Damian Wayne/Marinette Dupain-Cheng
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Damian Wayne |
| Alternative name(s): | Daminette, Maridami |
| Gender category: | M/F |
| Fandom: | Miraculous Ladybug x DC Comics/Batfamily |
| Canonical?: | non-canon |
| Prevalence: | common |
| Archives: | Ao3 |
| Other: | Tumblr Tag |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Maribat is the crossover pairing of Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Damian Wayne. It is mostly found in Miraculous Ladybug fandom, but works also appear in the DC Comics fandom.
Origin
The ship started through a series of posts on Tumblr and the ship quickly gained popularity, merging to Archive of Our Own and other platforms such as Twitter and Instagram very quickly. The person to introduce the ship to the fandom was Ozmav (Tumblr) who posted the first Maribat fanfiction.
Whereas it started as somewhat of a crack ship, fans started accumulating and in March 2021, Maribat has more than 1100 fanworks under their relationship tag on Ao3 and new posts under their Tumblr Tag.
They were mostly connected through their superhero outfit color scheme and the fact that they are both childhood superheroes. They are more serious than their friends/companions and both show signs of above-average intelligence. They also have other traits that make them similar, but fans mostly ship the two because of the fandom's affinity for crossover works (and pairings).
Tropes
Popular tropes in the Maribat Fandom include:
- Alternate Universe - Since the two characters come from different universes, the two are (almost) always portrayed in works that fuse the two universes together, or put the characters in an entirely new world.
- Chloé Redemption - The character Chloé Bourgeois gets a redemption arc (which many fans wanted in Miraculous Ladybug).
- Lila Exposed - The character Lila Rossi gets exposed for her lies.
- Big Brother Jason - Jason Todd from DC serves as the element that brings the two together.
Controversy
As with most ships, there was a certain amount of hate surrounding Maribat.
Mostly, the critics accused shippers of clogging the tags and/or pedophelia.
The first was solved by the creation of a new tag (Maribat), and the critics mostly let the second one go as the content creators aged up the characters to solve the issue. As it is a crossover ship, the timelines are not the same in Miraculous Ladybug and DC Comics and the issue was solved rather quickly.
With the creation of this new fandom came bashing, and lots of it at that. There was a large outpouring of antis in Maribat’s early stages, which I coined as the First Wave. [...] After a long while, though, hate slowly started to die down. Other than the occasional disparaging comment, Maribat fans were left to their own devices—and this is where things really start to kick off.– moonlitceleste on Tumblr [1]
Example Fanworks
Some of the most notable Maribat fanfiction are:
- A Life Unknown Series by ProudGeek4Ever
- The String That Binds Us by FaithAndATypeWriter
- Secrets of a Ladybug and Bird Series by Tired_College_Student_Writing
- Watch The Eyes by finallyaniguana
Archives & Fannish Links
- Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Damian Wayne relationship tag on Archive of Our Own
Resources
- Guide to Maribat by moonlitceleste (December 2020)
References
- ^ moonlitceleste on Tumblr. Guide to Maribat, 7 December 2020.