Do you think that a lot of the bad moments that people salt Marinette for are more due the "Marinette must commit a mistake and learn a lesson" Episode Writing Rule than things that she would actually do?
Partly. To be fair, part of it does seem to be based around the cringe moments that the writers threw in because they thought that somehow a teenage girl being embarrassed is what amounts to "humor". These humiliating moments that nobody BUT Marinette seems to experience and have played for laughs. Certainly not to the extent she does.
Not helped is that not only does no one else have to suffer such moments, but when others actively inflict this embarrassment onto her, they're never called out or really even acknowledged for their part. And when any of them experience similar treatment, it's narratively portrayed as sad and something to sympathize with them for.
Chloe pulled a lot of horrible stunts, and the fact that she's not even given so much as a slap on the wrist only further pushes this horrible narrative that it's supposed to funny and no big deal when Chloe does bad things and when Marinette suffers. And especially when Adrien or really anyone else does just as bad if not worse only to have any lesson be actively avoided.
So I think a major aspect of the salt towards Marinette is the narrative around her and how her suffering is portrayed as a joke and as if it's somehow deserved or warranted.
The very first episode had it end on a humor note of her losing out on a modeling chance with Adrien and the ending acting like she deserved it somehow. Let's bear in mind it was Alya pushing her to join and Marinette herself hadn't done anything to really deserve losing out the way the episode did compared with if she'd been actively ignoring Manon or acting like a jerk. As a result, I don't know what the lesson was supposed to be there other than that Marinette can't have nice things.
Reflektdoll was a major episode that showed this issue. ALYA was the one who pushed Juleka out to force Adrien and Marinette together. Even though Marinette told her she didn't want Adrien there in the first place. And yet even though ALYA was the one who caused the situation and MARINETTE was the one who at least TRIED to help Juleka and hear her out, Marinette ended up the one getting the full blame for Juleka being upset and the ONLY ONE who apologized by the end for apparently not doing enough to help Juleka despite her actively having attempted to and being cut off by Alya each time. She also ended up the ONLY ONE who WASN'T in the picture with Adrien. ALYA was in the picture, despite being the one directly responsible and the one who wanted Adrien and Marinette to have pictures taken of them together. All of this together gives the impression the narrative is punishing Marinette and that Marinette is somehow supposed to be the one in the wrong in the situation. Meanwhile, Alya and her actions and her part in the whole mess are simply forgotten.
There are at least four separate instances I can think of off the top of my head of Adrien throwing tantrums in the middle of akuma fights and even going so far as threatening to quit, refusing to work with Ladybug to stop the akuma, and even actually quitting. And each time, either HE was portrayed as the wholly innocent party and/or SHE was portrayed as being in the wrong and needing to apologize to him for...(checks notes) not giving him what he wants: whether that be a date, her identity, Fu's secrets, or not being dependent on him.
Then there's Chloe and Lila. Do I really need to get into them at this point?
And remember the comic and how Marinette ended up naked in New York thanks to a stunt Chloe pulled and instead of ANY punishment for Chloe for theft and leaving Marinette without any clothes, it's used to teach Marinette a lesson about racism? No, I will NOT let that go. Even if they did an "official New York episode" to try and replace it, it showed the depths that the writers would put Marinette through and how they would go out of their way to make it be more of a point to make HER wrong somehow even if they had to make it up and disregard the implications and the person responsible.
It all comes down to this common tendency Miraculous has to make light of the things Marinette goes through and having the treatment of her be their go-to joke.
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