I haven't been catching up since Chat Blanc honestly. After Chat Blanc, the show just became repetitive and stale. Though it had been stale well before Chat Blanc. Believe me when I say that I will leave ML on as background white noise. That's how I saw it after everything, even now.
I'm not even that invested in the show anymore.
The writing is just so terrible. It's repetitive and inconsistent and for a supposed slow burn, it doesn't feel like a slow burn. Normally, repetitiveness would work only if there's an end goal in mind and a clear arc. This is why I don't mind Shounen Jump's long-ass arcs because there is an end goal in an arc.
Well, there is an end goal: Gabriel/Hawkmoth's goal to revive his wife and Adrienette's love story. The myth arc is there.
However, the writing feels like a soap, and soaps followed a similar formula with shounen. At least soaps have a purpose! ML’s writing feels like a soap that’s horribly written and aimless while still having an end goal. It feels aimless when we got little to no development from all the characters.
However, its major inconsistencies with the writing and its treatment of characters, every damn character are negligible. The wasting potential of every single character in favor of having so-called feminism at the front view with only Marinette/Ladybug as the center instead of giving the other characters and especially the deuteragonist equal time to shine and provide just as much importance.
This is not the slow-burn kind of writing I'm used to with One Piece where the character development is subtle in comparison to the over-the-top worldbuilding adventure. This is not the slow-burn kind of writing romance because it's gone on for far too long because the plot has not been moving until apparently S4. The plot has not been moving at all because there are no clear arcs! There is no clear anything because apparently according to Astruc, it's best out of order because it's a fucking kid's show!
Have they ever been exposed to manga and anime even kids' shows over there have a clear arc. Even gag manga/anime have arcs! I don't see any clear arcs beyond the myth arc in ML.
I have been exposed to wasted potential before in the likes of VLD for example. ML has already been thrown into the pile with VLD and other wasted potentials. I believe as long as Astruc is there, the show is not going to get better as I've been pretty exposed to VLD's showrunners as well as Butch Hartman. ML and Astruc already washed over me like a splash of water. Genshin Impact is teetering down this road due to its current staff of writers and censorship through the waifu and flavor text problems that had been there from the start.
With Astruc at the helm and his stubbornness about everything regarding LB and especially how it's written using SJW guilt trips as if he's the one about feminism and POC when the show is anything but that, especially when the show is so very performative.
What Astruc wants is a basic show with the smartest and most beautiful gal he wanted to have with an ex whom everyone praises the shit out of - she is still the most fleshed out with the most tribulations such as people not believing her, mistakes catching up to her, pressure, etc whereas Adrien slowly became a doll because he can’t snoop to ruin his perfection. I think people are confusing certain self-inserts with dreams and what is Astruc’s true writing as Zoe is unable to develop beyond a doll. At least he knows to make drama to hurt Marinette but never on his dolls beyond the surface. And surface I meant thinking the real problems are love rather than feeling of inadequacy or feeling replaced. People are saying Adrien is the self-insert because he wasn’t treated that harshly by the plot of certain episodes but considering later on he can’t even fight an Akuma without others’ help and his lack of knowledge from everyone he loves, I think it’s a low bar for an overall terribly written show. - with a blonde love interest that acts as a satellite who he is willing to put down because Astruc is gender obsessive instead of an actual feminist. The bully girl is irredeemable when she's just a young girl. The mentor is not even there half the time to even teach something or at all really. The BIPOC characters are in the background with little to no development but in their hero forms, their skins lightened. Performative progressive BIPOC characters and feminism.
What myth arc he had is background noise in comparison to the love square. Everything is background noise to the love story. If you can even call it that when we know the love square is endgame anyway.
And at this point, all I want is for the love square to stop because I don't give a single fuck about it anymore. At this point, I don't even care about the endgame anymore, not when the plot is not even moving forward. It doesn't even feel planned at all when the writing just degenerating impressively.
When Chloe is getting the wrong end of the stick due to Astruc's hatred while Adrien gets degraded into a comic relief sidekick satellite love interest instead of an equal and not even getting the character development at all just as Marinette is not getting the character development she needed to actually have a relationship with Adrien aka moving past her stalker tendencies and getting past the image of Adrien while the other characters are getting powers due to Dues ex Machina plot, the plot is just flimsy and it's like watching Danny Phantom all over again with Butch Hartman at the helm.
Watching ML is like watching a trainwreck and not even a trainwreck that I can look away from either. In fact, the investment that I could get from ML is long gone and I'm only here for the interesting minimal parts because the potential won't be fulfilled in any way when we got Astruc.
I have no investment as long as Astruc remains in town with ML.
I’m mainly reading ML fanfics over the show. At least, the fics have better writing and more passion than the Astruc show. The fics are better than the show.
And I have no problem telling that to Astruc to his face. He can’t block me if I tell him constructive criticism on his face. And he can't block me here.
Kids' shows are better than this. ML is just an okay show if I’m being generous when the word I prefer is mediocre. I would only let my kid watch this only with stipulations and as background white noise.
What Astruc is doing is putting his show on the level of Danny Phantom. A well-loved show turned shitshow because of the OG creator instead of the writers who want nuanced writing. Steve Marmel is Danny Phantom’s true mastermind, not Butch Hartman.
Listen, the original team behind Genshin Impact left en masse so we got new writers for Inazuma and it's anything but great. I heard something similar with VLD only with overbearing showrunners somewhere around S3 while Genshin's problem for Inazuma at least was a mix of already present problems of waifu writing for the women who got dating sim writing with all the falling over for Traveler and flavor text problems for lore (Signora, holy shit, her lore was a nightmare only in artifact descriptions which are horrifying in terms of writing especially writing for a female morally gray/villainous female character who got such a unique design) on top of censorship issues so...
He’s not Alex Hirsch or Patrick McHale or Stephen Hillenburg or Lauren Faust. He’s the French Butch Hartman. I haven’t heard much about Butch since the Oaxis disaster but even then I have seen his YT channel going around.
Honestly, Astruc is just like Butch. What these guys should do is act as the creative mastermind but not the one to tell the story. Look at George Lucas but even George Lucas is a storyteller so he got points about knowing the basic structure of a plot and storytelling (like you get what the prequels were aiming for despite its many problems and there are plot and characterization as well as the worldbuilding that till this day the prequels-related media like Clone Wars took full advantage of because the worldbuilding is amazing and could lead to many spectacular stories) despite his stilted dialogue and over-reliance on CGI. However, George Lucas know how to step back and let others do the job so he got even more points over Butch Hartman and Thomas Astruc any day. Just look at how he oversees Filoni.
While Astruc was the main problem behind every writing decision when he came into the scene (personally, seeing Chloe's character development was so great until Astruc returned where he made it clear that she won't ever receive a Miraculous ever again), I haven't heard about writers backlash as unlike I heard from other productions.
The defense of 'it's a kids' show! It's not meant to be anything deep!' is stupid when the standards for television are different now. You can still have your episodic episodes while still having deep themes. You can still have a great story and still have themes while being an episodic show.
ML has more fillers than I have ever seen in a Western show. Anime studios have been cutting back on filler arcs, now only making anime-only scenes adapted from manga/light novel shows. There are filler episodes but even then, that's limited to breather episodes like beach/hot spring/vacation episodes away from the stress.
ML just has so much filler and doesn't impact the overall story at all. If we are going to have a slice-of-life with ML, it's not doing so well, not when the other characters are poorly developed or even developed at all.
At least, Danny Phantom knew when to end even if it came at the cost of everything before the final season. Like, you know, Danni and Dan, Marmel got ideas, man! Even with that lost potential, at least Butch knew how to end the series on a stupid high note. That finale is still one of the worst I have ever seen come out of a Western animated series and a series out of its entirety! A high note but a stupid one.
Miraculous would have seasons after this as well as specials. I'm not looking forward to it, not when the specials are fillers in ways that aren't meaningful. The story is not a slow burn. I have dealt with slow-burn stories before but this is getting way too long and nothing is going forward, literally, nothing is moving forward beyond plot devices to the point characters are just chess pieces instead of actual people moving from point A to point b. At this point, I'm not expecting much from Epheremal.
When even KHR is better than ML, then I question the writing because at least the shounen aspect of the whole gag manga was there. The craziness of the gag manga part has always been the Vongola insanity. Although there were mixed opinions about the change from gag manga to shounen battle manga, the Vongola insanity has always been one of the consistent factors.
ML isn't consistent, a problem that permeates the show since apparently according to Astruc, it's meant to be out of order as a kids' show from what I heard at least. That's...that's awful! If you are gonna have this overarching plot about the Agreste family mess, then it should be consistent.
Even now, ATLA has a bit of a problem of younger kids not quite getting the story but at least they aren't treating kids like they are idiots. Astruc is treating kids like idiots.
Steven Universe has a problem with having storyboards first with a bit of lore splashing and not constructing a story beforehand. It has its own consistent issues but at least they don't treat kids like idiots. Except when it comes to the deeper and darker implications where the fascist regime overheads were forgiven just for having feelings for a loved one. And they don't have to work to make amends or anything at all or make the punishment for themselves.
But at least, SU was aware of its darker implications, given what Rebecca Sugar has stated.
ML, not so much unless it benefits them to actually take advantage of it. The whole Chat Blanc and Epheremal thing aren't consistent outside of possibilities of what Adrien could lead to when he snapped.
Except ML doesn't treat Adrien or any character with any respect. Adrien has been degraded to a love interest and his connection to the plot is only used as a plot device instead of a true and honest deuteragonist. Because he doesn't have screen time by himself, by himself, not with Plagg, just himself with his hobbies, not have everything decided by him. Just have him contemplating by himself or watching stuff he likes unheeded by the stuffy environment.
Nope, he's a doll and at this point, given how little he has in terms of development, I reckon the Sentimonster theory is honestly better because I just want something anything out of him to make him his own character instead of this plot device even though the Sentimonster theory would make him even more of a plot device. The Shanghai special made it pretty clear he's a plot device when that special was y'know supposed to be special.
Speaking of which, because Adrien is a doll completely negates any possible sneaking around or talking with Marinette as the other deuteragonist, Felix is there just so Adrien can't develop further because Felix got the story that Adrien should've gotten. The ironic thing about this is that Astruc treating Adrien is how Gabriel treats Adrien throughout the story. Adrien is a doll, a prize to be won, his emotional abuse is seen as not abuse by Astruc which is rotten because I saw Dabi's suffering of emotional abuse from his dad negated by so many people who hate him in and out-of-universe similarly and I hate that.
The same goes for Chloe and Zoe because, like Adrien, Zoe is treated like a doll and can't develop further, taking all of Chloe's nuances and character development into one character but without anything; Zoe is just a nice doll. Her sapphism means nothing to me and I'm demi bi but how can I when Zoe's sapphism is used to push the straight white-passing couple? Yeah, fuck no.
Yeah, this is Thomas Astruc's writing clear as day and it made clear that if Felix was going to take Adrien's story anyway and Adrien have to be a good boy taking all the abuse and lies from everyone close in his life out of the loop, then Astruc shouldn't have made Adrien in the first place if he's going to remain a doll. Because of his hatred for Chloe due to his childhood bullying that he can't seem to be the bigger man with - though considering how the fantasies with Marinette and Sabine saying stuff about his ex which is creepy -, Zoe is just bland and nothing about her will be more developed or given much depth because the sapphism sure as hell ain't gonna be looked at more in-depth.
When MariChat is the healthiest of the entire love square, I just want to know more about Adrien than what we know now. This is not a lot, not when the focus on Adrien is negligible given how important he is to the overall plot with Gabriel.
I'm not asking Adrien to be the leader, since when I ever mention that when all I want is to have focus.
At this point, it's getting too repetitive and the real plot points are plot devices. Adrien became a plot device in that Shanghai special and didn't receive any good attention outside of being a Marinette stalker and one Cataclysm. Adrien is now a plot device with little development outside of what we just know.
He won't be utilized because Astruc is gender obsessive and won't give any good development to anyone including his main girl Marinette because she's perfect the way she is and whatever flaws and hypocrisies she has is nothing. Marinette is not perfect but for Astruc, she is the daughter he would never have with an ex. Personally, thinking of a kid with an ex is just a bad way of coping. How about just treating Marinette as her own character instead of your daughter who does no wrong. Or she did wrong and realized it, making her a hypocrite instead when she doesn't tell Chat Noir.
I would like to have similar notions for Alya, Nino, Chloe, and everyone in the fucking cast but when that development is just so tiny. Unlike the subtle development of the Strawhats and the cast of One Piece in general, this one is not taking the subtle or any route of development. It's just one wonky line zigzagging and not the slow kind that real people take, I mean the inconsistent wacky line that goes everywhere with no hint of self-awareness. Chloe is the worst offender and it's not by choice either since Astruc is all about his hate for her.
But if he's aware that his hate is not good, given that stupid self-insert episode, then he should be aware of just how badly everything is going and that the story just started getting picked up now in S4. This is not slow-build when there are no clear arcs with a central theme around it. There is a difference between this and Princess Tutu and that Princess Tutu has a fucking plot and consistency on top of themes.
Y’know, I have seen arguments that the Chloe thing was a betrayal arc that people don’t or simply can’t change though I have seen a better argument that Chloe doesn’t know how to change. The thing is that Astruc refused to acknowledge emotional abuse with both Chloe and Adrien so why do they even want to think that path, knowing Chloe is by the end of the day a child suffering from emotional abuse and victim-blamed while still acknowledging her actions? Seriously, the refusal to acknowledge emotional abuse and the overall bad writing should make it clear that the Chloe thing was what writers wanted versus the showrunner. And Astruc has demonstrated time and time again just how bad of a writer he is with his perfect dolls that can’t develop and the lack of themes and structure while still keeping it episodic. Why even defend him as a writer when there is a phrase where nobody hates the show more than the fans? And the self-insert episode shows his ego and arrogance about his writing talent in a big way? Other long-running shows like Pokémon demonstrated themes and structure while keeping it episodic is better than this.
There's a difference between One Piece's repetitiveness of saving the country from bad guys/dictatorship when that's the overarching theme of freedom and ML's themes if ML took advantage of its themes at all.
Prior to the Astruc takeover, I thought the common theme would be love and all its ups and downs including its toxicity. Instead of what themes it has, it just turned into a plot device or degraded into nothingness. I don't think I would see Adrien as his own character under Astruc's penmanship, not when at this point he's just a trophy for Marinette and a constantly insulted Chat Noir who was unable to do anything right even as Misterbug. Chloe won't ever have her character development ever again under Astruc's watchful eye.
Hey, he won't be getting any kind of development of what we already know anyway. It's not like Epheremal would do anything to help this sheltered abused kid who needs a support system. I don't think as much as Gorilla isn't involved in the mess, he could talk it out to them.
Why am I ranting? I'm ranting at this point because it's not like I can change Astruc's mind about the plot and character progression or even good regression though not on the plot end since the plot is being dragged into oblivion and unlike One Piece, ML doesn't merit its longer seasons, not when there are no clear arcs.
Astruc is dead-set on his 'plans' for ML.
For anyone even wanting to reason with him, it's not gonna happen because Astruc wants no critiques. Does he throw fits from official criticisms thrown at him by pros? Because he throws fits whenever someone even questions his writing online.
If I was an official critic in France and thrashing the story right now, I will be professional about it but express my disappointment that the plot this long to even happen when it had been stagnant for far too long.
Y'know what, Astruc is gone and we already have better writing from fans anyhow so begone Astruc.
When I got Tiger and Bunny Season 2 to look forward to on top of the new season of Vanitas no Carte as well as the adaptation of Spy X Family on top of One Piece and maybe MHA (even though I'm restarting that one while I'm just waiting for the raid to end in Wano at most; unlike OP where I know where I left off, I forgot where I left off in MHA and thought it best to just binge), ML is not gonna get picked up by me for a long time.
Mostly, it's just one episode then and there, not when the plot is just this slow-moving and not even having the tension needed for the myth arc. At this point, I'm waiting for the series to end so I could binge it.
Here is my advice for anyone wanting to watch ML: It's not the best written or even has the fill for potential. It's not a good kind of slow-burn or even has a consistent anything. You really have to search for how to watch the series in order to make sense of it all. It's not bad, just mediocre and on the level of Danny Phantom in my opinion.
Seriously, you would find more consistency and good slow burn elsewhere.
