#did not intend for the total 180 character arc but when have i ever been able to predict ocs before

[capn-twitchery]

been trying to figure out who grace should be closest to after cutting off ties with constables and running off with twitch sometime in the future and i can't believe i didn't think of revolutionaries. oh my god. duh.

of course that's where you go when you realise you hate the system and wanna work to fix it!!!

[shikai-the-storyteller]

Mae Catt’s Cyberverse Q&A

Here’s a neater version of some key Q&A responses from Mae Catt’s Cyberverse stream. 

Please note: not everything is verbatim, and also note that Mae Catt said “Don’t take things I say as the end-all be-all.” She’s a big supporter of fanfic writers!

This Q&A session contains spoilers for Season 3 of Cyberverse. For a (somewhat) more comprehensive transcript, please refer to this post.

Q: Megop rights?

“Oh absolutely, duh.”

Q: What does Optimus do when he’s not giving speeches / being a leader when they were all hanging out on the ARK?

I think he reads, he seems like a heavy reader. It’d be cute if he read really bad Earth romance novels. He seems like a guy who needs a break from everything.

Q: Does Optimus have hobbies?

Not to borrow from Rung, but doesn’t it seem like Optimus would make model ships? Very quiet, very focused detail-oriented hobby. *pauses* Oh duh, he also plays basketball.

Q: How did the Decepticons learn to stream? 

Because they’re deceptive! Megatron knew he should dedicate some time to winning the hearts and minds of humans. Starscreams’ funeral was not the first time they streamed. Optimus would use the official media channels (like the news), not a streaming service. Megatron would try to speak more directly to the people.

Q: Is Optimus the type of streamer who would take 10 minutes to figure out how to un-mute his microphone?

Optimus is a dad. He has no idea what’s going on with streaming. Optimus would say embarrassing things while Bee and Hot Rod were in the middle of streaming something.

Q: Is Megatron dead?

In discussions we wanted to kill him. We wanted to do a reverse Optimus death. However, in the final product, I kinda enjoy the ambiguity rather than the final decision. Can’t remember if we were decisive about that in the script.

Q: Did the Titan mind Decepticons living in them?

The Titans want to be cities. They want citizens. They want to be lived in, that brings them joy.

Q: Does Megatron do anything for fun or is he too angry?

I want to say he’s too angry, he has fun beating people down but I don’t think he’s had fun for a long time.

Q: How would you feel about a female Optimus Prime? 

[GAY LAUGHTER] 

The question is: do you turn Optimus Prime into a woman, or do you take characters like Elita One and uplift her? I would want to lean more into giving Elita One more oomph, I do love how Optimus doubts himself and if he’s worthy of being a Prime.

(Mae Catt talked a lot about representation and later mentioned how there's more pressure to write the girl characters well, especially because of the need for better representation. They wanted more girls in the show, and they planned to have Jazz be a girl).

Q: Elita prime when?

All the time, in my heart!

Q: Did you plan to have ___ character in the show?

Almost every character was discussed at least once. 

She really regrets that they didn’t get to have Beast Machine Obsidian or Rumble and Frenzy in the show, and says she would’ve loved a MTMTE-style Ultra Magnus / Minimus and Transmutate. She didn’t know what Obsidian’s personality would be, it was just a “Look how cool he is!” sort of thing.

(Note: We have Mae Catt to thank for Whirl getting into Cyberverse)

Q: What was your favorite episode?

“I Am the AllSpark” because of the Megatron and Starscream dialogue (which she wrote). Also S2 04 Soundwave and Shockwave.

I enjoyed writing Starscream most, Clobber and Hot Rod became a joy, S2 E4 was my first episode, and it was fun getting into Hot Rod’s voice. It was hard doing Optimus’ voice, I’d always pass it off to someone to look at it.

Q: Did you ever plan to have Hot Rod become Rodimus?

Rodimus was never considered for the show because Optimus dying has been covered to death, but we were adamant about portraying Hot Rod as someone who wanted to be a leader. Hot Rod is someone who is learning to be a leader.

(On that note, when someone asked if she thought Bee would ever become Prime, Mae Catt said:)

I don’t think Bee would be a Prime. Windblade and Hot Rod would be a better Prime. He wouldn’t want to be a Prime. He’s the #2 to Primes!

Q: Did Megatron always plan to return to Cybertron?

Megatron’s priorities changed when he saw his doppelganger. Realizing he was a horrible tyrant, that scared him enough to return and not kill Optimus and make peace no matter what.

Q: Which death hurt you the most?

Starscream. (Slipstream’s hurt too).

We didn’t want to kill people off willy-nilly for shock value, but in certain instances it made sense. Like, the audience will fall in love with Slipstream because she’s becoming good, so she has to die. (She apologized for that sounding harsh). We killed Prowl because it was Shadow Striker doing the killing and he’s a self-sacrificing lieutenant. I almost wanted Starscream to emerge from the Judge’s head untouched, but I’m ultimately glad that idea got shot down.

(She circles back to this comment later, so I’m making note of that here since it wasn’t a direct response to a question)

When I was desperately trying to save Starscream’s life even though I brutally murdered Slipstream, I wanted Starscream to have amnesia and have a redeption arc. I wanted him to have a Windblade shard and have it be kind of like Castaway, where the only person he talked to was that (and the shard only had 5 phrases it could say). Eventually Bee would befriend him and he’d wind up with the Autobots.

I wanted to write Starscream kind of like an abuse victim who expects the worst of the Autobots, but I wanted him to warm up slowly to them. I wanted to have a Starscream and Optimus episode where Starscream messes up on something and Optimus is like “you did your best and that’s what counts”, a response which is totally new to Starscream. But obviously we didn’t have time for that.

Regarding redemption arcs (a continuation from the previous question, and a huge highlight from the stream):

Re: the potential for Starscream’s redemption arc “A redemption arc needs to be facilitated by a character acknowledging that what they did was wrong. He would have had a laundry list of excuses for it, even if there was all that evidence to the contrary, but the character needs to acknowledge that reasons don’t matter because people got hurt [by their actions]. [The character] needs to intend to do better. Let them try and let them fail, they don’t need to do a 180, it’s hard work to be a better person.”

NOTE: Mae Catt also made a few more comments re: the idea of a Starscream redemption arc on her Tumblr page.

Q: Did Megatron really kill Starscream?

The Starscream beatdown was super severe and they were like “holy frick they’re really going for it” when they saw the storyboards. According to Maecatt, Megatron didn’t kill Starscream when he slammed him down (which is a bit confusing since the show definitely made it seem like Starscream died). 

Q: Did Drift die? Why was he a double-agent?

According to us, Drift did not make it, but I fully endorse whatever you want. We needed a double-agent, someone who would (seemingly) kill Hot Rod. (She says they went with Drift because of his history in the comics).

(Later on in the stream)

Maybe Drift is alive, maybe he’s rethinking his decision and he’ll come back later. Drift would’ve been helpful in S3 for sure, maybe he’d come back with Repugnis or something.

Q: Why are you so mean to Percy? 

He's so mature and pragmatic that he can take it, and is willing to take one for the team bc he understands that it's what he needs to do. (In response to someone’s comment about his personality) Yes, he’s calmly feral.

Q: Is Skullcruncher Percy's bouncer now that he's running Maccadam's? 

Oh totally.

(She later mentions that Percy has permanently taken over Maccadam’s. Also: Skullcruncher is a lady! She misses Mac, but Percy takes good care of her).

Q: If Tarn is the perfect Decepticon who's the perfect Autobot? 

A firetruck alt mode, and an Autobot insignia as a face. Nat (her fiance) and I talked about it a lot. Optimus SHOULD be a fire truck, it makes the relationship between him and Ratchet a little more fun since Ratchet is an ambulance, and Optimus has an ax. It just makes sense! 

(She agreed that the perfect Autobot would be Thunderclash after the chat said that).

On that note, Mae Catt said they used Tarn for the show because: “OBVIOUSLY (the perfect decepticon) should look like this guy. A faceless mindless Decepticon that only serves Megatron”.

Q:  What sort of documents DID Optimus work on in the archives? 

Probably historical archives and working on stuff about all the Primes. Something like the French / American revolution equivalent, which informed his speech writing for Megatron and his own ethics.

Q: Did you always plan to make Optimus socially awkward? 

We “found” the social awkwardness for Optimus. Optimus was depicted as a father figure in S1 (implying it’s because S1 is from Bee’s perspective), S2 / S3 we were able to explore more and found the limits [writing him] and found it was hard to maintain that level of heroic dialogue. Optimus would feel awkward about it too. Randolph did an impression of Optimus’ speech for the Party Down episode. “[Optimus] can’t not be in war-mode.”

Q: Were Optimus and Megatron ever friends, or did they just work together on the speech stuff? 

Oh hell yes, I think [the story] is always enhanced when they’re friends and when Optimus really believes in what Megatron was working on. Optimus’ rejection of Megatron is what pushes him over the edge, his best friend rejecting him pushes him into a place where he becomes a tyrannical person.

Q: Does Maccadam know we love him? 

Mae Catt: *puts hand over hear heart and looks off into the distance dramatically* Yes.

Q:  What’s the best selfie Arcee’s ever taken? 

I like the one with the giraffe. Or maybe a selfie with some humans. I like the idea of Arcee having a bunch of human friends. 

Q: What do the Transformers think of the Florida Man? 

They can’t really tell the difference between humans, they don’t really get it. It just sorta looks like all the normal stuff they see on Earth (or something). 

Q: Who’s the Florida Man of the Transformers? 

Rack ‘n Ruin. But he’s too nice. Hmmm.

Q: What was most important to you personally to put out in each episode? Like humor/characterization/arcs 

I wanted to make sure I didn’t write dialogue that was condescending to kids, wanted to be true about the character. Dialogue needs to be true to the characters, and gay. (Laughs)

Q: Do Transformers know what memes are?

They know what they ARE, but they don’t get it. We wanted Hot Rod to be super into Earth culture (winning races and driving off before humans could realize no one was in the car), but we never had time to really get into that.

Q: What music does Soundwave like?

We had a cut joke from S2 E5 [where Megatron and Optimus are popping through portals all around the world trying to find the All Spark] . Soundwave pops into Brazil where there’s a music festival and he crashes the concert and hang out. He likes EDM the most? 

His favorite song is Despacito. He thinks its so sad.

Q: Were you surprised that Jake Tillman was in his 20s listening to his Optimus voice the first time?

She apparently listened to his vines a lot when he was in his teens so meeting up again like that was a cool coincidence. 

Q: What other dimensions or places did you want to be in the show?

I would’ve liked to have the other Transformers series show up (TFP, TFA, G1, Shattered Glass) but we don’t have those assets or budget. 

“This will quickly become unclear to audiences who aren’t (you people).” They couldn’t have all these references when some of their audience wouldn’t get it. 

Q: What about ____ ship?

Mae Catt says she doesn’t want to yuck anybody’s yums. For example, someone asked about Arcee/Grimlock, and while she said she sees them more as friends, she didn’t say they can’t be in a relationship. (Mae Catt also said she doesn’t ship Bee with anyone because she sees him as a little brother).

As she said several times in the stream, “Don’t take things I say as the end-all be-all”!

That being said, she did say she likes Dead End / Perceptor and Windblade / Slipstream.

Q: Why are there no humans in the show?

From the show’s conception, there were no plans to include any humans. They didn’t want humans distracting from the Transformers.

Q: Why did the Scientist collect Soundwaves?

He collects Soundwave because Soundwave is COOL! Wouldn’t you collect a single father of 5 who carries them around in his chest?

Why does anyone collect what they collect? “That’s a really angry dad who’s got five children he carries around in him and he plays music. Gotta have that!”

(Later on, she circles back to this question)

All the Other Universe Soundwaves the Scientist collected also had their own Laserbeaks. I wonder if the scientist would’ve taken them out. He might’ve just gotten rid of them.

(And of course, here are the boyfriend questions from the stream:)

Q: Is Dead End a good boyfriend?

Dead End is a work in progress, but maybe Percy is patient enough to get him there

(Mae Catt says she really loves the Deadceptor ship. She knew people would ship it, but she didn’t ship it herself until she saw the fanart for it).

Q: Is Astrotrain a good boyfriend?

No, no...he’s not a good person, really.

Q: Is Percy a good boyfriend?

Absolutely--WAIT HOLD ON. He’s very blunt, he doesn’t mince words, if you can handle his bluntness then you’re good. He is what he is and you have to deal with him.

Q: Is Soundwave a good boyfriend?

Soundwave is not a good boyfriend. He’s a good casual romance but he’s not a good boyfriend. Soundwave would be a terrible listener. He hears a lot but he’d tune you out.

Other information tidbits:

- If Thunderclash was in the show he and Jetfire would HATE each other. Thunderclash would be a rival reality star (maybe) to Media Fire.

- Mae Catt said “A lot of intelligent life is inherently mechanical” in space, explaining why so much of the non-Cybertronian life we saw in the show were robots.

- Knock Out was considered for the show, but every Transformer under the sun was discussed at some point in the writer’s room. (Ex: “Rumble and Frenzy are always considered in my heart, but there wasn’t enough time or space or assets to do so”).

- “The brand team had grown up on the toys as we had grown up on the ‘toons, so we just wanted to make the best thing imaginable.”

- They decided Optimus would be in the Other Universe’s Matrix and have a plinth because they wanted to show he was dead. “Logical backflips because he needed to be among the 13 to talk to Windblade.” 

- Dead End’s eyes are white.

- The team wanted Jazz to be a lady (!!!!!!!)  

- These characters have their own lives that we don’t see. Lots of stuff happening between episodes that we don’t always necessarily see.

- Developing Sky-Byte’s character was simultaneous with Jetfire’s character. “We knew we wanted Sky-Byte to be a poet, and we wanted him and Megatron to be chummy”.

- Percy did permanently take over Mac’s bar.  

- Her favorite VA is Jeremy Levy, he’s a really cool guy.

- She thinks Starscream and Cheetor could become (not necessarily friends, but connected?) because of their connection to the All Spark. Mentions how Starscream acknowledge Cheetor as the “Guardian of the Allspark”.

- Mae Catt describes Starscream as an “Awful gremlin” several times.

- Astrotrain and the Insecticons are from Megatron X’s universe.

- She thinks Cliffjumper and Bee wouldn’t get along, solely because of the IDW2 comic stuff. (They had a cut joke about someone telling Bee he should paint himself red and Bee saying, “But then everyone will think I’m Cliffjumper!”).

- Cyberverse got 26 episodes for season 3 because they had the 4-part episode movies.

- Megatron cares about his troops, but not in a way that we would notice that care. 

- AcidStorm is genderfluid. 

-  Cold Construction doesn’t exist in this show. When asked why all the Seekers look the same then, Mae Catt says “Maybe there’s one jet mode all the seekers really like”.

- She loves the idea of Wild Wheel robbing Astrotrain in train-mode, totally Wild West-style.

- One of the things she’s proudest of was turning Lugnut into a gal (and having so much body diversity and gender-neutral designs for a lot of characters). They wanted to include many more girls in Cyberverse (Nickel and Lightbright among them). She also mentioned that  Shadow Striker is taller than Optimus or is his height.

- She describes Cosmos as “R2D2, but a Transformer!”

- Maccadam looking like a buff Rung was just a strange coincidence.

- Blurr really was the fastest.

- Mae Catt says we absolutely SHOULD write fanfic. Fanfiction made her into the writer she is today. She wrote non-stop Matrix fanfic from the age of 12-20 years old. It helped her learn a lot about writing.

- She uses “They” pronouns for Rack ‘n Ruin when referring to both of them, but says that individually they both use “he”.

- She’s really sad that Skywarp didn’t get a speaking line.

- Mae Catt won’t say whether Ratchet finished medical school or not. (She laughed when someone commented "I don’t believe that man has ever been to medical school”). She also says she wants “I choose to believe Ratchet has never been to medical school” on a T-shirt.

- When asked why Rack ‘n Ruin were captains of the Ark in one universe, she says they’re probably the Prime in that one weird universe (lmao).

- She loves the idea that Transformers have siblings / families.

- In a world where they had an unlimited budget, it’d be fun if Cybertronians were constantly shape-shifting and changing their forms. Example: she’d like having Transformers who “grew a beard” and decided to “shave it”.

- She doesn’t understand cycles or astrocycles, she doesn’t understand the weird Transformers time stuff. (mood)

- She loved Beast Wars Inferno, she loved that Inferno called Megatron a Queen. It was played as a joke because the 90s weren’t very socially conscious, but she liked that Megatron never corrected him or beat him down.

- Shockwave altered his spark to have maximum bad vibes to destroy the All Spark.

- She said it’s hard talking about writing a show because you’re designing the experience and you have to make sometimes what sounds like cold and pragmatic decisions (eg: "we need a cold and spunky female”) which sucks, but they need to balance out the show. She says she’d never do that just for the sake of doing it, but it’s part of something that they do need to be aware of while working on a show. “It starts from a weirdly cold pragmatic place, but we try and put truth in it”.

- They didn’t want to have Unicron in the show since he’s the default “big bad”, but if he was in the show, Mae Catt says “If you put the proverbial budget-gun to my head, I’d keep Unicron in planet-mode because it’s more mysterious, but I want both alt modes”.

- Her favorite Megatron is Beast Wars Megatron.

- She doesn’t like Sky Lnxy’s design, it’s creepy. “He talks in the G1 episodes and the voice makes it worse.” She can’t get over his face.

- “I’d love to see more jets [who aren’t our usual gang] and find out all jets are kinda snobby, which explains why Starscream’s the way he is”.

- Everyone on the Autobot side are friends with each other.

Thanks for your time Mae Catt! We’re lucky to have you. Thank you for all your hard work on this amazing show.

[miraculouscontent]

I just saw one of the recent episodes and just—I’ve been really quiet about how the show uses Chloe in Season 2, but after seeing that episode, I feel very strongly about addressing it.

SO

OKAY

Season 1 Chloe isn’t that much different from Season 2 Chloe. Season 1 Chloe had some semblance of development in Antibug, but it was clear that she had a LOT of room to grow in order to become a character that everyone could unanimously agree was likable.

Now, I’m going to disregard the whole retcon of Adrien and Chloe’s relationship (as in, the fact that their dynamic changed from Season 1′s “Chloe wants Adrien to love her but also holds no shame in letting him take the fall for the gum incident while Adrien is indifferent at best and recoils when she makes advances on him at worst, also not afraid to stand up to her” to Season 2′s “best friends that maybe had rough patches but that Adrien and Chloe are very much invested in”), because it’s not important to the issues with Chloe’s redemption arc in Season 2. It would be easy to just pick apart each problem, but I want to instead use the show’s own logic against it.

Starting with Despair Bear...

This idea for the episode is actually really good. The fact that Adrien confronts Chloe for her behavior is great and was cathartic for a lot of people.

However, the execution comes to a screeching halt with the ending. Instead of proving that Chloe has made progress, the show instead goes for the cheap joke that Chloe actually hasn’t changed at all. Adrien even proceeds to joke about how Chloe will never change, DESPITE the fact that the entire episode centered around Chloe trying to be nice to get Adrien back.

I'm not asking the show to do a 180 on Chloe; that would be terrible. BUT, if it's trying to make us feel more towards her, the show needs to make a stronger effort to show that Chloe wants to change and/or CAN change.

Here's what could've happened: Adrien agrees to befriend Chloe again, but only on the grounds that she keeps making attempts to improve. Chloe doesn't aggressively insult everyone's baked goods, instead making lesser insults like, "it's not the worst thing ever," and "that's the least worst looking treat I've seen today." When she gets to Marinette, she stiffens, finding it hard to compliment Marinette in any way UNTIL Adrien tries one of Marinette's treats for her. He compliments it, and Chloe echoes it like, "Oh, yeah, that's totally what I was going to say."

That's PROGRESS. That's EFFORT. Having Adrien brush Chloe's bad behavior off as nothing makes him an enabler. He was just shown before that Chloe could be nice when there was something at stake, but it's ignored so the episode can end on a comedic note.

Next up, Zombiezou...

Cutting straight to the episode's message about showering Chloe with kindness she didn't earn and leading by example, I can combat that VERY easily and by using the episode's own logic.

Miss Bustier tries to promote this message, but consider what REALLY caused Chloe to apologize.

Chloe (albeit more indirectly than usual) caused yet another akuma. The class didn't treat her nicely; they sacrificed themselves to save her, but they were very adamant in how they felt towards her. Chloe apologized because she saw all the damage being caused and recognized that it was all her fault.

I had also just talked about this same scenario with Despair Bear. Adrien didn't coddle Chloe to try and be a good influence. Instead, he broke apart their friendship when he saw how Chloe was treating others.

And what happened when Chloe showed improvement and Adrien stopped scolding her? She immediately went back to insulting everyone. Adrien had her right where she should've been, but the second he gave her any leeway, she went back to square one.

Zombiezou's message contradicts both itself AND Despair Bear. Chloe doesn't respond to people being nice. She only responds when either someone puts their foot down or her actions have consequences.

Miss Bustier hugging Chloe after Chloe apologizes was a good next step (that’s positive reinforcement), but responding to Chloe's insults with nothing but kindness won't get her anywhere. It will only enable her.

In fact, Miss Bustier seems to completely miss the fact that Chloe never apologized for what mattered. Apologizing to Miss Bustier is technically progress, but it's the least hard thing for Chloe to do, since she likes Miss Bustier.

Chloe needs to apologize to MARINETTE, which is something that could've been achieved by having Miss Bustier nudge Chloe into doing it. Chloe ruined Marinette's present, and Miss Bustier almost pretending like she appreciates it and saying that she'll think of both of them when she uses it as if Marinette now has to share the praise with Chloe is an insult to Marinette as a character.

The argument of Chloe liking Miss Bustier because Miss Bustier coddles her—which "implies" that everyone should just do that for Chloe to improve—also doesn't work because Miss Bustier is not a good person for Chloe to target. There's no benefit to bullying Miss Bustier and the rest of the class are easier targets anyway.

Sabrina treats Chloe nicely as well, but she becomes a doormat for it. To be nice to Chloe is to be complacent in Chloe's treatment of everyone. Assertiveness is what Chloe responds to.

The same goes for Queen Wasp. It's easy to imagine that it's Ladybug and Chat's kindness that gets Chloe to give up the Miraculous, but this is an instance where Chloe already felt sorry for what she did.

Chloe does something bad, ignores what people have to say, realizes her mistake, and then is apologetic. Only at that last stage can she be shown kindness, but even in this episode, Ladybug (and Chat specifically, which makes sense given that he’s Adrien but that doesn’t make it better) take it too far by brushing off the things she did. Chloe may've been apologetic, but not encouraging her to improve and minimizing the damage by relating it back to her mother is ultimately what makes it not at all surprising when Chloe goes right back to her usual ways in the next episode.

Feeling sorry is not good enough. Guilt and regret is only the first step. Chloe goes back to normal constantly because those around her neglect to insist that she follow through.

Marinette was on the right track by trying to get Chloe to ask Audrey directly why Audrey doesn’t love Chloe, but Marinette essentially gives up because the show wanted things to end on a comedic note just like in Despair Bear. It's not in character for Marinette, considering her goals and the events in Zombiezou, but that's where the episode wanted to go.

Point being, Chloe needed to be told to make an effort to improve so she doesn't repeat her mistakes.

...Which brings us to Malediktator.

This episode is... flawed, to say the least, and it's honestly harder to focus on one or two points because the flaws are much more spread out through the episode.

Let's start with Adrien. He's back to his end-of-Despair-Bear status where he's willing to defend Chloe just because she's his friend, being upset when everyone is cheering because she's not going to be around anymore.

Firstly, Adrien has no context of what happened when Chloe left. She seemed really happy and excited when she was throwing fliers from her helicopter and everyone started having the party once she was already gone. It's not as if Chloe was everyone's friend and they're going behind her back, or they forced Chloe to stay so they can shove their celebration in her face. For Adrien to say it's wrong for everyone to be happy that a bully—who tormented nearly everyone for YEARS—isn't going to be around anymore is disrespectful. He's invalidating the feelings of nearly a hundred people (some of which are his friends) just because of Chloe, who did bad things to him as well.

I’m not asking Adrien to celebrate with them; I’m asking Adrien to respect that they’ve been hurt by Chloe and would like to relax now that she’s not going to be around anymore.

Secondly, and I hate to be brutal, but Adrien is a terrible friend here. Sure, he has Chloe's side, but does he have Marinette's? Marinette is his friend too, and yet he doesn't consider all the pain Marinette had gone through from being bullied by Chloe.

Marinette made a few remarks to Chloe in the entirety of the show, while Chloe was relentless in her insults.

Then, Adrien complains that it's not right that Chloe had to leave unhappy, but... did you notice? He fails to account for his own mistakes.

What did Adrien say when Chloe was upset during class? Nothing. What did he do when Chloe left? Nothing. The class was having lunch at the time Chloe arrived and Adrien made no attempt to call her.

Put bluntly, Adrien has NO right to disapprove of everyone celebrating when he himself didn't do a single thing to make Chloe feel better. It's no wonder why Chloe acts like/says she has no friends when she's venting to Ladybug; Adrien wasn't there for her.

The show just has this weird tendency to put Adrien on a moral high ground when he doesn't deserve it. To put it in a simpler way, consider that even TIKKI was acting positively over Chloe leaving.

Tikki. This is the kwami who's all-wise, all-good, and always gets a word in when she feels that Marinette is doing something wrong.

Yet, Tikki didn't pipe up to say that Marinette shouldn't be celebrating, so the show is trying to act as if Adrien is on an even higher ground than Tikki when it comes to what's "right."

And the reason it feels like that is that, much like in other episodes, Marinette is right for feeling a certain way, but the episode forces her to act like the bigger person without addressing it.

The relationship between the show and Marinette is complicated. Because the show is mostly from Marinette's perspective, what the narrative is trying to teach leans towards whatever Marinette ends up feeling in the end, even if it's wrong or not what is intended.

By having Marinette blame herself for the akuma and Ladybug say that "Marinette" didn't mean what she said, she's not only minimizing the damage Chloe's caused (again), but it implies that Marinette was in the wrong for being happy that the bully who treated her terribly is gone. This acts as if we, as an audience, are expected to feel sorry for Chloe and upset that everyone's celebrating. Chloe doesn't apologize to everyone for her behavior and Adrien doesn't apologize to Marinette for telling her that he thought her celebrating was terrible, so this is the only conclusion to draw.

Ladybug encouraging Chloe to fix her mistakes was great, but it shouldn't have taken this long. This should've been something they told her from the very start, and something she was trying to work through this whole time.

Chloe herself even acts rather odd in this episode. Yes, it's obviously bad that her father got akumatized, but he's not after her; he wants to make her happy. Chloe not jumping at the opportunity (even if she's disgusted by Audrey kissing Malediktator so much) seems less like a character choice and more like a narrative choice because it'd be too hard for Ladybug to give Chloe the Bee Miraculous if Malediktator was watching Chloe the whole time.

By not doing any of that, it also diminishes Adrien's role in the story. For an episode centered around Chloe, Adrien plays an EXTREMELY small part. He only exists to make Marinette feel bad about celebrating Chloe's departure. He doesn't share a single conversation with Chloe in this episode and Chloe doesn't seem to be at all concerned about Adrien when it comes to her decision to leave.

Adrien could've had a bigger role in the episode too. Instead of swiftly being mind-controlled into a cat, Chat could've left to find Chloe and talked to her about her problems. Or, if he HAD to get mind-controlled, he could've gone near Chloe—having de-transformed beforehand since Adrien might have a better chance of convincing Chloe to hide or flee to safety—but then Malediktator mind-controls Adrien to be Chloe's boyfriend. This would've put Chloe in a HUGE mental dilemma and really tested her.

But, instead, Chloe is apologetic only to Ladybug and shows unimpressive bits of improvement by the end of the episode.

Marinette's handwave over the matter and mention of "baby steps" are meaningless. Those "baby steps" should've started back in Despair Bear. Chloe should be much farther along than she is, but the things required to kick Chloe into gear stalled until now.

And sure, Adrien essentially holding his friendship over her head might be an aggressive tactic, but that was the correct decision and could've been used as a tool to make Chloe realize that being nice had its perks. In Despair Bear, it got everyone to come to her party without hesitation and no one insulted her until she inevitably let loose again.

Here's how it could've gone while stretching it out just as much and still keeping within Chloe's character.

- Adrien puts their friendship on hold and Chloe tries to be nice to win him back (like in Despair Bear) - Adrien becomes best friends with her again on the condition that she continues to make an effort to improve herself; Chloe reluctantly agrees - Chloe starts insulting people less and begins to find that she likes being nice, though it's for selfish reasons at first (people treat her better, she gets away with more when she does stuff in secret/behind Adrien's back, etc.); however, she still sneers at people and struggles MAJORLY with compliments - In Zombiezou, Chloe still trashes Marinette's present for Miss Bustier (it's been made clear that, while Chloe has been doing better, she's still targeting Marinette since Marinette is her "worst enemy"), but instead of instructing Marinette to be nicer to Chloe, Miss Bustier suggests that Marinette figures out where the tense ground is in their relationship so it can be fixed - Chloe apologizes to Marinette for ruining the gift at the end of Zombiezou, though at Miss Bustier's request and through gritted teeth - Marinette DOES NOT enable Chloe's behavior at the end of Queen Wasp, instead supporting Chloe by insinuating that it's Audrey's loss if Audrey doesn't love Chloe because, unlike Audrey herself, Chloe is at least making an effort to improve her mean streak (regardless of the results of this scene, the aftereffect is that Chloe calls Marinette by her name without any scorn for the first time ever) - The Malediktator episode becomes a study of why Chloe hates Marinette the most, and Chloe’s reasoning is because Marinette is popular and talented, which is why Chloe fakes the video of Queen Bee and Ladybug; to become more liked - Chloe is still caught by her ego in Malediktator (since being nice doesn't necessarily mean that she stops being egotistical) and she essentially relapses, insulting everyone like her old bully self before storming out - Everyone still celebrates Chloe's absence, most believing that the relapse indicates that Chloe is beyond help. Adrien is also more hesitant to defend Chloe (which is why he didn't speak up in the classroom), but still feels bad that she left upset. This makes things FAR more morally ambiguous and doesn't pin all the blame on either side. - When Chloe sees Malediktator, she’s eager rather than afraid when Malediktator offers to give her everything she wants - Chloe enjoys getting anything and everything, but the excitement doesn't last as she starts to run out of things to ask for; in short, she's realizing that this luxurious lifestyle isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially when she has no one to share it with - Chat goes in as Adrien to get Chloe away from Malediktator, but Malediktator manages to mind control Adrien into spending time with Chloe; this is Chloe's wake-up call as she realizes that she wants people to like her genuinely and not because she tricks them, whether through false kindness or lies - Chloe seeks Ladybug's help, finally breaking down like she does in Malediktator, and Ladybug offers the Bee Miraculous so Chloe can prove her worth - Chloe gives the expensive phone case in Malediktator to Marinette as a gift; while she remembers Marinette's comment, she knows deep down that she deserves it, though does try to play off that she's only giving Marinette the gift in exchange for the party (but nicely)

Redemption arc over. Chloe goes through a steady progression of not liking being nice, to being nice for Adrien, to being nice selfishly, to finally being nice for others. Chloe would go from a bully to someone who still has an ego but likes being kind and doesn't go out of her way to bully anyone again unless it's to defend someone she cares about. She's not friends with Marinette explicitly, but she's learned to respect Marinette. Chloe could have small (keyword: small) relapses when Marinette starts advancing her relationship with Adrien, but overall, she will NEVER become the bully she was again.

As for Sabrina (who I only made passing mention to because that's the equivalent of how the season treats her and I didn't want this post to get too loaded), I'd actually want her to develop separate to Chloe. I basically think Sabrina needs to leave Chloe for a while to help diminish the influence Chloe had on her. Thus, Chloe ends her friendship with Sabrina (even if temporarily; Sabrina already left Chloe once in Evillustrator and I didn’t want to repeat that ) for Sabrina's benefit, almost echoing what Adrien did in Despair Bear.

I like Chloe as a concept. I enjoy the idea of a ruthless bully who's friends with one of the main characters, and that same main character helps drive them towards being a better person.

But that's not what we got. If you think about it, Adrien had very little to do with Chloe's change in most of the episodes I listed. It was mostly Marinette/Ladybug doing the work.

I was still really happy when Queen Bee and Ladybug were working together. It made me happy seeing Chloe have regrets and cry when she realized that it was all falling apart.

But that's still not good enough. This is the end of the Bourgeois akumatization "psuedo three-parter" (it's technically a two-parter with another episode that just fits the theme), and yet Chloe still has a long way to go. Her ego is fine and she can keep it (she honestly wouldn't be the same without it), but she needed to make bigger strides with less relapses to show that she can be a nice person who doesn't get set off by everything.

And Adrien...

I like Adrien—I really do—but this "holier than thou" attitude is on both the show and himself to fix. Adrien was ready to call Chloe out and snark at her in episodes like Kung Food from Season 1, but in Season 2, the most we get out of him (excluding Despair Bear, which doesn’t mean much anyway since he went back on it) is in Frightningale where he briefly goes back to his Season 1 personality when he was uncomfortable with her but did little to affect their relationship.

Chloe never would've gotten so bad during some/most of these episodes if Adrien had put his foot down. He relates to Chloe in that they both have a parent who can be openly rude to them, but he doesn't try to bond with her over it (something that could've prevented Queen Wasp) and just generally takes too long to react to situations.

Adrien hates the way his father treats him but, in an odd way, Adrien takes after him. They both feel entitled to their own emotions and don't want to make efforts to change...

[ravenaveira]

Who’s most likely on the chopping block SPOILERS AHEAD

Ok in the latest trailer we see literally everybody's getting bodied and it looks like pretty much everyone's gonna die or at least a majority of them will but realistically speaking I dont think KH3 is gonna be THAT dark

HOWEVER I do believe there will be SOME deaths as KH3 is supposed to be the darkest kh game I dont see Nomura letting this be a and they all lived happily ever after ending, but I believe its going to be a more bittersweet ending where the good side wins but at a great cost

So the next question is, whos actually gonna die? well I have some theories on whos the most likely to die and whos most likely gonna survive

For starters Mickey Donald and Goofy are pretty much set in stone they’ll be fine, its not TOTALLY impossible but I highly doubt Nomura or Disney would kill off those iconic characters so lets just mark them off right now to the SAFE list

Aqua, Terra, Ventus and Lea are more unknown, they could die or they could not but I’ll explain why its so up in the air

Aqua can and will be saved so it doesnt make much sense for her to die after we go through all this to save her, that being said she could die trying to protect everyone just like she did in the past but I still think to bring her back only to kill her off is highly unlikely so IMO Aqua is safe

Terra is a gamble, hes been on thin ice since BBS and I always assumed he would eventually die anyway I just didnt know when but I always figured he would eventually muster up the strength to free himself and die to protect his friends, I felt like Terra would possibly end himself to prevent Xehanort from using him to hurt any more people, in this case, I see Terra possibly doing that in this situation and I feel like Terra’s ‘death’ is long overdue since at least to me its been hinted thats where his arc was heading since the end of BBS, so IMO Terra is marked for death

Ventus is also a high possibility, if it wasnt Xehanort it was Vanitas trying to kill Ven although in Vanitas case his reasoning is alot more complicated but the fact remains they have both tried to ‘kill’ him in some way shape or form and have been searching for him for years and now that they’ve finally FOUND him the chances are pretty high that Ven is gonna die, he is in a VERY vulnerable position and unable to fight or defend himself and thanks to Aqua nobody knows where he is or how to save him so Ven is definitely in the danger zone and thats why IMO Ventus is hanging by a thread

Lea is a gamble too, he’s already ‘died’ once, became Axel, died again and became Lea again, to have him die a 3rd time seems excessive but it would be heart-wrenching if he is killed by one of his former friends Saix, Xion or Roxas which although having Lea die AGAIN as I said would be excessive this would DEFINITELY be a dark and tragic ending for Lea and the impact would be much bigger than it was the previous times and it’ll hold that much more weight to it seeing him suffer from the loss of Isa and then keep remembering Xion and Roxas as well only to have one of them be the one to take him down for good is just beyond sad, so even though it may be excessive the impact would be massive which is why IMO Lea is marked for death 

Now to move on to the main two, Riku and Kairi

For starters even with my personal bias against Kairi Im not stupid enough to think shes gonna die infact I think its the opposite, Kairi is HIGHLY unlikely to die and here’s why

She’s part of the main trio that we’ve followed from the start, she’s Sora’s love interest, she’s technically the main female, she’s a princess of heart, she’s a keyblade wielder, in other words she’s too tightly woven into the story that for Nomura to take her out would not only be bold af but also extremely unexpected, its not often that you see a member of the main cast killed off but if they are its almost never the love interest which is why I believe Kairi is safe

Their also hyping up the romance way too much for them to just kill her off, unless this whole ‘oath’ and ‘dont think twice’ is just one big red herring and they pull a 180 not only would that be risky af but also pretty danm genius cuz nobody would see that coming but I will not be mad at it and infact would appreciate Nomura even more for takin such a huge risk that not many others would take, although I already know majority of the fandom wouldnt agree with me on that and I think Nomura is aware of the shitstorm he would get if he did that aswell so yea Kairi is definitely safe

Riku not so much, unlike Kairi, Riku is not a love interest or atleast not the one Nomura intended, true Riku is also a part of the main trio but the rival/best friend always has the higher chance of dying to protect the MC than the main female/love interest does

You also have to look at Riku’s character arc, his growth from giving into the darkness and doing horrible things to his journey of redemption, I believe his final atonement would be giving his life to protect Sora who in the past he had hurt so much, this and it leaves Sora still alive to save the world and defeat Xehanort since in the scene we see Sora doesnt have his keyblade and hes on his knees about to be attacked by a swarm of heartless and Riku being the last man standing protects him and if not for Riku, Sora would have died there, but Riku despite all odds against him, gives his all in protecting Sora

Someone made an interesting comparison of when Axel was fading away after ‘putting his whole being into an attack’ from the looks of the trailer Riku is DEFINITELY giving his all in this attack, Riku is ready and willing to die for Sora which is why Riku IMO is marked for death

But I also dont think Riku is gone for good, I think he might become a nobody and he IS the only one in the main trio who hasnt had a nobody, granted because he’s never been in a situation TO have one but now is the perfect time with the perfect setup for this to happen and come into play

How exactly this will play out in the future? I have no idea and until we play the game I cant think of any theories BUT I dont think Riku’s gonna be gone for good, I think he’ll have a Lea situation where he becomes a nobody, ‘dies’ then returns to being his somebody again, or in other words is revived/reborn

Anyway thats all for my theories on who’s most likely to die on the heroes side but what about the villains?

Saix is definitely marked for death, same for most of the seekers of darkness, Vanitas and Ventus MIGHT actually make peace and accept one another and reunite so in a way you could say Vanitas ‘dies’ or he could go tragically and be killed being separated from Ven forever once again

And of course Xehanort is definitely gonna die, he’s the only one I am atleast 98% sure is going to die because at this point he has to unless they go the Iron Blooded Orphans route where literally almost all of the good guys DIE and the bad guys actually WIN with our heroes just having to live in hiding defeated Xehanort is almost gauranteed to die so IMO Xehanort is dead

Now to explain my ranking before I end this post so some of you who may be confused understand what I mean

Marked for death - means they have a target on their back and are within the enemies crosshairs and are highly likely to die unless they are saved by some deus ex machina and a miracle happens

Hanging by a thread - means that they are close to death but not quite sure if they’ll actually die hence why their hanging by a thread, maybe it’ll snap maybe it wont just gotta wait and see how things play out

Safe is self explanatory and the same applies for Dead

Thats everything, let me know if you agree or disagree or you think someone else will die that I didnt mention and why