#negative points

My reaction to knowing I have to watch this today. I heard about how bad this episode is. And now I'm the one who's about to go bananas.

Ugh... let's not waste time. This is another Astruc self insert storyline, so it's destined to be bad. The last time he wrote hinelf into the show he said people don't like directors, and allowed multiple racist remarks to go unchallenged. At least this time he managed to avoid the second part... but that might be due to the lack of Kagami than anything intentional.

Okay being too harsh on the guy but ... this is a really dumb premise for the episode. This top tier ANIMATED director, decides to do a small short film with a group of high schoolers, gives them no budget and let's them write their own movie and he's... actually not directing either. Nino's acting as director so he's...just advising how this goes... and they have one day to film, act and edit and everything else, and the movie was shown the next day.

Okay. So ASIDES from that not being how ANYTHING works, why couldn't this have been a film event? Why would he goto a middle school instead of a college or university? Why wouldn't this be more a volunteer class or extracurricular activity for the summer that some kids signed up for but not everyone? Why not make this last for the entirety of summer break, instead of 2-3 days and boom. That would also allow other kids who aren't Zoe, to show up and shine/ have kids who wouldn't normally work together in a group.

I'm lying of course, I know the reason; it's because that would take away from Zoe's and Marinette's screen time. And wouldn't give Astruc the chance to demonize Chloe some more. Also despite the title, this episode and Sole Crusher, work as a two part episode to introduce Zoey and reaffirm her as a recurring character, and Chloe's replacement.

Which is just...so bad for a multitude of reasons...just...SO many. To name a few off the top of my head:

Removes Chloe's redemption arc, which could be argued was one of the best parts of the show.

Zoey shouldn't have had enough time with Marinette to earn a Miraculous. Marinette usually only gives those to people she knows/trusts, and she trusts Zoey way too much for how little she knows her.

Lazy writing. Rather than go through the hard and interesting path of making Chloe a better person, or maybe more an antihero to keep things interesting, they just replace her with this shiny, new, flawless sister, who will just do everything Marinette says... which makes incredibly boring.

This is a bad message, one that says that if you did bad things in your past, you are a bad person and you can't improve. And someone better than you, will replace you and all your accomplishments, and make you look worthless.

On top of all that the episode is just badly written. It's trying so hard to demonize Chloe that it makes the rest of the class look like spineless losers. Only Marinette stands up to Chloe, when in the past everyone else had their breaking points with her and they could have just walked out like "screw this. Bye Queen B!" (And say that last part so mockingly that she knows they're not calling her "queen Bee.") All of this is a student production anyways and they own the props, costumes, and allhave camera phones. There's literally nothing Asteic could provide them in the final product outside the lighting gear, and since they filmed in the day/ Sun set, they might not need that anyways. It also has this weird obsession with bananas that Chloe has NEVER had before, and will never have again. This retcon the actual CANON method she calms herself down, which is by holding her yellow bear, Mr. Cuddly.

Furthermore, let's look at some of the horrible lines/ words that go on in this episode:

The Sentimenter's name is"Banana Boom Boom." Which might be the dumbest name of any villian/ sentimonster in this show.

Chloe calling Zoey "Banana Head" unironically...while wearing that shitty costume.

"How about facing someone your own size" Zoe says to an akuma 4 times her size... ugh...

Plague's little speech singing Zoe's praises... something he has NEVER done for any Miraculous holder. NOT EVEN LADYBUG. That felt so out of character for him I actually wanted him to shut up for the first time ever.

"I'm done playing the supporting roll for the sake of our family." GIRL YOU WEREN'T EVEN A ROLL AT ALL UNTIL FIVE MINUTES AGO!!! She literally just started existing yesterday.

Maybe this will help Chloe become a better person." SHUT. UP. You guys literally rewrote her character so she went back to being a one dimensional villian, and have made repeated, official statements that you have no interest in redeeming her. So shut up. No making false hope. Just say you hate her, embrace her villainy and move on!!!

And you know what, even as a villian Chloe no longer works because she no longer fights anyone. Has anyone else noticed that Chloe hasn't been a physical fight since the episode "Miraculer" in season 3? Before this Chloe her got her hands dirty as a superhero, and as a villian when she was akumatized. We learn in season 1 how she practiced all of Ladybug's moves when she played dress up with Sabrina, and then in season 2 we learn she is actually INCREBLY SKILLED when she tries out to be Ladybug for a music video with Adrian. Performing amazing acrobatics on her own, without any powers. Then as Queen bee she is the last to be taken down in the first version of Team Miraculous in season 2's finale, AND when she fights Mayura one on one in Miraculer, she almost defeats her ALONE. Bare in mind that Natalie can fight three supervillains ON HER OWN, unarmed, while they are corrupted by Hawkmoth, and this was before her health deteriorated so much!

Chloe is actually a bad ass! And season 3/ 4 is trying to portray her as a coward who never fights her own battles which is just not Chloe. Yes she does manipulate her father to get what she wants but when he's not around, she'll take matters into her own hands to get what she wants. It's one of her best and worst qualities at the same time.

And there's just so much more in this episode! Why Zoe SPECIFICALLY have to use the bee Miraculous? Ladybug got hit by an attack that should have turned her into a banana, but the show ignores it! Chat Noir made mistakes to make Vesperion look good. Adrian confronts Chloe about being a brat and not being friends, over a conversation they had TWO SEASONS ago, and has ignored all the other bad stuff she's done since then!

This episode is OBNOXIOUSLY awful, and if I were Astruc, I'd feel ashamed of myself for releasing this into the world. Let alone putting my self insert into the story.