A Love Square Between Two People [Miraculous Ladybug]

For real though, anyone can turn out badly but I really doubt that Adrien would turn out the same kind of bad as his father. For one thing, he seems to have a reasonably healthy relationship with his emotions - sort of in the middle compared to his dad (who is on emotional lockdown or something) and Marinette (whose emotions overwhelm her, often against her better judgement, see Antibug and her treatment of Chloe). Adrien seems to know when to tamp his emotions down and when to let them out, so I'm not really seeing him turn into an ice-hearted poker-faced ... whatever Gabriel is. (His dad's name is Gabriel, right?)

...Now I'm wondering what kind of villain he would be, though.

 

My first thought when reading that line was that Adrien hasn't expressed any interest in fashion design, what makes you think he'd be willing or able to take over his father's business? If Daddy Dearest had wanted him to be a fashion designer than Adrien would be in more art classes. Seems to me like he has different plans for his kid.

But, uh, temprement is also a thing.

Yunno, with how Adrien acts around Chloe some times, I could almost see him being browbeaten into marriage. Dude doesn't seem keen on hurting her feelings, even if he does look utterly terrified of her sometimes.

 

...That ... does seem like a thing that could happen. I've inhaled so much fanfic over the past week that I don't know how much of my idea of Adrien's personality is canon and how much is fanon, but I could see him giving into progressively worse and worse things because he decides it's not worth creating more conflict to get out of something like that, and then he didn't complain about that so it would be silly for him to complain about this, and now he's gone so far that it would be wrong for him to back out, and suddenly he's married to Chloe and they only have one kid and no hamster and no cats. D:

 

@tinyhydra yeah, my argument was along those lines, but Boyf insists that Adrien acts truer to himself when he's Chat, which i think is also a popular view in fics? I'm more on the camp that neither one of his personas is his actual personality, if that makes sense, Adrien is pretty depressed, Chat is overcompensating, a healthy and happy Adrien is somewhere in the middle.

him getting married to Chloé (and still being in love with ladybug) is so soap opera, tho. I love it. i want a hundred of it. I'm imagining it right now: Marinette is invited! Adrien looks perfectly, acceptably happy, and she's happy for him! so she lets him go and starts realizing her feelings for Chat... and then ~drama~.

i am so making a playlist for this

 

@witchknights In the webisode Adrien's Double Life Adrien says "[As Chat Noir] I can finally do what I want, say everything I want! Being really myself, you know?" so I think that's the basis for that view of his personality. I'm unsure what to think of it because a) I don't know if the webisodes are considered canon and b) sometimes people don't actually know themselves all that well and have strange ideas about which parts of their behaviour or personality are the "real" them.

I'm inclined to think that you're right and a healthy/happy Adrien would be somewhere in the middle. Maybe closer to Chat Noir than to his public-Adrien persona.

 

I think the idea that he acts truer too himself as Chat would lend support to the idea of him being shy! If Chat's his true self, then why wouldn't he act like that all the time if he weren't afraid or insecure or whatever?

I don't really agree with it, either. I mean, Adrien and Chat aren't different people or, like, fake. It's still him. How he chooses to behave based on his emotions and beliefs as well as external pressures.

And hey, Mari did say in her webisode that Chat was a romantic possibility she could have considered if it weren't for Adrien. And wouldn't it be a kick in the teeth to poor Adrien to have the women he loved(read is still desperately in love with) start pursuing him just as he becomes unavailable. I can't see Adrien being okay with infidelity, even with the cover of Chat and even if Chloe isn't the kind of person he wants to spend the rest of his life with. I headcanon him as being pretty family-oriented as an adult, wanting to make up for his own lackluster experience, so I could see him trying desperately to make the whole thing work out all picture perfect.

 

I think it's a bit simplistic to say that someone free of inhibitions is their "true" self. What limits you set on your own behavior are as much you as your innate desires, yeh?

 

@tinyhydra Yes! That is excellently worded.

ETA: Oop, didn't see your first reply (which is also excellently worded) but I was specifically referring to "What limits you set on your own behavior are as much you as your innate desires," because that's a nice clear, concise way to talk about a thing I've been struggling to put words to for ages.

 

that's a REALLY nice way to put it

I think public-persona Adrien is really carefully cultivated and measured and enforced by himself and the way he is being treated at the moment - he is kind and nice and wants to be understanding and supportive, but the distance he puts between himself and others obscures his tendency to being passionate - i'm not sure it's the right word, but Chat pours himself into everything. mmfgfkjf it's not the same thing, and I realize I'm projecting, but it was when i was around that age that my social anxiety issues began to come up, and I used anonimity on the internet as an escape valve for pressure - i never did anything mean or hateful, but i was overdramatic and obnoxious. I felt I was being myself more than i felt offline because i wasn't afraid a word misspoken would cause me a month of bullying on online chatrooms where i wasn't actually identifiable, but i realize now that that wasn't entirely myself as much as the quiet girl in class wasn't, though it was closer to "me" simply because i felt i was allowed to express myself. So it's like, I think if he was okay he'd be somewhere in the middle because once you're not milking every bit of fun self-expression you can out of short periods of time you kind of mellow out.

And, ugh, something about Adrien so desperately wanting approval and attention of his father who seems to be very cold and pragmatic and would probably not like how passionate Adrien is? I don't know, he's complicated. I sorta want to sit down and rewatch everything so i can write serious meta now but my brain has been switched out with a bowl of mashed potato. But I like fannish depictions of him as this sorta-shy, sorta-insecure, but so serious and passionate kid trying to balance everything.

this is too sad

 

http://skaylanphear.tumblr.com/post/139951219302/chat-noir-and-adrien-are-the-same-person-not-one

speaking of adrien characterization

 

That's a really good piece of writing and I like the author's take on what a well-balanced Adrien would be like.

I was going to disagree with this and then I re-read it more carefully and realised I only half-disagree with it. Agree that Chat Noir isn't a mask created to get validation from Ladybug and has always been part of Adrien's personality, but think that Chat Noir would dial it down if he thought Ladybug really disapproved of his behaviour, and disagree that that would invalidate Chat Noir as a part of Adrien, because I think tailoring his behaviour to particular situations and people is something we see Adrien do. Specifically (as OP pointed out) keeping a lid on his enthusiasm until he's in a situation where he's fairly confident that he can perform well and gain approval from the people around him.

One of the most interesting things to me about the whole show is how Marinette and Adrien are mirror-images of each other (in the sense of being inverted). Marinette seems to consider her civilian persona to be the "real" her and Ladybug to be an act, while Adrien does the opposite. I guess it probably says a lot about their home lives that Marinette chooses the everyday version of herself, while Adrien chooses the superhero.

 

ow, right in the feels!

 

superheroes are by definition idealized, perfect versions of humanity, and look, i don't think anyone would prefer their normal fallible nonawesome version over one that is literally there to be more perfect than anyone else in the eyes of everyone else unless they are marinette I mean

Even if you blunder as a superhero people will still look favorably on you! Can you imagine how mind-blowing this is to a perfectionist

 

fuck, that'd fuck me up! I hate feeling like I fucked up and nobody sees or reacts negatively to it. Like I've tricked people somehow. And you can't just bring stuff up like that or prompt people to be mad at you, cause what the hell's the point in creating conflict where there is none? Urgh.

 

Hah, my psych spent so much time drilling in my head that it wasn't the end of the world if I didn't do stuff absolutely perfectly right that she couldn't quite get to theory of mind before I moved, I guess.

And I'm just a nobody with a slightly judgey family, I couldn't even imagine the pressure id build on myself if I were in Adriens situation.

Anyway, people's different reactions to things is something truly amazing

 

Somewhere in the depths of AO3 is a ML fic with the tag "why are there four names for this one ship??" and that's beautiful.

 

This is interesting: Unofficial Miraculous Guide, a proposed chronological order + reasoning. The reasoning is, of course, kind of spoilery, but I guess if you're good at only reading parts of a page then the list itself might be useful.

 

Here, have a good.

 

Episode 21 is out and I can't find English subs. Grump, grump, snarl.

 

yeah, Miraculous Subs is having a ton of issues subbing the episodes thanks to the schedule :// and Numéric looks like its going to be a fun episode

i.... ended up watching the origin one in the meantime.