having now seen Reflekdoll

[chanter1944]

We've got canonical transformation and detransformation phrases for Nathalie/Mayura. Not what I expected. I'm... kind of grateful they don't match the ones I'm using for Not Alone 'verse Émilie. I'm coming to subscribe more and more to the 'phrasing is individual, to a point, dependent on wielder' school of thought. 'Fall my feathers' is an awkward construction; I wonder if Nathalie was borrowing at least partially from Hawkmoth when she first used it, and the phrase stuck?

The peafowl miraculous is still canonically damaged, judging by Nathalie's reaction post detransformation. Hawkmoth has gone from objecting to Nathalie wielding it to actively seeking her assistance as Mayura, though he's still concerned about her once she drops her transformation. Is it just me, or is he trying to hide the extent of the toll the damaged miraculous is taking on her from Duusu? Not sure that'll work very well, considering, but there is such a thing as desperate denial. On two sides, even.

And oh, Duusu. :( At first I thought we were still with Marinette's friends, and that it was Rose squeeing the "That. was. awesome!" line. I'm choosing to read that reaction as Duusu being as upbeat as possible about the events of the afternoon overall and not about the being used for evil thing, because that kwami is neither clueless nor evil. Maybe well on the naive side, and a ball of emotions, which of course, but not evil, and not a ditz. There really are some similarities to Rose here, aren't there? The "... On second thought no, that wasn't awesome at all," fits really well, in two ways. One, see above and the whole so very not an evil kwami thing, and two, concern for Nathalie. ... Oh shards, I got the ball of exuberant emotions thing right in fic, and I've just had it confirmed.

... Oh, Duusu. <3 :( My headcanon voice for you was not nearly so squeaky. It can work.

The Not Alone 'verse stays firmly as it is, squeaky high-pitched voice or no. Genderfluid, often though not always feminine Duusu remains a go.

... Did Nathalie/Mayura have very little in the way of a transformation theme, or is it just me? ETA, thank you Silveradept: Aha, I see what was going on here. The transformation theme just blended so well into the surrounding music of the episode that it wasn't as distinct as some of the others are, but it's there. And oooooh, it starts darkish and really goes dark at the end for sure. Poor Duusu.

And is it also just me, or was Marinette far more comfortable with Chat Noir's keywords, during her stint as Lady Noire, than Adrien was with hers while he was being M. Bug? I heard "Plagg, claws out!" with relish, and calling cataclysm was the same. Not that Adrien/M. Bug wasn't all in and rather having fun with the temporary change, but Marinette/Lady Noire sounded like she was definitely enjoying it!

Just for confirmation's sake, sentimonsters (or an analog, again depending on wielder) form around objects belonging to the being they're drawn from, after an object has been imbued with power by the magical feather? Trying to make sure I don't frak up an upcoming fic scene.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

Visual detail right before Nathalie transformed: the Peacock Miraculous sputtering between active and inactive states. I think we are also supposed to read the sentimonster going haywire when Lady Noire applied Cataclysm as indication of the Peacock Miraculous being damaged? Not sure though. (By the way, that's C A T A C L Y S M; the spelling you're using makes me think of 'catechism', which is, uh, amusing to contemplate in context of kwami are little gods!)

Correct re sentimonsters; the steering column in the doll head was the oversized edition of a hair clip of Juleka's, probably the same one that she was fiddling with at a couple points, notably including when Luka used it to put up her bangs before she headed over to model for Marinette. And apparently the correct word for the magical feather is 'amok'.

[chanter1944]

*swears* *fixes ridiculous spelling frakup* Argh!

Oh goodness, re visual detail! :( Poor Duusu! Poor Nathalie too, really, but she's not the one linked to the miraculous. So it flickers or sputters as it's activating or deactivating? :(

I caught that re amok. That tells, considering what sentimonsters have both been used for and fueled by.

[alexseanchai]

She wasn't transforming yet, and we didn't see her transformation drop at the right angle. But it was going between the five-feather blue-with-pink version and the nine-feather blue-and-green version with this creepy lightning effect. It was not doing that while she was transformed, but we did not see it stabilize either way while she wasn't transformed, either.

[chanter1944]

Ooooooh. :( And here was me not realizing just how distinct the inactive and active modes of a miraculous appeared from each other!

[alexseanchai]

The others don't look as different, though. The Ladybug earrings are the same shape either way, just they're red with black spots when she's Ladybug—or, apparently, when Tikki picks them up to go find Marinette—and plain black, or possibly very dark red, when she's Marinette. The Black Cat ring doesn't change shape either, it just goes from black with a green pawprint to plain silver. Fox, Turtle, Bee, and Rabbit Miraculouses, same pattern. (I don't think we've gotten a good enough look at the Monkey, we haven't gotten a high-quality look at the Dragon, and we haven't seen the others up close enough.) The Butterfly only has its wings when Hawkmoth's transformed; it's a small oval otherwise.

That said, I am informed in comments to my today fic that when Marinette was wearing the ring, it was rose gold, not silver. I need to check this. The Ladybug earrings have been repeatedly shown with butterfly earnuts, which were not a thing a hundred years ago, so the Miraculouses looking different when inactive for different wielders is not implausible because clearly they change shape to blend in with current styles anyway, but I am not sure I believe rose gold. (I ain't changing my fic if I was wrong, though.)

[chanter1944]

Ooh, thank you for the clue-in! :)

I can see minor changes in the appearance of a miraculous, especially an inactive one, depending on time period and wielder. ... I'm still loving the active and inactive versions of the peafowl miraculous best of all.

Rose gold, huh? I wonder.

[alexseanchai]

Huh. Commenter was right, the ring was rose gold when Marinette wore it. Same shape, as far as I can tell, but definitely rose gold. And the earrings when Adrien handed them back to Tikki did not look nearly that similar to earrings as Marinette ordinarily wears them—flat silver-tone discs with a subtle pattern I can't quite make out, instead of black-or-dark-red cabochons.

[chanter1944]

Ooh. Adrien seems to have a silver thing going, by the sound of it. And inactive miraculouses really do shift some aspects of appearance depending on wielder.

[silveradept]

I'm not all that fond of the canonical transformation phrase there, either. "Spread my fathers" doesn't work all that great for me "Fan my feathers" would be better, but I'm not all that fond of "[Z] my feathers" as a construction.

Also, regarding theme, if you have seen "Ladybug", Mayura picks up a variation that's basically an extended riff on Hawkmoth's "Catalyst" transformation.

[chanter1944]

I've only just seen this, ack! You already know I've seen Ladybug, because of discussion elsepost and backchannel. I *much* prefer Mayura's theme in this episode, Hawkmoth's chord at the end notwithstanding, to the downright ominous creepiness that is the extended Catalyst riff.

Re Nathalie transforming: I'm not all that fond of the construction of that pair of phrases either. I'm going to be playing with wording in fic, or rather Émilie is, on this very subject.

[silveradept]

Yay for thoughts on the transformation phase.

I can see why you would prefer this one that at least makes gestures toward heroism, rather than the one that's being done specifically for terrible reasons.

[chanter1944]

My biases tell again, do they? XD Mayura's initial theme really does have the wistful, not-quite-evil thing going for it, at least at first... and then Hawkmoth's chord busts in and makes it plain just who she's working with and for, once and... well maybe not for all? A girl can hope.

[silveradept]

There's always hope. Given Nathalie's devotion and Gabriel's…personality, though, there's probably going to have to be a major break between them before the situation well change. And, truthfully, Nathalie in "Ladybug" is being smart, it's that Ladybug is naturally lucky along with being smart and the breaks fall against Mayura.

On a purely musically aesthetic level, I like the "Ladybug" variation more, because it fits the context better.