I came up with this question when I started doing criticisms of particular characters and noticed some parallels.
To start off with the most obvious, the dead mother being the driving force to the main characters. Even though not everyone is aware of Emilie, she is the driving force to everything going on in the story. They're trying to stop the main antagonist from destroying the universe, as they know it to bring her back to life. What Emily doesn't have going for her is all of the characters being aware of her.
Everyone is aware of rose quartz and then later aware of pink diamond which adds so much more to the story! Most of the events happened because of her, but not all of them. Sometimes life happens, and that's great, too!
Steven Universe has a better take on "alternative" family setups. Not to say miraculous didn't try. A lot of single parents in that show, but no one in a polyamorous family.
Speaking of polyamory, Steven Universe invited polyamory close to the end of the show whereas Miraculous went out of their way to disparage polyamory in an ice cream metaphor. People aren't ice cream and polyamory is valid.
Main character doesn't know how to act around the love interest. Steven and Connie when they first met. Marinette after she realizes Adrien isn't self-centered. Everyone came in with a poor judgment of Adrien because Chloe was his only friend until he branched out on his own.
Putting relevant parties and main characters at a distance. The Crystal gems did that hardcore with Steven until things came to a head and Steven was lashing out really hard. We see that with ladybug keeping chat noir in the dark and him becoming frustrated about it. What made it work with Steven universe is that they all had one relative character at the center of the activities to make it relatable whereas miraculous does it just because Marinette wants to be selfish. I also want to point out that Master Fu supposedly explained everything off screen, but Adrien's behavior didn't change. When they finally explain things to Steven and Steven makes things clear with Connie the story moves forward in a very healthy manner. Or, as healthy as it can with all the trauma.
Main character being nervous about the love interest engaging in their dangerous activities. Doesn't really know how to handle partnership at first. This is in Steven universe a little bit, and extended throughout the Miraculous series.
Characters with hardcore abandonment and trust issues. Pearl. Lapis Lazuli. Adrian. Chloe.
Characters with poor self image. Mainly Amethyst. Kind of everyone in miraculous but mainly marinette. Except when amethyst does it it makes sense because she was a part of a war machine that was meant to kill the Earth, and when she was born she was alone because the kindergarten had been abandoned. Marinette emerges from a relatively healthy background with close friends and a strong community.
Outkast being taken in by the main characters. Lapis Lazuli. Peridot. Zoe. Nathaniel. Marc.
Giving in to their abuser. Lapis Lazuli, but she eventually fights back. Adrian, but it's understandable because that's his father.
Extremely manipulative hurtful characters. Jasper. Blue diamond. A lot of other arguable characters. Lila. Sometimes, Marinette.
Characters constantly discrediting other characters for their powers and their roles. It's like classism. This is major between Pearl and Amethyst and ladybug and Chat noir. Where is miraculous is all about sitting on your feelings, Steven universe is all about the emotional breakdowns so their issue actually gets resolved and it's not dragged out of frustrating pace like miraculous.
Main character solving everyone's problems with talking and complex resolutions rather than violence. Steven universe did this really well, but at some point I did get bored with the lack of action on Steven's part. The way that ladybugs resolutions always have to be complicated becomes frustrating after a while. Steven talked it out with beings that were genuinely hurt and needed some sort of resolution or closure. Every fight with ladybug is like a puzzle when things could just be more straightforward or involve more action-oriented victories.
Losing control of powers. Steven finding out he has different powers and randomly losing control of his powers because they're directly connected to his emotions. Tikki with the galette cravings. Plagg flying off on to get cheese and often getting in trouble.
Everyone is well to do. Even though there are a lot of real world issues, none of the main characters are facing anything like poverty. Steven universe plays this very cool citing that some of the issues are resolved by resourcefulness and magic. Everyone in miraculous ladybug has a silver spoon in their mouth, and ladybug's powers are literally to maintain the status quo.
Power Dynamic struggles in relationships. Although Ruby and Sapphire handed their situation a lot better. Ladybug and Cat Noir were just toxic. They also did this with Chloe and Zoe, and arguably with Marinette and her family, and Adrien and his situation. I will say that struggles with Marinette were less coded whereas things with Adrien were more obvious. And of course, Kagami. But the way they did it with Adrien and Kagami was so one-sided it was just disrespectful and abuse. Power Dynamic struggles don't have to be about abuse.
Other characters families knowing each other getting along. There's nothing wrong with this.
Characters being forced into roles. Of course this is a major thing and Steven universe, but it somehow seems a lot less tragic when it's held next to miraculous. Marinette is forced to be the guardian and will eventually lose her memories from her formative teenage years to whenever she passes along the miracle box. In Steven universe the homeworld gems are forced into roles from foraging/ "birth", and the way it's executed is actually relatable in human history where people would be forced into jobs and roles based on class. Acting outside of those roles can mean death.
Catboys! Adrien and Cookie cat! Adrien being inspired by Catwoman from batman. Cookie Cat being an anthropomorphic space traveling black cat boy!
I'm sure I'm missing some things, but these are the main ones that come to mind, for me.
Now, to look at how these shows are different in story.
Steven universe is a story for all ages. Miraculous was drafted as a story for teenagers but was filed down for the sake of selling toys to children.
A lot of the stuff that happens comes from stuff and out of space in Steven universe. It's not magic as much as it is alien technology. In miraculous, it's all Earthen magic.
Steven universe is a diverse cast written by adults with inspiration from their situations in childhood and children. Miraculous is a group of teenagers written by adults for the sake of selling toys.
Financial situations are not ambiguous and Steven universe, and there is a variety of financial situations. Everyone in miraculous is rich. Does France have ubi? Every now and then miraculous will talk about homeless people, but they don't show people in different financial situations.
Steven universe takes place in an alternate timeline still similar to ours. Miraculous is questionable. They have the same technology and they live in the very real Paris, but they also have made up countries and places - while they seem to be in our very real timeline in any other case.
Steven Universe is not a part of a social hierarchy with his peers. He doesn't go to school or anything. Miraculous has set up Marinette to be an awkward teenager that is very much low on the social hierarchy in her own head, but it's actually very famous. She's kind of a Mary Sue, if you zoom out.
Miraculous is about maintaining the status quo. Steven universe is about fighting fascism.
Steven universe doesn't talk down to you. You are an intelligent complex human being and you are here for the experience. Miraculous ladybug isn't talking to anyone, let alone itself. There's so much unresolvable conflict just because the writers want to push the "will they won't they" between Adrien and Marinette - while setting up the rule that they can't because of their secret identities.
That being said, miraculous ladybug especially in season 2 and 3 was built off of a struggle and power Dynamic and relationship dynamic between Adrian and Marinette as their superhero forms. Steven universe was built off of the multifaceted struggles of existing around other people while facing the consequences of a long running ambiguous person's actions. Steven universe is built off of the whole Human experience, even aside from the main plot with the rose quartz/ pink diamond/ home World stuff.
Very failed attempts at diversity on miraculous part. I will consider that miraculous is probably Progressive by French standards, but I don't see why this show was ported to the United States when we have shit like Steven universe, adventure time, and pretty much anything else that can just slap an black and brown and openly queer characters into the mix. Over here, queer characters are normal. By our standards, miraculous ladybug would be our 90s progressive. The lead character is female, and she's white asian but she's white. Her main team member and love interest is a rich, famous, heterosexual, cisgender, able-bodied, white male. The two characters after them being the main characters best friends are heterosexual, cisgender, able-bodied, rich, brown people.
Steven universe topples them and diversity! Including characters with disabilities. The town they live in has a lot of diversity, they are an unconventional family, and they even have disability covered with peridot having dwarfism. They also go over temporary disabilities, like when a gem gets cracked, Steven losing confidence in himself and ultimately losing his powers, etc. Another striking thing that Steven universe future brought up was psychological disorders that can manifest into physical disorders with Pink diamonds previous pearl having a cracked face and one eye with no damage to her pearl.
Steven universe had a much weirder and entertaining take on time travel.
In Miraculous, Hawk Moth said "people don't change; they grow." In miraculous, people don't grow they change. In Steven universe, people don't change they grow. Miraculous was very inconsistent and women wear the characters changed and regressed. Sometimes, they would forget their own rules all together. Ladybug and chat noir can't know each other's secret identities but everyone else can. Luca is walking around knowing who ladybug and Chat Noir are. Alya knows who ladybug is. There are no secret identities in Steven Universe, except for the reason why all of these events are happening.
Amethyst versus Adrian! Amethyst was constantly put out and put down by the other characters and had to work her way up in building her relationships and expressing her feelings about how she was being treated and all of this was a great compelling story on her end. I'm at this was doing that toxic cycle of behavior of being mad for being outcasted and lashing out and then being shoved more to the side after lashing out and people not even willing to hear her out. Adrian is a very poorly written version of that period Adrian is expendable to the story where is Amethyst was never expendable to the writers.
The attempts at relatibility in miraculous are a huge failure. For me, miraculous ladybug Rich teenagers that the rhinos try to make relatible just based on their flaws. It's about the different characters qualities and personalities on every level, for Steven universe. They're trauma, they're Passion, their goals, and how they perceive situations filtered through their own personalities and motives. Multifaceted beings that aren't relying on their flaws to be relatible to the audience.
Power sources. Technically Steven's power source is an item, but if it were removed he would die. Marinette has the choice of a variety of different powers, but if she were to relinquish all of those powers along with the miracle Box she would lose her memories which would be especially detrimental since she started being a guardian at 14.
Death is casual in miraculous. People get transformed into different forms, including inanimate objects which it would be easy to assume that they died. Somewhere in season 4 a fake ladybug and Chat were fighting each other and the illusion ladybug had Chat cataclysm himself. He turned to ash in front of all those people, and they didn't react to that. People were like "oh no ladybug is evil" rather than "oh no lady bug is a murderer who just killed her main partner in front of us!"
Steven universe handles death very seriously. In the rare occasion it's brought up, it is addressed with the utmost seriousness. There's a lot of reflection on death and how we live on through our loved ones. The story is driven off of how someone will have to pay for a deceased loved one's actions. That's something that media rarely represents and even more rarely as extensive as Steven Universe.
That's all I can think of, but even all of this is a lot so I'll leave it here. Time for the wrap up.
My conclusion:
Miraculous The tails of ladybug and black cat...
Was not trying to be the next even universe. Instead it tried to use a lot of serious topics as topics as throwaway tropes to make their characters relateable and failed at every time.
At 1st I went into this saying yeah, because there are a lot of Parallels. Failed parallels, but still. Given the quality of miraculous, they didn't make anything that will hold up and stand the test of time like Steven Universe has and will continue to. It's all about quality and effort which miraculous ladybug severely lacks. No one is going to be watching miraculous ladybug 5 years from now. People will still be watching Steven Universe they're still watching The Sopranos. Rebecca Sugar and her team made Steven Universe to last. Miraculous ladybug was made to sell toys, and used a lot of serious themes with empty execution to try to make it look good.
I'm not gonna tell you not to waste your time with miraculous. It's my hate watch. Waste your time on whatever you want.
I can tell you I won't be watching miraculous in 2 years no matter how long they try to drag it on. I forgot miraculous existed until I heard there was gonna be a season 5. I'm always looking up Steven universe fan content, remember how it made me feel, and re watching my favorite moments!
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