I lowkey hate rewrites that make Chloe give up the Bee miraculous to Zoe as a way of “completing her redemption arc”. On paper, I get what it’s trying to do. But if we’re actually comparing Chloe’s ONE royal mess up with the train to LB and CN’s many mess ups from S2 and beyond, Chloe doesn’t even compare. And I’m not saying this just because I just hate Zoe. I’m saying this because there’s no reason why we can’t just…have Queen Bee. There’s no reason as to why we can’t write Chloe in a way where she’s able to grow as a person and still remain Queen Bee.
Not only this but it saves Chloe from fading in the backround and becoming a nothing character (I know there are people who can make her more interesting without it. But we’re stuck with a show who blatantly says if you don’t have powers/a miraculous, you’re not important enough or you’re a villain.)
So I call mega bullshit on the “Chloe gives up being Queen Bee b/c she messes up too much and she gives it to Zoe” because if we were able write stories where Chloe stays Queen Bee and still grows as a person BEFORE Zoe was ever even a concept…we can still do it now.
which one of these redemption that interest you most and why : chloe, gabriel, lila, alya, adrien
Alya and Adrien have done nothing bad enough that they need to ‘redeem’ themselves for it and thus, should not be on the list. If that’s the standard of ‘needing a redemption’ we’re at, then Marinette, Nino, Kagami, Plagg, Tikki - almost every other character in fact who’s had screentime and has done something that could conceivably be worthy of criticism, ought to be on the list as well.
(And no, that doesn’t mean I want to talk about redemption arcs for almost every named character in ML).
Onto the characters who do GENUINELY need redemptions:
Chloe: I generally like Chloedemptions so long as they aren’t combined with bashing other characters. She’s shown to be capable of compassion and to care a lot more than she lets on, especially with that message she left for Adrien in ‘Felix’ and her feelings about Ms. Bustier in Zombizou, along with breaking down in Malediktator and showing the audience that she WANTS to be useful but feels useless instead, that she DOES care about her father and feels terrible about helping to drive him to the point where he was vulnerable to akumatization, that she DOES care that her classmates hate her.
Chloé: It— it was me. I hurt my daddy's feelings. Because I want to leave Paris, forever.
Ladybug: Because of what happened in school? I'm sure Marinette probably didn't exactly mean what she said.
Chloé: Oh, it's not just her— actually, I don't even care about her— it's because I have no reason to be here: nobody likes me; I have no friends. I'm… useless.
Chloe is capable of compassion and caring, wants to have friends, but just... seems to have absolutely NO idea how to actually go about BEING a friend, and little idea what that really even means. Heck, she doesn’t even list SABRINA as a friend, which says something.
Plus she’s a kid and... well. She’s screwed up BADLY and while I can see her taking the villain route, I’d far rather see her learn, even be taught, how to be a friend, what that even means, and how to get the sort of positive social relationships she’s craving. She doesn’t seem to understand HOW at this stage.
Lila: Don’t get me wrong, I don’t love Lila. Her very first appearance was her stroking her finger down Adrien’s chest while his eyes were as wide as saucers and he looked ready to bolt. But I’ve SEEN her punished a million times to some absurd extremes, and while she hasn’t shown much capacity for redemption so far - she needs a reason to WANT to improve first, to care about other people - I do want that for her. She is, ultimately, a kid, and I’d like to see her improve. Especially since I think vengeance has been meted out a lot already; it’s just been done to death.
Gabriel: SCREW GABRIEL. SCREW HIM SO HARD. The man’s a grown-ass ADULT, is responsible for every akumatization in the series, abuses and manipulates his son like W O W, even to the point where he willingly, KNOWINGLY BEATS HIM THROUGH THE ROOF OF THE CAVERN?! WITH A SMILE ON HIS FACE?! And uses him as a bargaining chip for manipulating Lila, even KNOWING how dangerous and awful she is, because he doesn’t give a CRAP about his son, just on how he can use people. SCREW. HIM.
I’ve seen a good redemption for Gabriel where he was at canonical levels of awful ONCE, with the “Butterflies and Bad Decisions” series, but he was put through the WRINGER first in that and fully realized and comprehended how terrible he truly was and became a genuinely much better person.
Aside from that? SCREW HIM HE CAN GO TO PRISON FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.
Oh…. I have a bit of a rant to go on lol. (Not gonna be extra mean)
The main ‘mean girl’ in Miraculous Ladybug, Chloe aka Queen Bee (superhero alter-ego), was getting some ‘redemption’ over the course of season three. But in the final episode (two-part finale) of the season, she joined Hawk Moth and Mayura to become Miracle Queen, and revealed the identities of all the other holders (except Ladybug and Chat Noir) to HM, and became the Mad Queen of the show.
The entire fandom started to complain about this, calling the writers ‘sexist, or ‘butchering her character’. I disagree for a few reasons, and here’s why -
Butchering a character is as if they were in another series and screwed over completely (you likely understand this based on your posts I’ve seen in the Naruto fandom), or crushing how they were on the path to success and doing good but making them go insane last-minute. This wasn’t the case for Chloe, as the show ISN’T over yet and we still have two more seasons that are official on the way and a movie. There are several more examples of this in media, but I won’t name names because I could trigger some people who dislike the character lol.
Chloe didn’t show many signs of progress to me this season, personally. She still treated Sabrina like her slave, was a bully to Marinette and her friend group, and was pretty much at fault for the entire situation with Miraculer (imo). Long story short, she wasn’t/isn’t ready to be redeemed… YET.
I believe that the right person could make her change. Not Sabrina (considering she’s scared of Chloe), Marinette (as she has her own things and is done with Chloe’s BS), not Adrien, BUT maybe her parents could as Audrey’s coming back to Paris for good.
Chloe could learn to be better through seeing that her mother is so crappy to people, and if she sees some of herself in that, she’d see why Ladybug didn’t want her to become Queen Bee after the Queens’ Battle arc and start to actually change for good.
Chloe was selfish in the Queens’ Battle arc, on that hand, because SHE is the one who transformed on camera for the entirety of Paris to see because she wanted her mother’s attention. Not that I don’t blame her for wanting her mom’s attention and I don’t think Audrey is a bad parent (which she is), but that was HER decision to become QB onscreen.
Chloe’s way to redemption will be through learning from her mistakes, apologizing to everyone for the aftermath, and most of all, doing it in spite of her herself, and NOT her parents, Adrien, Sabrina, Ladybug, or anyone for that matter. Chloe will do it for Chloe.
I don’t hate her as a character by any means, but this is, in my opinion, her fault in the first place, because as Ladybug has told every Miraculous holder from Rena Rouge to Viperion ‘Your identity must remain a secret’, because she wants to keep them and their families safe from akumas. Chloe failed at that order, plain and simple.
I also don’t believe she’s irredeemable, or that she’s worse than Lila. On topic of her (Lila), she literally TEAMED UP with a supervillain terrorizing the city everyday, willingly gets akumatized, and got Marinette EXPELLED from school. If it wasn’t for the sudden urge of them all calming down, she very well would have been akumatized that day into Princess Justice - and that would’ve been it. Game over for everybody if LB/Mari is akumatized and Hawk Moth is controlling her. The user @galahadwilder has a much better analysis of this than I do, and he’s even given me permission to write a fanfiction on it.
At the end of the day, Chloe just pits people against her. Lila however, does the opposite. She pits people to be on her side and against others, and she almost came close to doing that with Marinette in the episode ‘Ladybug’ (also where she got expelled for a while).
Lots of people in the fandom hate on the class for believing Lila, but how many episodes did this happen in? Only one. Just because Alya, Nino and the other classmates were poorly characterized in ONE episode doesn’t mean we all should go out of our way to hate on them and make them OOC in our fanfiction: They’ve turned Rose into a snappy and rude friend instead of the sweetheart she is in canon, Mylene into a loud and obnoxious bully instead of the meek and mousy girl we know canon as, and OH MY GOD. Words cannot describe how much I hate the false characterization of Alya, making her tear up Marinette’s sketchbook, violently hurting her and so on.
Alya ‘I’m the best friend to Ladybug/Marinette ever’ Cesaire would never do that. She’s been there for Marinette from episode one, always helped her when it comes to Adrien, and much more that you’d see in canon (once you begin the show). She is probably the greatest friend in this show to Marinette, point blank. This same thing applies to Nino.
But these same people want to turn Chloe around in two seconds and make her be all sweet and kind with Marinette and turn Mari into this bitchy, bossy, and controlling delinquent and turn Chloe and Kagami along with Luka and sometimes the weather girls Aurore and Mireille into her lapdogs. It’s boring to see and I hate it. The class doesn’t deserve this insane amount of hate they receive from the fandom. If you read @galahadwilder‘s post on this after finishing the series, you’ll see exactly why him, I and many others believe this.
Long story short, here’s what I think: Chloe has a chance for redemption (I know it will happen, Thomas is just saying it won’t to tease us/not spoil the show), Lila is a horrible person who I absolutely do not want to see redeemed, the show isn’t badly written, Chloe’s character wasn’t butchered, and the class are all great friends to Marinette and always will be.
I know this got crazy long and I got a little heated about some things, but thank you for the ask! Hopefully this is a good example of what to watch out for in the fandom/perspective of the show and its characters once you start lol. (The classmates are my children.) (And how to not paint the class as villains if you ever write fanfiction for ML, XD.)
We were so surprised by the reaction part one got! It made me so motivated to write, I’ve got so many more parts finished now. @thelaziestgeek you asked to be tagged, so here you go. We hope it’s as good as you thought part one was ;)
--
“Mum? Dad? I wa- We need to talk,” Marinette put her fork down. Her parents turned to her from their meal.
“What is it?”
“I’d like to change schools.”
“What happened?” Sabine asked, worriedly turning to Marinette. “Is it Chloe?”
“N-no, not really,” Actually, now that she thought about it, Chloe had been tolerable recently. Maybe her turn with the Bee miraculous had done her some good.
“Then what’s wrong?” Tom asked.
“I- It’s- I don’t want to blame anyone,” I don’t want to make things harder for anyone she added in her head. “But there’s someone in the class that… I don’t get along with, and-“
“Marinette, you can’t just change school because you don’t get along with someone,” Tom held his daughter’s hand.
“Tom’s right. You are strong enough to work through this, I know you can Marinette.”
“No, you don’t get it. She’s made my life awful, and has convinced everyone- everyone- that I’m some kind of terrible person.”
“Marinette, I think you’re being a bit dramatic. You and Alya-“
“Alya thinks I’m being selfish, Dad. Please.”
Her parents looked nervously at each other.
“Please. I nearly akumatised today.”
That caught their attention.
“Ladybug was there, and caught the akuma before it reached me. Mum, Dad, I’ve tried so hard. I’ve done what you said, I’ve fought so hard, I’ve tried to be a good person no matter what. But all of that could have been for nothing if Ladybug hadn’t been there. I’ve tried so hard to work this out with my class, but… I can’t do this any more. Please. I- I give up. I give up. I give up.”
The amount Marinette has cried today, you’d think she’d be done. But she can feel the familiar prickling in her eyes.
A warmth surrounded her, and she found herself wrapped up in a hug by both her parents. “Shh,” Tom whispered. “It’s alright. It’s alright.”
“I’m not sure we can get you in a new school at such short notice,” Sabine said, tucking some hair behind her daughter’s ear. “But would it work to change classes?”
“And never, ever, say that you gave up,” Tom added. “Because you didn’t, okay? It takes strength to know when you’ve reached your limit. And it sounds like you’ve passed it, okay?”
“You’re so strong, Marinette. It’s not giving up, okay? You do so much for your classmates. I think it’s time you start to think about yourself.”
“And… We’re sorry we didn’t see that you needed this.”
Marinette sniffed. “No, don’t say that. Please, you guys are awesome, I just…”
“Tomorrow, we’ll go to school early and talk to Principal Damocles, okay? Are you sure you can’t tell us the name of the student? We could get him to talk to them-“
“No!” Marinette said, a bit too loudly. Her parents looked concerned. Marinette took a breath. “Please. I just want to get away. Changing classes sounds great, Mum.”
-
“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t let you change classes on such short notice.”
The words were like a blow to the chest.
“Is there no way?” Tom asked.
“I am sorry, Miss Dupain-Cheng.” Mr. Damocles said to Marinette.
Her head hanging low, Marinette left the Principal’s office, her parents on either side of her.
“Dupain-Cheng?” A familiar voice broke her thoughts.
“Ugh. Hey Chloe.”
“What are you doing here this early?” Chloe was wielding a selfie collage, which she quickly rolled up.
Marinette’s parents opened their mouths, but Marinette beat them to it. “I was actually asking to change classes.”
Chloe looked at her in surprise. Marinette had to admit she was surprised too, but the words had just come out.
“And… Could you?”
“No.”
There was a pause, where Chloe glanced at the two adults glaring at her. “W- Was it… Was it me?”
Marinette glanced up at Chloe, surprised at the guilt in her tone. “Wha- No! I just-“
“Lila then?”
Marinette glanced at her parents, who were frowning at her. “Yeah.” She admitted.
Chloe watched for a minute, then nodded. She pushed the collage into Marinette’s arms, then stormed into the office that had just been vacated. The Dupain-Cheng’s glanced at each other, then followed her.
They entered a scene where a grown man was cowering before a blond teenager. Said teenager was waving her phone in his face. “Excuse me? You won’t let Dupain-Cheng change classes?”
“I- Well- Short notice- Time- No reason-“
“I think you’ll find there is a reason!” Chloe lifted up her mobile. “And that reason is that if you don’t let her change, then you will find my Daddy getting involved!”
“Now now- there’s no need-“
Chloe lifted her phone to her ear. Mr Damocles cleared his throat. “Really, I can’t change classes on such short notice.” He glanced at the ringing phone. “But… I could change you for the rest of the week? Just this week, then you go back to your old class. Then no major changes need happen.”
Chloe opened her mouth, hesitated, and glanced at Marinette. The blue-haired girl was staring in shock at what was happening. She jerked her head, waking herself up. “Y-yeah! That- that would be great.”
Chloe smiled, not smirked, smiled, and hung up.
-
Her parents left the school, after hugging their daughter and thanking Chloe, and probably shaking the blondie’s hand a bit too hard.
Chloe wiped her hand awkwardly on her pants.
“Why did you do that?”
Marinette’s question made Chloe pause. She glanced up at her.
“I- Well. Ladybug did actually.”
Marinette stared at her. She was pretty sure she hadn’t said anything about that.
“Not directly,” Chloe clarified. “But, she spoke to me, and she made me realise, well.” Chloe took a breath. “I want to be a better person, Dupain-Cheng. And I’m not very good at it, but I figure- you looked so unhappy in that class recently, so it must be a good thing if it makes you happy, right?”
Marinette stared at her bully, who had just helped her. Who would have thought that after all this time, it would be Chloe who she was talking with, and not Alya? Her life had done such a huge 360 since Lila had returned. She didn’t even know how it had ended up like this.
“Call me Marinette,” She smiled.
-
Marinette’s new class was different.
There were friendship groups that she wasn’t aware of, names she didn’t know. When Ms Mendeliev called out the names, she made sure to pay extra attention to everyone’s name. She was pretty good at remembering names though, so she hoped that would help. A few classmates had been akumatised but not nearly as many as her old class.
Old class. It felt so weird to think, but not having to worry about Lila constantly- even for just the few minutes since she’d entered the classroom this morning- felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Marinette wondered how she’d feel after a week.
When the bell rang to send them off to their next class, Marinette packed up her things. She yelped in surprise as a hand touched her shoulder.
“Woah, sorry! I just wanted to say hi.” Marinette blinked up at the girl. As if noticing the conversation, the rest of the class paused on their way out.
“You’re Nicole, right?” Marinette asked awkwardly to the short girl. She looked surprised.
“Wow, you’re good with names! Yeah, I am.”
“And I’m Jean.”
“Fleur.”
Names were passed around the class. Marinette smiled.
“My name is Marinette. It’s nice to meet you all.”
-
Chloe sat in her seat. In her head, ‘call me Marinette’ was bouncing around and around in circles. What did it mean?
Was it a gesture of friendship? It seemed that way, but why would Dup- Marinette (wow that felt weird) want to be friends with her?
Could it really just be that she had helped her? Was it really that easy? Or maybe it was because she wouldn’t have to deal with her for the week, and she wanted a clear slate?
“Where’s Marinette?”
The name bounced her out of her thoughts. It was Adrien. She turned to him, but he was talking to Nino.
“Uh- she’s probably late.”
“You know Marinette,” Alya laughed, and the trio chucked. “Hey, Lila- Could I have another interview with you for my blog? About your time with Ladybug?”
“Of course! I’d love to-“
“She’s not late,” Chloe interrupted. It even took herself by surprise. The class paused its chat to look at her.
“What?” Alya frowned.
“Dupai- Marinette. She’s not running late, she actually got here early today.”
There were some mumbles going around the class.
“Leave it with your lies, Chloe,” Alya rolled her eyes.
“No- I think I saw her today, now that I think about it,” Mulen spoke up.
A few others admitted to seeing her.
“So where is she?” Alya asked. “What have you done, Chloe?”
“Me? I haven’t-“ Chloe paused. Technically, she did do something.
Alya raised an eyebrow.
“Marinette’s changed classes.”
Shouts broke out.
“What are you talking about?” Alya snapped. Adrien looked hurt.
“Quieten down class!” Ms. Bustier walked in.
“Is it true?” Alya shouted. She was standing up now.
“Is what true?” The teacher looked at her student.
“Has Marinette changed classes?”
The teacher sighed. “Yes, she has- for just the week. Please sit down, Alya.”
Alya ignored her. “Chloe! What have you done?”
“I didn’t make her switch, if that’s what you’re implying,” Chloe rolled her eyes. She hadn’t had she? Or… Maybe Dupain-Cheng was lying? Maybe she just didn’t want to admit to Chloe-
“Oh no, it was me, wasn’t it?” Lila’s sweet voice came from the back of the class. “I’ve been driving Marinette away since I came. Maybe I should just leave…”
The class broke out in murmurs, all of them (and Chloe listened for somebody different, but the closest she got was Alya who stopped talking altogether) comforting Lila.
“Class! Please be quiet!” Ms Bustier called. She seemed tired as she read out the role. When she finished, she sighed and looked up. “Marinette has asked for permission- and been granted permission-“ The teachers glanced and Chloe for a second, which Alya caught, and her eyes narrowed. “To move to the other class for a week. I request that you do not pester her about this, as if she wanted to tell you I think that she would have.”
This statement caused more talking, which the teacher patiently waited out.
-
When the final bell rang, Marinette felt content.
She hadn’t realised how hard each day had been, with Lila hissing behind her, Alya falling for each lie, and her classmates glaring at her even when her back wasn’t turned. Today, she hadn’t counted down the seconds until she could leave, whilst simultaneously dread the ringing of the bell, because that means that Alya will turn around to be with Lila. Today, she felt herself relax.
She packed her things back into her bag, then turned to smile at Nicole, who was waiting for her. “Thankyou,” The pigtailed girl smiled, standing up. Nicole grinned back.
“No problem Marinette!” There was a short pause, then Nicole hesitantly asked;
“If… If you don’t mind me asking, why did you ask to move to our class? Was it because…” A small blush appeared on Nicole’s cheeks. “The other class has had so many akumas?”
Akumas…
Marinette took a deep, nervous breath. Nicole eye’s widened. “I’m sorry Marinette! You don’t have to answer! I shouldn’t have pried!”
Marinette put her hand on the other girl’s shoulder. As nice as Nicole was, Marinette had picked up just during that day that she was quite nervous, and really didn’t want to upset anyone.
“No, it’s fine. I don’t want you to feel scared about talking to me Nicole. I just didn’t get along with this gi- person, and I needed a break. Well, I wanted to get away completely, but that wasn’t possible on such short notice. And besides, it’s probably better that it’s only for a week.”
“Why?” Nicole said, then caught herself. “I-If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Of course it’s fine Nicole,” Marinette was careful to say that. Nicole was actually such a sweet girl, and she just needed a bit more confidence! “And, I guess it’s because I don’t want to run away,” Her parent’s words rang in her head. “Well, maybe running away isn’t the right word. But, I think that the constant pressure was getting to me. I just need a moment to figure myself out, without Lilahhhh oops!”
It was too late to figure out that slip up. Nicole blinked, then smiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t hold it against that girl. Besides, I’m so forgetful I probably won’t remember her!”
“Oh, you’d remember Lila alright,” Marinette mumbled under her breath. They stopped at the bottom of the school steps. “See you tomorrow Nicole!”
“Goodbye Marinette!”
“Marinette!” Marinette jumped at the sound of Alya’s voice. She awkwardly turned around to see the reporter walk up to her. “Why did you change classes?”
Huh, straight to the point. Just like Alya.
Marinette took a deep breath. “Please, Alya, can we talk about this tomorrow?”
Her voice took Alya aback. The once cheery, optimistic girl sounded broken, and beaten. She found herself agreeing to Marinette’s terms, then she caught herself. “But no backing out of it, okay?” Marinette didn’t respond, so Alya sighed and walked away.
“Marinette,” No surprise, now it’s Lila’s voice, coming just as Marinette walked out of earshot of everyone else.
“Lila, what do you want?”
“You think changing classes for a week will stop me? If anything, it will help me, because you won’t be there forcing me to change my words.”
“Mmhm.”
Lila paused, and peered at Marinette. The other girl had a look of indifference on her face, and other people would have thought that’s how she felt. But Lila Rossi was a master of emotions, and how to hide them, which means she can see when they aren’t hidden very well. This means she could see the small pain that her words were causing Marinette. Marinette was trying so hard to hide this hurt. But still, it was there. “Don’t you care?”
“I did. A lot. But I need a break, so I’m getting one.”
Lila clenched her fist, then relaxed them. “And what are your friends going to think, Marinette? When they find out that you’ve abandoned them?” Abandoned?
With that word, Marinette gave up the charade. She didn’t mean to, but there was no way she could hide the pain she was feeling then. Lila smirked. Finally.
“Don’t think that just because you aren’t in my class, I’ll forget about you Marinette. By the time you come back, none of your friends will care about you. You know that it’s true. After all, it’s already happening, isn’t it?”
Lila stepped back to observe the impact each of her words had on her. Satisfied, she turned and left.
-
“How was school honey?” Sabine hugged her daughter, and Tom stopped his work to come and see her. They all sat down in the kitchen, and warmth filled Marinette’s heart to see how much they cared about her.
“It was… Pretty good,” Marinette took a piece of fruit, and sat down. She happily told her parents about her class. She hesitated, but mentioned that ‘the girl’ had spoken to her after school, and that Alya wanted to talk tomorrow. Her parents pointed out that it was reasonable, and that if Alya had randomly switched class then Marinette would want to talk too. As to Lila, they wrapped her up in a hug and asked if she wanted them to talk about moving classes permanently to the principal.
“No, please. I think that I actually just need a break. It was so nice in class, and I think I just needed to get away to sort myself out. But, thankyou,” She smiled at her parents. “For caring.”
“You can always come to us, sweetie. I’m sorry you didn’t think that earlier.”
As soon as she got upstairs, Tikki flew out of her bag. “I’m proud of you Marinette!”
Marinette pulled her homework out. “Proud of me?”
“Yes! You could have so easily dodged your parents today, especially after Lila after school, but you spoke to them! It’s not good to keep it all bottled up.”
Marinette smiled. “I guess you’re right. It did feel nice to let it all out. I don’t think I realised how much it was hurting to keep it inside.”
“Well, at least you’re sorting yourself out now. Let’s get started on that science homework!”
-
Marinette woke up not dreading school.
--
There it is! I hope you enjoyed it, I have a few extra things to add, just explaining my thoughts as I wrote this.
I was planning to have Marinette change schools, but I realised I didn’t want to make lots of new characters it’s not very true to Marinette’s character to just abandon them so completely like that. It is very in her character to be dramatic, so I had her parents be the voice of reason. I instead made her change classes, and I’m not sure where Chloe came from. I guess I was just sick of how the show was treating her. Anyway, she was so much fun to write, I decided I didn’t want to just leave her at that, so I figured that Marinette could return to the class, because then I get to write her!
Expect a lot of Chloe, and a lot a lot of Chloe redemption.
Also, I’ve decided to make it about one day = one part. I have also decided that Chameleon takes place on Monday, completely so that Marinette can have the most time in her different class.
Thankyou for reading all the way to the bottom, we get so excited every time we see a new note, whether it’s a like, or a reblog! Feel free to leave constructive criticism.
So, I’ve seen the boxer!chloé and photographer!chloé in Chloedemption fics and I love them both very much.
But have you considered engineer chloé?
Imagine:
Chloé buys Adrien tickets to a science symposium or exhibition or something and loses him to the physics people
She wanders around for a bit waiting for him notice that he’s lost her
Ends up in the engineering section
She either catches the tail end of a lecture or gets caught up in an exhibit and talks to an engineer (I’m leaving the kind of engineering intentionally vague)
And it raises questions that she’s never really considered
By the time Adrien catches her she’s deep into research mode™️
So when they leave Chloé’s rambling about everything she just learned and Adrien’s just watching her with a soft smile b\c he hasn’t seen her this exited abt something in years
And she starts doing independent research, maybe to figure out which kind of engineering she prefers
Chloe’s an interesting character. She straddles the fence between good and bad a lot, with generally being pretty awful to most of the people around her, but with enough glimmers of compassion and a desire to prove herself that she can feasibly be taken down either the hero or villain route and still remain in-character, just depending on how the exact situation plays out.
Unsurprisingly, redemptions for Chloe are common, especially since the show itself started her down that route in Malediktator and Heroes Day, though it pulled back on it in season 3. Whether she’ll end up finishing a redemption arc in-show, I do not know, but in the meantime fans have taken over.
While personally I like a good Chloe redemption so long as no one else is torn down in the process (which sadly is VERY common in Chameleon salt), it’s not something I usually seek out in and of itself. It can be a nice bonus but it’s not a selling point of a fic for me, so my exposure to it has mostly been with fics that include Chloe’s redemption but don’t center around it.
The redemption Angel wrote for her in Hold Me By Both Hands is my favorite one I’ve read so far. It focuses heavily on giving Chloe a reason to change and her actively trying, needing to be taught how to be better, be nicer, and really working with her from where she was at in the show. And there’s not really one big redemptive ‘thing’ she does to get herself into everyone’s good graces; it’s really focused on her slowly taking steps to change her attitude.
Chloe’s redemption arc kicks off with Despair Bear; fitting, since that was one of the earliest glimpses of her starting on a possible redemption arc in canon. Things go similarly to canon at first, with her pulling the fire alarm and trying to pin it on Marinette. Adrien’s mindset is the point of divergence here; his friends have gradually been boosting him up, getting him more used to and able to speak up against injustice, or just things he doesn’t like in general, instead of just taking it all like his father trained him to. Losing Chloe as a “friend” also doesn’t mean that he’d be totally without peers to talk to or any – well, FRIENDS. He HAS other friends, people who actually ACT like friends. He doesn’t need to fear being alone anymore if he stands up to Chloe.
His and Chloe’s actions are initially the same as canon, with him telling her he can’t be friends with someone who treats others like she does, that she has to be nice, and her throwing a party for everyone in order to get back into his good graces, and… well, it goes more-or-less like canon, as far as the actions and arc surrounding Chloe go.
It really diverges AFTER the party, with Adrien putting his foot down on not being friends with Chloe until she can be nice (or at least not mean) to other people consistently, including people she doesn’t like much, such as Marinette.
“I can’t,” Chloé says pleadingly, stomping her foot. “I’ll be nice to anyone else, Adrikins, please, but I can’t be nice to her, especially when she’s so mean to me!”
Adrien sighs and shakes his head. “Then we can’t be friends anymore. You can’t just be nice to people selectively, and Marinette didn’t even say anything to you there. I’ve never seen her be mean to you if you weren’t mean first. And I can’t be friends with someone who lets me take the blame for something I didn’t do. Twice. I was going to forgive you for that, but I can’t if you can’t be nice to everyone.” (Chapter 15)
This really affects Chloe. She may not care about being nice to other people, about other people’s feelings, but… she does care about being friends with Adrien, even if she’s crappy to him sometimes.
Chloe thinks about what happened for a week and a half – I’m guessing seeing whether he was really serious. Finally she cracks and asks Marinette for help.
“Teach me how to be nice.”
Marinette blinks. For a moment, her mouth can’t find the appropriate words in her brain for this situation, and she wonders if she’s stuck in some dream. Her shock must be plastered clean across her face, because Chloé huffs and crosses her arms.
“Trust me, the last thing I want is to be asking you for help,” Chloé snaps. “But Adrien won’t even say one word to me anymore unless it’s asking if I’ve learned how to be nice. And since it’s your fault that I lost my best friend, you can help me get him back.” (Chapter 16)
Chloe isn’t exactly enthusiastic about the idea, but she DOES want Adrien back, so she’s even willing to go to Marinette for help. She’s still acting like it’s MARINETTE’S fault Adrien isn’t talking to her though, rather than her own for being mean, and acts like she’s entitled to Marinette’s help. But Marinette’s not gonna take her crap on this.
“My fault?” Marinette says incredulously. “What did I do? You’re the one who’s been picking on me and everyone else for years! I didn’t make Adrien do that to you! And if you really want him to be your friend again, you need to stop blaming everyone else for your rotten attitude!”
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about!” Chloé jabs a finger at Marinette. “You have this – this stupid moral compass where you know how to be good and nice and whatever!” (Chapter 16)
This bit’s interesting. What Chloe says here about Marinette having a moral compass indicates that she has some awareness of how Marinette’s, well, good and nice, and also that she has the awareness that she herself isn’t, and doesn’t know how to be. She talked about Marinette being mean to her earlier, but her line here seems to say that while she may have SAID that Marinette was mean, she didn’t really believe it even then. And she also seems to be figuring out that what she thought was being “nice” with how she threw that party didn’t really qualify, so she’s sort of flailing trying to figure out what these terms even mean.
Which is shown in Chloe’s and Marinette’s next exchange:
“Well, do you want to be nice for Adrien? Or for yourself?” Marinette says. “If you want to be nice just to get Adrien to be your friend again, you’re not going to stay nice. You’re not going to want to stay nice. And I’m not going to put the effort into helping you unless I know that you’ll be nice even after you get what you want. Not after you spent years bullying all of us, Chloé.”
“I never had a reason to be nice before,” Chloé says. “Being nice lets people walk all over you.” (Chapter 20)
Chloe’s view of what being “nice” means is skewed, likely from seeing people take advantage of “niceness”. And with this definition and general view on niceness, it’s no wonder she hasn’t wanted to be ‘nice’ before. No one likes to be trampled, least of all someone as proud as Chloe.
“Nice doesn’t mean being a pushover,” Marinette counters. “You can be nice and still stand up for yourself. That’s something I’m learning.”
“Whatever. Look, are you going to help me or not? I want my best friend back.”
Marinette sighs. Is she really doing this? Yeah, she is. Doing this might help Chloé become a better person and stop bullying everyone.
“On one condition,” she says. “You actually try. I don’t want anything from you except a promise that you’re going to try and be a better person and not just pretend to be to get what you want. And I’m not going to hold your hand and tell you what to do every step of the way.”
“Yes, yes, whatever.” Chloé waves a hand. “You can come to the hotel after school and start teaching me. I’m not going to waste my precious lunch time.” She turns and struts out of the bathroom, leaving Marinette to try and process what had just happened and wonder if someone had tried to divide by zero and shattered the universe as they know it. (Chapter 16)
Chloe still doesn’t seem to really understand what Marinette’s getting at as far as being a better person and being able to be nice and still stand up for herself, but she’s at least sort of willing to listen, maybe, and this is part of what she needs to be shown, needs to be taught. So while Marinette’s not exactly thrilled at the idea and doesn’t have much reason to help Chloe for Chloe’s sake (she doesn’t owe Chloe anything), she DOES at least have reason to help Chloe for her own sake, and the sake of everyone else who interacts with her.
Marinette starts on the lesson later that day, and right away it’s off to a rocky start.
“This? Big?” Chloé says. “Oh, right. I forgot that you’re just a baker’s daughter.”
“You know, I can just walk right back out if you’re not serious about learning to be nicer,” Marinette says. “And I can’t think of anyone else who’d agree to help you.”
“Right, like you’re not just doing this to suck up to Adrikins.” (Chapter 16)
Chloe can’t seem to comprehend that anyone would want to do something like this, to do something ‘nice’ that requires time and effort and investment unless it’s to curry favor with someone. It has to be transactional. Considering that her father’s a major political figure and her mother’s a highly influential (and really mean and awful) fashionista, whom people would probably frequently either try to endear themselves to in order to extract favors, or who would themselves try to network with others in order to grow their own influence, I’m not surprised she has this view of the world.
Marinette does actually have selfish reasons for being willing to do this, which she’s pretty up front about. They’re not connected to Adrien though.
“Funnily enough, some people do things because it feels good to be nice and helpful. And if you think the only thing I’m getting out of this is impressing Adrien, you’ve clearly forgotten the past few years before he even came along.” Marinette crosses her arms. “I’m actually being pretty selfish in doing this, you know. My life will be a whole lot better without you being mean all the time. And so will everyone else’s.”
“So, Dupain-Cheng’s got bite.” Chloé smirks and leads Marinette through the right door and into her sitting room, where a tray of snacks such as cut fruit and sushi rests on the glass table. Chloé settles herself on one of the chairs and waits until Marinette hesitantly sits down in an adjoining seat before speaking again. “Alright, chop, chop. How do I be nice?” (Chapter 16)
Chloe seems to respect being stood up to, having people not cave to her. I’m guessing part of that has to do with associations. She thinks being nice means being a doormat after all, and I’m guessing also that people who’re doormats deserve to be trampled on, kind of a “they know their place” thing. So Marinette asserting herself and showing she won’t be submissive earns some respect.
Marinette really needs to start from the ground up with teaching Chloe. None of this will do much good, will be more than performance art if Chloe can’t find some internal reason to change.
“First, you figure out why you want to be nice,” Marinette says. “Because if it’s just to make Adrien happy, I’m walking straight out of here. You have to have a reason for yourself or you’ll never stay nice.”
“Then why are you nice?”
“Because it makes me feel good. I like seeing people happy because of something nice that I’ve said or done.”
“Boring,” Chloé sings. Marinette resists the urge to roll her eyes. (Chapter 16)
This isn’t much of an incentive for Chloe, not at this point. She has to actually care what others think and feel in order for this to matter to her, and well – while she DOES actually care about that, it’s only with a select few people, at least as far as she’s willing to recognize.
The more selfish, materialistic incentives to be nice interest Chloe a lot more.
“Well, if you’re nice then people will like you,” she says through gritted teeth, wondering why she even agreed to do this. “And if people like you then they’ll treat you better. Which means they’ll want to do more things for you.”
“Wait, so I can actually get something out of being nice?” Chloé says. Marinette considers rushing out to Chloé’s balcony and throwing herself over the railing.
“Not that you should want to be nice for selfish reasons, but yes,” she says. “And then once it becomes habit, you’ll find that you like being nice –”
“Don’t worry about that part,” Chloé says. “Let’s focus on the part where being nice gets me stuff.” (Chapter 16)
This is more what she’s used to, and something she’s no doubt seen in action before; being nice on a transactional basis in order to get stuff. It fits neatly into her worldview.
But that’s not good enough.
“It’s not as simple as saying a few nice things,” Marinette says. “You have to keep showing that you mean it, or people will see that you’re being fake. I suggest you start treating Sabrina nicer.”
“What do you mean? Sabrina loves me!”
“You treat her like a servant!” Marinette strongly considers throwing the piece of pineapple in her hand at Chloé – it’ll blend in nicely with the other girl’s hair and jacket – but she forces herself to not lose her cool. “You make her do your homework, steal for you, whatever else you say!”
“I give her gifts all the time! I gave her an old dress of mine just the other day!”
Breathe, Marinette. Breathe. Don’t beat up the annoying blonde. “Just because you give Sabrina your old things doesn’t mean that you’re being nice to her,” she says. “Try thanking her for doing your homework. Ask her opinion on things and don’t think that she agrees just because she rushes to back you up. Treat her like an actual person.” (Chapter 16)
Chloe’s mindset is pretty apparent here. She knows Sabrina follows her, that she does what she says and seems to like her, therefore that must mean she’s being “nice” to her. She gives Sabrina gifts, which she thinks makes everything else about how she treats her okay. Probably because that’s what she’s experienced herself, with her parents not really having much time for actual bonding (or just treating her like crap in Audrey’s case), and substituting gifts instead. Also seen this with other rich parents, since it’s a favorite tactic of Gabriel’s.
Marinette at least tries to get her into the habit of thinking up nice things about other people, about treating people nicely, even if Chloe hasn’t yet really gotten what niceness really is or why she should be nice aside from on a transactional basis.
“Your homework is to think of a nice thing to say about every single person in our class.” Marinette ignores Chloé’s complaining, for her own sanity. “Then you’re going to go up to each person and say it tomorrow. I really don’t care if you can’t bring yourself to do it for me, but I want you to do it for everyone else. And no, it can’t be a backhanded compliment,” she says before Chloé can even open her mouth. “It has to be something genuinely nice.”
“But what if there’s nothing nice to say?” Chloé says. “What if their outfit and their hair and everything is ugly?”
“Think of something!” Marinette throws her hands up. “Offer them advice if you absolutely have to, just in a helpful way! If you want to be nice then you need to practice, and you need to make others believe that you’re trying.” (Chapter 16)
And Chloe does genuinely make an effort, to the point that Alya thinks there’s an akuma. It’s nowhere near being natural, but just the fact that she’s willing to listen to what Marinette says and put it into practice, to make that effort, is extremely encouraging, even if she doesn’t really understand how or why to be nice.
“Thank…you…for doing my homework, Sabrina,” Chloé says loudly. Her voice carries across the classroom, although this is probably just because everyone’s gone dead silent to stare at her. Sabrina looks like she’s questioning reality.
“Um…it’s no problem, Chloé?” the redhead says slowly. “You know you don’t have to thank me for it.”
“Well, I thought it would be…nice. To show that I…appreciate you. You’re…a good friend.” (Chapter 16)
Soon afterwards Chloe shows just how much Adrien means to her, that he’s not just a possession to her, that she genuinely cares about him as a person, cares about his wellbeing, even if she didn’t realize how much before this.
“Cute,” Chloé drawls. “You’ve worried yourself sick over your friend. At least it’s not something super serious like I thought.”
“Nothing super serious? How can you say that?”
“Because his father’s like this all the time. It’s not like I’m happy, but at least I know it’s not something like having a broken leg or me needing to destroy whoever hurt him or something.”
Marinette totally doesn’t buy that. “Rubbish! After you let Adrien take the fall for what you did twice, pretending like you care is a total new low for you, Chloé. You don’t care about him at all, do you, you just see him as some trophy –”
Chloé’s hand shoots out to grab Marinette’s wrist and yank her down the next corridor and into the girl’s bathroom. “Don’t you even dare go there, Dupain-Cheng,” Chloé hisses, squeezing Marinette’s wrist as the door slams shut behind them. “I’m trying to be nice so that my best friend will talk to me again, so don’t you even think of implying that he’s just a shiny thing to me. I just…didn’t realise how special he was until he stopped talking to me for good. I didn’t realise that I was treating him like shit as well as all you peasants since, you know, that’s my default.” (Chapter 17)
This is an important step for Chloe. She may not know exactly why she should be nice to most other people yet, but she at least DOES realize how awfully she was treating the few people she does care about and wants to be better to them, and to ensure that others don’t treat them badly either. And it means she gets the general concept of why to be nice to people beyond a transactional basis, that she DOES actually care about others feelings, it’s just that the group of people who she cares about is very small at the moment. But it’s something to build on, a foundation that can be expanded.
“You hate me, Dupain-Cheng,” Chloé snaps. “I hate you. Forgive me if I don’t believe that.”
“I don’t hate you,” Marinette says. “Not since you asked me for help. I’ve actually been…impressed at how you’re really trying to be nice. I don’t like you, but I don’t hate you. And even if I did hate you, I wouldn’t go spreading around anything that you tell me in private.”
Chloé stares at her for a long moment, then sighs. “You’re, like, the one person I can actually believe wouldn’t do that to me,” she mutters. “Stupid, goodie-two-shoes Marinette Dupain-Cheng. No, I’m not in love with Adrien, okay? He’s like my brother. But I don’t want anyone else to get near him.” (Chapter 17)
Chloe’s actually putting a lot of trust, showing a lot of vulnerability to Marinette here. And even believing that Marinette hates her, she still has a very high opinion of her, knowing that Marinette wouldn’t betray her trust even though they don’t like each other. She HAS this awareness of who Marinette is as a person, she just wasn’t really using it before.
“Why? If you’re really that close, you can’t possibly believe that he’d abandon you for someone else, right?”
“He did!” Chloé clenches her fists and stomps her foot. “He left me for – for you! And that Ladyblogger and weird DJ!”
“Only because you were being mean and he knew that he had the power to push you to become a nicer person,” Marinette counters.
“Exactly! Now I’m stuck turning myself into some fake, nice, smiley person that I’m not just to get my friend back!” (Chapter 17)
Chloe still doesn’t totally get it. She thinks that she basically has to put on a customer service persona in order for Adrien to be willing to talk to her again, and that’s not it. Her abandonment issues also play into it, with how her mom left her. I’m not surprised she’s willing to try to change herself this much with one of the few people who she actually really cares about staying away from her until she does. I feel some sympathy for her though. If Adrien wasn’t the kind of person that he is, if he was malicious, then Chloe would be in a REALLY bad situation with how far she’ll go to get him to be willing to be friends with her again. Someone could use her desperation to make her do things that she wouldn’t normally be willing to do. “Do this thing or I won’t be your friend anymore” is unfortunately a common tactic that kids sometimes use to get their ‘friends’ (though they’re not being very good friends generally if they’re using that) to do what they want. I’ve been on the receiving end of it before when I was younger. In this case it’s a useful tool and the best one Adrien has at his disposal to encourage Chloe to change her ways, but it’s very much a situational one that should be applied with great caution in the real world.
Come to think of it, that’s another reason why it’s really good that Marinette’s encouraging Chloe to find her own reason to want to be nicer, besides wanting to give her a reason that’s likely to last longer than “I want my friend to talk to me again”. Because even in situations like this where using the whole “I won’t be your friend anymore” thing is warranted like this one, it’s still not a great thing to use, to force someone to change or else you’ll withhold affection/friendship/love until they change themselves, especially fundamentally. Good to get that person onto a better, less potentially dangerous reason as soon as possible.
Marinette’s face softens as she regards Chloé, who snarls and looks away, crossing her arms. “Then don’t do it for Adrien,” Marinette says. “That’s what I’ve been telling you. Find a reason why you want to be nice.”
“I don’t have a reason! Don’t you get it? Why should I want to be nice when I can get everything I want anyway?”
“You didn’t end up being class president. You’re always getting kidnapped by akumas with a vendetta. No one apart from Sabrina and Adrien likes you, and Sabrina’s more of a servant than a friend. Those are three good reasons.”
“Whatever, miss perfect know-it-all. Come on, we’re supposed to be at the nurse’s office.” (Chapter 17)
Chloe doesn’t try to deny the truth of any of this, which is especially interesting with Sabrina, that she’s getting to accept that she’s treated her that way. Chloe calling Marinette a “know-it-all” for this is basically her backhanded way of saying “yeah, you’re right”.
And then Marinette hits on it. A reason for Chloe to be nice that doesn’t require holding a relationship hostage to do so, that also isn’t super transactional.
As Chloé storms for the door, Marinette scrambles for one last line of reasoning as to why Chloé should keep being nice. Finally, as Chloé’s pushing the door open, Marinette blurts out, “What about Ladybug?”
Chloé freezes. “What about her?”
“You’re her number one fan, right? Well…why not do it so you can be the kind of person Ladybug would love to have as her number one fan?”
“Are you implying that she doesn’t see me or want me as her number one fan?” Chloé arches an eyebrow as she turns, letting the door slam shut again. Marinette gulps. Now she has to be careful with how she navigates this, or she’ll end up either outing herself or offending Chloé into hating Ladybug again.
“I never said that,” Marinette says slowly. “Look, if you truly can’t do it for yourself, do it to become a person that Ladybug would be proud of. I know I try every day to strive to be the kind of person that Ladybug would approve of. And once you’re in the habit of being nice, who knows? Maybe you’ll find that you really do enjoy having people like you and want to do nice things for you because they like you and not because they fear you.” (Chapter 17)
Marinette hit upon the key here: leverage one of the few people’s opinions Chloe DOES care about, does respect, but without needing to say that Ladybug would drop Chloe as a fan or wouldn’t be willing to spend time with her at all. Wanting to change partly for Ladybug’s approval. It’s not the best possible reason to be nice, but it’s a better one than she has currently, and can get her further on the path to being nice because she cares about other people’s thoughts and feelings as a whole. And it’s one that Chloe seems to take under serious consideration.
Chloe continues trying to be nice, even giving Marinette a birthday gift even though she wasn’t invited to her party. Things heat up a bit once Befana shows up and calls Marinette a ‘spoilt brat’, something Chloe objects to.
“You’re really calling Dupain-Cheng a spoilt brat?” Chloé’s scoff reaches Chat Noir’s ears. “Lavillant might be an airy-fairy princess, but she was actually right for once. Dupain-Cheng’s so disgustingly nice that she makes me want to hurl.” (Chapter 20)
This is a decent preview of the sort of “niceness” that Chloe’s good at naturally; not the nicest terminology, and she still insults Rose, but she’s clearly sticking up for Marinette. She’s good at brutal honesty, which can be very useful, but she needs to train herself out of throwing snide asides at other people.
Marinette actually ends up inviting Chloe to stay afterwards.
“Of course you’d be hiding,” Chloé scoffs. “It’s not like you were in the action like moi. Ladybug would be so proud that I stood up to that tacky akuma.”
“She sure would!” Marinette says. “Chloé…do you and Sabrina want to stay for the party? None of us would mind.”
Her classmates immediately school their faces into totally neutral expressions.
“Oh, no, of course we don’t mind,” Alya says with what looks like a painful smile.
“Yeah, you’re totally welcome,” Alix says through gritted teeth. Chloé smirks around at them, no doubt able to tell that it’s causing them great pain to pretend that they don’t mind her being there.
“Well, I suppose I can cancel my hair appointment this time,” Chloé says. “I’ll stay, Dupain-Cheng. It’ll be…nice.” Her face twists. (Chapter 20)
Chloe’s preening a lot, but at least she’s preening for decent reasons. No one wants to be around Chloe still and she seems happy with their discomfort, but she’s being civil (if a bit haughty) so they are as well. Civility is definitely an improvement.
Chloe’s also sticking up for Adrien even though he’s not talking to her much right now, like when Lila falsely accuses Adrien of assaulting her.
“You what?” Chloé says shrilly. “How dare you? My Adrikins would never treat anyone like that! He’s so sickly sweet that he probably felt worse than you when he rejected you.”
“Thanks, Chlo,” Adrien says quietly. Chloé shoots him a small smile, with none of her usual smugness or nastiness, and tosses her ponytail. The message in her eyes is crystal clear: even if they’re not technically friends right now, she’s always got his back. (Chapter 23)
This is just her protecting her friend for his own sake. It’s been shown before, but… yeah, this is the kind of thing where it’s really good to see it interwoven throughout the narrative, showing that it’s not a one-time thing or something she just states, but is actively demonstrated as well.
Zombizou still happens, which in this case means Chloe backslid a little. Which is pretty realistic, that happens. Which gets Ladybug, Rena, and Chat talking about what do about it.
“Yeah,” Rena Rouge says. “A kissing zombie? And here I thought Chloé was trying to be better rather than ruining birthday gifts and getting our teacher akumatised. She went to Marinette’s party, for god’s sake, and she hates Marinette.”
“Maybe she just relapsed?” Chat Noir says. “I know it can be hard to move past stuff that’s so…well, force of habit. And she’s had a bit of a rough family life.”
“That’s still no excuse,” Ladybug says. “A friend of mine has also had a rough family life and he’s one of the sweetest people I know. But…maybe Chloé does need support. Not coddling, but just enough support to keep her on the right track.” (Chapter 26)
I’m really glad Ladybug was thinking about this. Because Adrien withdrawing support may have been what prompted Chloe to change, but just leaving her without sufficient support is unlikely to be helpful. Ties into my analysis of how Ladybug interacts with Alya, actually; she’s not really focused here on any sort of punishment for Chloe, though she’s definitely not fond of her, but is instead thinking in terms of “Ok, now how can I help Chloe grow to reach her potential?” I think she might subconsciously thinking about her in a similar way to how she thinks of her teammates, which is fitting considering that Chloe joins the team later.
Ladybug goes to talk to Chloe later that night, questioning her about what happened.
At first Chloe puts up her usual haughty, arrogant façade.
“Chloé, you can drop the bravado,” Ladybug says. “I know you’ve been trying to be nicer. Why did you ruin Marinette’s gift?”
Chloé snorts loudly. “Perfect princess Dupain-Cheng? She thinks she’s just oh so good. And how dare Sabrina just tell the class about my mother like that! Dupain-Cheng had it coming.”
Ladybug bites down on her tongue so hard that she’s left with a faint metallic taste. “I hardly think that Marinette’s intention was to make you look bad,” she says dryly. “Especially since she’s been helping you become nicer.” (Chapter 27)
It crumples quickly however. Even in the show she opens up to Ladybug in a way she doesn’t with most other people, and in this scenario where she’s already opening up to Marinette, allowing herself to be slightly more vulnerable than she’s used to being? It doesn’t take long to break.
“Forget it.” Chloé slouches back in her seat and crosses her arms, blinking rapidly. Is she…about to cry? Chloé Bourgeois, crying? “I’ll never be nice. Why even bother trying?”
“Because you can’t keep lashing out, Chloé,” Ladybug says. “I know there’s probably history with your mum, and I’m not going to insist that you talk to me about it, but…other people have hard lives as well and they don’t turn it on everyone else.”
“Yeah? Well, none of them are me,” Chloé snaps. “I’ve got everything I want. Daddy gives me everything. I’ve got a devoted best friend. And it’s never enough. It’s never enough.” She hunches over and covers her face with her hands. “I don’t even know what more I want. How the fuck am I supposed to give others what they want? Why should I even care?” (Chapter 27)
This breakdown is different from the other times she’s questioned why she should care. Those times, she was questioning Marinette. This time, she’s questioning HERSELF.
And as much bad blood as Marinette has with Chloe, she still has an idea of what Chloe might actually want here, even though she herself doesn’t seem to know.
“I think you just want someone to understand you,” Ladybug says softly. (Chapter 27)
Sabrina might be there for Chloe, might serve her, but… well, Chloe doesn’t really engage her as an equal. Her father’s technically there, but he doesn’t really engage with her as a person either – he either rolls over for her and does what she wants and occasionally puts his foot down on her behavior when pressured. He ends up playing a role kinda similar to what Sabrina does, relationship-wise.
But Chloe doesn’t need just another sycophant. She needs someone who really talks WITH her and tries to understand her as a person.
And then there’s Chloe’s mother, who makes up a large part of Chloe’s issues.
“I’m sorry.” Ladybug reaches over and rests a hand on Chloé’s. Chloé gasps but she doesn’t pull away or give any other indication of discomfort. “I can’t imagine what it must be like to have a parent like that. But that’s not an excuse, Chloé.”
“I just want her to love me!” Chloé stomps her foot. “I tell myself I don’t care and then I see her and it’s like there’s a switch that just flips. She’s my mother, but she treats me like – like I’m a nobody! Like I mean nothing to her even though she’s the one who gave birth to me, so you’d think there’d be some affection!”
“I get that.” How long has Chloé been bottling this up? “But how do you think everyone else feels when you take those feelings and push them on the people around you?”
“You think I don’t know that?” Chloé says. “It makes me feel…good. Like they can have half a goddamn clue how I feel.” (Chapter 27)
Taking out anger and pain on others can feel good in the moment, and that’s what Chloe’s been operating on all this time. At her core, I think Chloe’s jealous of everyone else for having people who care about them, for having parents who care about them as people in particular, for not having been treated like a piece of garbage by one of the people who should be the most compassionate and understanding towards you. Which might also factor into why Chloe connected with Adrien in a way she hasn’t with anyone else, even though she hasn’t been isolated the way he was – he DOES have a crappy parent who doesn’t give him affection and treats him badly, though he DID at least have a halfway decent parent as well in this universe (whether Emilie was a good, or even just an okay parent in canon is still very much unknown).
It doesn’t help that Chloe’s view of niceness is very skewed and limited, that she thinks it only means being very sugary sweet and uplifting. Ladybug expands on what she means, and shows her how she can be nice in her own way. Well… maybe not exactly NICE, but constructive and not actively harmful.
Hmm.” Ladybug chews her lip, struggling to find the words that Chloé needs to hear. “You don’t have to be sugary sweet. There’s nothing wrong with being blunt and snarky. But you don’t have to be hurtful as well. You could just as easily turn that bluntness into helpful honesty and that snark into banter. And people will see that you’re trying. I’m sure of it.”
“Wait, so I can be a raging bitch and still be a good person?” Chloé says. “Because that’s probably at least achievable within my lifetime.”
“Well, probably not a raging bitch,” Ladybug says. “But you don’t have to be sugary sweet. Just…work on being less nasty. It’s as simple as not being mean. Don’t say the mean thing you were going to say. Instead, turn it into a snarky half-compliment if you can. Baby steps. But you have to consistently try.” (Chapter 27)
This is a really good path to set her on. One that doesn’t involve completely changing her entire persona and ways of interacting with people, but more modifying it, along with exercising some self-restraint. It seems to really click for Chloe what Ladybug means here in a way that it didn’t back when Marinette was trying to explain being nice before.
“Okay, fine,” Chloé says. “I’ll turn myself into the jerk with a heart of gold trope.” (Chapter 27)
Fiction’s great for this kind of thing, and I’m glad she’s found something to latch onto to help her understand the trajectory she’s on, to kind of use for mental scaffolding. She displays the same sort of self-awareness later that chapter.
“I’m going to pretend that you didn’t just imply that Chat Noir can compare to Ladybug, for the sake of my redemption arc,” Chloé says loudly. (Chapter 27)
It’s encouraging to see her thinking of this as a redemption arc, as her being in the wrong originally and needing to change, and for her trying to get to a destination of being a better person. It’s not transactional anymore, there’s been a fundamental shift in her method of thought about this whole thing. It’s not just a means to an end, but an end in and of itself, something that she seems to see value in achieving. It helps that she seems to actually UNDERSTAND what Marinette meant, what Adrien meant before about being nice. Which to be fair, the way they phrased it as, well, being “nice”, wasn’t best impression of how they wanted her to change. Now that she understands though, now that it’s clicked, she’s on board. She can see how she can be herself AND have support, have friends, and be decent friends to them in turn. She’s got a pretty good handle on it in her banter with her classmates.
“Yeah, which means all you bitches have to get in line behind me,” Chloé says.
“How about you go fuck yourself, Bourgeois?” Alix calls back down at her.
“Eat my entire arse, Kubdel.”
“Yeah, I’m sure this is exactly what we meant by being a good person,” Marinette jokes, seizing the change in subject with both hands like a lifeline so that she doesn’t have to keep hearing about how her classmates would do her alter ego.
“I’m becoming a better person, not turning into a saint, Dupain-Cheng.” (Chapter 27)
She’s altering her tone enough so it’s not outright mean, even if it’s still pretty… colorful, and so that she’s not punching down.
Now that she’s got the basic idea of how she can be her own brand of “good” and “nice”, and sees a reason to aim for it? Now that she’s acknowledging why she’s often nasty in the first place? Now, she’s ready for the climax of her character development.
Her mother comes to visit like in canon, and Marinette tries to get them bond over their nastiness (which seriously, that was weird even in canon), something she recognizes as a mistake. Then Malediktator happens, causing her to go talk to Chloe, like what happened in the actual episode – but with more depth this time.
“I – I –” Chloé swallows and takes a shaky breath. Ladybug smiles and nods in encouragement, and that’s all Chloé needs to let the floodgates slam open. “It – It was me. I hurt my daddy's feelings. Because I want to leave Paris forever!”
“Because of what happened in school with the video?” Ladybug says, and Chloé blanches. “I’m sure your classmates didn’t mean to be so harsh –”
“Oh, it’s not them,” Chloé sniffles. “Actually, I don’t even care about any of them, except Sabrina. It’s because I have no reason to be here – nobody likes me, my only friend is Sabrina and I know I treat her like shit, Adrien’s still not my friend, I can’t do anything – I’m…the only thing I am good at is screwing everything up. And I caused this mess, and I’m sorry, Ladybug, I’m sorry.” (Chapter 33)
Chloe cares. She just… doesn’t feel like she’s capable of being a better person, of not screwing things up, of ACHIEVING something. Her mom appearing and making her feel like crap certainly doesn’t help. Plus, these sorts of feelings happen even when people DO and ARE in a supportive environment; Marinette has wonderful parents and… ok she was bullied by Chloe, but that was about it. And she gets these feelings too, to the extent that she didn’t think she could be Ladybug at first, and that after she messed up, she tried to give her Miraculous to Alya. And while Ladybug can’t tell Chloe THAT, obviously, she does let her know she’s not alone in feeling that way.
“You think I’ve always been Ladybug?” Ladybug says. “You think all of my achievements have been behind this mask? I happened to be in the right place at the right time. The costumes don’t make us anything; all they do is give us powers and enhance what’s already there. We don’t need our powers to be heroes. I’ve seen how hard you’re trying and how far you’ve come.”
“It’s still not enough.” A sob wracks Chloé’s body, and she hunches over as though trying to contain it. “My classmates have given up on me. Even Marinette Dupain-Cheng told my mother how nasty I am. Was she just trying to sabotage me? Ugh, I bet she was –” (Chapter 33)
There’s this recurring line of thought Chloe has. That whatever she tries, whatever her reasons, whatever she tries to do or get, it’s not enough. She honestly has a pretty low opinion of herself, but tries to hide it beneath bravado and arrogance. Actually kinda similar to Chat’s swagger and show-offiness, except that his antics and attitude don’t have a mean bite to them.
I think… at her core, she always wanted to be enough for her mother. That she thought that maybe, just maybe, if she was better, or different, then perhaps her mother would love her. Wouldn’t have left her. Wouldn’t treat her the way she does. That no matter what she tries, how hard she tries, even if others appear to give her a chance, in the end she’ll always fail and be abandoned. That she will always be a failure.
“Ladybug brought me here,” illusion Marinette says. “I heard everything. And I’m sorry for what I said to your mother.”
“Why would you say that?” Chloé stomps her foot. “You say I have to be a good person, then you turn around and tell her what a bitch I am!”
Illusion Marinette’s mouth droops. “I saw how much it meant to you, getting your mother’s approval. I just…I guess I wanted to help, but I went about it entirely wrong. I’m sorry, Chloé, I shouldn’t have done that.”
“You don’t need the approval of someone like that,” Ladybug says. “Remember our talk months ago? You’ve got support if you want it, Chloé, but you have to make the effort to not slip back into those behaviours.” (Chapter 33)
Ladybug makes things clear. That she won’t stand, that Marinette won’t stand, for Chloe going back to how she was, that she has to try… but also making it clear that so long as she DOES try, she won’t abandon her, that she’ll give her support. That it’s not a matter of achieving it or not, so long as she’s at least making an honest attempt. That that’s enough. That she hasn’t failed.
Ladybug goes into a bit more detail on how Chloe can be “good” without being sweet, exactly. Chloe sort of got the idea before, but she needs more reinforcement.
“I know it’s a tough lesson to learn, but you have to learn it,” Ladybug says. “The people you’ve bullied aren’t obligated to forgive you. You should continue to grow whether they forgive you or not; to become a better person because it’s the right thing to do.”
“But I can’t be nice. And I know you told me I just have to be good, but no one’ll believe that I’m trying if I’m not sickly sweet! They’ll just shake their heads and be like, “well, there she goes again”.”
“And like I said before, you don’t have to be nice,” Ladybug says. “There are ways that you can make yourself a better person without sacrificing who you are. You can speak your mind without being mean, you know. Tell others what you think but also tell them what you’d do. Give them another perspective. Not everyone will appreciate or ask for it, but it’s at least better than just outright saying mean things. You can turn a negative comment into a snarky comment. You can direct your negativity towards evil and doing the right thing while you figure out how to become genuinely good. You can use your attitude for good rather than evil.” (Chapter 33)
It’s not really all that new information, but… well, often people DO need things like this to be reaffirmed, to be restated, to be expanded on. It’s the final reiteration of this advice, to really drive it home.
And Ladybug asks Chloe to make her a promise.
“I mean…” Chloé takes a deep breath. “I guess if I can’t be nice, I can at least be…good. But how? I don’t exactly have a moral compass like Dupain-bloody-Cheng.”
“Maybe you should see someone?” Ladybug says. “A professional? I know Marinette’s been helping you, but she and I can’t be solely responsible for guiding you. Look, do you promise to keep trying your best? To work each day to become a better person and to reach out for help if you need it, rather than pushing people away?” (Chapter 33)
I’m glad Ladybug advised Chloe to see a professional; getting help from her peers is a good first step, but… if at all possible, it really SHOULD be a professional that helps someone handle this sort of thing, especially when the other peers are kids themselves.
But back to the promise. This promise is the culmination of Chloe’s character arc, the thing she needs to keep striving for, and something that’s been explained and that Marinette has worked on her with to the point that it’s achievable. This is what she needs to internalize for the redemption arc to succeed.
She agrees, and Ladybug gives her the Bee Miraculous once again, with Chloe promising not to screw up this time.
And she doesn’t; she performs admirably and willingly tries to give back the Miraculous even before Ladybug asks, showing that she’s trustworthy enough to keep it.
That’s pretty much the end of her redemption arc there. She’s around and present quite a bit with her being on Team Miraculous, but it’s mostly just a continuing of the same mindset as she’d been trying, as Marinette had been trying to foster in her, since her redemption arc began. I appreciate that she’s still around post-redemption and has a significant role – I’ve seen bully characters disappear before once their redemption arc is over, since they apparently had no other role or reason to be in the show aside from that, and I find that annoying. But there’s not really as much for me to analyze concerning it.
Overall I really loved Chloe’s redemption arc. In the other cases I’ve seen her redeemed it’s often through her either having a personality transplant so she’s just suddenly a different sort of character without having it explained how she got from Point A to Point B. She also tends to be redeemed through becoming a ‘savior’ of some sort, through doing some particular redemptive act. Which can still be good in its own right, don’t get me wrong, but I’m glad to see a version where she really has to put in the work to change her mindset and work on her redemption FIRST, and the sorts of more spectacular acts to put herself in people’s good graces, like her superhero work, come AFTER she’s done more mundane self-improvement. It feels more realistic to me, and like a good approach considering that her level of wrongdoing was on a more mundane, regular school bully level anyway.
Your analysis of Chloe's in your last post and in extend, the fic it basedfrom intrigued me. Personally I like how they pull Chloe's redemption here, it centered around her feelings with Adrien /as it should be/ considering even Gabriel said that they have a strong relationship. Unlike most if not all salt fic that depicted her redemption centered around her feeling with Mari which is a big nonsenses. Thank you for the analysis and fic recommendation!
Yeah it was a really great way to do it! Marinette was definitely key player in Chloe’s redemption here and that made sense, but her feelings surrounding Marinette being the motivation for a redemption? Even in Malediktator, she talked about how she doesn’t really care about Marinette. But we DO know she cares about what Adrien thinks.
Wanting to be better for Ladybug also works somewhat, like how it’s used in the fic, but... while she respects Ladybug and opens up to her, she hasn’t really gotten the chance to bond with her like she did with Adrien. Plus her feelings regarding Ladybug canonically are very tied in with her giving her the attention she wants and just generally making her feel special and needed, I think, considering how much it’s tied in with Ladybug giving her the Bee Miraculous, and how her faith in Ladybug starts breaking when she says she can’t do that anymore, even though she has a very good, easily demonstrable reason why she just can’t give it to her that doesn’t even have anything to do with Chloe as a person.
Which really makes me wonder what’ll happen concerning Chloe’s and Adrien’s dynamic in season 4. I doubt he’ll be too happy with her, but I doubt Chloe will be able to just turn off her desire for his affection and attention the way she tried with Ladybug. Her feelings concerning Ladybug are more that of a fan’s. Her feelings concerning Adrien are far more deeply rooted.
After many unfortunate events in London, Chloé started realising many things about her life step by step, and thus, she went to the so-wished redemption path, and you see how is she in the illustrations.
The fate I have for this fallen angel:
Mediator, karateka (featured with her savate skills), good sis, rebellious daughter, the definitive successor of Argos (Magistra Cristata), unscrupulous heroine, still swearing, with few friends, working hard to (try and) clean her reputation, and as the Peacock Miraculous implies, she ended keeping the infamous Secret...
A girlfriend? The love will come later...
And better fat and strong than boney and weak. And to keep her well-being, she must drink diuretics like green tea, as the doctor recommended her.
Disclaimer: actually I don't care what's new with her in canon. For canon!Chloé, her era of glory came to an end.
And now, let's dance, boys!
Divine, Prevolt / Armaros, Class Trial Resurrection Edition, SPEEDER, Voyage of Promise, Devil Trigger...
