Discussion Recap / MiraculousLadybugS04E20Qilin

True. This seems to fall more under Does This Remind You of Anything?

Except that the creator himself specifically said this episode (and Baakerix by extension) were about racism, discrimination and prejudice. Just because it isn't explicit in saying the word "racist" doesn't mean that it isn't there. Remember the target audience and the radar is in full effect. My guess is that overtly saying it didn't fly with censors.

There isn't any evidence Sabine was racially profiled besides the fact that she happens to be Chinese. Besides, they were able to get away with Chloé assuming Marinette's uncle was Japanese back in "Kung Food". Astruc's comments simply aren't supported by the actual content of the episode.

There is plenty of evidence suggesting racial profiling. Just listen to the dialogue without the animation. Tell me that if you had audio only you could confuse Sabine (a white Chinese woman) with any persecuted minority in the news.

As for Chloe, remember she is an asshole, and does this on a regular basis. She is obviously racist and classist, but it is played off because it is all bluster, while this is most decidedly not.

I'd rather not find references to racism everywhere. However, when they grabbed Sabine's bag for fear that she was going for a weapon, it had strong echoes to me of police encounters leading to shootings.

Please present this evidence. Just saying "it exists" isn't enough. And besides, if this was a Very Special Episode about racism, shouldn't they have actually outright addressed the problem rather than rely on the audience to read into things?

I made an entry under Word Of God to reference the tweets by Thomas Astruc.

It may not have been overt with its message, but the message was still there regardless. As Rock Sunner said, this episode echoes a lot of police encounters where things have gone wrong for the innocent party because the officers were incompetent, irrational, and/ or racist.

The Very Special Episode thing may not apply because it doesn't address it directly, but Reality Subtext most certainly does.

I don't think anybody's doubting the fact that the episode's theme is about racism. The thing that puzzles me —and, I assume, everyone else— is the trope under which this should be mentioned. In "Bakerix" it's listed under Does This Remind You of Anything?. Here? I'm not so sure. We do have Word of God, but on the other hand no one in universe actually mentions Sabine's race.

I don't think anybody's doubting the fact that the episode's theme is about racism.

... you say that, but people in this thread are implicitly and explicitly are saying that it isn't about racism.

Anyhoo. Haven't seen the episode since I haven't been to the hospital in a while ^note Inside joke, the show seems to be constantly playing at the Children's Hospital that I regularly have to take my daughter but the episode reminds me of Teen Titans' episode "Troq" which, while very clearly was about discrimination, didn't use the word "racist" and didn't directly call attention to the black character resonating with feelings of being discriminated due to his race (instead calling attention to him being discriminated due to being a cyborg). Similarly, the episode has a Does This Remind You of Anything? citing Word of God and considers it a Very Special Episode even if it doesn't have any racism against African-Americans or even humans.

In a vaguely related note, is Sabine biracial? Because what I've seen of the show indicates she's fully Asian but this thread calls her "White Chinese" and her character sheet refers to her as "at least half-Asian" but Miraculous is generally referred to as half-Asian.

The difference between Troq and Qilin is that Val-Yor makes direct discriminatory comments about Starfire's species and the Titans stand around at the end and say things to the effect that it's bad to judge someone based on where they're from. There's none of that in Qilin. I apologize for arguing about subtext, but Very Special Episode is not a trope that covers subtext, it's a trope that covers explicit morals, and Qilin fails to deliver.

^^ According to "Miraculous Shanghai", Sabine is Chinese, born and raised in China. Her birth name is Xiao Ping, which she changed to Sabine when she emigrated to France.

ETA: Since I'm not familiar with Teen Titans, I'm going to sit this debate out.

Okay, having watched the episode for the sake of this stupid discussion... yeah. It's a Very Special Episode. If for nothing else, for being about "it's bad for people in power to abuse those that they can." With the very unsubtle point that, "those that they can abuse" tend to be minorities, especially in the light of very pertinent Asian vitriol in western countries.

They don't say "abusing Asian people is bad" so much as "abusing those you can is bad!" and leave it up to the viewer to realize that the victim is Asian and context about the world right about now to say the rest. The ticket inspector very much did single out Sabine for some reason. He wasn't just checking everyone's tickets. He very much was singling her out and had it in his head that she was sneaky and lying from the word go. It's also not a coincidence that she turns into, you know, literally the most Chinese mythical beast possible.

Like, you say Very Special Episode doesn't cover subtext but again, applying real-world racism to that Teen Titans episode is absolutely subtext. Blatant subtext, but still subtext. I'd actually argue that Ripped from the Headlines might be viable since the episode is very clearly a response to the rise in discrimination to Asian diaspora in the past few years.

Also, even if you don't think the episode is about racism (... which it is) it's still blatantly a Very Special Episode. If nothing else, about abuse of power and injustice in the world.

I could accept that.

I expanded the entry based on this discussion, let me know if you have feedback.

Also in the Shanghai special we see a photo of Sabine as a child with her parents and they are both clearly Chinese so I don't think Sabine is biracial. She's full Chinese, Marinette is biracial.