Headcanons

I drew some angsty Adrien Agreste and couldn't decide which version I prefered, so I'll just post both.

I wrote another fic, Marichat this time, about headaches or something

@carpisuns Heard you wanted Ladrien sugar so here you go

I love Ladrien because, though it's often called boring (and I used to think it was too), it has the potential for some of the most complex conflicts in the love square.

First of all, it seems like the side of the love square most likely to happen, but it's actually the least sustainable. Ladybug and Adrien are each in their least free states with Ladrien: Adrien is micromanaged by his father, Ladybug has duty she has to focus on. (Not to mention they're both hunted by the paparazzi.) That's not to say they can't be real or truly in love; but a Ladrien relationship is the hardest to maintain, even though it's the easiest to begin.

It's been mentioned that Ladrien tension can be drawn out, since Mari doesn't know Adrien likes Ladybug, and Adrien doesn't know Ladybug likes him. They don't necessarily have to get together immediately. And yeah, that has a lot of potential. But also, Ladrien has potential if they do get together immediately. Established relationships can still have complex, interesting, or even conflicting and tense dynamics. Most fiction only shows the buildup to a relationship, but in the real world, most relationships are . . . you know. Relationships. Not endless will-they-won't-they nonsense. Even if Ladrien got together immediately, that doesn't make their relarionship boring. In reality, it could make their relationship interesting in a very unique way; interesting, because it actually shows what real relationships are like, instead of just the buildup.

Also, Ladrien has insane angst potential. First of all, both of them could easily think the other just has a celebrity crush, since Ladybug doesn't know Adrien knows her as Chat, and Adrien doesn't know she knows him as Marinette. It would hurt so much to think the person you love only likes you on the shallow surface level. They could also pull out a "well I have concrete evidence that you don't love me when you see my flirty/awkward/reckless/clumsy side. No, I can't tell you what that evidence is, but I promise it's definitely real and very conclusive," which could be very painful for either party.

Finally, even ignoring this complexity, Ladrien is a good ship because it's good. The shameless love is heartwarming; it's sweet, it's cute, it can range anywhere from awkward and blushy "strangers" to best-friends/old-married-couple vibes. (And let me tell you, anything on that spectrum is perfect.) Their selfless support of each other through Ladybug's duty and stress as the protector of Paris and Adrien's exhaustion and pain from being Gabriel's son is so calming and comforting. When I'm feeling down, I read or write Ladrien. It's just that good.

TL;DR: Ladrien isn't boring. It has so much potential for complexity, conflict, and depth. And even if it didn't (which it totally does) . . . so what? It's such a soft, cute, comforting, feel-good ship. I absolutely love it. And this is why.

No idea who my favorite Infinity Train character is, but Grace is definitely the coolest.

Huh.

Huh.

I can't decide whether or not Optygami lived up to my hopes.

On the one hand, we definitely saw the negative consequences of the Miracle Queen reveal. Optygami was the closest Ladybug has come to being found out, and it was a tense and frustrating episode. There were definitely at least moderately disastrous consequences.

But on the other hand, none of those disastrous consequences were permanent. Ladybug and Chat Noir were not outed, no one lost a miraculous, no one was hurt or injured. Causing lasting harm to plot or character is difficult with a show as episodic as ML, but we have seen lasting damage done in one specific area: relationships. Friendships, and romantic ships, have been injured in this show before--when you get down to it, those are our stakes. And no relationships were damaged irreparably in Optygami.

So the writers probably upped the sense of stakes with this episode. But they also gave Alya her miraculous, permanently. I'm overjoyed at this in terms of Alya and Mari's friendship, as well as both of their character arcs, but it seems like a . . . questionable decision narratively.

I don't know. We'll see. In conclusion, my thoughts on Optygami are as ambiguous as the episode was. It definitely showed some negative consequences of reveals, but showed a lot more positives and took the Alyanette reveal arc even further into risky territory.

Hopes for Optygami

Miraculous Ladybug set up a good stakes system in the first three seasons with this simple rule: identities must not be revealed. If they are, there will be dire consequences. Hence, while we don't really believe that our main characters are ever at risk of dying, we can accept that they might someday lose their masks, and that that would be bad. It's a risk that adds real weight to the action and plot. It also justifies the endless identity dance between Marinette and Adrien. But then Miracle Queen happened, and all the heroes except for our main two were outed. We saw no consequences in that episode. We saw no consequences in the NY special, and we've seen no consequences in season four yet, either. This makes the entire narrative feel far less convincing and lowers the tension immensely. Not to mention that it almost completely invalidates how Adrien and Marinette continue to hide their identities from each other. (It doesn't invalidate their secrets completely because we're not going to forget Chat Blanc any time soon, but it still lowers the stakes considerably.) Not only are almost all the superheroes out, but Alya still sometimes runs around as Rena Rouge, despite her identity being publicized. And she knows Ladybug's identity, which we've been told is dangerous, but we haven't seen anything that convinces us it's dangerous. The thing is, we have seen negative consequences of identity reveals. Chloe being akumatized is one instance, and another is Chat Blanc. But the show has done nothing with the biggest large-scale identity reveal so far (the one at the end of season three), which makes the "we must keep our identites a secret" spiel very hard to swallow, and makes the entire plot feel almost risk-free. I hope that Optygami shows us the negative consequences of this large-scale identity reveal, and returns strength to the narrative by doing so. TL;DR: With a few rare exceptions, we haven't seen much to back up the story's constant claim that identity reveals are dangerous. I hope that Optygami will finally show us some of the disastrous consequences of identity reveals, thus adding more weight and stakes to the narrative and justifying Marinette and Adrien's continued secrecy.

Concept: Jasnah Kholin with pants

upon morning reflection I've decided the ice looks decent and the helmet looks kinda sick but I failed to convey the cosmic horror of the watchful eye of jove. but I think that's because no earthly medium can capture jove's pitiless face, and certainly not the crude colors of a veteran like me

we honor our fallen comrades beneath jove's unblinking eye

I meant to draw this back in November when I first read the asexual Jasnah chapter, but uh . . . better late than never, right?

Reading the chapter that revealed Jasnah was ace was one of the happiest moments of my life. No joke, I went to bed that night grinning so hard it hurt the next morning. If there was any doubt about it before, Brandon Sanderson is definitely my favorite author now. Ace Jasnah is awesome.

I understand people being a little disappointed she's not homoromantic or 100% lesbian, but just remember that's she's not heteroromantic either--since the only romances she's ever been in (in any iteration of the Stormlight archive) have been with Taln (WoKP) and Hoid (RoW), she's clearly actually infiniromantic--romantically attracted to people who are at least a few millennia old and way too knowledgeable for anyone's good.

(Also, yes, I will be using ace Jasnah as an excuse to draw her exclusively using purple palettes. I mean, I would've anyway because something about her is just purple, but now I have an excuse.)

When Adrien gets out from under Gabriel's thumb, I imagine he's going to wear a bunch of disgustingly unstylish clothes. I don't mean he'll start wearing styles that Gabriel objects to; I mean he'll start wearing styles that everyone objects to.

If you think this looks bad . . . thank you, that's the point