#ESPECIALLY Alya and Adrien

[festering-bacteria]

Reworked some of my redesigns, forgor to post them when I made them so here they are now :3

[goldensmilingbird]

New season 6 renders dropped, how are we feeling

[nixthelapin]

You know, I liked Lila as a character much better when she was just a lonely girl who lied to get attention and clout rather than some evil mastermind who somehow has three (3) different identities and has a secret lair in the catacombs under Paris.

But the writing team doesn’t want to hear that.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I've recently come across a couple of season 4 fanfics that dealt with the Chat Noir feeling left out and quitting thing and every time I read one I can't help but think "man did they chose the wrong side of the masks AND the wrong characters for this conflict. Chat Noir comes across terribly here". It's weird to see people try and justify his behavior and act like Ladybug was in the wrong.

Was Ladybug being the best friend ever? No, but friendship is secondary when they're wearing the masks. Paris comes first. Chat Noir quitting because he doesn't feel special enough is literally him endangering everyone he loves because his crush isn't paying enough attention to him and I truly can't tell if the show wanted us to feel like he was in the right or the wrong here. In Kuro Neko, Catwalker actually does acknowledge the lesson he needed to learn

There's nothing wrong with you. Maybe the boy who was Cat Noir was more sensitive than it seemed. But his feelings for you shouldn't force you to pay more attention to him than to others. You take care of everybody equally, Ladybug. 

And Chat Noir apologizes at the end of the episode for causing Ladybug trouble, but the whole thing is incredibly lackluster. They don't actually have a meaningful conversation about why he was feeling that way and the rest of the season seems to present Ladybug as being in the wrong, especially the final! Trusting Alya leads to nothing meaningful and not trusting Chat Noir loses her the miraculous. Basically, I still have no idea what season 4 was trying to do with this conflict and it's been dropped forever now that Adrien is fully reduced to nothing more than arm candy.

HOWEVER, this basic setup could have been a fantastic b plot if the "Adrien doesn't feel needed" conflict wasn't a Ladynoir conflict, but was instead a conflict between Adrien and Nino. Move Rocketear up to earlier in the season and have the fallout from that be that Adrien's relationship with Nino is strained. He can still feel leftout because Ladybug has a bigger team now, but instead of him pouting about it and skipping fights, focus on how that need for connection has transferred to his civilian life, but he doesn't have Kagami or Nino now and he's lost. Then you can either have an Adrien and Nino b plot because that relationship needs more screen time OR you use this to make Adrien and Marinette start to grow closer because Rocketear's fallout is also Alya paying more attention to Nino. Then, when season 5 does the whole crush switch, it actually feels earned.

[theluckiestlb]

….we were so robbed of chat!nino and for what. 🥲

[crimsonmonsoon]

Heres some character info-sheets for my mlb rewrite. The main five obv, but I'll get to other characters maybe later if and when I feel like it... also this was an excuse to draw them n o t dying or something so uh- yar.

Some additional info about each:

Marinette- Marinette's mom tried to teach Marinette chinese but started out a little too late in Mari's child-language development and never really succeeded. At most, Marinette can introduce herself. She does not yet have any crushes in my fic at the moment, but the first one (sorta already is) will be Luka for a while once he gets more "screen time". She's less "UwU quirky i'm so clumsy" like she is in the show. In fact, she doesn't go and do stupid things without repercussions at all. She is less focused on boys and more on her superhero life, but it starts getting overwhelming. She feels like if she tried to focus on herself for a change, something bad would happen as a result, and it doesn't help that Tikki is so strict on her about it.

Adrien- Adrien is pomosexual which basically means he doesn't know what the heck he is or what to label his feelings with so he went with that. He knows he is attracted to femininity, but is also ok with more masculine or "tom-boyish" attributes in anyone of any gender. This does lead into his crush on Kagami later on since they are nonbinary and not exactly "the most feminine" person you could meet, yet also not entirely masculine in their personality and presentation. Basically, he doesn't know what the heck his sexuality is. He knows chinese and english because of how strict his homeschooling is, and has a natural talent for picking up new languages. He doesn't really understand himself and often feels like he's broken, or a robot. Perhaps some senti-monster behavior...??????!!!!! (I'm deciding on that now shut up)

Nino- Nino is a glorious bilingual child whose parents are unknown. They probably left the face of the planet. No one has ever seen them... at least in the show... so I didn't bother giving him a family. But he's bilingual somehow!! But wait... I did give him parents?! That's right, I invented Mara Lahiffe for no reason, and we're gonna say his dad is no longer in the picture. He's very protective of his friends and would never abandon them, hence why he became so fitting for the turtle miraculous. He has a secret crush on Rena Rouge but sadly, not Alya. He likes his mysterious women I guess.

Alya- Alya is creole which is a race of people from America that spawned from the mixing of native american, Spaniard, black, and europeans. It's a lot... I know... they're best known for existing in Louisiana, and does she have family there? No! She has relatives from Cuba which is why she can speak spanish. Alya has a big family with three other sisters, and she's caught being the middle child. This has given her a lot of insecurities due to her older sister being a literal muscle boxing beast and her two little twin sister getting all the attention from the family.

Chloe- I think it's really funny that I didn't give Marinette, the main character, family trauma, but the other four.... Chloe's parents are divorced and her mother has a very judgmental attitude over Chloe. Chloe wants nothing more than to please and impress her mother who sometimes doesn't even remember her daughters name. Chloe feels like she's battling her half sister, Zoe, for their mothers attention, which is made extra hard for her by the fact that her sister and mother live all the way in New York. Chloe was as straight as a pencil, she swears. but then... she started developing feelings for a girl and everything became a mess. She's kinda in the same boat as Adrien right now, except she's more comfortable calling herself bicurious. She developed anorexia after Gabriel Agreste's company refused to accept her as a model, denying her the chance to work with Adrien and pursue her dream career.

[pink-psychic]

Now Marinette and Adrien can be akumatized without outing their secret identities as Ladybug and Chat Noir

[dovelylittlebird]

I will sign whatever petition to make this happen 😭😭😭

I want more interactions! I want rose and chloe to bond over stuffed animals. I want nino and alix to pull stupid pranks on people and vandalize shit. I want kagami and nathaniel to hang out (and talk about how fun it is to draw marinette and their respective boyfriends). I want adrien and juleka to play piano and sing and make music together. I want marinette and max working together to design an entire video game. I want luka and kim to smoke weed together and have the funniest and stupidest conversation imaginable. I want ivan and alya babysitting her sisters together so he can have more experience with kids to be a stay at home dad. I want zoe and mylene to build a school garden together. yknow shit like that.

Also I want more ondine. give me more hot tall buff freckled girl right now.

[adrinoir]

The Miraculous Movie was different than the series…and that’s okay!

I watched the movie this morning and loved it! I think it’s important to talk about the changes that were made and what impact they had.

How the characters were rewritten

There definitely was a difference in how the characters were written in the movie, and some of the redevelopment of characters was really good!

Gabriel was by far the one who had the best redevelopment of his personality. Gabriel in the series is awful, as we all know.

In the series, he barely gives a shit about his own son, like there is absolutely nothing redeemable about his character. In every “what if” episode and the season 5 finale, Gabriel does not show any regret to hurting people, including his own son.

However, in the movie, Gabriel actually makes a better attempt to communicate with Adrien and, most importantly, feels strong regret when he hurt his son. He cries; he feels remorse for destroying Paris and injuring Adrien in the process. He hugs Adrien (along with the spirit of Emilie 🥹) and decides to stop being Hawk Moth. It was beautifully done. He got a redemption arc that he never got in the series. I know I personally felt so good watching that and seeing the relationship between him and Adrien being repaired.

Marinette was her usual clumsy self, but was written as having no friends at school because she embarrasses herself so much. In a way, it makes more sense than her being so popular like she is in the series. Kids in high school can be pretty judgy and ruthless. So it makes sense for the “clumsy girl” to be made fun of and judged by people who don’t know her well.

Adrien was different in a lot of ways. He wasn’t shown running to school to gain freedom. He wasn’t introduced as being a super model who’s friends with Chloe. Instead, he’s already going to the school, he’s already friends with Nino, and he happens to run into Marinette at the library. He doesn’t have that same chemistry with Marinette as he does in the series which is a bit odd that they took that away, but it does make sense that he’d turn her down when she asked him to the ball, since he loves Ladybug. In the movie, he very clearly sees Marinette as just a friend and it’s shown that he’s building a friendship with her without him developing a crush. It’s different but still wholesome, especially when he shows her the old family photo to her. Plus, it evens it out well since Ladybug obviously turns Cat Noir away but they’re still building up their bond, too. They both get turned down.

It was ehhh that Adrien was a bit too cocky at times as Cat Noir, but overall, his goofiness and self confidence is still pretty on brand for him. He was still very encouraging towards Ladybug but not overly flirtatious, pushing her to her limits. Instead, it was them lightly teasing each other and then playfully fighting. And, speaking of the playful fighting, their bond was stronger in the movie seeing as how they were shown spending more time together off duty and that they were treated as equals.

In the show, Cat Noir is automatically made sidekick and left in the dark about everything. But in the movie, he gets to meet Master Fu in disguise alongside Ladybug. Sure, he didn’t help Master Fu with his cane like he did in the series, but that didn’t matter since the lore was changed.

Alya was less annoying in the movie. Sorry. Don’t get me wrong, I love Alya in the series, but she’s so over the top at times with how obsessed she is over the heroes, blogging, and filming things for her blog. In the movie, she was toned down a lot and I liked that. It was also cute that Nino had a crush on her and just her, not Marinette first. Unlike the series, he wasn’t on that pipeline of guys who fell for Marinette since that pipeline doesn’t exist in the movie.

Tom was made out to be an embarrassment for Marinette which is honestly more realistic for a teenager. Most teenagers get pretty embarrassed by their parents, especially when they still treat them very childlike. And, I like that he went out to the fair to look for her since he heard there was danger. Marinette’s parents don’t usually go out to look for her or make sure she’s in her room when there’s danger afoot. So, I appreciate that they made Tom do that since he obviously loves Marinette a lot.

The rewriting of (some of) the lore

As I had mentioned in my previous section, the lore was rewritten, too. Instead of Master Fu being the one to pick Marinette and Adrien simply because they helped him, the kwamis sense that Marinette and Adrien are the right people to be Ladybug and Cat Noir. That was a much better way to write that, in my opinion.

Hawk Moth got ahold of the butterfly miraculous by mistake. That part wasn’t changed but also, it didn’t need to be.

The change of plot

The plot was very simple. It didn’t have a whole lot of crazy, in depth details like the show’s does. So, anyone who has never watched the show can easily understand and absorb what’s going on (I will be forcing my boyfriend to watch it with me since he’s never seen the show lol).

I like that it was very clear cut and easy to understand while still being intense and meaningful. It still summarizes a lot of what the series entails while fixing some issues in the plot development.

They didn’t doddle with Hawk Moth like they do in the show. He was a successful villain in his second attempt but then realized he should stop when he hurt his own son in the process.

Also, there was a reveal. It was a wee bit underwhelming, but I still think it was done well! It was a moment with just Marinette and Adrien alone, as it should be. And, it was cutesy and heartfelt. The fact that Marinette dressed like Ladybug for the ball (cutest dress ever imo) and Adrien dressed like Cat Noir was so cute. That’s what a lot of the fandom has been asking for and written about in fanfics, I feel like.

The romance between these two is most important. They didn’t need Kagami and Luka as 2nd love interests to throw things off track. Yes, I like these characters in the show, but they weren’t needed in the plot.

The music

I love musicals. I was a bit of a theater kid in high school, plus I’m obsessed with music lol. So, yes, I’m a bit biased when I say I love that they made this a musical.

I personally loved the music. I can tell a lot of good effort was put into it and I’ve already been listening to the songs on my Spotify. The song between Ladybug and Cat Noir in the theater “Now I See” and Cat Noir jumping on the clouds (literally, on cloud nine) singing “My Lady” was absolutely adorable and super romantic, which, as we know, is a big part of the show.

Even Gabriel’s song “Chaos Will Reign Today” was amazing! It conveyed a lot of emotion and turns into one of those dramatic villain songs. Keith Silverstein is clearly talented enough to sing for his own character and he did it well.

My only nitpick is that Marinette’s singer, Lou, has a very different voice than Christina Vee. So, Marinette sounds very different, much more mature-sounding when she sings and it kinda catches you off guard. I’m surprised they didn’t have Christina sing for her, but there must’ve been a reason why she didn’t. But, SQVARE sounded similar enough to Bryce Papenbrook when he sung for Cat Noir which i absolutely love.

Conclusion

I personally give this movie a 10/10 just because it made me smile the whole time, and it’s such a feel good movie. I’ll happily watch it again and listen to the soundtrack, especially on a day when I’m feeling down. It wasn’t perfect in every aspect, but it was perfect in a simple, heartwarming sense and that it can be watched by everyone, not only people who watch the series.

I understand if it made you cringe or you were moreso looking for a continuation of the series not a retelling. But, I prefer some simplicity which is a big part of what made me like it. Like I said, I know it wasn’t absolute perfection, but it was so frickin adorable and I can’t help but smile.

There’s a lot of differences but also plenty of similarities between the movie and the show. But understand they’re not meant to be the same and that’s okay! I don’t think the movie was horrible for most of the changes it made. In fact, I think most of them made sense and made it a bit more realistic (as I explained).

[medusas-graveyard]

Crack prompt because I can't stop thinking about that one scene in mlb where Alya scribbled on top of a picture of Adrien and pointed out how he kinda looks like cat noir

Basically still the "Danny is the newly adopted Wayne au", in which he was taken as ransom (he had wished this day never came) and even though he could, hypothetically speaking, just deadass take off the ropes they're binding him in, he had swore to himself that he's going to enjoy being a normal teenager this time around. Also because he's tired.

Cue Batfam™ rescuing him and Danny could not stop staring at him the whole time. He scrunched his gaze especially when Batman himself was undoing his binds and reassuring his safety all while crouching down his level, his face almost too close to him.

He swore there was something so sickeningly familiar about the man, that is, before he realizes just why.

(Technically this is the end of the prompt BUT here's a continuation of what I actually wanna see. Implied autistic & non-verbal Danny but not rlly relevant)

&—

Danny barges into the living room where Bruce was quietly reading, accompanied by the hectic sounds of his siblings playing Mario kart over the couch. When he enters, he enters quietly; doing his best to not bother his siblings, (yet he always found himself feeling that they knew the moment he stepped into the room without even batting a glance.)

Much like Cass, he's non-verbal most of the times. So when he greets his adoptive father, he claps his hands once and waves, smiling like usual.

"Hey, chum. Is there something you need?"

His father's words were always gentle to him; understanding and full of care. He nods.

"Can I place my hand on your face?"

A strange request; he knows. Yet this is something he always felt an impulse to do. He finally breaks and decides to do it. His commitment to do it, however, falters the moment his father looks at him questioningly. An apology on the tip of his tongue—

"alright."

Even the response caught him off guard, yet he makes an appreciating sound and gently placed his hand on top of his father's eyes, just shy on the nose. Even though his hand isn't as big as his father's face, he blinks;

"Batman?"

[glitterpensupremacy]

To commemorate breaking 100 notes on this post

Honestly fair, I’m sick of their crap also (which probably isn’t super surprising considering I literally made the post lol)

What she says: “I’m fine.”

What she means: There is a whole subsection of the Miraculous Ladybug fandom who thinks one character having to sit by herself in the back of the class for a single episode (literally gets her seat back by the end) is worse than another character getting abused by his dad for five seasons.

[verabraun-art]

Alright, who snatched the Miraculouses and wished for a new animation style in the next season? ⠀ ‼️ SPOILER ALERT ⬇️ ⠀ But seriously, I’m really going to miss SAMG. The animation in the special was amazing—textures, effects, movement—everything was on point and beyond impressive! ⠀ The storyline was pretty solid too. Even though it was a time-travel episode, it felt logical. Lila’s new look? Stunning. Granny Alix? Absolutely adorable. And you know what? The yellow suit wasn’t bad at all, especially with the design nods and that final fight scene giving off serious Miles vs. Spot vibes. The music was incredible too, like something straight out of Inception. Oh, and Ladynoir, hugging with the Eiffel Tower in the background—that's exactly what we've been waiting for! Speaking of Ladynoir…

I had a feeling Marinette wouldn’t tell Adrien the truth, but I really wanted her to confess to Chat Noir! That would’ve been the kind of drama I’d be totally hooked on in the upcoming season—I’d even forgive the new animation! After 10 years, don’t we deserve at least a half-reveal? If she’d told him as Marinette, not Ladybug, wouldn’t Chat have understood? The fact that she said nothing to him made me question her character development. I mean, she gave Bunnyx’s Miraculous to Chat at the start of S5, and now everything’s back to square one? So yeah, looks like jealousy and spying are going to be real in S 6… Oh no, please! ⠀ But these thoughts on Ladynoir are probably just wishful thinking—Chat Noir will likely stay a secondary character. My biggest disappointment in the special is…

is what Marinette wrote in the notebook. ‘Ladybug = Gabriel Agreste’? Seriously? You could’ve written a fake name to throw Lila off, or even used Alya to create a fake Ladybug and set up a trap! Or written, ‘Ladybug knows who took the Miraculous.’ You could’ve even given a fake address to lead the villain into an ambush. So many ways to mess with the new villain and drive the plot forward for Season 6! It was so frustrating that Marinette didn’t take advantage of that moment. ⠀ Writing scripts for long-running shows is definitely no easy task. I’m just holding out hope that the story isn’t going the way we expect because they’ve got something bigger planned. As a special, it felt weaker than the previous ones, but if this had been a double episode and the Season 5 finale, I would’ve loved it!

[ladyofthenoodle]

i don’t know what is happening to lila in her final scene, but i do know one thing: if lila’s as smart as the writers want us to believe she is, she won’t be going to school to turn everyone against marinette. no, her new identity will be angling for the role of marinette’s best friend.

after all, being marinette’s rival turned out pretty well for marinette, didn’t it? but being chloe’s best friend didn’t turn out so well for chloe.

if she’s smart, she’ll veer away from the outlandish lies about jagged stone and prince ali. if she wants to play marinette like a fiddle, she’ll tell stories about the bullies at her old school and standing up to them. she won’t give adrien a second glance. maybe she’ll even make comments about gabriel agreste and wonder if he was really as great as they say. maybe she’ll ingratiate herself as the perfect confidant for a stressed marinette who’s tired of keeping secrets. even better if she can position herself in opposition to what alya is saying, especially if alya is saying a hard truth marinette doesn’t want to hear.

if she’s smart, marinette won’t even realize she’s the enemy.

[kaileedraws]

Introduction: Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Here are some of my changes to Marinette in my Miraculous AU! Below I'm going to go into a little bit further detail about what I'm changing about her character and why. I'll list the problems that I have with her character in the show and explain how I plan to fix it.

1. Marinette is the only character that must be there in order for a fight to be won

I've noticed in the story, other characters have little to no opportunity to save the day if Marinette is not present, and this seems a little unrealistic. She is the protagonist, but I feel like her biggest lesson is that she doesn't need to do everything herself - but unfortunately, the story's plot only reinforces the fact that she DOES need to do everything herself, or else things will backfire on her. I will be balancing the Miraculous powers to reflect the unique aspects of everyone's personality and show that Marinette can rely on others - especially Chat Noir - to win without her.

2. The show's narrative punishes characters when they trust others - making Marinette a hypocrite

An example of this is pushing the narrative that Ladybug and Chat Noir cannot know each other's identities or else the world will end (except in their alternate universe). Marinette also punishes Alya for trusting Nino with her identity - yet is not so reluctant to share her own identity with her own best friend.

More people know Ladybug's identity than Chat Noir's identity (and not even because he told him he was Chat Noir), yet Ladybug consistantly shows Chat Noir that she trusts others more than him. She has a hypocritical nature of warning him about secrets, yet does the very things he warns him against.

Fixing this, Marinette, as a character, lacks trust due to her past with Chloe - an ex-best-friend - and Kim - an ex-crush. She has a nature of becoming suspicious of strangers, and she is overly cautious and judgemental of those she meets (which would also explain her canon reactions to Lila and Kagami when she first meets them). Because of this, she stereotypes Adrien when she first meets him and thinks he is just trying to manipulate her like all of the other popular kids she has met. He is constantly trying to prove to her that she is a good person and she doesn't buy it for a while. For Alya, she is also suspicious with her at first, but because she is so brutally honest to everyone - she has an easier time with learning to trust her than anyone else she meets.

With the Ladynoir dynamic, Ladybug starts the series pushing Chat Noir away - desperately trying to keep their relationship professional. But as things blow up in her face the more she pushes him away and tries to do everything herself, she finds herself apologizing for her mistakes and trying to become closer to him so they can function better as a team (power of love always so strong~). As the story goes on, she finds that she can be more herself as Ladybug to Chat Noir than as Marinette because Marinette becomes a chronic liar to keep her identity.

In the future, when Alya comes clean to Marinette that she told Nino about her own miraculous, Marinette reacts the way she did in the show and feels betrayed, but later forgives Alya and trusts her to make her own decisions in her life (character development here).

3. Marinette doesn't have a clear character arc

the show is set up - as cooberated by many others - as a "lesson of the day"-type show, but Marinette doesn't have any character development other than becoming a little more confident and standing up to her bully (which also gets her into trouble more and happens early on in the show). I think that her character development should revolve around learning to trust others and learning that she can't do everything by herself, and learning how to cope with her anxiety.

4. Marinette's creepy obsession (Stalker) with Adrien

No one tells Marinette that she takes things a little too far with Adrien except for the school bully (Chloe). She doesn't even recongize herself until later that what she's doing is wrong. I feel like - especially aged up - that Marinette has a duality with this. She knows morally that it's not OK to stalk people or be as obsessive as she is, but she continues to make excuses that she is either protecting Adrien or herself from harm. She feels guilty about it, but her inherent curiosity and lack of trust gets the better of her sometimes.

5. Marinette is mostly bubbly and awake

Either this girl takes adderall every morning or eats coffee beans - she is always shown to be alert despite being a full-time student, overachiever, and superhero. It would be good to see her struggling with sleep more often and developing an energy drink/coffee addiction just to stay awake. Perhaps it gets so bad that she has to be hospitalized for severe sleep deprivation.

6. The plot prohibits Marinette from ever being akumatized fully

Because of her huge emotions, Marinette would definitely be akumatized at some point. She would fight it - perhaps Tikki would take her Miraculous and find a temporary holder - or not - but being a main character and a miraculous holder should not exclude her from becoming a victim of hawkmoth. This would also push the narrative that Marinette is not perfect and she is not inherently needed to save the day every time.

Conclusion

These are just a few of my changes for Marinette - once I nail down a design, I'll probably make a character sheet for her general personality. I like the idea that she is one of the weird, awkward art kids in school that is incredibly dark, tired, and weirdly bubbly around her friends, but depressed at home (my middle school experience tbh). I'm really excited to make Marinette a lot more relatable and a product of the things she experinces in the show - not just a protagonist with layers of plot armor and villian-like hypocracy!

[elina-sakura]

Okay, I had to reblog this in order to respond to some of the comments I got because for some reason it is not showing up in the comments, and that is just frustrating for me. So I’m just gonna reblog here not just to respond to the comments, but also so other people who has the same claims can see as well (and I don’t have to repeat myself over and over).

NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT ATTACK ANYONE WHO HAS A DIFFERENT OPINION THAN MINE OR YOURS. AND PLEASE DO NOT ATTACK THE PERSON I’M RESPONDING TOO; THEY’RE ALLOW TO HAVE A DIFFERENT OPINION THAN OURS, EVEN IF WE DON’T AGREE WITH THEM.

Okay, let me start with the responses.

“Marinette became confident after she became Ladybug.”

While that is true, that is not what I was referring too. I was referring to way before Marinette got the Ladybug Miraculous. In Origins Part 1, when we first see the two interact, Marinette didn’t seem all that scared of her. More like annoyed and just done with her, like she’s an annoying fly she has to tolerate with.

Now you could argue that maybe Marinette has hyped herself to build a backbone for herself by Socqueline’s words, and that could be the case. However, the problem is that you don’t just go from being scared of an abuser to having an attitude of just being done with her. It’s not like a straight line of improvement and changes, especially when it’s toward a girl whose goal seems to be to make her life miserable no matter what Marinette does, and (according to the timeline) almost got her drowned just a few months ago. You would think there would at least be some sort of apprehensiveness when meeting her bully again.

“Chloé toned down her attitude for Adrien.”

Here is where I disagree with your point. We have seen throughout the show that Chloé is completely fine with bullying others in front of Adrien, or admitting her wrongdoings to Adrien immediately. Like in Origins Part 2, Adrien sees Chloé and Sabrina putting gum on one of the seats and confronts her on it, and she just explains it to him and say “he has a lot to learn about school culture,” like this is normal behavior that they should be exhibiting. Considering how we later explore more on their social class, this kind of attitude seems to be uncommon and expected actually, so it’s not really unexpected from Chloé’s character. And Chloé continues to exhibit her awful behavior in front of Adrien and not try to hide it, like in Horrificator with insulting Mylène, Reflekta when she tried to force herself next to Adrien, and Despair Bear when she called the fire department, tried to frame Marinette for it, and lets the whole school get punish for her action while she gets out of it scot-free. And all those times, Adrien has called Chloé out on her behavior, but she doesn’t try to hide it or cover up her actions to make herself look good. She even won’t hide when she does something so big like Despair Bear when Adrien asks if she was the one who called the fire department, and instead of hiding it in risk it could upset Adrien, she just flats out admit to it like she expects him to not be bothered by it and share the same feelings as her. So it wouldn’t make sense why Chloé would tone down her attitude for Adrien when she doesn’t seem to try to hide it from him.

“Marinette has forgiven Kim for the prank, and knows Kim didn’t mean to hurt her.”

Now again, I can see where the idea comes from. Marinette’s forgiving nature is both a strength and a flaw of hers. While she is willing to forgive others when they hurt her, that doesn’t mean their actions hasn’t harmed her. She just tends to brush aside her misgivings when she learns they didn’t mean to hurt her. Now you could speculate maybe after Marinette learned how nice of a person Adrien is, maybe she decided to give Kim a second chance, believing he is still a nice person deep down.

However, there are a couple of problems that contradicts these statements.

First is that we have never seen Marinette and Kim talk to each other about the event. If this is such a big deal considering the flashback is suppose to be important (like a turning point in Marinette’s backstory), then we should see a moment of Marinette realizing maybe Kim isn’t that bad as she might have thought (despite what he did was more horrible than gum on her seat). However, what Derision shows is that Marinette still subconsciously believes that Kim was pretending to be nice to hurt her, as shown with her outburst towards Adrien. So if that’s the case, she should still have apprehensions with Kim at this point of time (which is suppose to be the end of the school year), which contradicts their interactions beforehand.

The second thing to point out, while following up on my last point, is that the whole point of the event that happened is to explain why Marinette is so overly-cautious of her crush with Adrien by getting to know every details about him, and one of the biggest emphasis she makes on making sure she knows about her crush is making sure they aren’t friends with Chloé. Now you can argue she decides to accept her feelings for Adrien is because she has seen him be kind in words and actions and vulnerable about his feelings, and she has acted on what she said in the flashback as well to know everything about him. But if she still believes her claims that she won’t interact with those who are friends with Chloé, she should still be apprehensive to be around Kim. After all, it’s Kim helping Chloé to humiliate Marinette that created her apprehension of anybody who are friends with Chloé.

My final point argues against the follow-up of the claim that Marinette knew Kim didn’t know. By that knowledge, it would mean Marinette have to know Chloé was solely at fault and she should be more wary of Chloé interfering with her love life again than being obsessed with knowing every details about her crush. Plus, it seems that Marinette only realizes that Kim wasn’t intending to hurt her after having gotten to know him over the school year and reflecting on her past trauma. Earlier in the episode, with how Marinette is still subconsciously worried Adrien could hurt her, then by extension, she should still believe Kim was in on Chloé’s prank, so that means their interaction, again, should be tensed.

“Marinette did try to give Chloé a second chance.”

Now this, I have to agree with Eris from the comments on. Marinette didn’t actually choose to give Chloé a second chance of her own will; she had to be nudged by both the narrative and the characters to do so in the episodes Despair Bear, Zombizou, and Malediktator. And in those episodes, the narrative frames it as Marinette was being unreasonable with Chloé (despite narratively having good reasons to not trust her) and learned to hold out hope that Chloé can change, so that’s why she gets that hope. But the episode Derision ends up proving Marinette’s apprehension right as she was practically abused by Chloé, and could have died by one of her pranks. She was making Marinette’s life miserable beforehand, it was even her goal. At least that’s what Derision tried to frame Chloé’s bullying as. Now it makes the characters look bad and the narrative even that you just forgive your abusers (and almost makes me glad Astruc actually stopped the redemption arc. Keyword being almost because this narrative was never introduced until years later audience-wise and the last season of the first narrative arc).

Now let me clarify, Marinette is in no way have to forgive Chloé even if she did get a redemption arc. Whatever Chloé did in the past, whether it’s petty teasing or making her life miserable everyday, it still affected Marinette to this day. So she does not owe Chloé any forgiveness unless she truly sees Chloé make an effort to change and sticks to it over the years.

So these are all my responses to the comments. I hope these arguments are critically valid, and you are free to try to argue back. I don’t really mind, it allows me to do critical thinking when it comes my argument. And thanks to the commenter for their comments, even if I don’t agree with you, it was nice to practice critical counterarguments. And again, please do not attack the commenter, they are free to disagree with me.

So after watching a YouTube video yesterday, I finally realized why I have such an issue with Derision, or more specifically the backstory it provided: it just doesn’t fit.

Let’s say that the Miraculous narrative is a set of puzzles, and we’re getting the full picture of the backstory before the series, or more specifically, the characters like Marinette and Chloé. We’ve already been established that the two girls have a history with each for at least three-four years, that Chloé has been a bully towards Marinette, and that in results worsens her anxiety. Yet it has never been shown anything more than Chloé being petty against Marinette, and eventually becoming a rival that clash because of their beliefs and personalities.

Then Derision comes along, and reveals that Chloé has actually been more an abuser who did harmful pranks, isolated her from her peers, ruined her reputation to be made out as a bad kid, and masterminded a prank that could have literally killed Marinette and caused everlasting trauma for her. Now let me be clear, what happened was terrible and Chloé is a terrible person for it. If this is the narrative they have been trying to paint, that is the truth we unfortunately accept.

But it is hard to accept it, because this goes against the narrative we’ve seen for the past years, and contradicts a lot of stuff in both backstory and character interactions, again focusing on Chloé and Marinette. If Chloé has been so terrible this whole time as shown in Derision, why is Marinette just more annoyed with Chloé and able to take her on so easily?You could say it may have been the words of encouragement from Socqueline, but Marinette should still be anxious and scared of Chloé still. Chloé has tormented Marinette for years, Marinette has no support to help back her up, and now that she doesn’t have Socqueline by her side to defend her, she’s on her own (at least that should be her thought process the whole time before meeting Alya).

Also, we have seen multiple times Marinette and Kim interacting with each other, and it’s always been at least friendly with each other. Marinette has never been shown to be uncomfortable around him, especially in Dark Cupid where they most interacted. If they had a bad history this whole time with each other, then why are they acting like nothing happened. I know people are going to say “maybe she subconsciously repressed the memories,” and that might be the case, especially with Kim. It seemed to imply she tried to forget it. But I’m not sure if that is the case in real life, so please take what I said with a grain of salt and I’m sorry if it was offensive.

However, it still doesn’t explain the very different dynamic relationship with Marinette and Chloé. Chloé has done much more things besides the prank/near-death experience she masterminded in, and that should have Marinette more apprehensive and scared of Chloé. Heck, it would make her willing to give Chloé a second chance all the more weirder because why would she ever give back the Bee Miraculous to Chloé, and always keep opening her mind to thinking “maybe she’ll change.”

In conclusion, Derision is like a puzzle piece that the writers are trying to fit into Marinette’s and Chloé’s backstory. However, it does not fit as it contradicts with the narrative they already set up. But instead of trying to move this backstory idea somewhere else like for another story, they forced it in, not caring that it’ll upset the picture they were putting together.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Do you agree that Chloe only cared about Adrien cause of his social status ? Cause that's what Astruc has said on Twitter regarding how Chloe viewed her friendship with Adrien. Do you believe this intent of their relationship was portrayed correctly in the show ?

I think that this statement accurately describes the way that Chloe was written in season one. She never read as Adrien's close friend and we got scenes like these two from Dark Cupid where she wanted his autograph to show off for some reason:

Chloé: Hi Adrien, sign here please. Adrien: (sighs) Oh, come on, you know I hate signing autographs, Chloé. Chloé: Oh, that's not what this is. This is a petition against cruelty to hamsters. Have you seen some of the ugly sweaters they are forced to wear? It's appalling. (Adrien begrudgingly signs the poster. Chloé hugs the poster and Sabrina smiles before they notice Marinette who is digging through a trash can as she pulls out a sheet of paper.)

[Scene change]

Chloé: Keep dreaming all you want girls but the boy is mine. (Sabrina nods before unrolling the poster, the girls gasping) Aurore: "To Chloé, the most awesome girl in the world and the love of my life. Signed, Adrien." (All the girls begin to cry, then Chloé looks at one girl who tries not to burst out crying) Chloé: Uh, she's not crying enough.

However, much like Alya's obsession with Ladybug's secret identity and Adrien's ability to leave his house, this part of Chloe's character disappeared after season one, making it feel like something they tried and then decided to discard. While that's not a sign of great writing quality, it's also not a neon warning sign. It's not unusual for formula shows to have these kinds of growing pains. First seasons often have random things that contradict later seasons such as everything about Nathalie's season one writing.

So while season one backs this read, I don't think it's fair to say that Chloe read this way any time after season one and season one is full of things that got discarded, so it's not grasping at straws to say that season one Chloe wasn't fully formed. This is especially true because of the way the writers reintroduced her in both Origins and season two.

Origins introduced many new elements such as Adrien's social isolation and the wish that was driving Gabriel to terrorize Paris. In other words, it's the episode that lays the groundwork for the entire show. If a thing is in Origins, then it matters because the writers only had 40 minutes to establish every important element for how they want these character to be read. This is a problem because Origins didn't make Chloe a vapid mean girl who clung to new boy Adrien. Instead, Origins had Adrien walk into school, see Chloe, and call her by name, leading her to reply with a dorky childhood nickname:

Adrien: Hey, Chloé! Chloé: Adrikins! You came!

She's also the only person who knows that Adrien will be starting school this year because, for some reason, Origins made the choice to elevate Adrien and Chloe's relationship to close childhood friends. That is NOT the kind of move you make if you want Chloe to feel like someone who only cares about Adrien for his fame. While that may potentially happen in real life, this is a story. The writers have full control over the characters' backstories. Who in their right mind picks a childhood friends backstory to complicate things if they don't want Chloe to really care about Adrien as a person?

Despair Bear only further contradicts this "Chloe doesn't care" idea by having Chloe break down over the idea of Adrien ending their friendship:

Jean: Mademoiselle does not look very happy, today. (lifts up a plate of luxury chocolates and offers them to Chloé.) (Chloé grabs the chocolates all at once and eats them, concurrently, and then weeps) Chloé: Adrien says I have to be nice to everyone or he won't be my friend anymore! How can he do this to me, Jean-Michel? Jean: Uh, my name is... hm, never mind. Ah, perhaps Mademoiselle can see comfort with Mr. Cuddly? (Chloé is delighted and grabs Mr. Cuddly, her teddy bear, and hugs it)

[Image description: Chloe crying and eating chocolates because Adrien said they can't be friends anymore]

This is not the kind of reaction you give a character who doesn't care about Adrien on a personal level. She comes across as caring about him deeply. If she didn't care, then she'd probably just brush him off and say, "Your loss." But she doesn't. She reacts with the same sort of sorrow that we see when her parents are akumatized or when her mother refuses to acknowledge her.

We also see her go out of her way to try to appease Adrien by throwing a party and forcing herself to play nice so that he stays her friend. She only stops playing nice when he promises that they'll stay friends:

Adrien: That was a great idea of inviting Marinette's dad! Chloé: I know. This way, no one can be mad at me for calling the fire department. I'm really nice now, did you notice, Adrikins? Even Ladybug said so! Didn't she, Jean-Pascal? Adrien: I'm proud of you, Chloé. I think you've proven that you're capable of making an effort to be nicer to everyone. Chloé: Aww, Adrikins! So we'll always be best friends, forever? Pinky swear? Adrien: Pinky swear! Chloé: (Exhales and saunters off) (To Kim) So, those macarons are dreadfully ugly. (Kim sighs.) (To Mylène.) Those are so greasy, you can see yourself in them. (Mylène cries and faint.) (To Marinette.) Urgh. Too disgusting for comment. (To Rose.) Those look horrible. (Rose faints.)

That is more effort than Chloe has ever put into anything on screen and that's a problem because - once again - this is not how you write a vapid mean girl who doesn't care. This is how you write someone who actually cares about Adrien. They even chose to show us young Chloe and young Adrien being cute during Chloe's "flashback" to getting her teddy bear:

[Image description: Teen Chloe surrounded by drawings of important childhood memories with her teddy bear. We see her getting the bear from a faceless figure, holding the bear as her mother walks away, sleeping with the bear, holding the bear while she cries, and excitedly showing the bear to a young Adrien]

There's also the issue that, after season one, Chloe doesn't seem to actually care that much about social clout. At that start of this post, I used a scene from Dark Cupid specifically because it feels kind of out of character for her. In the later seasons, Chloe may flaunt her social status and think that it makes her better than others, but she doesn't do things like the poster thing because that requires her to care what random people think and that's just not how she reads. Chloe reads more like someone who doesn't care what most people think because she thinks that she's better than them (or, at least, she wants to think that. Chloe has the potential to be a fun little ball of self-hatred and doubt, but either way, she is acting like she doesn't care what other people think outside of a very select group.)

I think this really shows when we compare Chloe to Lila. Lila reads like someone who cares about social clout. Someone who is desperate to be seen in a certain way. Someone who sees dating Adrien as a status symbol and nothing more. Chloe reads like someone who sees Adrien as the only person of her caliber, so of course they'd get together. That's a subtle, but very important difference. It's the difference between someone who doesn't have social clout and needs Adrien to get it and someone who already has social clout and therefore doesn't need a popular boyfriend to prop her up. She just thinks dating an unpopular boy is beneath her.

I've mentioned before that Chloe reads SUPER aroace to me and this is actually why. To me, it comes across like she does actually care deeply about Adrien, but she has no true romantic or sexual feelings for him or even any clue what those feelings actually feel like. Given the way her parents' relationship is written, I also don't see Chloe having a healthy idea of what a romantic relationship looks like. I think she sees it as a way to show off how much better you are then the nobodies of the world because love is for fairytales. Marriage is about alliances of wealth and power and Adrien is both wealthy and her childhood friend, so of course they'd get married! They already know that they can at least tolerate each other. Why look for a different match?

In summary: the writers may have wanted Chloe to be a vapid mean girl who didn't care about Adrien as a person, but they completely failed to write her that way after season one, so she comes across as genuinely caring, but unable to express those feelings in a healthy way because of her own issues and poor childhood.