#luka is one of the good guys
The best thing about Luka is that he never once makes hisfeelingsMarinette’sproblem.
Luka has, by his own admission, harbored a crush on Marinette since the first time he met her. Yet not once have we seen him take his feelings and push them onto Marinette, expecting her to reciprocate them as though he’s earned that. In fact, we’ve seen literally the opposite. Throughout all the time they’ve known and spent time with each other, we have seen:
- Luka sacrifice himself to allow Marinette a chance to escape danger (“Captain Hardrock”)
- Luka go out of his way to comfort Marinette and cheer her up when he notices she’s feeling down (“Frozer”)
- Their first (and only, so far) date being at Marinette’s offer, which Luka accepted (“Frozer”)
- Luka realize that Marinette has a crush on Adrien, and thus encourage her to go tell him how she feels (“Frozer”)
- Luka continue to be supportive of Marinette’s designs and skill, as well as genuinely enjoy her company withoutbringing up his feelings (“Silencer”)
- Luka confess to Marinette while akumatized only as a way to reassure her that he will protect her and not allow harm to come to her; he leaves before she even has a chanceto respond, because what’s important to him here is not whether she reciprocates or not, but only that she knows that he’s going to protect her as best he can (“Silencer”)
- Luka confess to Marinette while not akumatized, but again, only as a way to reassure her that if he said anything nasty or mean to her while akumatized (which he didn’t) that he didn’t mean it. He once again walks away before she has a chance to respond because it’s not her reciprocation that he wants, but only her happiness (“Silencer”)
Luka has harbored feelings for Marinette since they met, but despite this he’s never once pressured her, never once pushed his feelings onto her, never once made hisfeelingsherproblem. Instead, we see that Luka keeps his feelings for her to himself for the most part. He picked up on the fact that she had a crush on Adrien in “Frozer” and not only let her go, but encouragedher to go so that she would be happy. And since then, we’ve seen that he just enjoys the time they canspend together and wholeheartedly supports her. He doesn’t hit on her, he doesn’t bring up his crush, he just sincerely appreciates the friendship she’s given him. And while he does confess twice in “Silencer”, again, he does so to reassureMarinette, not to seek any kind of validation or relationship. True, he had to go perform after the second confession, but again, he only said what he did in the first place because she asked him, and he was worried he had said something to hurt her. He wanted to make sure that she knew that he cares for her, and so he conveyed that the only way he knew how. He didn’t do it because he wanted her to be his girlfriend (though I’m sure he would not say no if she asked). He did that because he was concerned she was hurt, and wanted to fix that however he could.
Until “Silencer”, it could be said that Luka’s feelings were not reciprocated. And since “Frozer” came before “Silencer”, it could also be said with certainty that Luka knew that. But Luka was okay with that. Even though Marinette never even directly told him “no,” he still took the implicit “no” for what it was and encouraged her to go be happy. Luka knows that his feelings are his problem and does not burden Marinette with them. Instead, he respects her and cherishes her friendship, supports her endeavors, and strives to protect her from those who would hurt or upset her. Once again, Luka’s traits of being selfless and brave shine through pretty strongly.
Luka is wonderful. We’ve seen tragically little of him, but what little we have seen shows that he’s fantastic, and would be an absolutely wonderful boyfriend for Marinette. He respects her, cherishes her, and also loves her for her, blatantly holding feelings for her, rather than Ladybug. He cares for, respects, and values Marinette for who she is, and I think that’s undeniably wonderful.
