The Immaturity of Thomas Astruc — IOTA Reviews: Miraculous World: New York – United…

So… with the
recent announcement that Seasons 4 and 5 of Miraculous Ladybug
will air on Disney+, with one episode set to air around March 27th
(and it’s out of order because of course it is), I figured I
would try something new with this blog.

While I’m sure
Astruc will be more active while the new season is airing, I figured
I’d take a stab at reviewing new episodes of Miraculous Ladybug
when they come out, as I already have a Disney+ account that I only
really use to watch Star Wars and other Disney Channel
cartoons I’ve never seen before. Well, that and the gloriousness that
is Mech-X4.

And I was thinking
that since a certain special is already available on Disney+, I’ll
review it now. Consider it my, uh…

279 Follower Special. Yeah, that’s it.

Miraculous World:
New York – United Heroez is the first in a series of Miraculous
Ladybug specials with the premise of having our heroes travel around
the world. Because I guess that’s what you do with your show when you
run out of ideas for things your characters can do. Just ask Ash
Ketchum and Thomas the Tank Engine.

The special is
somewhat polarizing among the fandom, with some loving it, and some
hating it. If you’ve seen some of my earlier posts, you probably
already know how I feel about this.

Anyway, let’s take
a look at Miraculous World: New York – United Heroez

We start off with a
logo letting us know this is going to be the start of a series of
specials called Miraculous World.

Yeah, I’m sure
that’ll be remembered among other great cinematic universes like the
Dark Universe and Ghost
Corps.

In all seriousness,
this is actually a pretty decent opening. It has some nice visuals
that inform the audience of the globetrotting gimmick seen in the
special, and the orchestral cover of the Miraculous Ladybug theme
sounds pretty badass.

The special truly
starts off in the middle of an Akuma fight, where we see that Mr.
Pigeon is taking inspiration from Startrain’s plan to escape to the
one place that hasn’t been corrupted by capitalism…
SPACE! Apparently, this is the 51st time
that Ladybug and Cat Noir have fought him, which makes you wonder if
Hawkmoth is either running out of ideas, or if he just wants to see
how insane Mr. Pigeon’s plans can get for the hell of it.

Ladybug and Cat
Noir transform into their new space forms that they’ve obviously had
for a while, given Alya’s familiarity with their names… even though
those forms probably would have been useful when they were fighting
Startrain. And this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of things
this special retcons.

We get a few
interactions between Ladybug and Cat Noir to give new viewers an idea
of what the Love Square dynamic is like, with Cat Noir fawning over
Ladybug after she leaves, and Marinette gushing over a new poster
Adrien is in. I’ll get back to this later,

After that, we see
a brief clip from a student film teaching the audience about the real
life friendship between George Washington and Marquis de Lafayette
(the latter actually becoming one of Washington’s close advisors
during the Revolutionary War), and how it lead to the completely made
up, “French American Friendship week”, which is basically an
excuse for Marinette and Adrien’s class to go to New York for a week.

Their teacher, Ms.
Bustier isn’t going with them because she’s having a baby (God help
us if the writers resort to pregnancy jokes next season), so the only
other teacher in the school, Ms. Mendeleiev, will be supervising the
class instead.

Adrien isn’t able
to go to New York because his father won’t let him, and even he
lampshades how predictable this is. But as soon as Lila suggests
spending time with Adrien, Marinette immediately declares she will
try to get Adrien to come on the trip with everyone, because he’s her
friend… and then Alya mocks her for saying that in the very next
scene.

And here is the
first problem with this special: The way Marinette’s crush on Adrien
is portrayed.

We’re supposed to
see Marinette as being in denial about her feelings for Adrien, but
when you think about how Season 3 ended with Marinette realizing
Adrien and Kagami (who will make an appearance in this special later
on) are happy together, it makes sense that she wants to do this. She
wants to move on from her crush on Adrien and try to be friends with
him.

Unfortunately, her
“best friend” Alya isn’t willing to let her move on, which is
extremely hypocritical when you remember how often she teased her for
her behavior around Adrien, to the point where her other “friends”
made bets about Marinette’s hesitance to confess to him (Cat Blanc).
Does she even know about Adrien and Kagami?

And throughout this
special, rather than acknowledge Marinette’s decision to move on, she
constantly teases Marinette about how she still has feelings for
Adrien, instead of simply leaving her alone. She reaches salt fic
levels of unlikable in this special.

It doesn’t help
that Marinette’s anxiety around Adrien is cranked up to twelve in
this special, with her constantly stammering, or fidgeting around to
the point where she struggles to get through a door. Twice.
And as always, this behavior is only going to be played for laughs,
because the showrunners are running out of ways to make Marinette
suffer for comedy. And it only gets worse from here.

While watching a
news report about a necklace and sabre George Washington had given to
him by Lafyette, Nathalie, bedridden from the events of the season
finale, tells Gabriel that the necklace in question is actually a
lost Miraculous.

And as soon as
Marinette arrives, Gabriel tells her that he’s going to let Adrien go
on the trip. His reason?

Gabriel: Letting
Adrien go to New York will be simpler than hiding my absence here
from him. Besides, this will allow me to continue keeping an eye on
him.

Yeah, he seriously
thinks it’s a good idea to send his son to the same place he’s
planning to attack as part of one of his plans. At least you could
make the argument that whenever Adrien is endangered during an Akuma
attack, he’s simply caught in the crossfire because he’s in the wrong
place at the wrong time, like with “Style Queen”. Here, Gabriel
is intentionally letting Adrien go to New York, while claiming that
he will be able to monitor him while he plots to attack the city.
This is like if Grand Moff Tarkin let his son go to Alderaan for
vacation. And again, it only gets worse from here.

Though Gabriel
waits a day to tell Adrien he’s going to New York, because of he did,
we wouldn’t get any scenes of Adrien moping around about how much his
life sucks. Well, that and a scene of him and Kagami, where the
latter kisses him. This is Kagami’s only scene in the special, and
she isn’t mentioned again after this.

As Ladybug,
Marinette tells Cat Noir she’s going away for a few days and trusts
him to guard Paris as long as he alerts her of an Akuma or
Sentimonster. What will happen to the Miracle Box Marinette inherited
from Former Master In Name Only Fu is never explained.

To Adrien’s credit,
it’s Plagg that convinces him to go on the trip even though Ladybug
trusted him, and even then, it takes a little bit to convince Adrien,
showing he still takes his job seriously, with him coming up with a
plan in case an Akuma attacks. It’s not perfect, but it’s something.
That all goes to hell later on, though.

We then see Gabriel once again talking to Emilie’s corpse about his plan.

Gabriel:
Blah, blah, blah, Emilie. Blah, blah, blah, blah, I’ll get Ladybug
and Cat Noir’s Miraculous this time for sure. Blah, blah, blah, blah,
I’m such a good father and sympathetic villain.

Oh, sorry. That’s
how I hear most of his monologues to Emilie these days. My
bad.

The next scene
features something I bet you’ve never seen before, Marinette being
late for something. Thankfully, Luka gives her a ride to help her
catch up, hoping that the trip will “give her some clarity”, most
likely referring to her conflicting emotions. Marinette then kisses
Luka goodbye and gets on the bus. This is Luka’s only scene in the
special, and he isn’t mentioned again after this.

On the plane, it
turns out that Adrien is conveniently sitting next to Marinette,
prompting Alya to tease Marinette yet again while making this face.

Alya:
(smirking and talking in a very smug tone of voice) Awesome,
Marinette! Go and sit next to your “friend”! So you two can enjoy
a nice flight together! A very long flight.

Alya continues to
relentlessly tease Marinette and makes fun of her crush for no
real reason, suggesting Marinette get off the plane because “New
York is the most romantic city in the world after Paris”. And this
gives her a goddamn panic attack where she frantically tries to run
off the plane. Remember kids, if someone has some kind of anxiety or
social awkwardness, it’s perfectly fine to tease and make fun of
their behavior, and even exploit it for your own amusement.

And after some unfunny hilarious slapstick involving Marinette on the
plane, Alya continues her streak of treating Marinette like her
plaything.

Nino: If only
this trip could help Adrien finally come out of his shell.

Alya: And if
only it could help Marinette be more honest with herself and clearer
about her feelings!

Nino:
Operation New York?

Alya:
Operation New York!

Nino: Let’s
help them loosen up!

Alya: After
all, isn’t the United States the land of the free?

Well, the only
thing you actually got right about America is forcing others to do
things they don’t want to do. Just ask the Native Americans.

It’s scenes like
this why Alya is portrayed so negatively in salt fics. And this
happens throughout the special. Now, while I’m not really a drinker,
I’m guessing there’s at least one person reading this post right now
who is. So I have a little idea for a game. Every time Alya acts like
a terrible friend to Marinette, take a shot. I’d just have a donor
ready in case one of your kidneys gives up on you.

After an admittedly
nice scene of Adrien thanking Marinette for convincing his father to
let him come (undercut by Marinette creepily commenting on Adrien’s
cologne as they hug), another problem with this special rears its
ugly head, as a man with oddly-colored skin arrives on one of the
plane’s wings.

Alya: Oh, no!
That’s Techno-Pirate, the supervillain who steals technology!

Yeah. This is
happening. The special is just casually introducing this new
supervillain, Techno-Pirate as well as some other superheroes,
neither of which had any buildup before, not even a throwaway line
They’re just here now.

So some of the
American superheroes are to save the day, now, I guess. Majestia, the
Superman knockoff, helps steer the plane back into position, her
robotic daughter, Uncanny Valley, helps fix the plane’s broken wing,
while Knightowl and Sparrow, the Batman and Robin knockoffs, deal
with Techno-Pirate. And everyone just treats this like a regular
occurrence.

Marinette:
Wow! That all happened so fast! I didn’t have time to transform or
help out!

Adrien: Good
thing the American superheroes were here. I couldn’t have transformed
here. I’m supposed to be in Paris!

Plagg: Relax,
Adrien! Let the local superheroes handle their own problems.

I have so many
problems with this plot development. Just how common is the knowledge
that there are other superheroes besides Ladybug and Cat Noir in
other countries? How have they never been mentioned until now? Why is
everyone just accepting the fact that there are other superheroes?

I
get that these characters weren’t conceived around the time the show
started, but the way they’re just thrown into the story is just so
confusing and does so many things to hurt the narrative instead of
helping it. In other episodes, Majestia and Knightowl were only seen
in comic books, and Ladybug and Cat Noir were seen as the only heroes
in the world because the world itself was fairly down to earth,
barring some more advanced technology (the police’s weapons in
“Origins”, Hawkmoth’s lair, Max’s robot, Markov, the space
dumpsters in “Reverser”, and the AI in Startrain).

The fact that New
York is apparently filled with all kinds of superheroes for very
mundane things like directing traffic and selling hot dogs just makes
the Miraculous seem less important. If there was more work done to
better integrate them into the story, like maybe making them an
American secret or something, it could have worked. To quote a
character voiced by Jason Lee…

And the sad thing
was that Power Rangers was able to pull something like this
off far better in 1995. During the third season of
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Master Vile had successfully
reversed the Earth’s rotation, turning the Power Rangers into
children (yes, it runs on Superman logic, just go with it). Because
of this, the Rangers are unable to morph, with the villains free to
attack the city. In response, Zordon sends out a distress call to
another team of Power Rangers from the planet Aquitar.

Now I know what
you’re thinking. If Zordon had the ability to contact another team of
Power Rangers for help, why did it take him so long to do so? The
episode immediately answers the question by pointing out that Aquitar
is a planet made entirely of water, so it’s incredibly dangerous for
them to head to a planet like Earth, making their intervention a last
resort. And even after they come, a major plot thread is finding ways
to keep the Alien Rangers hydrated, which only gets worse when the
Alien Rangers’ enemy, Hydro Hog, arrives to drain Earth’s water while
teaming up with the main villains.

The integration of
the Alien Rangers into the story generally feels natural, and there
is a clear explanation as to why they haven’t joined the battle until
now, and even then, still place some hurdles for them to overcome.
Here, the special just wants the audience to immediately accept the
fact that there are hundreds of superheroes in New York.

So as Marinette and
Adrien’s class arrives in New York, we see Sparrow watching over
them, referring to them as “the little croissants”. That’s
another thing the special gets right about America: casually making
racist comments.

Uncanny Valley’s
civilian form, Aeon, sees Marinette and Adrien, and, of course, she
says that they’re “made for each other”. If only the writers
actually bothered to give us evidence of that fact that everyone
loves to say for some reason. Though we do get the only instance of
sanity regarding the Love Square in this special, where Sparrow’s
civilian form, Jess, calls out Aeon for thinking of getting them
together.

Aeon: Those
two are made for each other.

Jess: Seriously,
Aeon? Not again!

Aeon: But I
am programmed to help people, Jess!

Jess: Just
stop meddling with people’s private lives!

Also, I had already
mentioned the unfortunate implications of Aeon being programmed to
“help people” in an earlier post, but I still want to reiterate
that I don’t think any of that was intentional at all, and I
definitely don’t think a single writer on this show is actually
racist. Everyone got that? Okay, moving on.

Jess and Aeon are
assigned to watch over the Parisian students while they sneak out to
a party on the rooftop of the hotel they’re staying at, where they
meet another superhero, Hot Dog Dan. He gives random people magical
hot dogs that give them temporary superpowers. Marinette and Adrien
share one, and they both start flying before Adrien offers to slow
dance with Marinette.

Okay… It’s clear
they they’re trying to reference an earlier episode, “Despair
Bear”, by having Marinette and Adrien dance to the same song they
danced to in that episode. The problem is that the context isn’t
right.

Adrien is dating
Kagami, and he’s offering to do this… why? What makes him so
interested in Marinette all of a sudden? I get that he doesn’t
realize Marinette has feelings for him, but if someone says they only
see you as a friend, do you offer to slow dance with them? Especially
if their reaction to your offer is recoiling in fear?

I’m sorry, writers,
but you can’t try to recreate some of the magic you had in earlier
episodes with Adrienette when you have clearly
established Lukanette and Adrigami as official relationships at the
moment. And don’t give me any of that “that’s not the point of the
special” crap. The season finale showed Marinette and Adrien
getting together with Luka and Kagami respectively, so it’s natural
that a lot of people were looking forward to seeing how they worked
as couples. I’ll get back to this point later on.

Meanwhile, Gabriel
has made his way to New York, and decides to akumatize the arrested
Techno-Pirate into Technolizer, asking him to steal Lafyette’ssabre from the museum instead of the necklace.

Back to the museum,
Alya and Nino decide to send Marinette and Adrien into a room alone
where they’re locked in and attacked by the supervillain
Solutide…’s hologram, which was all part of Jess and Aeon’s plan.
In a city where there is a superhero and supervillain on every
street. They seriously planned on giving Marinette and Adrien a
near-death experience to get them to realize their love for each
other.

That’s… pretty
fucking demented.

What if Marinette
and Adrien did something reckless in their attempt to escape? They
could have seriously gotten hurt. Hell, what if the scare gave either
of them a heart attack? And let’s say either of them found out what
the plan was (which would be pretty easy, given “Solitude” is a
hologram). Do you think either of them would be happy with
Alya and Nino, even if they confessed their love for each other? And
none of them even think to apologize for what they did, and this
scene is never mentioned again. To quote a certain internet reviewer.
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!?

Though to be fair,
the scene before was the only scene where Alya gets to use a brain
cell in this special by pointing how wrong that plan is… for a
second before she goes along with it. So close, Alya. So close…

So after Adrien
gets a news report revealing that Robustus is attacking Paris (even
though Markov is with them in New York), while Marinette isn’t
contacted by Cat Noir. The situation only gets worse when Technolizer
attacks, getting the sabre in the process.

Sparrow and Uncanny
Valley try to fight him off, but are quickly overwhelmed, with some
of the latter’s technology getting stolen by Technolizer. Marinette
and Adrien transform and help out the two heroes, naturally being
confused by the other’s presence.

But while the four
heroes chase after Technolizer, Hawkmoth shows competence for once
and steals the necklace in the process, while revealing that the
Robustus attacking Paris was actually a Sentimonster created by
Mayura.

During the fight,
rather than focusing on stopping the already dangerous supervillain
powered up by Hawkmoth, Ladybug decides to trash talk Cat Noir
instead. I get that she’s angry at him for not following through on
his promise, but can’t she wait until after the fight?

Ladybug:
(mockigly) “Just go and rest easy! Yeah, leave Paris with me!”

Cat Noir: I-I
didn’t know I was going to leave! It was a last-minute decision,
that’s all!

Ladybug: Do you realize that because of you, there’s no one in Paris to protect
the city?! Why didn’t you tell me that you were leaving?!

Cat Noir: I
was afraid you’d get angry!

Ladybug: And
you were right, because as you can see, I AM angry!

To quote our
recently inaugurated president, will you shut up, man? People
say I’m too harsh on Cat Noir for the way he acted during episodes like “Syren”,
but this is basically the same thing. Ladybug is prioritizing her own
feelings over stopping Technolizer. Yes, she has a right to be angry
at Cat Noir, but all she has to do is wait until after the battle to
chew him out.

And during the
battle, Ladybug outright says she can’t trust Cat Noir anymore,
making the latter flinch, so Technolizer throws him into Uncanny
Valley with his Cataclysm activated, killing her.

In her anger,
Majestia punches Technolizer through several buildings before
Hawkmoth recalls the Akuma inside him before helping the villain get
away. Ladybug casts her Miraculous Ladybug, fixing Uncanny Valley,
but that’s not enough. Knightowl is pissed, and orders Ladybug
and Cat Noir to hand over their Miraculous, not listening to why
they’re so important, so the two run away.

To make things
worse, the two find out about Hawkmoth’s plan, and Ladybug explains
she can only use Miraculous Ladybug to fix damage caused by a
specific villain, and since the Sentimonster is gone, she can’t do
anything.

In his grief, Cat
Noir admits that everything that happened is his fault, so he
renounces Plagg and hands over his Miraculous to Ladybug before
running away.

So… this scene.

This. Scene.

Where. Do I. Begin?

First of all, this
is what causes Ladybug to lose trust in Cat Noir? Not the multiple
times he disobeyed her orders because of his own personal feelings?
Not the constant flirting and unwanted advances even though she’s
made it clear she doesn’t see him that way? Not the time he trusted
an evil doppelganger of Ladybug over the real one? It’s this? Cat
Noir leaving Paris alone while a Sentimonster attacked?

Okay, let’s say
that Cat Noir decided to stay in Paris after all. What was he
supposed to do when Robustus attacked around the same time as
Technolizer? What was Ladybug supposed to do when she found
out about Robustus in Paris? Was she supposed to abandon New York and
head back there or focus on helping the American heroes?

Second, who does
Knightowl think she (yeah, she’s a woman, I’ll get to that in a bit)
is ordering Ladybug and Cat Noir to hand over their Miraculous? What
authority does she hold over them? Why should they listen to her? Why
can’t they simply explain why their Miraculous are so important, and
that they can’t give them up? Why doesn’t Ladybug just explain that
she’s now the Guardian of the Miraculous? In fact, why does Majestia
go along with the order? Ladybug still saved her daughter’s life!
If anything, she should be sticking up for the two.

There’s actually a
Superman comic where Captain Marvel storms a police station to
interrogate a criminal who killed his best friend so he can find out
who hired him. Though he comes close to doing it, Captain Marvel
ultimately doesn’t kill the criminal’s boss, but still flies over to
Mount Everest to grieve his friend’s death.

Enter Superman,
planning to call out Captain Marvel, but instead, he sees him crying.
He explains that the boy killed was his best friend before revealing
his identity as Billy Batson. Superman’s response?

He goes to the
wizard Shazam and demands to know why he did this to Billy, furious
that a child was forced to go through stuff like that. While Shazam
can’t take back the powers he gave Billy, he encourages Superman to
reach out to Billy, leading to him revealing his identity as Clark
Kent to the kid.

I’m not saying that
Majestia or Knightowl should have called out Master Fu or ask who
made Ladybug the Guardian (as awesome as that would have been), but
the point I am trying to make is in that comic, Superman made the
effort to understand what Billy had been through, and understood what
happened. Majestia and Knightowl made no effort to do anything like
that. In fact, they never even knew Hawkmoth existed, which I call
bullcrap on, given that he once MOVED THE PLANET AWAY FROM
ITS ORBIT. Were you all asleep that day? Why didn’t you
do anything to help Ladybug and Cat Noir fight Hawkmoth? Were you
expecting them to just fight this magical terrorist on their own?
They don’t have the same support system the American heroes have, and
they could really use the help.

And third, Cat
Noir. Yeah, just because I’m calling out Ladybug doesn’t mean Cat
Noir isn’t taking any heat either. Again,
I have to ask, this is what makes him give up? Keep in
mind, when he was Aspik in “Desperada” and saw Ladybug get
captured by an Akuma, he reversed time 25,913 times to
try and save her before he threw in the towel. At the same time, he
was willing to quit in “Syren” because he claimed Ladybug didn’t
trust him. The level of Adrien’s willingness to keep going is
incredibly inconsistent, and this doesn’t really help his reputation
as a character.

And then there’s
the fact that he’s bailing on Ladybug when things are at their
absolute worst. Yes, Marinette also briefly gave up in “Origins”,
but that was after her first battle, and she was overwhelmed by her
screw-up endangering countless lives in Paris in addition to being a
nervous wreck even before she got her Miraculous. But here’s the
difference: She took responsibility. She realized people were
in danger, so she jumped into action to save Alya and Cat Noir. Even
then, she acknowledged her failure and felt unsure of herself, with
Cat Noir helping to reassure her, showing the emotional support their
partnership has.

Adrien, who
has been a superhero for months, and has faced some pretty stressful
situations, as soon as things head south, he immediately gives up and
leaves Ladybug to fend for herself while two separate cities are in
danger. And he knows that she has no other allies, because Master Fu
ran away at the end of the last season, and Miracle Queen exposed the
identities of the other temporary heroes. She has nobody
to go to for help. He doesn’t even show Ladybug her civilian form to
apologize, just so he can’t get any flak in his regular life. He just
gives Ladybug his ring, and literally runs away.

A wise man once
said “With great power, there must also come great responsibility.”
Adrien has shown no responsibility at ALL in
this special, barring the one moment I mentioned earlier.

It’s nothing more
than a forced emotional moment that has no buildup. This is basically
the same with basically every time Miraculous Ladybug tries to
be emotional. The writers think that despite never really having any
tension or character arcs in their story, they can just have their
characters cry out of nowhere, and suddenly, it’s a deep moment?
That’s not how writing works, idiots!

Back at the hotel,
Jess and Aeon are getting chewed out by their mothers (Who are the
civilian identities of Majestia and Knightowl), and have a
conversation about being superheroes… less than a few feet away
from the French students. Though at least Barbara, the civilian form
of Knightowl (again, I’ll get to that later) calls out Aeon and Jess
for their stupid “fake supervillain plan”, so there’s that I
guess.

So we cut to a
press conference where the President of the United States, Camilla
Hombee (An anagram of Michelle Obama’s name, because Astruc has made
it clear what his political views are) advises everyone to stay
inside while Techno-Pirate is still an active threat. Why does this
seem so familiar? And then she… transforms into a superhero too.

Oh, for the love
of– THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IS A SUPERHERO?! The
person in charge of the country and relations with foreign nations is
a superhero too?! If she’s the president, why didn’t she do anything
to stop Hawkmoth?! I get that America doesn’t really care about news
from other countries outside of America, but you would think that the
frickin president, WHO IS A SUPERHERO, would at least
acknowledge the existence of a supervillain in Paris as a threat!

GOD,
this is stupid! And it only gets worse…

Gabriel sends a car
to pick up Adrien, realizing the city was too dangerous (I still
don’t get the point of sending him here in the first place), causing
him to tearfully say that he “wouldn’t have minded being stuck here
a little longer with a friend like her” before leaving. And then
Alya…

Alya: What is
wrong with you, Marinette?! Couldn’t you see that he was just waiting
for you to tell him to stay?!

Marinette:
What-? But I…? He…? He made his choice. What did you expect me to
do?

Alya: It
doesn’t matter what I expected you to do! Who’s Adrien to
you?! A friend or more than a friend?! There will never be a
better time to be clear with yourself, Marinette! Do you want him to
leave or do you want him to stay?!

NO.
You do not have the right to say ANY of that! It
doesn’t matter what YOU expected Marinette to
do? This whole special, you’ve been teasing her about her feelings
for Adrien, and forcing her into uncomfortable situations with him
all because you want your OTP to be a thing. And now you’re saying
Marinette had a choice the whole time? Marinette expected herself to
get over Adrien and start to see him as a friend, AND YOU
WOULDN’T LET HER DO THAT! For three seasons, Alya has
made fun of Marinette’s crush on Adrien, while at the same time, has
constantly pushed her into situations where she was clearly
uncomfortable around him to the point where she discouraged Marinette
for trying to move on in a previous episode (Frozer). And then in
this special, she trapped them in a room with a fake supervillain
(which is this world’s equivalent to pretending to be a terrorist)
just to get them to confess their feelings for each other. AND THE
WHOLE TIME, IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE MARINETTE’S CHOICE???

If Obilvio didn’t
make me stop caring about Alya, this was the moment that actually me
despise her.

And the worst part?
The narrative frames her as being right. This is somehow enough for
Marinette to run out in the pouring rain while a supervillain is lose
in New York, with nobody even trying to stop her, to chase after
Adrien’s car, where she tearfully confesses that she still loves him
after the car gets away.

What is the point
of this exactly? We already knew Marinette liked Adrien last season,
her nonexistent character arc was learning to get over him, and now
she’s supposed to learn she’s still interested in him? What about
Luka? Are we just going to ignore Luka? What about the fact that
Kagami is already in a relationship with Adrien? None of these
questions are never explained.

Gabriel finds the
lost Miraculous, the Eagle Miraculous, which represents Freedom, and
gives it to Techno-Pirate, turning him into Miraclonizer. Using the
Eagle Miraculous’ power, Liberation, he can undo any mental
boundaries someone has, but since he’s using it for evil, it
basically drives several heroes crazy without their own moral codes.
And while I claimed it was an original power in one of my earlier
posts, the more I think about it, Liberation is really just a
different version of Reverser’s airplanes. All they did was just
phrase the explanation a different way.

So despite being a
city full of superheroes, Miraclonizer manages to drive every hero
crazy in a matter of minutes, with the exception of Jess and Aeon. So
do none of the other heroes have sidekicks? Is there not even a Young
Justice or Teen Titans-esque team in this city? I’m just saying, if
they have a hot dog superhero, there should be at least more than two
sidekicks in New York.

Aeon goes to search
out Ladybug and Cat Noir, and because of some technobabble stuff,
Aeon can easily figure out their identities. Again, this was
something I already talked about in an earlier post, so I won’t harp on this scene. It’s a dumb retcon in a special
full of dumb retcons, what else can I say?

So Aeon goes to
find Adrien on his private plane to give him back his Miraculous…
even though wouldn’t it make more sense for Aeon to use it instead to
save time? I didn’t mention this, but right before this scene,
Majestia was pushing the moon towards the Earth. Time is kind
of the essence here. It also would have saved us more of Adrien’s
whining.

Uncanny Valley:
Cat Noir, New York and Ladybug need you!

Adrien:
(looks at where his ring used to be) I’m no longer Cat Noir.

Uncanny Valley:
To err is human, apparently!

Adrien: My
mistakes are unforgivable. I couldn’t bear to see the disappointment
in her eyes.

“i’M sO tOrTuReD.
fEeL bAd FoR mE, dAmNiT!”

Cut it out with
Angstdrien Depreste already, writers. It’s gotten old.

And despite making
a big deal about how much he failed Ladybug, he immediately jumps
back into action as soon as he hears a recording of Ladybug saying
she needs him. I know it’s supposed to be a heartwarming thing by
showing him wanting to support his lady, but to me, it just comes off
more like he needed an ego boost. He was fulling willing to let
Ladybug save the day on her own, but as soon as he heard how
important he is to Ladybug, he’s more than willing to become Cat Noir
again. Because it’s not like he could regret his decision to abandon
his partner, and realize it isn’t too late to make up for his
mistake, right? That would imply Adrien is motivated by anything
other than his feelings for Ladybug. Then there’s the fact that as
soon as Cat Noir returns, Ladybug instantly forgives him, despite
saying earlier that she didn’t trust him. It’s almost like that whole
debacle was only there to eat up about fifteen minutes of the
special’s runtime.

Hawkmoth issues an
ultimatum to Ladybug and Cat Noir. Miraclonizer is ready to fire a
nuclear missile (though the dub calls it a rocket, let’s be honest,
it’s not), fully intending to start World War III unless Ladybug and
Cat Noir give up. He’s seriously willing to risk making The Day
After a reality all for his wife. But remember, you’re still
supposed to feel bad for this literal war criminal.

Ladybug, Cat Noir,
Aeon, and Sparrow manage to get to Miraclonizer’s hideout, the Statue
of Liberty, and take back the Eagle Miraculous, with Sparrow taking
it and transforming into Eagle.

And then there’s
the design of the new hero’s suit. While I’m glad it isn’t another
skintight jumpsuit, and the wings are a nice touch, people have
raised some questions regarding Eagle’s design, and how it feels like
the animators really want to remind the audience that Jess is
Native American. I mean, it looks like what Zack Morris wore in that
one episode of Saved by the Bell barring the headdress.

And this might be
because I’m a history major, and I just brushed up on this subject in
class last semester, but I’m a little uncomfortable with the fact
that someone actually thought it was a good idea to give the Native
American girl the Miraculous of the Eagle, the symbol of
America which represents Freedom. I don’t want to go too into
detail about this, but, uh… let’s just say if you know about the
history of the relationship between the Native Americans and the
colonists, you’ll get why this raises a couple of red flags.

Does this mean I
think the showrunners are racist? No, it was an honest, albeit
questionable mistake. Do I think this is the worst Native American
representation on TV. Oh, hell no. Chakotay from Star Trek:
Voyager was a walking amalgam of every Native American stereotype
in the book, and was featured in an episode that said, with a
straight face, mind you, that Native Americans used to be backwards
savages, so a group of white aliens genetically altered them so not
only could they survive the Earth’s harsh weather, but so they would
become more creative, leading to the birth of Native American
culture. I apologize to any Native American human being
who had the misfortune of learning about that for the first time. But
over all, Jess is far from the bottom of the barrel of poor Native
American representation.

So Jess uses her
powers to calm every superhero down, while Ladybug and Cat Noir
de-evilize Technolizer. And of course, Hawkmoth assumes that since
there are other lost Miraculous, “they will be his”. Maybe focus
on getting the two Miraculous you originally set out to get first,
buddy.

So Knightowl and
Majestia apologize for their behavior, and we learn that apparently
Knightowl and Sparrow have been around for at least since the Wild
West, and that the Knighowl and Majestia we’ve been following have
been keeping up the illusion that the original duo are still alive
for several generations.

Was this special
written in the 1950’s? Why make a big deal out of this? Why is it so
important that Knightowl and Sparrow both have a Y chromosome? The
president is a woman and a superhero, the strongest superhero on
Earth is a woman, and you were just saved by a female superhero all
the way from Paris. I don’t think people will be afraid of getting
cooties from this Knightowl. Hell, we live in a world where if you
don’t like a female superhero, people automatically hate you. Just
ask the people who didn’t like Captain Marvel.

We see that Alya
still learned nothing, as she continues to tease Marinete for daring
to call Adrien her “friend”, as our special mercifully ends with
the class sending a picture of a banner to Adrien to show their
support… but not before a brief scene where a Guardian tries to
take Eagle’s Miraculous, before she makes him instantly pull a 180 as
soon as she suggests he help to “create a new generation of heroes
together”.

I’m guessing this
is meant to be yet another tie-in to yet another Miraculous side
project that will go absolutely nowhere. You might as well have had
Nick Fury, oh, I’m sorry, Mick Flurry, recruit Eagle and Uncanny
Valley for the ZAG Initiative.

But it doesn’t
matter, because the special’s over, and once again, I never have to
think about it ever again.

So… what else can
I say that I haven’t already said. This special sucks.

While the animation
is honestly some of the best to come out of ZAG, and the action can
get pretty good at times, it honestly doesn’t really mean much when
the story surrounding it is just so abysmal. Basically the only thing
I liked about the Season 3 finale was the idea that the status quo
was shifting in terms of Marinette’s feelings for Adrien, and this
special just ruined this interesting idea by the end faster than you
can say “the series finale of Quantum Leap”.

Alya is at her most
unlikable here with everything she does in this special. Almost
everything she says to Marinette is either some catty comment or
making fun of her trying to get over Adrien. Because God forbid she
actually try to grow as a person and not let her life revolve around
a cute boy. It’s stuff like this that I genuinely wonder why
Marinette even bothers to stay friends with her when all she does is
tease her and force her out of her comfort zone. And according to
co-director Wilfried “Winny” Pain, Alya is meant to be like
Jiminy Cricket to Marinette’s Pinocchio. I don’t know which version
of Pinocchio he read as a kid, but clearly, it’s not the
version we’re mostly familiar with.

I’m still glad they
didn’t have Cat Noir revert back into his Ladybug-simping self we all
knew and loathed in Season 3, but that doesn’t mean he’s still
enjoyable in this special. The angsting about how sad Adrien’s life
is stopped being interesting years ago, and it’s only done as a way
to get the audience to care about him, but it comes off more like the
writers are holding the audience at gunpoint and demanding they
sympathize with him for bailing on the world when they need him the
most.

I thought Aeon was
a pretty likable character. Maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for
socially awkward robot characters like Data or Penny. I just wish we
got to know her more, and why exactly her mother felt the need to
play God by create her instead of just adopting like what Olympia and
Barbara presumably did with Jess.

As a matter of
fact, despite being played up as a big deal, there’s still a lot
about the American heroes that we don’t really know about. How were
the “United Heroes” formed in the first place? How did Majestia
get her powers? What exactly is the origin of Knightowl and Sparrow?
Why are all the American heroes so open about their identities to the
point where the President’s identity as a superhero is so well-known
she can casually transform on TV? Hell, Ladybug and Cat Noir barely
even interact with any of the heroes, and that includes Uncanny
Valley and Sparrow/Eagle.

Generally, the
special feels very rushed at times, with a lot of ideas not really
being utilized. According to Astruc, there was actually a lot of
things cut from the special, including a deleted subplot with Chloe
and Ms. Mendeleiev. Although, given Astruc’s track record, I don’t
think it would have been a good one given Chloe is involved.

This leads into a
personal theory I have regarding this special, that I want everyone
reading this to take it with a huge grain of salt. As much as he
claims that he can’t change anything he’s already written, I
personally believe that Thomas Astruc rewrote part of this special so
Adrienette could get more focus to renew interest in the ship.

Hear me out on
this. During Season 3, there were a lot more shipping debates between
Adrienette shippers and Lukanette shippers, with the latter gaining
more traction that season. It was also the season where other ships
like Felinette, Kagaminette, and even Maribat became more prominent.
And all of these ships were featured in post-Chameleon salt fics
bashing Astruc’s sunshine child, Adrien.

So, given how
Astruc already dedicated an entire episode to bashing Felix fans, why
wouldn’t he use something like the New York special to convince the
shippers to have more faith in the Love Square? After all, aren’t
Adrien and Marinette made for each other? Astruc has already said so
on his Twitter.

Unfortunately,
right now, I like to describe the Love Square as “Shrodinger’s
Relationship”. While the show can claim that Adrien and Marinette
would make a great couple, they simultaneously show no real chemestry
happening between the two in favor of Love Square shenanigans. And
yes, I’m actually thinking of talking about the Love Square in a
future analysis post.

And then there’s
the fact that Astruc himself said that everything that happened in
this special is going to lead into the events of Season 4. What do I
have to say about that?

Bring it.

I already talk
about Miraculous Ladybug itself on this blog almost as much as
I talk about its creator, and since I have a Disney+ account, I might
as well subject myself to everything Season 4 has to offer. I’ve
already seen one of my favorite shows go to hell, so why don’t I
chronicle another one of my favorite shows going to hell as well?

So yeah, as soon as
a new episode is officially released on Disney+, expect a review from
your boy IOTA.

I survived Season
3, so let’s see if the number 4 is as unlucky as some countries say
it is.