A Hero And Villain Know Each Other As Normal Humans And As Their Super Form– After All, They’re Related.

i looooove characters who are sacrificial lamb coded. characters who have never lived for themselves. characters born to be a tool, a weapon, a sacrifice, all of the above. a character raised by the heroes to save the world, at any expense, even their own health, even their own life. a character raised by the villains to end the world, at any expense, even their own health, even their own life. characters who are denied personhood so they can be used as tools instead. characters who never even had a chance to be people because they were shaped into something else from the moment they were born. characters who were born to die.

ok so there’s a game me and my friends play called “don’t get me started” and basically someone gives another person a random topic and they have to go on an angry rant about it and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to us at parties and car rides so I highly recommend playing sometimes with your friends

obsessed with characters being saved against their will. being knocked unconscious and carried away from a danger they won't stop trying to fight. being shoved through a portal somewhere far away and safe right before it closes. trying to self-sacrifice only to have the exact person they're trying to save swap their places at the last second. getting the only cure to the disease or curse bc the person administering it loves them too much to give it to anyone else, including themselves. being thrown to safety right as they had accepted dying. someone else they thought had gotten to safety running back to drag them out of danger. it's so fucking tasty

“this is so romantic” and it’s two characters trying to kill each other

if you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to live in the midwest, this is it. 

After watching Glaciator 2.0, we ought to revisit Hack-San, Rocketear, and Wishmaker after getting more context from this episode, because I really wanna talk about Adrien and Chat Noir’s characterizations as of late. Take a look at the scene from Hack-San as an example:

While there have been instances, such as in Oblivio and Troublemaker, where Adrien occasionally displays Chat Noir’s mischief and playfulness, you don’t usually see Adrien act out or be petty about anything. I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t recall Adrien ever “acting out” like this in his civilian form in previous episodes. For the most part, this is the first time Adrien has shown any kind of emotional outburst (or immaturity, I guess?) in his civilian form. Adrien is usually portrayed as being"perfect" because he has to uphold his father’s brand. Most of Adrien’s emotional range is expressed through Chat Noir because Chat Noir is Adrien’s emotional outlet.

We don’t typically see Adrien act like this unless he’s Chat Noir. Because of this, I have always found it a bit challenging to see Adrien and Chat Noir as the same person. At first, I thought that the writers couldn’t make up their minds with his characterization, but now, especially after seeing Wishmaker, I think this disconnect between Adrien and Chat Noir was an intentional writing choice.

It’s so easy for the audience to see Adrien and Chat Noir as two separate characters because, in a way, they are. That’s certainly how Adrien views himself; he’s either this teenage heartthrob who’s constantly on his best behaviour, or he’s the goofy and mischievous Chat Noir. These two personality traits are seemingly at odds with each other, and yet Adrien somehow embodies them both. This contrast was made especially clear in the art room scene in Lies:

“There. This is really you.”

“Do you really think?”

“Yes. You’re… perfect.”

This scene honestly told us so much more about Adrien than I think most of us realize. A lot of people have analyzed this scene and said that Kagami is able to see Adrien for who he really is, but I don’t think that’s the case at all. Look at his reaction. If Adrien had a strong sense of self in the first place, then this interaction between him and Kagami wouldn’t be like this at all. Adrien would be happy, or at the very least flattered, that someone actually understood him and wanted to get to know the real him. Yet, look at Adrien’s face; he’s not scared or put off, but he’s definitely not happy nor relieved. He’s unsure. He’s confused. He doesn’t connect with Kagami because he doesn’t understand what Kagami means. Kagami only sees what she thinks is Adrien’s true self, but even Adrien has no clue what that even is.

This season, Adrien is starting to push back against his father, as we saw in Mega Leech, and that line between Adrien and Chat Noir is slowly starting to blur. This “perfect” facade that Adrien has to perform all the time is starting to dissipate. His flaws are starting to show as he’s being put in situations where he has to assert himself.

Now, before he can do all of that, Adrien is going to have to come to terms with that the fact that Ladybug isn’t interested in Chat Noir, and that the idea of them being together is completely off the table.

Some people might look at this and say “well, yeah, it’s about time. Adrien needs to learn about boundaries and stop projecting this fantasy onto Ladybug.” That’s true, yes, but a lot of people forget just how isolated Adrien is and just how desperate he is for some kind of deep emotional connection. Remember this scene in Glaciator?

“Perhaps Ladybug will love me someday. I mean, like I love her. I have to believe. In the meantime, her friendship is the best gift of all.”

Most of us overlooked this scene, but this was a crucial piece of characterization for Adrien, not to mention foreshadowing for Glaciator 2.0.

Of course, Adrien values Ladybug’s friendship, but he always had this hope that she was going to fall for him eventually. Whenever horrible things went on in his life, he always turned to Laybug to make him feel better. Even after defeating the akuma in Lies, despite being on rocky terms with Kagami, he doesn’t seem as bothered by it because Ladybug was still practically living in his head rent-free.

This is a heavy contrast to the way Marinette felt about her breakup with Luka, which left her devasted.

In Adrien’s case, he’s not just clinging onto this romantic fantasy, he’s become dependent on it for his emotional well-being, so much to the point where it clouds his better judgement. Now he’s experiencing emotional whiplash after being faced with the fact that his fantasy won’t ever become a reality. He can’t depend on this fantasy anymore, because now he has to face all of the loneliness and lack of control he has in his life and realize that he’s the only one that can change it.

This is the catalyst for Adrien’s character development, and it’s going to be intense.

“Do you know who I am?”

“I know who you’re pretending to be.”

Prompt #1167

“What are you doing?”

“Dying. Duh.”

They say that “history is written by the victors.” Turns out, so are fairytales; they’ve been twisted by the “heroes” of the fairytale world to make themselves look like they’ve always been in the right. You are a fairytale villain at a support group for characters like you. 

all i do is yearn, read books, chug coffee, talk shit, cry and have panic attacks