I actually have quite a few things to unpack here, so I hope you'll bear with me, because this is going to take a while... You know, a couple of years back, after being thoroughly let down by the show at the end of Season 3, I wrote an essay entitled, "Miraculous Ladybug is No Longer Worth Watching Until We Get to the End...And Let Me Tell You Why". I started out about the things I initially liked about the show, how it was a hodgepodge of Western action cartoons and Magical Girl anime, which, on paper, just shouldn't work. But somehow, it does. I also talked about a few of the things I liked about Adrien, as a character (which the show has evidently gone out of its way in the last two years to try and destroy, for the most part), and used him as an example of what made the show unique, how it took tropes from both Western cartoons and anime and put unique spins on them. But then, I went on to address the elephant in the room. Thomas Astruc may have been influenced by Magical Girl anime, but he clearly wasn't paying attention to one thing that ultimately has to happen in that genre. Specifically, how "the structure of a story arc inevitably has to shake things up by getting to the part where all the secrets between the characters are laid bare, the final battle with the big bad takes place and everything pretty much goes straight to hell before a happy ending is reached. But while that is AN ending, it's not THE ending, because after that, a NEW arc takes its place, which generally sees the main characters faced with new relationships, new responsibilities, and ultimately, a new, different, more powerful enemy who's inserted themselves into the picture and made it their life's mission to take away everything the good guys have. This helps, not only with world-building, but also to give the audience a chance to actually enjoy the payoffs that came from the previous story". I would also use the original Sailor Moon manga as a main example there (or Sailor Moon Crystal/Eternal, if you're going the anime route). Unfortunately, that was the rub. Even from the early days of Season 3, it was made PAINFULLY clear that Astruc and Crew didn't HAVE an idea for a story arc after this one (Astruc really only having enough material for two Seasons and being too proud to just step aside and hand the reins off to somebody else). So they'd basically been left with no choice but to keep the show running in place, essentially drawing the whole thing out like a taffy pull and becoming needlessly convoluted, just so all the characters could remain in their assigned little box and not be allowed to move forward, "BEYOND-THIS-POINT", because no one on the creative side knew what that was supposed to look like, beyond how they wanted the arc to end. Essentially, I ended my thesis by saying that I was more or less done with the show and would only MAYBE come back during the final three or four episodes when things would finally start moving forward. And for the most part, as I picked up little crumbs of information about the series here and there, I was largely proven correct. Which brings us to the heart of the matter, in that I largely agree that the movie is superior to the show in all the ways that count. It's not perfect, by any means (the limits of a 90-minute runtime, after all), but it improves on the show's story in places where it DESPERATELY needed to. In fact, I genuinely believe, in my heart, that this movie is basically a pared-down and "Disney-fied" version of what the original plan was for the TV series, proper, in the beginning. And there ARE glints of the psychology behind the characters peeking through the cracks. If you look closely enough, you can see that Adrien and Gabriel are essentially in the same boat, in that they've both been isolated by their grief. I saw another review that described Adrien as just kind of "sleepwalking through life", in the wake of Emilie's death (which is not an unfair assessment), and in his own way, Gabriel is doing very much the same thing. The only difference is that Adrien came to the realization that he couldn't get through this alone, so he kept reaching out to Gabriel for comfort, only to not get it. But then the Miraculous came his way, along with Ladybug, and THAT kind of became his support system (even if it WAS largely a distraction from his home life). On the other hand, we see Gabriel doing what he's doing. And as things progress, you see that "DESPERATION" is most definitely the word that describes him best. Even though it's not explicitly stated right away, the notion that he'd convinced himself that he was doing this as much for Adrien's benefit as his own can be seen in how this version of Gabriel chooses his targets more carefully. Sure, the first guy was an innocent victim, but that's because it was a test run, more than anything, and Gabriel wasn't fully in control of the process. Once he knew the power worked, though, I believe there's a reason he only chose criminals to do his bidding, after that. Because what the hell...criminals aren't nice people anyway, right? So if anything happened to them or they got hurt, he wouldn't have to feel bad about it. Granted, that hardly makes anything he did a "victimless crime" because he was still endangering the lives of THOUSANDS of people. But I believe that, in HIS mind, this was the one frayed thread still tethering him to his humanity, in the vain hope that, when it was all said and done, he could at least be comforted in the knowledge that he wouldn't have turned into a COMPLETE monster and could still go back to being the husband and father that he was. But then, we get the scene between Gabriel and Adrien, where Adrien absolutely lays into him, because he'd just gotten his heart broken, and that was the last straw, and all this frustration he'd been carrying around had finally reached a boiling point. So when THAT happened, suddenly Gabriel saw EVERYTHING just slipping away, and it was all too much. Hence, why he turned the power on himself, because at that point, he was simply THAT desperate. Now, would a few more scenes with Gabriel have helped to clarify his descent into this mindset? Yes. Absolutely. But much like the "Adrienette" moments (which, I agree with the general consensus, would ALSO have benefited from some more time in the oven), I think they were hoping that the montage would be enough to illustrate that. And then, of course, we get the ending, which, as I said before, I'm reasonably certain was at least LEANING in the direction the show was originally headed in...you know, before Astruc's madness took hold. Although I also suspect that the original climax was going to be quite a bit darker. And since you said you only watched Season 1, I should probably explain what I mean by that. Early on in Season 2, Fu explains to Marinette that combining the power of the Miraculous of Creation and Destruction would not be omnipotence, as Gabriel believed, but Equivalent Exchange. In order to get what you want, something else must be sacrificed. The foreshadowing of this implication was pretty obvious...for Gabriel to bring Emilie back to life, Adrien was most likely going to die. This would have been the act that finally breaks Gabriel, leaving Marinette as the only one who can fix everything and bring Adrien back. How were they planning to have her do that? Damned if I know. They probably couldn't figure it out, either, which could be why the movie gave us the ending we got. Not that it was a horrible ending. Certainly better than the hot mess that would become Seasons 4 and 5. In conclusion, I'll just talk about your thoughts on the romance angle and why you thought it was "too serious". I won't lie...that's a perfectly valid perspective to take. I did say to a friend once that, try as you might, odds are, you're NOT going to meet your soul mate in the 8th Grade. You're just not. But I also prefaced that statement by saying that there ARE rare occasions when it does happen, and yes, it's very romantic when it does. And besides, from a fandom's perspective, when you've presented them with something that they've gotten so invested in, but keep refusing to give it to them, they don't care about realistic. They just want to finally GET there, without having them come up with a litany of excuses to pull it away every time. In the movie, though, now that we're past that, not only are fans revved up at the prospect of getting sequels to just sit back and enjoy that payoff, but now those stories can be put to use building up other characters because we don't have to worry about Marinette and Adrien's "Will they/Won't they?" waffling sucking up all the oxygen. For example, I'd heard rumors that Alya, Nino and Chloe were originally slated to suit up in this film, but those plans were rejected (for obvious reasons) probably pretty early on in the writing process. Still, there's no reason that can't happen NOW, right? I would also say that while the pre-credits scene at the end definitely nods in the direction a second movie would go, one can hope that if a third movie gets made, that it'll break away and start going its own way. After all, there are plenty of plot points and story beats from the show, that wouldn't need Gabriel of Emelie around to make them work. In fact, I would argue that outside of the "Agreste Arc", those stories would actually work better, since they would be allowed to stand and develop on their own. Hopefully, some of what I said made sense and didn't come off as a bunch of nonsensical rambling. This is just my thinking on it.
I actually have quite a few things to unpack here, so I hope you'll bear with me, because this is going to take a while...
You know, a couple of years back, after being thoroughly let down by the show at the end of Season 3, I wrote an essay entitled, "Miraculous Ladybug is No Longer Worth Watching Until We Get to the End...And Let Me Tell You Why". I started out about the things I initially liked about the show, how it was a hodgepodge of Western action cartoons and Magical Girl anime, which, on paper, just shouldn't work. But somehow, it does. I also talked about a few of the things I liked about Adrien, as a character (which the show has evidently gone out of its way in the last two years to try and destroy, for the most part), and used him as an example of what made the show unique, how it took tropes from both Western cartoons and anime and put unique spins on them.
But then, I went on to address the elephant in the room. Thomas Astruc may have been influenced by Magical Girl anime, but he clearly wasn't paying attention to one thing that ultimately has to happen in that genre. Specifically, how "the structure of a story arc inevitably has to shake things up by getting to the part where all the secrets between the characters are laid bare, the final battle with the big bad takes place and everything pretty much goes straight to hell before a happy ending is reached. But while that is AN ending, it's not THE ending, because after that, a NEW arc takes its place, which generally sees the main characters faced with new relationships, new responsibilities, and ultimately, a new, different, more powerful enemy who's inserted themselves into the picture and made it their life's mission to take away everything the good guys have. This helps, not only with world-building, but also to give the audience a chance to actually enjoy the payoffs that came from the previous story". I would also use the original Sailor Moon manga as a main example there (or Sailor Moon Crystal/Eternal, if you're going the anime route).
Unfortunately, that was the rub. Even from the early days of Season 3, it was made PAINFULLY clear that Astruc and Crew didn't HAVE an idea for a story arc after this one (Astruc really only having enough material for two Seasons and being too proud to just step aside and hand the reins off to somebody else). So they'd basically been left with no choice but to keep the show running in place, essentially drawing the whole thing out like a taffy pull and becoming needlessly convoluted, just so all the characters could remain in their assigned little box and not be allowed to move forward, "BEYOND-THIS-POINT", because no one on the creative side knew what that was supposed to look like, beyond how they wanted the arc to end.
Essentially, I ended my thesis by saying that I was more or less done with the show and would only MAYBE come back during the final three or four episodes when things would finally start moving forward. And for the most part, as I picked up little crumbs of information about the series here and there, I was largely proven correct. Which brings us to the heart of the matter, in that I largely agree that the movie is superior to the show in all the ways that count. It's not perfect, by any means (the limits of a 90-minute runtime, after all), but it improves on the show's story in places where it DESPERATELY needed to. In fact, I genuinely believe, in my heart, that this movie is basically a pared-down and "Disney-fied" version of what the original plan was for the TV series, proper, in the beginning. And there ARE glints of the psychology behind the characters peeking through the cracks. If you look closely enough, you can see that Adrien and Gabriel are essentially in the same boat, in that they've both been isolated by their grief. I saw another review that described Adrien as just kind of "sleepwalking through life", in the wake of Emilie's death (which is not an unfair assessment), and in his own way, Gabriel is doing very much the same thing. The only difference is that Adrien came to the realization that he couldn't get through this alone, so he kept reaching out to Gabriel for comfort, only to not get it. But then the Miraculous came his way, along with Ladybug, and THAT kind of became his support system (even if it WAS largely a distraction from his home life).
On the other hand, we see Gabriel doing what he's doing. And as things progress, you see that "DESPERATION" is most definitely the word that describes him best. Even though it's not explicitly stated right away, the notion that he'd convinced himself that he was doing this as much for Adrien's benefit as his own can be seen in how this version of Gabriel chooses his targets more carefully. Sure, the first guy was an innocent victim, but that's because it was a test run, more than anything, and Gabriel wasn't fully in control of the process. Once he knew the power worked, though, I believe there's a reason he only chose criminals to do his bidding, after that. Because what the hell...criminals aren't nice people anyway, right? So if anything happened to them or they got hurt, he wouldn't have to feel bad about it. Granted, that hardly makes anything he did a "victimless crime" because he was still endangering the lives of THOUSANDS of people. But I believe that, in HIS mind, this was the one frayed thread still tethering him to his humanity, in the vain hope that, when it was all said and done, he could at least be comforted in the knowledge that he wouldn't have turned into a COMPLETE monster and could still go back to being the husband and father that he was.
But then, we get the scene between Gabriel and Adrien, where Adrien absolutely lays into him, because he'd just gotten his heart broken, and that was the last straw, and all this frustration he'd been carrying around had finally reached a boiling point. So when THAT happened, suddenly Gabriel saw EVERYTHING just slipping away, and it was all too much. Hence, why he turned the power on himself, because at that point, he was simply THAT desperate. Now, would a few more scenes with Gabriel have helped to clarify his descent into this mindset? Yes. Absolutely. But much like the "Adrienette" moments (which, I agree with the general consensus, would ALSO have benefited from some more time in the oven), I think they were hoping that the montage would be enough to illustrate that.
And then, of course, we get the ending, which, as I said before, I'm reasonably certain was at least LEANING in the direction the show was originally headed in...you know, before Astruc's madness took hold. Although I also suspect that the original climax was going to be quite a bit darker. And since you said you only watched Season 1, I should probably explain what I mean by that. Early on in Season 2, Fu explains to Marinette that combining the power of the Miraculous of Creation and Destruction would not be omnipotence, as Gabriel believed, but Equivalent Exchange. In order to get what you want, something else must be sacrificed. The foreshadowing of this implication was pretty obvious...for Gabriel to bring Emilie back to life, Adrien was most likely going to die.
This would have been the act that finally breaks Gabriel, leaving Marinette as the only one who can fix everything and bring Adrien back. How were they planning to have her do that? Damned if I know. They probably couldn't figure it out, either, which could be why the movie gave us the ending we got. Not that it was a horrible ending. Certainly better than the hot mess that would become Seasons 4 and 5.
In conclusion, I'll just talk about your thoughts on the romance angle and why you thought it was "too serious". I won't lie...that's a perfectly valid perspective to take. I did say to a friend once that, try as you might, odds are, you're NOT going to meet your soul mate in the 8th Grade. You're just not. But I also prefaced that statement by saying that there ARE rare occasions when it does happen, and yes, it's very romantic when it does. And besides, from a fandom's perspective, when you've presented them with something that they've gotten so invested in, but keep refusing to give it to them, they don't care about realistic. They just want to finally GET there, without having them come up with a litany of excuses to pull it away every time. In the movie, though, now that we're past that, not only are fans revved up at the prospect of getting sequels to just sit back and enjoy that payoff, but now those stories can be put to use building up other characters because we don't have to worry about Marinette and Adrien's "Will they/Won't they?" waffling sucking up all the oxygen. For example, I'd heard rumors that Alya, Nino and Chloe were originally slated to suit up in this film, but those plans were rejected (for obvious reasons) probably pretty early on in the writing process. Still, there's no reason that can't happen NOW, right?
I would also say that while the pre-credits scene at the end definitely nods in the direction a second movie would go, one can hope that if a third movie gets made, that it'll break away and start going its own way. After all, there are plenty of plot points and story beats from the show, that wouldn't need Gabriel of Emelie around to make them work. In fact, I would argue that outside of the "Agreste Arc", those stories would actually work better, since they would be allowed to stand and develop on their own.
Hopefully, some of what I said made sense and didn't come off as a bunch of nonsensical rambling. This is just my thinking on it.
Thomas had no involment in the movie. He was in the credits as the creator of the orginal idea (the show)'s director
I know, I mentioned that in the video :)
Ngl I'm kinda a miraculous hater but honestly I was so confused cause you changed your name lmao