certified chloé defender

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

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

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

Like, at this point I just believe the writers are misogynists (which you can already tell by the way they treat most of their female characters anyway) because it ain’t no way that Chloé magically turned out that way. It’s almost funny how this show is all about accountability, especially when it comes to Marinette apologizing for things she didn’t even do (misogyny check again), but suddenly, the big baby André who refuses to acknowledge that he fucked up with Chloé is forgiven?

Do the writers really think that portraying him as Chloé’s ‘victim’ or whatever will make us like him? ‘Cause honestly, it just proves that he’s a dumbass.

“But Chloé is so mean to her father” as she should! André can cry me a river for all I care. You did that, sir. You refused to teach your daughter about what’s right and what’s wrong; about respecting people no matter their social status. You overcompensated your inability to give her affection by indulging every whim of your daughter.

Okay, the prank. I actually don't mind the story of the prank... on its own. I can absolutely see pre-series Chloé pulling it and Kim, as he was portrayed in Season 1, participating in it. But then it quickly falls apart.

It's pretty transparent that the episode only exists to further demonize Chloé, but it doesn't really send much of a message as it doesn't tell us anything new about how she acted; it only shows us more of what she did and what we already knew she did back then. "Back then" is important, as there is no point in showing this to us now, four seasons and seven years later, except to further push the narrative of Chloé being pure evil even now. (Which she isn't, but I digress.)

It's a blatant retcon meant to say that Chloé is the reason why Marinette has trouble talking to Adrien. Not general shyness or anxiety—it's all because she was traumatized by a mean prank that Chloé pulled. Marinette's biggest personal struggle is all Chloé's fault, as are her stalker tendencies (which were previously just supposed to be kid's-show-comedy exaggeration), because she is oh so evil.

It contradicts so much characterization, or otherwise makes characters come off as worse.

It also shows that Marinette was so afraid of Chloé’s cruelty that she would fake being sick to avoid going to school.  But even in Origins, before she got the confidence boost from being Ladybug, she was never afraid of Chloé, just exasperated and resigned.  When Chloé demanded that she change seats, Marinette argued before relenting.  When Chloé put gum on her seat (and she thought she had Adrien do it), Marinette snapped at both of them before simply covering the gum up with a tissue and putting up with it.  Oh, also, if she was oh so twaumatized by the prank, why did she agree to help Chloé do something similar to Kagami in “Animaestro”?  The whole thing is disingenuous to Mari, because she wouldn’t have let Chloé cow her like that or scare her away from going to school.

This prank is supposedly the reason why she has trouble talking to Adrien and telling him how she feels, because she is afraid that she could get hurt if she doesn’t know everything about him or any boy she likes.  Except she only has that problem with Adrien.  Not with Luka, and not with Chat Noir.  Heck, she only stammered around Luka for a second, when they first met. (Not to mention the fact that her issues with “maybe I don’t really know Adrien at all” is because Félix tricked her. (Yeesh, he hasn’t even come back yet and the writers might already have been trying to give him the Easily Forgiven treatment.))

Kim probably would have done that back then.  He was kind of a jerk in Season 1.  But still being of the mindset that “it’s just a prank, bro” four seasons into his nicer, more himbo-ish characterization, does not do him any favors.  But here is where this episode really ignores characterization in pushing its narrative: In “Dark Cupid”, when she heard that Kim was planning to ask out the girl he had a crush on, Marinette encourages him to go for it, and when she realizes that it was Chloé, she says that she wouldn’t have given him the encouragement if she had known.  If he was so cruel to her, if she was so traumatized by the prank that he took part in, she shouldn’t want anything to do with him, let alone support his romantic prospects.  But instead she cared about his feelings and felt awful that he had been hurt, as opposed to recalling the incident and thinking “serves him right”.

Adrien/Chat is down to murder Kim for a mean but otherwise not-physically-harmful practical joke that he helped play a year ago when he finds out.  I can understand him going “For the Man Who Has Everything” on Darker Owl after being put through the fantasy and being forced to give it all up, but this is overkill and not at all heroic.

Chloé ironically gets off the easiest, since it’s just her Season 1/pre-series characterization that we already knew was a jerk and a bully.  But the indication in this episode and in “Transmission” that she effectively forced Marinette to not go to school still contradicts her past characterization and actions.  She was generally petty, plus she loved tormenting Marinette for whatever the reason is.  It just doesn’t seem like she would do it, and again, Marinette would not have let someone force her to avoid school.

Hello, Hey, how y’all doing, I’m still grieving Luka, And it’s time for another miraculous episode review!

And lord I fucking hate this one!!!

So Marinette and Adrien go on pool date, and Marinette keeps having panic attacks over it, until she’s almost akumatized and has to dig deep in memory lane to not get Akumatized (and this is where the majority of this episode takes place)

So. I hate this with all my heart! This motherfucking show. Really just said “yeah guys, so all of Marinette’s creepy stalker behavior? Yeah guys it’s Chloe and Kim’s fault she’s like this it’s trauma and therefore she’s fine!”

…so let’s unpack this.

With Chloe, this is nothing new, the show keeps demonizing her and taking away from any nuance or chance she has at redemption, and the show needs us to some reason believe that Chloe (and Lila) is worse then the little abusive father terrorist in this show! Because they are probably planning on making her the next Lila in the show as Lila becomes Hawkmoth!

To the fucking point they decided to take her bullying from random mean comments and hun on a sit in season one, To fucking roaches in lockers and panic attacks!

And before you ask, no I don’t believe that every single character needs to be redeemed and complex (some people really do just suck) but the show takes that to an extremist degree! The show needs viewers to believe Chloe is more evil then literal monarch because if she got a redemption or had dimension (as she had in season 2) marinette by comparison looks awful and creepy!

To put a long analysis short, I don’t hate Chloe for being bitchy because I think everyone should be complex, I hate her for being bitchy because the show only does this to make marinette look like a saint in comparison, to the point that they will make child abusers look better then her, just so marinette can stay “the good guy”.

Now for Kim… THIS MOTHERFUCKING SHOW!!!

“Oh yeah kids ever wondered why marinette broke into Adrien’s house, harassed him, sniffed him, stole his schedule and personally belongings and information, hurt anyone that was a rival to her, broke into his house on multiple occasions, and literally got so many people akumatize from her selfish behavior? It’s because she was traumatized by Kim, who’s suddenly cruel, and it’s all Chloe’s fault!”

ThIS SHOW. LITERALLY BLAMED EVERY SINGLE WRING THING MARINETTE EVER DID (WHICH INCLUDES LITERAL LAWS BEING BROKEN AND SOME SHIT THATS ON CHLOES LEVEL OF BAD) ON “Yeah guys she has trauma PTSD, it’s all Chloe’s fault hehe”

And it’s just… so fucking upsetting!

Not only did the show demonize Kim (and everyone is just fucking buying it) out of nowhere to be this asshole (this is not the misguided himbo I know and love and I fucking hate it) the show basically erased every mistake marinette ever made under the guise of trauma, when it’s so fucking unfair and biased!

Like, by the show’s logic, if Marinette is justified for all the literal crimes she committed because of trauma, why not Chloe? You can easily just argue that her mom not being there is justification to committing literal crimes!

But the show won’t do that, because Marinette needs to be the good guy and can’t be wrong.

The show had to literally demonize and change characters entirely (boy in Lila episodes and specifically this episode) just to absolve marinette of any fault, and it’s just bad writing!!! The show doesn’t want to admit that marinette is frankly an awful person and will morph the plot around her to prove it!

Because reality is? Shit isn’t black and white! Even if marinette had this awful experience (which I will not minimize) it doesn’t justify the constant hurting and awful things she did to others, just like Chloe’s extremely bad childhood doesn’t justify her hurting and bullying others!

The show yet again just demonized and morphed the plot and characters to justify marinette, in order to make sure she’s always good and always in the right, so that they don’t have to change anything about the story, so they can drag on this show forever to make lots of money.

And frankly? I’m fucking tired of it.

Like, by the show’s logic, if Marinette is justified for all the literal crimes she committed because of trauma, why not Chloe?

this caught my attention tho 👀 u have a point

and like i just don’t know the purpose of this episode honestly? what, to foreshadow cn villain arc that’s not gonna happen even tho they keep on foreshadowing it in the past episodes? to completely convert people into chloé haters? to stop antagonising marinette bc of her bad deeds? from what i’ve seen it does nothing to plot, the whole story won’t fall apart without this episode. instead of getting more episodes about the senti arc or even lila since she’s gonna be the next main villain, we got this episode that supposedly explains marinette’s bad behaviour, to hate chloé and kim, to see adrien caring for marinette.

Hear that Astruc? Your main hero simps for a Ken doll and your main villain simps for a corpse.

And while her speech is somewhat self-righteous, I see it more as a combination of not reading the room after Lila’s speech and the writers trying to frame Marinette in the right and Chloé as a monster even though that actually makes Marinette come across as a hypocrite.

It’s more an issue the show does with trying to frame Chloé as “Devil incarnate,” but fails to remember how the others tried to “help.” I can give the children leeway because 1) they are children, and 2) Chloé has zero respect for them. The adults, however, only enabled her behavior and helped to make her worse. The same episode showing how Bustier will just have Chloé behind the class instead of holding her back a few grades or something (I don’t know how school punishments really work). So Marinette isn’t entirely wrong where she states she and her classmates should try to help Chloé when she has no respect for them or is just gonna take advantage of them. It’s up to the adults who have power over her to actually discipline her.

Nathalie Sancoeur/Mayura

Nathalie has known about Gabriel being a terrorist since the beginning. She has aided him. She willingly allowed Gabriel to akumatize her. She has kept secrets from Adrien. She murdered Senti Ladybug.

Nathalie’s redeeming qualities is that She treats People a little better than how Gabriel treats them.

To try to redeem her, the writers first made her have problems in the hopes that she’d get audience sympathy. They made her get sick from using a broken miraculous and confirm that she’ll die if she isn’t healed. They made her have unrequited feelings for Gabriel and possibly Emilie. Then, They made Nathalie and Gabriel fight and have Tomoe replace her as Gabriel’s main partner in crime.

The problems here is that Nathalie’s “Redemption” isn’t much of a redemption and She gets a happy ending. (Unless something happens in the future seasons) Nathalie’s crimes are left undiscovered.

Nathalie has done and will continue to do little to make up for her villainous behavior.

Gabriel Agreste/Monarch

Gabriel Agreste is literally the big bad. He’s a abusive parent, a terrorist, a brainwasher, kept secrets from Adrien and he’s made death threats. He just gets worse as the series goes on. I do wonder what exactly he would have done if he had succeeded in getting the Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculouses in the beginning because a lot of his lines imply that he fully intends to continue being a terrorist even if he gets Emilie back.

There is literally nothing redeemable about him other than the classic “Even Evil people have loved ones”.

Gabriel’s “Redemption” is how when he gets his wish, he sacrifices himself because he’s dying anyway to save Emilie and he ended up curing Nathalie.

In the new world, He has a almost 100 % approval rating because everyone except Marinette seems to have completely forgot about his bad behavior. Instead, They believe that He’s a Hero that had stopped Hawk Moth/Shadow Moth/Monarch.

The problems is that saving Nathalie using the wish was a murder because of the Equivalent Exchange rules. Plus After everything that he did, He doesn’t deserve to be remembered as a Hero. Especially when they believe he defeated himself. Marinette should at least tell Adrien what he did.

Felix Fathom/Argos

Felix has been mean, showed signs of speciesism, stalked, kidnapped, impersonated Adrien, stole and more. Felix gave the majority of the miraculouses and One of the Rings that control Adrien to Gabriel, knowing that Gabriel’s a terrorist. There’s also how he harassed Marinette and wanted everyone except a select few to disappear. Felix also kept secrets from Adrien.

Just like with Gabriel, Felix’s only redeeming quality is the whole “Even Evil has loved ones” thing.

To try to redeem him, Felix was retconned into being a Senti Rights person. (although Adrien appears to be a exception) Felix began dating Kagami, who we all know would scold and beat him up if He continues causing trouble. Colt was said to have been abusive as a explanation/excuse for why Felix is crazy. (What happened to the shows message of “Trauma is a explanation, not a excuse”? )

In The Season 5 ending, Felix’s crimes are forgiven and/or forgotten and he gets to keep the Peacock Miraculous.

The problems here is that Felix and Kagami got together much too quickly. Felix should not be with a Character that’s Good unless He’s behaved himself and regrets his bad behavior for a while, which he hadn’t. Felix has literally stalked and kidnapped her in the same Episode they got together in. Felix at this point, only likes Kagami because she’s a senti and on Kagami’s end, She might be projecting her feelings for Adrien and possibly Marinette onto Felix.

Another problem is Felix expresses very little remorse for his bad behavior and does very little to make up for it.

Mayor Andre Bourgeois

Andre has allowed Chloe to misbehave for years. Andre is a bad mayor.

To try to redeem him, The Writers first introduced Zoe and “reveal” that Andre never wanted to be a Mayor. Then, The Writers had Andre refuse to send Zoe away. Finally The Writers have Andre quit being Mayor, divorce Audrey while giving her full custody of Chloe and adopt Zoe while saying She’s his favorite.

Andre’s ending is basically having a Fresh Start but with Zoe as his daughter instead of Chloe.

The Problems here is that how Andre treats Chloe and Zoe isn’t right. Andre doesn’t take responsibility for how he raised Chloe. Instead, he decides that Chloe will stay with her abusive mother. Andre could’ve easily started giving Chloe more boundaries or send her somewhere that knows how to deal with people like her. Andre has no grounds to adopt Zoe. Zoe’s in her teens and What about Mr. Lee?

Sabrina Raincomprix/Miss Hound

Sabrina and Chloe have been friends for years. Unlike Adrien, Sabrina never had a problem with Chloe’s bullying and has sometimes been shown to enjoy the bullying. Sabrina does Chloe’s homework for her. Sabrina has remained friends with Chloe even after Chloe willingly worked with Gabriel.

To try to redeem her, The writers sometimes show her as a Docile but Nice girl. As well as have Chloe treat her terribly to try to get her sympathy. Then, in Season 5 Sabrina becomes frustrated with Chloe and judging from some clips, Sabrina appears to help Marinette expose Chloe and Lila.

Sabrina’s ending is getting to keep the Dog Miraculous and her friendship with Chloe is over.

The problems here is Why on earth did Sabrina not mind Chloe’s bullying? Her father is literally a police officer, Surely He would raise his daughter to dislike rule breakers? Plus Just like Nathalie, Felix and Gabriel, She doesn’t deserve what she got.

In Total, in every single one of these, Their Redemptions are all “Too Little, Too Late” and in most of their cases, “Went Too Far” to deserve their endings.

The writers appear to mostly just write the story as they go along and they are really bad at writing proper endings and/or redemptions.

Ok Deflagration is back, I’m a day late, but I literally do not care ok? I was having a rough day and put mental health first, and this show is not mental health for me

Anyways I’m keeping this review concise because this episode was actually pointless.

Like no joke, genuinely fucking pointless! It’s just as bad as the first half of Kwamis’ choice, where for some reason it’s alright to give up the miraculous for your love life (because being able to date is so much more important then the safety of the universe), the identity rule continues to pretend to matter (tho I will say the tracking on the alliance rings is smart) and no one has a personality outside of the love square, and everything in the end of the episode reset, to the point they make tongue in cheek jokes about it

…yep you can see why people are slowly giving up on this show (myself included)

I think if anything, my main complaints about this episode are these:

1. No one gives a shit about ladybug and chat noir quitting

This connects to how Alya and Tikki were always like “yeah marinette is right to quit so she can date adrien” but literally no one gives a shit! For something as huge as Ladybug and Chat Noir quitting after over a year of constant fighting, and giving the miraculouses to complete amateurs there is literally no reaction! Everyone is just fine with this change, make a quick tribute and even make tongue in cheek jokes about how they must have quit in order to date, which in general just shows how the show doesn’t actually care about the heroic part of the story? Like this is just the love square show, with ladybug worshiping sprinkled in.

(Also the way the only indication of the Kwamis and holders missing each other was Adrien, who was basically a background character this episode, being sad for unexplained reasons and Tikki saying she missed marinette)

But I digress next complaint

2. The way… this episode was just Chloe Slander/Zoe worship.

I…SWEAR TO GOD!!! Listen I don’t hate Zoe, she doesn’t do anything to make me hate her, and I do realize Chloe is not a good person, but the show shoves it in your face so much! Like every single moment this episode being like “omg Zoe is so kind and sweet and better then Chloe look how awful Chloe is hate her” when Zoe is (no offense Zoe) so bland, that her entire personality consists of being better then Chloe and being in love with marinette!

And as for the Chloe slander, I swear to god! The show goes out of its way to have this entire scene where Chloe tries to humiliate marinette (which is so tactless and dumb? Like it really felt like the show just needed to remind you that Chloe sucks you guys hate her guts please) and makes Plagg rant to Zoe about how awful and irredeemable Chloe is and how he should cataclysm her (like he speaks of Gabriel, the literal terrorist) and has Chloe willingly accept an Akuma (as if she didn’t fight the akumas a couple seasons back)!!!

So all of this together, we just have another Lila on our hands! The show is legitimately arguing that Chloe and Lila (stereotypical 14 year old bully characters) are as bad if not worse then the terrorist plaguing Paris and being an abusive father on the side, and justifies that by making them increasingly worse to the point where it’s just unrealistic and laughable!

Honestly the only two upsides for this episode is that at least we didn’t see Marinette whining over her crush on Adrien (which sprung back out of nowhere), and that Adrien got to show up his dad by taking the ladybug miraculous away from him (the resistance is nice, the names are weird but it’s nice)

As the title says, this is a rant about Zoe Lee that I just had to get out of my system. If you like her, I suggest not reading any further than this. This will contain some spoilers from the leaks as of late, which reignited my distaste for this “character”.

1. Characters are made ooc when Zoe’s around.

Marinette met Zoe and She quickly began spilling her heart out by talking about she kept falling and discussed how she had a crush. Then she gave Zoe her phone number. Marinette talked about how she fell all the time and discussed how she fell in love. Then soon after, In Queen Banana, She gave Zoe the Bee Miraculous even though She only knew her for a short amount of time.

Does this sound like something Marinette would do if it was someone else?

Not really. Marinette doesn’t like talking about herself and her feelings in front of strangers. She usually only opens up if She’s with people who have been her friends for a while. (Although she will occasionally make exceptions if Adrien is involved) Marinette also doesn’t hand out Miraculouses so fast after meeting someone. Every other character has to know Marinette for at least 1 season.

Marinette isn’t the only one that’s ooc when it comes to Zoe.

How did Zoe get a name that’s so close to Chloe’s if Audrey can’t remember Chloe’s name? Plus why would she give Zoe a similar name when she doesn’t even like Chloe? The only other times that siblings names are that close to each other is if they’re twins. (I know Juleka and Luka weren’t always Twins but still, they got retconned to be Twins.)

Audrey completely left Chloe in another country yet She stayed in the exact same State as Zoe?

Andre showed no signs of not wanting to be a Mayor prior to Season 4 yet Zoe comes around and he suddenly reveals that he gave up on his old dream? Andre always does what Chloe wants him to do yet he refused to send Zoe away?

Chloe had become worse at around the same time that Zoe was introduced.

Plagg had quickly complimented Zoe when she first became Vesperia. How often does Plagg compliment someone else that fast? At least Félix had given Adrien, Plagg’s favorite food which caused him to earn Plagg’s forgiveness.

2. Zoe doesn’t have The Personality that she should have given her backstory.

The point of giving a character a Backstory, especially a Tragic one is to explain their PRESENT behavior.

Zoe has been left at a boarding school and She began being bullied when She stopped pretending to be someone that she wasn’t. Then She went to join Audrey, Chloe and Andre in Paris.

These are lists of beliefs that someone with that backstory could develop. (Taken from the website One stop for writers.)

(1 = Being abandoned/shunned. 2 = Having Neglectful parents. 3 = Discovering that one’s parent has another family. 4 = Being bullied. )

To be fair, Zoe does express a couple of these thoughts occasionally. However Zoe usually doesn’t express this stuff at all.

Before anyone suggests “Maybe the writers don’t want to show how a backstory can affect a person” Let’s compare Zoe to characters with similar backstories.

Marinette’s been bullied for years. As a result, Marinette has been shown hating how Chloe can get away with everything. Marinette’s been shown being insecure multiple times. Marinette has been shown being passive and it’s canon that she didn’t start standing up for herself until Alya came around.

Colt was abusive and it’s stated that Felix didn’t have any friends. As a result, Felix doesn’t like people much. Felix often fights with others. Felix hates the word “Monster!” because Colt often called him that. Felix likely mocked Nino’s “Bros stick together” because nobody (except Amelie) stuck by him.

Gabriel is extremely neglectful at best, abusive at worst. As a result, Adrien been shown sacrificing himself multiple times and during Guilt Trip, He appeared to be trying to cataclysm himself. In Gamer, while playing, Adrien commented on how he was pretty much not even there due to how good Marinette was. Adrien was shown to be passive too.

3. Everyone has to like her otherwise they are a unredeemable villain.

Marinette? She’s the main Hero and She’s Zoe’s first friend.

Mylene, Rose, Ivan, Alya and so on? They all quickly agreed to be Zoe’s friends after meeting her. Every single one of them is a Hero.

Andre? He ends up disowning Chloe and adopting Zoe as part of his redemption.

Felix? Zoe isn’t allowed to properly meet him because He’ll have to like her, which will be too ooc for him. (I know that technically, they saw each other during Strike Back however they didn’t exchange any words or have any meaningful interactions.)

Audrey? Terrible human being. She doesn’t like Zoe.

Chloe? She doesn’t like Zoe and She’s evil.

4. She’s used to show off how horrible Chloe is as well as how much Thomas Astruc hates Chloe.

Thomas Astruc didn’t hide what he was doing.

His self insert was around during Queen Banana. He talked about how sometimes Writers rewrite the script. Zoe was to get the lead role.

Every character’s relationship with Zoe is the opposite of the relationship that they had with Chloe.

At the end of season 5, Zoe gets adopted by Andre whereas Chloe gets disowned. Chloe’s forced to stay with their abusive Mother.

Zoe gets to keep The Bee Miraculous permanently in the Season 5 ending, which is exactly what Chloe wanted.

Since Zoe’s backstory didn’t affect her much, The only reason Why the Writers gave Zoe a tragic backstory is so that Chloe will look even worse because Zoe had similar problems but she turned out fine.

He had characters compare Chloe and Zoe and made visual comparisons between Chloe and Zoe, with Zoe always being superior. Please note the ONLY other characters that got compared to each other like this were Adrien and Felix. (We all know Thomas Astruc never misses an opportunity to have Adrien be superior to Félix because of how much he hates Félix and how PV fans don’t understand why he replaced Félix with Adrien. )

The reason why Zoe doesn’t want to go back to New York is so that Chloe will look more cruel for wanting her gone.