Some Thoughts on ‘Chameleon’ and Why They’re Both Right
I missed the initial ‘Chameleon’ drama and I feel very lucky for that. But now with Lila becoming plot relevant again, I fear the fandom is in for Chameleon Part 2. I wanted to explore and validate both Marinette and Adrien’s approaches and why their weaknesses are also their strengths.
Firstly, there is Marinette- who decides it’s best to expose Lila for her lies and manipulation ASAP. Lila is a personal thorn in Marinette’s side. Marinette and Ladybug are nothing but a roadblock to Adrien in Lila’s eyes and she treats them as such, slandering Ladybug’s name increasingly and inconveniencing Marinette to be closer to Adrien.
In defense of Marinette, this isn’t just personal and her position is understandable. She has watched Lila steal, lie to manipulate those around her, throw Ladybug under the bus to appeal to Adrien and toss his belongings in the trash. All valid reasons not to trust Lila and to be concerned about her classmates.
Her main purpose for exposing Lila is not to make Lila suffer, be ridiculed and dragged through the streets. It’s because she sees someone actively manipulating her friends and classmates, knows what they are capable of and wants to prevent further harm. Notice she doesn’t stop trying to reveal Lila once Adrien understands she is a liar or when he isn’t present. That wouldn’t be the case if all Marinette cared about was her personal Adrien-related vendetta. Marinette cares about her classmates and she knows Lila is taking advantage of them.
Marinette feels that she, the only one with this knowledge, has a responsibility to speak up and to share it- a value that her parents have no doubt instilled in her. This is also in line with her finally taking a stand against Chloe after so many years. Marinette is in her “take no shit” phase and nothing in the way she was raised has ever suggested to her that she should have to stand for/cover for a malicious liar.
I’ve seen Marinette be called an intrusive meddler for this, but people who speak up when they know something is potentially harmful instead of standing on the sidelines, squirming and waiting for crap to hit the fan are a necessity. And Lila brought this on herself by lying in the first place- it was bound to catch up with her.
But… Marinette isn’t thinking her actions through either. Her intent is understandable, but her approach is heavy handed and worsened by her initial anger. She doesn’t try to approach Lila person to person first, rather she barrels through and calls her out as Ladybug- a mistake that follows her throughout the series because Lila holds a mean grudge. She doesn’t consider quietly informing her classmates and instead gets ahead of herself and jumps to make multiple attempts at publically exposing Lila- which only makes her look like an ass and makes a strong enemy out of Lila. She doesn’t even consider building a case against Lila first because- as it is- she doesn’t have adequate proof. She and Adrien only have personal experience to go off of. Anything else is their word against Lila’s.
Additionally, it’s true that Lila is a little psychopath in the making, but Marinette doesn’t know that. If Lila truly was just a lonely girl seeking attention, public exposure wouldn’t be the best route. Public exposure gives Lila an easy deflection tactic, putting the blame on her “mean classmates who humiliated her” instead of herself. It also never extends a hand to say “Hey, what you’re doing is wrong, but it’s not too late to stop. You can still be welcome here.” As we’ve seen, Lila is too far gone for the latter approach, but Marinette didn’t know that when she jumped on the offensive. If the series went in a different direction and Lila was successfully exposed and received a saltfic worthy shaming, I doubt Marinette would feel very good about herself once she settled down. Even in ‘Volpina’, she admits she was too harsh and apologizes.
Speaking of the more gentle approach…
It’s important to note that Adrien and Marinette occupy very different places in relation to Lila. Marinette is a roadblock. Adrien is the objective. Lila has made it clear that she wants Adrien to like her from day one. He’s in a position of power here and, being who he is, he’s decided to use that for good. Adrien wants to be a voice of reason to her and set an example.
Adrien takes a very humanistic approach with people. He doesn’t stop at their actions or take them at face value. He looks for the ‘why’ and what makes them tick. He looks for underlying reasons and he often leans toward the more vindicating ones. He concludes that she is the lonely new kid in need of attention- something he can relate to- and resolves to address the problem with an offer of support and friendship.
I wonder why Adrien defaults to being the example and the healer when someone wrongs him, even when all signs point to a red flag the size of Antarctica…
Adrien believes that shitty behavior can be repaired if you just love someone hard enough. That’s clear in relation to his father and, while we don’t know a lot about Emilie, we can ascertain her influence on him through the snapshots we get of her through out the series and how Adrien grieves her.
In the Christmas Special, Chat Noir is angsting so hard, he is about to catacylsm the city Christmas tree out of pure spite until he thinks of his mother.
Everyone views Emilie as practically an angel- someone who holds everything together. She strikes me as a ‘smile though your heart is breaking’ type of person, a person who projects encouragement and positivity. She puts that pressure on herself and, in turn, puts it on others.
In ‘Passion’, we learn that Emilie saddled Nathalie with the heavy task of keeping Gabriel’s focus off of the Miraculous and becoming a mother to her son. That’s a lot of pressure. I would not be surprised if she signaled to Adrien at some point that he was responsible for keeping positivity alive in that house and for his father’s happiness.
With this kind of upbringing, is it any mystery why Adrien constantly considers others at the detriment of himself and avoids conflict like the plague?
He doesn’t need to “suffer for his crimes”. He needs therapy and healthy boundaries. Adrien clearly doesn’t like Lila lying or invading his personal space.
He is not Lila’s therapist. He is entitled to set boundaries with her, refuse her friendship and even warn his closest friends about her. His choice to placate rather than act here isn’t necessarily a good one and is representative of how self sacrificing or passive behavior can often negatively impact those around you.
But… he’s not all wrong. His unique humanistic perspective is incredibly useful and, had Lila been that lonely girl, his approach would have been the right call. You can argue that it was still the right call regardless just from a logical standpoint. Marinette didn’t have adequate proof and she made more trouble for herself by attacking Lila head on without thinking her actions through.
Empathy and diplomatic approaches are the answer sometimes- often even. It is trendy nowadays to throw an entire person away for one slight, to see them suffer and pay publically. This trend just begets more bullying and horrid actions. Adrien is able to look outside of actions and see the humanity motivating them underneath. This is likely part nature and part survival tactic. This is what’s keeps him from turning into a more bitter, hardened person.
He slips sometimes like anyone does, but his empathy is powerful and I hope never loses it, but rather learns how to balance it with more healthy habits and boundaries. He’ll need his humanistic approach for when he faces his father’s true nature, not for Gabriel’s sake, but so that he doesn’t let his anger eat him alive.
Let’s also remember that Adrien doesn’t know everything Marinette does. He doesn’t know Lila stole his book and threw it away. He doesn’t know she threatened Marinette in Chameleon. He wasn’t even in the cafeteria to see her manipulating the class into being her personal slaves.
What’s important is that, once Marinette and Adrien see that there are problems with their original approach, they adjust, taking on aspects of the others’.
Marinette takes what Adrien says to heart and didn’t try to publically expose Lila after ‘Chameleon’. Adrien reached his limit once he realized Lila was being malicious, setting boundaries with her at the end of ‘Oni-chan’ and making the deal with her in ‘Ladybug’ (which was still pretty self-sacrificial but… he’s on a journey).
It’s funny that people give Adrien such a hard time for his lack of action in Chameleon or with Chloe when it is that exact empathy that allowed him to understand and support Ladybug in the Season 4 finale.
The Adrien who would easily yell at and expose Lila after Volpina/Chameleon is not the Adrien who would easily forgive Ladybug for keeping him in the dark all season. It’s just consistent characterization.
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