Why I believe Zoé does deserve her miraculous, even if her methods are flawed
Since Zoé is my favorite character and no one else is going to defend her on tumblr, I might as well take the responsibility myself. And I know that this post won’t get that far since Zoé is already a pretty dicey character for reasons outside of her control and grendiaper didn’t help all that much… if they already didn’t have this much hatred towards her characters. I know it’s been at least one day since the episode released and I just have to be patient but eh, I've been seeing a lot of hate for her already and it's boiling me up already. I know what you’re going to say “Zoé did terrible things and should be punished for it?!” But like most of those people that say, defend Chloé like crazy and act like she’s valid for doing the things she did, so it’s more of a sense of hypocrisy on their part than anything. Yes this will contain spoilers for season 6 episode 14, Grendiaper, if you haven’t watched that episode I advise you do that by watching it on miraculous.to or other ways you can watch the episode. That being said, I want to start this by discussing some of the problematic elements in the episode.
~The Problematic Elements~
Now, I’m not an expert on this topic and I’m not going to act like I am. At best, I’m black and nonbinary while still being feminine presenting, that’s the best I can offer and even then that’s not much or at all, it’s a perspective I can offer but it’s not contribute to it if I don’t know the topic that well. So I would rather you go and read posts by @sillysiluriforme and @wisteriasymphony , their posts on this topic are pretty well done, particularly this one by silly, explains things pretty well despite it not being about the episode fully. They have a lot more information about this topic than I do right now, so please give them a follow and please do reblog their posts about these topics. I also wanted to take responsibility for brushing off previous comments and concerns about this show's stereotypes which was about Shriel and Aton. I was being ignorant at the time and I take full responsibility for that, and I’ll try not to repeat that behavior moving forward.
I’ll be honest, I never saw the problem elements fully in the episode except the thugs when they included a black man part in their group with him being dark skin and I think an Asian coded man, though he’s a bit harder to tell. While these types of people can exist and do exist but the fact he’s one of the darkest black characters in the show and how he’s dressed in street wear or lac, definitely doesn’t help at all in his portrayal and how this will reflect the show runners and the crew as whole. There’s also the fact that Loïc, part of the chopped trio, has a style resembling Lactose TN or what I know as streetwear here in the USA. The fact Loïc is angry, stupid, aggressive, and the one doing the most intimidating actions in the group was definitely a problem, which was highlighted in the sleeping syren more than in Grendiaper. The reason I didn’t notice is because I didn’t think of him as black or African, I didn’t even know Maghrebi was a group in the first place until I saw silly’s post and went on to do my own research. There’s no reason to give him or those thugs that type of style, especially Loïc since he hangs out with Ray and Nelson, so why not put him in a preppy style like theirs. Seriously though Loïc being styled and portrayed this way, really does make the crew look ignorant and irresponsible. As for the Thugs, while there is one black man, I am also skeptical that the guy with the glasses is possibly East Asian but it’s hard to tell with his glasses blocking his eyes. As for the guy in the red and black jacket, I honestly thought he was white man and he might as well be white but it doesn’t mean I should brush that off since silly pointed out that he does share similar features of the Maghrebi. But again, we don’t fully know, especially me since I’m not French and we don’t have the English dub. This does make the crew look, again, ignorant, not intentionally racist but very much white and not recognizing how this could be considered problematic.
The bus driver and possibly Sam are also people of color, especially the bus driver. There’s no fucking reason why the bus driver has dark skin, like there no reason, why did the crew make him have dark skin tone? Did none of them think this would backfire and make them look ignorant and racist. My god, this is such dumb decision and it could've been easily avoided. As for Sam, we can presume that he’s mixed or Asian since it is revealed later in the episode that Maya is his sister. But they don’t even look alike, which makes me think that they possibly are step siblings. Though we don’t have confirmation of that, and we can only go by their character designs and even then characters like Luka and Juleka look nothing alike and they’re twins. So anything goes with genetics in this show and real life. But the fact the boy has ethnic features like his hooked nose, his slender black eyes, and tan skin shows that clearly. Again, this makes things look worse for the crew and creator and sadly, Zoé.
The show doesn’t portray it in a way where these characters are being targeted because of their race, Zoé targets them because they’re bad people and were generally just acting unreasonable and selfish, harassing people as well. This does include Ray, Nelson, Bob Roth, and possibly Loïc since the show hasn’t really hinted to him being a man of color since he and Nelson have very similar skin tones. But this show should’ve done different character designs for some of these characters like the bus driver, and even the thugs. Heck the mother and her baby that was getting bothered by Sam, could’ve been black or any other race that wasn’t just white.
There’s also the fact that there are people like these characters out there in the world, and they can come in many different ways despite race and ethnicity. And the episode doesn’t focus on that being the reason why these people were being targeted, it’s quite literally they’re shitty people and needed to put in their place because no one else would do it and they assume they’re just learning on their own is just as harmful.
It just that the show really decided to have most of the victims of these asshole be white, with the exception of Max, possible the elderly woman that has walker, and Sam’s baby sister and possibly other moms and their babies because Vesperia say videos, which hints that Sam has been doing it to every mom and baby he sees. But it doesn’t erase how people can connect the dots and point out the problematic elements behind it, I can see why people would see it that way. But Ngl, pointing to these and making it out to Zoé being racist is extreme not gonna lie. Especially since again, she didn’t target them for their race and ethnicity. As for the scene where she smiles at Roger putting the bullies in their place by saying to them that trash man is doing his job, which is something to be happy about, seeing someone who is rich and powerful like ray getting put in their place. Especially since she also smiled at Nora putting those thugs in their place with her, challenging them to fight her if they were to threaten André into giving them a refund again. And that was the scene before the Roger scene. Look Roger is a dick and a terrible cop but Grendiaper isn’t the first time they portrayed him as understanding and kind. Heck Qilin, the very episode that made it clear that both Sabine and Roger were the same because of this principle bullshit Roger has, despite Sabine being targeted for Chinese since she quite literally explained herself to him and the ticket conductor. And by the end of it, he gets off with a simple apology, sure he admits that it was wrong of him to do that to Sabine but they went way too easy on this guy. Overall, this show has always been like cops aren’t bad at all with Roger being the primary example of this. This topic is nuanced and we need to stop acting like this is just a black and white issue, especially since Zoé is racist jokes and accusations are getting tiresome especially from some of those people that still would rather have Chloé as the bee holder when she has done those racist things and mean it. If those people can ignore that and still do, then they can’t really be acting like they care about Zoé being accused as racist. Again, Silly and Wistera make good points but they’re flawed in making those jokes as well, I’m not hating on them or even disagreeing with them, just pointing it out. I hope that I made that clear and why I don’t see it that way. Now let’s continue this with Zoé being an antihero.
Zoé the Antihero or Vigilante?
This is something that has also caused discussion and posts about Zoé not being a proper antihero and how she was a psycho in this episode, and Ngl, this is in bad faith and I don’t think most people know what an antihero is. Antiheroes in definition are ones who are heroes but don’t have qualities that would make them idealistic or morally righteous. An example of antihero is Deadpool, who quite literally does heroic and teams up with other heroes but for his own selfish reasons, most of it from what I hear is just for cash. Meanwhile, the vigilante is a person that matters into their own hands without considering legal authority and takes law enforcement into their own hands. An example of this would be Peter Parker in some adaptations, where he often takes matters into his own hands and not really considering getting the police or the compared to other heroes, heck after uncle Ben’s death, he goes after the guy that killed him and tries to kill him himself for revenge. There’s probably more examples of Peter being a vigilante but since I don’t know the character that well, I can only go that far.
So where does Zoé/Fury land into this? Well the episode showed me clearly that she’s a vigilante like Spiderman. Throughout the episode in the later half, we see fury commit some crazy stuff like leaving Bob Roth at the Eiffel Tower, The chopped trio getting stuff on a rollercoaster, the thugs strapped to forced watch a musical, the bus driver getting jump scared by the black panther (no she didn’t leave him in there, she just put him in front of the pen), and finally Sam getting put in a diaper with rattle and pacifier in his mouth. All of these is something that Spider-Man would definitely do, especially when he’s Zoé’s age. Bro is not immune to not embarrassing others or leaving people in dangerous situations because fuck it, they’re deserve it and their going to get their karma the hard way. And this is the mentality Zoé has during her time as Fury and pulling these stunts. She was quite literally thinking “They were rude and cruel to others for no reason other than their selfish behavior, so I’m gonna put them in their place to teach them a lesson.” Which is something I think Spider-Man has got through when he was still figuring out being a hero. Heck Fury’s suit could literally be a reference when Spider-Man had the symbiotie suit and got more cruel and impulsive with his actions and decisions.
Heck the reason she targets them specifically is because they did some pretty awful shit beforehand that Zoé seems firsthand and them not getting their actions brushed off and not getting punished by them. The chopped trio, liter, told sublime to not a enough room when they cut in front of her, took Sabrina’s book, try to sabotage Marinette and Adrien’s relationship because they felt like it (though that one was mild), and throughout Zoé couldn’t say shit because Ray blackmailing her into not exposing her secret (something we don’t get that much of a hint to). Oh and why couldn’t Zoé text Marinette about it is due to Ray finding out since it would be clear that Marinette would just find a way to stop Adrien from reading it which would signal him since both he and Zoé were hiding in respective hiding places and knew that the other was there, oh and they also took a ride at night in a speedboat despite being very young and putting soap in the river despite it being toxic and harmful to any of fish there. It’s not said in the episode but I got that clearly, the writers could’ve added a quick line about it. The thugs were literally threatening André by saying they would make a scene and scare any potential customers off from his business if he didn't give them a full refund and then harassed the pizza delivery guy into wanting to give them the pizza despite not being theirs to have. The bus driver basically ignored that man and his wheel chair bound child despite them being very close to the bus and not even giving an explanation why he did when Zoé pointed it out to him, decided that going home is important instead of just dropping off max and markov right quick at their destination location, they literally quite there at his stop and told him “fuck you, you can just called someone else to give you ride.” There’s also the fact that he didn’t try to stop Sam from harassing the mom and baby despite having the literal power to by just telling him to knock it off since he’s an authority figure that Sam has to follow. Bob Roth didn’t even try to understand that the elderly woman needed to get home and say that it’s a middle of a scene and that it’s wasting money if they stop despite it not taking that long to do it and him even stopping to talk to his intern about it. Then finally there’s Sam, who does have a reason for how he’s acting but it’s not an excuse for his actions since he’s quite literally taking it out on others that don’t deserve it, like he’s out here making videos about bothering and harassing some mom and babies because he got a new baby sister despite already having one in Maya. He was literally making multiple videos about this and that one woman and her baby are just examples of that, he also is cutting his baby sister’s diapers despite them costing a lot of money and her needing it. Like at that point, I would barely be understanding, sure he had a reason to, but that’s no fucking excuse for acting like this towards other, literally Ladybug, Chat Noir, and even Maya told him he shouldn’t be acting this like, Maya basically told him that he was acting like a baby. And he just brushed her off and just continued what he was doing before Fury interrupted that shit to embarrass him.
And honestly, bro brought this on himself, they all did. It’s literally called Karma for doing the things you do and despise getting called out on them, just ignore it away because they’re not really getting punished, they’re just getting told off and lecture. It’s no wonder, Zoé had enough of this crap and basically decided to do it herself because not like anyone else was going to do it. Especially Sam’s parents, who don’t even show up this episode, they literally are too busy with baby or the cafe because if you remember Maya’s dad that showed up in Illustrhater, he didn’t pay attention to Maya when she wanted to show her drawing, what makes you think he going to take the time and lecture his son about not pulling this crap. He didn’t, it was literally the heroes and them telling this kid that his behavior isn’t justified into pulling shit like making videos about harassing moms and their babies and cutting up your baby sister’s diapers. Heck that bus driver getting to see a black panther that he was outside of the pen, like it’s just the black panther being in the cage while he’s outside, was justified. He was shitty bus driver for all the things I explained beforehand, he legitimately didn’t care about wellbeing for others, might as well get that treatment of not having his own safety be considered. He’s lucky that he didn’t get put inside that pen with the black panther. If he isn’t going to care about others and their wellbeing, then why should we. Heck Batman, Spider-Man, and even Ben 10 would get why Zoé did it since they did similar things to their villains and characters that aren’t super villains but still did bad things. Because guess what, there are people like this, that refuse to learn or even acknowledge their own mistakes despite being told multiple times.
And here’s the thing that gets me, everyone keeps glossing over the fact that Zoé has tried the peaceful method first. She tried to get the chopped trio suspended from school, it doesn’t work since Mr. Damocles doesn’t do shit and they got bailed out by Ray’s dad. Sam in the bus, Zoé told him to hey that isn’t right and what’s he doing and he just ignored her and told her it’s hilarious. The bus driver, Zoé quite literally told him that dad and his wheelchair bound kid need to get on and when she told him again, he just ignored, ignored twice without giving her a solid reason. Bob Roth, the intern basically told him about the elderly lady and situation and he basically brushed it off because his concern is money. The thugs, she didn’t do anything because she transformed into fury and didn’t know what the heck was going on with it, despite wanting to jump in.
It basically was showcased throughout the whole episode of her emotions rising and basically boiling about the fact she couldn’t do anything about it, despite her being a superhero. And she didn’t even try to do anything as fury after her and ladybug talked about how they’re just reacting to these things and not doing anything to actually put a stop to it, and what does ladybug say? “Oh just stop them again and again, let education teach them.” This is such a flawed way of thinking because the characters have been told that hey you shouldn’t do that but ignore it anyway, it’s basically not doing anything and being bystanders. That’s not going to invoke change or anything, it's just letting them get away with it with a gentle lecture or a “Hey stop that.” That’s only going to let them do it more and more without actually receiving actual consequences to their actions.
What Zoé did was reckless and impulsive? Yes! The episode itself has Ladybug telling us, the audience, that this type of method only leads to violence, humiliation, and harassment as much as they did, it’s not justice if it leads to things like that. It basically reinforces that at least two times and it shows the consequences of that, something again doesn’t get talked about in discussion about the episode. It has Zoé realizing that her methods were too extreme and it will lead to things like akumatizations. The reason she doesn’t quit is because she can’t let her own values get shut down that easily and she doesn’t want bad people to get away with consequences that easily, especially if it’s not going to help change. So it's possible she’ll cool down in the future and do methods that are less extreme.
It’s a similar case to Alya, where she values honesty and can’t let that go that easily. In Rocketear, she has a hard time getting over her heart over not telling Nino about Rena Furtive and felt bad about it. It doesn’t mean she’s going to tell him everything like ladybug being marinette for a example but her not hiding Rena Furtive with him was something that making things hard for him and her because she values honesty as an important value is something that fits her character and doesn’t make her look like a bad person while still providing excellent story potential and realistic flaw in her. That same logic can go for Zoé, she values justice and that setting a good example isn’t enough to make bad people want to change their ways, how essentially being a bystander while saying “Hey that’s not right.” isn’t going to work, it’s not going to make a genuine effort and there should be consequences put upon them, again it makes for an interesting storylines potential and realistic flaw of hers that she can change and learn from. Heck in this episode, Zoé realizes that she can’t police bad people for every single thing they do and in cruel ways, it doesn’t mean she gives up being Fury, it just means she’s gonna tone down her methods and find other ways to do it. And that’s what the episode applies at the end, she’s going to learn and change from this, which leads to my next point.
It’s setting an character arc and development for Zoé, y’all need to calm down
Yeah, I’m serious about this one, because it’s literally showing the origins of fury and how she came to be. The episode is showing why Zoé would do what she did and the build up towards that motivation and action. It shows crummy and bad actions by people who don’t care and wanting to see why it’s bad, with Zoé reacting to them one by one, until it blows over.
Episode point blank tells you why this was a bad thing to do by having the main character and the consequences happening because of what Zoé did. But still showing her how she can learn from this and taking it forward. Is it a good thing? Not really but we understand why she did it and how it blew up in her face. Yet the episode also shows why Zoé feels this way and why she went about it, and still shows why she still a good person, it’s because she cares too much about others and she still wants to be a hero and help others, she does her job to stop akumatized person and even recognize how she’s in fault for what happened. The episode does a good job of showing and explaining why she feels this way and how she can be wrong on how she did it.
Like, this was obviously set up and it's going to pay off later, we’re just going to wait and see Fury more to get more moments of her and see how she changed from this appearance to the one in the sleeping syren, where there is an obvious change. She directly tells the chopped trio that there’s no next time, compared to this episode where she just super speeds them to their punishment. That’s proof of enough of her changing her methods from that episode and adapting to it. Kinda like how Alya still kept the secret about Marinette being ladybug and everything they do to Nino while still telling him about her being Rena furtive and them still being allowed to know each other’s identities. And just like Alya, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was caught or even come to realize that herself, she’s going to far and gives back the miraculous willingly without having to be asked by ladybug.
There’s developed that already and it's just that the episodes are out of order chronologically because Thomas thought it would be fun to do that and that it’s fine. Seriously, this was the dumbest thing anyone could do to their own serialized show where the episode’s timeline order is more important than ever. But what do I know, I’m not a show runner or anything.
That’s going to be it for this post and my thoughts going around, I just want to prioritize this once again, Silly and Wistria weren’t wrong for making those posts and pointing out the issues in the writing in the episode, especially with the racial stuff in the later half. But I’m not going to agree with them about Zoé being racist comments and acting like that's the law or even true in the show or her character.
I did enough of that to prove why that’s not the case and how the show is taking her character moving forward with the episode well showcasing that with her character. This show needs to start doing its diversity better moving forward but the fandom needs to start being less black and white, and how this type of topic and how it’s misused could be taken by the wrong message and people. Again, not like the crew is entirely blameless, like how the fandom is not at fault for thinking this way, again it’s all nuance and personal experiences affecting that. So going forward, we all have to be careful of what we’re saying and it can backfire quickly.
This isn’t me trying to brush over them but giving my own thoughts and feelings about them. I hope you have a lovely night or day, and I hope this reaches out to people that are willing to listen and get what I’m saying. Even if you don’t agree with it.
