Miraculous Aeon - Tumblr Posts

So I saw the Miraculous New York Special last week and there has been one thing that has been bothering me and a few people mentioned it already, so let’s go over it.

Let’s talk about Aeon/Uncanny Valley

Uncanny Valley is an American Superhero. She’s an Android built by the superhero Majestia, who considers her and treats her like a daughter. Now when I heard that her hero name was uncanny valley my initial thoughts were “huh that’s kind of a mean name for a robot”. For those of you who don’t know, the uncanny valley is a concept that states robots are more appealing the more human they appear, but lately the term is used to describe how unsettling robots and dolls are the more human they look. That is because your brain can tell something is off about it. It looks very human, but off enough that it can be unsettling. Like the motion capture Polar Express movie.

This wouldn’t be so bad if not for one other thing, that being that Uncanny Valley’s human form is a dark-skinned black girl named Aeon.

There is also the chance that having her robotic form look like this could be considered white washing?

Now I want to say right now that I think the creators had good intentions with this. Their logic was probably something like “Well, America is a country with a large black population, and we already want our new miraculous holder to be Native American (see Aeon’s sister, Jess), so let’s have our other new character represent that. At the very worst if this action could be considered carelessness or a failure to see if this is a bad choice.

There is a scene in the middle of the special where Cat Noir accidentally uses Cataclysm on her, breaking her, but Ladybug is able to use Miraculous Ladybug to reverse it. They talk about how relieved they are that they were able to fix it because Aeon is a machine. I think that’s in there just to point out that they don’t now if they could reverse it if it were a human he used it on instead of a machine. Aside from that everyone is very disturbed by the incident itself, especially Majestia, who is establish as being a protective mother towards Aeon.

As a character Aeon is actually very sweet. You can tell that her Moms and sister really care about her like she is a human and that she cares about other people. She seems to be a pretty standard example of the robot trope. She takes her programming literally and as a result is always trying to help people, like by setting up Andrien and Marinette. Sort of like “always a little too-well intention” type deal. They seems to be trying make her an innocent and good hearted type of character.

She is also a technological foil to the magical elements of the Miraculous universe, like not being able to see kwamis and being able to see through Ladybug and Chat Noir’s transformations. If we actually do get a spin off series like the Miraculous World logo and after credits scene implies, she may end up getting the standard character arc about learning how being a robot does not make her any less human than other people. Where she made any other race, I don’t think she would have been written any differently. I believe the decision to make her design black was done for representation. Which begs the question: is it good representation?

I have not seen many people say anything about Aeon which leads me to believe that she is actually very likeable character and I would like to see more of her myself. But I wanted to discuss some of these concerns I had and I noticed a few other people bring up.

It makes us ask what are the rules when writing humanoid or fantasy characters that are POC or coded as such? It’s nice to include them in fantasy or sci fi scenarios and the same roles have been done by white characters before, but because of the different contexts or implications that come with writing these types of characters, should we be more aware when writing them?

What did you guys think about the new Miracuoous Special Episode || I know I'm like 2 months late,, but I tried my best on drawing Jess and Aeon. Ngl,, I mainly liked the visuals. The lighting looks way better than the actual show. Although I'm curious on how Majestia gets her powers because it's not from a miraculous...

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🌷Characters: #miraculousjess #miraculousaeon

✨Actors: @/jaimigray @/kimberlywoods on ig

💧Show: @miraculous

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🌷Repost w/Credit

✨Materials: iPad 7th Gen, Apple Pen 1st Gen, Medibang

💧Time Taken: 1hr46mins

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