This Is A Fascinating Analysis, And It Also May Have Boosted My Level Of Relating To Adrien From A 7/10

That was the most asexual movie I've ever seen and I am here for it.

Dear Cartoon Network, HBO Max, and whoever else is in charge of Infinity Train these days,

You have decided not to renew Infinity Train because the next season has no child entry point. Though this is a conclusion that makes sense, it is a decision that is largely unsupported and will lead to a great loss, both on your part and on the part of its audience.

Season five does not need a child entry point, because any children watching the show are already invested in the characters that will lead the season. They need no entry point because they have already entered. You do not need to worry about grabbing their attention, because Amelia and One-One have already grabbed it.

Yes, you could argue that since this is a new season, the show has to regain investment from the audience. And, as you believe children make up a large part of the audience, the show has to capture a child's interest. You believe children make up the majority of Infinity Train's audience because animation has always been considered a child's art form. Assuming this is true, then isn't the child entry point the very medium of the season? If the majority of the audience is children, that is because animation appeals to children. And if animation appeals to children, does that not make it a child entry point?

But the truth is, when it comes down to it, you don't need a child entry point. This is because Infinity Train appeals to adults and teenagers, not just children. This is not a weakness or a paradox; if anything, it is a strength. After all, children are not the ones who buy subscriptions—adults are. And it is guaranteed that the adults will be deeply invested in season five, child entry point or not.

You cancelled Infinity Train because the next season does not have a child entry point. But it does, in the form of familiar and beloved characters, as well as animation. And even if those don't count as entry points, the season does not need an entry point, because Infinity Train is not just a children's show, it is a people's show.

Sincerely,

a child who is already invested in season five, no entry point required

Women in suits are the best thing

No idea who my favorite Infinity Train character is, but Grace is definitely the coolest.

So, has anyone figured out yet that I love this boy

Happy New Year everyone! 2020 is FINALLY over (at least for me)! Man, what an awful year. Listen, I'm not asking for 2021 to be perfect or anything, but could we please just have it be not quite as apocalyptic as 2020?

Even Simon wouldn't make the mistake of cancelling Infinity Train

Huh.

Huh.

I can't decide whether or not Optygami lived up to my hopes.

On the one hand, we definitely saw the negative consequences of the Miracle Queen reveal. Optygami was the closest Ladybug has come to being found out, and it was a tense and frustrating episode. There were definitely at least moderately disastrous consequences.

But on the other hand, none of those disastrous consequences were permanent. Ladybug and Chat Noir were not outed, no one lost a miraculous, no one was hurt or injured. Causing lasting harm to plot or character is difficult with a show as episodic as ML, but we have seen lasting damage done in one specific area: relationships. Friendships, and romantic ships, have been injured in this show before--when you get down to it, those are our stakes. And no relationships were damaged irreparably in Optygami.

So the writers probably upped the sense of stakes with this episode. But they also gave Alya her miraculous, permanently. I'm overjoyed at this in terms of Alya and Mari's friendship, as well as both of their character arcs, but it seems like a . . . questionable decision narratively.

I don't know. We'll see. In conclusion, my thoughts on Optygami are as ambiguous as the episode was. It definitely showed some negative consequences of reveals, but showed a lot more positives and took the Alyanette reveal arc even further into risky territory.

Hopes for Optygami

Miraculous Ladybug set up a good stakes system in the first three seasons with this simple rule: identities must not be revealed. If they are, there will be dire consequences. Hence, while we don't really believe that our main characters are ever at risk of dying, we can accept that they might someday lose their masks, and that that would be bad. It's a risk that adds real weight to the action and plot. It also justifies the endless identity dance between Marinette and Adrien. But then Miracle Queen happened, and all the heroes except for our main two were outed. We saw no consequences in that episode. We saw no consequences in the NY special, and we've seen no consequences in season four yet, either. This makes the entire narrative feel far less convincing and lowers the tension immensely. Not to mention that it almost completely invalidates how Adrien and Marinette continue to hide their identities from each other. (It doesn't invalidate their secrets completely because we're not going to forget Chat Blanc any time soon, but it still lowers the stakes considerably.) Not only are almost all the superheroes out, but Alya still sometimes runs around as Rena Rouge, despite her identity being publicized. And she knows Ladybug's identity, which we've been told is dangerous, but we haven't seen anything that convinces us it's dangerous. The thing is, we have seen negative consequences of identity reveals. Chloe being akumatized is one instance, and another is Chat Blanc. But the show has done nothing with the biggest large-scale identity reveal so far (the one at the end of season three), which makes the "we must keep our identites a secret" spiel very hard to swallow, and makes the entire plot feel almost risk-free. I hope that Optygami shows us the negative consequences of this large-scale identity reveal, and returns strength to the narrative by doing so. TL;DR: With a few rare exceptions, we haven't seen much to back up the story's constant claim that identity reveals are dangerous. I hope that Optygami will finally show us some of the disastrous consequences of identity reveals, thus adding more weight and stakes to the narrative and justifying Marinette and Adrien's continued secrecy.

The proper move when you have a sucky week is to figure out what made it sucky, buckle down, and work hard so next week isn't as sucky. But I'm tired so instead I just drew Sep