting his feelings before he finally working with her. Again. But okay, he's a teenage boy in love. Not used to rejection and got his feelings hurt. Lovesquare is endgame so of course it'll work out anyway, so it's not like this bump in the road is really going to matter long term so we shouldn't hold it against him. Fine. Dumb, but fine. We've forgiven it in other shows and other poorly done teen romances, we can forgive it here.

His behavior in Syren in which he demanded to know secrets from people when the secrets were not theirs to tell him, and went so far as to attempt to blackmail his kwami (which was funny) and threaten to quit and abandon the Ring that the big bad is after while the city is flooded and people were trying to not drown (which was decidedly less humorous). But it was played for wholesome when Plagg reassured him and he got what he wanted by Fu revealed himself even if Adrien did nothing to actually show he earned it, so all's well that ends well, I guess? And people could justify it because "they're partners" and "part of a team" and "she should trust him" and "it's not fair he's the only one left out of the loop" and "he has a right to know" and just general "Fu is an idiot" (which is admittedly hard to argue). So people were disgruntled, but most were willing to overlook it.

His holier than thou lecture to Marinette in Maledictator over everyone being happy Chloe was leaving. When all Marinette was doing at the time was watching everyone else have fun. When Adrien specifically guilted Marinette and not any of the other actual partiers involved who were literally throwing a party over his friend leaving and probably should have warranted a lecture more than the girl just standing there. When the girl in question was also Chloe's main target and out of everyone had valid reasons to be happy that her bully won't be around to bully her anymore. When Adrien himself has historically been present to witness Marinette being targeted including twice he witnessed Chloe attempt to steal from Marinette, once he witnessed her try to blackmail Marinette, and numerous other times when she actively caused harm to Marinette and others. When Adrien then proceeded to sit in a corner and pout rather than do anything else or just leave if the party really bothered him. When Adrien, if he really cared so damn much, could have gone after Chloe himself! Or y'know...have stood up for Chloe earlier when she got upset in the first place. But fine, okay, Chloe is his childhood friend. So maybe he's just being biased and oblivious to the fact that his "friend" is a horrible person. But people can excuse and justify it in that they are friends and friends support each other, and the longer someone is friends with someone else, the harder it is to break from them. And that Marinette was probably just the target of his lecture because she was the one there in the moment (and the only one who would listen without arguing). And her calling Chloe useless was "mean" despite it being quite frankly the least of what she could have said about her in the moment (coughcough theft cough blackmail cough punished the entire school cough TRIED TO CRASH A TRAIN AND NEARLY KILLED HER AND HER PARENTS COUGH-FREAKINGCOUGH). Fine. Childhood friend means Adrien supports her in all her horrible and even deadly actions. Frustrating, but again, able to be explained and you can see where he's coming from.

These are all things that definitely got Adrien some side eye at best and some detractors at worst.

BUT if you really think about it, all of these examples are objectively worse than his lecture to Marinette in Chameleon. Not accepting being told "no" and continuing to chase a girl who isn't that in to him (while leading on another). Putting lives at risk over personal wants that could quite honestly wait until AFTER the crisis is over. Defending someone who is harmful and guilt tripping the victims. Compared to those, telling someone to leave a liar to their lying seems relatively minor.

So why this? Why here? Why is it Chameleon that has people saying enough is enough? Why is it this episode that is causing the sunshine boy to be so tarnished and the subject of salt in fan fiction?

Because this is the time when it couldn't be rationalized. There wasn't even a valid sensible canon-based reason for his stance. The arguments that Adrien "knew confronting her wouldn't work" or that he "handled her like paparazzi" or that he "knew Marinette previously failed when she tried" (even though he wasn't there and didn't know) or that he "didn't think anyone would believe him" don't come from canon. Those were fan arguments made after the fact to justify him after the base was broken and the outcry became too much to ignore.

This case didn't have any of the ties or rationales of the previous incidents. Adrien wasn't defending himself or his place in a partnership. He wasn't fighting for his love or his dream or an outcome he wanted and that we all knew was coming. He wasn't defending a friend like he did with Chloe—I mean, it's pretty evident he doesn't even really know or like Lila at this point, and for all intents and purposes, this is apparently only the second day he actually had any interaction with her. There was no notable reason Adrien really had for why he essentially chose to protect Lila over literally anyone else as she wasn't a friend and it wasn't in his interests to protect her from a consequence that wouldn't hurt her short term as much as it would likely harm everyone else long term.

And yet, he still defended her and her freedom to lie. Over Marinette. Over Ladybug. Over his friends. Over any sense of right and wrong he seems to have no problem throwing around when it comes to Marinette/Ladybug. Which seems like he targets her 9 times out of 10 compared to pretty much anyone else by this point. So it's little wonder then that people who didn't already hate the lovesquare because of the cringe factor from Marinette started to hate it for being incredibly unhealthy given that their relatively limited interactions tend to involve him lecturing her for failing to live up to his double standards that only seem to apply to her in any given situation.

This incident by itself doesn't seem like much, but when looked at as part of the series as a whole, it's when people couldn't keep overlooking this trend. Where he seems to admonish the wrong person. Where he acts like a mouthpiece rather than a person. Acts like a brat but is treated as though he has no accountability in the situation he causes. Where he is wrong but no one and certainly not the narrative acknowledges it (not until season five and two seasons later when it doesn't matter and he's still not the one facing consequences for it).

And it's not like he actually follows the stances he himself promotes. In Chameleon, canon presents him with this idealistic stance that Lila could change if given a chance, except he doesn't give her a chance. He doesn't push her to be a better person. He doesn't support her to be the better person he insisted to Marinette she could be. He also doesn't do anything or warn anyone when she keeps lying and actively harms the people he says he cares about. He doesn't do anything one way or the other other than some lackluster encouragement to stop lying and a warning that goes nowhere. It just further gives credit to the argument that Adrien either simply doesn't care about other people, or that he doesn't care for Marinette specifically. Neither is conducive to the lovesquare or the increasingly tarnished view of the "sunshine boy".

And it could have worked. Canonically and intrinsically to his character. His idealism and trust in the wrong person comes back to bite him. He learns and grows from it. Except that, much like with nearly everything he does in canon, Chameleon set it up that Adrien was the writers' mouthpiece and thus was not "wrong". I'll grant that they did have him admit it and apologize to Marinette for it two seasons later, but it is pretty evident that during Chameleon, they intended his lecture to be right, with no foreshadowing and no implication otherwise. And I'm fairly certain they only backtracked and had him do that much because of the amount of fan outrage over the episode.

So yes, I think his lecture in Chameleon was really a final straw since unlike Chloe, Adrien has NO relationship with Lila to justify his defense of her. Especially when the argument is in favor of letting her lie to the people he's supposed to care about. That combined with how jarring it was how most of the class just sided with Lila over the seat issue in the first place, and I think people were less inclined to just ignore the problems in the episode specifically and with the series as a whole as they were compared to the first and second seasons. Not just with Adrien, as we see that Alya also started getting more callout and salt since then as well as more retrospective scrutiny over her behavior in earlier seasons.

But yeah...Chameleon was where things seemed to take a 180, so it's bound to be the deciding episode and deciding incident that sticks out in people's minds with these characters. That's probably why it ends up the go-to for salt and complaints on the characters involved instead of any of the other incidents that would arguably warrant it more.