Tikki is evil

Let me be fully clear: I support Marinette Dupain-Cheng making mistakes and I love her for it. Yes even that one. And this one. And that other one. That one wasn’t a mistake she was right actually. That one there was justified. This one wasn’t but it was very funny. I support all of them.

Yes, in over 100 episodes there are some exceptions, and perhaps I may sometimes even talk about them. But in general, if I say „Marinette made a mistake here“, assume that I mean „and I think that’s really interesting to see“.

I swear y'all, people really be hating on Marinette for making questionable choices as if she wants to do them and isn't dying on the inside because of the guilt of her actions and how she does everything because in every other scenario, everything goes to shit.

Yeah, it's not like Marinette has experienced the end of the world because of one of her mistakes and that the lesson she got from that episode was "The best kept secret are the ones you never share".

Why do you all think Marinette was asking the Bunnyxes if she has made the right call during the London Special?

Or that she had a nightmare the very next episode after trusting Alya with Trixx?

Marinette is scarred and scared. This mantra Marinette has is how she is making through it all. Keeping secrets is her sacrifice to spare her loved one but it comes at the price of isolating, burdening and burning herself with it. (See Gang of Secrets). It is a defense mechanism that has carried her so far... but it isn't healthy on the long term.

Also, Revelator sure wasn't subtle about with the moral here.

Like, they are advising Vincent, but Ladybug is also realizing that their advices apply to her too.

Marinette has to realize that Adrien isn't truly healing without knowing the truth. That was Rena Rouge's point. That one way or another, he will be hurt and she cannot always protect him from the truth and the pain. But at least, with the truth in hand, Adrien can actually start healing and grow. That is why he hasn't had new clothes yet this seasons unlike the rest of the heroes : his development is stalled, both figuratively and visually. Because of that one lie.

And no matter how mad you are about Rena having her memory wipe out of Ladybug's secret, the truth is Ladybug has to be the one to fix the problem she has caused when she covered the truth to Adrien about his father. Lying about Gabriel being a hero is also hurting Adrien. That's why we got that little discussion between Adrien and Nino at the beginning of the episode where Marinette couldn't hear it. She is unaware how her lie is truly affecting Adrien. She believes he is happier than if he had knew the truth. But in this case, she is wrong and she has to realize that.

All that to say, it will be a journey for our main character who doesn't know there is a clock ticking. That is why it is interesting. That is why it is part of the story for this new arc.

And the season has been screaming this every single episode (less currently to us than it should be, with the release schedule as it is, but this feels ESPECIALLY appropriate for something happening right around the halfway mark). "There's something about me that no one knows yet, because I've got a secret" isn't about being Ladybug anymore.

People wanna be like "if Marinette just made good decisions there wouldn't be any problems!" as if she hasn't been constantly punished for trusting people, constantly punished for wanting good things for herself, and constantly rewarded and validated for overly planning for everything and being absurdly mistrusting and paranoid.

Even IN THIS EPISODE, she wants to believe no normal person could be so malicious toward strangers, and she's proven brutally wrong. She lets Alya talk her into using their powers to benefit her personal life just this once when it's someone really being cruel, and it leads to him getting akumatized and utterly shattering her peace. The first person she ever trusted to know she was Ladybug learns THIS secret and is horrified, disgusted, and livid. And now any time Alya says "you can tell me anything", Marinette can no longer believe her.

She is HEARING the lesson at the end and she KNOWS she "should", but every single other factor is screaming that it's a dangerous idea. Having a character grapple between morality and safety, between peace and safety now versus making the active choice to allow misery and suffering and potentially even danger now for the sake of healing later...

AND ACTUALLY? Giving that conflict to the Creation and Order and Healing and Repair character, with the explicit bonus lesson this episode that sometimes to fix things you have to break them. That's PERFECT for this. It WILL hurt Adrien. It WILL destroy his peace and comfort. And it needs to.

And yeah, waiting is only making it worse, but she IS scarred and scared. And if protagonists always made good choices that prevented there from being any longterm problems, there wouldn't be much of a story, now, would there?

LADYNOIR BUGS

I did 4 my friend's birthday 🐞🐱

I like painting with watercolors!! Shapes and colors 🌈🤸‍♂️ might do more ^^

Recent chibis ! 🐞😸

people in my replies arguing for their fav white guy???

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS:

1. Do you think a post pointing out an issue with fandom racism and misogyny is an appropriate place to bring up your favorite white male character? Why or why not?

2. Did this post call you racist for relating to a white male character? If you thought or think so, consider why you got defensive.

3. Think about the disproportionate amount of art and writing about white male characters in fandom spaces. Do you think this is, across all boards, due to them being written better or more relatably than the POC protagonist?

a. If so, consider why you notice the writing of white male characters more often. Are white male characters written "better" than the POC protagonist, or do you have an internalized fear of relating to non-white characters that you need to work through?

b. If not, consider what ingrained biases might lead to this phenomenon in fandom spaces.

c. If you read a. and thought that white male characters literally just are usually or always written better than the POC and/or female protagonist, accept you are wrong and consider some self reflection.

4. Have you researched how to write and draw characters that are non-white and/or non-male? If not, does this limitation lead you to gravitate towards characters you feel "qualified" to make content about, therefore inflating the issue?

5. If people are telling you to reconsider your point of view in my replies section, did you stop to consider what they said apart from your human instinct to be defensive? Have you considered that arguing against those trying to educate you about fandom racism and misogyny, which can be difficult to see in yourself, in the notes of a post talking about fandom racism and misogyny, might be short-sighted and counterproductive?

6. If you are inclined to defend your favorite white male character, pause. Are all of your other favorite characters also majority white? Are they majority male? Are they either of these and NOT the main character of the show, movie, or game they originate from?

a. If not, this comic is not for you. Please move on and give it a reblog if you're feeling generous.

b. If so, consider this pattern. If you want to break it, ask someone for a reccomendation for characters or media similar to your favorites. Expand your horizons, and engage with your community rather than fighting against them.

Marinette's nightmare

Alya is fighting for her life with these two 😭

I find it funny how these intro scenes are being kinda brushed aside with the overall conversation because not only do they give a good insight on where Adrien's head is at the moment, but they also set up the perfect tragedy of what his life will become once the secret comes out to everyone. He won't be able to have that simple life he wants anymore and everyone will always be aware of "Adrien Agreste son of international terrorist" all the fripplin time.

...Unless.... 👀 He takes Adrien Agreste out of the picture.... 👀 👀

But seriously, the animation on all the expressions between Rena and Ladybug in that episode from the moment Rena find out to the girls' discussion at beach at the end?

*chef kiss*

Miraculous ladybug won’t allow adrien and alya to have direct communication because it would be too powerful

guys i have another

THIS EPISODE MY GOD

ok i have ONE more but its serious and its gonna take me a bit so like hold on guys i hope nobody takes the idea before me

it's wild that Alya would actually hate Marinette if she learned the secrets she'd been keeping from her. I--I actually don't know what to say, I'm so shocked by the fact that she stayed mad the whole time she remembered the secret.

Like others have pointed out in the comments, you can be really upset and disgusted about what a loved one did or has done, be in conflict with them, but it doesn't mean you automatically hate them.

Marinette however interpreted that Rena's justified anger meant that she would hate her.

Alya hates lying. We know that. Marinette knows that. There are secrets that yes, needs to stay secrets. Alya knows and understand this. They had a whole little conversation about that at the beginning of the episode. There are things Alya would love to share about the Miraculous, but for security purpose, she cannot revealed them.

But this secret about Monarch's true identity? Is not one of the acceptable ones to keep. Rena made her point : it shouldn't be a secret. At least, not to Adrien, not to Chat and not to Alya.

Sadly, I think the reaction LB saw out of Rena finding out only further increase Marinette's fear to actually tell the true. And she will of course projects Rena's reaction on how Adrien could potentially react.

Rena gave Ladybug an ultimatum. The memory wipe is to allow a second chance for LB to come clean herself. To make things right. Before the truth comes out of the bag.

And unbeknown to Marinette, there is a time limit of how long the secret can be kept. We have the new Butterfly Holder who knows the truth. We have Alya who even though forgot about LB's secret will try to find out what is burdening her friend.

Because as Alya said : the truth will always find a way.

People can understand if it took someone a lot of time to tell them a difficult truth. But having the main concerned finds out any other way will always be much uglier.

I quite like the small scene where Marinette's parents try to protect their daughter from learning what is going on before realizing that she will find out one way or another and decided to watch the video in question together to be there with her if she wants to talk about it. They set a good example of what Marinette could do with Adrien when she will have to tell him the truth. She could ask Nathalie to be there as well. Maybe Félix if Adrien trusts him too.

But like I have said, while the message is there, loud and clear, I believe the reaction she witnessed amplified Marinette's fear. That people would hate her if they knew. That she would lose her loved ones because she has lied to them. And that is that fear that is withholding her.

writing this at 3 am and im sorry if someone else already pointed this out, but

Adrien's bedroom (seemingly having changed his previous bed space to couch (and tv?) space):

Right wall of his room (when facing window), with new staircase:

Adrien's small new bed. The wall does not match any of the visible walls in the bedroom shots:

Adrien's POV from the bed:

slightly color-corrected (scene was orange-tinted for sunset), compared to right wall, with matching wallpaper stairs and railing:

conclusion: I think Adrien's bed is up on the second floor of his room, and he converted his second floor from a storage space to a bed space?:

something something cats like high places