chloeâs outfit in the show might be the worst out of every character. the girl is the daughter of the mayor of Paris and a fashion icon, why is she wearing a belt i could find in hot topic. i hate her outfit. much like adrien, i decided she needed more designer brands represented. she got mostly chanel with some louis vuitton.
the real question here is does she want to be wearing these clothes. in my version, her mothers influence on her is a lot more apparent. she tries to live up to the expectation that audrey has placed on her. in doing so she forgoes her own tastes to look more like the people in her mothers magazine. as queen bee, sheâs allowed a bit more of the self-expression sheâd otherwise like to have; a more fun ponytail with less styled bangs, a fluffy sweater, âfingerless glovesâ, no heels.
i donât dislike her original queen bee look, she actually has one of the few designs i didnât dislike. i just thought she could use a sweater and then worked the rest from there. i pretty much kept her hair as is outside of giving her more streaks of black. her hair design was perfect.
pollen got a little upgrade. i really like the idea that chloe saw pollens general being and decided to match her queen bee outfit to it which is why there are a few similarities.
the miraculous itself was a bit harder to design, they always will be for me. in her civilian form, itâs meant to be passed off as more of an heirloom accessory. in its activated form, i like to think it doubles as a communication device, the antennae can curl down to be a microphone and ear bud. when she transforms the antennae also uncurl from the metal.
this will probably be it until art fight is over, as iâve started to prep for it, so the next one (luka) will more than likely come out in august or september. i have an idea of what iâm doing for him outfit wise so it depends on what posing will be like. my current plan is to finish luka and kagami and then work on other fandom stuff. if thereâs any series, movies, book characters, etc that youâd like to see me redesign let me know. i love reconceptualizing.
as always more character au stuff below the cut.
her character as a whole is a bit⌠one dimensional. sheâs your classic rich mean girl, the foil to our mc.
but really this girl is a walking tragedy. i really want to focus on not only her being a foil to marinette but also being a parallel to adrien. the two have similar situations, the only difference is that adrien experiences parental love from both of his parents during the formative years of his youth. yes, his mom died and yes, his dad is neglectful, but they did love him and gabrielâs motivations are at least partially because of his love for his son. chloeâs doesnât get this. her mother is absent at best, arguably abusive. sheâs instilled this eat or be eaten mentality in chloĂŠ. that love is something you have to earn, that it is secondary to what people think of you. people who give love easily are weak or stupid or both. the only way to win peopleâs respect is to prove you are worth more. and whoâs worth more than audreyâs daughter?
because chloĂŠ is an extension of her mother she has to be perfect all the time. she has made herself into her mothers carbon copy and given who her mother is, itâs not a good thing. now you might be thinking âbut what about her dad? he clearly loves herâ. and maybe he does but his unwillingness to fight against his wifeâs abuse shows chloe sheâs worth less than her mother. and his constant placating manner shows chloe love can be bought if the price tag is high enough. finding true, real love, even in a platonic space, has been hard for her because the examples sheâs been given are atrocious. even her friendship with sabrina echos her parents relationship. it is toxic. sabrina cares about her in the same way her dad cares about her which is that they want her to be happy so they give her everything she asks for.
this is why she likes adrien so much. he is her friend but not because he has to be. he gets what itâs like to have a parent in the fashion industry, one with eyes on you and not wanting to disappoint them. he pushes back when she goes too far and she respects him for it. i think a lot of her crush comes from the fact that there is no other person who cares about her like he does. he was her first friend and that holds a lot of weight.
now does still have to work for her redemption. sheâs got a lot to unlearn. because of how this au works, marinette doesnât know who any of the miraculous holders are. in fact, in this au, no one knows that queen bee is chloĂŠ bourgeois. she gets a little taste of that freedom, of being respected and loved for her work as a superhero. and she revels in it, almost selfishly. she has to learn to not be the center of attention when fighting, which she does. she talks with the others like theyâre all equals, she gets to escape her motherâs expectations and have a bit of fun. that is until her identity is discovered.
see⌠there is still another bee miraculous holder i need to draw. and honestly, chloĂŠ doesnât make the best superhero. sheâs in the game because she likes the attention, not necessarily because she likes helping people. but when hawkmoth has everyone cornered and ladybug is about to have her miraculous stolen, queen bee makes the most heroic decision of her career. she lets herself get caught instead and she gets unmasked instead. the fight ends with hawkmoth being defeated and the bee miraculous returned to the good guys but itâs too late. he knows who she is and how to get under her skin. queen bee is no longer able to fight and chloĂŠ has lost her outlet and most of her friends.
she goes through the five stages of grief, descending into the worst version of herself. at first she acts like she doesnât care that it wasnât even that big of loss, but she misses pollen. then she gets spiteful and resentful. why did it have to be her to lose everything? and when she finds out her half sister took up the mantle? she loses it. she teams up with lila and wreaks havoc. eventually she realizes how much harm sheâs done, how many people she accidentally caused to be akumatized, and, her final breaking point, loses adrien as a friend. she leaves lila and she just stops caring, about everything. marinetteâs the one who brings her back from the edge and through her friendship begins to turn her life around.
her redemption is so important to me. some people suck, like lila, because some people are inherently bad. but some people have the capacity to change, to be better. they just were raised wrong. chloĂŠ can be good, she was a superhero. her mom just sucks and instilled in her the wrong lesson. her friendship with adrien is also so important to me. her realizing she didnât actually like adrien romantically really changes her whole perspective and she becomes a major part in his life. she always has his back and understands him in a way that his other friends might not be able to.
iâve gone on too long, iâve just thought about her character arc too much.
so frustrating to be a skeptic with a sense of whimsy because like. I want there to be cryptids. I want there to be magic. I want there to be evidence of something we don't fully understand and can't explain. but then 99% of the "proof" out there for that stuff is like. the most obvious scam you've ever seen in your life.
iâve known what i wanted to with nino since the beginning. as we get further into this series, the characters original versions become less and less developed which means i get to take more creative liberties. nino is, unfortunately, the beginning of this.
i feel like, beyond his relationship with adrien and alya, his character isnât really that developed. we see more of him in season 5 when he starts the resistance with the rest of the students. heâs very supportive and has this comfortable energy to him, which makes it no surprise that heâs the first to befriend adrien, outside of marinette. i wanted both his civilian looks to be comfortable and colorful, really highlighting his energy.
his carapace form, however, iâve always had a problem with. i never liked how close to his civilian form his carapace outfit was. it still feels like nino. as i said in a previous post, i want their identities to feel different and to explore how these characters might see themselves as superheroes. nino is kind of insecure so i heightened that idea and thought âmaybe he wants to appear like a badass. maybe his vision of a cool superhero is the strong silent typeâ.
as carapace, heâs a lot quieter, maybe heâs been chastised one too many times for calling everyone dude so he decides itâs easier to just not talk. maybe he doesnât want to blow his cover, believing his day-to-day is too high energy. his energy as carapace could balance out the puns and trickery of chat noir and rena rouge.
in terms of design, i wanted to keep a high collar for turtle reasons. i got inspiration from okarunâs possessed state in dandadan. i like the pushed back hair and collar that almost covers his mouth, giving him this cool, mysterious vibe. the shield probably should have more detail if we could see the front, but trying to find poses in general for him was harder than i thought itâd be.
finally wayzz. i think he still takes on a wise mentor like role but nino pushes him into a more fun loving attitude.
plot stuff under the cut
if i were writing this, nino would have a similar role with adrien that alya has with marinette. as marinette comes clean to alya, i want nino to stumble into knowing adrienâs identity. where with the girls, itâs a calculated move to disclose but with the boys, one of them sees the other transform and as theyâre freaking out, they reveal.
also, in this one ninoâs bisexual and out, providing an outlet for adrien to explore his own sexuality. they remain entirely platonic, except maybe some flirting with their alter egos which they regret after their reveal. itâs more of another avenue for nino to teach adrien what itâs like being a regular dude.
another large part of his character is his relationship with alya. iâd like to treat their relationship as more of a foil to marinette and adrienâs. rena flirts with carapace, which carapace is kind of into but not as much because nino flirts with alya, which sheâs kind of into. alya is the first one to reveal her super identity which makes nino not want to because heâs sure alya wonât like him since sheâs into carapaceâs bad boy vibes. eventually, nino reveals his identity and they start dating for real. they showcase that a relationship between two supers is possible but they also show how impossible it would be for chat noir and ladybug. and their relationship would take place over the first two seasons, instead of straight away in season one.
while i did struggle with alya, i still finished her in a shorter span than adrien so i think thatâs a win. my main issue was her posing, once i locked that in, i knew what clothes i wanted to put her in right away.
i do not like the flannel in alyaâs original design, but i did like the orange plaid so i gave her a plaid pants instead. i imagine alya would have more ear piercings; i also thought about giving her a nose piercing but decided against it.
alya is martinique creole and her older sister is clearly of african descent. however, looking at alya, this isnât necessarily obvious. and while i do believe sheâs mixed, whether sheâs partially white or perhaps indigenous itâs hard to say, having your only black female character in the main cast have light skin and wavy hair feels like a misstep. so i gave her curlier hair but i kept her skin tone. in my au, sheâs partially indigenous.
in my mind, the miraculous would shift to better blend in with their holders. so like, if someone who didnât have their ears pierced tried to wear the ladybug miraculous, the earrings would shift to clip-ons. that being said, the necklaceâs civilian form is modeled after a larimar pendant, as larimar is only found in the caribbean. in her transformation, the tail would âunfurlâ into the fox pendant.
i canât decide if i hate renaâs og tailcoat or not. but i did want to do something else. at first i considered a wrap skirt-like design but shifted gears to a simplified skirt. i wanted to focus the design into a superhero costume, especially because alya loves superheroes. overall, iâm very happy with renaâs design.
i know i donât like her school uniform. iâm not sure it fully reads as a school uniform. i tried adding a tie but didnât want to block the necklace. kind of regretting that decision but ehh, weâre moving on.
i think trixx would just be nosy. he gives off âlet me spy on people then tell alya everything i saw and heardâ vibes.
my au differences, views on the show, and personality shifts for alya beneath the cut.
i have a couple more aspects that i donât like about the show that will become more prevalent from here on out.
the first: i donât like that Marinette knows who all of the miraculous holders are. i think it would be harder fully slipping into a superhero role if the leader knows who you are and enough about you to make the decision you would be a good superhero. that added pressure would mess with some people.
the second: i want a bit more from the ensemble cast as the series plays out. iâd like to see each of the holders explored more and given more depth.
alya and nino are the best friends of the main characters but we see very little character growth from either of them outside of a few episodes. the biggest change iâd make in the series is playing with identity a lot more and exploring that through all of the superheroes, not just marinette and adrien.
focusing on alya (iâll get to the others when i draw them), i want her to stay a bit more grounded in her civilian identity. sheâs the responsible, confident, best friend. sheâs the one marinette believes should be ladybug. however, when she does get her own super identity, it lets more of her playfulness and curiosity shine through. as marinetteâs friend, she has to balance out her anxious tendencies and clumsiness. as a journalist, she has to be very real so people take her seriously.
but this is a girl who loves superheroes; she has this nerdiness to her so i donât think sheâd be able to stop herself from having a bit of fun in a superhero role, especially since ladybug is such a capable leader. the grounded role sheâs used to inhabiting is already being filled. sheâs afforded the opportunity to kick back a little. and with her power of illusion, she can make even the most unbelievable thing possible, falling into a sort of trickster role, albeit a very lighthearted one.
in my au, master fu would hand out miraculous after watching marinette and adrien until heâs no longer the master. then i think marinette would let the kwamiâs determine their holders. i havenât fully thought out how it would work and the safeguards that would need to be in place to avoid another hawkmoth situation.
because no one knows sheâs rena rouge, she can joke around more. ladybug and chat noir are still the two most active in the beginning, her attitude and energy plays off of chatâs really well (sometimes getting on lbâs nerves) but she can lock in quicker than chat and knows when to dial it back. honestly, i just really want chat noir to have someone he can joke around with.
anyways, i think thatâs everything. with the more changes i make, the more iâll write. let me know if youâd rather i type a separate post from the art. ninoâs next and will be explored more in both civilian and super identity⌠spoiler alert: carapace might be very different.
for marinette i really wanted to highlight the cutesy homemade designs, embroidered pants, knit cardigan, beaded jewelry. i kept to the idea that sheâs always running late to school, bandaid on the knee and clumsily tied tie for her uniform.
i donât like that her original ladybug look is just spotted and skin tight so i added some armor-like pieces, vaguely similar to ladybug elytra, and switched up the dot pattern so it wasnât just all over. i wanted to keep the pigtails, i think theyâre iconic.
i didnât really change her character too much, i really like marinette. i like that sheâs clumsy and goofy as mari but confident and strong as lb and i think her designs should reflect that. if anything iâd change the intensity of her stalking tendencies because it is so uncomfy in the first season
more explanations for the rest of the series under the cut
adrien/ chat noir is next
iâm going to continue with these until i get bored or run out of ideas.
i have a couple of aspects of the show i take issue with and will be addressing them as they come up.
overall, the first is their age. marionette is too young to be saving paris on a daily basis. in my au (or whatever this is) theyâre 17-18 and either in their last year of high school or going to a university. either way theyâll all have a school uniform (because i like designing them and for literally no other reason).
their miraculous forms i want slightly more consistency with across all holders. i want them to be skin tight except for one article of clothing, could be a jacket, a skirt, shorts, etc. for marionette itâs her armor. i also want them all to have a portion of their hair dyed. a few of the original designs do but i want it to carry over for the rest. their masks will also have colored lenses, like chat noirâs because i think that they obfuscate identities.
you might also notice that in marinettes the hair colors donât match between mari and lb. i decided on separate color palettes, with the miraculous one being brighter/ more saturated. i like the idea of the miraculous being more otherworldly and i think introducing bright colors to a slightly muted world sets them apart visually. like imagine bringing a neon shirt to the medieval ages, people would be losing their minds.
i think thatâs it for major world things⌠maybe iâll think of more for adrienâs.
iâm back and returning with a miraculous redesign. shortly after posting marinetteâs, i started drawing adrienâs then decided to shift gears to another project and promptly never returned. it doesnât help that i also started a new job after posting marinetteâs⌠anyway, in finishing adrienâs sketches i decided it looked too plain and gave the entire layout an update. i also wanted to include the kwamis.
(i did update marinetteâs and will repost hers soon.)
back to my boy, i take issue with most of the characters og designs, theyâre just not very styled, and adrienâs is not only no exception but because heâs a model for his father, whoâs a fashion designer, his design makes me even more upset. dudeâs controlled so heavily by his dad and yet is dressed in a basic t-shirt and jeans? no. i gave him pleated pants, kept the stripes but turned his shirt into a nicer button up, and made his jacket a little more structured instead of just being an over shirt. his shoes are styled after some valentino sneakers i found. i also gave him more jewelry so his ring doesnât look too out of place. his school uniform is more classic, i donât think heâd deviate too much from the norm as heâs just excited to attend.
iâm gonna be honest, i donât know how i feel about chat noirâs dye job. i love how messy his hair is compared to when heâs adrien but the dye feels a bit busy. otherwise the rest of his outfit iâm very happy with.
in terms of personality, i wouldnât change much. i love how adrienâs written. most of the characters from here on out will have modifications, whether thatâs building on something present or changing arcs, i hate youâll have to see.
i have included sexuality. iâm queer so typically when i redesign characters (and/or make my own auâs) we get a bit more gay. if i wrote adrien, heâd be pansexual. i truly donât think heâd let something as simple as gender presentation effect his ability to fall in love. heâs still hopelessly oblivious to his own feelings, though.
plaggâs personality wouldnât shift too much either. i feel like heâs very much the classic cat, i love you but iâm only going to show it on my terms and begrudgingly. how he is in adrienâs school uniform i think heâs begging for cheese (also this is inspired by a thing my black cat does, i actually used her as a reference.)
i saw these cool pants that i thought lock would wear and decided to draw him⌠and then i thought up designs for shock and barrel.
i found @crystallizedtwilight âs grown up designs of these three some time in early 2024 and thought they were so cool. her comics inspired me to develop my own cartoon-y style so i thought it was fitting to draw her characters in it.
every year growing up, Iâd watch the Charlie Brown halloween special. for some reason in my mind i convinced myself, they were slowly growing with me and just repeated their halloween adventures each yearâŚ
The setting that prevents your work being used to train AI models is turned off by default! I had no idea about this until now! Artists, go to your settings, click âvisibilityâ, and turn on this setting! Protect your work!
had some time to chat with the verizon wireless guy while my phone was getting set up and heâs a straight guy it turns out he has two moms and used to DJ for drag events. culturally LGBT
honestly i never thought the phrase âi want that twink obliteratedâ was like a sexual thing. like when i read the phrase i imagine âa meteor like the one that killed the dinosaurs is summoned from the heavens and hits the twink in questionâ type situation
*doom music starts to play*
I actually kindof like scheduling these kinds of appointments now...
but seriously Fellas, don't forget to schedule a pap smear every couple of years just in case. If you still have a cervix you can still get cervical cancer. ilu
Thinking back to the first story I ever started writing down (I was 7 or 8) about a group of stray cats who, every full moon, took the form of human kids. They actually were human kids, who had been killed (all at different times/by different people). Their bodies were each dumped by the side of the road where a cat had been hit by a car previously, and their souls landed in the cats' bodies. Eventually they all found each other and decided that every full moon, when they shifted, they'd try to solve each other's murders one by one. It was going to be a series, with each book focusing on a different kid's murder mystery. I told my mom about it once, briefly, and she said "Those cat books (warrior cats) are making you creepy."
