We've Gotten Both "Gabriel Agreste Is Ladybug" And "Marinette Is Monarch" In The First Arc, So What If

Why are people overcomplicating how Ladybug should've said Gabriel was Monarch to Adrien, like it's JUST. FOUR. WORDS: "Your Father was Monarch," then she should've answered any questions Adrien has truthfully.

She doesn't need to remind him about everything Monarch did, because Adrien doesn't have fucking Amnesia. And she doesn't need to info-dump on him, either.

If I had a nickel for every time Bryce Papenbrook voiced a teenage boy, from a non english media, that got hidden that they're not really human and that their dad was/is evil, has an part of them externally that can kill them if it gets in the wrong hands, their twin ("twin") knew about who they were before they did, their twin ("twin") seems to be older but actually is the younger of the two, the "evil-version" of them has white hair, got adopted by their parents friend that seemed to have romantic feelings for the parent, their mother died because of they way they were born, people say they're similar to their mother, been referred to as a prince, are scared their power might hurt somone, and got animalistic features when they got their powers, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's REALLY weird that it happened twice.

I fantasize every day that Chat Noir uses his abilities to erease the fact he's a senti.

"Can he do that?" You might ask, weeeell... "The only limitations are the one you set up for yourself," so, yes, I do believe he could do that if he wanted to.

I mean, what was even the point of Maribug knowing he's a senti if all she's gonna do is destroy the rings his amok is in? Her knowing only made her situation worse.

Have you seen anything about the latest ML episode? It's the way they started to take a step in the right direction and flung themselves all the way backwards again for me. But if you've seen it, what did you think about it?

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Yeah, I’ve seen plenty and the more I see the less I like it. It's such an obvious, manipulative way to present the issue and, of course, it's done in a way that places Marinette's comfort as more important than Adrien's. Even while the episode literally calls out this attitude of sidelining Adrien's right to know and decide, the characters still won't respect it, meaning the writers don't commit to Adrien having that right even when they say he does. Like, yes, I know it seems like we’re going to have Marinette’s secrets “be addressed”, but, like, I don’t have any faith that “addressing” the lies with be anything but “Marinette is the biggest victim in this situation so let’s comfort poor, widdle upsette Marinette!”

The episode is downright two-faced. Alya is livid with Marinette for this awful thing she is actively doing, and all Marinette can do is wobble her lip until Alya’s memory gets wiped, with the episode ending with the idea that it's good that Alya doesn't know, because her knowing hurt her and especially Marinette so much. Adrien isn't even mentioned outside of Alya and Marinette’s argument and that makes it incredibly apparent that the point of this secret isn't about Adrien or even his relationship with Marinette, it's about Marinette and her relationships and that distinction might be small, considering Adrien and Marinette are in a relationship, but it is so important because it leans on a thing I’ve already pointed out: Miraculous prioritizes abusers’ and abuse apologists’ feelings over those of abuse victims, and that is at its clearest between Adrien and Marinette.

The show is basically saying Marinette can keep this information as long as she wants to as long as she intends to eventually tell him. Because that’s how post-memory-wipe Alya phrased it even as she protested Marinette deciding what Adrien gets to know before the wipe. Not even the fandom can agree what the point is, since the fandom is either insisting that Marinette will choose to do the right thing eventually or they’re insisting she shouldn’t need to, with the implication that someone else should go against Greatest Ladybug’s orders to do it instead (but, by golly, if someone dared to, they’d be vilified to hell and back). But, like, Marinette is so unapologetic about her lying, she only gives excuses, there's no regret. Why should we have any faith left in a habitual liar who has now shown she has no remorse? I’m saying it now: Marinette will not tell Adrien jack, not of her own volition, because no one is holding her accountable for her decisions with Alya’s memory wiped, with memoryless Alya insisting Marinette has the right to keep whatever secrets she wants. The episode goes “nevermind all that” on its own moral conundrum!

It is actually so important about this episode: that it drops its own moral conundrum to give some bullcrap lesson about the right to privacy instead. This isn’t some embarrassing secret about Marinette herself, this is Adrien’s father and his very life. Adrien’s right to safety is more important than Marinette’s comfort, but the writers only see Marinette’s comfort as something that matters. They really do think that Marinette should get to wait until she feels safe from any kind of uncomfortable emotions before she tells Adrien about this absolutely vital information. This is still a mostly episodic show, and that’s what they choose to end the episode on? That’s supposed to be the take-away to the child audience? This show’s morals are rancid and it's all for the sake of some cheap drama that will culminate when this all gets revealed and Marinette will be so very, very upsette.

And, like, there is another really huge element in the entire “Marinette is keeping things from Adrien” situation: Marinette is demanding that others follow her judgement on this. Marinette is making the choice to decide what Adrien gets to know and everyone who isn’t a villain will have to follow her orders on this. Like, that’s the thing about all the Maripologists crying how it’s not Marinette’s responsibility to tell Adrien anything: yes it is. Marinette made it her responsibility when she demanded everyone else be complicit in her lies. She could have handed over the responsibility to someone else at any time, she still could, Alya was practically volunteering instead of being voluntold for once, but it’s not about telling Adrien being too hard for Marinette, it’s about how Marinette can’t control how Adrien will react to the info and that’s the part that scares her.

We also have the episode actively discrediting one of the sources of criticism towards Marinette. The interviewer is making things up when he claims Marinette is manipulating Adrien because he can't possibly know about her gaslighting him, and he's doing it spitefully for attention. This means that the mostly accurate accusation against Marinette is being voiced by a character the audience is being wired to hate and automatically view as being in the wrong, just like in ‘Sublimation’. It's manipulating the audience into seeing the accusation itself as spiteful when it's the literal truth that happens in the show with only a touch of exaggeration by applying malicious intent instead of Marinette just happening to benefit from this manipulation.

This episode is so predictably manipulative towards the audience. The most obvious takeaway to me is the writers trying to go: "see how badly Marinette would be hurt if she told the truth? Clearly her lying to cover herself is the only choice she has!" Once again "Marinette is upsette" is meant to be her only "punishment" aka “realistic consequences for her actions”. Nah, she should face the music and then become a better hero to win people over again instead of pretending she's a good hero and getting praise for failing. But instead the episode ends with a rare case of Miraculous actually spelling out its lesson, because this time the writers see it as important, and it’s: “Marinette should get to tell the truth when she’s ready,” like these secrets are Marinette’s to keep instead of Adrien’s to know.

I take back that thing I said about no one deserving to be ganged up against like this. Gaslighting World-Destroyer Worst Superhero Ever should be facing this kind of disdain until she actually proves herself a hero instead of only being motivated by making herself look good to her remote control RealDoll. I am so exhausted of being expected to root for a character who still shows no sign of self-reflection or actually changing her ways. I just can't summon sympathy for Marinette when Adrien has it worse because of her. If we actually had an arc about Ladybug winning the people over again after losing to Hawkmoth so spectacularly, I'd actually be siding with her.

Marinette is blatantly in the wrong, even the writers can't deny that, but they will bend characters and reality backwards to make Marinette look like the real victim of her own actions. Adrien is barely present in the episode after the inciting incident, but they dedicated so many shots to Marinette looking as pitiful as possible, using money to make an entire “stressed out Marinette” model to use for manipulating the audience into seeing Marinette as the one who's suffering the most. Even while the fact that Alya got to stay mad at Marinette is promising, I just feel like even that is mostly going to be used to justify Marinette being too scared to tell the truth because what if Adrien gets mad at her instead of being instantly understanding and thinking of her comfort first and foremost?! How can we expect Marinette to deal with something so horrifying?!

Also, once again the writers introduce a new way for the characters to keep Adrien safe as a Sentimonster and don't have the characters realize it could be used for that purpose. Like, because intent matters, destroy the Amoks and/or get Cat Noir to make everyone forget Adrien was a Sentimonster and no one will ever knowingly use his Amok. In fact they should make everyone forget about sapient Sentimonsters period. Boom, instant safety to Adrien, Kagami and Félix.

This episode just feels like the exact dosage of “Halt the presses! Marinette is upsette!” I expected.

Do you know what's funny?

That how Adrichat probably imagines how he could've "saved" Gabriel is that he could've protected Ladybug from being hurt so that only Monarch's life would be traded away for Natalie's.

Oh, wait a minute... that is what happened. Ladybug didn't get hurt. Gabriel didn't sacrifice his life for Ladybug. Monarch did sacrifice his life for Natalie.

I want Adrien to fake his death when he find out (on his own) that he's a senti, so that everyone who kept it a secret from him would realise they've messed up bad in giving him the rings while not telling him the real importance of them.

The flashbacks I get from this pose

"Oh, but if you were in Marinette's position, you'd do the same as her" (calling Gabriel a hero).

I. Would. Not.

First of all, I do not like to lie. Whenever I do lie, I'll just come clean some seconds later because lying makes me feel anxious and bad.

Secondly, if my partners' dad imprisoned them, brainwash the entire world, put people's life in danger multiple times for months, use my partners face (which made my partner uncomfortable) on an AI softwere and (insert every other bad thing Gabriel has done), calling him a hero would make me feel sick to my stomach.

You can not assume that everyone will do the same because not everyone is the same.

Someone might have done the same as Mari.

Someone might've kept quiet about everything and let another person tell the truth.

Someone might've kept quiet and let the partner figure the stuff on their own.

Someone might've revealed the truth to the partner, exclusively.

Someone might've revealed the truth to everyone.

Someone, not everyone.

We are all different individuals with different upbringings, cultures, religions, families, ethnicities, nationalities, wants, needs, likes, interests, hobbies, passions, goals, dislikes, personalities, sexualities, gender, looks, skills, flaws, and the list just keeps going on, that makes us who we are.

Whenever the truth gets out about Monarch being Gabriel Agreste, a lot of people could assume that Adrien hates Chat Noir because Chat Noir Catalysmd Gabriel, AKA Adrien's father.

There's also that people would assume Chat Noir knew the about lie and was in on it so that Adrien wouldn't hate him.

Felix: "I want to keep Sentibeings safe"

Also Felix: *doesn't tell Adrien he's a sentibeing, even though the rings are in Adrien's possession*

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Marinette: "I want to protect Adrien"

Also Marinette: *Breaks the rings withholding Adriens amok, knowing that could've caused Adrien's death*

YES!! THIS!!!

If anyone else than Ladybug tells Adrien, there's a high chance he'll start to dislike Ladybug and potentially get trust issues.

"It's not Marinette's responsibility to tell Adrien!" Then why does she make herself responsible for every decision made regarding what Adrien gets to know? If it's not her responsibility she shouldn't get to make any calls about it. You don't get to push a shelf over on purpose and then yell: "not my mess!"

Marinette made herself responsible. Now we'll just have to wait and see if the show will hold her responsible.