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In a lot of rewrites I’ve looked at tend to water down the romance aspect of Miraculous by either not making Adrien and Marinette like each other, removing secret identities, or otherwise not really focusing on the love angle. And that can be a good thing, (especially if you actually fill the space with more focus on the different interpersonal relationships of the show). At the same time, I… kinda feel like it’s missing the appeal of ML in the first place? It’s an action romance show (a act-rom? Rom-act? Idk) which is actually pretty rare in the general media (usually it’s either mostly romance with a bit of action or vice versa with a shoehorned love interest), not to mention that the love square focuses on one of the core ideas of the show (relationships and they affect both your perception and trust).
So yeah, not only are we keeping the love square, but we’ve actually planned out how it progresses through the show (which I think is the main challenge with the concept: creating proper pacing). Therefore, I (finally) give you…
To start, Adrien and Marinette will behave very differently with their crushes than in the original.
- Chat Noir is a lot more hesitant about being open with his feelings initially (due to various events before and in the first season) and prefers to hide behind ironic declarations. When he eventually does confess and is rejected, he is a bit disappointed but takes it well (if anything he’s more worried about LB not wanting to be his friend anymore). It’s actually because of CN that the secret identities are a factor in MTS (the identities are never a concrete rule, but he doesn’t trust himself enough to learn who LB actually is, and LB wants to wait until he is ready before she learns who CN is).
- Marinette gets more time to know Adrien before falling in love with him (and becomes aware of how over-the-top antics from admirers make Adrien uncomfortable due to his celebrity status), therefore, she tries to be a lot more subtle with any approaches she makes. Marinette still might stammer (as she does in most stressful situations) around Adrien when getting used to her crush on him, but doesn’t really make complex plans or usually swap words around. When she confesses to Adrien and is rejected, she also handles things fairly well despite her disappointment.
As for the general timeline for the square, we have:
- S1 (first half): Adrinette meets each other and becomes casual friends. Marinette initially just thinks Adrien is okayish (not super interested in supermodels), which actually makes Adrien more determined to be her friend (as she’s one of the few people who treats him like a normal person). Ladynoir meet and DO NOT GET ALONG, both due to representing opposite concepts, and then reminding each other of certain people in their lives who they have issues with (and Tikki and Plagg egging on their rivalry). They prefer to handle things on their own.
- S1 (second half): Adrienette become even closer as they have a few silly interactions (chiefly in Befana, Stormy Weather, and Guitar Villain). Ladynoir learn to work together and start seeing the other person for who they truly are (Timetagger, Puppeteer). They develop a strong bond due to their mutually stressful situation (Copycat also happens, which increases their concern for each other and CN’s fear of hurting LB). In Glaciator, the ACTUAL love square begins (Marinette falls in love with Adrien, Chat Noir falls in love with Ladybug). We get a handful of Marichat interactions (briefly in Timetagger, Befana, Puppeteer, and especially Weredad). Ladrien makes a minor appearance in Style Queen.
- S2 (first half): Both CN and Marinette work up the courage to confess their feelings to their counterparts. CN doesn’t want to become obsessive and harm LB with his feelings, while Marinette worries about potentially losing one of the few friends she has. Various romance related occurrences happen in their class that affect how they think about their crushes (Stoneheart, Evillustrator, Dark Cupid). When they finally do admit their feelings, a mutual friendzoning occurs (whether they have no romantic interest in their other selves or simply do not know how to process having a second crush is up to interpretation) and they try to figure out how to interact with each other post rejection. (Oh yeah, and we get a bit of Marichat in Evillustrator.)
- S2 (second half): Kind of a continuation of the last plot thread for S2’s first half. Adrien and Marinette navigate their friendship after Marinette is rejected, and Ladybug and Chat Noir try to ensure that their bond remains unshakable as ever. However, extreme circumstances (especially on the hero side) keeps them from fully processing their feelings.
- S3: Pretty light on love square content. Lots of interactions between sides (Even some Marichat with Gamer and some Ladrien with Gorizilla), but they’re trying to move on from each other. Adrien and Kagami (who was introduced in S2) fall in love, as do Marinette and Luka (also introduced in S2). We get the occasional hint that there is still some lingering feelings between the protagonists, but not much aside from that.
- S4: Lukanette and Adrigami play out over the course of S4 (and eventually break up near the end of the season). While there are other reasons why the couples don’t end up working together, the fact that Marinette never 100% moved on from Adrien, and vice versa with the hero identities, may be a factor in why they weren’t able to make things work with the alt ships.
- S5 (first half): Marinette and Adrien process and recover from their break ups. Eventually they discover their feelings for each other (Marinette learns that Adrien is in love with Ladybug and CN learns that LB is in love with Adrien). This leads to Ladrien dating (controversial, I know) but issues continuously crop up in their relationship.
- S5 (second half): The various issues with Ladrien are explored (mutual guilt over feeling like they’re lying to the other one by dating them after being friendzoned in another identity, trying to hide why they know so much about each other despite barely interacting as Ladrien, Ladybug worries about endangering the civilian Adrien, Adrien worries about not being able to help Ladybug as CN because she’s trying to protect him as Adrien). They manage to (indirectly) share some other problems as Marichat, but then they begin to realize that they’ve also developed crushes on each other as Marichat, which causes EVEN more problems! Things seem to be getting better when CN is finally ready to learn who LB is (after confronting a nightmare of a LB who thinks he’s a monster in Sandboy), and reveals himself as Adrien, inviting LB to do the same. Unfortunately, this shakes LB pretty badly (as she had a Sandboy nightmare of Ephemeral, a potential Adrien Akuma), and she isn’t ready for her half of the reveal yet.
- S5 (finale): When LB is able to put the pieces together on who HM is, she attempts to fight him on her own (due to knowing CN is Adrien and not wanting him to deal with that), unfortunately, this does not go well for her when (big spoiler I probably shouldn’t reveal yet), causing (even bigger spoiler I DEFINITELY shouldn’t reveal yet). When they two reunite (and Adrien finds out who LB is), they need some time to deal with everything, but finally get together completely at the end of the show.
For anyone disappointed about not getting post reveal dating, I don’t blame you (we have vagueeee plans for a sequel show where there is post reveal dating, but the plans are a lot hazier so I can’t say as much about it).
So yeah, that’s the brief rundown of the MTS love square. If you want more information about a specific side, feel free to send me an ask!
After this I’ll probably write my character notes on Felix MTS, but we’ll see.