#Chloé is still rich and is an influencer

[afkaskus]

For some reason, I'm really invested in knowing what future Miraculous character will be doing.

This are my headcanons so far and why:

(long post, in the tags you can read the resume)

Marinette: Designer. We all know this is meant to happen, it's super clear. BUT, I'm not meaning designer as a fashion designer, I meant it as a costume designer. She works mostly on movies but loves working on theaters. Sometimes she also helps with scenography and for some reason she knows a little about lighting as well. She still takes little commissions from a few artists. I like believing that she saw the fashion desing world with another pov and decided to not be part of it. Taking the Agreste company? I think she will enjoy to destroy that empire, and also will want to have her own name.

Adrien: I LOVE "Baker!Adrien" headcanon. Yes, he works with the Dupain-Chengs, and he loves it. He has the family he has always dreamed of. Also there has been a few mentions in the show of Adrien as a food seller. Tom will be thrilled to adopt Adrien and show him everything he knows. Tom will also be happy that he has someone to take over the bakery when he retires.

Gabriel: In jail. He deserves no other place to stay.

Nathalie: haven't think that much about it. But I don't think she will end up in jail like Gabriel. She's smart, she's better than that.

Alya: an reporter. It's meant to happen. She also has a few enemies because she DOES tell the truth. Maybe she will travel with Nino and they'll match their works with their travels, so maybe she's an independent reporter.

Nino: The best DJ in the world. As I said before, he matches his work travels with Alya's work, but also, they are pretty independent from each other. They love the feeling they get when they haven't seen each other in a few weeks and then they meet again in a total different country.

Kagami: Ok, hear me out in this one. Kagami is a tattoo artist. She's very good at drawing and art, but I don't think she will enjoy being in a place where rich can control everything. She's already rich and she might have the contacts to be a very recognized artist, but, let's be honest, that's not something the both rich kids want. After realizing that her mom is not the one who controls her life, she decided to be rebellious and got a tattoo herself (big thing for being japanese), after that, her friends convinced her to become a tattoo artist and she ended up loving the idea. I also like thinking that Tomoe paid a lot of people in the art industry to not let people accept Kagami as an artist, but I think is kind of brutal. Now everyone has a tattoo made by Kagami. Luka and Adrien have a competition to see who gets more tattoos.

Luka: He has his little shop, the one he named in Wishmaker. He loves making people happy finding an instrument that's made for them, specially kids.

Juleka: She's an stylist. She's the best and most revolutionary. She has a lot of knowledge in makeup and hairstyle.

Rose: She's a famous singer and songwriter, she's also Juleka's muse and they go on tour together. Juleka and Marinette help her with her style.

Chloé: She's an influencer and has her own cosmetics brand.

And that's everyone I have thought of for now.

[nothingtherefornow]

About Evil teenagers antagonists in Miraculous

I currently wonder how can some fans still want a redemption for somoene like Chloé who willingly hurt people just because that's was her definition of "fun".

Why not accept Chloé as somoene evil ? Just because she's 14 years old ? Just because Gabriel was worst than her doesn't take away the fact that Chloé is a truly bad person who has the potential to become as evil, if not worse than Gabriel while growing up.

Even in real life, adults are not the only ones who are capable of cruelty and crimes. If only adults were capable of monstrosity, I wouldn't have 14-year-olds killing each other with callache nikoffs in the drug trafficking districts of my city. we wouldn't have young people beating up little ones and pushing others to suicide and absolutely not regretting their actions. And we wouldn't have stories to raise eyebrows about kids capable of committing murder and acts of torture without necessarily having been abused in their lives.

To me, anyone who loves to make others suffer for their own sick pleasure (and their victims are people who objectively don't deserve such cruelty) has serious mental issues and can be a danger to others.

Both Chloé and Lila love to make others people suffer or don't care about hurting innocents, and they certainly don't feel any empathy for anyone, or in Chloé's case, no longer feel any empathy (she may have felt sympathy and empathy for Adrien at some point, like during the episode Felix in season 3, but that's definitly no longer the case as soon as Adrien asked her to stop being a biatch). Maybe Lila may feel a form of attachment toward her mothers, yet that doesn't stop her from manipulating them and fooling them in a way that's pretty cruel if you dig deeper in Lila's scale of truancy and imposterization.

I know that technically when a 14 year old kid behaves like Lila and Chloé we could say to ourselves that it is unfair to give them no chance and to condemn them when they are only 14-15 years old and could change for the better if they could be guided on the right path.

But Miraculouse is a show in which the superheroes with the fate of the world in their hands are 14 year old kids. And as such in this fictitious reality, other 14 year olds are perfectly likely to become real cruel and threatening villains i without any scruples, especialy if they are influenced by the wickedness of an adult supervillain.

And I believe that Gabriel's evilness only made Chloé's and Lila's wickedness worse.

He put those two girls in positions of power where they could hurt others and act according to their darkest and Manichean impulses. And Lila and Chloé would only want more taste of that power to crush others. And you know how power easilly corrupt the most greedy hearts.

On several occasions, Gabriel even approved of Lila and Chloe's horrible plans and actions. He has encouraged Lila on numerous occasions to "get rid of" Marinette, thus giving the impression that he supports Lila's jealousy, and during collusion he will have the nerve to say that Chloé's ideas, which consist literally ruining the academic future of your classmates and putting your pregnant teacher in jail for no good reason are good ideas. Having a rich adult in a position to approve of their actions in this way will only have given Lila and Chloe the feeling that their acts of cruelty and malice are justified, and thus reinforced their evil nature.

On several occasions we have seen Chloe and Lila voluntarily let themselves be akumatized, and worse than that, we have seen them plan to be akumatized (Chloe in Penalteam, and Lila in Revelation) and not for understandable reasons like that of a desperate Jalil brainwashed by lies on social media. Because Lila and Chloe have only ever been motivated by their narcicism, their ego, and their desire to get revenge on people they hate for the most pettiest, vain and selfish reasons possible.

Lila and Chloé may be kids, but they are evil teenagers, because they would gladly become supervillain if that means getting what they want. And what they want is anything but noble. For their selfish goals, Lila and Chloé were willing to endanger the city they live in and all its inhabitants. I don't even know if I can still call Lila and Chloé kids or teenagers, with how far they're willing to go and hurt people for the sake of their ambitions.

Although there's still the possibility that Lila may be an adult with a youngfull appearance or a hormonal abnormality making her look like a teenager when she could be an adult. But that would risk making her a pedophile so I don't think the show will go that far ^^ At most they could give her the same as Théo Barbot

But an antagonist adult would be needed then to balance an antagonist teenager supervillain.

Good thing we still have Tomoe Tsurugi then

It's tragic that Chloé and Lila wickedness and evilness could be due to serious mental issues or Chloé's bad upbringing, and the show may have decided that it's more important to protect others from the harm Chloé and Lila can cause rather than to prioritize "helping" them with their issues. Both Marinette and Adrien proposed another path for Chloé to chose, one that could have helped her heal from the emotional and mental wounds her mother's abandonment and neglect. Chloé instead chose Hawkmoth's/Monarch

Ladybug offered Lila her friendship, and Adrien also offered Lila to be there for her as long as she didn't hurt those he loved. Yet both Lila and Chloe voluntarily chose to continue committing bad deeds and hurting others, regardless of the fact that someone reached out to them and offered them another path to get love, acknowledgement and recognition from people. Adrien and Marinette don't have to sacrifice their mental health for people who wish them harm, so I understand very well that it wasn't and won't be their priority to help Chloé and Lila find potential redemption. And especially when Lila and Chloe seem determined to refuse to change and continue to cling to their wickedness.

It should be the adults responsabilities to deal with Chloé and Lila issues, and unfortunatelly the adults in Miraculous are pretty lousy and incompetents. It's very tragic when we don't know that one kid is a psychopath, and if another has always gotten away with his narcissistic behavior disorder and nothing had ever been done to help them deal with that issue, that only leaves the opportunity for the seed of evil in these kids to germinate and flourish, and then reach the level of nastiness that is more often found in adults.

[princess-of-the-corner]

K, if we're roleswapping Marinette & Adrien, does this mean Chloé & Marinette are childhood friends? Childhood rivals? Some weird in between where Mari is somehow oblivious to all the signs Chloé's family sucks? & how does Adrien get into school, I'm pretty sure Chloé (maybe with help from Sabrina?) just walked into the office, threatened the principal, & got him in. Is Adrien Chloé's secret "commoner" friend, or does she go to the Agreste boutique often?

Okay as I said I'm not deep-diving this AU BUT

okay okay so thoughts

Mari and Chloé would know each other because fancy rich people events. Tom and Sabine may be nice rich people, but they still do have to go to these events for bussiness socializing and other such schmoozing.

The Dupain-Chengs are wealthy therefore Exceptional™ enough that Chloé is allowed to associate with them, but because they're nice they're a good influence and like. Actively counter Andre and Audrey's shitty parenting tactics.

Chloé is still a bit morally gray, but better with people and more willing to use her morally gray-ness for good causes. Marinette on the other hand never has that exclusively black/white mentality so she's more chill with Chloé doing this. She's still ultimately more 'good' but not as naive or blind to the gray.

Swinging to Adrien, I could see him befriending both of them. To match the swap energy, Gabriel's boutique is on the same level the canon!DC Bakery is. Aka: well-known enough that he gets hired to design for the wealthy even if he's not wealthy himself. So the DCs would use him for designing their outfits for events.

Marinette still has her interest in fashion so she sticks around and befriends Adrien. Chloé also befriends him too. But this is happenign more 'near Emilie's 'death'' than a childhood friends thing.

So the both of them and also Sabrina yoink Adrien into public school. And he's the more naive one in the situation.

[i-like-anything-water]

Hello I-Like-Anything-Water! I'm respecting your privacy by knocking, but am too impatient to wait for permission and am coming in anyway! (Breaks door down with a battering ram)

Glad to see from you again! Hope school's treating you well. I have returned with more CHLOENETTE!!

I posted this a few other places, but was curious about your thoughts on it: The Scene starts with Rose inspecting a present someone left on her desk, wondering what's inside... only for it to blast open and smash a pie into her face, the sound of cruel laughter coming from behind her. She turns her head to see Marinette and Chloe, both decked out in gold, and asks why Marinette became so mean. Marinette's answer? "Because someone needs to keep little losers like you in their place!" Before moving in to kiss her girlfriend... and then Marinette wakes up screaming, wondering why she dreamed of dating Chloe of all people... and why the thought of being so cruel felt so right.

Meanwhile, across town, Chloe is experiencing a dream of her own. One in which she's no longer rich, and isn't particularly famous. One where she spends most of her days either keeping the house in good condition or helping her in-laws run the bakery. A simple life with a loving family, when her wife, Marinette walks through the door... carrying their daughter in her arms. She moves in to pull her wife into a kiss... and wakes up, blushing bright enough to be seen from space, and instantly going into denial that she would EVER want to be with Dupain-Cheng OR give up her wealth and influence... no matter how at home she felt in that little shop in her dreams.

To make a long story short, my thought is that both Marinette and Chloe are crushing hard on each other, in denial, and would gladly throw away their current lives if it meant being with the other. What do you think?

Hello! School is still a pain and my toothache isn't helping but it's alright, ask as much as you want. My doors are pretty much open at this point xD

I think that's what makes Chloenette my favorite ship in the series. They won't throw away all the life they built away (technically) but they would want to do everything that hey can to build a future for them.

Marinette growing a more firm and decisive backbone due to Chloé's influence is pretty much accepted within the chloenette fandom and I personally think it's great. Despite her growth (canonically...there still is) I don't see why she can't be a bit more aggressive in situations. Plus it's funny when Mari's being mean but also feeling kinda bad but satisfied later and Chloé's just proud and smug. 'That's my girl.'

Chloé Bourgeois, former heiress turned commoner found strolling Paris's park with up and coming fashion designer Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

I don't know if y'all have read the fics, but Tacomuerte's stories 'Best Frenemies' and 'Divided Loyalties' are one of the best portrayal of Chloé slowly settling down with Mari's lifestyle and Mari with Chloé's. Chloé is artistic (a bit perfectionist in a way as well) and I can definitely see her fussing and making sure all of the pastries are decorated to the tiniest of details and that every box doesn't have a single speck of dirt or crumpled. Baking also requires physical exertion especially in large orders so that's one way for her to let out some steam without causing an akuma xD.

They grew up with different backgrounds but I can see them having multiple common grounds aside from Fashion. One of them is their devotion and loyalty to people they like (in Chloé's case, people she genuinely respects and looks up to) which can get pretty aggressive and sometimes obsessive (obsessive chloenette is a fave).

Basically, yeah, I can see them doing a lot of unexpected things just to be together and to build a future they both want and need.

[kisilinramblings]

I've seen some claims that Marinette lives a privileged and perfect life compared to Adrien and Chloe and thus makes it harder to sympathize with her, because she has loving parents and a larger social circle. What do you think of this, because I always just felt like Marinette just had the norm of a cartoon MC

Hum... Perhaps they should have opened a dictionary and look at the definition of the term "being privileged" along with the term "cognitive bias" while they were at it before making such statement.

And really, out of all the characters in the show, some truly believe that it is Marinette who exhibits the most the privilege cards here during her adventures?

Cause, I'm sorry, but does Marinette -- as a civilian -- automatically sits in first class when traveling because her "daddy" has the power and connection to do so? (Startrain, New York Special, Hack-san)

Does Marinette get invited on a whim to premium events without her having to help her family doing the catering service for said events (Animaestro, Heart Hunter)? And if she did get an official invitation, isn't it because she has been doing the proper work and effort to get the merit to be there in the first place? (Mr. Pigeon, Pixelator, Guitar Villain, Style Queen)

Who has someone doing their homework for them?

Who as superhero uses their superhero' privileges, autority and influence to help others and not using them solely to promote themselves?

Also, out of Marinette, Adrien and Chloé's parents, who has canonically sabotage their rival to be in the position they are in? For the answer, rewatch Darkblade.

Yes, Marinette has the chance of having loving and caring parents who are both alive and are still in love after 20 years of marriage! And unlike Chloé's, her parents are also hard-working and honest people who are well-respected by their community (instead of being feared) who have transmitted those values to their daughter and has influenced her to do the same. But that background didn't prevent Marinette to be bullied at school by Chloé for 3 years before the show events. Marinette started the series with a low self-esteem of herself and with no real friend. Having a loving and caring family didn't prevent her to have to live with a disability (Marinette is coded as neurodivergent or at the very least, a lot of neurodivergent people recognize themselves in her) nor having mental health issues (anxiety, PTSD) and facing other adversities. It eases her life a bit, sure, but that doesn't negates what she is going through as a character inside a story!

Btw, I apologize I'm mostly comparing Marinette and Chloé for this exercice at this point. I'm not forgetting about Adrien. It's simply because the contrast between Marinette and Chloé is clearer. Adrien on his end is a rich kid due to his family background (rich and famous people while he is also a star teenager due to being a model) but he is also abused and sheltered by his father (cannot express myself on Émilie as Adrien is an unreliable narrator when it comes to his mother). But unlike Chloé, Adrien tries to share his privileges with his classmates or at least to be an ally to them whenever he can (Party Crasher, Queen Banana, Mega Leech). Adrien doesn't let his family define him. Chloé, on the other hand, gains from her parents' status (especially her father) and abuse it to get what she wants and doesn't want to mix with the commoners.

Anyway, what determines a good MC isn't how of an underdog they are or how harsh life was on them. What matters is how the MC is contributing to the story and themes the author want to tell and develop. And in Miraculous case, it is a coming of age story combined with a romance set under a mixture of Magical Girl and Superhero genres.

[judyhopps934-mt-zd]

With Chloé being mayor in the name of "restoring democracy" (which she couldn't even pronounce), it reminds me a bit of US politics and how they claim to "restore democracy."

In Collusion, Chloé (illegally somehow) steps into the mayoral role so she can remain immune from the consequences that are yet to come for her, stating that she is "The People" and throwing around the word "democracy" (which she still could not pronounce at the end while giving a state address (or something similar to that).

In the US, Republicans claim to "protect the kids" while taking away gender affirming care, criminalizing ab0rti0ns, banning drag, banning "w0ke" books (in other words, books about Black history, stories about LGBTQ+ individuals, etc.) and so much more. Yet, they do not ban guns, which actually kill kids, and talk about raising the voting age so Gen Z does not vote yet. This is democracy under attack.

But 934, what does US politics have to do with Chloé being mayor and vice versa?

Power. The power the elite have. Chloé's family is rich, and she used their past influence (alongside Gabriel's wealth and technology, and Lila/Cèrise's manipulative skills), and this is how US politicians (and politicians in general) use their manipulative skills and wealth to claim and keep power as they attach the populous with policies, chipping away at whatever power marginalized communities have left.

Not to mention, adult politicians act like a 15 year old brat like Chloé when they don't get their way

[iwasbored777]

They really have Mylene in Derision say that her mom left just like Chloé's and that doesn't excuse Chloé's actions and then have Félix excuse his actions by saying his father abused him and make Kagami go like "oh no you poor thing" who are these writers trying to fool 😭😭😭 literally everything you establish about abuse with Chloé you ruin by giving Félix white rich male privilege I bet if it was Félix who traumatised Marinette in Derision they would excuse him later by saying that he was younger and still under his father's influence

[saemi-the-dreamer]

For the ask meme, 8, 19, and 23?

Thanks for the ask Elves ^o^ Now let's gooooo!!

8. Common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

I've answered it here already, but here's another thing that bugs me and I'm going to take the risk: about the games Life is Strange (1 and Before the Storm)

Rachel and Chloe were not a cute couple. In the first game "Life is Strange", it's implied that Rachel was selfish and manipulative and that she took advantage of Chloe and many people to get what she wanted, breaking hearts on her way and leaving the people behind to pick up the pieces after her. In "Before the Storm, there are many clues and foreshadowings telling us that Chloe shouldn't trust Rachel, nor get close to her, but she's just so lonely, desperate and in a vulnerable state of mind that she's tricked. This whole scene is not Rachel confessing her love or "proposing to her" - as some comments like to say - on stage / in public to Chloe while staying in character. Look well at the lines, forget they're acting a Shakespearian play, and you have a true summary of their relationship:

Rachel sent Chloe to wreak havoc for her; Chloé does and is always the one who takes the risks, always in the first line for her, and because of Rachel's influence, Chloe becomes more and more ruthless, self-centred and obsessed with Rachel, which leads Chloe to lose any friend she could make in BtS and we know how bad her relationship with both her mother and step-father is in LiS1.

After Chloe is done with a task, Rachel praises her but then immediately points out "There's more work"; even though Rachel's parents are rich and she's socially way above Chloe, she's relying on others to do everything for her. Rachel is the most desperate to leave Arcadia Bay, but Chloe is the one who has to find a car and the money to leave. What does Rachel do, except give orders and get more and more demanding? What does she concretely do for Chloe, except get her in trouble and give her some crumbs of affection/love? Nothing! She never helped Chloe find a way to go back to school, follow her studies online or anything, or even support her in finding a job! All she does is ask and take, and her pieces of advice are shit, she pushes Chloe to rebel and be unpleasant when it comes to her mother marrying again instead of telling her to talk it out with them or to give her future step-dad a chance before slamming the door shut to his face.

when Chloe reminds Rachel that she made a promise to her, Rachel either doesn't remember or pretends not to

"My liberty." "Nay, this most of all I will not grant." Rachel refuses to let Chloe go. She even has the gall to ask why! Like "Hey, why do you want to be free? Aren't you happy to serve me? Are you not having fun?"

"Yeah, but fun is not happiness!" Chloe even points out that she wants to be loved for who she truly is, not just have fun and adventures, Chloe needs something genuine, she also needs stability. But Rachel still refuses, "I hold you in my grasp" (!!!) and then even points out that seeing Chloe free, happy on her own, and seeing her thrive would make her envious. This plainly shows Rachel is an abuser! She can't stand the idea that Chloe can be happy without her, she needs to be the centre of her world!

And although Chloe reaches out for her, telling her "Then come with me, isn't that possible for you?", Rachel evades the question and basically tells her "Once we leave Arcadia Bay, I will make you so happy that you will forget that you're my prisoner and slave".

THIS IS NOT ROMANTIC! And people in the game PLUS many gamers are falling for it, since someone in the public screams "SAY YES!!" er... NO?! Chloe, run for your life!!?

Chloe was basically the caretaker of Rachel, and when Chloe wasn't enough, she looked for another. Rachel seduced Nathan (rich, abused and vulnerable but mentally ill), then Frank (an independent adult, but he was a drug dealer and not mentally stable) and then she fell for Jefferson, who had ticked all the boxes... Unfortunately for her, he was very much like her but worse!

Another point for LiS1, I don't believe David was an abusive step-father.

Is he kind of a jerk, not the most tactful, and kinda sexist? Yep, all agreed. But people also forget that this guy has fought in a freaking war! Everyone justifies both Chloe and Rachel's actions with their traumas, but no one even thinks about how this guy must be full of traumas too. What he lived explains (not justify!!) that he's a bit paranoid and adamant about following rules and laws. And we tend to forget how he had a very good intuition for many things: he was suspicious about Jefferson very early, but no one took him seriously, for one!

And back to the stepfather thing, I saw many people talking shit bout how Chloe didn't feel safe at home because of him. This is bullcrap. If Chloe didn't feel safe, then why did she take drugs in her room?! Or hid the gun she stole from him under her mattress? Because she knew she would get away with it with, at worst, a slap. A slap she pushed David to give her, which is another abuser tactic btw - one she must have taken from Rachel, as we see how her speech, manners and even clothing mimic Rachel if you take BtS into account. In Life is Strange 2, there is a scene where you meet him, and if you have a saved game with the "Chloe survived ending", we see how she and Max keep in touch with him! They write letters and send him photos, and David calls her "his daughter" and even "Sweetie" as he picks up when Chloe calls him!!! ; and let's not forget the "your old man doesn't fear the heat." So Chloe even came to consider him as her father then! Do you seriously think she would if he had been an abusive piece of shit? I don't. If anything, Chloe must have acted on her realization at the end of the first game, where she told Max that David doesn't deserve to die in the storm and reached out when she felt ready.

19. You're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like…

I'm at an age where I stop caring about the internet's opinion most of the time, I just want to chill and enjoy my things in my corner xD BUT I'm quite kind of surprised and embarrassed (sometimes) at some kinks I realised I enjoy more than I thought I should (still quite soft compared to what we can find!) like spanking for example. Or when I start a story and think "URGH this character is SO annoying, I can't stand them" then it changes to either "I love them" or "I want *insert character* to tame them"

23. Ship you've unwillingly come around to

Well, I've ranted about the game series, so I'll keep on it:

I've spoken about Rachel/Chloe, so I'm not going to expand more, but for Pricefield (Chloe/Max)? Well, in summary, I'll say that Chloe did to Max exactly what Rachel did to her.

I'm not the purist kind, if you want to ship a toxic ship, it's totally okay! I can see the appeal! But most fanworks romanticise them way too much! They cut out all the toxic traits or interesting character development and make it all "pure from friend to lover" which isn't... that at all. I'd like them more if it was addressed that the pairings are not the healthiest, or if it was explicitly written under "toxic/abusive relationship"! Or just an "everything is fine/better AU", sure, go ahead! I love these AUs too, it would be fun and heartwarming to read slices of life stories/small comics with the characters without the tragedies awaiting them!

But at the moment, all I see is that Rachel was Chloe's toxic ex, and Chloe became Max's toxic ex-best/girlfriend (in the timeline where Chloe dies).

[marcmarcmomarc]

Miraculous

Chapter 7: Parisians’ Arrival in Florida

(Now Adrien enters the Place des Vosges. Stepping onto the fountain, he eyes the rest of the park)

ADRIEN: Come on, guys. Are we seriously going to let Marinette physically vanish from our lives like this? After everything she’s done for us, we’ve got to try again to do the same for her. When I was trying to get to Solitude when my fragrance ad premiered, who helped me get there? Marinette did. Juleka, when you were dealing with a class photo jinx, who helped you overcome it?

JULEKA: Marinette did.

ROSE: Marinette did! Marinette did! She did it!

ADRIEN: And when Markov was called a toy by Ms. Mendeleiev and confiscated by Mr. Damocles, who was willing to put herself to his office to get him back?

MARKOV: It was Marinette!

MAX: I see your point! We need to go to Florida and bring Marinette back!

(Everyone agrees.)

ADRIEN: So, who’s coming with me?

ALYA: Marinette’s my best friend. I must go.

NINO: I wouldn’t have won the arm wrestle if not for her! I’m going!

SABRINA: She showed me the true meaning of friendship the day Nathaniel was akumatized.

KIM: She influenced me to ask out my former crush.

MAX: She decided to give her Ultimate Mecha Strike III tournament spot to me.

(Ivan, Mylène, Juleka, Rose, Nathaniel, Alix, Tom, Sabine, Luka, Kagami, Marc, Nora, Ondine, the Chamacks, Markov, Ella, and Etta also join in. As does…)

ADRIEN: Chloé? You, too?

CHLOÉ: Well, Marinette did decide to return my phone to me, so l’ll go.

(Adrien and the group stare.)

CHLOÉ: Okay, there’s more. She did accept my invitation to my apology party, she apologized for insulting my heart, gave up her chance to be a famous fashion designer with my mother, helped me reconcile with said mother, threw me a Queen Bee party for helping Ladybug defeat Malediktator, and invited me to send you a message on the anniversary your mother’s disappearance. That, along with my time as Queen Bee, has given me clarity. If she’s done that many nice things for me, then it’s about time I return the favor.

ADRIEN: Glad to hear it.

GINA: Bring my granddaughter back, alright?

MASTER FU: Good luck, (WHISPERS) Cat Noir.

MARLENA: We wish you the best of luck, okay?

OTIS: Bring back Marinette!

MR. DAMOCLES: Until you guys get back, the school will be closed!

ADRIEN: Come on, team! Let’s go to Florida and bring Marinette back to Paris!

ALL: Yeah!

ALYA: Wait. How are you going to pay for all of us?

ADRIEN: Don’t worry. I’m rich.

ALYA: Right.

(Now, Adrien leads the group through the bustling Charles de Gaulle airport. The Parisians head through the jet bridge to the plane. Moving at high speed, the plane ascends off the runway and into the sky. On the plane in the middle of the flight, the couples, including, but not limited to, Alya and Nino, Ivan and Mylène, and Rose and Juleka, sleep on each other. Towards the end of the flight, Adrien eyes Orlando sparkling in the night. The plane lands on the Orlando International Airport runway. Now, the Parisians walk along International Drive, looking at the sparkling lights. Still along International Drive, they step toward Marriott’s Grande Vista. The arriving Parisians eye the beautiful lobby. The guests roll their eyes at them and angrily murmur. At the front desk, the first employee eyes the Parisians angrily and hands them keys.)

ADRIEN: Thank you.

(Now, with an emotionless look, the second employee leads them to a room.)

MARRIOTT WORKER 2: Here you go.

ADRIEN: Have a nice day.

(They enter their two-bedroom villa. It looks just like Marinette’s except they have a Cox mini box.)

TOM: Look at this place.

CHLOE: Wow.

KAGAMI: So clean.

NORA: We hit the jackpot!

MYLÈNE: It’s so beautiful.

ADRIEN: All right, guys. Let’s rest now and begin our mission tomorrow.

NATHANIEL: Got it.

KIM: Good idea.

———————————————————————————-

Trivia

Adrien was originally going to bring up Marinette getting Nathaniel and Marc to collaborate on making comics. It was cut because whereas Marinette failed, Ladybug managed to mend things between them.

Chloé’s motivation for joining was originally as bland as “She gave me my phone back”. The story was written in early 2019, before the Season 3 finale aired, so Chloé didn’t leave as much of an impact as she did when she was assassinated in the season finale, but I only recently thought of a better motivation to join the trip, her time being Queen Bee and becoming a better person changed her life, so she decides now is truly the time to spit in the face of her bullying ways and turn over a new leaf.

[unecoccinellenoire]

Have you ever thought of an enemies to lovers au between chat noir and ladybug where chat noir is part of the bad guy team with the whole ' I'm hawkmoth son, my step mom is Mayura, I'm very happy being a villain, I can't be inlove with ladybug' drama, but Adrien still falls for ladybug/ Marinette anyway because he can't resist her in any universe

You might be better off looking for an answer from someone who focuses more on the Lovesquare than me because I'm getting distracted by OK, so assuming if Mayura actually is his stepmother then why/what are the villains fighting for?

It's possible maybe that everyone involved still wants to revive Emilie even it's no longer romantic devotion on Gabriel's part. Or maybe Nathalie's still ill and they want to heal her? Or maybe it's something to do with Adrien himself if we're going down a sentimonster origin for him- that the Peacock Miraculous can't produce perfect life. Or is it just for power, but then what does Gabriel need he can't already get by virtues of being rich and connected?

lol Nathalie used to be a famous thief stealing from museums who met Gabriel when they went after the same magical item he wanted for his collection of magical curiosities.

If Adrien's happy in that position at first then...he's happy with his family? Things with him and Gabriel are better?

I mean this version of his father apparently confides in him instead of hiding things from him which in itself suggests it is.

Is this Nathalie's influence?

She did encourage Gabriel to tell Adrien he was Hawk Moth in canon after all, and clearly wants Adrien to enjoy himself more and have a better relationship with his father while still being accepting enough of dodging parenting choices Gabriel makes that I can almost see how letting Adrien fight with them seems acceptable to her.

Funnily enough I'm almost thinking of this now as a AU of Nobody's Perfect where Gabriel finds out Adrien is a senti before becoming Hawk Moth, and Adrien argues his case to be able to fight for himself (which...generally Gabriel would not respond well to but every so often he seems impressed by someone standing up to him and indulges them...)

But anyway to get onto the kids all I'm saying is consider....Adrien falls for Marinette first. Hmm, maybe even a full reverse Lovesquare.

Adrien follows his parents' example and doesn't really understand why what they do is so bad when Ladybug fixes anything. Until Nathalie convinces Gabriel to let him go to school and Adrien starts to see how the attacks effect the people he starts to befriend.

He develops a crush on Marinette but doesn't ask her out because he tells himself can't involve her in his Dangerous Life that deeply until his Quest is Over because otherwise that would be unfair.

Unfortunately, his attempts to hide his crush on Marinette comes from the Gabriel Agreste School of Emotional Repression and she thinks he likes her less than the others because he's often cold and stand-offish.

Despite this he can't help but listen when she talks about the villains and what they're doing the city as well as smaller scale injustices in class with Lila, Chloé.

Ladybug on the other hand he finds kind of annoying because she keeps defeating him but on the other hand he does find it kind of fun to joke with and fluster her and essentially well...pull her pigtails.

Marinette meanwhile has...misunderstood some words from Tikki about Chat Noir being meant to be her partner and convinced herself that he's her Fated Lover and it's her responsibility to bring her to the light. It doesn't hurt that he's very cute, they've had some moments of connection (maybe an Oblivio type situation, and helping each other against something else) and unlike Adrien he seems to respect her and almost enjoy being around her despite being her enemy.

[phatgirlzvintage]

#1. Boho is back, and not because of TikTok.

What do you think of when you think of boho?

For me, I think about floaty dresses, walking barefoot in the grass, crochet, gorgeous earthy tones and patterns, the French revolution, world peace, Woodstock, the 90s, and don’t forget the bohemian queen Sienna Miller.

Boho is very much a free-spirited style. It mixes different cultures and artistic expressions and merges them into this all-embracing style, with a specific emphasis on nature, think “Earthy girl”. The Boho style stands for freedom, peace, art, love and joy. It is more than just a fashion trend; it describes an unconventional and creative lifestyle. The origin of bohemian style is debated; however, it is believed to have been influenced by the nomadic lifestyle of the Romani people in the late 19th to the early 20th century. A lot of elements of boho-chic became very popular in the late 1960s, fashion then meant bohemian maxi dresses, florals, loose fittings and silhouettes, paired with oversized sunglasses and handmade junk accessories. The Boho colour palette is made up of earthy and rich colours such as maroons, deep yellows and greens and more neutral shades such as beige, pastels and browns, completely avoiding fluorescent and neon colours as this would go against the earthy, natural shades. Boho fashion is about feeling comfy and at ease, garments are often made with comfortable, soft and natural fabrics, like chiffon, cotton, suede, denim and leather. It also consists of embellishment that are eye-catching, like beadwork, embroidery and studs.

With Y2k and 90s still dominating the fashion world for the 5th year in a row (and rightly so), boho has now made a comeback. in 2004, Sienna Miller was spotted at Glastonbury in an era-defining outfit, that was thick with bohemian influence, an official festival look was established in that moment, from then to around 2007, there wasn’t an it-girl in town that didn’t implement Boho into their daily outfit, think the Olsen twins, Nicole Richie, billowing fabrics and cropped jackets. In 2022 we saw Boho all over the runway, from Albertta Ferretti’s multitiered sundresses and gladiator sandals to Altuzarra where Gigi Hadid appeared in tie-dye.

This year, back in February at Paris Fashion Week, we saw Chloé reintroduce bohemian chic in their AW24 collection. We were presented with flowy maxi dresses with lace bodies and mini capes and coats.

Something about this comeback makes me feel so happy as a fashion designer and slow fashion business owner. I can’t decide if it is because this style was brought back by the runway, or because I see more and more people choosing a more sustainable lifestyle and not submitting to the TikTok microtrends that are destroying this decade’s fashion. And if you think I’m mad, I am. I am tired of microtrends and overconsumption, capitalism. Two months ago, everyone was trying to dress like Griselda Blanco, this month everyone is wearing leopard print jeans and bows, or was that last month? You see, identities are no longer shaped by our communities, it is now shaped by the latest algorithmic trending item being shoved down our throats. “Oh my god girls you HAVE to buy these, the material is amazing” meanwhile the material is 90% polyester, and the garment was made by a five-year-old in an illegal sweatshop in a third world country, that has a 70% chance of ending up on a giant waste tip in Africa in a year’s time because God forbid, we outfit repeat. Pursuing overconsumption in the quest to explore your identity is the new norm. But that is a topic for another article, but hopefully I have made you think about your fashion choices going forward.

Styling boho

A good pair of jeans is a boho wardrobe essential. Wide legged denim jeans with embroidery would be my go-to. These embroidered high-rise jeans by Citizens of Humanity are perfect and can add the boho vibe you are seeking to the outfit.

Another boho essential is this long puff sleeved halter neck top that has been made with the classic floaty fabric, the epitome of boho vibe. Top from Miss Rosier.

Another essential that I personally love is a long patchwork maxi skirt.

This patchwork tiered midi skirt is so beautiful and such an essential if you want to achieve the boho look, this skirt can be worn with a simple white fitted t-shirt and some black platformed sandals.

Lastly, my favourite boho staple. Crochet.

A crochet bag, a crochet dress, a crochet top or even a crochet hairband. Anything crochet (and I want to emphasise – ETHICALLY MADE CROCHET), is the epitome of boho vibes.

Crochet is a versatile craft that is inspired from several centuries of needlework, and its popularity continues to grow even today. Yarn is usually made up of old materials, used cotton, denim and recycled plastic fibres which makes sustainable and kinder for our planet. The possibilities are endless with crochet, you can pretty much make anything with some yarn and a crochet needle. Anytime I tell someone I crochet (unless it’s a fellow crocheter I am talking too) they always assume I’m like an old lady who makes lumpy sweaters all day. This stereotype needs to go.

The earthy girl boho style has always been one of my favourites, I feel it’s a combination of a little bit of baddie a little bit of boho. Think healing crystal jewellery and some sparkly lipgloss.

These are some of my personal favourite styles from Pinterest.

Maybe after reading this, you are on board with the rise of bohemian style, or maybe not. It isn’t for everyone, but you can incorporate the trend into a look and not succumb to it entirely. Personally, I love it. I am hoping we see more trends come back gracefully on the runway and not by a TikTok influencer pushing it for commission who has no understanding of fashion at all. Don’t be scared to at least try the trend, fashion is fun and all about experimenting. Treat yourself to something new (and something you will wear more than once!) or even check out some online thrift brands or vintage pages on Instagram and Depop. You might find a hidden gem.

If you have made it this far, thank you for reading my work. I hope you come away from my writing having learnt something new and feeling inspired. - Kat

Written by @katydataurus

[ilikekidsshows]

The Marinette and Kagami Sub Arc Breakdown

Okay, it's finally done, the big analysis, where I tackle a topic I've wanted to write for simply because it's a topic I personally find interesting and fun, AKA, The Best Sub Arc in the Entire Series So Far, AKA, How Marinette Proved Without a Shadow of a Doubt that She'd Never Be Like Chloé And We Stan.

One of the most interesting parts of the Marinette and Kagami rivals to friends sub arc is that it's one of the aspects of the show that directly connects to Marinette's past as a victim of bullying and is, in a way, about her overcoming that past. Not many things in the show remind us of the revelation in 'Origins' that Chloé had been bullying Marinette for years before the show's timeline, especially since Chloé became pretty declawed as a school level threat as the series went on to the degree where I think many people watching forgot that she used to hold a lot more power, and Marinette used to be wary of her.

But, the reason why Marinette being a bully victim is important in her arc with Kagami is this: people who have been victimized don't necessarily recognize it when they're victimizing others, and I believe that Marinette shows signs of this mentality in the show, particularly in season three. I'll illustrate how Marinette's ex-bully victim mindset informed the early stages of her relationship with Kagami and how Marinette overcame her internal biases when it comes to Kagami and her behavior towards Kagami.

In 'Origins', when Alya quotes Majestia's by now immortal line, she also says something that is very much what someone who has been victimized would identify with: "That girl over there is evil, while we are the good people." While Alya was very accurate that she and Marinette are good people, she didn't really know much about Marinette at this point, so she was actually pretty much guessing. The reason why this line is important is because it relies on an assumption that a moral binary exists on the bully-victim scale, instead of these roles being dynamic and socially formed. If you’re a victim of a bully, the bully is evil and you are a Good Person.

Some people who've been systematically victimized think on some level that them being victims means that they can never be instigators, that they're automatically morally pure because the person who victimizes them is the evil one. This is a very typical argument in social justice circles, where a person who is victimized for one thing might say bigoted things about another group and claim that they can't be a bigot because they suffer from bigotry. The simplest example I can give is white women refusing to accept that something they've said about black women could be offensive to black women specifically, because "how could a victim of sexism be racist". Now, what happens between Marinette and Kagami in the show is nowhere near this level of victimization switcheroo, but it still has that false binary in that Marinette thinks that her actions have more moral justification than they actually do.

The interesting thing about how Kagami is introduced is that her future role as a love rival was downplayed in ‘Riposte’. Her Akumatization was because of family issues and the idea that she might be attracted to Adrien came from Marinette's jealous grumblings while she was rescuing him from Riposte (I'm mostly referring to the "She doesn't deserve you" line). Outside of that little bit, 'Riposte' comes across as a pretty standard Victim of the Week episode, instead of setting up a romance sub arc. As such, Marinette already viewing Kagami's Riposte form as a romantic rival serves more as foreshadowing rather than it actually forming their relationship.

Then we get to 'Frozer'. Marinette doesn't really know much of anything about Kagami at the start of this episode, as we can see in her mental image of Kagami as a cackling mean girl. Because Marinette doesn't really know Kagami at this point, when Adrien tells her he's thinking of asking Kagami out, her mind gives a placeholder mental image of her, seemingly based off of Chloé, another rich girl with a (supposed) crush on Adrien. This is the episode that establishes Kagami as a romantic rival to both the audience and Marinette, and Marinette’s negative mental image of Kagami establishes the idea of this rivalry being antagonistic. However, because this setup happens in Marinette's headscape, it's actually a one-sided antagonism.

Kagami isn't actually antagonistic towards Marinette in 'Frozer', but there is a certain assertiveness and physical presence to her in the episode that Marinette, as a former bully victim, might find imposing. Kagami gets in her personal space, because she's telling Marinette something she's sure Marinette doesn't want the boys to hear, but to Marinette, the body language could have come across as threatening. The way Marinette stares at Kagami throughout the scene with a deer-in-headlights look can indicate more general startlement or a sense of foreboding. And the episode ends with Kagami kissing Adrien on the cheek, establishing her as a threat in Marinette's eyes. From Marinette's view, Kagami's behavior in 'Frozer' confirmed her fears about Kagami, that she was a rich bully.

This interpretation of Kagami informs a lot of Marinette's actions in 'Animaestro'. Here we see just how much Marinette has started to view Kagami as the new Chloé in her mind. Even when the actual Chloé shows up, Marinette is more ready to side with her than Kagami. And why this happens is because Chloé actually accidentally enforces the idea that, because Marinette is a Good Person, any person who works against her happiness is a bully and a Bad Person. While we could argue that Marinette has no reason to listen to anything Chloé says, we have to remember that Marinette has been lowkey hoping Chloé would become a better person in episodes like 'Antibug' and 'Zombizou'. When they both agree that Kagami has to go, Marinette could have taken it as another sign that Chloé's not all bad, or Marinette could have simply come to the conclusion that Kagami is actually worse than Chloé, and so teaming up with Chloé to take her down is justified.

It's important to note that 'Animaestro' chronologically takes place right after 'Chameleon', another episode where Marinette thinks she's morally justified in practically bullying someone because they're acting in a way she disagrees with. Because Lila was revealed to be able to dish back the same, if not even worse, that Marinette could unleash, Marinette never learned that her behavior at the start of the episode was bullying and therefore bad. Lila "justified" Marinette's actions after the fact because she was actually a bad person all along, so Marinette doesn't need to feel bad about basically harassing her. If Lila had just been someone who fibs for fun, with no malicious intentions, Marinette's behavior would have been completely out of proportion.

This is why the approach Chloé and, by extension, Marinette take against Kagami is so vital. With Chloé hatching a scheme that was so much like one Marinette would put together, the lines between Marinette and Chloé were blurred in this episode. Simply because it was such a convoluted plan might have also been why Marinette didn't seem to realize the implications of what she was trying to accomplish. I mentioned during my liveblog of this episode that Marinette doesn't seem to consider that, since the plan was to publicly humiliate Kagami, the plan working would have meant hurting Kagami really badly. I also pointed out that, because the trap triggered for the wrong target, this fact didn't really register with Marinette completely, since she merely noted that of course Chloé would have a bad plan. The plan was bad because it failed, not because it was morally wrong.

However, even though we didn't see it happen in the episode itself, what happened at the movie premiere did alter Marinette's perception of Kagami. Most likely it was contrasting Kagami to the actual Chloé and realizing that she had been mistakenly attributing Chloé's traits to Kagami. The change in Marinette's perception is clear in her panic spiral when she realizes Kagami is her partner for the game in 'Ikari Gozen': "She's brilliant, strong, cute!" Marinette would never spell out all of Chloé's better features in such a way, which means her stance on Kagami has moved away from seeing her as The New Chloé.

Even though Marinette doesn't see Kagami as a bad person at this point anymore, she does still consider her strictly opposition. She refuses to work with her, preferring instead to sabotage her and her chances with Adrien, just this time without the attempted humiliation. This is mostly because Marinette sees Kagami and thinks she has it all: looks, confidence, influence, a connection with Adrien. Marinette is absolutely convinced that if they won the contest, all attention would be on Kagami and she'd be sidelined in favor of her. It's easy to think that a little bit of sabotage is okay when Kagami seems to have such an unfair advantage.

Unfortunately for Marinette's peace of mind, the point of 'Ikari Gozen' is to dissuade her of the notion that Kagami is fortunate in every way possible. We can see that Marinette thought that sabotaging the game was fine because Kagami had so many advantages because, as soon as she discovers that Kagami is friendless and has no connection to Adrien outside of fencing, she feels very bad for what she was trying to do. Marinette didn't actually want to hurt or upset Kagami. In 'Animaestro', Marinette didn't think about Kagami's feelings at all in relation to how Chloé's scheme might make Kagami feel, but this time she is thinking about them, she simply misjudged them at the start. She thought her purposefully throwing the contest would be a minor setback to Kagami, not what it ended up being: a betrayal by someone she was hoping to befriend.

I noted during my liveblog of this episode that Marinette's relationship with Adrien also started with a misunderstanding where Marinette first saw Adrien in a more negative light before that impression was proven to be false and they became friends. The development in 'Ikari Gozen' mirrors what happens in 'Origins' in that Marinette first has a false impression of Kagami, but is ultimately proven wrong in her assumptions and becomes friends with her. Marinette nominating herself as Kagami's friend even in her phone call with Tomoe suggests that Marinette recognized a similar need for friends in Kagami that she's seen in Adrien.

Marinette has gotten over seeing Kagami as an opponent in 'Desperada', where we see how Marinette reacts to Kagami and Adrien enjoying an inside joke together: she is miserable. Marinette recognizes the similarity between Kagami and Adrien and, rather than making her mad with jealousy, it makes her feel defeated. While Marinette's perception that Kagami was put together and perfect was taken down in 'Ikari Gozen', 'Desperada' shows us that she still thinks she can't measure up against Kagami, although now it's for the reason that she can see the connection between Adrien and Kagami and doesn't think she has what it takes to compete with that.

'Love Hunter' is the episode where this new sense of insecurity comes to a head. When Marinette's hair falls out of its usual style, it signifies her letting down her guard and enjoying both Kagami and Adrien's company, because Adrien and Kagami are both her friends at this point. However, when Marinette is reminded that there are things that Kagami and Adrien experience that she can't relate to ("It's not every day we can escape from everything they expect from us"), she hastily ties her hair back into the usual twintails, her insecurity forcing her to put her walls back up again.

Marinette is in emotional turmoil throughout the episode, allowing Adrien and Kagami to have what could constitute as an ice cream date alone at first, only to interrupt Kagami's attempt to kiss Adrien a few minutes later by whisking Kagami away to help solve the Akuma situation. This is why Marinette wanted André to pick the ice cream blend, because she started to project her relationships with Adrien and Kagami onto the ice cream too much. Marinette values her friends' happiness very high, high enough to stand aside when Kagami refers to their similarity as the reason she and Adrien are made for each other. Marinette does respond to Kagami that choices can be hard, so her standing aside is also about Marinette simply not acting at all, either to allow Kagami to go for Adrien unchallenged or to pursue Adrien herself. The choice between Adrien and Kagami was too much for her. Marinette being indecisive is of course a major character flaw I've discussed on this blog repeatedly, so the idea that it might have played a role here too makes sense from my perspective.

So far the Marinette and Kagami arc has been about Marinette learning not to subject other people to the kind of treatment she gets from Chloé, overcoming the temptation to turn into a bully to protect herself, and also making friends along the way. But there is still more ground that can be covered with this immensely interesting relationship. This is actually why I feel we really need to see Kagami and Marinette interacting after Kagami and Adrien break up. Because Marinette still has unresolved feelings about Kagami and not just Adrien after the season three finale.

[princess-of-the-corner]

The best part of a lifeswap au like this when done well I'd Chloe being Mari's childhood freind who just sees Adrien as the weird new kid her Bestie has a crush on and decieds to play wing woman

Honestly this could effect Chloé too depending on how it's done because like.

If you make it so that Chloé and Mari are the childhood friends while also making Mari's parents still good people even though they're rich af

then that means Chloé had some actual fucking good influences in her life so she won't be as.....*gestures to all of her*

[billiejean485]

Biggest problem I have with Chat Noir/Adrien in my fic is his personality. Like, we don't know if he was created to be a kind empathetic character who rarely sees the bad in others or if he was just brought up to be that way. And it's very unlikely to be the latter.

First and foremost is because he's a rich kid. We have both Chloé and Felix that are examples of that - both of which had huge influence on Adrien as he was growing up too - and they're both completely selfish people, the exact opposite of Adrien.

Then next off we have Gabriel who is anything but a good parental figure. He might have been better while Emilie was around, but one thing is for certain - he has little disregard for other people's lives - again something in complete contrast to Adrien.

So the last wild card is Emilie. Was she a good and caring mother, and a role model after which Adrien willingly molded himself? Seems highly unlikely, especially because the 'molding' can be so easily made by the Peacock Miraculous holder (God, I am so tired of even bringing the name of that Miraculous in my posts).

The kindest and most caring people are usually only the ones who've been through hell and, thus, learned to empathize with others. We also don't know what has been happening in Adrien's life before Emilie 'died', but he had never brought his past in a bad light, aside from being cooped up in his home most of the time.

And speaking of which - why were the Agrestes so overprotective of their offspring? If he's a Sentimonster, then the only thing they had to keep safe was the object with the Amok. Why keep him under surveillance 24/7?

Gabriel is controlling and thinks he has planned out a perfect life for his son, and Adrien is still a minor, so that more or less explains it. But what about Emilie? What was her reason to keep her son away from all 'danger' all the time? And how could such a mother have an influence on her son to be the best person he can be?

Sadly, all points to the direction where these two were posessive parents who may not have been able to have a child at all, made one for themselves and then obsessively continued to block him away from anything that might take him away from them - and that also includes the literal control of the boy's will via the rings that probably somehow contain a single Amok.

... I think I can rest my case with this.

Adrien never had full willpower, nor was he allowed to make any choices other than the best ones in his life, which made him an even easier marionette to manipulate. He has yet to gain any freedom of choice and grow into a person he wants to be. And we'll never know how he's going to turn out until he has the Amok in his hands.

... In final conclusion, goodbye to how I (and thousands of other people) perceived him to be from the very start.

Thomas Astruc did point out in a Tweet that "Adrien is perfect." Nobody is born perfect, but they can be made that way via the Miraculous power.

That's it, I don't wanna go back to that part again. It's just so wrong.

... And two more things I think I need to point out:

First, the Christmas special, of which I've talked about before, where it was literally shown that Adrien cannot misbehave (in this example, destroy a Christmas tree) because it has something directly to do with his mother. Biggest giveaway that she made him be that way.

And second... it's that movie, "Solitude".

Maybe Emilie was as desperately lonesome as Adrien was (though I don't know how, because she had a twin sister). Maybe it was because she felt like she could never fulfill herself as a mother. It would explain why she would create a child, or want one in the first place, and with such a wrong man as Gabriel.

... Either way... everything keeps pointing back to the Sentimonster theory, and nothing keeps pointing away from it. And I don't think I need to talk about this in this post any longer.

[trainsinanime]

Zoé can never replace Chloé (and she’s not meant to either)

There’s still quite a bit of dialog in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom about the question: Is Zoé supposed to be a replacement for Chloé? I felt like examining that a bit further. The key to figure this out is to look at what Chloé’s role in the story is, and how it does and does not overlap with what we’ve seen from Zoé so far.

For example, is Chloé’s role to be the mayor’s daughter? I would argue no. Being the mayor’s daughter is how she gets her (considerable) power over the class, and thus, a large part of her ability to influence or create stories. You could just as easily imagine her getting that power from elsewhere, e.g. by her father being Monsieur Damocles or some school superintendent, or just a really rich political donor, and it wouldn’t change Chloé’s role at all. Alternatively, there are characters who are in similar positions of power and privilege, but don’t actually use it. Adrien and Kagami are both rich, and Gabriel seems to have at least an indirect connection to André, so you could easily make stories about Adrien abusing that power and privilege if you really wanted to - except it doesn’t fit his character and his role in the story at all.

Is Chloé’s role to be the carrier of the Bee Miraculous? Again, I don’t think so. The bee miraculous is a result of how Chloé acts. Its power of telling people what to do is tailor-made for her personality, and by that I mean pre-possible-redemption-arc personality if that makes a difference. The story does not really need to her to have the bee miraculous specifically. Any would do. The bee was created for her because it fits her established personality best. This is in general how the show works: It’s ultimately never that Marinette has a certain miraculous and has to find a wielder for it; it is that the show wants to highlight a certain character, and gives them a specific power-up that matches their established character and the plot of the episode (except arguably for Alya, where the only link is “orange”, but that’s a different post). The story works just as well if Chloé got a different miraculous, or a different way to get a glimpse into the superhero world, because the point of her getting this is to tell us more about who Chloé is as a person, what she really wants, and how she acts when she both gets and loses it.

Is Chloé’s role to be a close friend of Marinette’s? Clearly not. That may change in the future, maybe, who knows, but so far, when Chloé is important in a plot, it is often specifically because she dislikes and resents Marinette.

Ultimately Chloé has a very simple role. It is literally the same as Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter, Cordelia Chase in Buffy, Libby in Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and many, many others like them. Almost every teenage TV show has someone like them. Chloé is here as the school life antagonist, as a counterpoint to Hawkmoth. Some author (I remember it as being Marjorie Liu, but I’ve never been able to find the quote again) once said that the fun the thing about writing teenagers is that everything has equal importance: Tomorrow is the big dance, and also the world is going to end, and both things are equally important. Miraculous Ladybug follows that scheme strictly, and in it, Chloé’s job is to make the „big dance“ part of this challenging.

A fun thing is that the show generally tries to link the problems she causes to the superheroics, because that makes for a better story. The obvious case is when she is the akumatized villain herself. But there are also for example things like Darkblade, where the show uses the situation with Chloé to draw explicit parallels even though her situation isn’t really linked with D’Agencourt’s at all. A few times Chloé’s role is to literally just show up, upset someone for no reason until they become Akumatization material, and then leave again, such as in Frozer, Stormy Weather 2 or Frightningale. And sometimes the superhero plot is all about Chloé’s actions and also a hilarious homage to every single zombie movie trope ever (Zombizou). Either way, Chloé exists to cause problems - and by extension, episode plots - on purpose.

Another aspect of that is that she helps Marinette grow. Sometimes she is simply motivation for Marinette to go out and be a better person (Darkblade), but she can also appeal to Marinette’s darker instincts so that Marinette can then reject them, or at least feel bad about her actions, such as in Animaestro.

Zoé, who is friendly and passive, and whose stories are all about her relationship with Chloé, is as far from a replacement as you can possibly get. Yes, Zoé has taken over the bee miraculous, but that was part of a plot that was all about Chloé as a person, and not at all about Zoé herself. And it doesn’t really matter, because Chloé isn’t here to get the bee miraculous, the bee miraculous is here to tell a story about Chloé.

Now, yes, Zoé may seem like she has taken over from Chloé if you look at it from a hypothetical end point: Throughout parts of season 2, it looked like Chloé might do a standard grade 1 redemption arc, become nice, a friend to Marinette and a member of the team. There were hints that Chloé might be interested in that, and hints that Marinette might be open to the idea, and then the show went very hard in another direction. Zoé is indeed very, very roughly the kind of person that Chloé and parts of the fandom thought she deserved to be. 

But that isn’t actually a replacement of Chloé, because the role of Chloé is not to become redeemed as quickly as possible. The point of a redemption arc, or in fact any arc, isn’t the endpoint, it’s the way there. That’s why people read 100,000 word enemies-to-lovers stories despite the fact that eventual result is already literally there in the tags. Miraculous Ladybug doesn’t need "mayor’s daughter who looks good in yellow and is nice" and takes shortcuts to get there; it needs - and most importantly clearly wants - an interesting story about Chloé specifically. You can’t replace Chloé in a story all about her personality and her relationships with people with anyone except literally Chloé herself, and certainly not with someone who is noticeably nicer.

(This does not mean Zoé is pointless; it means Zoé’s role is something else entirely. Maybe someone who pushes Chloé to be better? We’ll see.)

Now, will this story be told well? As of right now I’m honestly giving it 50:50 odds, and my guess is that it will both feel drawn-out and rushed at the same time in the end thanks to the "occasional large dumps of plot" technique of storytelling the show generally uses. We’ll see. But I am certain that the story will be told at all. If the show writers didn’t want to, they could have literally sent her off to America, that was literally a plot point in the season 3 finale.

So: Zoé as a replacement for Chloé? That’s ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.

And final thought: Once more, I want to point out that literally all Chloé-related salt is true if and only if you insert Lila instead at the right place. First, she is the obvious replacement for Chloé. She makes Marinette’s life more challenging when not in costume, and she is very good at that because she’s specifically designed to push all of Marinette’s righteous fury buttons. Lila is literally an explicit counterpart to and partner of Hawkmoth. And finally, she’s the character the creators don’t seem to like at all, or at least don’t seem to know what to do with, considering how little she appears and how she’s gotten no development whatsoever. We really need a "justice for Lila, turn her into the meaningful dastardly villain she deserves to be" movement in the fandom.

[asianrepresentationinmedia]

Post 6: Paradigm Shift of Asian American Representation in Media

After decades of misrepresentation, the gendered stereotyping of Asian men and women as discussed previously, from Fu Manchu and Dragon Lady/Lotus Blossom tropes, the usage of yellowface, cultural appropriation, and the limiting of Asian actors to a few racially stereotypical roles, at last the racial barriers built by Hollywood were kicked down upon the arrival of Bruce Lee. 

While Lee managed to gain some popularity with his role in the tv series The Green Hornet (1966), he was overlooked for lead roles in favor of white actors (Low, 2021). He then decided to leave the U.S. for Hong Kong to advance his career as an actor where he was catapulted to fame after the release of The Big Boss (1971) which was a huge box office success (Blake, 2018). Other films such as First of Fury (1971) and The Chinese Connection (1972) brought Lee into further spotlight which resulted in Hollywood becoming interested in him once again. After Lee revolutionized Hong Kong martial arts cinema, he went on to break through U.S. mainstream media and reconstructed the way Asians were depicted on screen by starting the “kung-fu craze” in the 70s (Desser, 2002). 

The unprecedented success of Lee marked a paradigm shift in Hollywood where Asian men, in particular, had previously been pigeonholed into roles as submissive servants, unskilled laborers, reincarnations of Fu Manchu, geeky sidekicks, unattractive, and comedy relief (Low, 2021). This paradigm shift became both a curse and a blessing as his popularity in the 1980s led to the entrenchment of the “All Asians Know Martial Arts” trope (Low, 2021). New martial arts actors that followed such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li were both referred to as “the next Bruce Lee” and martial arts films from this decade went on to inspire and influence action films and martial artists for generations after, even to this day. Bruce Lee is a prime example of the ways and possibilities that powerful stereotypes that have been around for decades can be challenged and broken and consequently change representations of Asian and Asian Americans for generations after. 

Following Bruce Lee, the year 2000 was a triumphant year for Asian cinema with Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love premiering at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon also making its premiere (Low, 2021). Both films were game-changers for Asian films in international theatres but it wasn’t until the release of Crazy Rich Asians (2018) which marked a momentous step in Asian representation being the first film with an all-Asian cast since The Joy Luck Club in 1993 and breaking a record in its premiere as the highest-grossing romantic comedy in a decade (Calub, 2021). The Farewell (2019) also received praise for its authentic depiction of Asian families. 

The 2020s marks the “golden age” of Asian representation in cinema, with films such as Minari (2020) winning best supporting actress Oscar for Yuh-Jung Youn (the second ever actress of Asian descent to win in that category) and showcasing an American story with characters not typically seen as American, Parasite (2019) going on to win four Oscar awards, Director Chloé Zhao winning best director for Nomadland (2020) and being chosen to direct the next epic Marvel film Eternals (2021), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) being the first-ever Asian-led superhero film to make it to theatres, and Squid Game (2021) being the first Korean tv show making history as the most-watched show on Netflix and topping streaming company’s drama charts in all 83 countries (Calub, 2021). All of these allowed Asians and Asian Americans to catch a glimpse of themselves on screen in a way that hasn’t really been shown before however, these films are mostly representing East Asians and not South or Southeast Asians who are still severely underrepresented in mainstream media.

Despite these major breakthroughs in Asian cinema, a study called “I am not a Fetish or Model Minority” reviewed the top 10 grossing movies each year from 2010 to 2019, and noted that among those films, only 4.5 percent of the main cast were Asian and Pacific Islander roles which show that there is still far ways to go in Asian representation and these are just the first steps. Nancy Wang Yuen, a sociologist, told NBC “That just speaks to the lack of authority that Asians have to be able to tell their own stories in Hollywood and the kind of trope of using Asians as objects” (Calub, 2021).

To tackle issues of underrepresentation and increase diversity, Netflix released a study to analyze the makeup of Netflix’s on-screen talent including creators, producers, writers, and directors to see where it can improve on closing diversity gaps (Boorstin, 2021). The streaming platform will work on asking questions like “Whose voice is missing? Is this portrayal authentic? Who is excluded?” as it commits to an “inclusion lens” to its work (Boorstin, 2021). The company has created a fund called Creative Equity where it plans on investing $100 million over the next five years “in organizations that help underrepresented communities train and find jobs in TV and film” as well as releasing an update to this study every two years until 2026 (Boorstin, 2021). The co-CEO Ted Sarandos says “doing better means establishing even more opportunities for people from underrepresented communities to have their voices heard, and purposefully closing capacity and skill gaps with training programs where they are needed” which gives traditionally underrepresented and often misrepresented communities hope for finally being able to see a glimpse of themselves and their communities on-screen (Boorstin, 2021).