Not Part of the Plan: Ch 1 - A Mother’s Strength

Chapters: 1 | 2

Read on Ao3

Chapter 1: A Mother’s Strength

 Marinette watched the numbers click up on her phone one second at a time, trying to push down her anxiety. Her period was late, but there were lots of possible explanations for that. One, she was far more physically active than anyone else she knew, and that could wreak havoc on a girl’s cycle. And two, she, as a part time teenage superhero, held a lot more stress than your average person, which she knew could have similar effects.

 The timer reached two minutes and she finally let herself turn around to the flat white pregnancy test sitting on the bathroom sink.

 There were two lines.

 She stared at them, uncomprehending. The very air around her seemed to cave in on her making it hard to breathe.

 It wasn’t possible! They had been super careful. They had both known that they couldn’t have a baby. They were seventeen! They were superheroes who got thrown into buildings on a regular basis.  She had started the pill two weeks after they had become intimate. And he had used a condom every time she asked him to when she had forgotten to take a dose.

 This couldn’t be happening!

 She had only taken the test to rule it out. She hadn’t actually thought she could be pregnant. It had to be wrong!

 She ripped open the second test in the box. Surely it would say something different.

 It didn’t.

 She was pregnant.

Qilin - Another Powerful Episode

I connected to this episode on a personal level so much!

Look teens are wonderful! I love them SO MUCH. And clearly so does Sabine. Look at the way she sets everything up for Marinette in the morning! And then oh so patiently reminds her of all the things she needs to remember, KNOWING Marinette isn’t going to remember. And then when she’s right and Marinette doesn’t, there’s no anger or frustration. Only fond exasperation and the ability to cover for her. It’s beautiful!!

At another point in the episode, Marinette was talking to Tikki about wanting to be more like her mom and just not feeling like she was there yet. And then a few minutes later we saw Sabine pulling off a lucky charm worthy scheme with a paintbrush to make the world a better place! Showing us quite beautifully where Marinette gets her crafty creative mind and her sense of fairness and justice. Showing us that she’s already a lot like her mom even if she’s a little less polished. Again! SO BEAUTIFUL!!! 

As for the cops, I just, I love that this was portrayed this way! I loved Megaleech where Roger was shown doing the bidding of wealthy white men and arresting protesters who had the right to be there, but this episode took this so much further and I appreciate it SO MUCH! It may not be perfect, but like showing a negative portrayal of cops in children’s media is something that I like never see! I can’t think of another example. While pro cop propaganda is friggin everywhere. (Baby shark which is meant for like toddlers has a whole song about the “kind brave” police sharks).

Whereas here, they showed bus ticket guy check Sabine’s ticket and no one else’s. He didn’t make any effort to confirm her story with anyone else there before immediately accusing her of lying and committing fraud.

The show portrayed Sabine feeling relief when they met Roger. Here was someone that she knew and who knew her. He would vouch for her right? But cops are very buddy buddy with each other and tend to choose each other over others.

Sabine very quickly gets told she’s being disrespectful and challenging their authority. And they put her in cuffs, surround her with four guys in armor. OVER A BUS TICKET! (And guys, the number of times police get violent with people (usually people of color) during traffic stops in real life, it’s not even an exaggeration. Or rather, it’s making it look MORE civil than it often is in reality. One of the most common stated reasons for arrests is “resisting arrests”, but when you ask what they were originally going to originally arrest the individual for, the police aren’t good at providing reasonable answers.

Then, when Sabine is an akuma, all she wants is for someone to take off the cuffs!

The police? They bring in more armored officers with riot gear, they bring in helicopters, and call for tanks. This has been escalated to a full on militarized strike! Again, OVER A BUS TICKET! Miraculous literally just showed you an over militarized police force abusing its power!

Then, when Ladybug shows up and tries to de-escalate the situation, they turn on her, label her a criminal, and escalate the situation further (after she just saved their lives).

No, I love this episode. I get to watch it with my daughter in a few years and we get to talk about these very real life issues! We even get to talk about if it was right for Marinette to agree to pay the fine. Though I know that if I experienced something like that, I would agree to that as well. She literally just saw what the NOT akumatized police were willing to do to her mom OVER A BUS TICKET! It wasn’t shown but I would have been terrified in that moment, and would do anything to appease them even if it wasn’t fair. Fifty euros over my mom getting cuffed, humiliated and possibly physically beaten? Yup! I’m paying the fine, too. I don’t know if that’s what the writers were going for. I actually doubt it. I think they had to appease someone else themselves! But isn’t that also a good talking point???

And Chat Noir - a white guy - standing up to authority to protect Sabine, a women of color, from cops who would harm her?? Yes!! Love the role model this sets as well!

Overall this season, Guiltrip, Megaleech, and Qilin are my favorite filler episodes this season for the representation and values they explore. For the conversations they will allow me to start with my daughter and my soon to be son!! Amazing!