#birdbrainedcollective

as a chlonette shipper, i'm not looking for toxic yuri. i don't actually think the fics i've read for either of those pairings are usually toxic yuri.

for me, chlonette tends to be more around chloe having her FULL redemption arc and being a better person before ever really being interested in marinette and it being more of a slowburn, chloe dealing with repressed homosexuality and coming to terms with the fact that she like-likes marinette, or them actually being friends and exploring their original purpose as narrative foils.

it's usually a deeper exploration of their dynamic, not a shoe-in for a specific trope. they knew each other as children- maybe they were friends and they only don't get along because of chloe trying to emulate her parents to her detriment. maybe marinette is unhealthily obsessed with adrien and it's a projection of a crush on chloe that she thinks she can never have. maybe chloe's been looking out for marinette in small ways that still fit her personality but aren't as apparent when you're only looking at the surface.

the beauty of fanfiction is exploration of things not explained or expanded upon by canon- especially when thomas astruc shits on chloe's character and completely wrote her out mid-arc when she is my personal favorite due to her family situation and how she lashes out- even unintentionally as a means for trying to get attention from her parents.

marinette is our main character- and despite her fixation with adrien- we don't get to see her dynamics with everyone else explored nearly as deeply. chloe and nino are the people in class she's known the longest- and yet it doesn't get expanded upon beyond childhood bestie/unrequited crush and childhood bully.

also, realistically, with the amount of people in the class who have had crushes on mari, who are we to assume chloe has been immune to that?

i personally really adore chloe as a character, despite the way that astruc undercut her in the overall canon narrative. i haven't kept up past season three, but i honestly love her arc and relate to her on a couple different levels.