Experience Tumblr like never before
Yeah, the show fumbled this, big time.
It's like the exact opposite of all my Ron Stoppable posts.
In those, I point out how Ron is shown to be extremely competent and important to the success of the team, but even the narrative refuses to recognize it.
In Miraculous, Chat Noir is important, narratively, but is rarely, if ever, given a role that can't be fulfilled by anyone else.
Anyone else can distract the villain. Arguably, other miraculouses would be better for the job. Like pig, rooster, mouse, or monkey.
Anyone else can throw themselves in front of a villain to protect ladybug. Arguably, the turtle and ox miraculouses would be better for that.
And let's not forget that Adrien is shown to goof off as Chat Noir a lot. Desperada happened because he decided to tell Ladybug his identity instead of focusing on fighting the villain.
I can understand that Chat Noir is freedom for Adrien, but it's also a responsibility that he's not taking seriously.
Luckily, there's a Miraculous Cure, that Chat Noir isn't needed for, to fix things, including bringing Chat Noir back from the dead at least once.
On the one hand, it does seem unfair to expect teenagers to behave perfectly in every situation.
On the other hand, Marinette/Ladybug is shouldering most of the responsibility herself because Chat Noir/Adrien refuses to take the job seriously.
And it's extremely unfair to her.
And that's not even getting into how the romance was handled.
Ladybug: Chat Noir is most important member of The Miraculous Team.
Chat Noir's "important role":
"Distraction Grot: Once per battle, in your opponent’s Shooting phase, before making a saving throw for a model in this unit, it can deploy the distraction grot. If it does, until the end of the phase, models in this unit have a 5+ invulnerable save.Designer’s Note: Place a Distraction Grot token next to the unit, removing it when this unit uses this ability."
Does Ladybug ever say that Chat Noir was the most important member of the team? I honestly don't remember that. Either way, I fully agree that the show failed to make him feel like a pivotal member of the team. That's extra true after the season five final. It's really hard to get excited about Chat Noir when he didn't even try to get to his Lady's side in the final fight. Super weird choice for both a romantic lead and one of your main heroes. What is his arc even supposed to be if he's never going to have a meaningful confrontation with his father? And what's the point of his place as Ladybugs main partner if he's allowed to sit out the show's most important fight? He really is just one of the team now.
I have a post somewhere that I don't feel like digging up, but my stance is that - at the very least - they should have let Adrien fight his way to Paris where he could hand off the ring to Luka since Luka knows both identities, but heaven forbid that plot point lead to anything interesting or that Adrien be allowed to do anything more than motivational speeches. I think season five was the first season to not have the famous "you and me against the world" line, which is really funny when you remember that Ladybug was literally up against the world.