Randomness 1 (I Bit The Bullet)

I) I Caught Up With MLB

And here are some conclusions I've reached (based on personal opinions, of course). SPOILERS FOR ALL OF SEASON 4.

1. Penalteam was so amazing. Like it was so stupid and so amazing and I love it. I grew up playing soccer, so the premise was delightful and extremely entertaining. Also, I was initially annoyed that they were gonna do four new Holders in one episode, because I felt like it robbed those four (Sabrina, Marc, Nathanael, and Ivan) of some well-needed chara development— the other holders all had an entire episode dedicated to them. BUT. I'm actually pretty impressed at how they managed to condense four mostly-believable arcs into one episode. Marc and Nathanael's were definitely weaker than Ivan's and Sabrina's; Nathanael's sudden aversion to being on a team when he had no problem doing anything with the class beforehand was jarring, and Marc's just flat-out denial that he was good at soccer despite clearly being better than his teammates was a little frustrating. But Sabrina having a hobby outside of Chloe and defending herself, as well as Ivan being too scared of hurting anyone, were very well done. The way they beat Penalty and her clones was very fun, too. It felt like a dynamic, low-stakes episode that really brought a smile to my face.

2. Okay but also the Rooster Miraculous is really OP?! The show has such a problem with power scaling! The charms meant to prevent Shadowmoth from akumatizing previous victims needed to be basically retconned after half a season because they were gonna run out of people to akumatize otherwise. Which is frustrating in and of itself. But like?! The Rooster Miraculous can choose ANY power?! If Ladybug had used this for herself, she could give herself the power to see people's true identities even in costume! Which means she could find out who Shadowmoth is the instant he shows his face! Or better yet, she could just give herself the power to know every Miraculous Holder in the country! A lot of these powers rely upon their wielders being super uncreative so that they don't break the story! And given that Ladybug is a designer and, y'know, the wielder of the Miraculous of Creation... being uncreative is a bad look.

3. In a similar vein, a LOT of problems could be solved by Viperion being used more. I'd argue that, for the best odds of success, Ladybug should've made him a permanent holder. Think of this. If Viperion was a permanent holder, when Shadowmoth gets all the Miraculouses in the yo-yo at the end of Strikeback, he could rewind and tell Ladybug to detransform immediately. Then Felix's Fetch ability would fail, and Ladybug would've managed to avoid her blunder unscathed. His power is another one of those ones that could break the show if it was given some more thought. If he's around, he could pretty much nullify any time Ladybug or Cat Noir get hit with a dangerous power. His time limit of five minutes makes it so that he's not infallible, but I mean... still pretty underutilized.

4. WAIT THE ROOSTER MIRACULOUS CAN JUST MAKE ALL THE OTHER MIRACULOUS POWERS BUT WITHOUT DRAWBACKS. They NEVER specified ANY limits on this bs! While the pig miraculous has the power to show someone their greatest wish. Like... bro, that's so incredibly situational. Most of the akumatized villains already KNOW their greatest wish and are going out of their way to get it. Wouldn't that just reinforce their resolve? So the Pig Miraculous gets THAT, and the Rooster Miraculous can essentially do anything. And yet it was held in storage, literally one of the LAST miraculouses to get distributed.

5. Ladybug is an incompetent hero given all the resources she had at her disposal.

6. That doesn't make me any less excited for a season where they steal back each Miraculous one by one. That honestly just sounds like the coolest premise! I have a feeling it won't live up to its potential, but Risk and Strikeback (for all my gripes about wasted opportunities on Team Miraculous's part) show that this show CAN be phenomenal. It CAN be good.