Miraculous Ladybug, a show that is considered a classic and nostalgic show for Gen Z. Most of the adults who grew up with the show still continue to hold a special place in their heart for the show. Why wouldn’t they? Looking at the show, the bigger question would be why wouldn’t someone who grew up with this not appreciate it even a little bit? It has likeable characters, romance, humor, action, and iconic designs. Really catering towards a lot of audiences alongside children.
Minus the writing problems in the show as well as character development issues, there is one thing outside of that device you use to watch it, and that’s none other than the creator and writer: Thomas Astruc.
So much of the things that seem normal in the show are just Thomas Astruc’s weird, creepy, and borderline harassment.
CHAP 1: HIS EX
Starting with the very beginning of the show, it was obviously made by Thomas Astruc. When coming up with the idea, he obviously needed to make the names for the characters. Early on he was dating this French-Chinese lady named Sabine. Now keep in mind that they were dating in the very early production of Miraculous. So in Thomas’s mind, he decides to make the main character Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s parents’ names Tom, and can you guess it? Sabine is the mothers name; yep he named a character after his girlfriend. Now in the mid-to-early production of the first season of the show, Thomas and Sabine break up. The reasons are unknown to the public, but Thomas, rather than changing the names before moving on to the animation step and scriptwriting, decides to keep the names. This can really be seen two ways, either as creepy or as making sense for cost and time efficiencies.
That wasn’t incoherently wrong, as from a budget standpoint it might be able to be considered understandable so that production can move as fast as possible. It is really the thing Thomas regards after that, that is really creepy and disgusting. To understand Thomas a little more, he was very well known to constantly be posting on X a lot. Mostly answering fan questions and going on random rants about fans of the show. Thomas’ old posts would continuously talk and rant about Sabine. One post specifically was concerning fans. It started with a fan asking a question roughly translating to “Hello, I have a question: The name of the dad of Marinette ‘Tom,’ does it have something to do with your name?” with Thomas responding, “Yep. At the time, my girlfriend was a french/chinese girl called Sabine. So it was as if Marinette was our virtual child.” This would again be bad enough, but Thomas found a way to make it just uncomfortable in some now-deleted posts, saying basically that ‘the real-life Sabine and him will always be connected because they share a child,’ as well as continuously just saying that Marinette is their child and how connected they are because of her. At some points it’s hard to tell if they still want it to be public or not, as depending on your word choices when searching for how Sabine’s name came out, half of the times it reports that she was named after ‘just a friend’ of Thomas. While others will straight out say ex girlfriend.
CHAP 2: HIS OBSESSION WITH MARINETTE
Now that we’ve covered his, well, interesting behavior with his ex, it’s only fair we talk about his obsession with his “daughter.” Marinette as a character is often described as a stalker and often forces Adrien into uncomfortable positions. It is not normal for anyone to make gifts for the next ten years for someone, have their schedules for the next 3 years mapped out, make a macaroon every weekend just in case she bumps into Adrien, and even attempt to harass a statue that looks like the person they like. Marinette is obviously speaking unhealthily, obsessed with Adrien, putting him in uncomfortable positions, and being just well creepy. So most people are uncomfortable with her behavior and think it’s wrong to normalize
This is a different story for Thomas’ surprise. He once again sees Marinette as his daughter. But not just any daughter, his perfect little daughter who could do no harm. So when fans have brought up that it’s wrong to portray and normalize a character like this for a kids show and that it’s harmful, he gets really upset. When a fan posted on X that Marinette’s stalking behavior is uncomfortable and just “unhealthy and obsessive,” Thomas decided to respond as soon as he could. He confidently stated, “She may be obsessed [with] him, but she’s not stalking. There’s no harassment. She’s not threatening. Adrien himself considers her as a close friend. She’s the one who suffers from this. Not Adrien.” If anyone watched one episode of Miraculous, they could 100% tell that Marinette’s actions are completely unhealthy. It’s not called “obsessive” when she is literally watching him with binoculars without him knowing; that is stalking, point blank, period. According to Florida Courts, the definition of stalking is “Occurs when a person willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows, harasses, or cyberstalks another person” (flcourts). Repeatedly follows and cyberstalks; does that sound familiar to something one blue-haired pigtailed girl consistently does to her crush? Yeah, stalking is considered obsessive behavior; it can be a two-in-one and trying to remove the illegal things Thomas’s “daughter” does is disgusting.
He doesn’t stop there, of course, as again a fan pointed out, “What 15-year-old wants to go and feel up a statue and go in for a kiss??? This cartoon promotes stalker behavior and unhealthy obsession. Marinette had never had [any] kind of character development; it’s the same thing every episode.” Again, Thomas angrily tweets “1-The show states clearly that Marinette’s inability to express her love for Adrien properly is her biggest flaw. Please refrain from spreading such false accusations. 2-Start of S1, she doesn’t want to be a hero. End of S3 she’s a guardian.” Yep, again he is diminishing the harm Marinette does to the audience in defending her. Yet another quote has a fan saying, “Marinette having an obsessive crush isn’t [a] personality trait. Thomas, totally super surprisingly, responds with anger, “It is. As well as being generous, kind hearted, creative, smart, funny, fallible, sensitive, etc. Now enjoy your block!” If you could tell yet, just like Sabine, he has an unhealthy obsession with someone. The difference is that Marinette is a fictional character, one Thomas made himself. The reason he keeps defending her? Well, he sees Marinette as a real daughter, rather than the character he made. In a deleted post he had talked about how perfect his “little girl” is. This is why for every single action that has been criticized about Marinette, he will either defend her or try to manipulate the audience to feel bad for her. So phrases such as “Marinette is a stalker” change to “Marinette only does it because of trauma, and it’s soooo sad,” like that’s a good reason to stalk someone. Not to mention the backstory is flawed, and nobody even realizes it.
In season 1 the episode titled ‘Darkblade’ Chloe, the bully, is running for class representative, and Marinette asks her classmates if they are running for it. One of the students she asked, Kim, responded with “[Chloe] threatened to tell everyone I’m afraid of spiders.” Doesn’t seem important, right? Well, in season 5, in the episode “Derision” they try to explain why Marinette is a stalker. In this flashback happening a year before the present day, Marinette had a crush on Kim. She goes to the swimming pool only to be pranked by Kim with Chloe smiling at her and without words, explaining to Marinette that she had something to do with it. She then exclaimed that she’ll never have a crush without knowing everything about them, and she ends up being afraid of the pool. Two problems: in many episodes before, she was fine with the pool. The second is the prank. The prank pulled on her is where she and Kim are alone standing on a diving board, and he hands her a box. She opens it, and can you guess what was in it? Spiders, the thing Kim is afraid of. Making no sense why Kim would just laugh rather than run away or be a little panicked. Both of these really just show they are willing to make writing mistakes just to justify Marinette’s creepy actions. Thomas would have his darling daughter be misunderstood and justified rather than making a plot that coherently makes sense.
CHAP 3: CHAT NOIR
Ahh yes, one of the two main characters and superheroes. Chat Noir is a fan favorite. Well, not for Thomas; in the beginning, he would post a lot of tweets saying that Chat Noir and Ladybug are equal. But it didn’t take long for him to show his true feelings towards Chat Noir. Yet again, he goes on X, typing, “Who comforted the whole terrified city when Hawk Moth first appeared? Who saves the day every time with only a dumb object? Who’s fixing everything and healing everyone each time? People of Paris praise Chat Noir. But they have all the reasons to praise Ladybug more.” Now what’s the problem with this, you may ask? Well, canonically nobody really praises Chat Noir. Every time he is alone with someone else, they immediately ask, “where’s ladybug?” As if he’s not a superhero either. Heck, Chat Noir barely gets any solo fights all of season 1. Unlike Ladybug, who countless times gets her own heroic moments. It’s almost like for Thomas Chat Noir, even getting a little attention and praise is too much, and every amount of praise should go to Chat Noir. It’s even more solidified his feelings towards Chat Noir when he makes a post commenting on a rant about the unfair treatment of Chat Noir’s character, saying, “She’s Barbie, he’s Ken. You don’t like it. I get it. It won’t change. Anything else?” This sentence feels just like the sentence from the Barbie movie when Ken says something along the lines of “You’re Barbie, and I’m just Ken.” Yeah it kind of feels like Thomas means, right? Because again his daughter needs all of the praise and attention because she is perfect and everyone should love her.
CHAP 4: EGOTISTICAL CREATOR
What role in movie production do you think is just so underappreciated? The animators, screenwriters, sound track makers would be a normal answer. What problem is 100% not a normal answer? It is saying the director is the person that the audience knows apart from the actors. Tim Burton, Wes Anderson, and Walt Disney are all well-known directors. So what happens when Miraculous wants to spread awareness about the team working on the show? Can you guess who the character that gets their recognition is? Well, Thomas, obviously, this can seem normal; he is the director and creator. But it’s the plot of the episode that is, well, the problem. The plot was that his character, Thomas, was the director of a movie about Ladybug and Chat Noir. The episode consists of poor little Thomas not being appreciated at all, and he needs to be more recognized because nobody knows the directors. Yep, for Thomas it was not enough to name a character after himself and be Marinette’s dad, but he also needs to have a replica of himself in the show just so he can complain about how nobody appreciates him. Not only that though, no no, poor Thomas also just wants a macaroon, and keeps getting ignored and poor him isn’t respected. Okay Thomas, whatever you want at this point, I guess.
CHAP 5: HIS IMMATURITY WITH CHLOE
Chloe, just like Sabine, was based on someone Thomas had known in his life. In multiple instances Thomas has said that Chloe was made based on a childhood and high school bully. So what does he make Chloe? Well, a bully completely mirroring Thomas’s bully. Because of this, Thomas has vocally talked about his hatred towards the fictional teenage girl. If you watched up to season 3, you’d realize that Chloe started to have her redemption arc. She was starting to be accountable for her actions, she was more self-aware, and she even decided to help Ladybug over Hawk Moth despite the past instances with Ladybug. Yet when watching the fourth season, you quickly will realize that all of her progression as a character just stopped and she went back to her old ways. Why does her character grow basically in reverse? Well, originally Chloe was supposed to get her character growth and become better and a part of the main 5 group. But Thomas got very upset at this. Because Thomas, at the ripe age of 50, still is salty about being a high school bully that he refuses to let a good character have growth just because the character was based on this old bully from about 36 years ago.
Now understandably the public wasn’t happy about this. I mean, who would? Thomas is literally sacrificing writing yet again just because he’s hung up about something. Again on X, a fan posts, “I’ll never understand how the creator hates his own creation. What’s the point of keep ruining Chloe ? She was about to be so good in the season YOU didn’t participate in.” Thomas, like always, responds saying, “1-Assuming I hate my own creation is the consequences of a toxic mindset of yours. 2-I participated [in] all seasons.” Under any other circumstances or person, this response would make sense, but not for Thomas. He never admitted he does hate Chloe because in saying that he’d prove the poster’s point, so instead he makes a vague comment about it. However, Thomas, this is not clarifying anything, as you can’t just try to act like you’re on a high horse and are a professional writer while at the same time posting hate threads for said character.
In another thread with a fan, Thomas Astruc just easily proves my point. The user questions, “In Chat Blanc why did Marinette break into Adrien’s house and lie on his bed and not get consequences? Why did she try to sabotage Kagami in Animaestro but got to sit next to Adrien in the end? Doesn’t this seem problematic and creepy to you?” This raises a lot of good questions about Thomas’s favoritism towards his “daughter,” and Thomas promptly responds with, “In Chat Blanc, she provokes the end of the world and fixes it. Same for Animestro. Provokes an akumatisation, fixes her mess, and in the end, she’s the only one who recognizes the director. That’s the difference between Chloe who never learns, and Marinette who fixes her mess.” This shows the audience in general so much about his messed-up thinking process. Chloe does have character development and makes up for her actions as much as she can for a semi-normal student. Marinette, however, doesn’t really get any character development. She stayed a stalker for almost the whole series up until the end of season 5, and even then that doesn’t last long, as she goes back to her old stalking ways in the first few episodes of season 6. Even the argument that she always fixes her mistakes is flawed, as she creates a problem, and as one of Paris’s primary superheroes, she always has to fix her mistakes, except when it comes to harassing Adrien. While Chloe does change and even willingly brings up things that she did wrong in the past, acknowledging her wanting to change. The original poster makes a comment on Thomas’s response, further arguing, “But shouldn’t she receive consequences for her actions? Maybe getting told off by Adrien for harassing a girl out of spite? Why is her behavior shown to be cute when it’s disgusting and creepy? And we’re not talking about Chloe right now; it’s not my fault you can’t write her.” Again, this sparks Thomas’s response: “Funny you’d want Marinette to get punished she fixes her mess, while you never bring that up for Chloe who never [learns]. I guess your biased moral compass prevents you from appreciating the writing. Enjoy your block!” It is immature and yet again highlights his parasocial relationship with Marinette.
He’s probably the only long-term fan who completely hates Chloe’s character. It seems to him the more people like her, the angrier he gets. When a fan decided to stay optimistic in Chloe and posted “I hope she returns the miraculous to Chloe, she deserves it :)” Thomas rudely responded saying, “If she no longer has it, it is precisely because she does not deserve it.” The fan understandably gets upset, saying, “don’t do this to my little heart :(“ and rather than showing any amount of empathy towards this fan, Thomas just coldly replies with, “I can’t help it, you’re lying to each other about the character.” It is honestly sad that a writer would see a fan of their work and so unapologetically crush their own hopes. The poster wasn’t saying Thomas NEEDED to give it back to Chloe or anything. All this fan was saying was a personal hope for the show, and Thomas could not handle that. If Thomas didn’t make it obvious enough from his posts that he doesn’t like Chloe, then literally using her name as an insult should be. When a fan was talking about the flawed writing at the end of season 4 and all of season 5, Thomas responds with, “We recognized you Chloe!”
Along with other tweets about how awful Chloe is as a person, her character has just basically ended up as the bully who got removed because the writer hates her so much. It’s truly sad that Thomas couldn’t be professional in his writing and instead sabotaged a character just because he can’t get over something that happened over 35 years ago.
CHAP 6: CONCERNING COMMENT
It’s not surprising that Thomas has said a lot of bad things throughout the years. It’s interesting that most of the public either knows him as the angel creator of Miraculous, a childhood favorite show, or as the man who both created and sabotaged the show. But many people don’t know about the disgusting allegations against him outside of the characters. Most of these are alleged, with some being confirmed by archived posts. The first allegation against him is that a fan of the show who briefly talked to Thomas made a post tagging Astruc saying, “@Thomas_Astruc why’d you call my bff the n word???” While there is no proof of him saying this there is proof of the original poster and their friend having conversations with Thomas in the few conversations that weren’t deleted. With another poster making a comment. It is important to know this poster is very proud to be a lesbain as well as a fan of Miraculous. She made a post on X tagging Thomas and claiming that “@Thomas_Astruc [called] her a [word that starts with a D and rhymes with Spike] once.” It is completely inappropriate for Thomas to be calling anyone that.
Even when a fan asked excitedly if the show would ever “get a hijabi/muslim character on miraculous eventually” Thomas just responded with it being a “private matter” as well as him wanting to “keep children from any sensitive matter.” Which would be ok if you’re talking about heavy topics, not something like a hijabi. Including characters in a kids’ show who have different conditions, outward appearances, or customs can make a child feel seen. Especially if people around them have features that are rarely seen on TV especially for a kids’ show. This post made most people confused and they questioned why it’s such a big deal to him. Questioning in threads if he has religiophobia stemming from the fact that he’s an atheist. He never once denied these claims.
Thomas is an example of someone who has emotional immaturity that impacts writing and plot. He may have created Miraculous, but with that came parasocial relationships, phobia, self-centeredness, and hatred from him. It is truly no wonder why people have problems with him. Even in this article, it just barely scratches the surface of his problematic posts and views on life and the show as a whole. In making something that children love, he glorifies everything wrong with his mindset.
It is truly a case of a show that people love and can love, but a creator that makes sense to dislike.
