This is something I genuinely think so much about when it comes to the show
It wants to say now that things are different that it was always meant to be that way but it doesn't change the 'lesson' those episodes were trying to teach, especially when they were written in an episodic format.
Chloe is the biggest example of this, if the show was always going to give her a damnation arc, what's with all of her episodes in S2 giving the opposite message?
But I actually wanna talk about it in terms of Adrien because of how it's so telling.
In Glaciator, despite Ladybug giving him a very firm "No, I do not have feelings for you." Chat Noir, and by extension Adrien does not take this rejection AT ALL.
Instead when he goes to get ice cream, Andre tells him to hold onto those feelings because it's 'true' and that 'true love wins in the end.'
And I bring this up to say, they have used that to justify what is at worst, sexual harassment.
Like when Chat tries to steal a kiss from Ladybug twice in Prime Queen alongside that episode just bombarding us with snippets going "SEE THEY'RE MADE FOR EACH OTHER" and Chat going along with this and egging Nadia on because Ladybug's feelings don't matter because they're the destined couple and all that crap. Or the time that Chat was being incredibly passive aggressive in Frozer to the point Ladybug has to remind him that she rejected him. This was a problem since the very start of the show, remember in Copycat he was so jealous he lied to a guy saying he and Ladybug were a thing and yet Ladybug was the one who had to apologize because she didn't make it to the statue unveiling?
Yet suddenly in S4 and especially S5 (forgive me, I have not properly rewatched those seasons because I want to take my own notes on it) they suddenly spin it around and say oh that was TOTALLY bad, that we totally did not intentionally write Chat Noir to be that way and more important frame it as the correct way to take it. Because Chat is always so sad when he's rejected, he got so sad his deadbeat dad noticed, look how sad he is! Meanwhile no thought is given to Ladybug regarding all this and in fact she's portrayed as the unreasonably upset woman because she doesn't like that people are forcing her together with a man who cannot take no for an answer.
Chat Noir had been sexually harassing Ladybug for three seasons, but only NOW, NOW is it portrayed as a 'bad thing.'
The thing about writing is that it evolves as we evolve, and when we become different people and grow, so does our writing. But in MLB's case, it doesn't feel like the writers look back and saw "Ok we kinda messed this up, let's do something with it." but rather just brush it all under the rug and say "It was always a problem IDK why you act like it wasn't." (This is especially in terms of Chloe, even though I don't think any of her 'redemption arc' episodes are good you can't just point at the end of Despair Bear when Adrien says "She'll never change" when she goes back to being nasty to people and say it was always planned out when that was treated as a joke, but I just think it's the worst with Chat because of how they refuse to acknowledge how genuinely awful that is for Ladybug and how they portrayed her as the 'angry emotional woman')
I do appreciate how the writers acknowledge it was bad in S5, but it doesn't erase all the damage it causes in a show geared towards girls telling them basically it's ok if a guy treats them this way because it just means he likes you.
The show has a massive "Show don't tell" problem where they will tell us one thing but show another thing entirely.
For example, did you know Adrien is also a victim of lowkey sexual harassment?
But before S4, they'll act like Adrien is such good friends with Chloe but.... we never see that. Chloe is always invading his personal space to the point that it was in the opening of the show.
This is actually something they have against Chloe, the fact she was NEVER shown to be a good friend to Adrien, is always handsy and acting entitled to him, but they NEVER use that because they never saw it as a creepy behavior. (Which I think is the reason Chat is always harassing Ladybug, and Marinette being a creep is peak comedy to them) instead when Adrien confronts her in S4 it's about how she treats everyone else, and not him.
The point I'm trying to make is, these writers very very clearly have these certain views, and no matter how much thought they put into the show, those views ALWAYS seep through and quite frankly it's the biggest problem with the show because the more you dig under this the more problematic things you find.
