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scans_dailyI've mentioned before the fun kids cartoon Miraculous Ladybug, featuring the magically empowered young heroine of Paris, Ladybug, and her partner in crime-fighting, Chat Noir.
(Click to embiggen)
There's now a tie-in comic (originally digital, now just released in TPB) where the series creator chooses to reveal a surprising amount about their origins.
Much of the fun from the series comes from the complicated relationship between the main characters, neither of whom knows who the other is.
Ladybug is Marinette, who has the hots for her classmate Adrien but finds Chat Noir a reliable, but frequently exasperating, ally.
Adrien likes Marinette as a friend, but in his identity of Chat Noir has fallen completely for Ladybug.
Add in a few other friendships, romances and fanon crushes and we're so far beyond love triangle that we need to enter the realm of the platonic solids (Or romantic solids in this case).
But that's not what we're here for today. We're here to talk about Miraculous's (Since Miraculous shouldn't be a noun, I'm not sure how the plural works)
Now we know that all the major players in the series get their powers from their Miraculous', magical talismans which transform them. We believe there are currently 19 Miraculous, each with a unique power, an animal theme and a guardian spirit called a Kwami.
They also get full on magical girl transformations (Chat Noir's is perhaps even more magical girls than Ladybugs, because that boy can POSE!)
Each Miraculous looks like an item of jewellery and they appear to be set up as certain conceptual groups; Representing Yin and Yang we have Ladybug (earrings),
and Chat Noir (signet ring),
The five basic elements of Chinese legend are Butterfly/Moth (brooch), Fox (pendant) and the soon to be revealed trio of the Bee (hair-slide), Peacock (another brooch) and Turtle (bracelet) and the other twelve are based on the animals of the Chinese Zodiac (None of whom we've seen yet)
We know that the Miraculous are thousands of years old, but the Kwami are even older, and have been creating heroes for that entire time.
In the cartoon, the guardian of the Miraculous is Master Fu, a 186 year old man and also currently holder of the Turtle Miraculous (though seemingly too old to transform). He knows a lot about the history of the Miraculous but has never shared very much (in fact Adrien has never even met him properly)
Even so, it's perhaps a little odd that we find out so more about them in the pages of the comic (written by the series creator Thomas Astruc and drawn by Brian Hess) than we do in the series, but such is life.
So Marinette is having one of her regular meetings with Master Fu and they chat, in the company of her Kwami Tikki, and Fu's Kwami Wayzz.
So basically it would seem that the Kwami, through the Miraculous, are sort of like the Endless, embodying certain universal concepts . Ladybug is Creation and Chat Noir is Destruction (Though Plagg is hardly Gaiman's take on Destruction), I think Hawkmoth is Generosity (subverted because he's the villain of the piece, giving powers to villains he creates, rather than heroes he inspires) and based on her power of illusion, Rena Rouge (the Fox) might be Deception or Creativity/Artistry, Turtle is probably Protection
BTW, I really want to see the Mathematics Miraculous in action!
The rest of the story is sort of fun too, as our Parisian heroes are temporarily recruited by some American superheroes, but this seemed the more interesting part to share.
(Click to embiggen)
There's now a tie-in comic (originally digital, now just released in TPB) where the series creator chooses to reveal a surprising amount about their origins.
Much of the fun from the series comes from the complicated relationship between the main characters, neither of whom knows who the other is.
Ladybug is Marinette, who has the hots for her classmate Adrien but finds Chat Noir a reliable, but frequently exasperating, ally.
Adrien likes Marinette as a friend, but in his identity of Chat Noir has fallen completely for Ladybug.
Add in a few other friendships, romances and fanon crushes and we're so far beyond love triangle that we need to enter the realm of the platonic solids (Or romantic solids in this case).
But that's not what we're here for today. We're here to talk about Miraculous's (Since Miraculous shouldn't be a noun, I'm not sure how the plural works)
Now we know that all the major players in the series get their powers from their Miraculous', magical talismans which transform them. We believe there are currently 19 Miraculous, each with a unique power, an animal theme and a guardian spirit called a Kwami.
They also get full on magical girl transformations (Chat Noir's is perhaps even more magical girls than Ladybugs, because that boy can POSE!)
Each Miraculous looks like an item of jewellery and they appear to be set up as certain conceptual groups; Representing Yin and Yang we have Ladybug (earrings),
and Chat Noir (signet ring),
The five basic elements of Chinese legend are Butterfly/Moth (brooch), Fox (pendant) and the soon to be revealed trio of the Bee (hair-slide), Peacock (another brooch) and Turtle (bracelet) and the other twelve are based on the animals of the Chinese Zodiac (None of whom we've seen yet)
We know that the Miraculous are thousands of years old, but the Kwami are even older, and have been creating heroes for that entire time.
In the cartoon, the guardian of the Miraculous is Master Fu, a 186 year old man and also currently holder of the Turtle Miraculous (though seemingly too old to transform). He knows a lot about the history of the Miraculous but has never shared very much (in fact Adrien has never even met him properly)
Even so, it's perhaps a little odd that we find out so more about them in the pages of the comic (written by the series creator Thomas Astruc and drawn by Brian Hess) than we do in the series, but such is life.
So Marinette is having one of her regular meetings with Master Fu and they chat, in the company of her Kwami Tikki, and Fu's Kwami Wayzz.
So basically it would seem that the Kwami, through the Miraculous, are sort of like the Endless, embodying certain universal concepts . Ladybug is Creation and Chat Noir is Destruction (Though Plagg is hardly Gaiman's take on Destruction), I think Hawkmoth is Generosity (subverted because he's the villain of the piece, giving powers to villains he creates, rather than heroes he inspires) and based on her power of illusion, Rena Rouge (the Fox) might be Deception or Creativity/Artistry, Turtle is probably Protection
BTW, I really want to see the Mathematics Miraculous in action!
The rest of the story is sort of fun too, as our Parisian heroes are temporarily recruited by some American superheroes, but this seemed the more interesting part to share.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-03 06:55 am (UTC)They can use their special powers once and then they have five minutes before their transformations run out. It just seems really weak when Hawkmoth's creations seem to be able to keep their powers for an indefinite amount of time.
And then there's the fact that Rena Rouge was objectively weaker than Volpina. One single illusion versus an unlimited amount.
From a balance perspective Nooroo got the best end of that deal.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-03 07:25 am (UTC)The semi-explanation given in the show is that Master Fu never had access to ye olde tome (tm) of ancient Miraculous lore that Gabriel has been in possession of for years, and just doesn't know everything they can do yet. Now he's had access to the book for long enough to make scans of it he's learning some new things about what the Kwami and Miraculous are capable of power-wise and we're promised sight of some of those before the end of this season.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-03 10:53 am (UTC)If the akumatisation isn't his one-shot-wonder equivalent of "Lucky Charm", "Cataclysm" or "Mirage", what IS his final power move that would set his transformation timer ticking down?
no subject
Date: 2018-04-03 11:36 am (UTC)"Lucky Charm" just seems so small in comparison, creating a single item that might help if used correctly. "Miraculous Ladybug" is much more impressive since it allows her to undo all of the damage done, basically rewinding time, but that move doesn't seem to affect the time limit.
Of course Chat Noir doesn't have an equivalent to that second move that we know of.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-03 12:48 pm (UTC)Chat IS rather underpowered by comparison.
The South Korean release only (so far) Artbook suggests that other powers were either intended for both of them, or might yet appear. (click to embiggen, though my scanner was having an off day)
Ladybug gets a couple of variations on her yoyo
Chat gets the Black Storm destructive blast or the far more fun Portal-gun like Black Hole.
Storyboards for the original anime style for the series also suggest that Felix (proto-Adrien) would have had the power to cause bad luck to happen to other people.
Oh, and just because it was scanned too, here's Chat in an unused design with a cat-ear beanie-hat!