I Can't Change The Names And Sell My Fanfic Because It Was Written Under The Premise That People Already

I’ll agree that is usually Ron who is a more dynamic character and he is usually the one one who seems to put more effort/is more invested into their relationship, (but this can be easily explained by S4 focusing more on him) but a lot of the things you are complaining about are just a result of judging a cartoon by real world standard and taking it far too seriously.

All of the points you brought up were just scenes that are meant to establish the plot of the episodes or show the changes the characters were going through, like the coupon scene was to establish Kim and Ron needed jobs.

And Kim expressing she wanted something different for their next date isn’t bad, she is communicating her needs and that’s a good trait in any relationship.

I'm aware they're scenes that were brought up to establish plot.

What's your point?

Maybe I am taking a cartoon too seriously, but that's my perogative.

If it bothers you, you don't have to follow me or see my posts. I'm not going to force you, or even hate you if you decide that my blog is not something you'd like to see regularly.

It's not for everybody, and I don't blame people who decide this isn't for them.

Yes, Kim expressing she wanted something different for their next date is good. My biggest complaint, and that's on me for not making it clear, is that when Ron did provide her with something new, she pouted and moped.

At a ceremony Ron's dad was being honored at.

It might not have been the most exciting thing ever, and I could understand the disappointment, but for an almost-adult, pouting and moping is kind of immature behavior.

Her sarcastic comment of "Yep, real exciting" also wasn't necessary.

Ultimately, it's not bad the she wants something new, it's bad that she doesn't offer specific ideas but complains about what Ron arranged anyways.

I understand that most of what I complain about is meant to establish the plot of the episode. I just think there were better ways to do that.

The coupon scene: there could have been other ways of establishing Kim and Ron wanting and/or needing jobs.

For example:

They're seniors who want a bit more independence and spending money than their allowances can provide.

Kim's saving up for a car and Ron's saving up for a new scooter.

They're both hoping to put extra money in their college funds.

Kim might want new clothes and Ron might want a new gaming system.

Kim wanted the employee discount at Club Banana and Ron wanted the employee discount at the places he applied to.

Any combination of the above.

There are definitely other scenarios in which they'd want and/or need jobs.

Kim complaining about Ron using coupons for their dates, despite not financially contributing to them herself, didn't have to be one of them.

As a follow up to you post about mentors, just to make things fair, what are examples of Tikki being a bad mentor to Marinette?

Post in question for context.

Tikki often acts as the voice of the author. She's there to explain why Marinette is in the wrong. Since Miraculous has some wacky morals, that means we get a mix of good advice and wacky nonsense advice.

Two examples of bad advice that come to mind are Gamer and Strikeback. Gamer is the episode where Marinette stumbles upon an Ultimate Mecha Strike tournament, realizes that Adrien is taking part, and decides to compete so they can be on a team together. Marinette wins a spot through her own hard won skills and then this happens:

Tikki: All you wanted to do is spend time with Adrien, there are other ways to do that! Marinette: What are you getting at? Tikki: You know how much Max wanted to be in that tournament. Kim said he'd been training for it all year. Marinette: You're right. All I could think about was Adrien. 

This is how tournaments work, right? They're not tests of skill, but tests of who put in the most work or who wants to compete the most! That's why we had that scene with Marinette writing out her training schedule and motivations for evaluation, but she lied and that was wrong and...

Okay, I was the one lying here. There was no written evaluation because that's not how tournaments work. All anyone cares about is your skills. They don't care if you're doing this for personal glory or to get closer to a boy or whatever Adrien's motivation was because - notably - his motivation didn't matter in this episode about needing pure motives to be allowed to do things.

What if he didn't care about the competition and only did it to get closer to his classmates? That's not even a random guess. It's a valid read because Adrien ultimately gives his spot to Max while claiming that Max is the better player even though Adrien very clearly beat Max at the start of the episode. Ignoring that weird nonsense dialogue, why was it fine for Adrien to compete when he didn't care but wrong for Marinette to do the same? And Max wanting to compete to show off his skills is also a totally selfish motivation, so why does it matter that he wanted it more? Everything about this episode was nonsense and uncomfortably sexist. If Max wants to compete, then he needs to get better at the game. That's how competitions work.

Strikeback is the second part of the season four final and it starts with Marinette mourning the fact that "Adrien" has left Paris, leading to this:

Marinette: (crestfallen) It's all over, Tikki. Tikki: He'll be back, Marinette. He's just going on a voyage!

Which would be lovely advice if Adrien was a normal boy, but he's Chat Noir and Tikki knows that. She should be freaking out and trying to find a way to get him back to Paris, but then Tikki would have to support Marinette's actions and we can't have that, so instead Tikki gives this nonsense advice because she has to be against whatever "wrong" thing Marinette is doing today.

I could come up with a few more examples, but I think those two paint a pretty good picture of issue one re Tikki. However, when it comes to Tikki, my main issue with her is less a wealth of bad advice - unlike Plagg*, I think she's right more often than not - and more a lack of support. It feels like she's just here to judge Marinette and point out when she's doing something wrong, but a good mentor should be so much more than that.

Kuro Neko is a great example of this. When Chat Noir quits, Tikki just sits back and does nothing while her young charge is freaking out. She doesn't even try to defend Marinette when Plagg is going off about Chat Noir's "ill treatment". For all Plagg's faults in that episode, at least he's doing something about the situation. Meanwhile Tikki literally has two lines in the entire episode! A similar thing happens in Kwami's Choice where Plagg is the one driving them to act while Tikki just wrings her hands in despair.

Tikki: (sighs heavily) What can we do? Plagg: We must free them of that impossible choice. We must… free them of us.

These are not the actions of a mentor. Mentors aren't supposed to just offer judgement about things that their mentee has already done or is considering doing. They're supposed to be a source of support and guidance in hard times, but we never really see Tikki stepping in to give Marinette that kind of advice. If memory serves, she never offers solutions or acts as a sounding board. That role is mainly filled by Alya and I love Alya! It's good for Marinette to have support from a friend, but Alya is also a teenager while Tikki is an ancient being who has seen many Ladybugs go through the kind of struggles that Marinette is going through. I expect her to use that knowledge to help her charge, but she never does. This exchange from Passion perfectly highlights this problem:

Tikki: Don't worry, Plagg... my holder has decided to run away from her real feelings to pursue an impossible love with Cat Noir instead. Plagg: Uh, just to be sure, sugarcube, you do know that Cat Noir and my holder are one and the same person, right? Tikki: I do, but my holder doesn't. Plagg: If she declares her love to Cat Noir, something tells me she'll find out soon enough. Tikki: You have nothing to fear. When my holder is in love, she never gets anywhere. She'll just knit hats and make very complicated plans that will never come to fruition. Plagg: Hmm... ah, then everything's fine.

Tikki, I love you, but by the gods! With a mentor like you, Marinette doesn't need enemies to be miserable! Do you care about her at all??? What kind of mentor delights at their mentee's suffering? Not a good one, that's for sure.

*Quick note: I think that Plagg and Tikki are probably neck and neck for who has given the most bad advice, Plagg just feels like the bigger problem because we don't see him as much as we see Tikki. Since she's tied to the main character, Tikki gives advice in almost every episode and most episodes have decent morals.

Adrien's need for good advice can also feel more glaring because he's so isolated and passive. That makes Plagg's lack of good advice feel more harmful, but Marinette is just as isolated from real advice. Her mentor figures - Su Han, Fu, and Tikki - mostly give orders and judgement instead of support and guidance. It's just harder to spot that fact because Marinette is actively trying to do the right thing, meaning that she's more likely to make mistakes, and it's easy to see why she comes across as a lot less pathetic and a lot easier to judge.

What are your opinions on Mr. Barkin?

Barkin shouldn't be an educator. Or allowed to be in charge of children.

He runs the school like it's the military.

He admitted to disliking Ron since Ron gave him a weird look in the ninth grade.

He assigns extra homework to Ron just because he can.

He refused to let Ron specifically leave the classroom at the bell despite letting everyone else go just so he could assign him extra homework for no reason.

And demanded that the homework be on his desk at 7:00 despite the school not being unlocked until 7:30.

And gave Ron more homework for pointing out that they don't unlock the doors until 7:30.

He took a whole letter grade off of Ron's assignment in "Ron The Man" just because Ron's bar mitzvah certificate hadn't been signed.

(If Barkin wasn't grading most of Ron's assignments, do you think Ron's grades might be higher?)

He humiliated Bonnie at graduation when she didn't deserve it.

(Seriously, Bonnie's squabbles with Kim and Ron are not something Barkin should be humiliating her for. The punishment was disproportionate to the "crime".)

And the one time anyone's in actual danger, he completely panics.

That being said, he also praised Ron's personal hero essay.

And was proud of Ron's impressive culinary skills.

Let Ron take charge in "Sink or Swim".

And had no problems assigning detention to Kim when she had deserved it.

Barkin mentions in "Graduation" that Ron reminds him a bit of himself, so Barkin is probably trying to prepare Ron for the things Barkin's faced. It just isn't having the desired affect.

I think that Barkin genuinely cares about the students, even Ron, but is in no way qualified to care for them.

Truly, I don't think Barkin is a completely irredeemable person, but he clearly has issues to work out, as shown in "Fashion Victim" by his break from reality, and needs to fix those before he's placed in charge of anyone ever again. If he's ever placed in charge of anyone again.

Do you think Ron was a good sidekick for Kim?

I think Ron is too good a sidekick.

I think he's so good, in fact, that he deserves to be acknowledged as a partner.

Ron has impressive skills, and was shown to be able to handle missions on his own on several occasions.

He didn't have a problem following Kim's lead, though has expressed a desire to step out on his own as a hero.

My only problem with Ron as a sidekick is that he deserves better. An equal partnership, at least. With his own gadgets and battle suit and the same amount of recognition and gratitude that Kim gets.

Ron, even as "just a sidekick", is essential to Kim's success, even if she won't admit it.

So he is definitely a great sidekick, even though he deserves much better.

You have a lot of gripes about Kim as a character? What about Ron though? Do you think they handled his character better then the rest?

Oh, good question! Yes, and no.

No because Ron is portrayed as a loser and a freak, the butt of many jokes within the series.

And so many people, females included, find themselves relating to Ron more than Kim, so it's a little bit insulting that the character most like them was the "loser" of the show.

And yes, because Ron actually got more character development than Kim.

And, while Ron has been known to be selfish at times, it doesn't usually cause harm to others.

There was "Ill Suited" where he stole Kim's battle suit to join the football team, but he had no way of knowing he could be putting others in danger as he had no idea Dementor was after the suit or had a way to control it.

And Kim called him out for it.

Whenever Ron is behaving badly, neither Kim nor the narrative will hesitate to call him out on it.

Most often, Ron puts Kim's interests before his own. And he certainly treats Kim better than she treats him.

So, Ron is treated as a joke, and often puts Kim's needs ahead of his own. When he behaves badly, he is called out on it. And for this reason, I think he was handled both better and worse than Kim

Reblogging to add an idea for season 4.

In "Homecoming Upset" Ron, after being stuck with the job of finding Bonnie a boyfriend, a job he did not want, realizes his relationship with Kim is still very unequal. When he attempts to talk to Kim about it, it results in an argument and them breaking up.

Whether Ron dates Bonnie or not after this is up to interpretation.

Possible AUs

While I love the idea of Ron deciding to end things with Kim after "Crush", there are definitely other times when Ron could've ended his friendship with Kim, and if you're interested in that trope in fanfiction, I think you might find this list helpful.

After being forced into a haircut in "The New Ron", Ron decides Kim's controlling behavior is too much for him. He ends his friendship with Kim and calls her out for her behavior.

After using mind control on her brothers at the end of "The Twin Factor", Kim is grounded for a long time, leaving Ron to handle missions alone. This would cause Ron to realize his own skills, and put a strain on his relationship with Kim as she can't stand to watch him succeed on missions without her. Kim also finds herself with fewer babysitting jobs once word of her using mind control on her brothers gets around.

Kim finds herself getting fewer missions after word of her negligence and reckless endangerment in "October 31st" gets out. She also finds herself banned from Monique's house since she destroyed the garage door.

Upset over GJ thinking Ron is the secret to her success in "The Ron Factor", Kim tries the solo hero thing, and fails. Unfortunately, her parting had left Ron hurt and upset, and he's not interested in coming back to Kim.

After "Adventures in Rufus-Sitting", Rufus manages to communicate to Ron what happened while he was away, and Ron gets angry that Kim not only neglected and endangered Rufus, but lied to him about it. Ron ends things with Kim as he doesn't know how he can keep being friends with someone who cares so little about Rufus.

Ron comes back from his trip in "Exchange" with new skills, new confidence, and an unwillingness to put up with Kim's controlling behavior. So he takes a break from Kim when she gets to be too much for him.

After constantly being ignored about Gil in "Return to Wannaweep", Ron decides to end things with Kim and look for someone more supportive. Kim finds herself booted from the squad after they learn about how she intentionally sabotaged her own teammate to succeed.

Team Impossible from "Team Impossible" uses legal actions to keep Kim out of the save the world business, at least until she's 18, due to the reasons mentioned in my post about them. They offer to train Kim and Ron in how to be better heroes, but Ron is the only one who accepts.

Feeling abandoned in "So The Drama", Ron decides to confront Drakken alone. He succeeds, and it starts a new chain of events where Ron realizes how little Kim cares for him and decides he deserves better.

There might be episodes in Season 4 that could have Ron end things with Kim, but I feel like at that point it would take a lot, and Kim didn't do anything truly heinous to Ron so he wouldn't.

If anyone can think of any other episode where they think it would make sense for Ron to end things with Kim, please feel free to comment!

So, I know I point out a lot about how Kim doesn't seem to value Ron all that much. But, in the interest of fairness, I am going to point out that...

...it seems to be a recent development.

In "A Sitch in Time" we learn that Kim and Ron met in preschool. Kim thought Ron was weird back then, but seemed to enjoy it.

In middle school, Kim was more sensitive to Ron's feelings, such as apologizing for making Ron feel bad about not getting a new computer. She was also kinder about Rufus.

So, somewhere along the way, Kim started disliking all the things she used to like about Ron, including Rufus.

It's anybody's guess as to when and why this happened, but it is truly sad to hear.

Kim used to like that Ron was weird and different. Now, she can't stand it.

First thought:

This one of the hardest parts of writing an AU.

For Chloe to face consequences, Andre would have to be less willing to break rules and laws for her.

But that leads to the problem of how did her reign of terror even last so long in the first place?

If the teachers don't need to worry about losing their jobs for disciplining Chloe, then how could she have gotten away with so much?

I have ideas, but putting it all together in a way that works is difficult.

Second thought:

This is a super annoying thing about canon: Andre and Gabriel are redeemable, but Chloe and Lila aren't.

Two grown adults are redeemable, but teenage girls aren't.

Neither Andre or Gabriel is shown doing anything worthy of redemption, but, sure, they get a pass.

Chloe is a literal child who is shown, on occasion, to feel bad for hurting others, but she's somehow irredeemable.

Lila's debut episode just had her lying about knowing celebrities which, though bad, doesn't make her the villain they turned her into.

(I have changes for her in my AU too.)

The men writing this show think grown adult men who hurt children are redeemable, but not literal children.

Gee, I wonder why that is? /s

What are your thoughts on what happened to Chloe at the end of Season 5? Do you plan on watching Season 6?

Like as IF that's the last we'll see of her.

I was gonna wait to give my review of Season 5 - I wanted a release date for Season 6 and then drop them like a count down leading up to the new season - which is why I haven't delved in much and talked about my opinions.

But Chloe's ending was bullshit, and we all know it. Not because she leaves Paris, not because she loses the few friends and connections she has, and not even because she's a massive brat who finally gets some form of comeuppance.

But because of the form that comeuppance comes in.

Why on God's Green Earth is ANDRE the one? ANDRE is the one to drag her ass out of Paris and condemn her publicly and gets to act like the big hero, doing the right thing and putting Chloe in her place? ANDRE. The one who GAVE her her place and covered it in gold leaf and never once until this whack-job of a season considered that a bad thing?!

Appropriate, appropriate face Caline.

The absolute absurdity of them to write THIS MAN in any sort of correct light, the one who from Day 1, Season 1 has been a solid and complete background for why Chloe is...Chloe. Who spoiled and abused his power to make sure she never felt an ounce of consequences or remorse or backlash. How dare they try and pull this move on us when they could remove Audrey from the story entirely and no one would second guess Chloe's entire personality or upbringing?

These writers have somehow convinced themselves that Andre is not only without any guilt in the outcome of this situation, but that he's redeemable! Redeemable through the act of shipping off his daughter, whom he's been nothing but devoted to, and sending her off to a boarding school with her (AS HE ADMITS) just as awful mother as her chaperone, while he abducts casually replaces her with his new better daughter, Zoé.

I'm sure that won't have an adverse effect on your child who is used to absolute and unconditional love for her whole life, you are definitely a good person who's finally figured out how to do the right thing.

/s

These writers have somehow convinced themselves that Chloe is absolutely hopeless and evil and has reached the point of no return, but ANDRE. Andre's fine.

And Gabriel too, apparently. Hm, seems to be a theme with these worthless male parents and getting off scott free....

They felt so odd and even out of character for Kim at that point, everything about the movie felt very season one-isn, Kim’s character felt off and even a little disrespectful:

Kim: “Ron is not boyfriend material, he is Ron ”

Bonnie: “you could end up with the president of the Chess club or worse” (as Ron enters the scene)

There are so many scenes where Ron is able to ponder about his feelings about Kim, there are many scenes where he does something that shows he loves her and in general seems to prioritize her happiness.

( little scenes like when he buys her a jacket, every time he is supportive and tells her she can do anything, that she is beautiful, when she gives her the credit for saving the day in the Ron factor episode, we have whole scenes where Ron’s character evaluated the way he feels about her and how important she is to him.)

I think is amazing how the cartoon portrays Ron as an introspective, open and emotionally available person (very rare in a boy character during that time, is amazing and part of the whole subversion of tropes the show had going on).

This is part of the reason what made me love Ron’s character and Kim and Ron’s relationship

But we almost didn’t get any of that with Kim, we barely ever saw how she felt about anything, she was never allowed to be as open and vulnerable about her feelings as Ron was. 3_5

Truthfully, even today, it can be hard to find a teenage guy character who is so open about his feelings.

So I do love that about Ron.

And I hate that Kim was never allowed that same vulnerability. She was only shown to have fears or insecurities a few times; fighting the Lorwardians in "Graduation", a newly discovered fear of giant bugs in "Roachie", and anything involving Josh Mankey.

And, even though she could experience fear and insecurities, it never made her sympathetic towards any of Ron's.

There where shows back then where the teen male protagonist was allowed to be emotional and vulnerable, so why isn't a teen female protagonist allowed the same?

Thoughts on Josh Mankey

So, in some fanfiction, I've seen Josh portrayed as, well...I wouldn't say mean, but not as nice as canon. This is usually to highlight how Ron is better for Kim. Obviously, I'm going to have issues with this.

Firstly, Josh is kind and patient. When Kim is acting weird on their date, he doesn't seem bothered by it. Maybe concerned, but he never once loses his cool.

Secondly, he's accepting. Though Kim's interest in putting marshmallows on hotdogs is weird, he doesn't give her a hard time about it. And he doesn't seem judgmental towards Ron for still trick-or-treating in "October 31st". (Actually, he seemed to enjoy that.)

Lastly, he's charitable. Near the end of "Blush" we learn that Josh worked with some kids to clean up a bunch of graffiti and paint a mural in place.

Josh is a kind, caring, patient, and tolerant guy who volunteers to work with kids and paints murals after cleaning up graffiti. He's also a musician and likes hanging out with Ron too. ("October 31st")

So, if people want to get Josh out of the way to have Kim and Ron end up together earlier, portraying Josh as a horrible person doesn't have to be an option.