#ml rewrite

I made Marinette interested in mechanical engineering, aka, making inventions. She's helped around the bakery by making repairs since she was little and now can make new things on her own, but also wants them to be cute. She still has a crush on Adrien, but it started as a celebrity crush from when she was little into full blown love upon meeting him in person.

Mostly she's the same. Design wise, I was playing around with her pigtails to ACTUALLY resemble ladybug wings opening and closing, though it still needs some tweaking - the two part pony tail isn't cute from all angles unfortunately.

What Marinette needs is an actual tie to the Big Bad, which in canon is uhh (checks notes) Fashion? and Adrien?? I guess??? But even that is just a connection to GABRIEL and not Hawkmoth, so that's where I'd focus on changing things for Marinette in a rewrite. Something to make her care beyond just He's Doing a Bad Thing.

I changed Adrien's profession to being a Child Actor (Paris is the birth of Film as well as Fashion you know, and at this point, the show has done more to celebrate film than fashion). It puts him in the public eye in a way that I feel appeals more to people in his age bracket - being a famous model just doesn't feel like it would hit outside of his professional peers the way being an actor would.

I also think it would lean in to his identity issues - acting since he was little and always being pushed to perform, it would be easy to lose your sense of self when you're constantly putting on a role. Chat Noir would also become another role, though he might have fun with it and put on a different facade every fight (though reverting to his usual Chat Noir ways mid way, kinda implying that IS at least *part* of Adrien's real self)

He's not a sentibeing - I just kinda can't get behind it. But I think keeping Felix and even Kagami as Sentibeings and then having Actual Normal Human Boy Adrien constantly pressured to keep up and even out perform them would open an interesting conversation. Hell, it'd be interesting if Felix finds out about Sentibeings first and just ASSUMES Adrien is one due to him keeping up with them, only to find out that actually Adrien is human. Kinda gives Felix a bit of humanity too, that he's not beyond human reach.

But also stresses Adrien the fuck out lol.

This is so not a final version of Alya, like my Koki Marina I have redrawn her a million times, this is actually just the first draft

I mostly just changed a few things in Alya's motivation - I NEED her to be the Guy in the Chair. I NEED her to know about Ladybug/Marinette's identity from the beginning, so she can ACTUALLY shine as a support character instead of reading as a hypocrite in the second half.

It makes way more sense to me for her to be focused on unmasking Hawkkmoth, not Ladybug or Chat Noir. Like, what does unmasking Ladybug even DO for the GOOD cause? So it's her drive from the beginning, which I think will ACTUALLY help the plot go forward???? I know the show wanted a Monster of the Week flow to it, buuuuuut it's frustrating that neither the bad guys NOR the good guys made any real headway. With Alya pushing the good guys closer to Hawkmoth, it allows the writing to push Hawkmoth to make bigger plans and moves so that they can STAY toe to toe without ending the show too soon. The illusion of progress.

I haven't touched on Nino too much. I would want him to be Adrien's Guy in the Chair, but he'd probably be less focused on unmasking Hawkmoth and more on helping Adrien with his work/hero/life balance. So support strictly for Adrien.

The only thing I go back and forth on is whether I'd even want the audience to know that Adrien = Chat Noir lol. Obviously, there's no way to do a rewrite and NOT have people already know the twist, but I'm thinking in a hypothetical universe where I am starting from Ground Zero. Like as if this is a reboot 20 years from now with a new audience who's never seen the original and is seeing the show for the first time.

God, imagine the discourse between Chat shippers and Adrien shippers lol.

Chloé is taken aback. Does her 'they don't matter' routine. They're poor we're rich.

Zoé asks 'What's the point of being rich if nobody likes you?'

It's important that this isn't a fight. This is much more like an actual family disagreement/friends arguing.

Chloé is listening more because Zoé has already ticked the boxes Chloé is trained to favor. She points out that she doesn't like her classmates anyway. Zoe's reply:

'You don't have to like them, they just need to like you. Then they'll admire you when you show off.'

It's not said evilly. It's said openly, a learned truth Zoé has the same way Chloé has her learned truths. Fun part is the audience will now wonder a bit more what of Zoé's interactions are genuine and what are an act to have people like her.

Her points are also hitting home, because we know how much Chloé actually wants to be liked, she just has a Dominance->Reverence pipeline ingrained.

So Chloé flips in over on Zoé with 'what would *you* do?

And Zoé has a bratty idea. Steal the dresses/accessories/etc for their mom's new(unreleased yet) lineup and show them off in school. Give some of them away. They'll all be gaga, appreciative, and fawning in return.

They do it, and it works! Not like all the Miraclass is fawning, but some are appreciative, Marinette is @.@ over the designs. Folks are suspicious of Chloé obvi, but Queen Bee wasn't that long ago. So like, they're taking it in stride. There are plenty of 'extras' at the school to go gaga over it.

However Audrey is *pissed*. Her kids basically spoiled her big reveal for her new line.

She blows up and tells Andre to send them back to new york! Andre points out he can't send Chloé 'back' to new york because she lives in Paris. Audrey huffs 'then send the other one back twice' before storming off.

Zoé, who has been the calmest one so far, breaks down suddenly and runs off.

Where she is akumatized. Into Sole Crusher, but different. Here we discover her inner pain. While Chloé feels the inadequacy of being abandoned, Zoé feels the frustration of being pushed aside. Her mother was present, but there was always something more important. Getting everyone to like her is in part a coping mechanism.

Sole crusher won't be pushed around and stepped on. She'll do the stepping!

Cue akumabattle (Sole crusher doesn't look like Chloé because that was so very on the nose and not appropriate now)

In an inversion of existing canon Chloé will be the one chasing the battle(once she sees what's going on) and just for laughs have her run *up* to the roof of the Dupain-Cheng bakery to yell to her sister to stop.

SC: 'No! No one will ever push me aside again! I have the power now! I'm in control!'

Chloé: 'What's the point of being in control if nobody likes you!'

So the words Zoé used to get Chloé to rethink get used on her in turn. She holds still in thought long enough for LB/CN to enact crazy plan #197 and get the item, deakumatizing.

Audrey(who Sole Crusher had been after) comes out of hiding, dusts herself off and sighs 'Mothering is exhausting. I need a vacation.' (So if she isn't around for several episodes we have a cover)

Chloé and Zoé form a 'looking out for each other' sisterly bond. Chloé remains domineering but there are goodwill gestures intermingled with the condescension now. Zoé is clearly in her corner but is also a 'Chloé whisperer' from time to time and has other friends among the good kids too.

Chloé&Zoé form a sort of 'third side' to things when it's useful for the narrative. Neither is a *part* of the good kid blob, they are just not always directly opposed to it.

Chloé changes up her look. She becomes even more made up and 'miniature adult' in contrast to Zoé's 'teen' looks. Just how her Domineering is in contrast to Zoé's networking.

That's the jumping off point.

Chloé eases off the abusive angle and shifts more towards grandstanding (which she did before too) both she and Zoé are still very much possible causes of drama though. They are very much 'apart' from the class. Zoé is alone in the crowd, and Chloé puts herself above it all.

Zoé will undercut Chloé occasionally, a bit of the whole political maneuvering+sisterly rivalry. Chloé will sometimes bulldoze Zoé's carefully laid plans. But they're still 'we are sisters' under it all. It just gives more levers to pull in a longer term narrative.