So some people - and you know who you are! - got me into watching Miraculous Ladybug

[conuly]

and now I have opinions about this show, and only 95% of those opinions are "Why the hell do they not air these episodes in some sort of sensible order?"

I'm not going to go wholly in-depth with all the rest of my opinions except one: seriously, I think the best way to teach our supervillain to be careful what he wishes for is to just fucking let him win. It won't make him happy, and I will laugh myself silly when that happens, even if it means his secondary love interest dies.

It's honestly the only way he'll ever learn.

Actually, his stated motivation is pretty relatable, and I do kinda feel that if he'd just stop monologuing enough to tell people what he wants, the city would be pretty sympathetic to him. But then again, people are usually crap at knowing what their true motivations are, especially in fiction. Maybe his true motivation is a deep and abiding love of eeeeeeeeeeevil.

Comments

[silveradept]

The timeline complaints and the episode airing complaints are embedded very deeply into the fandom.

As for giving him The Wish, as far as I know, every time that happens, the timeline created is a disaster for everyone, including him, but it also is the kind of thing that's not reversible do he can't come back with the knowledge that every time he actually wins, it's a colossal screw-up. (I'm also a season behind, so maybe they've figured out how to get him to retain the knowledge of his screw-ups at this point.)

[conuly]

Thing is, he's never actually *gotten* his wish in-show, unless I'm missing something. The timeline gets fucked *before* the actual wishing part, every time, and then fixed without his knowledge that his efforts fucked things over.

[conuly]

But he's also got a bit of a one-track mind. Like, there has got to be another way to accomplish his objective that does not involve the miraculouses at all, but he's totally fixated on the subject, and specifically on getting those two miraculouses, rather than any other combo that might help.

[silveradept]

As far as I know, no, he's never actually made the wish, because it's always played up as a point of no return and there's no undoing it (except, perhaps, with another wish, but who's going to remember they need to undo his wish?)

And there are probably several ways of achieving something like his goal, but they probably require the constant use of a miraculous, and as far as the show has shown, best as I can tell, that ends poorly for the person who is constantly powering the effect, whatever it may be.

[conuly]

Time travel. Get the rabbit, go back in time, confiscate the peacock before any damage can be done, leave an explanatory note.

Boom, done.

If only he weren't so obsessed with doing it the way he's already decided he wants to do it.

You know, pilots have a name for this. Fixation error. This is the sort of thing that crashes planes.

[conuly]

For that matter, I'm just spitballing here, how about exploring non-Miraculous options? He's got a whole supervillain lair with supervillain tech, maybe some of that tech can be used to fix his wife. Or if not his tech, then somebody else's - their world is generally more technologically sophisticated than our own, and the specials show that there are other, non-Miraculous superheroes out there.

[silveradept]

There's always going to be a plot complication from using time travel in such a way, but I agree with you that simple solutions are going to be better ones to try and enact. As would any technological fix that money could buy or develop. There will eventually have to be some sort of "none of those options actually work, only The Wish will," ass-pull, but there's a lot of avenues that could be explored first.

Man needs to remember to look between the trees to steer between the trees.

[conuly]

There will eventually have to be some sort of "none of those options actually work, only The Wish will," ass-pull, but there's a lot of avenues that could be explored first.

The problem exists between the chair and keyboard - or whatever the fandom specific phrase would be in this context. I'm just saying.

Man needs to remember to look between the trees to steer between the trees.

Meanwhile, he's busy rummaging around in the cupholder looking for his snazzy brooch.