Experience Tumblr Like Never Before
I just finished watching Pretension, and it was phenomenal. While the episode soothed many of my worries, it also left me with so many questions. Yet there were things that were undeniable.
There was only one thing that the episode outlined crystal clear... CHOICE or the lack of it.
Gabriel promises Tomoe that he will regain control of Adrien... which is why it hurts when Adrien is unable to stand by Marinette's side as it's the first time he realizes that something is wrong. It's not that he is scared of betraying his father... it's that his body won't listen to him.
The fact that Gabriel literally offered Marinette the equivalent of an 'envelope of cash in exchange for leaving my son'.
Felix's words about sentibeings really broke me...but they held power, they truly reflected the oppression faced by him, Kagami, and Adrien... if you brink life into the world, you owe them a certain responsibility.
What truly horrified me were the ironies of the whole thing...
The way Gabriel gives Tomoe the ability to grant herself the power of choice only to take the very same away from her daughter...The way both Tomoe and Gabriel were shown to have a choice while Kagami and Adrien and even Felix weren't... as if they were less than living beings.
And finally, the way Gabriel said that he dictates what people buy.
The one thing I LOVED was Marinette standing up to our local uncooked prawn (gabe)
My other mlb rants:
Passion l Emotion l Perfection l Illusion l Transmission pt1 l Transmission pt2 l Protection
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.)