- Joined
- Apr 20, 2023
I finally have an excuse to rant about this show, it's been driving me crazy and I have no one to discuss it with. Miraculous Ladybug is such a frustrating show because it has amazing individual moments, amazing episodes sprinkled in, interesting premise, interesting characters, but the overall writing quality is garbage. I have yet to see a good long term character arc or plotline. And the reason for that is that people who write this show prioritize "cool moments" "cool concepts" over telling a satisfying and cohesive story. Which is why they're great at individual scenes, but suck at long term story arcs. I often get the sense that the writers want to have their cake and eat it to, they just can't stick to one coheirent versions of characters or where tf the story is heading. MLB is a huge mess that feels like a dozen different stories in a trench coat all competing for screen time. That's because originally, the idea of Ladybug was conceived as something dark and gritty and then later got sanitized piece by piece to become suitable for children. But it's clear that the writers aren't over their original ideas, so they keep shoving some really dark and disturbing stuff into what is supposed to be a kid's show. Like, the whole sentimonster plot is the stuff of nightmares, I'd expect that from psychological horror, not a kid's show.
Adrien is the biggest "victim" of this style of writing. Originally Ladybug was meant to be a solo heroine and Chat Noir was meant to be at least in some way antagonistic towards Ladybug. Later even though they were supposed to work together he had his own agendas and selfish motives. By the time we got to the show Chat Noir become Ladybug's loyal partner (that sticks around even if he gets treated like garbage) and her number 1 hype man. And It's not like I dislike the idea of LB and CN being partners (I actually do like it a lot) but if that's the case then you have to write them as a duo, which MLB writers are not interested in doing, or at least not always. Because more often than not Ladybug is written like she's a solo heroine until the writers remember that "Oh crap, she's supposed to have a partner" and have her give CN 200th "you are irreplaceable to me kitty" speech but when she keeps excluding and lying to him over and over again those speeches feel hollow. Because if the writers were hang up on the idea of Chat Noir as an anti-hero that only occasionally helped out Ladybug instead of her partner a lot of things about the story would make sense, like why Paris treats LB as the only hero half the time or why Master Fu/Su Han/Guardian Ladybug doesn't trust him and exclude him or why the black cat miraculous seems sinister or why do we see Adrien get constantly akumatized/brainwashed/mind controlled or why the show keeps dropping hints of Chat Noir going rogue/becoming evil/working against Ladybug.
