As A Writer, I Don't Like The Idea Of Placing Abuse Just To Make A Character More Relatable Or More Pathetic

As a writer, I don't like the idea of placing abuse just to make a character more relatable or more pathetic just so people could sympathize with them. Arguably, Felix's abuse story could've been used to expand on his ideologies and his behaviors, and to explain them—but I would never use the "oh he's an abused child so you can't blame him" bs. The abuse is a reason, never an excuse.

Felix's abuse narrative could've explained why he was such a little shit, because some reactions to abuse is to lash out and take it out on the world. But then comes the "down with the oppressors" vigilante shit that DOESN'T IN ANY WAY RELATE TO HIS PREVIOUS BEHAVIOR and after that, "oh poor widdle me I was so horribly abused I get a get out of jail-free card"... smh

And as for Emilie and Amelie..... where do I even start? Amelie's background plays some significance regarding the abuse narrative, but there's too many holes and contradictions and she doesn't show up enough to justify giving a damn about her. Just to play the "my poor baby" role.

Emilie, also, is arguably the most worthless goalpoint ever. She is literally just a plot device. We never learned anything about her, just that she's apparently "nice" and "a good mother". Gabriel and Adrien bemoaning her loss isn't enough to explain why she's in such a high regard for both of them, and their grief over her loss isn't used unless (in Gabriel's case) it's to justify terrorism or (in Adrien's case) to play the sympathy card. In both cases, she's a means to an end, and we learn nothing about her as a person that could make us care so damn bad.

The whole thing is just bs, and frankly, using a play instead of having Felix summarize it is so useless. I don't even understand why TA wasted more time trying to animate that, like all that hard work only for it to turn out utterly ridiculous in the end.

Some people think the reason they had Felix tell his story through that weird play was because the details were too graphic for younger kids, do you think that's a good excuse?

No because the details of Felix's abuse weren't narratively necessary. Felix suffering any abuse wasn't narratively necessary. I'd even say it was a bad thing to add because I doubt that the show is planning to deal with that issue by putting Felix into therapy or the like. It's going to be resolved by Kagami's love and was arguably only added to make Felix a sad little uwu who we can't blame for his actions.

All the play actually needed to do was:

Establish who the sentimonsters are (which it arguably failed at)

Establish that Gabriel is the butterfly holder (which the next episode does anyway)

Even outside of the abuse issue, most of what we see in the play was pointless. Giving us Emilie and Amelie's backstory would have only mattered if Emilie was brought back to life, which seems to not be the case? Even if she was brought back to life, what did we really learn about her? If we removed this play from the story, what would the narrative lose? Maybe season six will surprise me, but my guess is nothing.

You want to know why the play was really added? It's there so that Marinette wasn't able to defeat the akuma and free Chat Noir from his nightmare dust, making sure that there was no identity reveal and that he didn't show up for the final. That's it. That's the whole point.

First, for sure. I've met my clone. They're not that bad.

THIS.

When a magic system is involved, there's a good deal of flexibility, because the magic system is how you make it. But it's also really easy to make it too OP or to lose sight of how it functions in your world for the sake of just slapping on whatever sounds good—like what happened in MLB. The magic system in MLB has centered too much on the characters, rather than how they impact the storyline.

Besides, given the power the miraculouses apparently have, handing multiple miraculouses out to so many people, sometimes even simultaneously, diminishes the weight of having a miraculous at all. They're powerful pieces of magic, so they need to have that kind of responsibility and risk.

And the "adult" rule? Bleh. Given when the miraculouses were made, the concept of "adult" varies. I'd rather 86-ing it, but if I had to keep it, I would've chosen "fully mature" rather than "being an adult".

Can you think of some better powers for the Miraculous that debuted in season 4?

The whole miracle box needs reworked because they went about it backwards. When developing lore like that, you usually want to start with the magic and then find users for it once the magic system has been worked out to something clear and logical. You should also probably try to base the magic on the culture you're designing your magic around, especially if you're not actually part of the culture in question. Just a thought.

Instead of doing any of that, the Zodic miraculouses appear to have been designed around their eventual holders, which makes for some really nonsense lore like the mess that is the Rooster.

As I discussed at length a little while ago, I would have probably replaced the colored macarons and cheese with the zodiac Miraculous to create more interesting and more limiting powerups. This is very much a personal opinion, but I prefer really strict, limited magic systems because that's when you - and your characters - have to get creative to make things work. If magic is whatever you want, then it can get boring. For example, is anyone actually excited by the idea that Adrien can now cataclysm as many things as he wants in a fight? The scene where he got the power was cute, but really think about what it means. It's no longer going to be a big deal if he hits the wrong target. He can just try again next time, no big deal.

I think the writers really missed the mark on that bit of lore. "Adults" should not have been given unlimited uses. They should have been given more uses, but still needed to recharge.

Lol so true. Thomas Astruc may have hated Ladybug PV, but at least the villain—without doing villainy stuff yet—looked and felt like a villain

I can see TA tries to make LIla/Ceries/WhateverThisBitchName as "briliant, mysterious" psychopathic mastermind to excuse marinette irrational hatred not merely because she try to steal "her precious" Adrien by turn her into PG-13 version of Leena Klammer.

If they keep this shit, I will not surprise if they make Lila is a "grow-up paed00 midget woman who hunt a handsome boy" to excuse why they will not give a redemption for Lila, and make her a "brilliant master manipulator" and dangerous than gabriel

It feels like the writers had no idea who to make the next villain, eventually settled on Lila, but realized they needed to find a way to make her more interesting and mysterious in order to draw intrigue for next season. It's just that they chose to do something completely absurd and hoped audiences would buy it.

Outside of the whole "fake identities" thing, we know nothing about Lila as a person, why she hates Marinette and Ladybug for such petty reasons, what she even wants to do besides mooch off famous people, or who she really is. The writers just hope the idea of a mystery will be enough to sell Lila as the next main villain.

For a show heavily influenced by Spider-Man, they basically turned Lila into their own Judas Traveller, a character designed to be mysterious and compelling with no actual plan for what his backstory was.