I Can't Say For Other People, But For Me, It's Hard To Be All, "Oh! They Are Queer!" I Was Mildly Surprised

I can't say for other people, but for me, it's hard to be all, "Oh! They are queer!" I was mildly surprised to learn Ms. Bustier had a girlfriend, like, "Oh, okay. So she has a girlfriend." Not much to think about, just a nice tidbit into her life—which is one of the only glimpses we got, other than, "She's a nice teacher."

ZOÉ THO.

I was actually pissed. Not because she was LGBTQ, but because it felt like another excuse to make another person in love with Marinette. We already have Adrien, Luka (Nathaniel & Nino, albeit formerly), even that damn sculptor! And now Zoé is part of the bandwagon!

Like, BLEGH! I already get it, Marinette is so treasured and lovable and she should be worshipped by everyone in the show, and anyone who says otherwise—*cough* Chloé *cough*—should be razed and burned.

Also, maybe show more attention to the other possible/maybe confirmed (no idea) pairings, and show their growing romance (PDAs are possible, just not crazy ones).

I'm not gonna lie, while I do think Miss. Bustier and her girlfriend Giselle (from Collusion) are cute, I still have problems with it for two reasons:

1. It feels like a mega slap in the face to those who wanted LGBTQ rep in the show for the longest time with other characters such as Marc or Rose, only to have them either water down or give out subtle but barely any hints if they were queer or not.

2. Why Bustier of all people? Okay, she’s a nice teacher. So? Nice doesn't mean shit. Hell, being gay/trans/queer doesn't mean shit either if you aren't gonna do shit about it. So why did they make Bustier of all people Sapphic? Hell, why did they make both Bustier and Zoe Sapphic of all characters? So the audience can root or side with them when Chloe shits on them? Is that it? No hun, it doesn't work that way.

In conclusion, while it's great to finally see some sapphic/queer rep from the show as well as some interracial same sex relationships rep, I hate how it was only done to Bustier/Zoe because once again:

Chloe = Irredeemable

To be honest, I never got the whole "Ms. Bustier and Zoe are both gay to make Chloe look worse" argument.

Yes, the revelation of their respective sexualities helps expand on their characters, but whenever Chloe attacks them, it's never based on their sexuality. We don't get any homophobic comments from Chloe like when she was racist to Marinette's uncle in "Kung Food", and the show never makes her out to be discriminatory towards the LGBT community.

I'm not saying this is a positive trait Chloe should be commended for, but unlike with her racism in "Kung Food", there's no evidence from canon to back up the idea of her being homophobic, much less use this as an excuse to villify her even further for bullying characters who happen to be gay.

I like that idea, of sentimonsters being more durable and not having real blood. By designing sentimonsters as basically not being like real people, it also separates the Peacock Miraculous from the Ladybug Miraculous, since I've seen posts before complaining that by having the Peacock Miraculous capable of creating flesh-and-blood creatures like Adrien, it's basically Creation, which makes no sense.

As for the dysphoria idea, it would've been cool if he had some identity crisis (yeah, I'm cruel) about whether or not his perceived perfection—handsome, smart, gifted—was his own achievements or something that came with being a sentimonster. That would've been interesting to see, and how would've been able to work through it.

Thomas Astruc claims that human-looking sentimonsters are human in every way except the way they were born, but I've seen some fics where they were more durable and didn't have real blood. Do you think that would give our poor cat boy serious body dysphoria, even if it came with some advantages?

Depends on how he was designed, I guess? Or how you want to write him.

I should mention that dysphoria isn't necessarily that logical. That's not a criticism of those who experience the different types of dysphoria by any means! I'm just saying that what triggers it isn't easy to guess. For example, I've heard first hand accounts of water bottle shapes and lipstick color triggering gender dysphoria. Because of that, Adrien may very well not be phased by things like his durability, but find other, seemingly random things triggering. Brains are tricky like that.

I'd highly recommend reading up on first hand accounts of dysphoria and euphoria before including this element in any writing assuming that you don't have dysphoria yourself.

Even with the concept itself being overall problematic, it's so weird too when taking the characters into context. I can see why Colt Fathom would do this (he is a whole other can of worms here) but I don't understand why Emilie and Gabriel would do it.

With the little information we have of Emilie's character, she's supposed to be the kindest, most loving person anybody's ever known. I just don't understand how they're so desperate to have a child that turning to magic is their go-to. Is there no IVF? If not IVF, why not adoption? Based on how Emilie is painted to be, I'm sure she can still wholeheartedly love a child she didn't birth.

So why even make Adrien a sentimonster? What's the point?

And as for Félix... the idea that Colt, with or without his wife's permission, can basically make her pregnant with a sentimonster is kind of disturbing to say the least. And why would Emilie give him the Peacock Miraculous to get Amelie pregnant, knowing how he is, when she's basically been described to be a literal angel?

Tell me, do you think making human babies with the Peacock Miraculous is pretty f*cked up?

On both paper and in the deeper narrative - extremely so. You've basically created a living, breathing, growing creature you can control and delete on command once you get bored (and with a very fragile remote control depending on what gets used as a amok). The show says that they're no different from humans, but the way they present the entire thing sure doesn't match the claim (or at least for the non-human looking sentis).

And the controversies with it get worse when you consider that there's no actual permanent solution to the above - your only options as a Senti are basically "put your amok in a secure place no one can find and hope for the best" or "pray that the next Peacock holder isn't a complete psychopath who hates your kind/see you as fakes rather than real people."

Funnily enough, with a quick google search, one could easily find out how mayoral elections happen in Paris. One, you don't get to vote the mayor. You vote the city council, who in turn will vote the mayor.

So for Ms. Bustier to become mayor, she'd have to have been on the city council (which is a public election) and then compete with André on said city council to become mayor. Makes one wonder how TA butchered Parisian mayoral elections when one google search will get you all you need to know.

Saw the Mrs. Bustier ask- and even more unbelievable than her winning is them getting an election together so quickly. You're talking months, campaigns, organizing et al. THAT all has to happen even before she can BEGIN to make her changes(if we just assume she has the powers of a dictator like Andre did and not an actual elected official) The time frame is beyond compact to just plain silly. Not even fun silly, just 'you aren't even trying'.

Don't forget how Ms. Bustier did most of this after giving birth to her baby.

Now, I'm not a woman myself, but I'm pretty sure after carrying another human being in my body for almost a year, going into politics isn't something new mothers are supposed to do.

I don't remember the exact phrasing anymore, but I remember seeing something that said: plot twists are not there to surprise the audience or shock them. They're there to enrich the story.

Basically, don't focus on the shock value. Focus on how the plot twist impacts your story and the characters in it. If your audience guesses your plot twist from subtle foreshadowing, then that's good. If your plot twist has shock value but none of the enrichment, then it's a useless foreshadow.

I miss the "Gabriel is Hawkmoth" foreshadow during Simon Says and the book Adrien found in Volpina. Since the episodes are pretty close together, it works. But then later episodes with plot twists just fail miserably, with no other answer except "we already wrote the script, so deal with it".

I think part of what fails in the Chloé betrayal and Adrien/Felix sentimonster thing is that in order to foreshadow correctly, attention needs to be paid to these specific characters, so the screen has to shift to them and their personal lives. But 99% of the episodes center around Marinette and how she navigates life, so there's next to no focus set on them unless she's involved—and unfortunately, putting her in the loop would be too problematic to address in the show's long run.

The reason behind using Chloé early on is actually pretty simple. The writers for ML have never met a twist they didn't like. they seem obsessed with outsmarting their audience. ( target 6-10yr olds, go team) Everything is a red herring of some kind until it isn't bit it is but not and whoa did we blow your mind yet?

I'm reminded of an OSP quote along the lines of 'You can only surprise your audience on the first viewing, but a good narrative can be enjoyed any number of times.'

Exactly. Plot twists aren't just there to surprise the audience. They also give rewatch value to the work.

Take Puss in Boots: The Last Wish for example. The twist of the Wolf actually being the Grim Reaper is shocking, yes, but rewatching the movie gives new meaning to the things he does. Just rewatch his first scene and see what I mean. Not only does the Wolf appear from out of nowhere like a ghost, he also points to the word "Dead" in the "Dead or Alive" on Puss' wanted poster, and wields a pair of sickles as his weapons.

It also makes you rethink the things he says to Puss during their conversation.

"Been following you for a long time." - The Wolf has taken eight of Puss' nine lives, so he's more than familiar with him.

"Everyone thinks they'll be the one to defeat me. But no one's escaped me yet." - Being Death itself, the Wolf has been there for everyone's eventual passing.

"So I've heard..." - A direct response to Puss' claim that he laughs in the face of death, which the Wolf is naturally insulted by.

Plot twists and foreshadowing go together well, but you need to make sure the audience has enough hints to either figure it out themselves or to recognize the buildup to the twist on a second viewing. Miraculous Ladybug does neither of those. Things like Chloe's betrayal and the other rich kids being Sentimonsters just come out of nowhere and don't hold up when you rewatch earlier episodes and see no foreshadowing for those revelations.

I think "actually evil all along" Emilie would make more sense than Lila replacing hawkmoth and the former would still massively suck! So that's saying a lot.

It says a lot when the majority of the fandon isn't excited to see Lila take over as the main villain, and instead suggest ideas for other main villains who are actually old enough to drive.