Ah, Yes… The Old Excuse Of ‘Félix Doesn’t Have Good Chemistry With Marinette’. As Someone Who

Lying is NOT a Superpower

Obviously, there are a lot of things I hate about Lila as a character, if she can even be called that.

But, I want to talk about how others treated her.

"Chameleon" is Lila's second appearance in the series. In this one, Marinette wants to warn her friends that Lila is a liar and manipulative, and Adrien thinks they shouldn't. For some reason.

When he apologizes later, Marinette doesn't get mad. She reassures him that he did nothing wrong, even though he did.

Marinette tries several times throughout the series to convince people, mostly Alya, that Lila is lying, but Alya chalks it up to jealousy about Lila having a crush on Adrien.

When Lila's lies are revealed, Alya apologizes and berates herself for being gullible. Marinette reassures her by claiming lying is it's own superpower.

No, lying is not a superpower. Anyone can do it.

Lila's lies aren't even convincing if you think about them for a few seconds.

Lila claimed to know Prince Ali. Too bad they don't have a classmate who also knows Prince Ali and gets along with him really well. Too bad she wouldn't be able to write him a letter or call to confirm he knows Lila. (Rose)

She claimed Jagged Stone wrote a song about her and that she saved a kitten. Too bad they don't have multiple classmates who's mom worked with Jagged Stone and can confirm he hasn't had a cat in decades. Or at least know all of his songs well enough to realize none of them are about Lila. (Luka and Juleka)

She claimed Ladybug saved her life and that they're best friends. Too bad the journalist of the group didn't even think about that before posting it. Or decided to confirm with Ladybug first. (Alya)

She claimed she once saw a guy in India get his eye gouged out by a napkin. Too bad no one's smart enough to point out how that's impossible. (Max)

She claimed to get injured from Marinette pushing her down the stairs. Too bad no one took her to a doctor to get the injury treated.

Lying isn't a superpower. Most of Lila's lies come apart if you think about them.

Heck, Luka and Juleka get to hang out with Jagged later in the series, so the fact that they never found out Lila was lying is ridiculous.

The real superpower is how dumb everyone acts around Lila. Not one person is able to see through Lila's lies, even when they're obvious.

And if you have to dumb down your cast for the villain to succeed, they're not a good villain.

Worst of all, no one is being held accountable for it.

The message here is that you're supposed to just forgive people for blindly following a liar over you.

No, scratch that, you're supposed to just forgive people for accusing you of being a jealous liar when you try to warn them.

You certainly shouldn't point out how they blindly trusted her when they could've easily disproven her lies.

You shouldn't tell them how horrible and alone you've felt because everyone chose to believe the liar over you.

And it is a choice.

Lila states in "Chameleon" that no one thinks she's lying because they like what she has to say. That they don't want her to be lying.

Maybe not a conscious choice at first, but when Alya chooses to say Marinette's lying about Lila because of jealousy instead of believing her best friend, it became a conscious choice.

When your friends apologize and beg forgiveness for something they've done wrong, you're supposed to smile and assure them they did nothing wrong.

Your feelings here don't matter.

It's not their fault.

Lying is a superpower.

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.)

Bonnie Deserved to Walk at Graduation

Okay, I'm going to say it: as horrible as Bonnie was throughout the series, she didn't deserve that kind of humiliation at graduation.

First of all, Barkin should know how to contact Bonnie, or her mother, to let them know before the ceremony that Bonnie wouldn't be graduating.

Second of all, the one test that Bonnie missed should not be weighted enough to cause Bonnie to not graduate. Especially when she was apparently a Salutatorian. (Second highest GPA in the class, she tied with Kim for the title.) At worst, she loses the Salutatorian title, but not flunk completely.

Third of all, the reason nothing happens in the last week of school is because the grade books are closed, and no assignment given after that point is actually counted towards their grade. So even though Bonnie missed that pop quiz, it shouldn't have mattered anyways.

Unless Barkin was breaking the rules, which wouldn't surprise me.

So, it seems the only reason Bonnie was told at the ceremony that she wouldn't be graduating is because Barkin decided he wanted to publicly humiliate Bonnie.

And a 40+ year old adult wanting to humiliate a barely legal former student of his seems wrong.

(Note: I don't think there was anything sexual behind his motivation for humiliating Bonnie, but it still seems wrong.)

Especially when the humiliation seems disproportionate to any slight she might have done to "deserve" it.

For all Bonnie's done to embarrass and antagonize Kim and Ron, she never goes public with it.

The closest we get is in "Hidden Talent" when she shows a video of Kim failing to hit the high notes while singing to hurt Kim's confidence, but Kim and Ron are the only ones around at the time to see the video. It doesn't count as "public humiliation".

So it doesn't seem right to humiliate her in such a way when she never stooped to that level herself.

Thoughts on "Grudge Match"

Specifically the plot surrounding Vivian.

While this episode is supposed to be about how girls can be pretty and smart, there was definitely more than Vivian's looks working against Team Possible in regards to Vivian's identity.

First, she was first mentioned as Dr. Fenn's ex-lab partner, presumably pushed into quitting because she couldn't keep up. At this point, they don't have any reason to distrust Dr. Fenn.

Second, when they do run into Vivian, she gets defensive instead of trying to explain things.

Last, Vivian had deliberately published all her research under the name V. F. Porter, a gender-neutral sounding name.

Despite this, Kim still managed to figure it out, with a little help from Wade.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely understand why she didn't think people would believe her.

Kim: She is right here... Dr. Vivian Frances Porter, noted robotics authority. Vivian: How did you know? Kim: A little digging. But why the secrecy? Vivian: My colleagues wouldn't take someone who looks like me seriously.

Especially since she had a respected scientist like Dr. Fenn actively working against her. Still, I feel as though there was a lot more than looks working against Team Possible here.

Other Thoughts:

Ron: OK. Wait. Time out. Time out. So, you're telling me she looks like that, and is a genius! The rules aren't gonna like this.

This is actually unusual for Ron. Other than this episode, we never see him caring about gender stereotypes this much. (Or at all, really.)

And:

I love Vivian and all, but I really hope she wears something else while working. Labs have dress codes for a reason!

Last:

While I do like the episode, it doesn't really emphasize much that pretty girls (and girls in general) aren't taken seriously as scientists (or other kinds of nerds).

Most of the reason they don't know Vivian's the real scientist is because they were lied to and Vivian never tried to explain things to them.

(And she had published all her research under a gender-neutral version of her name.)

At no point was anyone actually acting like Vivian's looks were the reason she couldn't have been the actual scientist. It's definitely happened to her in the past, but Team Possible wasn't acting like that.

(Even Dr. Fenn wasn't upset that she was pretty, just that she was better than him.)

So, while I do think it's important to tell people that girls can be smart and pretty, this episode kind of missed the mark. But only barely.

A better way of addressing that issue would be to have Vivian try to explain to the scientists at the Space Center that she was the one who built the robot, and have them not believe her.

(Aside from Dr. Wong, who is willing to hear her out.)

Then, Kim could suggest a Robot Rumble to prove who the real robotics expert is. Vivian would win, of course, and the other scientists would be forced to apologize and offer Vivian a job.

(Dr. Wong would explain that she gets it; women are often overlooked and undervalued in STEM fields, especially the pretty ones.)

And we still have it somehow revealed that Oliver's a robot. Maybe he gets hit by a stray EMP coming out of Vivian's (other) robot.

Reblogging from myself to add an update: Upon recent rewatch, Kim offers to help Bonnie, Bonnie doesn't even ask, certainly doesn't force her to.

Then Kim leaves on a mission with Wade, forcing Ron to set up the Meet the Queen event to find Bonnie a new boyfriend, a job he didn't want at all, which leaves me with all kinds of conflicted feelings.

When the team decides to head to Italy, Bonnie is upset at feeling abandoned, so Ron offers to have her come to Venice with them.

So, Kim offers to help, and then immediately abandons the job, forcing Ron to pick up the slack. Not happy about that.

Also, I don't blame her for harshly rejecting Larry since he was picking his ear when he approached her.

Nor do I blame her for being so upset that Brick dumped her, since he had apparently promised that he'd be back for homecoming.

I do blame her for moving in on someone else's boyfriend. Regardless of my feelings on Ron/Bonnie as a pairing, moving in on Ron when he was already dating Kim was uncool.

What are your thoughts on Bonnie cheating to become the homecoming queen and the fact that she tried to steal Ron from Kim, going so far as to kissing him. Not to mention the audacity of her asking Kim to find her a new boyfriend not caring if she’s bothering her or not.

That was definitely a horrible thing to do. I don't justify that, nor do I condone it. This is one thing I do not excuse. I'm not overly fond of Kim, and I clearly prefer Bonnie, but I do agree that I'm on Kim's side on this one.

That being said, I don't actually recall Bonnie asking Kim to help her find a new boyfriend, I think Kim just did that on her own.

Actually, Ron was the one to set up the "Meet the Queen" event to find Bonnie a new boyfriend.

But, it has been a while since I saw that episode in full, so I could be misremembering things.

Ngl, I kind of love this idea.

Back before the Zodiac Kwamis were introduced, I had loved imagining other ways for the classmates to get powers to help.

And Max as an Iron Man-like character because he accidentally made a Kwami is perfect.

The Science Hero

So, I've talked about this and suggested it a couple of times on Tumblr. But I don't think I ever actually made an official prompt about this.

What if Max secretly researched the Miraculous and even managed to collect some of the magic of the Miraculous? What if he used that to build Markov?

This is basically an expansion on Max's character where we can see him use his genius to study the Miraculous and help the heroes by making devices related to his research on the Miraculous.

He might even use his research to make Markov based on the magic and accidentally create an artificial Kwami. Maybe letting him turn into an Iron Man-like superhero.

#no but legit allll of this because it makes it really hard to side with Alya in 'Revealator' despite her being in the right#because Alya is the LAST person who has the right to spout off any tirade about The Truth and giving people The Right to Choose#She wants to berate Ladybug for her choice in Season 5 when SHE. WASN'T. THERE.#and she wasn't there because she didn't have the Fox Miraculous#and she didn't have the Fox Miraculous because she gave it up despite having it 'permanently' due because she told Nino who outed her#what it comes down too is that both Nino AND Alya can't really be trusted to keep secrets#not between each other for sure (see Alya telling Nino about MARINETTE'S crush despite being EXPLICTLY told not to)#and NINO can't keep a secret PERIOD#so like Boo hoo Alya doesn't like to lie but she does NOT protect people's autonomy to 'choose' what to do with the truth

Just gotta say, in addition to everything in the post, those tags bring up an excellent point.

Alya thinks Marinette should tell Adrien that his dad was Hawkmoth because he has a right to know.

And, I would agree, to a point.

But, there is still a villain out there with the power to turn people into villains, and Adrien is still in a fragile state after having lost both of his parents. The revelation that Gabriel was Hawkmoth would destroy him.

And, if it got out to anyone else, the media could latch onto that. He's having a hard enough time avoiding the paparazzi, they'd certainly never leave him alone about a story like that.

Marinette wants to tell Adrien at some point. She just wants to make sure it's done in the right way to hurt him less.

I fear that the show is going to frame Marinette as wrong for keeping that secret, but we'll wait and see.

And, yeah, Alya doesn't respect people's privacy. Alya shouldn't be telling Nino about Marinette's crush on Adrien, even if he is her boyfriend.

At least with Nino he seems kinda clueless, like he doesn't actually know what's wrong. Alya is being deliberately told not to tell anyone and doing it anyways.

What are your thoughts on Alyno's relationship, and do you think the good aspects about them outweight the toxic ones? I mean they're definitely at least less toxic than current canon Lovesquare, but that bar is pretty much subterranean. 😬

(Also sorry if you've already been asked this, I found your blog relatively recently and I love reading through your thoughts and critiques! It's always interesting reading through your takes <3)

I'm so glad that you like the blog and, no, I don't think I've been asked this so let's talk about it!

DJWifi or Alyno is a fine couple most of the time. There are really only two major flaws in how they're written and one minor flaw that gets elevated to a major flaw because of the other flaws. I think it's pretty easy to take them and make them into a great couple, but canon has squandered that potential making them into a couple that is just kind of there because everyone needs to be paired off to earn a happy ending, I guess. (This show is incredibly amatonormative.)

Let's go through all of those items one by one.

Flaw One: How They Got Together

Alya and Nino get together in Animan, the episode that starts with Nino having a crush on Marinette. Of course, when Nino is prompted to tell Marinette about this crush, he chokes and says it's on Alya instead:

Marinette: Uhh... Can't wait to hear... about this lucky girl! Nino: Oh, yeah... Adrien:(from the earpiece) Tell her it's you! Nino: It's youuu...uur best friend Alya! Adrien, Alya and Marinette: What?! Marinette: Alya? Awesome! Alya: No! No! It's not awesome! Marinette: I can fix up a date for you guys! Alya: Say what?! Seriously?! (calls Nino from the earpiece) You didn't even ask me first! (calls Marinette back from the earpiece) Uh-uh! Nino's like... a brother to me! Bleugh! No! End of discussion!

This leads Marinette to lock Alya in a cage with Nino in spite of the fact that Alya is clearly not interested in Nino:

Ladybug:(takes Nino and Alya to the empty gorilla habitat and locks the cage) Stay put and you'll be safe. (then leaves) Nino:(he looks at Alya) Uhh... Hey, what's up? (Alya lets out a disgusted groan.)

This questionable series of events somehow leads Alya and Nino to get together off screen:

Alya: Ladybug locked us up together in the same cage all afternoon. Nino: It turns out we have tons in common. You know, Marinette, the girl I've got a crush on? Marinette: Oh, yeah! Nino: Actually, it was you. Marinette: Huh? Nino: Or that's what I thought. But after chilling with Alya that whole time... Alya:(interrupts) Yeah, well...we don't have to give her all the deets, do we? Nino: Oh, yeah, my bad.

What an incredibly lackluster romance! Alya and Nino deserve better than this! I actually don't mind Nino having a crush on Marinette, but if you want to go that route, then there needs to be a bigger gap between him crushing on Marinette and Alya. As is, it makes Alya feel like a consolation prize which is not cool.

I'm also not wild about Alya's change of heart. How the heck did she go from "he's like a brother" to "I want to date him" in the course of an hour? If you're going to give us such a dramatic change of heart, then you need to actually show the change happening. At the very least, explain why! They might not need to give Marinette the details, but they do need to give them to the audience!

Alya and Nino generally feel like a fine couple after this episode, so if you missed Animan then you'd have no reason to question their love, but this being the start of their relationship really undermines the romance for me. It's way too lackluster for one of the show's main couples!

Flaw Two: Nino's Blabbermouth

Season five was the season of character assassination and the episode Illusion was dedicated to ruining Nino, giving us many questionable moments including this scene where Nino outs his and Alya's secret identities in a crowded cafeteria:

Nino: What's up is Ladybug and Cat Noir don't have us to help them anymore. Alya: (nervously) Um, um— uh— what do you mean, "us"? Nino: Well, us, you Rena Rouge, me Carapace! (Alya kicks his leg underneath the table) Ouch! What's the big deal? We can tell Marinette and Adrien we used to be superheroes. (The camera pans to a shocked Marinette.) Nino: It's not like we have any Miraculous that Monarch could steal from us. The only ones who need to protect their secret identities are Ladybug and Cat Noir, not us. And anyway, I already told Adrien about Carapace. (Adrien laughs red-handed.) Marinette: Adrien knew? (furiously) Alya, did you know that he knew? Alya: What, no, I swear I didn't know at all! (kicks Nino's leg for the second time) Nino: Ow! Come on! He's my best bud, I can tell him stuff! You and Marinette tell each other stuff, don't you?

Yes, this reveal was only to Marinette and Adrien, but holy shit a crowded cafeteria is not the place to be talking about this kind of thing! Nino, what are you doing? We even see Lila overhear a later part of the conversation, making it clear that wasn't one of those confusing moments where the show used a seemingly public place for a confrontation or reveal, but later context makes it clear that it should be read as a private moment.*

Because the show let there be consequences for Nino using this location AND let the group use the extremely private boiler room later on, Nino comes across terribly! He is so gods damn lucky that Lila only overheard the part about Gabriel (as far as we know.) This scene is a pretty massive betrayal of Alya's trust and Nino never even apologizes for it. It makes him come across as a bad friend, a bad hero, and a bad boyfriend.

I would never include a moment like this unless it was part of a character arc where Nino learned the error of his way or part of a plotline where Alyno breaks up. Because the show never gave this moment proper consequences or payoff, it just makes Nino look like a terrible hero for no good reason and it makes Alya's choice to stay with him pretty questionable. Can she really trust him when he's been shown to treat her most precious secrets with such casual disregard?

*Note: this really only happened in the early seasons when the show didn't have more private locations animated, Volpina and Miracle Queen being prime examples. Both episodes contain a scene that seems extremely public, but later episodes make it clear that the events were only known to the characters who were present in the scene.

Flaw Three: Why Do They Even Like Each Other?

This is the minor issue I mentioned at the start. I don't think side couples need to be deeply developed and sometimes crushes just happen, but when you introduce issues like how the couple got together and Nino being a questionable partner for a superhero, then you do start to wonder why Alya is sticking with this guy? What does she see in him? Why should we want them to stay together outside of amatonormativity?

I don't have a good answer for those questions and it really undermines them as couple. If you're going to do things like mutual identity reveals and episodes centered on their relationship, then you do need to give their relationship some substance because you're giving it too much narrative weight for something so underdeveloped. That's extra true when you're denying the lead couple their own identity reveal! Alyno being fully revealed while also full time heroes is a massive insult to the love square from a narrative perspective and just further cheapens the square's eventual identity reveal.

Fixing Alyno

In spite of all these issues, I do actually like Alyno and tend to put them together in my own stuff. They have the potential to be a fantastic couple. I even use their relationship to help guide how I write Nino because he has so little substance in canon!

For those who don't want to read the massive post I just linked, my main inspiration for Alyno is the fact that canon made Nino a film buff. That's a fantastic match for a nascent vlogger! I love to include scenes of him teaching her how to frame certain types of shots or him helping her learn how to edit footage into an engaging story. It's such an obvious way to let them bond and I'm so disappointed that canon never went there. I actually make the Ladyblog the reason they got together by having Nino help with the filming and by having him run along after Alya in the early story because he's trying to keep her safe. Dude needs to earn his miraculous somehow!

Final Thoughts

I'm pretty neutral on canon Alyno because canon has given them so little substance while also introducing some pretty major flaws, but I like their potential and happily ship them in the realms of fanon. One of the many cases where it's less a love of canon and more a love of the potential I see in canon. Much like the love square, I'd be totally fine with canon Alyno breaking up forever, but I like to give them a happily ever after together in my own stuff.

I actually don't have a lot of complaints about Project: Rainbow, but I dislike how the Rainbow High vs Rainbow High thing was handled.

More specifically, Avery.

After being told that her accessory designs weren't unique enough, she decided the best thing to do, instead of designing new accessories, is to make a dress to go with the accessories.

And she gets praised for ignoring Maria's advice.

Here's the thing: I wear my favorite accessories with a lot of different outfits.

I'm not interested in accessories that only look good with one specific outfit. Most people aren't.

And Avery shouldn't be praised for ignoring Maria's advice. It was an accessory design challenge, not a dress design challenge.

She should have been gently told that, while her dress was amazing, it was an accessory design challenge, and she didn't meet the challenge requirements.

They still could have Aiden volunteering to be the one who goes back to class, because his reason wouldn't have changed, but now we could give Avery a good learning experience.

Bonnie wasn’t supportive of Ron she was enabling his worst traits (traits that were born out of insecurity ) Kim keeps Ron grounded and acts as the voice of reason or as an inspiration to come out of his shell when he lets his fears consume him.

She has moments where she is harsh and even unfair but a few of them are intentional and outright shown how she is decidedly in the wrong and at the end of the episode Kim and Ron always come to a mutual understanding.

I feel like many of your issues aren’t with Kim’s herself, but rather with the way the narrative treated each of the characters.

Ron was stuck with the comedic relief role even though that no longer fit him, Kim had to be written as a role model so her flaws were never taken seriously nor addressed.

I think this is the issue, the way the narrative treated them both. Technically Kim’s character is as muchof a victim to the narrative as Ron was.

So, I guess we have different opinions on this. But if those were Ron's worst traits, then he's a Saint.

Or whatever the Jewish equivalent would be, if there is one.

Because the things Ron's done in "Ron Millionaire" are:

Literally gives money to classmates and Barkin. Not seeing anything wrong with that. Maybe not smart to advertise how much money he has, but not a bad thing to do.

Complains about getting adult lettuce instead of baby lettuce. He definitely could have been nicer, I'll give you that.

Kind of goes over the top with insisting on being called "The Ron" but, again, it's not bad, just a little annoying.

Forgets to put Kim on the guest list, but this was probably unintentional. We don't even know Ron made the list, and he certainly didn't seem like he was trying to avoid Kim.

Tries to buy gaudy jewelry. Maybe not what I'd do, but it's not harming anyone, so I'd keep my mouth shut.

Buys a private jet, with auto-pilot, and a special forces team for missions. At least Kim appreciates that.

So, his "worst traits" are not bad.

And they're still way better than Kim's worst traits.

Kim doesn't need to dismiss Ron's feelings to keep him grounded.

She's not inspiring Ron to step out of his shell by forcing him to do things he's uncomfortable with.

It is entirely possible for someone to keep their friend grounded, inspire them to step out of their shell, and be kind and supportive, even for a high schooler.

Kim and Ron may come to an understanding by the end of some episodes, but it doesn't seem to be enough for her to actually treat him better.

I am perfectly capable of acknowledging Kim as a victim of the narrative and as a horrible person.

From A Writer's POV: Kim is a victim of a narrative that refuses to let her be vulnerable, even if it means she can't be kind, either.

In-Universe: Kim is majorly controlling, hypocritical, possessive, uncaring, condescending, and judgmental.

I can have both POVs at once. They're not actually contradictory.

But my acknowledgement of Kim as a victim of the narrative doesn't negate the fact that, in-universe, she treats Ron horribly.

So, for me at least, it's not just that Ron's a victim of the narrative, it's also that Ron's a victim of Kim.