#She's basically (what I personally refer to as) “Disney Channel Protag poor”

[sweetcloverheart]

I feel like the issue here is the same issue newbie fanfic writers run into when they try to write characters that are smarter than them - I mean not to sound all "You can't be poor, you own an Iphone", but even with the excuse of protagonist privilege working in her favor, the fact that Marinette has access to all of what she does while her parents are famous enough to be basically catering for the in-universe equivalent of Jeff Bezos and friends on the daily tells me the writers had either 1)failed to research what an actually lower-class french family is like for Marinette's backstory and just used what they knew (which is very little) or 2)Genuinely think Marinette and the rest (sans the rich kids) really are what passes for lower class and basically revealed they honestly have no clue how normal people live.

(Granted, this is me speaking as an American, so maybe Marinette's living situation is 100% accurate to the french lower class's lifestyle and I'm projecting my own experiences here a little too much)

Marinette is not poor.

Just posting something I wrote a little while ago:

I always have a little snicker whenever people call Marinette "poor". While the writers put her and her school in a fictional 21st arrondissement; the position of the Eiffel tower and general decor actually point to the girl living in what is very clearly (at least according to the few French speakers I've had the pleasure of talking to about this series with) the 16th arrondissement.

Aka: The Old Money district of Paris.

Her family are apparent minor celebrity bakers who cater to high class events and who get to own (that's important, the Dupain-Cheng's own the bakery, not rent it) and live in a building worth millions of euros in one of the most wealthy parts of Paris. A building and business they likely inherited from Roland at some point, and that family also contains a clearly rich Grandmother who can spend her golden years traveling and can casually buy her Granddaughter a new motorcycle for her birthday.

Her room alone would be unaffordable for any working class person, it's the size of a studio apartment. Add in the location and Balcony; and an actual Parisian commoner would probably need to divvy the space up between a dozen roommates just to make rent. Sure it looks tame compared to Adrien's gilded cage, but make a comparison to let's say... Alya's room (which we have seen and actually resembles a working-class teenager's living space) and suddenly she's looking pretty bougie.

Let's not forget that direct across the road from a school (based on the prestigious Lycee Carnot by the way) attended by the children of the rich and powerful to a degree that cannot be coincidental. But it's unsurprising that Marinette's mingling with the elite when she's already babysitting news-achors' children and has a host of personal connections with celebrities.

As for her hobbies, anyone that has ever taken up design or dressmaking, or really anything creative has to know that it's not cheap. And that stuff that Marinette makes? There's no way that she's covering that with the odd babysitting job unless Nadja is paying her with hundreds of euros per session (I don't know, maybe Manon's on a blacklist so Marinette can choose her price?).

Correct me if I'm wrong: but the closest thing to Marinette or her family having any kind of money problems in the show was the fact that they'd been saving up for Marinette to have a trip to China. Which implies that at least they can't go out to another country on a whim: but that's not exactly poor now is it?

If Marinette looks like some schlub from the Banlieues, it's only by comparison to her ultra-wealthy classmates. Her parents show no signs of financial struggle, and Marinette herself is rarely called to help out in the family business. She lives in a room bigger than some apartments. Her hobbies are ridiculously expensive, but the most she has to do to cover them is occasionally babysit for one of her celebrity connections.

Marinette's. Not. Poor.

She is upper-middle class at worst.

And as for hardship in the future? The girl has already had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity dropped in her lap via Audrey Bourgeoisie, another one through Jagged letting her design his glasses (talk about visibility for a young designer), gained recognition through Gabriel Agreste's competition and is the sole heir to her parents' and Gandmother's combined wealth. Unless she well and truly flubs every opportunity she has her fashion career is about as close to set as it can be, and even if it bombs: her familial wealth means that unless she goes on a spending spree she probably won't even have to work. She could literally just appoint a manager for her family bakery and live full time as Ladybug...

Oh, and she's also dating Adrien Agreste. Who was the sole heir to the Agreste Fortune, but now that his parents are gone: he's probably one of the richest minors in France. Worst come to worst, she has a sugar-kitty to keep her afloat.

Marinette is not poor. She was never poor. Barring multiple acts of absurd misfortune that destroy her family's wealth and home and her celebrity connections and her burgeoning professional reputation and her relationship with Adrien: she never will be poor.

Even then she'd still be Ladybug and The Guardian of the Mother Box. She could have a single euro to her name and would still have a home in the Guardian Temple- she's not exactly one missed payment away from being on the streets.

This idea that she's some working-class underdog is much like the romanticized trope of the "lonely hero struggling under her responsibilities" that Marinette often gets in fanworks: it's something that ignores her canonical privileges for the sake of drama and putting her on a pedestal for how she suffers under her duty. In reality, Marinette has a literal wealth of riches in terms of generational wealth and metaphorical riches with her massive support group formed from her family and many friends (many of whom are ultra wealthy themselves).

Marinette is not poor.