People cheering their Senti theory is confirmed. What do you have in mind about it?
Haha I knew someone would eventually ask me about it since I never really share my opinion on it
I really hated it early in the season, especially because of how people were acting after Wishmaker. Like, a lot of people saw Adrien say he wanted to be what his parents wanted him to be/didn't have any dreams of his own, and their response was a bunch of posts being like "OMG!!!! HE DOESNT HAVE ANY DREAMS!!!! THATS NOT NORMAL!!!!! SENTIMONSTER CONFIRMED!!!!!!" (yes I saw people talking exactly like this and saying things about how its 'not normal') and it was insanely insensitive and obnoxious. Things that were very obvious signs of abuse that a lot of us abused kids related to were turned in to "oBviOuS sIGnS hE's nOt HuMaN!!!1!1!!!1!" by the fandom. Truth be told, the fandom's behavior regarding things that "confirmed" the theory was far more upsetting to me than the idea of the theory becoming canon. I also personally felt like Adrien turning on Gabriel would be more impactful if Gabriel is Adrien’s biological father. Going against your birth parent(s) is immensely difficult to do when you’ve been conditioned to be submissive to them, especially because they often use the fact that you’re “blood” to manipulate you in to being loyal. That's not to say adoptive/non-blood related relatives can't be abusive and that going against them is any less difficult, of course. It's just coming from my perspective as an Asian person, since for us, filial piety and loyalty to our families is instilled in us from birth, and often used to manipulate us in abusive situations. The theory also just felt excessive to me. By which I mean, on top of Adrien already having a dead mother and a villain for a father, adding him having to find out he's a magical being who can be thanos snapped from existence felt like his story was crossing over from angst to just straight up tragedy porn.
On the other hand though, as time has passed and I’ve given it more thought, I don't think it's as unnecessary a plot development as a lot of the people opposed to it believe it is. I've seen people say that ML doesn't need to use metaphors/symbols for abuse when they've already been depicting an abused child from the start and that adding the magical element simply waters down/detracts from the abuse story, but I'm not sure I agree with that. You know I specifically like to talk about the differences between the English script and the French script, and the trend I've pointed out repeatedly is that American networks seem a lot more strict about what they deem "appropriate" for children's shows, resulting in the English script significantly toning down/softening/censoring things that were particularly romantic or emotionally heavy in the French script. I've also talked about how Astruc had originally wanted ML to be a show for teens, but ended up making it a children's show instead for economic/marketing reasons, while still trying to make ML a show that tackles more mature/heavy themes and that can be enjoyed by all ages. Those two things are, in fact, relevant here.
There’s a lot of things kids' media, especially kids' media that is affiliated with The Disney Corporation, can’t show without being blocked by executives or forced to raise the rating etc. Magical “loopholes” like Sentis let them get away with showing things more blatantly than they usually would and allow them to delve in to "darker" themes they otherwise wouldn’t be able to tackle, like explicit abuse/trauma and death (think of how Disney villains usually have to die offscreen by falling to their doom/being engulfed in flames/turning to dust/etc.) You may be thinking, “but darker things like death and physical abuse were shown by other Y-7 rated cartoons like Avatar: The Last Airbender!”, but remember that ATLA aired on Nickelodeon, not Disney. Nickelodeon has always been a lot more lax than Disney when it comes to what is “appropriate” for kids (and even then, ATLA always had to have those things happen offscreen). Did you ever notice how ML Season 1 was significantly more risqué than the later seasons, between Chat Noir flirting with Ladybug by saying he “looks hot in a swimsuit,” Ladybug implying that she’d like to see Adrien without his clothes on, and Ladybug being pinned to the ground with Chat Noir on top of her while they kissed? Did you also know that ML Season 1 originally aired on Nickelodeon in the US, after which the rights to the show were acquired by Disney? TOTAL coincidence that these teens got significantly less thirsty after the network switch /s
They've already been using magic as a loophole to push the boundaries like this, like all the times characters have "died"/disappeared, and when they actually showed Chat Noir accidentally “kill” someone onscreen (Aeon), and when they were literally able to show one of their leads eradicating all life on earth. They could get away with all of that because they have Ladybug’s Reset Button and because they kept it vague/magical enough to be able to defend that “they didn’t die they just disappeared/short-circuited/got turned in to statues/etc.!!!!“ (they absolutely did die). They can have Émilie's corpse on display in the basement because they never outright say she's "dead" and leave it vague enough that they can convince children and/or network executives that she's in a Snow White-esque endless sleep caused by magic. Characters being Sentis opens new doors for them in terms of storytelling which lets the writers bypass the limitations of being a children’s show. They can more blatantly depict Adrien being terrified of and submissive to his father without being censored/forced to tone it down because they can defend it with “no it’s not actually too dark/heavy for a children’s show, we’re not blatantly showing a child who has been traumatized and beaten in to submission! Its just because of his father's magical control! Perfectly appropriate for a children’s show! :)”
And that reasoning makes even more sense when you consider the way pretty minor/inoffensive things already get censored in the show. Chat Noir simply saying “I thought I’d lost you” was inexplicably turned in to “that was a wild ride” in the English dub of Animan??? Because apparently even having one of the leads get emotional while admitting that they thought their partner died was too much? They have a lot of constraints to work around when writing a show which is rated for ages 5+, is affiliated with Disney, and has a runtime of ~20 minutes per episode, and I don’t think enough people take those facts in to consideration when they criticize the show. Plenty of people have already made a lot of good points about how it could be beneficial for children who are victims of abuse (check out @gentil-minou's posts on it) so I won't get in to that. I just wanted to talk about this specific aspect since I haven't seen anyone taking it in to consideration in their criticism. Also, the people who are opposed to it really need to stop acting like there is one correct way to represent child abuse and that there aren't child abuse victims who actually find comfort in/relate to SentiAdrien.
My feelings are mixed and I'm waiting to see where they go with it instead of casting judgement before they've even had a chance to tell the story, but I don't hate it and I definitely don't believe it's the unnecessary plot development that the people opposed to it say it is.
I don’t have nearly enough ML followers to add on to this thread, but this has been bugging me for a while and I really wanted to jump with a tiny addition.
Something that seems to bug people a lot with senti!Adrien theory is that they assume that symbolism =/= representation, but as an abused child myself, symbolism tends to be the best way to really represent what you’re going through. Because it’s not something explicit, because there’s no physical harm or bodily neglect, you can only think of saying something along the lines of “I don’t know why I feel so bad with my parents but I do :c” because that’s your own best comprehension of your situation and the people around you can only feel bad for you but never fully understand, so you instantly feel invalidated.
To me, making Adrien a sentimonster rather than spelling out the trauma is way more powerful because it’s a message that can be transmitted to younger children who might be going through a similar situation without traumatizing them and making resentment grow. I would have loved to see something like this when I was around 5 myself.
Another thing that I feel gives extra points to the narrative choice is that it helps explain to people who are unfamiliar with this kind of trauma what it feels like. It feels like you’re not real. Like you’re a possession and owe everything to your owners. Like you can’t dare disobey because, as Adrien said, there’s an invisible wall keeping you from speaking up, and the cost of risking that wall is your existence itself.
People who have gone through something similar, like myself, can look at the screen and scream “dat me!”, while people who haven’t, can get a clearer taste of the horror and what the stakes feel like. Because Adrien might not even suspect that he’s a sentimonster, but we do, and therefore, we understand what he feels like.
Sure, the representation could have been handled way better if there weren’t as many restraints on the show as @chatonnoir explained, but I really think that they’re doing a good job of sending an important message with the tools they’re allowed to use.
That’s it thank you have a good day I hope you find a dollar on the floor today or something thank you for reading so far bye