The Issue With Ladynoir's Dynamic

The issue with Ladynoir's Dynamic

While Ladynoir's og dynamic was okay for a formulaic show (which was what miraculous was going for originally), it definitely started to show its shortcomings in later seasons. They did try to adress it, but never really committed to it fully. Like many other ideas/plot points.

Like, S3 and S4 were supposed to say something about Chat Noir's being delegated to a sidekick and Ladybug not trusting him. But they didn't really do it well, sometimes LB just looks super bossy and CN kind of dumb and impulsive. You know when this dynamic should've changed ? The kwami swap episode. It's basically a body/role swap, which is a very popular trope in media, but they executed it so badly and no real lesson was learned. Felt like they just did it for shit and giggles without any real intention behind.

I'm not a fanfic writer, but I enjoy redesigning/rewriting some of the characters, so I'll definitely keep this in mind ! Ladynoir dynamic is different from s1 to s6 but I just feel like we didn't really get to see actually impactful moments of it changing.

Your analyses are very helpful since I don't have time to re-watch the show for the moment, it gives me a way to look back on the old eps and take away helpful info from them, but also connect current events to the later ones :)

Miraculous Rewatch Where I Overanalyze Everything: Mr. Pigeon

I like that we can see as early as this that Hawkmoth has different strategies for akumatizing people. In The Bubbler, Gabe deliberately takes the opportunity to piss Nino off so he can akumatize him. In Mr. Pigeon though, he is literally just waiting around in his lair to catch a whiff of bad feeling. Someone was going to get akumatized today, where that may not have been the case in The Bubbler. I definitely think any Butterfly user who isn't rich and famously reclusive is gonna have to rely a LOT more on strategy A than strategy B (I have not seen season 6, so IDK if Lila does this or not).

Continued under the cut:

Uuuuuugggghhh, Roger, why are you always the poster child for terrible cop behavior? This is like the first episode you appear in and I already hate you for being so mean to Mr. Ramier. No, he's not supposed to feed the pigeons here, but do you have to be such a *dick* about it?

And here we see the first in a long line of Akumas who drastically switch body types for no real reason. Tell me, do we think Mr. Pigeon is jacked because it's Mr. Ramier's fantasy, or do we think it's Gabriel's fantasy? Considering the general trend in akumas. . . I'll let ya'll make of that what you will.

Remember in the Bubbler when I said that Sabrina is just as much of a willing accomplice to Chloe as Nathalie is to Gabe? Case in point here. Look how proud of herself she looks to be pulling one over on Marinette! She's genuinely enjoying being sneaky and unethical here, and she says to Chloe "We're so awesome," when she's done the deed. I think she really does enjoy the superior feeling that comes with screwing someone over like this. She likes to feel like the smartest person in the room. I also wonder if she doesn't enjoy the sneaking around and breaking the rules aspect because her dad is a cop and she feels stifled by his adherence to following the rules.

Adrien is a sneaky kitty! This is an aspect that I think is actually fairly common with him that is criminally underutilized in fanfic! He does this stealth hello literally all the time! He's good at sneaking around! Let him use that skill!

I have no valuable analysis to add, you just all need to see Adrien being an absolute *dork* and dancing to himself while he's on guard. He literally tells Ladybug "I AM acting natural!" He's such a loser, I love him so much.

Once again, we can see that LB and CN have already settled into their dynamic of "Cat brawn, bug brain," which, while functional, isn't ideal. I don't think this is something they ever conciously worked on, and I definitely don't recall it smoothing over naturally in the show, but we'll see if I'm misremembering. If not, I would love to see this come up in fanfic where they have to work at filling each other's niche to have better synergy in scenarios like this.

Okay, props to this episode, those pigeons are TERRIFYING, I would have peed my pants.

Huh, I didn't realize LB was an in-universe nickname for Ladybug with anybody, but here we see Chat using it (and being adorably charming while he does so). Gonna have to see if that's a one-off fluke or if it comes up again.

Okay, I actually love that Marinette just misses the shot because of the wind. For as competent as she is, Marinette isn't actually a trained superhero, and it shows here! She's not perfectly physically capable in every way. It also goes back to that bug-brain, cat-brawn thing I was talking about. Adrien's a trained fencer and isn't extremely clumsy in his day-to-day life, and so is more physically capable and confident than Marinette, even with the Miraculous enhancing her abilities.

I actually need Juleka's steampunk derby hat in my closet yesterday. Marinette is very talented, and her embroidery especially definitely won her the competition, but *damn* if Juleka isn't insanely talented too.

And here we reach a point of fascination to me. It did not click for me that Adrien and Chloe were supposedly childhood friends the first time I watched season one until I got to origins and it was explicitly stated. Instances like these are a big part of why! Chloe isn't treating Gabe like someone she already knows. She feels the need to formally introduce herself *and* her father in this situation, but I seem to remember her being really informal with him in later episodes. To me, this just says the retcons go back further than we thought. Even as early as this there were major inconsistencies in the writing. If someone has a Watsonian theory as to why this is though, I would love to hear it!

Also, shoutout to @linartblogs who pointed out on my LAST analysis post that the foundation for Marinette's season 6 character flaws are laid as early as The Bubbler! Even way back then, it's clear she considers all adults as inherently loving towards her children and is already lying to Adrien about his father being a good person to spare his feelings. That doesn't come out of left field AT ALL for her.

I'll talk about it again when Audrey shows up, but Marinette absolutely has a bias towards believing that parents always want the best for their kids and that they should be listened to, which comes from HER great parents being her primary frame of reference. It