#ml rant and opinion

[nothingtherefornow]

The thing that infuriated me the most in Confrontation

You know there a lot of things in this episode which left a sour taste in my mouth despite the fact that Lila's lies were finally revealed : Marinette's classmates huge lack of faith and apologies to her, Lila getting away free from heavy consequences with the harm she's done. Because Lila never really had anything significant to lose since she can just switch to her Cerise identity with whom she's also famous and popular among her class that she's successfully fooling, etc, etc.

And yet, there's one thing that really sets me off more than anything else during that episode

The fact that Adrien could have easily defended Marinette against Chloé and Lila false accusations, but remained silent while Lila was literally sprouting the most damaging lies about his girlfriend

Why do I say that Adrien could have been Marinette's perfect defender in this situation ? Because of this :

Adrien personally delivered his orientation file directly to Chloé and Lila, contrary to all the other orientations sheets which were delivered to Marinette when she was still class representative.

And what lie did Lila used to imply that Marinette must have been the one to falsify the orientations sheets ?

that's it, that the exact moment Adrien should have said something, because he knows what he put on his orientation sheet, we know that Lila and Chloé falsified his, and he thus knows that they were the only ones who could have falsified his orientation sheet.

Even if Lila woudl have probably managed to find another lie to discredit Adrien's words and pass him off as a boyfriend blinded by his love and ready to do anything to defend his girlfriend, in an episode where everyone else seems to believe that their friend Marinette is capable of such a horrible thing, Adrien's support would have been very welcomed, if only to bring a little good to a character who receives very little in this series. And yet nothing

Seriously ml writters ? Why give Adrien golden balls in episodes like Derision and Protection, if its to take them back episodes later when Marinette needs a better support system more than ever ?

[nothingtherefornow]

To people saying Chloe and Lila would be hated if they werent white, as a POC woman I can say this. No. They’d still get people stanning them purely for skin color. Because in the minds of some people, if any writes a POC as anything other than a pure innocent angel they are RACIST.

Why do people like defending rotten wicked characters so much to the point of staning or excusing those character's evil actions and behavior ?

I know that nuanced villains are trendy right now, the kind of antagonist whose evil stems from a traumatic past, or whose intentions are noble but their methods immorals. And it's true that the writing of those kinds of characters is captivating to follow it's well written.

But sometimes, a character that is inherently evil in nature without any valid reason is also entertaining to follow. Lots of Disney villains for example, like Jafar, Scar, the first version of Maleficient, Dr Facilier, Frollo, Mother Gothel, etc... really embody a form of pure evil with no undertone of good in them, and yet we love them anyway without making excuses for their bad deeds all the time

Even if Chloe's behavior can be explained by having an abusive mother, Chloe is a character who, between seasons 4 and 5, embraced his evil nature and joy in hurting others.

She still had a chance to change and follow the right path between seasons 2 and 3, but between heroism and evil, Chloe has chosen evil, because deep down her selfishness and her ego are the dominant aspects of her personality.

In Chloe's head since being a hero didn't get her what she wanted, she would get it by becoming a villain, from then on Chloe is an antagonist, and we should appreciate her as such instead of trying to pass her off as the misunderstood anti-heroine that she is not

And wathever Lila's past is, she's going to far for her actions to be justified or easilly forgiven.

Lila is literally willing to help a dangerous villain terrorizing all of Paris and willing to help him endanger people just to get her petty revenge against those who barelly offended her. the one who could eventually truly warrant her hatred is Gabriel after Revelation, and yet

SPOILERS WARNING

It seems Lila will only content herself with seizing all of Gabriel's secrets and stealing his miraculous, while Marinette was once again be the victim and the scapegoat of Lila's rage and frustration in Revelation and Confrontation.

And not just Marinette, in Confrontation, Lila's plan involves also ruining the academic, even professional future of her classmates who have always been kind to her, and believed and supported her all this time. And yet she still planned to stab them like that just to put it all on Marinette's ? Or whas it because Lila actually takes a liking to the idea of ​​ruining innocent people's life. What can possibly justify such a despicable act? I tell you : NOTHING !!!

And finally, Lila isn't an harmless con artist, she is one fooling many women into thinking she is their daugther (which is emotionally abusive and neglectfull to those poor women), and attending two school at the same times under two different identities (thus excessively abusing the trust of her classmates, teachers and school mates). This is going to far just to get attention and affection

END OF SPOILER WARNING

Lila just seems to really craves the same thing that Chloé herself enjoys, crushing people's dreams and lives just because she can

From a moral point of view, Marinette absolutely does not deserve all the shit Lila inflicts on her, the hatred that Lila feels towards the two alter egos of Maribug is more gratuitous than justified. It is not just about a girl that Lila sees as a threat because she knows hier lies, Lila actually seems to be acting out of pure envy, jealousy, and desire to hurt when Marinette is concerned.

No matter what Lila's past and true attentions are, it doesn't justify nor excuse the real harm she does around her, and the same applies to Chloé as well. Because before they got exposed, Lila and Chloé weren't alone, they had people who guenuinly loved them and cared for them, they could have stopped and satisfied themselves with what they already had, which was already a lot. But they didn't.

Lila and Chloé don't necessarily want love nor affection that much, what they crave the most fame, popularity, attention and power more than anything else, and they are willing to do everything to get what they want, they are willing to become villains and hurt people for that. Character like that are not misunderstood victims, they are real bad and toxic people that you wouldn't want to forgive if you were victim of their worst misdeeds

[nothingtherefornow]

Marinette and Adrien's classmates aren't nearly as bad as I thought

Marinette and Adrien's classmates aren't that good of friends, but if you compare them to the kinds of classmates you find in real life, Marinette's class, excluding Chloe, Sabrina and Lila, is more tight-knit and caring than what you see in real life.

A friend of mine helped me realize this. While we saw in Derision that fear kept the classmates from really befrienind Marinette and from coming to her defens, some still tried to be supportive of her when Chloe's back was turned. At this point in the story they still lack the courage that the influence of Ladybug and a more confident Marinette will bring them.

But its better than what my friend called the mass effect, the effect under which it is enough for the most popular or influential student in the class or school to start harassing somoene for the others students to start participating in the bullying too. Either out of fear, or because they want to feel integrated by following the movement of the herd, as foul as it is.

My friend told me that when she was in middle school, she didn't do anything to protect one of her classmate who was bullied, because she was afraid of being bullied too.

If Marinette's classmates had been less benevolent, more stupid and cowardly (and they already are in the story) they would also have participated in the bullying of Marinettes, and would not even have bothered trying to speak to her when Chloé wasn't looking.

At least in Miraculous, Chloé and Sabrina seem to be the only bullies in the class, and Kim still needed be manipulated by the Bourgeois girl for his pranking and teasing to become really harmfull. And althoug he seems to have becomea bully in season 1 with Chloé's influence, from season 2 he stopped being one.

But my friend agrees with me that that the classmates still shouldn't blindly trust Lila if they were good friends. That's why we theorized that they're afraid to speak out against Lila or doubt her, because ifby now they've gained the courage to rebel against Chloe who is always openly mean to everyone, Lil's nice girl act and the fact that she likes to play the victim must probably dissuade them from contradicting her words and her opinion. But if Marinette constantly has to pay for their fear and cowardice, if they prioritize Lila's well-being over Marinette's, then that makes them bad friends to her in my book. But they're still good ad heroic people, and that I can't deny

[nothingtherefornow]

When Chloe was giving Death Threats, (Sole Crusher, Penalteam) do you think she was speaking metaphorically or was She Serious?

Oh she was definitly serious. Chloé is the kind of person who has a complete detached and messed up view about the world and people. She thinks she's above consequences, that people "lesser than her" only exist to suffer for own entertainment or to serve her.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that the current Chloé doesn't care about killing people and would remain unphased if somoene died directly because of her. But we saw that Chloé is not that smart, to not say that she really sounds stupid sometimes (not even knowing what the word generous means -_- seriously ?) so I think Chloé is the kind of person who doesn't realize what death and murder really entail.

She would only grasp the horror of killing once it was done, like a child who would have a tantrum without the necessary maturity to understand the horror of taking a life.

But the fact that Chloe is fully aware that her actions can ruin lives, and that she is eager to make others suffer and rob them of their dreams and their future is already very disturbing. If she continues to grow with the mentality that she has, she might cross a threshold where she would absolutely not be disturbed by the idea of ​​taking one or many lives, unless they are people to whom she really care about, and we know that there is no longer anyone Chloé loves in a truly healthy and sincere way.

Perhaps her affection for her dad, mother, Sabrina and Adrien were sincere at one point, but in the season 3 finale not only does she state that she doesn't love anyone anymore (not as anything other than possession at least), but Loveeater retorts that Chloé loves herself. I'm not a psychiatrist or a psychologist, but I don't think a narcissist who grows up having no real love or affection for anyone is able to grasp the value of a life. I think at this point in the story, Chloe only sees other people as toys that can either please her, upset her, or take up space.

It's really tragic to know that there is kids like Chloé in real life who grow up with this absence or lack of care and consideration for life, because of bad/abusive parenting, bad influence or just because they're aren't medically sane and don't necessarily need a sad and tragic background to become bad and rotten to the core over the years like Lila.