hj ❤︎ ‘s adrienette

OKAY BUT CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE PARALLELS BETWEEN LILA AND ADRIEN JUST FOR A MOMENT This season basically establishes that Adrien is on his way to discovering who he is. And at the same time, we're shown that Lila has developed this obsession with uncovering Ladybug's identity and now Chat Noir's as a way of avoiding having to confront her biggest personal conflict: who she really is. Both Adrien and Lila lack a sense of personal identity. They're both children who were abandoned (in different ways) by their primary caregivers, and both were shaped by their life experiences into adopting an identity that was never truly their own, but rather a reflection of what was missing in their respective environments: "I can be whoever you want/need me to be if it means I can be loved" (Adrien) & "I can be whoever I want/need to be if it means I can make all my desires come true" (Lila) But neither of them knows what they're genuinely passionate about or what truly defines them as individuals. Adrien craves genuine love, while Lila... I'm still not entirely sure, but it's obvious that there's an internal conflict related to abandonment that makes her reject all the affection she's received from all her adoptive families. What's also particularly interesting is how they act as foils to each other. Adrien seeks connection through open communication and honesty (with certain limitations due to his identity), while Lila CREATES connections through lies and manipulation. At the same time, Adrien has barely had the chance to experience what it's like to have a family, while Lila has had MANY, and somehow none of them seem to be enough. This is probably because she tries to compensate for her abandonment and emotional deprivation through material possessions, status and now the power to grant all her wishes (the miraculous). Ultimately, they're two different yet contrasting outcomes of what it means to be abandoned.