None of the four Celestial gods are actually related, though they all have varying degrees of familial-esque bonds with one another, whether that be as partners, close friends, siblings, parent-child, confidantes, etc. And not all of them are necessarily on the same page about what their relationships are; gods can be messy

But yeah, they’re a lot more of an ambiguous found family type of group than actual blood relations; only their children are their actual blood relatives

The Paracosm breaches are when portals open between Paracosm, aka the fantasy realm, and Terran, aka the human realm, thus releasing fantasy creatures into our world. When there’s a breach, Enigma and Angelus travel to Terran in order to send the creature back home to Paracosm and prevent/restore as much damage as they’re able, all while evading the Guardians who are trying to capture them for being vigilantes

One thing I like to do when I’m looking into a topic I know little to nothing about is to go on Reddit or other platforms with similar setups and ask relevant communities about it. The responses are generally more personalised there than on a Wiki page or something, and there’s usually at least one or two neurodivergent people who are super excited to infodump about their special interest and that’s an absolute boon in and of itself

Of course, you’ve also got to ensure that you compare their responses to more formal research and stuff, but it can be a good starting point if you’re not sure where to begin

Wrote what, the book? Or something more specific?

Either way, I was stone cold sober, which is probably more damning than if I was drunk off my ass

Oh I’ve got MANY. If anyone wants a specific ramble or take then I’m more than happy to oblige, I love logic loops

Okay so for this one I’m gonna pull out of my ass the handling of Alya as the Fox, and to do that we need to begin with how she was handled in her heroic debut episode, Sapotis

We start with Alya wanting to figure out Ladybug’s identity for the umpteenth time, still very passionate about figuring it out, while Marinette tries to discourage her from the topic and remind Alya that Ladybug’s identity is secret for a reason. Alya is adamant that she’s trustworthy enough to keep the secret, and that she’d tell Marinette if she were Ladybug because best friends never keep anything from each other

Alya is later chosen this episode to be the first temp hero in the show, her trustworthiness making her ideal to wield the power of illusions via the Fox Miraculous. When it’s time to return the Miraculous, however, she starts to plead with Ladybug to let her keep it, proposing that they’d make a great team and she could help her and Chat Noir fight against Hawkmoth. Ladybug reminds her of her promise to return the Miraculous, but her earrings alert her that she’s about to transform back, so she has to hide while telling Alya that she’s trusting her

It’s actually Trixx that convinces her to return the Miraculous by saying that Alya would make a great hero mostly because of how trustworthy she is. Alya returns the Miraculous and rushes home, and is clearly tempted to tell Marinette all about her eventful night when asked, but remembers to keep her identity secret as promised and lies to Marinette in order to preserve her new secret identity as Rena Rouge, intentionally contradicting her earlier insistence that she’d tell Marinette in a heartbeat if she were a superhero

So why am I recounting the Rena Rouge debut? Because it all but sums up the slight issue in Alya being the Fox holder; Alya was chosen because she’s trustworthy, but she isn’t always as trustworthy as everyone claims she is

Now don’t get me wrong - for a standalone debut episode, Sapotis works perfectly! Alya starts out insistent that she’s trustworthy, but when that belief is put to the test she falters, albeit with good intentions. But ultimately, we do see her come to the right conclusion and prove her trustworthiness, even if it means both giving up the Fox Miraculous and going back on her word. It’s also one of the few times in the show that the lesson of the day is learned by someone other than Marinette; Alya learns that being trustworthy and being truthful/open aren’t the same thing, and that, in order to be truly trustworthy, sometimes you have to lie and keep secrets

This is a great start for Alya as the trustworthy hero/friend, and can also tie in to her as a reporter; she’s obsessed with giving her followers the authentic truth, both because she loves to learn about her passions and share her discoveries with the world, and also because she wants to build up a reputation of credibility and trustworthiness. And while that’s generally a great mission goal to strive for, there’s also nuance in that, such as with sharing personal or otherwise private information. We’ve seen her struggling with this previously, such as in Lady WiFi when she took a photo of Chloé’s locker in order to look through her belongings, though that lesson got largely overshadowed by Chloé’s escalation of the punishment to something that was way out of proportion

But the problem is, Sapotis doesn’t exist in a vacuum - or rather, it’s not supposed to. We’re alright in the episode Anansi, in which Carapace debuts and Alya immediately figures out that it’s Nino. Alya doesn’t say a word about it until Heroes’ Day, and only after Ladybug reveals both of their identities to each other. This seems like a good development; she’s content to let her knowledge remain a secret, even between her and Nino. We also never get any implications that she ever struggled with keeping secrets from Nino at this point. So far so good

It’s actually a decent while until this becomes a notable issue; in Gang Of Secrets, all the girls have the issue of going through Marinette’s room uninvited and trying to touch her things and stick around even when she tells them multiple times to leave. The girls then present Marinette with a bracelet, telling her to tell her secrets to it, and Alya is the one to say “If we’re really your friends, you can confide in us” in response to Marinette caring more about getting them out of her room than doing so

While they definitely didn’t intend it this way, the girls cornered her in what’s supposed to be a safe space, refused to respect her privacy or boundaries, pressured her to share specifically secrets with them, then their wording unintentionally implied a sort of ultimatum on their friendship. And for Alya to be involved in this, considering she’s meant to be the trustworthy one, isn’t great; pressuring others to share their secrets, especially in a group setting, is not a trustworthy act

When later captured while under akumatisation, it’s another speech about trustworthiness that gets Alya to break out of it, this time from Ladybug pointing out how she and Alya keep secrets from one another and yet still trust each other completely. Alya is able to deakumatise herself due to Ladybug’s unwavering trust in her, and this seems to stick with her in her later approach to speaking with Marinette

Once again, Alya learns a lesson; just like it’s important to keep secrets of your own to maintain trust with other people, other people will be doing the same thing, and sometimes that means you have to accept that there are secrets between you two, and being trustworthy doesn’t mean they’re obligated to confide in you about everything. As such, her approach is now much more focused on reaffirming that her friendship with Marinette will always stand unconditional to Marinette having private struggles, and that the ball will always be in Marinette’s court if she wants to share or not. It’s a much more healthy and person-centred approach that is, ultimately, what Marinette needed to hear and Alya needed to learn

But the identity reveal is a big test of Alya’s trustworthiness; we can start with Optigami, in which Alya is told to grab a certain Miraculous, but she additionally grabs the Turtle Miraculous so that Nino can join them as Carapace. Not necessarily going against Ladybug’s orders, but certainly overstepping her role by taking another Miraculous and putting it out in the field without the Guardian’s knowledge or permission

We follow up with Sentibubbler, which revolves around two things; Alya proving to Marinette that she’s still trustworthy enough to hold on to the Fox Miraculous, and Alya dealing with the consequences of shaking Ladybug’s trust in Optigami. I will say that I’m glad this episode exists; it’s a good natural consequence to the Optigami stunt and was a really fun episode to watch, especially with Alya pulling off such a cool plan on the fly. But it could’ve benefitted from acknowledging just a little more that Marinette’s paranoia is partially influenced by Alya’s actions, rather than just baseless trauma-induced nightmares. If this had been acknowledged properly, it could’ve worked as another lesson in trustworthiness and how fixing your mistakes is another way to be a trustworthy person

And from there we immediately jump to Rocketear, and this episode is where we really see Alya’s trustworthiness wavering beyond just a learning curve. Alya is struggling to follow through on the plan of making everyone believe the Fox Miraculous no longer has a holder because it involves lying to Nino. She repeatedly says that they don’t keep anything from each other and that, if she lies to Nino and he finds out, he’ll never trust her again. We’re getting into somewhat similar territory from both Sapotis and Gang Of Secrets here; the idea of never lying to your loved ones or keeping secrets from them, and associating trustworthiness with keeping no secrets regardless of reasonings

Alya eventually does tell Nino that she’s benched, and they go on a movie date that evening, but Nino gets the wrong impression from her constant phone-checking, her being unbothered by the Chat X Rena ship in the movie, etc, and comes to the conclusion that Alya is romantically interested in Chat Noir. It’s implied that this is due to the dishonesty, but would it be any different if he knew the truth? He’d know why Alya keeps checking her phone and why she left abruptly (being called for patrol), but the movie ship and the little kids playing out the ship dynamics would still happen, and he could very easily still come to the same conclusion, or at least he’d still be jealous and see Chat Noir as a love rival

But regardless of that, we end on Alya telling Marinette to trust her, and when Marinette agrees, Alya immediately tells Nino the truth about her new role as Rena Furtive - and we find out in the finale that Marinette had not been informed of this prior, so we can’t excuse this decision as her talking it out with Marinette first and Marinette trusting her to make that call even if she didn’t agree with it. And here lies Alya’s biggest issue with her trustworthiness; she made a big thing about not being able to lie to Nino and feeling like she was betraying him, but then she lied to Marinette and actually betrayed her trust by going back on her word

Alya prioritised being completely open and honest with Nino over following the orders Ladybug set in order to protect Alya and her loved ones, and in doing so has now betrayed Ladybug’s trust while additionally risking the safety of all three of them in the process. And this is the episode directly after Sentibubbler - she faced the dangerous consequences of this stuff a week ago at most, and she’s already doing it again at the first opportunity!

What I mean to say is, at very least in season 4, Alya’s trustworthiness takes a massive hit, and that’s a big deal when being trustworthy is consistently cited as one of her most notable traits to the point of it being the reason why she’s the Fox Miraculous holder in the first place. It’s another case of the show telling us one thing while showing us another

I’d go into season 5 but it’s like midnight right now and this is already long enough as it is, so I’ll save season 5 for another day. Hope this was alright!