okay so i know this has been greatly talked about, but we need to readdress chloe’s deserved but never received redemption arc.
this whole thing wouldn’t have made me as upset if it didn’t seem like they were literally setting her up for a redemption. we had that little moment with ladybug where chloe was venting to her, talking about how alone she felt and the way she “served no purpose”. chloe really only bullied others because of her own insecurities, to try and “make herself useful”. this was our first glance into the real chloe.
then we have her issues with her mom. clearly, audrey bourgeois is not the picture-perfect mother she seems to be and absolutely needs to be better. i would say chloe is more neglected from her mother than zoe is, because zoe spent her entire time with audrey in new york and has a better relationship with her, based on toxicity. i mean, all of chloe’s relationships are toxic, but the fact that it’s with her own mother is terrible.
and ofc we can’t forget about mayor bourgeois. he is certainly feeding into chloe’s behavior by continuing to purchase things for her and buy her way to the top. it’s not his fault though, because his situation is obviously difficult to escape from. he has a needy daughter and a controlling wife, what do you expect?
but my point here is: after that look into chloe, everyone thought that she was going to have a redemption arc. and with her getting the bee miraculous, we all assumed it was a given. but then they came in and ruined it by making her take ten steps backwards from where she started.
chloe was doing very well before she tried to impress her mother with the miraculous, which i think is very in character for her since of her strained relationship with audrey and because of her past. if she had actually apologized and not been a brat about it, i’m sure that marinette would have let her keep using the miraculous. i think that part of the reason as to why chloe’s redemption stopped was because ladybug hesitated to tell her about how she wasn’t receiving the miraculous ever again. but still, even with this, chloe shouldn’t have turned over to hawkmoth with all of the development she was going through. plus, i just don’t understand why the writers would ruin it (ahem, thomas astruc), because chloe as a hero would be much better than her as a villain. her staying as the antagonist for the whole series is just so draining and it’s getting boring. with her out of the way, they could’ve focused on lila so much more.
i’m not excusing any of chloe’s behavior, that’s a given. but i just wish her redemption arc could’ve been fulfilled.
