YMMV / Miraculous Ladybug S01 E15 "The Gamer"

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was Max solely bitter that he'd been pushed out of a spot in a tournament he'd been working hard to be in by a relative rookie, or were there some elements of I Was Beaten by a Girl in there, too? Note that he only goes after Marinette after his akumatization, even though he was beaten by both her and Adrien.^note Though there's no indication in the episode he even sees Adrien at the park, and it's likely he would've targeted him later.
• Informed Wrongness: Oh so many layers of it. For starters, Marinette is portrayed as being in the wrong for wanting to compete in the Ultimate Mecha Strike III tournament just to spend time with Adrien since representing the school is Serious Business, even though anyone at school was allowed to try out for the tournament and the two available spots would only go to the top two students who earn them. Then, when she proves herself and gets the highest score in tryouts fair and square, she still gets scolded for beating out Max, who had practiced all year so he could compete. Later, Marinette giving up her spot in the tournament that she rightfully earned so that Max can compete is portrayed as her doing the right thing because the tournament means so much more to Max, never mind that this contradicts the earlier emphasis that the tryouts are meant to select the best students to represent the school. Not only that, but the show portrays Max's subsequent akumatization as being entirely due to Marinette (fairly) beating him, even though Adrien had also qualified over him due to having the second-highest score, with Max only coming in third. She's somewhat vindicated when Adrien gives up his spot instead and says Marinette should represent the school due to being the best player. However, while Adrien is portrayed as being in the right, none of the people who reproached Marinette earlier ever properly apologize or acknowledge she deserved to represent the school all along. There's also the fact that nobody points out Adrien's hypocrisy for dropping out so that someone who did worse than him in the tryouts can take his place. In fact, Max never apologizes for or gets called out on his unsportsmanlike behavior.
• Magnificent Bastard: Gamer is the akumatized form of Max Kanté and a technology gaming-based villain. In his first appearance, Gamer has the ability to absorb objects and people to upgrade himself and cleverly uses it to to evade and dominate the fight with the heroes. An expert game fighter, Gamer is able to keep the heroes on their toes by predicting their next move and then using it to his advantage. Returning after his first defeat, he upgrades himself to Gamer 2.0 and captures all previous akumatized villains to play a massive gaming tournament against the heroes while keeping them on their toes. After being defeated, Gamer 2.0 accepts his defeat gracefully while showing genuine respect to Ladybug for a game well played.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Marinette gets this a lot throughout the episode.
  • Alya is portrayed as being in the right when she scolds Marinette for only wanting to compete in the video game tournament to spend time with Adrien since representing the school is Serious Business and not taking the video game competition seriously; many viewers, however, disagreed with the implication that because Marinette had "impure" motives, she didn't deserve the right to participate in tryouts that were open to the whole school or prove that she's the best the player to represent the school.
  • When Marinette does prove herself and secures a spot in the tournament alongside Adrien by getting the highest score out of everyone who tried out, she gets called out again for being selfish and inconsiderate of how much Max wanted to compete in the tournament. His subsequent akumatization treated as justified and entirely her fault, and her decision at the end to give Max her spot in the tournament is portrayed as her doing the right thing because she Must Make Amends. However, this boils down to it somehow being Marinette's fault that Max failed to handle his fair loss to her gracefully and acted like a Sore Loser and Entitled Bastard because she proved she deserved to represent the school more than he did. The episode also overlooks how Max was rather dismissive towards Marinette when she initially expressed interest in the competition, not to mention that Adrien is never portrayed as being selfish or the cause of Max's akumatization when he also qualified over Max in the tryouts, meaning he and Marinette were equally responsible for Max not getting to compete in the tournament despite only Marinette being blamed for it.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: We're meant to sympathize with Max because he practiced for an entire year so that he could be chosen as one of the two students meant to represent his school in a video game tournament and failed to qualify after Marinette, who only entered to spend time with Adrien, beats him. However, many viewers have pointed out that This Is a Competition and that regardless of her motives, Marinette (and Adrien) beat Max fair and square in the tryouts, meaning Max didn't deserve to represent the school in the tournament. Moreover, Max was rather dismissive towards Marinette when she first announced she wanted to compete, and while he initially tried to be a Graceful Loser when she beat him, once he's alone, he quickly does a 180, declaring his loss was "a travesty," that he "was the chosen one," and that his loss was "inconceivable," making him come off as an Entitled Bastard who refuses to accept the simple fact that he didn't earn the right to represent the school while others did. Even after being deakumatized, he still acts like a Sore Loser, showing up at the tournament for no apparent reason than to sulk and give Marinette the cold shoulder despite having attacked her as an akuma, which he's not even seen apologizing for. He only "forgives" her when she decides to give him what he wants (thus rewarding his bad behavior) by offering to drop out of tournament because of how much it means to him, and we're supposed to feel happy that he gets to compete despite Max still not having earned his spot fairly and never apologizing for or getting called out on his poor sportsmanship or entitled behavior.

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