Experience Tumblr Like Never Before
Alright lads (gender neutral), time to start some controversy.
Totally normal and unoriginal take: I think Marinette and Adrien are relatively equal in physical strength. (Not who would win in a fight, the show has shown multiple times that it would be LB, I’m just saying realistically, in terms of exerting one’s muscles).
I often hear arguments that Marinette would be super strong due to being Ladybug, but the same should apply to Adrien, right? Sure he gets blipped out of some fights, but there’s also plenty of fights where he’s present (still physically active) but mind-controlled by the villain of the week. Furthermore, there’s plenty of episodes where Chat Noir has to hold off the villain while Ladybug focuses on problem solving (which requires a lot less physical exertion). Therefore, if Marinette is strong because she’s Ladybug, that alone cannot justify her being stronger than Adrien due to him also being a superhero (her being stronger than her usually-civilian classmates however, I can easily get behind).
I suppose if we’re using the argument that she’s stronger due to doing things like lifting bags of flour in the bakery, then maybe, but the show only has her occasionally helping her parents in the bakery (not that it’s her fault she has other stuff to do, just saying that it doesn’t fully work as a reason for her being physically stronger), and even then it’s usually managing the counter and sometimes baking some of the goods.
There’s also technically the diet factor, as people will say that she’s stronger due to getting to eat normal foods that build muscles better, while Adrien eats smaller meals due to being a model. However, from personal experience (I have a pretty unimpressive diet and sometimes forget to eat three meals a day), my scrawny noodle arms can lift a surprisingly amount to most people, so I don’t think his diet would keep him from being able to do muscle-intensive activities. If anything, I maintain that Marinette and Adrien would have equal physical abilities, Marinette would have more muscle mass (if they didn’t insist on giving her toothpick arms to be more marketable), but Adrien’s muscles would be more pronounced/defined (skinny people’s muscles usually stick out more due to having low amounts of body fat).
On the one hand, I get the “haha little girl wearing pink is actually an absolute unit and stronger than all the boys” joke, but on the other hand, I think I find the “supermodel is actually as strong as baker” joke even funnier. (Like you mean to tell me that the class would underestimate Marinette, their over-achieving “everyday Ladybug”/class rep, more than Adrien, that one rich boy they’ve known for less than a year and constantly typecast as a helpless damsel in distress? I don’t think so.)