Nothing like a broken heart to bleed ink

Even though I love the Love Square to bits, I need to rant about the premise for Transmission a bit.

Don't worry, this'll be properly tagged as salt.

First and foremost, I'm a hopeless romantic, alright? I'm a shipper first and a person second. It's in my nature, I need to ship something before I can get invested in a show or franchise. There are very few exceptions.

So you can imagine just how bad it has to be for me to actually complain about the levels of amatonormativity in Miraculous.

That shit is insane.

Listen, I've been shipping the Love Square ever since I first watched the show, seven years ago. I want it to happen and for my precious beans Adrien and Marinette to be happy and together, okay? But I cannot wrap my head around the fact that their secret identities getting in the way of their love lives now is the catalyst for Tikki and Plagg to free them from their duties as Ladybug and Chat Noir.

After everything these kids have been through and all the excuses for that decision that have been created along the way, that's what makes those two old-as-time creatures stop and think, "Hm, maybe this is too big a responsability for them to shoulder"????

Seriously?

Didn't the fact that they're literally children fighting an adult with no time limit for using his powers clue you in?

Or how about the fact that, ever since becoming Ladybug and, furthermore, the guardian, Marinette has had emotional crisis after emotional crisis?

Couldn't they have used the excuse of Gabriel seemingly spending more time with his son while being more flexible with his responsibilities to have Plagg (mistakenly) assume Adrien's happiness is no longer so dependent on being Chat Noir and therefore relinquish him from the responsibility?

No, of course not.

They just had to use the romance excuse—never mind that was never an option when the mascarade was killing Lukanette or Adrigami (though I'd argue the latter actually had more commitment issues on Adrien's side)—because everything in this show revolves around the Love Square. Everything else can be ignored as long as we get some ship tease.

Seriously, at literally any other point in the story, I could have got behind this. But now that Monarch is more powerful than ever, the stakes are naturally higher as well and hence Paris needs the help of its two more seasoned and trustworthy superheroes to truly save the day?

I'm sorry, but they could have gone a million other ways about this.

Ok, but the fact that Marinette chose to go in her PJ's because she's slowly coming to terms that whatever happens, happens and that if Adrien really loves her, he won't mind her being in her pyjamas, and then she is proven right, because of course she is (!), when she shows up at his house and not only is he totally okay with it but he actually levels the playing field by changing into his own pyjamas... I love these two so much, I can't!!!

I say this as a Love Square shipper so don't @ me, but with the way it's being portrayed, I can't help but think than, rather to try and run away from her feelings, Marinette crushing on Chat just as he as Adrien begins to have feelings for her and move on from Ladybug (i.e. her) reads more as her being lithosexual to me. Which, for those of you who don't know, is a side of the ace spectrum that describes when someone only feels attracted to somebody else when their feelings aren't reciprocated. 😂😂😂

Gotta love when people said that, realistically, a reverse love square wouldn't necessarily mean Marinette would be the flirty one and Adrien the bashful, clumsy one because it went against their characters when it turns out... That's exactly what's happened.

Literally OBSESSED with this end card and how while Marinette is making sparkly, goo-goo eyes at an inspiring, noble, and reliable version of Chat Noir, Adrien is making them at Marinette at her most unhinged 😂😂😂

Soulmates

Something I love about Miraculous Ladybug as a fandom is how the writers tried to present Kagami to us like, "Here's Marinette's new love rival and Adrien's alternative love interest", and we, as intellectuals, went like, "Thanks for the character, but she's a lesbian and Adrien's love rival for Marinette's love."

Galaxy brain energy going on here.

Make your bets everyone!!

What do y'all think will happen in season 5? Will they reveal their identities in the premier only for a heartbroken Marinette to tell Adrien they can't be together until Hawk Moth's defeated after finally sharing what happened in Chat Blanc? Or will they have us waiting until the second-half of the season finale?

You know something that I'd like to have addressed in season 5?

The true imbalance between the love square.

Most of season 4 was dedicated to the power imbalance between Ladybug and Chat Noir, and while it's true it was about time these kids learned about communication, it's also true that said imbalance has been justified in and out of universe for 3/4 of the series. Firstly because Ladybug is the only one who can purify the akumas, and then with her being all but promoted to guardian of the miraculouses. So yeah, flawed but justified.

You know what has NEVER been addressed in the show?

The emotional imbalance between the two.

For a show that dedicates so much time to the ship tease between its two main characters, it often fails to address very important factors. Mostly because the writers want to expand the shock factor as much as possible.

And this is something that's affected the way they treat the Ladynoir side Vs the Adrienette side.

While Chat got to confess the extent of his feelings for Ladybug fairly early in the show, Marinette has yet to do the same with Adrien. There's supposed to be progress between the two, but the show never lets her take that final step. And it's not like they can say it could endanger Paris, because while clearly saddened for having to hurt a dear friend, Adrien would turn her down for his Lady.

But since that hasn't happened, Adrien gets to have Ladybug reach out to him and try to comfort and listen to him when his "unrequited" love makes their relationship go through a rough patch, or being extra affectionate with him, all to make him feel better.

Now, I'm not saying Chat forces Ladybug to do any of this, because she showed in Félix that she's perfectly aware of what boundaries are and would not hesitate to tell Chat off if he got really pushy about it. For future reference, see Prime Queen and Glaciator 2. Meaning Ladybug is comfortable doing this.

But considering the most Marinette gets from Adrien are unconscious displays of affection that don't go beyond hand-holding or hugging and that the only cheek kiss this side of the love square has had was initiated by Marinette, or how the only time Adrien has actually comforted her about her own unrequited feelings was as Chat and he still doesn't know the person she's hurting over is him, something's just not right.

Unlike Marinette, Adrien's never made to feel guilty over hurting her like she's forced to do. The closest thing would be Puppeteer 2 when he felt horrible for his prank, but that's it. Because, once again, Marinette wasn't allowed to tell him that, yes, it was cruel because she does have feelings for him.

And that makes me think, seeing as the writers have chosen to use him as the one (1) capable character in the show, couldn't they have Félix opening his eyes?

Think about it, Félix knows Marinette has feelings for Adrien, and judging from his actions and reaction to her confession, it wouldn't be far-fetched to think he'd try to play with her for his own amusement.

Imagine, he's trying to use the twin-cousin thing to mess with her by flirting with the intention of coldly rejecting or mocking her as soon as she gets her hopes up. Only he never gets the chance because Marinette soon goes from shocked but elated, to dejected. Because she knows Adrien would never see her as more than just a friend —this could be linked to an early scene where Adrien calls her just that again, or from an earlier episode with similar results.

And then Adrien comes in, sees Félix around a sad-looking Marinette and loses it. Because if there's something about Adrienette the writers have managed to make heartwarming, that is that messing with Maribug is a surefire way to piss Adrien off. But when he goes to tell Félix off, he (half) righteously points out it wasn't him this time who's hurt Marinette—it was Adrien and his usual obliviousnes.

And that way Adrien would be finally forced to think about his interactions with Marinette and how he's been unintentionally hurting her.

I didn't really mean this as salt, but I'll tag it as such just in case.

Today one of my teachers said the Miraculous theme song is practically the same as Nek's Laura no está (he is right, though; go listen to it), and I was laughing my fucking ass off while praying nobody connected the dots and figured out why I was laughing my fucking ass off. 😂😂😂