Ramble anon again!
Back with a smaller ramble about communication issues because the LadyNoir issue is actually really well put together in demonstrating that communication is less a two way street, and more a four way intersection, where the outcome isn’t determined solely by the words someone uses or doesn’t use, but also on the perception of those words or that silence by the person hearing them, with full avenues heading in each direction as various reasons why these things are being said or heard a certain way, and various side streets and alleys leading into those avenues that might not be visible from the intersection at all.
It’s been said that the greatest tragedies are those written where it’s there, on the page, that another decision would have likely had a better outcome, and any other character just might have made that other decision, but since we’re dealing with this character making the decision and within the context of this character it doesn’t make sense for them to react any other way but the one which leads to tragedy - there’s a really good post about it here somewhere that involves a comparison with Othello but for the life of me I cannot find it... but yes, this is something I think Miraculous has actually set up really well this season! It hurts, oh ow does it hurt, but it makes sense, for this to be happening, because it’s Marinette and Adrien at the center of the conflict, and the actions they’re taking are completely in character, like this couldn’t happen any other way with any other character - and we get that demonstration with the different reactions of the characters around them (namely Alya and Nino, who I think serve as a fast track parallel to the fact the resolution will be resolved but those are details I don’t have time to go into right now asdghdfggff), but because it makes sense for both of them it’s less an avoidable tragedy and more an inevitable tragedy, until they get the personal growth both of them need in order to recover from it and come back even stronger, of course.
Anyway this is a sleepy 7am ramble so I hope it makes sense.
actually i think the comparison with alya and nino is worth digging into more because while i think a lot has been said comparing marinette and alya’s handling of their respective situations, i haven’t seen anyone compare adrien’s reactions to nino’s reactions, and thinking about that really does illustrate what you’re talking about here with different roads and paths and choices! because yeah, alya eventually made the opposite choice that marinette would’ve and came clean, but part of her decision to do so was the way nino reacted to her keeping secrets in the first place.
nino, like adrien, is jumping to the worst conclusions, but unlike adrien, he’s active about it. he investigates. he tries to get the full story. he talks to his best friend. i have no idea what would’ve happened if chat noir had done any of that, but certainly a different outcome than we had! and also, crucially, nino was akumatized—something that the show established won’t happen for adrien unless gabriel finds out his identity. and while being akumatized is generally bad, it also tends to be an opportunity to work out unresolved issues and get carthasis, something that adrien and marinette don’t get while other characters do.
actually, even the very beginning of the episode shows us a crucial difference between adrien and nino: when ladybug asks carapace what’s wrong, he’s upfront with his concerns—unlike chat noir at the end of the episode. and ladybug immediately goes to talk with alya about it. so this whole thing could’ve played out differently with marinette and nino even if marinette made the same initial choices, because nino would respond differently than adrien and then marinette’s choices would adjust in response. and we can assume the same for alya and adrien i think. so yeah it really is a conflict that is a result of these two specific characters and their own hang ups and baggage.
however another big part of the reason for the conflict is just how important ladybug and chat noir are to each other. chat noir is so important to ladybug that she doesn’t even fathom that he might not feel that way except when he actually expresses doubt. and the reason chat noir reacts the way he does is because ladybug is so important to him and the idea of him not being important to her is devastating. if they didn’t care so much it wouldn’t hurt so bad
