I hope that its obvious that my issues with Marinette in season 6 are because of the writing, and not the character.
Marinette does not exist. There is not actually a 14/15 year old girl running around gaslighting her abuse victim boyfriend into believing his abuser was actually the hero of Paris.
There are, however, a collective of adults writing a narrative where a teenager gaslighting her abuse victim boyfriend about his abuser cannot face proper consequences due to the structure of the show itself. There are a collective of adults writing it explicitly into episodes made for children that its okay for her to gaslight her abuse victim boyfriend about his abuser because people are allowed to have their own secrets. There is a collective of adults writing a narrative where others are in the wrong for making the girl gaslighting her abuse victim boyfriend about his abuser feel sad or guilty about gaslighting him.
It's why I franly refuse to tag any of this as 'marinette salt.' Marinette isn't real. She doesn't exist. She is simply a vehicle through which her adult creators can share their values to children.
The values they are sharing just happen to be that its okay to push abuse apologia and gaslight victims as long as you feel super duper bad about it. Alya being mad at her isn't enough. Luka trying to fix her mistake isn't enough. The structure of the show means that Marinette cannot face actual consequences in universe, meaning the message children are receiving from these adult writers is that abuse apologia, lying, and gaslighting don't have consequences as long as you feel bad about what you're doing.
