#chloe bourgeois has reasons for being chloe bourgeois

[yolowritter]

In Defense of Chloe Bourgeois Part 1: Who is Chloe?

Well...shit, here we go again! Hello there everyone, welcome back to the source of my endless exasperation! Before any of you pick a side to the argument, I want to make it perfectly clear that this isn't a post about whether or not Chloe should have had a redemption arc. This is not my point, and any argument for either side have been repeated so many times by now that I can recite most by memory. So, let's begin by establishing why exactly I'm even writing this post!

Chloe Bourgeois is one of my favorite characters in Miraculous Ladybug. The...the fanon version, obviously. Canon can go keel over in an alleyway, it already has more holes in it than the average swiss cheese. I've been a part of this fandom for a good few years now, and at the time of watching Miracle Queen was understandably upset at the...direction, that her character was taken. It left a sour taste in my mouth because I honestly didn't see it coming, but I'll get more into that later. Point is, I was once a defender of Chloe's redemption arc. I am not stating if I am or not still one of those at present, because that's not what the point is. Regardless of what side of the fence you're on, we can all agree that her character was horribly mismanaged in the latter half of this show. Erratic, extreme and oftentimes illogical choices that sound stupider than Lila's average gaslighting scheme, and a character who previously had an arc going for her now being defined only by the sheer inconsistency that writhes every moment she's on-screen. I'll be honest, I no longer particularly care if Chloe "should" have been redeemed or not, because either avenue could have allowed for some brilliant (or at the very least pretty decent) storytelling.

This defense strives not to strip anyone of their arguments, nor to challenge anyone's headcanons, or make a point about what the "correct" way to handle Chloe's character should have been. Again, I lost interest in the debate a long time ago. I'm simply here to examine who Chloe is as a person, what drives her, what her life experiences have been like, and where all this could logically lead from both a writing and human perspective. I care about Chloe as a person, and about a character who if nothing else, at least acts consistently, in a way where the audience can watch them and understand why they're acting like this. I'll be trying to give context to some of her actions and fill in as many plot holes as I can, as well as giving a glimpse as to how a possible Redemption or Corruption Arc could have gone. So without any further ado, let's dive right in!

Firstly, let's start by laying out some common ground. After the Gabriel Agreste post, I think it's necessary to establish some clear lines as to what exactly we're talking about here. So before anything else, let's look at what we learn about Chloe in Season 1, yeah? Without going episode-by-episode, we generally don't get a good impression of her. Chloe is clearly spoiled by her father, used to always getting her way, and has no problem pressuring others into making that happen. She treats her classmates more like annoyances if not outright minions (Sabrina and on occasion Kim), has little consideration for other people's feelings, and likes appearing superior to everyone else. A pretty bad start, all things considered. She bosses Sabrina around, and we're explicitly told that Chloe often bribes her with her second-hand stuff, or whatever she wants to get rid of. Sabrina clearly doesn't know how to stand up for herself, and Chloe seems perfectly willing to take advantage of her doormat status. She also has the roots for a sweet sweet superiority complex firmly planted, considering how she rejects and humiliates Kim when he tries to confess his love to her. I'll be damned if I ever understand such bad taste, considering how Chloe is generally disliked by the rest of the class, but the point stands. She could have just told him no, even rudely if need be, and left it at that. Instead, she actively chose to humiliate the poor guy. Something similar happened with Nathaniel, whose feelings about Marinette she made public to everyone else for what seems to be entertainment value.

All in all, Season 1 Chloe has all the stereotypical makings of a popular girl from a 2010s American high school movie, including the narcissism, bullying, strong-arming school staff into not punishing these behaviors, inflated ego, and the complimentary minion! Except...Chloe isn't popular. With anyone, actually. Most of the class dislikes and barely puts up with her on a good day. They don't laugh along or jeer at whomever she's giving trouble to. Instead we have several instances where people actively try to either push the teachers into doing something or remove her from a situation where Chloe is causing problems. Think about the filming scenes in Horrificator for example. Chloe is acting like her usual self again, and refuses to allow Marinette to be the lead actress because she'll get to kiss Adrien. A tragedy, I know! Therefore, there's a whole plot to get her out of the room long enough for the scene to happen. People actively consider her at the very least a pain in the rear, and probably someone they just don't even want to talk to.

Obviously this isn't an excuse for anything she does. My point here is that from the perspective of the narrative, even while acting the part of a "Queen B", Chloe reaps none of the benefits, and in fact only serves to make people dislike her more with every episode that passes by. Even Adrien, who I'll circle back to in a second, her childhood friend who has a good opinion of her when he first comes to school, eventually stops trying to defend Chloe's behavior. There are, I think, a lot of reasons as to why she acts this way. Precisely none of them are an excuse or a "get out of jail" free card. Chloe still chooses to behave the way she does, regardless of the motivations.

About Adrien, we know that he and Chloe have known each other for a long while now. She was quite possibly his singular friend during his otherwise relatively isolating childhood, and she's very clearly attached to him. Chloe constantly clings to Adrien and drapes herself over him, and while he seems to find it annoying, there's still never a sense of disgust like with Lila in later Seasons. She's being suffocating, but there is never a connotation of romance here. Still, Chloe does everything she can to keep Adrien close to her, and (in Origins) "teach him how things are" in school. She's the one who got him signed up as a student in the first place, mind you, so she very clearly wants him to be around her. And while Chloe does brag about him being a famous model, she could just...do that without ever actually bringing Adrien out of the house? Clearly that's not the reason why she went through all the trouble to actually get him in the class, because bragging about it would probably go worse if she did it in front of him, or in an environment where Adrien could easily hear about and react to it. Chloe is very possessive of her "best friend" (and only friend, discounting Sabrina), and constantly belittles Marinette for trying to get close to him. Mind you, she doesn't find out about her feelings for Adrien until Season 3 I think. We never see Nino get bullied for befriending him, so what gives?

I'll talk about reasoning later down the line. For now, let's move onto Season 2. Amidst the beginnings of Ladybug handing out Miraculous jewels like candy to her best pals, seriously Season 4 overdid it, Chloe also exists. And during Despair Bear, Adrien finally puts his foot down about her behavior. He tells her that he can't be friends with someone who acts like a bully, and Chloe is genuinely hurt by this, to the point where she does her best to put on a good show and convince Adrien that is capable of not being an ass. Which is actually the case, believe it or not. She holds back the snides, does her best to make casual conversation with the people she considers to be inferior to her (I'll get to that, don't worry), and makes a real effort to keep at it for the sake of their friendship. The reason why she blows up here is made very obvious by the episode itself. Chloe is in unfamiliar territory and clearly reining herself in a lot, which Despair Bear pokes fun of in several back-to-back scenes. She doesn't want to do this, clearly has mutual dislike for the people she's forced to put up with every day and has made up her mind about a long time ago, for the sake of the one person she considers a genuine friend. And mind you, Chloe never uses Adrien for something. She brags about his job in Origins, and preens about their friendship often, but she never takes advantage of him like she does Sabrina. I will get to their toxic friendship in a minute, don't worry, but Chloe chooses not to try doing this with him. Adrien is...oblivious, to put it nicely, and she could easily try and play around that to serve her own goals, but she doesn't. Keep this in mind.

Anyway, she blows up because Armand (also c'mon, if you wanted to make the joke that Chloe doesn't know her butler's name, Jean "insert today's last name" was more than enough, Thomas) keeps lugging her teddy bear and playing pretend with her in a room full of people. I'm sorry, but that may be the most relatable Chloe moment in the whole show. Are you kidding me??? Of course she'd be embarrassed by this! I mean sure, her reaction to the situation is wrong, she shouldn't have screamed at him or threatened the man's job, but Chloe has serious anger management issues. That is obvious, because she acts like this every single day! Why would Armand do this??? She's already way out of her comfort zone by even hosting the party in the first place, surely there's easier ways of reminding Chloe not to be a bitch? Just tap her on the shoulder and say "miss, remember Adrien?" because that's the whole reason this is happening! The teddy bear is completely unecessary! Especially the voice acting! It made me laugh so hard when I first watched that episode but can you blame Chloe for being pissed? Again, she reacted poorly because her self control is comparable to Plagg's when there's camambert in his field of vision! So yeah, it's wrong to scream people's ears off like that, but she was also upset. And she's fourteen mind you!

Anyway, my actual point about Season 2 is that we get to see Chloe's character development. Thank Nooroo, finally a proper arc in this damn show! And we also get to see her family life. Side note, Andre Bourgeois is a spineless coward who I'll be bashing momentarily. But Chloe's mother is horrible! Audrey Bourgeois is blatantly neglectful, if not abusive to her daughter! She treats Chloe the same way Chloe treats everyone else! As disposable, expendable things that don't "deserve" her attention because they're not good enough. Like, if this doesn't give a six year old some hefty trauma along with an inferiority complex, what will??? And the situation becomes even worse as Chloe becomes incresingly desperate during Style Queen, trying again and again to please Audrey by copying her behavior (which she's been doing this whole time) even more intensly, and acting like the entitled, self-absorbed narcissist that her mother is! And this is where we see exactly why Chloe does what she does! Again, none of this excuses her actions, but it does help us understand the behavior. Audrey constantly puts Chloe down and belittles her the same way she does to Marinette...only to later pick the kid that Chloe is jealous of (I will explain this in a second!) to come with her to New York, where Audrey had presumably yeeted herself off to years ago and never bothered to come visit! We already know that she pressured her husband into giving up his love for film to stay with her, maybe even during her pregnancy or after Chloe's birth. Only to promptly vanish and leave him (a person who never grew a spine or managed to stand up to what is undoubtebly a toxic relationship) with her miniature copy. It's obvious that Chloe's barely ever seen Audrey, but she idolizes the woman because that's her mother! Heck, Adrien idolizes Emilie even if she was arguably not a great person (see here) and Chloe is always kicked to the curb for just doing the same!

Audrey is a horrible person and an even worse role model, but when you're five years old and she disappears from your life, is it any wonder that there's a steaming hot pile of mommy issues here? If Chloe has been told by Audrey from the moment she was old enough to understand words that she isn't "exceptional" enough to "deserve" her time, then isn't it obvious why Andre tries and fails to make up for this by always coddling his daughter and giving in to her every whim? He's trying to please her and give Chloe a sense of self-importance that Audrey made near-impossible to develop, and also makes up for his own absence by basically bribing his own child! Not that Andre is innocent in this! If anything, he's even more at fault than Audrey! Because while she flew off into the sunset to fire her twenty-seventh unpaid intern of the week, he was still in Paris with Chloe! Who grew up with him, mind you! And sure, he got elected into office and had a busy job as a single parent! You know what else he did? Crime! Almost everything he does in this damn show is completely illegal! Bribery, blackmail, undue termination of Roger's position as a police officer, who Andre doesn't even have juristiction over mind you (because Paris had the National Police until like 2021-ish if I recall correctly), he's just a corrupt, scummy politian whose ideas (see Megaleech) are harmful to the people he's supposed to be serving and outright motivated by greed! And also, we are explicitly told that he taught Chloe to do these same things! Andre Bourgeois is a total idiot who's probably been committing tax evasion for all we know, and Audrey is a self-absorbed diva who bullies her own child constantly, when she even bothers to go see her! Which is never, unless she needs to be in Paris for some other event related to her job!

Thomas, what the heck do you mean Chloe is evil? Lila is an accomplice to a domestic terrorist, and a psychopath against whom the only protection is the show's PG rating! If Lila could, she'd burn Marinette's house down for shits and giggles my good man! Audrey is everything I just mentioned, Andrey is a corrupt, spineless politician, Tomoe physically abuses her daughter with fucking katanas on the daily, Gabriel Agreste is that domestic terrorist who almost fired every nuclear warhear in the USA by the way! Because that was stupid of the NYC special to do! But he still did it! Plus the genocide in Shanghai! Accident or not, Hawkmoth is still responsible! And later on he also put his son in a room! A rubber room! Thankfully there weren't any rats, as if he needs another OSHA violation! Are you people insane when you say "I don't know why Chloe acts like this"? Have you lost your marbles??? Do you want me to have an aneurysm? Of course a child is going to act the way Chloe does if this is the shit she's been dealing with since Day 0 of her life! Does that make it okay? Absolutely not! But does it mean that she deserved what happened to her canonically? Also no! I'll talk about how the corruption arc could have worked at the end, because they tried and failed to do that, so let's circle back to the "jealous of Marinette" thing from a minute ago, kay?

Note: We're doing this in part 2 because this is closing in on 3k words already. The whole rant is done, no you don't want to know how long it is, I'm just splitting it because nobody will ever read 7.5k words worth of anything on Tumblr dot com.

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[immaturityofthomasastruc]

EVEN MORE SPOILERS FOR SEASON 6

I figured since I already read it, I'd give my thoughts on the recent interview Astruc and Thibaudeau took part in.

Due to incompatibility with the new animation engine, SAMG will not be working on the next seasons of ‘Miraculous’. The series is now being developed entirely in France, with the integration of Dwarf Animation.

Okay, props for no more outsourcing, even if I'm not sure what this means for the other ZAG shows.

Season 6 is considered to be “a new beginning”, aside from being a new story arc. It is sometimes referred to by the writers as Season 1.

I'm sure that isn't confusing to the executives at all. Also, maybe don't imply you're starting from scratch when you're already reusing the plot of the main villain using the Butterfly Miraculous.

The writing team already has concrete ideas for how Seasons 7, 8 and 9 will begin and end. They also have ambitions to make it to a Season 12, only if the support of viewers and executives allows them to do so. With this, they emphasize the fact that they would not continue with the show if it were no longer needed or interesting.

So basically, they're planning to keep this up for as long as they can until someone pulls the plug.

The opening of the sixth season is still undecided. They are still discussing whether they will change the musical arrangement or not. Thomas also considers the possibility of making a brand-new theme song. A song has been confirmed for S6. They have the music, the arrangement and a female singer. The character remains unknown.

Imagine how funny it would be if they brought back the woman who sang for Marinette in the movie instead of having Cristina Vee sing again.

Despite leaving Paris at the end of ‘Revolution’ (5x23), Chloé Bourgeois will return in Season 6.

Putting aside all the things I've said about her "damnation arc", what is even the point of bringing her back at this point? She has no powers, no influence, no allies, and isn't a threat of any kind. This makes her not being the next Hawkmoth make even less sense, becuse she has more of a reason to hate Ladybug than Lila does.

Also, with the news that Chloe is coming back, this means that she essentially escaped punishment or at least found a way to rebound like Lila did. So that's a grand total of ZERO villains who actually got punished for their actions after five seasons. I'm starting to think Ladybug and Cat Noir really suck at their jobs.

Sebastien Thibadeau: “[Cerise] (IOTA: I'm still calling her Lila for simplicity's sake) is a villain without costume. She is a villain all the time. There is a reason why, but this reason, neither I nor Astruc will reveal to you yet.” Interviewer: “You mean you already intend to tell it?” Thomas Astruc: “Yes. And you know what, we have already told it, but you haven’t noticed.”

Translation: Ladies and gentlemen, LET'S GET READY FOR RETCOOOOOONNNNS!

Seriously, we are approaching the sixth season of this show. It has been eight years since Lila first appeared all the way back in "Volpina", and we still know nothing about her other than the fact that she has some three moms for some reason. You can't pull the whole "This is something you need to rewatch to understand!" excuse because the last two seasons hinged on breaking the rules about Sentimonsters.

Speaking of, I love how this comment about Lila accidentally implies that Gabriel never did anything evil when he wasn't Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth/Monarch. All that emotional abuse and isolation Adrien suffered was all out of love!

Thomas Astruc on Chloe redemption arc: “We put the characters in situations, and then we say to ourselves: “what would be the logic?” How would the character logically react in “such and such” a situation? And we tried, we tried everything. But every time, we say to ourselves: “if we write this, it’ll be wrong”. There’ll be no reason, it’ll come out of nowhere, the fact that she’ll face something nice and say: “Oh, I’ve been horrible, Marinette what have I done! From now on, I’ll be...” No, nonsense. I understand people’s desire for Chloe to be nice. I’d like that too. But I’d like it if in real life, people with a lot of power suddenly started doing nice things. But Chloé has no interest in changing. She has no reason to change, unfortunately.”

Ah, yes because Gabriel (Global terrorist and abusive parent), Felix (Betrayed Ladybug and temporarily wiped out all of humanity on a whim), Nathalie (Willing accomplice to Gabriel) Andre (corrupt politician and Chloe's primary enabler), Sabrina (Willing accomplice to Chloe) all had compelling reasons to change their ways.

Also, "I've been horrible, what have I done?"

MY BROTHER IN CHRIST, THAT'S HOW VIRTUALLY EVERY REDEMPTION ON THIS SHOW IS EXECUTED.

The fact that he's seriously acting like he actually wanted to write a redemption arc is insulting. Not only does it ignore all the things he's said to fans who were upset at the turn of events, but it makes no sense for him to take this stance because he's a writer. If Chloe turning a new leaf is too strange of an idea, then write an actual character arc allowing her to progress to a state where she recognizes what she's done is wrong. You control the character for God's sake! It's not like you're training a dog to stop humping the couch. You can change things to make a redemption arc possible.

In other words, Astruc is either lying to save his ass, or THIS IS WHAT THOMAS ASTRUC ACTUALLY BELIEVES about writing characters.

Sebastien Thibadeau talks about Andre's character development: In contrast to Chloe, “Andre Bourgeois evolved as a character because we had already imagined a back story. He had the potential to change, and that’s where the beautiful scene comes from — I think it’s magnificent — between Gabriel and himself on the roof of the Grand Palace, where he says: “But Gabriel, what’s become of us? We’ve forgotten the kids we used to be”. But we [writers] know what kids they used to be, and we’d like to tell the story one day, to show what young kids they were, when they were struggling through Paris and weren’t yet what you’ve come to know in the series. He’s sad about what’s happening to his daughter [Chloe], and he’s trying to change it, but he can’t. He is proof that a character can change.”

This. This right here is what cinched it for me. I've tried for years not to say it because it's a word that has been flung around a lot over these last few years, but I feel like this little snippet is enough of a reason for me to say it.

These writers are sexist.

They may not believe it, but whether they intended for it or not, they wrote a story arc where a grown man was shown to have more sympathetic qualities than his daughter. How the hell can you defend it in a way that doesn't highlight the misogyny that this show runs on?

The fact that they gush over how much "potential" Andre had right after saying how that same kind of potential wasn't enough of a reason to attempt a redemption arc with Chloe really shows how confusing their priorities are. I'm sorry to keep saying this, but for a show that takes a heavy anti-capitalist philosophy, it seems like the members of the 1% are the characters who get the most depth and sympathy... unless you're under 18 and lack a Y chromosome, that is.

A meeting will be set up in the coming weeks to decide on whether or not to make a live-action for ‘Miraculous’, Thomas Astruc reveals.

As a former Arrowverse fan, I'm willing to see this out. Not only did the Netflix One Piece series prove you can make an animated property work in live-action, Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie managed to do really well even without the usual writers behind it.

Thomas when asked about Gabriel’s wish in ‘Re-Creation’ (5x26) and whether he brought Emilie back to life: “All the answers are in the episode.”

For the love of--STOP SAYING THAT!

You keep claiming that we just need to rewatch the episode to understand things, but between the continuity errors and abandoned subplots, it's hard to tell what's important and what isn't. Either say "No comment" or give us an honest answer.

If people are still confused about how the season ended after almost a year, and you keep giving answers like this:

Maybe you need to change the way you tell the story.

Astruc when asked about ‘The Supreme’: “Oh, if only you knew... Nothing we do is meaningless.”

Sebastien Thibadeau on Season 7: “Once you’ve seen the start of season 7, I can swear you’ll watch season 6 a second time. That’s all I can say.”

Because it'll make Season 6 look like a masterpiece by comparison?

Thomas Astruc on the worldbuilding: There are Kwamis and Renlings, what makes you think there aren’t others [creatures]?

I swear, by the time we get to Season 10, we're going to get stuff like aliens, demons and talking mushrooms, or at least something ludicrous like that.

Zoe had a love at first sight when she met Marinette in ‘Sole Crusher’ (4x07), they confirm.

Of course! That's why it wasn't framed any differently from something like the umbrella scene and Zoe showed absolutely no signs of attraction to Marinette! It's genius!

Executives had Thomas write several alternative concepts for ‘Miraculous’, very different from what we know today or even the early PV. Among them, “a concept where Ladybug is the head of a group of superheroines, like Sailor Moon. There was no love story.”

Can you imagine a world without the Love Square?

The script writers’ favorite episode is ‘Simpleman’ (4x19) as it represents a personal, work and family attachment. Marinette’s grandfather, Roland Dupain, is inspired by Thomas Astruc’s grandfather.

Okay, either Astruc had a complicated relationship with his grandpa or he's been dead for years. While I understand that older generations have outdated views (for example, my great-grandmother yelled at me for saying I wanted to learn Japanese because "They tried to kill us!"), the fact that a caricture of a grumpy old man was based on his grandpa is a little concerning.

Also, between this and Sabine being based off an old flame of his, this only makes the theory that Chloe is based off a real person Astruc knew more plausible.

Astruc: “This is why our work is so difficult. We have to manage to bring in this generation of younger ones, and at the same time, we have to satisfy the generation that was here before and that grows with the series.”

First, if you're trying to please older fans, maybe don't get into fights with them on Twitter.

Second, you made a thread after "Simpleman" aired where you insulted fans for not getting the "meta" element to the episode and compared them to the character you just said was based on your grandfather.

You've also been burning away a lot of the older fans' goodwill over the years. Trust me, I have a few examples.

Despite sharing a similar appearance, the symbol on Nino’s T-shirt is not related to Hack-San.

Okay, is this a fan theory I missed back when Season 4 was airing? Why would anyone draw that conclusion?

Thomas Astruc talks about Season 6: “I’ll say it sincerely, I was very doubtful at the end of Season 5. I said to myself: “if we were to continue, how would we exceed?” Well, we did. It’s been a great season. The new writers have brought us a lot of great stuff. All the episodes we’ve written in Season 6 are fabulous. Each episode is on point, there is no unnecessary lines. All the scenes are really interesting, really well-crafted.”

Translation: Tons of filler, bad comedy, reused Akumas, and more Love Square drama that we're trying to claim hasn't been done before.

Thomas when asked if Marinette will get akumatized: “We never give any information about what may or may not happen.”

JUST. SAY. NO. COMMENT.

There are many important details throughout the series that no one has noticed. Thomas says that when we see the next seasons, we’ll think, “Oh, the writers had it all planned.”

You know, like how Season 3 established that Sentimonsters can be sent out of control by Cataclysm a few episodes before Adrien, a Sentimonster, gets hit by a Cataclysm and is affected in a different way. It was all planned from the beginning.

The Ladybug PV was an animation test and was not intended to be public. Jeremy Zag decided to leak it himself.

Honestly? Dick move on Zag's part. You have to wonder how pissed off Astruc was.

According to Thomas Astruc, what the ‘Miraculous’ series is today represents only 5% of what he wrote in the original bible he presented to Jeremy Zag. “The universe has evolved a lot since. I don’t know if the ideas I put there will be reused someday. It was very extensive.”

Thomas Astruc and Sebastien Thibadeau discuss the parallels between Marinette and Gabriel: Astruc: “Gabriel’s personal back story is the cause of his misery, not his will. And above all, it creates a beautiful mirror with Marinette, which is what’s interesting. They both have a lot of love for Adrien, they’re both designers, they both have a Miraculous, but it’s other choices.” Thibadeau: “That’s what makes it a great hero-villain contrast. Even if they don’t know it from the start, they have a real point in common. As we see at the end of Season 5, they both love Adrien. Except there’s one who does it by doing the right thing, and then there’s another who does it by doing the wrong thing, hurting people, to get there.”

And the one who did the wrong thing by hurting people ended up winning. What does that say about the contrast?

------------------------------------------------------------------

And that's it for the interview. I have to say Season 6 does not look pretty so far.

[kaileedraws]

Introduction: Adrien Agreste

Hey fellow miraculers! Here’s Adrien and a little about how he’s going to be portrayed in this AU. I’ll list the characteristics and/or problems that I saw in the show and then delve into how I’m going to take things here. Most of the issues I found in his character is just that his issues aren’t really talked about, but the subtext of a great character is there and he definitely has main character potential

1. His outfit

This is honestly a budget issue/creating recognizable characters for the show, but like all characters, I want to see more Gabriel Agreste fashion on him.

2. Love interest or main character?

In the show, it’s said that he’s the main character, but he doesn’t appear as such. A lot of his emotions, struggles, and life isn’t delved into as much as Marinette, yet he has so much potential. He’s a teenage Rapunzel trapped in a tower waiting for his ladybug in shining armor to come save him. I want to explore not only his fears of losing his freedom, but also his experimentation with rebellion and standing up to his father.

3. Adrien as a Model

In the show, his life as a model isn’t talked about really much, he just thinks it’s boring and it’s a nuisance to him. However, with some research, I discovered how horrible it can be. For one, Adrien would become desensitized to personal space and being touched without permission, putting him into awkward positions in his job and even with classmates. He would get taken advantage of a lot easier. As a model and celebrity, Adrien would also experience Parasocial Confusion — which is when a celebrity has difficulty distinguishing between genuine personal connections/love and relationships/infatuations of fans. This would make relationships with him incredibly difficult.

Additionally, model assault is a huge thing in the fashion industry. Unfortunately, because Adrien is such a pushover and people pleaser, this puts him up to be a prime target for abuse that he probably thinks is just normal (yes this happens, I promise, it sucks.) I want to see a huge character arc with him learning about personal boundaries and learning how to enforce them, with his friends teaching him what is Ok and what is not socially.

4. His personality before his mother dies

If I’m not mistaken, I don’t think we ever get much insight into how Adrien is like before Emilie “disappears.” From what we know about her, she is a princess and an actress, which brings me to my headcanon:

Emilie brought Adrien up on broadway shows, fairytales, and romances — this would explain why he has an “old fashioned” ideology that “boys save girls” (S3E3). This would also explain his gentlemanly behavior— like he was literally written/taught his behavior by a princess (he was. Her name is Emilie).

Inspired by musical theatre and the arts, Adrien began to take dance classes, where he meets Chloe Bourgeois — Emilie is to blame for this, and Gabriel would rather him take fencing, but he gives in. Chloe and Adrien become childhood friends through dance and being partnered often is how they became so close. Based on his “breakdancing” moves as Chat Noir, I think it would also be reasonable that he took other forms of dance too, like hiphop.

As Emilie started to get sicker and sicker, his ambitions for dance and the arts faded. He began fencing like his father wanted to and abandoned dancing. He and Chloe still remained close friends — as this was the only friend he was allowed to have. Gabriel knew Chloe’s dad, after all.

Although Emilie was portrayed to be kind, beautiful, and caring, it’s easy to paint memories of a person better than they actually were. Although she was those things, Emilie also was dramatic, hotheaded, and emotional. If Adrien did something wrong, she’d be quick to scold him harshly, but then just as quick to apologize for her outburst. Toward the end of her life, she was also rather absent from Adrien’s life, as she didn’t have much energy to take care of him anymore. It was difficult for her to take care of him as she got more and more sick, and he would often try to be the best little boy he could because he didn’t want to be a burden on top of her sickness. I mean remember, the last 3 years his dad had gotten him a freaking PEN for his birthday. This occurred when Emilie was still alive.

The person who raised him the most was Nathalie — as his mother became weak, and Gabriel became absent

5. Mental health and coping so he isn’t akumatized

Headcanon that to keep himself from being akumatized, Gabriel has him talk to a counselor who prescribes him multiple medications that work a little TOO well. Meaning? Let’s just say that he starts to become numb to feelings and that it’s just another way for his father to control him — His rebellion streak is going to hit hard yo.

Despite these methods, he’s still going to get akumatized — don’t worry, no one is safe.

His mental health illnesses insinuated from the show include depression, ADHD, parasocial confusion, abandonment trauma, social anxiety disorder, attachment disorder/trauma (which leads to lack of boundaries), and to add some spice, probably claustrophobia (or just feeling trapped). This poor boy has so much he needs to shift through and I’m excited to guide him on an arc to healing.

Conclusion

I think Adrien is my favorite character simply because of how there are certain aspects of him that I heavily relate to — plus he’s such a kind soul who has every right to turn into a villain but stays a sunshine golden retriever boy. It takes a lot of strength and determination to go through so much and be good in the end. I can’t wait to write him in this AU and give the boy the healing and happiness he deserves. There’s so much more I could talk about with him, but this is just the beginning!

[zoe-oneesama]

From what I’ve know, the fandom mostly dislikes Andrey for reasons related to Chloe (bad mother etc.), but what are YOUR reasons for not liking her?

Cuz she's an asshole? On top of being qualified for the Top 3 Never Should've Been Parents to Begin With Award (next to Gabriel and Tomoe), she's an elitist dick waffle without any on screen talent to back it up. So she's a fashion critic. So what? What makes her qualified, have you seen her outfit? And I just have a special hate boner for people who look down on the service industry, so she already wasn't winning any awards for "firing" people left and right.

Meta-wise, I hate her because she just confuses things. "Despair Bear" makes it out that Audrey abandoned the Bourgeois when Chloe was small, though at least old enough to remember, so maybe at minimum 3 years old, though in a sensible universe, closer to 5 or 6. Yet despite being absent from Chloe's life for about a decade, if not more, we're supposed to believe Chloe is the way she is because she's emulating her mother...who isn't there to emulate? Okay. Sure Jan.

Totally unnecessary, Chloe's personality has a good foundation in the fact that her father is rich, powerful, and ready to drop everything to cater to her every petty whim. What does Audrey even add to Chloe's story as presented? Personally, I would've liked it more if Chloe deeply resented her mother and was determined to prove she was BETTER than Audrey. Then have her be frustrated and pissed off every time the two of them are accidentally in sync. Show me a love-hate relationship, at least that would've been interesting, and better yet, would've had something to say about a parent abandoning their child.

But the show just sorta soft balls it. Chloe and Audrey immediately "resolve" a lifetime of abandonment issues because another 14 year old pointed out that they both suck and the two bonded over the fact that she's...right? Audrey decides Chloe's name is worth remembering, she's worth staying in Paris for, and she's "exceptional" in less than 3 minutes because Chloe yelled at the Butler. And for the rest of the series, Audrey is just another Chloe-Patsy, doting on her like her Dad in "Malediktator", cowering under her outburst in "Sole Crusher", and acting as her enforcer when Andre ever puts up a fight. A duo made in hell, but they ARE getting along.

Which makes the leaks for how they're going to end things for the two are confusing.

I don't like Audrey because she was made to be unlikable, but I also don't like Audrey because of her effect on the story. She's used to excuse Chloe being The Worst because look! An Even Worse person! And she made Chloe sad! So you should ignore those several felonies Chloe's committed because her mommy sucks! Nevermind that Chloe and Audrey get along just fine now!

And on top of that, she's used to excuse Andre. Andre, who spoiled Chloe from the beginning, who acts as her attack dog when Chloe cries wolf, who's taught Chloe how to lie, cheat, steal, and bully her way to the top. Somehow HE is getting off scott-free now because He CaN'T bE a DirEcTor aNd fUlFiLL hiS dReAm cUz HiS wIfe'S a BiG meAnIE. Even though Chloe is mostly his fault.

Why couldn't Audrey just stay in New York so we can pretend she doesn't exist and just let Chloe's behavior make sense like it did back in Season 1?

[tumblingxelian]

Chloe & Heroism

Chloe Bourgeois as a hero early on is a premise that often evokes either questions, like "How" and "Why". Or expectations that she is either already on a path to self improvement, or will be forced onto within a short timeframe.

These are not bad questions and the former definitely are necessary to consider for a story. However the expectations I tend to feel a bit murkier and while I have no issue with how some authors handle this topic.

I want to outline why I think you could do a good "Hero Chloe" story before she gets character development, but first, house cleaning!

1: I have not watched and largely ignore everything post season 3, so don't bother bringing up Derision. Remember, season 1 Kim was afraid of spiders.

2: In canon. Chloe only revealed her ID publicly because her abusive mother she is obsessed with pleasing (who killed her the day before) chose a girl other than her to take to New York & then tore her to shreds in front of everyone. 

With all that in mind let's examine where Chloe's values and understanding of the world comes from and how she perceives them! 

1 - Media/Social Media 

This would be a mixed bag, because on one hand they have Mighty Majesta comics that try to instill good values, but also shows built around lying to and humiliating people are evidently popular television and the internet seems similar in regards to pranking VS trying not to be terrible. So she's gonna get mixed signals at best. 

2 - Her family & Circle 

This is where 90% of the problems come from. Of the important adults in her life, her father, mother, Gabriel and Nathalie are all varying shades of corrupt, abusive, cruel and ruthless, while the lesser evils like Jean and Emilie are largely consigned to the role of enablers. 

Worse still, even if we ignore the emotional abuse, neglect and other elements that led to her both having trauma and her trauma response manifesting in aggression. We still have issues like Andre, during the brief periods he bothered to parent, explicitly teaching Chloe that, Stealing, extortion and threats are all appropriate ways to succeed in life.

IE, she isn't compromising her morality when she does these things, she is very much doing what she is taught was right at least consciously. This isn't helped by a 24/7 Audrey impression as Audrey deems being in her vicinity as reason enough to hurt people unless she deems them useful. 

Long story short, the values and people she was brought up around are all explicitly some shade of bad, or enabler, or outright teaching her to harm others. 

3 - Societies & Class 

However, we know from season 2 that Chloe is not entirely unaware that there are issues with this. Because while she spends much time boasting of how she's beloved and brilliant, when stripped of that and exposed to someone she trusts she is entirely willing to confess that she knows everyone hates her and that she feels she has no worth. She may not be able to articulate why or how this came about but she knows something is wrong. 

Despite this, school is not the best place to figure this out, especially for someone who obviously struggles with social cues and the like. The teachers run the gamut from indifferent and unpleasant, to extremely gentle and accommodating, to simply not wanting any form of drama and usually caving to whoever makes the most noise and none of them have the authority to do much outside of class hours. 

The class is not significantly better, because students like Kim and Alix can and do casually throw around snark or do pranks and at worst only get brief bursts of anger while Chloe's garner a more intense response. This is because her relationship with the class and motives are varying shades of different, but for someone with issues reading social cues, it's just going to seem like a confusing double standard. 

We can also see all this demonstrated in her relationship with Adrien, as Chloe clearly takes the lead in their relationship in Origins and outlines her logic behind the pranks, but is then surprised when Adrien seems to turn against her. What's more, it seems Chloe is aware that Adrien is more gentle/naive than her given she tried to educate him on these matters & turns to him for comfort and protection at times, while seeing no inherent contradiction between her expectations for their relationship and how she treats others.

Adrien does not help matters with seeming indifference to how she treats staff. 

Thus, while she knows 'something' is terribly wrong, actually being able to understand it and work through it is another matter. 

4 - Chloe's Conclusion 

So, what is the conclusion Chloe comes to in order to square all of these circles when she isn't just in full denial mode? The answer is quite simple and even demonstrated in the show itself, playing one's role. 

IE, Chloe the mayor and style queen's daughter is different to Chloe the hotel owner's daughter and we see this in her being able to stamp down on her usual instincts and slap on a customer service role when Jagged Stone enters the hotel and guide her father into doing the same. VS how she conducts herself during a class election, IE explicitly threatening and extorting people, to how she conducts herself day by day with her Audrey impersonation. 

A separate example and way she'd view this for others would be that Marinette the baker's daughter of course has to be nice and sweet and giving because that is how customer service roles work, while Marinette the aspiring fashion designer or would be class president is sneakier and will lay traps so people trying to steal from her are sabotaged. This isn't wrong, this is how she expects people to behave when in these circumstances and roles. 

Final Conclusion 

Which is why Chloe could easily play the role of a successful hero, because she would not be "Chloe Bourgeois, mayor's daughter, hotel heiress and Style Queen's daughter" as Queen Bee, she would just be Queen Bee, a superhero.

They have wonderfully defined roles that would be easy for her to pick up & follow through on: assure the public, save people from danger, protect allies, defeat monsters, all things Chloe was shown doing very well when chosen as a Miraculous Holder. 

I think that eventually the contrast in how she is received as Queen Bee VS Chloe Bourgeois would start grinding on each other and bleeding through both sides of the mask. 

But the infectious nature of empathy and a larger support network that don't have the worst impression of her would give Chloe the room she needs to explore and grow.

If she is too snippy as a hero, or shows a ruthless side, these won't be taken in the context of "Chloe that person I dislike" but "Queen Bee my ally" and can allow for more honest and even handed reactions that give her the necessary breathing room to grow and change. 

So yeah, I think season 1 Chloe could have, under the right circumstances, done a great job as a hero be it Queen Bee or another hero even before any outside circumstances or internal changes might have forced her to chart a new course in life.

Provided the role of Chloe and the role of hero do not intersect and become one almost immediately, because in that case it gets a lot harder for her. 

[ijustliketoreadstuff]

Zoe learned to overcome her fears of rejection.

It is no surprise that Zoe has lived one chaotic life, living practically every day in New York pretending to be someone she was not to obtain the approval of those around her. Zoe was good at acting, even considering a career as a professional actress, but what she hated was living out every day of her actual life playing a part she did not want, just so she could please all the wrong people. No matter how much she wanted, Zoe could not escape this way of life so easily, not even after she moved to Paris, as her fears of being rejected by her family wound up pulling her right back into the life she was so desperate to leave behind in New York.

Back in "Sole crusher", Andre told Zoe that if she ever truly wanted to be accepted into the Bourgeois family, then she too would need to give up her dreams, along with everything else in her life that made her who she was, and leave it all in that little cellar on the roof where no one could find it, just as he had done with his own life many years ago.

By placing her shoes into the little cellar and putting on the diamond heels Chloe loaned her, Zoe really was ready to abandon who she was and accept that she would always be fated to live a lonely life hidden behind the persona her family approved of. Back then, Zoe had hoped that moving to Paris would give her the opportunity to finally be free to be herself, but who she was was someone her own family did not want around, and if the real her wasn’t good enough for her family, then how could she be sure she was good enough for anyone else, much less Marinette and the friends she spoke of at Anarka's boat.

The idea of learning to just be herself and speak her mind to others is easy enough to consider, but it was the fear of being rejected by others that was far more terrifying to think about whenever Zoe did face someone. When Zoe went to Anarka's boat to introduce her true self, not the cruel girl she pretended to be on her first day at school when she attempted to please Chloe, we see her frowning face before finally deciding to walk to the boat and meet everyone, she was nervous, and for good reason.

Showing her true self to others was not only difficult, it was a moment of extreme vulnerability. We are used to seeing the other characters be themselves around the people that love and support them, because we know they will and have been accepted by the others, but for someone outside of that social circle, like Zoe, the struggle to be herself around unfamiliar people is a risk, she didn't know how they would react to meeting the real her, and considering she wound up being relentlessly bullied by the people she once considered her friends the last time she decided to show that sense of vulnerability in New York, it was only natural she feared the worst at Anarka's boat. If things didn't work out at Anarka's boat, Zoe would have no one to blame but herself for being incapable of knowing how to avoid such rejection all over again, and for a moment, that really was all she expected as she told everyone she would not blame them for not wanting to befriend her even after hearing her clear up any misunderstandings over her previous actions. The one person that ultimately did push her to go through with meeting everyone, was Marinette.

(Moments like in "Sole Crusher" and "Queen Banana", Marinette has always done her best to reach out to Zoe and help her when she was being treated unfairly.)

With Marinette's help, Zoe found a group of friends that loved and accepted her for who she is, but in order to keep that part of her life, she still had to do whatever she could to avoid trouble within her family now that she proved to Chloe she could not earn her place with them, after choosing to befriend Marinette. Andre came up with excuses to buy Zoe more time in Paris, but even then, Chloe was quick to threaten to turn to Audrey to send Zoe back to New York, if Zoe did not abide by her demands.

(To stay in Paris, Zoe was willing to comply by Chloe's demands, no matter how unfair they were, be it cleaning every one of Chloe's shoes or remaining confined to certain parts of the hotel. )

However, such threats to send her back to New York was all Chloe had to ensure Zoe did not step out of the line she set for her, but after finding the courage to stand up to Chloe in "Deflagration", to stop her from mistreating Marinette, Zoe did eventually come to understand that her family only had as much power over her as she was willing to permit them, and this she alone had the capability to revoke at any moment, it all depended on whether or not she was willing to find the strength to stand up and do something, rather than remain in fear and do nothing, something Marinette learned for herself back in "Origins" when she finally took a chance to stand up for herself to stop Chloe from continuing to torment her.

(In "Deflagration", Zoe finds the strength to stand up to Chloe so she could help Marinette, realizing that she too had the courage to stand up for herself and stand up for others in the same way Marinette did for her time and time again.)

Marinette and Plagg were right, regardless of who her family was and what their views were of her, she did not deserve to be mistreated by them. While Chloe and Audrey had a great sense of pride earning and upholding their names as a Bourgeois, Zoe could not care any less the more she understood her own self worth was not dependent on fulfilling her family’s expectations, their approval did not define her. So, rather than continue to withstand her family's insults and do everything she could to please them so they would refrain from sending her back to New York, Zoe did exactly what Plagg said she should do, and what Marinette showed her she could do for herself, to call the shots and not let others step all over her, and over time, that's exactly what she did.

In "Adoration" we see that Zoe never forgot that moment in Deflagration when she cast aside her fears of displeasing Chloe to stand up to her. Rather than use what she knew about her family to please them, she used what she knew to make their threats empty and useless.

Chloe always felt she was entitled to command everyone in her fathers hotel, including Andre himself, but Zoe removed that sense of control by befriending and connecting with the hotel staff as well as Andre, who were all soon quick to do whatever they could to help Zoe if and when Chloe lost her temper, allowing Zoe to use Chloe's temper against her to make matters more annoying for their mother. Audrey in particular favored Chloe and saw no wrong in Chloe tormenting Zoe, so of course Audrey sided with Chloe over the matters of sending Zoe back to New York.

To stop Audrey from ever carrying out Chloe's threats, Zoe had Chloe complain to their mother over every little thing, such as ownership of the hotel stairs, annoying their mother enough to force her to find solace away from them and ignore their constant bickering, even considering sending Chloe to New York along with Zoe if they didn't stop. 

Zoe didn’t just change things, she took back the power her family had over her, and the one thing that helped her accomplish this, was learning to change her entire perspective about herself.

Zoe learned to love herself the more she acknowledged her own accomplishments and capabilities, oftentimes through helping other people. And the love she had for those who were willing to love and accept her for who she is, especially Marinette(more here), helped her take a chance to put her foot down and build enough confidence to learn it was ok to say no to things, any rejection that came with it was just something she learned to accept came normally in life and was better to learn from it to better her own life, rather than fear it forever

At the start of "Adoration", Zoe was honest when she said it was thanks to Marinette that she was able to accomplish so much for herself. To have someone who was willing to reach out to her and show her a little love and compassion in her times of need, was more than enough to help her gradually seek out and build other supportive relationships that made her feel reassured it was ok to be herself. Zoe might not have had the loving and accepting life with her family that she'd hoped, but with every little change she made, she learned to overcome her fears of rejection and found a new family for herself in the friends who appreciated having the real her in their lives.

[copdog1234]

I'm trying so, so hard to not be a little salty about recent ml episodes cause I really do truly enjoy the show, but there's still just the nitpick of how Thomas treats Chloe like she's the worst person on the show, but then excuses the behavior of Andre Bourgeois, a notable enabler of Chloe's behavior.

I keep thinking I'm over Chloe's murdered redemption arc. I know that ship has long since sailed, but then we have an episode centered around Zoe or a flashback to Marinette's past out of nowhere which kinds just rubs it in our faces that, yeah, Chloe is supposed to be the absolute worst. And it annoys me.

Chloe is a child. An actual child and Andre spoiled her constantly, giving in to all of her (utterly) ridiculous demands no matter how outlandish or terrible it was. He constantly abused his power as mayor of the city. And you want me to believe that he, as Chloe's parent, had no control over any of that? That he did it cause he's blinded by his love? That he's a sympathetic character who is abused by both his wife and his daughter? And that he's actually a "good guy" who can be a "good father" as long as he has a kid who isn't a piece of shit?

No. I refuse. I actively refuse. He should've long since disciplined Chloe, being her only present parent. He had every chance for 14 years to be a good parent and he wasn't. Part of being a parent is teaching right and wrong and he did not. He is the primary reason Chloe is the way she is, not just her mom.

It's just so dumb. Why is the worst person on the planet a 14 year old girl when there is a person around her who actively nurtured her personality? But then that same person is narratively supposed to be the victim? HES AN ADULT WHO HAD A RESPONSIBILITY THAT HE NEGLECTED, HE SHOULD BE RECOGNIZED AS SUCH.

[m3nt4llyr4v3d]

I loathe Andre Bourgeois

I hate this man so much, I hate his character, I hate how the narrative treats him, I hate how some of the fans treat him

I hate that I’m supposed to completely sympathize with a corrupt politician, but his daughter? The one he had the sole job of raising for most of her life, and obviously didn’t teach her how to act? Yeah, she’s awful, look at how she’s treating her poor father :(.

What’s that? He constantly abused his power? He literally tried to steal from Marinette’s family at some point? Erm, well he never wanted to be a politician in the first place! He had to give up his dreams cause of his awful wife :(. What do you mean he’s still intentionally using underhanded and illegal tactics to put certain laws in place, keep the public on his side, and win elections when he literally just shouldn’t do that? Well he gave up his power, so shut up!

What do you mean his constant abuse of power in his daughter’s name would literally enforce the idea that she can get away with literally anything without repercussions? No, she bullies him! What do you mean he still should’ve not indulged this since she was like, 7? Nah, she just bullied him then too! This makes perfect sense, now he doesn’t have to take a single ounce of responsibility for her parenting! That’s stupid and he should’ve been investigated by CPS literal years ago? Well Chloe’s gone, so the problem’s fixed, right? ————— I genuinely cannot believe of the fans are defending this man. I can get feeling sorry about the treatment he gets from his wife, but some of them literally try to absolve him of any and all parenting mistakes.

“Oh well, Chloe is old enough to know what she’s doing is wrong! It’s not anyone’s responsibility except hers! Everyone tried to reason with her, oh, and the one time he tried to discipline her, she said she’d call her mom! That means that he should literally never try, because she can do that!”

Except he fucking raised her like this. Him taking responsibility for the way he RAISED HER should be, I don’t know, getting her psychiatric help? Maybe actually setting boundaries? Disciplining her and making sure she doesn’t rely on his money or power? And her threatening to call her mom to complain? Do any of you genuinely think her mom is even going to answer that call? And even if you say it’s the threat itself, you should still absolutely be pinning this on Andre: he raised her to complain to him every single time she has any issue and to abuse his power constantly, this is a teaching he reinforced her entire life. She is taught to not take any responsibility and she harasses everyone because of this. She is taught to complain to someone in a higher power to fix/do everything for her. And when he does try, once mind you, to discipline her, she’s obviously not going to stop, she’s not going to reflect, because that’s not how she was taught to act.

Also the ridiculous double standard between people who completely him and not Chloe. Chloe’s mom leaving her and being verbally abusive for all of Paris to see doesn’t excuse Chloe’s actions, but I’m supposed to feel sad for Andre because Audrey is a terrible wife, and I’m just supposed to brush all his actions, including his fucking PARENTING, aside?? Not only that, people are saying that Chloe is old enough to know her actions are wrong therefore she’s not redeemable, but somehow her fucking dad is?? The grownass adult gets more sympathy? Absolutely ridiculous

You genuinely expect me to believe that I’m not supposed to feel anything other than pure vitriol towards Chloe, but sympathy towards that asshat? Get real

[graaythekwami]

Chloe's Amok

So I kind of have a random theory on what Chloe's amok could be if she ends up being a senti like the other rich kids, and I'm thinking it is this bracelet:

Yes, I know Rogercop is way back from season one and that we haven't seen this bracelet since, but here me out.

Now how Chloe and Andre act this episode isn't anything new for their characters, but there are a few things I find slightly interesting. First of all Chloe isn't wearing the bracelet at all, but keeping in a special case. Chloe doesn't strike me as the type to keep something carefully tucked away when she could be wearing it and showing it off to the world. So why is she this time? Not that I think she would have told it was an amok, but I could totally see a conversation about how important this piece of jewelry is and how it is absolutely priceless before it was given to her.

Of course this is speculation, but what isn't is what we see in this episode. When Chloe shows the bracelet to Sabrina she goes to immediately grab it, suggesting that Chloe hasn't been against Sabrina touching her things in the past. Of course Chloe is rude in telling Sabrina not to do so, then we get this line from Andre:

"Put it away, Chloé! It could get in the wrong hands!"

I mean yes it probably is expensive, but so is every other thing Chloe owns? And I don't think it would be out of budget for Andre to buy Chloe another bracelet if something were to happen to it, and it is a bit strange to not let her wear her own jewelry.

Unless this isn't just a bracelet, but rather his daughter's life force that he doesn't want in the wrong hands or anyone to know about it because whoever holds it controls Chloe?

From here the bracelet goes missing thanks to a combination of Marinette tripping and Plagg, the blame immediately being put on Marinette, and being passed around the classroom from there. Again I don't think Chloe's insistence for Marinette being searched is surprising, or the mayor backing her up on this, but I do find it interesting that Andre doesn't try to placate Chloe at all like he usually does when she starts making demands. There's no "Chloe dear" or "My little princess", but immediately Andre is trying to get Roger to do some illegal searches on a teenager.

Of course Roger is then also immediately fired over something that has no relation to his job (there's no actual proof the bracelet was stolen instead of just being missing at this point!). And there's no pressure by Chloe to have Roger fired, Andre does this to someone very loyal to him on his own accord.

Later Andre also tries to have Nino's phone taken so the video can be reviewed by professionals as they try to track down this bracelet thief. He's wasting no resources or power plays here to find the bracelet, and also goes after the principal of the school as well:

"I'm warning you! If you don't find my daughter's bracelet by this evening, I'll cut off all your city funds for the school. Understood?"

I mean him throwing around his power as mayor isn't anything new... but why not buy a new bracelet at this point instead of targeting everyone who isn't involved? And like before there is no influence or demand from Chloe at this point for Andre to keep this all up, but he's not letting up about this missing bracelet.

We also get this interaction between Andre and Roger too when he's fired:

"Mayor, you can't be serious! Over a missing bracelet?" "This is my daughter's bracelet we're talking about!"

Your daughter's bracelet? Or perhaps your daughter's life force?

Again, this attitude and demands is in no way strange for the Bourgeois family, rather I just find all the details in between this interesting, and that it could be implying that this bracelet is something more than just a regular piece of jewelry.

---

Now for the other major reason I think this could be Chloe's amok (or at least something more than just an average bracelet): Plagg's interaction with this bracelet.

Now I don't think Plagg can sense amoks or would know that an object is one, but I don't think it would be out of reason for him to notice something about it. He's a magical being, or why shouldn't he have a response for other magical things?

Plagg immediately takes a liking to this bracelet, at first thinking it was cheese. Upon discovering that it isn't cheese though, he isn't too disappointed (Plagg. Not upset about not getting any Camembert when he thought he was??). He also gets pretty reckless by not only staying in Chloe's bag, but throwing the bracelet up into the air where it could have been seen by others. Now Plagg isn't exactly the most responsible, but he's also not stupid, so I thought this was worth noting. (Especially by him not being mad it wasn't cheese. Personally I think Plagg would be really upset to find there was no cheese.)

Then of course this is where the bracelet gets lost, with Plagg stuck inside of it, and Adrien smuggles him away. And Plagg is stuck in the bracelet. The kwami is stuck. The kwami is stuck inside of an object when they can phase through any solid material. It's not like Plagg is under any orders not to phase through bracelets, and yet he is still stuck!

I'm sure we've all wondered why Plagg doesn't just phase out of it before, and we've never given a reason.

So... what if magic has something to do with it? Like there isn't any canon that we have that states kwamis can't phase through certain things, but if it was going to be anything I think a magical object created by another kwami's powers that's hosting someone's life force fits the bill.

Then finally, we get this bit of information:

"What do you mean I can't transform?" "If you transform, the bracelet will get absorbed with me and damage your powers!"

This is a bit of canon lore that we never hear of or see come into play again. We've seen transformations happen with kwamis in pockets, bags, hidden away, in another room, having a piece of food in their paws: but never has any of these physical objects with the kwamis or them standing between them and their Miraculous ever stopped a transformation, get transformed with them, or damage their powers in any form. Either Plagg was lying about this fact, or this bracelet had properties that were different from everyday objects that could impact magical transformations.

And honestly, a Miraculous and an amok aren't too different from each other. They're both an object that gives a magical being a physical form, allows them to be controlled, and can grant powers. While unification between kwamis exist, maybe them merging with other magical entities is in fact dangerous?

And we have seen interesting properties between amoks and transformations in canon. We have seen Gabriel transformed while giving orders to Adrien, and touch right where the amok ring would be even though it clearly isn't there or under the glove. Even if it isn't physically present it still exists in some form when a human transforms while wearing an amok, and the magic that binds the sentis to orders is still there.

---

As for why we never see the bracelet again? I imagine Andre thought it was way too dangerous to let Chloe have her own amok after everything that happened during Rogercop, and took it back to keep it safe once more.

[msweebyness]

Akuma AU- The Villain Class

Here it issss! The formal introduction to my new villainous AU, where all the kids are their akuma selves!

Here’s the rundown: Paris is split into two sides, dark and light. The dark side regularly terrorizes the light, though a resistance tries to fight them. All people on the dark side are akumas, so all the kids’ families are. The deal is: you don’t get a supervillain name until you prove yourself and demonstrate your power to do harm and cause chaos, and most akumas are just content to be evil but otherwise normal people. The akuma class are like the ‘gifted’ class of Dark Paris, everybody knows these guys. I’ll also be expanding on some of their powers! Also, they wouldn’t be their ugly and fashion-backward canon akuma looks. I REALLY like the akuma redesigns for the Scarlet Lady AU by Zoe-oneesama, so imagine them in something like that! Alright, let’s get into it! @artzychic27 @imsparky2002

Miss Fortune (aka Marinette Dupain-Cheng): Born with the power to inflict terrible luck and pain on whoever she pleases by way of her hexes and anti-charms, Marinette is a girl who has more than a couple screws loose. She adores seeing people get hurt and actively goes out of her way to make things go wrong in every way possible. Serving as the class’ unofficial leader, Marinette often takes the helm when they go out to terrorize Paris. As dark as her heart is, Marinette adores her partners and family and would do anything to keep her friends safe.

Chat Blanc (aka Adrien Agreste): Wielding the power to destroy anything he pleases with a flick of his wrist, Adrien is not someone you want to cross for any reason. Just like 1/3 of his partners, Marinette, he lives for seeing chaos and pain, especially when he can make it as big a show as possible. He’s known to taunt and mock the people he terrorizes with cruel jokes just to add a little further humiliation. Despite being evil, he’s normally a jovial guy…unless you make the mistake of making him angry. Let’s just say it’s a bad idea to bring up his father.

Lady WiFi (aka Alya Cesaire): Wielding the power to control the world around her as if it were a livestream, Alya boasts a massive amount of power over the digital world and as such, rules the media of Paris with an iron fist! Serving as Marinette’s right hand woman, Alya makes sure her bestie’s orders are carried out without question and broadcasts their victories to spread fear in the light side of Paris. It’s useless to try and hide anything from her, Alya has surveillance in every corner of Paris and uses this to the advantage of herself and her class. She also adores her boyfriend Nino, and is quite protective of her sisters.

Bubbler (aka Nino Lahiffe): While Nino’s powers, creating bubbles that serve various functions, may not seem threatening at first glance, this villainous DJ is not one to be messed with. He’s a master of making people feel at ease before he strikes and causes as much chaos as possible, alongside his friends and girlfriend. Nino is fond of throwing parties and knows how to give his fellow villains a good time, but heaven help you if you’re a good citizen who wanders in. Like his bro Adrien, he’s a chill guy most of the time, until something sets him off and he goes full villain.

Queen Wasp (aka Chloe Bourgeois): Hosting quite possibly the biggest ego of any of the fledgling villains, Chloe wields the power to make anyone stung by her beloved wasps obey her every command, often to do degrading tasks. Almost seeing fitted to her powers, Chloe has a rather imperious attitude and expects people to do what she tells them to when she tells them to do it, and can be more than a little arrogant. However, she also has a soft spot for her best friend Sabrina and sister Zoe, and will eviscerate anyone who messes with them. If you value your freedom, don’t cross this queen.

Vanisher (aka Sabrina Raincomprix): Given the power of fading into the background like no one else can, Sabrina’s ability to become invisible and/or intangible gives her a major edge in the battles against the heroic citizens. Sabrina is a vindictive young woman who loves to use her powers to find people’s secrets and then exploit them to her own benefit. She’s also fond of pulling pranks and watching her best friend Chloe order her minions around, which she finds endlessly amusing. Always make sure to check your surroundings around this one!

Gamer (aka Max Kante): Max’s formidable powers allow him to bring video games into the real world, corrupting reality around him into whatever he would like it to be. Considering himself to be intellectually superior to the common rabble of Paris, Max enjoys using his technology to drive people to the brink of madness, knowing they don’t have the capacity to fight back. His arrogance in his intelligence can sometimes make him come off as a know-it-all to his friends, but he’s loyal anyway. His ingenuity makes him a valuable asset to the class.

Timebreaker (aka Alix Kubdel): Alix’s powers allow her to steal time from the people around her in order to accelerate her own speed, and if she gathers enough, she can reverse the flow of time. A reckless lover of chaos if ever there was one, Alix loves to speed around causing as much confusion, damage and panic as possible. She has a special love for getting under people’s skin and causing them to lash out, only to knock them flat on their backs. While mischievous, she’s a loyal friend who will take a hit for someone she cares about. Keep clear of this speed demon’s path.

Dark Cupid (aka Le Chien Kim): Kim’s power over the heart cannot be denied, though it’s not the power to spread love. Whoever gets hit by his arrows is overcome by hatred and anger. A bruiser at heart, Kim loves to stir up arguments and get fists flying whenever he can, almost as much as he loves causing drama in the relationships of others, replacing happiness with animosity. Despite this, he cares deeply for his friends and especially his girlfriend, Ondine, with whom he shares a passionate love that they love to flaunt to others. You better run fast, because he always shoots true.

Princess Fragrance (aka Rose Lavillant): Rose’s powerful and toxic perfume can do a myriad of wicked things, but it’s most prominent ability is to turn anyone who breathes it in into a dutiful servant of the princess. Though she’s not above a good poisoning every now and again. Rose doesn’t see most people as ‘people’ so much as drones meant to serve her and her friends’ purposes. After all, are some not made more powerful than others? It’s towards only her friends and her beloved Juleka, who she treats like a queen, that she shows a more loving side. All bow to the princess!

Reflekta (aka Juleka Couffaine): Juleka’s wicked transformation powers are a thing to be feared should you ever cross her in any way, she can reflect her thoughts to turn you into whatever she pleases! A malevolent trickster at heart, she loves to put people in the most inconvenient and dangerous situations she can when she transforms them. She also has a habit of transforming into something frightening to scare people, an activity often engaged in when hanging out with Mylene. Despite her pranking nature, she’s fiercely protective of those she cares about, especially her girlfriend Rose and brother Luka. Don’t trust the image you see in the mirror!

Horrificator (aka Mylene Haprele): One of the most terrifying villains in the whole menagerie, Mylene possesses the two-fold ability of not only finding your worst fear and producing it, but growing in strength and power from the fear she garners from you! She takes great delight in the mental anguish she can cause her victims and relishes nothing more than the sound of screams, and loves to give the occasional spook to her friends and her beloved boyfriend as well. Surprisingly, she also has a strong motherly side and will often comfort them when needed. Make sure you check under your bed with this one around.

Stoneheart (aka Ivan Bruel): A villain whose strength cannot be overstated, Ivan’s massive frame and physical matter made of solid stone make him functionally indestructible, more so when you add the fact that any blow dealt to him only increases his already tremendous size and strength. With a quick temper and massive brawn to back it up, Ivan enjoys nothing more than some head bashing and property destruction when he goes out to terrorize Paris. Despite this, he’s very protective and gentle with those close to him, especially his girlfriend and his little sister. Think twice before trying to rile this guy up.

Evillustrator (aka Nathaniel Kurtzberg): Nathaniel’s powerful sketchpad allows him to bring whatever dastardly things he might wish to draw to life to attack his enemies or cause general mischief. Something of an unpredictable and unhinged creative type, Nathaniel is always conjuring up new weapons, beasts and means of torment on the fly, laughing maniacally as he uses them to terrorize good citizens alongside his villainous classmates. He especially loves drawing tributes to his boyfriend Marc, who he’s devoted to above all else. An artist can be a fickle thing!

Special Additions:

Syren (aka Ondine Rivas): Ondine’s tears pack more of a wallop than most girls, given that with them she can flood the city as well as control any source of water in her range. Vindictive and manipulative, Ondine loves to trick unsuspecting citizens into sinking into the watery depths with her charming voice and wiles, seeing them thrash and struggle to stay afloat. She can also be a bit unstable, her moods fluctuating unpredictably, though she is generally kind and supportive with her friends. She has a bit of a playful streak and especially loves teasing her beloved prince, Kim, and they are never shy with affection. Steer clear of the deep water, you never know what’s lurking!

Silencer (aka Luka Couffaine): Luka’s power to silence those he doesn’t like is menacing because it doesn’t just wear off when he leaves, he can permanently steal someone’s voice! He also has the power to manipulate sound as a whole. A reserved and stoic individual, Luka prefers to let his powers do the talking for him when he’s wreaking havoc across Paris, smiling serenely as he tears apart entire blocks with sonic blasts. He serves as a steadying presence for his partners, sister and classmates, reminding them to look before they leap and serving as a source of advice. The sound of danger is approaching quickly!

Riposte (aka Kagami Tsurugi): No blade on earth can rival the power of the ones Kagami summons, which can slice through anything without a problem. Which, combined with her icredible speed and agility, makes for a powerful enemy. Cold and cruel with no concern for anyone outside of her friend circle, Kagami relishes the feeling on causing her opponent a world of pain and subjecting them to the crushing humiliation of defeat. This also makes her a bit of a sore loser. Despite her icy demeanor, Kagami has a caring side with her friends and partners, and will protect them at any cost. She’s a cut above the rest!

Reverser (aka Marc Anciel): Marc’s powers are as confusing as they are terrifying, with the ability to turn people against their own natures, to become their polar opposite once his paper airplanes touch them. Unpredictable and chaotic, Marc loves nothing more than to turn Paris upside down and leave everyone in a maddened state of despair. He’s not even above using his powers to mess with his friends, though he does care for them. His greatest joys are spending time with his boyfriend Nathaniel and teaching his young brother Kiran (aka Sandboy) the ways of villainy. You never know what you’ll get with this guy!

Sole Crusher (aka Zoe Lee): Zoe’s shoes aren’t a pair you would ask to borrow if you have any sense. Anyone she crushes under her heel adds to her size and strength as she terrorizes Paris. Having more than a bit of a superiority complex, Zoe wants everyone to know how much better than them she and her friends are, and is willing to crush them underfoot for that to happen. Perhaps that’s why she gets along so well with her sister. She also might have feelings for a certain akuma in her class, though both have yet to admit it. Step out of the way or get stepped on.

Zombizou (aka Caline Bustier): The villain class’ nefarious teacher, with the power to hypnotize and zombify people with a kiss from her magic lip balm. She adores her students and enjoys teaching them to be the most vile villains they can possibly be. She’s able to turn anything into a lesson about doing evil, and especially loves taking them into the field for some hands-on experience. She’s also fiercely protective and if anyone messes with her kids, there’ll be hell to pay!

And there you have it, folks! The possible first set of Wicked Kiddies! Leave your thoughts in the comments and reblogs!

[jacquesthepigeon]

I'm a French person so forgive me if my English isn't good.

So I just got into Miraculous Ladybug, and I must say, the disproportionately unrealistically is amusing to me.

Andre Bourgeois would've have been kicked out of office for his abuse of power around his first term. Like seriously, the show portrays the citizens of Paris as unaware and lacking a backbone, when France (especially Paris) do not take abuse of power by the government lying down. Literally a year ago the entirety of France went on a nationwide strike and threatened to burn down Paris because the government wanted to raise the retirement age by 2 years. There is no conceivable way that people in the show would just bow down to the whims of the Mayor just because his stupid daughter threw a tantrum. And after Miracle Queen, he would have his head paraded on the streets. I'll be honest, the French have a proven track record of being prepared to burn Paris to the ground over most issues. It's pretty much our go-to mode of political expression. I doubt that the mayor prioritizing his stupid daughter over the wellbeing of his citizens would go over well.

Audrey Bourgeois should be facing lawsuits. This woman has been stated many times to fire her workers on a whim. Like I said before, French people are not lacking in backbone and the Style Queen should be facing lawsuits on the grounds of wrongful termination. Also, why isn't her awful behavior all over the news? Her image should be severely affected for the reasons mentioned above.

Chloe, Sabrina, and Lila should be expelled and facing criminal charges. Not only do we see Chloe, Lila, and Sabrina commit several crimes over the course of the series (i.e. theft, wasting emergency resources, fraud, academic fraud, harassment, physical assault, slander and defamation, destruction of property, breaking and entering, aiding and abetting terrorism), but bullying itself is illegal in France and considered a serious crime, especially in Paris. If it's reported with proof it can be taken to the police and the school board and the perpetrator can face up to three years of jail time along with a fine of 30,000 euros. All it would take is a single video of Chloe and her future would be as good as ruined due to the bullying and also the criminal record that she should have.

The President should've been involved since the beginning. The President lives in Paris, yet has done nothing about the Hawkmoth and Andre Bourgeois problem??? The only form of resistance we've seen outside of heroes were the occasional police force interference and the civilians fighting in heroes day (may favorite moment of the show).

Francios Dupont should be under intense investigation or completely shut down. Why is no one concerned that the highest rate of akumitizations come from a class of high school students? What do their parents think? Why is no one of authority investigating Hawkmoth's base of operations? It would realistically be the best lead that they have to finding out Hawkmoth's identity. The parents of the students should have either pulled the kids out or called up the school board with their concerns because there is no way a normal person would think that their child would be safe in an environment that is fermenting with negativity.

This is all that I could think of on the top of my head and probably the most glaring plot holes. Really, for a show written by French people, it is as far away from French that you can get.

Urban fantasy genre and all that but it’s really funny how the creator swears up and down the show (or it’s concept in general) can’t be written by anyone non french when there’s so much bull involved

[baenyth]

After too much stalling, I finally finished the other half of Miraculous Season 2. Here's my thoughts episode-by-episode:

Zombizou: The episode focused on Ms. Bustier. Honestly I get where she's coming from in that statement to Marinette. This is a world where people can become butt-ugly abominations because they felt upset, although I think Chloe still needs consequences for her actions as well as something like positive reinforcement. She had plenty consequences in season 1. Speaking of Chloe, That Asshole was wrong. There was clear intent for Chloedemption. Also could we at least have seen all that stuff Ms. Bustier does in previous episodes?

Syren: This was an episode the salters talked loads about, and honestly, I get where Adrien's coming from here. On a fundamental level the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculi aren't equals due to the Ladybug's magic reset button, but as one of the first Miraculous users, Adrien should've still been let in on the loop. Kid felt like he was useless, that Ladybug could save the day without his help. At the very least have Master Fu go one-on-one or have both kids show up while transformed or blindfolded. Also the water voices ticked me off, but that's relatively minor.

Frightningale: A fun character-of-the-week episode, especially since I'm fond of Clara Nightingale's constant rhymes and rhythm. She's dedicated to it and I love it. It's also good to see Chloe be an exceptional and talented dancer! It's good to see her having talents and interests that aren't just making people suffer!

Troublemaker: Another episode showing why I think Marinette and Adrien shouldn't date in any of their forms. I don't know enough about stalker shrines but I think Marinette's room is getting close enough to be one for Adrien. Though I'm pretty sure Adrien's seen worse or has been conditioned to not care, based on his reaction at the end. Still a shame that the local TV show had to live-film Marinette's room and beach her privacy in the local city-town of Paris while the real Paris has been converted to an amusement park for tourists. You got any other reasons why the population is so low? One more thing: I'm pretty sure the lack of ladybug-vision was more due to anxiety over losing one of her earrings and the difficulty of the villain more than anything else.

Anansi: I find the new heroes good, personally. They give more screentime to other characters. Also again with Adrien's insecurity about being useful. And I think this episode would've been over sooner if they noticed that Anansi was going to get herself akumatized over the stress and maybe just let her come or something. Or if they got Marinette to arm-wrestle her instead. Marinette has muscles, right?

Sandboy: A lore episode, mostly. The nightmares were funny for a second and I was a bit annoyed by the Akuma's voice, but that's small potatoes. I like how compared to season 1, where we would be given a bunch of development for Sandboy it's just explained to us afterwards while we instead get more time for lore.

Style Queen: Hawkmoth has a contender for the most evil character in the show. Audrey Bourgeois is the kind of person that would be made fun of in those Karen freakout videos. She cheats on her husband, neglects her daughter to the point of not remembering her name, fires people over the most minor inconveniences, and starts G-rated killing people over getting a seat in the second row. She needs to be cancelled, deplatformed, and Chloe needs a therapist and better role models. I really liked the split-second of Adrien looking shocked after Marinette told him he had the catwalk down, btw. Did he think his identity was outed there?

Queen Wasp: This is why teenagers shouldn't get superpowers. I get secondhand embarrassment watching them. Also Marinette What The Fuck why the Hell are you getting Chloe to bond with the Absolute Worst Person For Her

Maledictator: This is what happens when you make Chloe bond with a Chernobyl-level toxic influence, Marinette. In general this episode was funny, both intentionally and unintentionally. Everyone starts celebrating Chloe ditching Paris with her mother except Adrien because Chloe was her only friend even though she was a detriment to everyone else and suddenly Marinette feels bad because she worships Adrien. The first thing the villain of the week does is make Audrey stop being such a horrible person and later he made Chat Noir reach the limit of catboyness. It's like a Smiling Friends episode. Also it was cool to see Chloe's depths and self-loathing. Surely that won't be forgotten and Chloe will be given therapy so she can become a better person, right?

Reverser (Put here so it makes sense timeline-wise): It's Yaoi time. Except that Nathaniel is into Ladybug (who I assume he knows is Marinette) here and Marc is fine with that. Overall a good episode. Some nice humor, and Reverser's probably the best akuma design so far I love the paper stuff. Plus more info on the side characters and a spot of good humor, excellent!

Frozer: Ah, there's the Nathmarc. And explicit Julerose. And Marinette getting some idea that her fantasy of Adrien is unhealthy and shouldn't be followed. And Adrigami, albeit a bit one-sided. Quit pining over someone who doesn't love you and get with someone who does, kid. And a smidgeon of Marigami. And Adrien's bodyguard being his daddy in place of his father. And a pinch of me seeing what the salters were talking about with the girlsquad and them forcing Marinette and Adrien together. Or at least Alya and Mylene. I couldn't hear what Alix, Juleka, and Rose were saying, but they disagreed, right? At least one of them had to disagree, right?

Heroes' Day Two-Parter: Marinette you're being too hotheaded against Lila no you gotta be like Columbo. Also yet another Marinette Costanza moment. Otherwise not much to say here. It's the boss rush episode, it's the series finale, Alya managed to catch onto Nino being Carapace but still can't seem to connect the dots between Ladybug and Marinette, the Peacock Miraculous is introduced, and Natalie is on my suslist.

I might procrastinate again on the first half of season 3. The first episode deserves a post of it's own. It's the salt episode.

[yolowritter]

In Defense of Chloe Bourgeois Part 2: Why is Chloe?

Hello everyone! In case it wasn't obvious by the title, this is a part 2 to this post right there! I'd sincerely recommend reading it since you'll need the context. Anyhow, moving right onto where I left off!

[...]

Okay...deep breath. In and out. I'm...totally fine. Anyway, considering all of the above, it's pretty clear that Chloe has a lot of problems. Mental Health problems, to be exact. And natually, this circles back to her bigget fault in this entire show. Bullying the main character. Now, bullying sucks. It's bad, don't do it. This is coming from a person who got relentlessly bullied for years on end by the way, so I'm on Marinette's side here! She's right not to trust Chloe in Vanisher, because she's fourteen and has years worth of trauma related to this girl! In her experience Chloe is never helpful, and often the antithesis of that word. Sure, Ladybug should have looked past that as part of her job, but Chat Noir doesn't either! The only reason he ever gives her the benefit of the doubt is because it's Adrien under the mask! So as far as I'm concerned, Marinette didn't do anything wrong (yet) with how she handled Chloe. And any mistakes she does make are if not justifiable then at least understadable given their history. But on the Chloe side of things, she has every reason to hate Marinette. From all the classmates we have info on, Marinette is the only one with a happy, complete and loving family in the way that Chloe has always wished her's way. Obligatory reminder that Alya wasn't in their class until Origins. We never see Alix or Sabrina's moms, I'm half convinced Nino's parents don't exist because they've never been mentioned once the whole show, Max and Juleka only have their moms and possinly daddy issies, etc. Something ain't right with any of the familial situations here. So obviously, when Chloe sees someone who she's been taught by Audrey (again, her role model in formative years) is "beneath" her, as in, fundementally inferior to their own existence, and Marinette has a loving family that adores her unconditionally, is it any fucking wonder she acts out???

Again! And this is the last time I'll say it! So sing along, everyone! ~Bullying is bad! Don't do it kids!~ What Chloe does (even without that horrendous spider-pool-thing of a retcon) is obviously wrong!!! Okay??? It's bad!!! Because hurting other to feel better is a shitty thing to do! Nevermind that it doesn't work!!! I am not going to repeat myself again! But the root of Chloe's problems is her family. She's been raised by two (barely one, but let's pretend) people who make me wonder if parenting licences should be a thing, and are prime examples of the fact while every kid deserves a parent, the opposite is very much not true! Marinette effortlessly has what Chloe craves, parental love! And at the time they first meet, they should both be like 9 or 10! Obviously Chloe takes things too far, but considering she's emotionally stunted and the people around her have to do as she says, no wonder she's royally pissed the moment she encounters something that she can't throw daddy's money at and win! That's what Audrey taught her is correct, and what Andre constantly encourages!

Understanding all of this, we circle back to Style Queen. Fucking Style Queen, man. Chloe accidentally finds the Bee Miraculous. And honestly? The argument of "Marinette shouldn't have dropped it" is fucking ridiculous. Listen, the coffee cup in Sentibubbler I can understand, but don't grasp at straws like this. For Nooroo's sake! Moving right along, dear God does this go badly. Up to this point, we've got a vague idea that Chloe is willing to help Ladybug and Chat Noir (aside from just being a self-proclaimed superfan), given that she did so in Vanisher, Despair Bear, and possibly another episode that I'm forgetting about. Doesn't matter. So now, Chloe Bourgeois is in possession of a magical macguffin that gives her heroes their superpowers. Naturally, this is a pretty big thing. Unfortunately, Chloe doesn't even get the chance to be responsible here, because Audrey immediately goes on a rant about how useless she is and how she could never be "exceptional". Aka: hits all of Chloe's trauma buttons with a Greathammer. Wonderful job, local Karen! This immediately prompts Chloe to take what she knows is exceptional (superpowers) and flaunt it in her mother's face. She transforms in a room full of people, including Gabriel Agreste, but I don't care about him in this rant, and runs out to try and find a crime to stop!

Because of course, heroes do good things! But you know, helping an old lady cross the street or rescuing a kitten isn't exactly "exceptional material" so Chloe instantly goes for the heavy hitters. And has the incredibly stupid idea of the whole train wreck bs. Yes, I know it was a subway or something, I don't care. The point stands. Naturally, stupidity attracts dumbassery, and so the local watermelon and her furry companion show up to put a stop to Chloe's shenanigans. Kudos to Ladybug by the way, for recognizing the situation for the problematic mess that it was and trying to comfort Chloe. Excellent character delevopment from Marinette here. Unironically I love that she still does this even though she doesn't have to. Nowhere in the superhero manual does it say "talk to your bully because she's having a shitty moment with her abusive mother", but Marinette does it anyway because she's cool like that. And then...a miracle happens! Praise Nooroo, because Chloe "Queen B" Bourgeois apologizes for causing a mess! I can't believe it! And then...Nadja does what reporters do best, and screws everything up. As an aside, can you tell I don't like "reporter" characters? This goes for Alya too, I hate it when they insert themselves in clearly private situations for the sake of a "scoop". My sister in Nooroo, if it's a scoop you want then go interview Andre Glacier! I do like Alya, got a whole "In Offense to..." post about her in the works. And I promise not to bash her. It's the writing's fault.

Anyway, back to Nadja being an idiot. Because naturally, a child is in emotional distress! And even more naturally, she decides the best way to handle a clearly fragile situation in a city where people get turned into violent supervillains for feeding the goddamn pigeons (lookin' at you, Xavier!) is to...live stream it on television. For the entire country of France! And even more naturally, she also gets Chloe's abusive mother on the line so the child in question can be belittled on NATIONAL TELEVISION for what she already knows is wrong, and has been handled by the proper authority. Because I don't trust a single adult in this universe, Ladybug is a thousand times more reliable! Like seriously, she's just been Akumatized!

Does Nadja want it to happen again? Anyway, this utter debacle marks the beginning of Chloe's career as Queen Bee, the superhero Ladybug brings in when she needs to and then puts back in the box until next time! Mind you, I do not blame Marinette for this, considering that she acknowledges Chloe is capable and willing to help, even says so to her at one point. Then we go through Maledictator, Heart Hunter, Miraculer, etc. And it becomes pretty clear that Hawkmoth is actively targeting Chloe. Because, you know, she's the only Miraculous Holder whose identity was public. All the while, Chloe actually seems to mellow out a little bit in her civilian life. Sure, she does that hillarious thing where interviews Queen Bee which is honestly just funny and should have been given extra points for the effort of doing it herself instead of forcing Sabrina to do it for her. I mean that instead of encouraging Chloe's bad behavior by being unreasonably permissive, miss Bustier should encourage her good behavior little by little, like doing things on her own and the compliments thing she has the class do. To her credit, Chloe does seem to be trying, and slowly finding her footing with all these new dynamics. Even with Sabrina, she seems to be treating her better now. They play "Ladybug and Chat Noir" together, and all that stuff. I won't get into it here because I want to move onto the actual conclussion of this rant, but you get my point.

Despite all this, Chloe is still very...Chloe. But she does seem to be doing a little better. I'm fairly sure Marinette or at least Adrien acknowledges that at some point, but anyway. The reason why I think Chloe's behavior improves is because she finally feels like she belongs. In Team Miraculous, I mean. Sure, Ladybug is their leader who she listens to, but that's just the thing. Ladybug leads, she doesn't boss people around. And Chloe already looked up to her, and willingly chooses to follow. It's good for her, even if we're taking baby steps here. And then...Miracle Queen happens. I'll honestly be damned as to why Marinette got butchered here, because this is a fault of the writing. Like, I'm sorry, they build up this understanding that Chloe can't be Queen Bee anymore between her and Ladybug, and then just...take it away? H-how do you take away an established dynamic??? Not like this, that's how! People are saying Marinette should have sat Chloe down and explained things better, and yeah okay that would have helped, but you guys realize Gabriel was actively praying on her worst feelings, right? Gabriel who knows Chloe's family and also has emotional manipulation powers? All he had to do was feed into all these doubts one last time and get her to agree for like, five seconds. Akuma goes in, and she's on his side now!

And hot take? I like Miracle Queen! I like the direction they tried to take this in! Because it's clearly a "battling your inner demons" storyline, which fits perfectly with the fact that Chloe needs a good support system to function properly. She's still so deeply steeped into the crap that Andre and Audrey taught her that she needs help, and that's okay! For Nooroo's sake, needing help from your friends is completely okay! You should ask for it when you can't do something on your own! And Chloe does try to! She has a fucking Batman Signal knock-off on her rooftop! It's...certainly a method. Then again she doesn't have Ladybug's phone number, so... Anyway yeah. The thing is that I think it's okay for Chloe to need a support system, and then Gabriel takes advantage of her when said network isn't there. He's actively manipulating a child here. Yes, Chloe does give into his manipulation and by extension her own darker self, but I think that's the point. Or at least I perceive it as a "healing is hard, takes time, mistakes will be made alone the way" kinda thing. Which works regarldess of a "Redemption Arc" or no! if they wanted to redeem Chloe, then here's another huge conflict to work through! Here's something that ruined the trust she had with Ladybug and left them both vulnerable! Here's a really cool plot thread that can be explored between Chloe and Adrien, because he's the only who as far as Chloe knows, doesn't hate her (which would be logical to assume for Ladybug given what she did). You want to go "Corruption Arc"? Welp, here's a tale of caution! Here's a display of Hawkmoth as a competent villain who utterly decimated Ladybug's team! Here's a reason for Chloe to defensively slip back into old patterns and emphasize that she's bitter towards her friends because nobody helped her! Again, great character conflict! Beautiful idea, a fine message even!

Surpring absolutely nobody, Thomas Astruc does neither of these. Or rather, he tries to do both, and fails at both. Let's keep the Chloe point for a bit longer before we bring Zoe into this mess, okay? The problem I have with Miracle Queen is that it fundementally half-asses the above, in quite possibly the stupidest way possible. Like I said above, it was previously established (I'm fairly sure in Miraculer) that Chloe understood she couldn't be Queen Bee anymore. And yeah okay she seemed bummed, but still got Ladybug's reasoning. Because you know, Marinette talked to her about it! And then the show just...forgets this happened??? I get that Chloe wants to be a hero, which I think is probably her only halfway healthy coping mechanism for all the crap she's dealing with, but she's clearly shown to agree with Ladybug's decision, even begrudgingly. And suddenly, with almost no fanfare or buildup, Gabriel "Mothballs" Agreste swoops in for a glory kill and manipulates Chloe into getting Akumatized. Again, I know this is a "battle with her inner demons" thing, but it genuinely doesn't matter! Because Hawkmoth is grooming her right now! Aside from the horrible connotation of the word, it also refers to general manipulation of a person's mental state. But you know what peeves me greatly? This seems to happen instantly! I would have loved it if we took two or three episodes to show Chloe being upset over losing the one place (Team Miraculous) where she felt accepted, I would have liked to see her talk to Sabrina about how she feels like shit because she can't help Ladybug anymore. Even better, an outburst where despite logically understanding that she's right, Chloe blames Ladybug for taking the easy way out of the Queen Bee problem.

Let's face it, Ladybug did take the easy solution here. Now, I don't blame Marinette at all for this. She's fourteen, has the world's weight on her shoulders, a very poor history with Chloe, and took the Bee Miraculous away because she thought that this would keep her teammate safe. Marinette did the best she could, with good intentions! Personally I think Fu should have stepped in here at least indirectly, but he's a poor mentor to Ladybug anyway (yes I have a "In Offense to..." post for him in mind) so of course paranoid Fu wouldn't involve himself. The point is that neither Marinette or Chloe are actually at fault for Queen Bee getting benched. It's a shitty situation that only delays the inevitable bomb from dropping on the heroes' heads by just a bit longer. Now, during this lull in storytelling, Hawkmoth should have tried approaching Chloe again. You know, send another Akuma maybe as she's venting to Sabrina about how she hates the situation she's been placed in. As a reminder, Chloe is the first person to reject an Akuma in this entire show. So for her to again (if more reluctantly) refuse Gabriel's offer to team up would be in character. A second interaction here could have forshadowed Miracle Queen better. Maybe Chloe pauses after Hawkmoth is done pitching his plan, and then after a second or two, she throws him out of her head. Give us another episode where's struggling, and I think her "turn to the Dark Side" in Miracle Queen would have been received much less poorly than it actually did.

This isn't to say that Chloe shouldn't have accepted Hawkmoth's offer. In my opinion, it's a good thing that she did, because it builds character. Even if I "Redemption Arc" had always been the goal, they absolutely could have still done this, so long as it got even a little bit of buildup. And...we again to the fundemental problem I have with Astruc's writing. I know there's other people in the room as well, but it's he who is the "lead writer" and who also made the most buzz about this choice online after Miracle Queen first released. Thomas just...doesn't know how to build up major events. With the sole exception of Shadowmoth's Last Attack, which I have nothing but praise for as a finale, Thomas literally never bothers showing us anything. This is also a problem I have with Gabriel's eventual spiral of insanity, because while "show don't tell" is a good policy to have, even "tell" is a much better option than nothing at all! The reason why Miracle Queen feels so bloody jarring is because for the first and last time in this show's history...they mostly managed to build up a proper Character Arc. Except Thomas and Co. fumbled at the end, and didn't devote almost any time to the entire Season's payoff!

I unironically believe this is just a targeted attack meant to drive anyone with common sense completely and utterly mad, because they spent twenty-something episodes building up to Miracle Queen...and failed to explain why it even happened. I mean yeah, "Gabriel bad, he has a plan, it actually works for once" is what we get, but this is a logical fallacy in and of itself, because if it was the plan from the beginning, then why isn't there any buildup for the final part of this character development? Thomas' failure to properly show the aftermath of Chloe's benching, and make it clear that she is falling into her bad habits again, therefore reverting to a "villain" character because she lacks the support system which helped her be a better person, is the exact reason why anyone is even arguing that there "should" have been a Redemption Arc in the first place!

Note again: Time for part 3, I promise I'm nearly done! Not like this took two weeks to write or something!

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[r8cs]

Emodrinette initial angst

What if the reason Emonette thinks Adrien Agreste™(Emodrien) is a complete rich brat is by the way he orders one lil item of the bakery everyday, and sometimes twice a day.

But there's no way a model would eat chouquettes everyday, he probably just throws it away like his bff Chloe Bourgeois always does, but she instead has done it in front of her, into her hair.

So yeah, by the logic of Adrien being Chloe's dearest friend he would be thinking of something like

"I come here not because of your ugly family baking, I want to see you pack and serve me because I pay You for it" type of thought.

"And it's not even worth it to put a step on here for doing so". While he watched amused by the parked car in front of the bakery's window.

When the truth is that If he ever decides to go himself to order he would tremble like a leaf and go non verbal before even making it to the register.

[tumblingxelian]

If I may ask with an open enough mind, might I hear out your thoughts on the character of Chloe Bourgeois? I don't expect an answer right out the gate so don't rush on my account. I'm merely trying to collect varying perspectives over what's become a uniquely controversial character.

Oh my that is a doozy of a question, I've debated no less than three separate videos on the topic and multiple essays to boot. Still, she's on my mind and the thing I am working on is obstructing me from modelling or writing but quires breaks to let stuff load so I have time for a longer ask:

So, what are my thoughts on Chloe Bourgeois?

Exactly where to start is rather tricky, so forgive any digressions or rambles.

Chloe is thematically the everyday reality of an Akumatized person.

What I mean by this is that Akuma victims are people in states of emotional distress, tribulation or trouble. Who thanks to the enabling of a power greater than themselves are both encouraged and enabled to lash out at others with borrowed power.

These people are meant to be sympathetic, their emotional tribulation taken advantage of, their situation, methods and thought process untenable. But they do need to be stopped from doing harm, and then healing needs to begin, with some effort made to redress the issue that led to them lashing out in the first place.

Akuma victims are the supernatural theme, Chloe is the reality.

Of course, some might claim she has no reason to have issues but...

Her mother is negligent and largely absent. The time they spent together prior to Queen Wasp, consisted of Chloe praising, giving gifts and trying to please Audrey. Only to be torn down, ignored, rejected or have her efforts disparaged. The woman doesn't even get her name right and the only means by which she earned even a scrap of approval was through being cruel. Something explicitly encouraged by the show's main character which is ???. 

Though it seems Audrey got bored with her fairly quickly regardless.

Audrey is unrelentingly hostile, selfish and cruel and encourages these traits in others and only avoids turning them on a person if they are sufficiently useful, or a match for her in viciousness. You are either her victim, her tool, or a conspirator. This is a hilariously awful parent, the damage she can do limited only by her sheer lack of interest.

Andre is somehow worse.

I am going to ignore the reading undertones of subtext into things but suffice to say that ratchets him up from just a bad parent to kill him with fire parent.

What we see with Andre is a man who explicitly taught Chloe to lie, cheat, intimidate, extort and bribe people to get what she wants. She is fourteen, and has been doing this since before she was in double digits. She's not bad because there's something innately wrong with her, she behaves badly because she's been explicitly taught that was the proper way to conduct herself.

We know full well Andre is capable of reigning Chloe in, be it gently in the Christa episode or with disciplinary action in Kung Food. However he only does this when it suits him, or her actions might cause him problems. For all his alleged affection for her, or her alleged influence on him, Chloe's always on the end of a leash Andre can and will tug back on the moment he feels like it.

This isn't just bad because it's so blatantly hypocritical and self serving. It's bad, because it means he enables Chloe's most self destructive and harmful traits so long as they don't impact 'him'. Given also that he is the one who, to put it charitably, raised her, that means the consequences and fallout of her actions should fall on him.

The fact he is presumably the one who encouraged Chloe to impersonate his wife, given Audrey didn't start rewarding that behavior until Queen Wasp, is also bad parenting. Like even if you ignore the disgust factor, its just fucking awful parenting and like everything else he taught her. It contributed to the fact Chloe is a social pariah hated by most people she has to spend time around.

Because let's get to the next stage, subversions!

In most shows like ML, Chloe as "The mean girl" would be popular, or at least feared, able to pose a threat in a social context, and is usually insulated from the more magical issues.

None of this applies to Chloe.

Even if we don't treat Origins as the shows starting point, she's already only tangentially involved in class stuff. Her fathers hotels own doorman outright says she has no friends, extremely out of pocket of him. & Origins sees one of the first things said to him being that Chloe is a brat and he halfway ditches her before 24 hours are up, and keeps her at nominal arms length for the rest of the series.

We can talk about how there's reasons for this, sure, but the thing that's interesting here is the subversion.

Chloe's mean-ness has not won her friends or influence as it does other mean girls in fiction, such as Heathers or Mean Girls.

Instead, it's made her barely tolerated by her peers and this only grows worse for her as the show goes on leading to her ensuing isolation which only worsens her condition and attitude. This is something Chloe is even varying shades of aware of, as she tearfully confessed to Ladybug when hiding from her Akumatized father. She knows something is wrong, but doing things differently goes against everything her parents taught her or exemplified, so it's not a shock she struggles.

Similarly, compare how Bonnie from Kim Possible could actually out-compete Kim for the role of cheer captain. 

Can Chloe beat Marinette in anything?

No, not really, or least the narrative never lets her do so even when she does have the skills for it, such as 8 years of ballet losing to nice vibes.

This is much less interesting than the previous point because it's basically just the writers using Chloe as a speed bump which gets boring after a while.

Then consider how Totally Spies own Mean Girl, Mandy is rarely tied to the actual adventures save maybe in a way other civilians are; leaving altercations with Clover as civilian affairs.

Does this apply to Chloe?

Fuck no XD

Chloe's frequently targeted by AKuma, even when she either shouldn't be singled out, (Ivan, everyone was scared) or for comparatively minor transgressions (Nathanial, his teacher screamed at, insulted & shook him) or outright targeted by the main villain of the show. (One who has known her since she was an infant!) 

Even before she had a Miraculous, Chloe was a frequent target of violent murder attempts. But this is largely treated as neutral, or even as comeuppance for bad behaviour. The issue is, the sheer scale of what she's being targeted with is so completely disportionate to what she did, assuming she even did things wrong, that it comes off as more unfair than anything else, & liable to give trauma. 

Especially as the show has double standards at times.

I think often-times the writers neglected to actually think through their karmic punishments for Chloe.

Take Pixelator, 

Chloe is the one who recognized Jagged, helped her father, and actually did her fucking job, but is the only student not rewarded with a concert ticket despite having done nothing to piss Jagged off.

Or how when her locker was broken into she's largely dismissed and needs to threaten the principal with her father to get a response. One might say this is abusing her power, but A, it's her dads power and B, we see with Lila later that the principle will basically just bow to whoever can make the bigger fuss. This isn't a Chloe issue it's a Damocles issue and I think being upset people broke into her locker isn't exactly unfair.

Similarly, I noted above how Chloe loses to Marinette even when she shouldn't logically do so. 

A bigger example of the narrative short hand delivered is the fact we see other characters do stuff Chloe does and get free rides.

IE, Kagami can dramatically strut into a fencing hall talking the most boastful shit, actually lose more or less legitimately, Akumatize and still be treated with sympathy and become a hero.

Chloe boastfully auditions to be Ladybug for a music video, but actually is the best audition scene, but loses out to positive vibes, gets angry & through her father lashes out, gets punished & no one gives a shit about her side of the story. 

To be clear, I like Kagami, I find this comparison interesting, I just don't think the show realized that it did this or does stuff like this a lot. 

That whole episode also demonstrates what I said at the start, about Chloe embodying the thematic of Akuma, IE, anger or distress, powerful sponsor, lashing out, ETC. 

So the double standard in how she's framed and treated VS Kagami is framed and treated becomes a weakness of the writing and show. 

We also see this with stuff like her & Marinette sabotaging Kagami, but Marinette largely getting portrayed sympathetically for doing so while Chloe isn't. 

This creates the impression the problem isn't Chloe's bad behavior, it's with her mere existence.

IE, she's the audience and writer's punching bag/designated target, so it feels like the writers just kind of don't bother a lot of the time actually making her wrong or thinking through the implications of their story beats with her, or other characters' behaviour. 

This stuff is present in Season 1, much more overt in season 2 and basically caps off season 3 which is where I stopped watching.

Cos like, the villain who's known her since forever has been actively trying to utilize her through the seasons, who explicitly aimed to puther in a state of severe emotional distress, ambushed her in her own home & had her parents in his grasp.

Right after the show's hero blatantly walked back a previous ruling that kept Chloe from being Queen Bee, (& did so for selfish and if one considered HK targeting known heroes, incredibly callous reasons)

But we're meant to hate the 14 year old for responding badly?

I would also argue stuff like this is a large part of what makes Chloe such an ensemble dark horde to the fandom. Not just because one can read into things about her history and character, but because the author's hand is so heavy it actively hurts and hinders its own narrative in order to harm Chloe and so feels unfair.

Some final notes I couldn't place elsewhere:

Akuma don't usually harm their loved one's. Chloe's mother tried to kill her on sight & then kept looking for excuses to do so & finally did. Andre turned the powerful & willful Audrey into a simpering hanger on and wanted to do the same with Chloe, which again, yikes.

When fused together they declared her incapable of loving anyone but herself. A fact blatantly disproven already but even in the episode itself with her demanding their release in exchange for helping Hawk Moth. & then tried to fucking EAT HER.

Her butler, school friend and teacher seemingly love her more than her own parents.

As an aside, Sabrina's explicitly encouraged to work for Chloe by her father as it makes her "Useful" which has loads of implications. But at least one can't blame Chloe for Sabrina's character.

Madame Bustier, when Akumatized uses having "Taken care" of her father as a lure to try and get Chloe to come to her. So again, yikes if one wants to read into it as it means even as an Akuma who was upset by Chloe, Bustier perceives Andre as the threat/problem to her.

Chloe by all accounts seems to live alone in a hotel suite, not even one of the fancier, super suites but like... The walls are 50% glass with no curtains, that lead to publicly exposed areas (as we see interviews with Jagged being conducted in them) and there's almost nothing to identify it as a space she lives in. Hell, the pictures on the wall are often blank and it seems she's lived here alone since she was a toddler.

That would have calamitous impacts on a Child's psyche & development! 

Despite her portrayal, Chloe was shown to be extremely good at being Queen Bee in many respects.

She almost soloed Mayura.

She is the first person shown able to resist Akuma, got civilians out of an Akuma infested train cart & protected Sabrina during the second red Akuma swarm.

She was able to quickly and easily keep up with Ladybug on the roof tops and using a similar weapon & travel style creates a visual parallel between the two which carries implications of them being counterparts. 

But most especially Chloe proved herself a skilled and heroic combatant during Heroes Day; covering for the other heroes without orders, doing so easily & needing to be targeted by multiple villains all with personal ties to her to be brought down, while protecting other heroes.

But that never really gets acknowledged.

So much like with "Nearly being brutally murdered for being kind of a dick" this sense of narrative imbalance engendered sympathy from those who notice.

I also find it fascinating that Chloe is, despite spending her life surrounded by abusers and enablers both, that she, without any real guidance, managed to soften their behaviors on her own.

Yes she buys Sabrina presents in luew of saying sorry, but she also spends time with her and does fun stuff, Andre just buys her off. She wants Adrien at her side and the like, but she doesn't actually try to stop him from befriending people she hates, Gabriel tries to keep him locked up. She doesn't like losing, but compares her relatively mild huffiness or brief theatrics to Audrey's violent response to merely being snubbed.

She's already doing better than all of them despite explicitly being taught or demonstrated, or victimized with all the wrong lessons and is fourteen.

Chloe also obviously has a deeply unhealthy understanding of relationships as seenin in how she recreates her parents awful dynamic with everyone around her. 

IE,

Andre fawns on Audrey, who is domineering, never satisfied and harsh at best. Chloe acts accordingly with Sabrina, while fawning on her mother and Ladybug who are much the same though  for different reasons. She's internalized this deeply unhealthy dynamic and applies it to herself as much as she does to anyone else.

This is just one element of the fact she honestly seems deeply troubled on a social level. I mentioned earlier that Chloe seems to know "Something" is wrong with everyone hating her & is clearly unhappy about it. But also seems unsure how to fix it, or what the source of the problem is.

The fact she often doesn't seem to get social cues, even from people she's treating like a peer, such as Ala or Adrien, gives off the sense that her problems go deeper than just "Being a brat".

This is further emphasized by the fact that so much of her daily persona seen is her doing an impression of her mother. Or otherwise putting on a show to try and get her dad or Kim, or the principle ETC, to do something.

Because when she's "upset" it's all theatrical prancing and squeals of daddy and then it's over.

But when she's actually upset, like panicking over losing Adrien upset, or breaking down cos Ladybug chose another hero with a known identity over her (Said by Kagami in the episode so we can't pretend it's not true). Chloe usually builds up to a brief explosion followed by a collapse, or just collapses outright into a panicked, curled up state. One that in one instance seemed to be intentionally drawing comparisons to an infant, but again give what we know that says less about her & more about Andre.

Basically, Chloe's life is a performance, we rarely see the real her, because she's always trying to play a role she thinks she's meant to, in order to be liked and successful & is confused, hurt and lonely because it's not working the way her family promises or demonstrated it would.

I also think it's interesting how Marinette & Kagami both firmly instruct her to stop bothering about seating arrangements. Like, we see he react to insults and anger with anger back, but those firm instructions seemed to make her actually inclined to listen, or at least intimidate rather than rile her up.

Also on the insults front, I think it's notable with the pariah angle that Chloe did basically become an open target. No, she doesn't do herself any favors, but her efforts to do video assignments, or participate in art class getting naught but degrading insults. Or her simply not participating in Madame Bustier's birthday causing the class to collectively tear into her says a lot.

Also much like with Damocles, Chloe getting away with mean-ness is not a Chloe thing, the other students get away with it too. At most getting a mild "Well that was kind of mean" which gets shrugged off.

So again we are back into one rule for Chloe another rule for everyone else, which engenders sympathy or frustration in many of the audience. 

Also I find her & Adrien's friendship conceptually fascinating. because like... Adrien outright admits that he totally understands sabotaging a train to try and win a parents love. Meaning he both can likely imagine himself doing the same and also does not grasp how fucked up it is to think one has to go to such insane lengths for someone who treats them like trash.

Am I speaking about Audrey or Gabriel?

Trick question, it's both!

As a sort of final cap off, I quite enjoy the fact that Chloe's so aggressively defiant. Yes she can get scared & panic, but like. She spent 95% of her Stoneheart kidnapping oscillating between bored, pissed off and irritated.

One can say it's a fight based trauma response and I agree, but it's also just a fun dynamic to have for a character who'd normally be relegated solely to screaming damsel.

So yeah, I think she's a fascinating character in concept and at times execution. Who subverts, twists and breaks expected tropes tied to her archetype in fascinating ways but who's handling leaves me wanting, I hope this was useful! 

@princess-of-the-corner @generalluxun @maestro04yayyy you might like this post too!

MAJOR EDIT!

I can't believe I went through Chloe's entire persona section & neglected to mention the fact that her efforts to flirt with guys always come off as so awkward and in-genuine compared to her enthusiastic adoration of Ladybug.

[mlb-a-rewrite]

Chloé Bourgeois Was WRONGED

so I'm trying to do her justice.

I am not a Chloe hater but I don't, like, stan her either or anything. I just think the show really messed her character up hard. Chloe was totally going to be "redeemed" or "fixed" or whatever you want to call it but then someone decided he didn't like Chloe and forced her to be a boring, one-dimensional bully.

Chloe was going to be interesting, maybe not good, but interesting, but she was robbed of the opportunity so I'm giving her a second chance.

Chloe is still a bully and a major one at that. She is the reason Marinette is shy and timid, the reason Marinette lacks confidence. Chloe is a bully to everyone and everything, constantly lashing out when she doesn't get her way. This is not good and Chloe's story in the show focuses on her struggling with changing that.

For the first season, Chloe is just a villain. There is one episode where it is vaguely implied that she is in fact a human being who feels things like sadness and guilt, but it's brief and easily forgotten. In this brief moment of humanity, we learn one crucial detail about Chloe's life: her mom is back in Paris and this isn't a good thing.

In season two we understand why her mom living in Paris is bad. Throughout the season we slowly watch as Chloe's cruelty escalates. The bullying becomes so bad that the entire class calls out Chloe and her best friend who has put up with so much of Chloe's shit for so many years finally ends their friendship. For the first time ever, Chloe is forced to face the consequences of her actions.

And this breaks her. She is completely lost and desperately trying to hold onto the life she had, but in the season finale it all finally crumbles. In the season finale (which is two episodes), we see Chloe's mom for the first time and why Chloe behaves the way she does becomes clear.

Her parents are divorced. The two were happy together for a few years after Chloe was born but when she turned 6 things got messy. They were constantly arguing with one another, getting into heated arguments anytime they were in the same room. This went on for years before they finally got divorced, but in this time Chloe had been neglected a great deal. Her parents were so wrapped up in one another that they forgot their daughter. The only times Chloe was given any kind of attention was if she got in trouble. If she acted up in class than the principal would call her parents and they would be forced to show up and pay attention to her. If she refused to listen to her ice skating coach than her parents would have to go to her practice and pick her up. If she caused problems, she got attention. Maybe it wasn't good attention, but having her parents see her and dislike her was better than not being seen at all.

This eventually translated into Chloe's personal life too. She learned from a young age if she wanted attention she would only get it if she was an absolute bitch. So she bullied her classmates, and ruthlessly judged her friends, because if she did then they would pay attention, they would have opinions, and be invested.

But during season 2 this stopped working. Her friends left her and her classmates ignored her. Chloe's only method for connecting with other people was failing and she didn't know what to do.

So she lashed out.

In the season 2 finale Chloe's mother attends a fashion show in which she collaborated with Gabriel Agreste to release a new line of clothes. Chloe and both her parents attended the show and the entire time Chloe was causing problems. She complained about nothing, made rude comments, all in hopes that her parents would pay attention to her, but that never happened.

Chloe was ignored.

And even worse, Chloe was ignored in favor of her half-sister. During the fashion show, Chloe's mom's phone was continuously ringing but was being dutifully ignored until Chloe made a particularly snide remark and her mother stood up and left. When Chloe tracked down her mother, she was standing backstage, arguing with her dad and shouting about Zoe on the phone.

After everything, after all the friends she lost relationships she destroyed before they could've even formed, after all the time and happiness she sacrificed, she still didn't get it. Chloe realized she would never get her mother's attention, would never get her mother's validation or appreciation.

This is a turning point for Chloe's character where she starts to change. She tries to be nicer, kinder. She befriends Lila and earns back her friendship with Sabrina. Chloe is finally making positive changes,

Until she starts being mean again.

At this point, it's important to note that Chloe's character drifts into the background more after season 2. The season 2 finale is kinda the big climactic end of Chloe being an imposing antagonist and Lila steps into that role. When Chloe is at her most vulnerable at the literal end of season 2, Lila appears and comforts her. Lila becomes her friend and helps her "change". Lila teaches Chloe how to be kind, how to earn back the respect of her classmates and her friendship with Sabrina. Lila quickly cements herself as someone Chloe relies on and blindly trusts.

So Lila is in the perfect spot to start pushing Chloe to be a bully again. I haven't entirely worked out the details as to why this happens, that can only be decided when I actually outline the plot later seasons of the show, but I know that it happens. Lila slowly pushes Chloe to be mean and cruel all while convincing her that she isn't.

Chloe realizes at the end of the show that she is really fucked up mentally. She takes a good, long look at herself and sees that she has a lot of problems and needs to take time to fix herself. The show ends with Chloe still being a villain, still a bad person who has said and done bad things and hasn't been able to make up for them, but she is optimistic that she will be able to change.

Chloe is a villain but she has the potential to become better.

(There's a lot more I have to say about Chloe and Zoe and Lila and how all of them connect with one another but this is long enough as it is so I'll save it for a later day.)