Reaction to “Queen of the Dreadzone” (S6, E24)
Again, sorry this one’s late. I especially looked forward to sinking my teeth into this one, if only because it promised the return of Chloe Bourgeois, the character everyone loves to hate. Compared to the obsessive manipulations of Chrysalis, the prospect of Chloe’s unique brand of old-school bitchery seemed almost refreshing.
Chrysalis also sees Chloe’s return to Paris as a special occasion. Lila knows, from both working with her to own Marinette and from her work as Gabriel’s informant, that Chloe is a walking Akuma Alert. If she doesn’t trigger an emotional breakdown in someone else, she’ll either have one herself or throw herself to the butterflies.
Notice how Chloe’s publicity campaign feels like the advance of an occupying army. Incidentally, the first large-scale use of zeppelins was by the Germans in World War I for bombing raids in Great Britain… and incidentally, Belgium, Sublime’s native land. (And no, I don’t think the writers consciously had her trigger the exposition because of that connection.)
Now if Chloe really wanted to bury the hatchet, she wouldn’t need to whap up a whole movie deal as an excuse. The letter and an invitation for coffee would have sufficed.
As expected, she hasn’t changed; she even has multiple Jean-Somethings to replace the one she lost (whose real name turned out to be Armand, anyway). It’s hard to believe she still has fans and such a huge social media presence… but we’ll get to that in a moment.
You’ve got to understand that for most of Sabrina’s life, Chloe was her only friend, mostly because Chloe kept her isolated. As in most abusive relationships, there were happy moments Sabrina still treasures… even if she has to keep them in both a literal and metaphorical closet.
The “Chloe Bourgeois doesn’t have any friends” routine is a direct callback to Marinette’s attempt to get past the Hotel Grand Paris doorman in “Princess Fragrance”. That Chloe granted entry to Marinette and Zoe—her two greatest ex-nemeses—was a tip-off that something was up.
Audrey and Noe are behind this operation, probably bankrolling the whole thing… but again we’ll get to that to a moment.
Okay. Lemme get this straight. We’ve got a “caricatural character” who does all these horrible things, but everyone overlooks the damage she causes because they expect outrageous behavior from her. She’s blond with a tan that doesn’t suit her and surrounds herself with gold-accented everything. She’s wealthy in her own right, but she’s also bankrolled by people who want to use her power and charisma for their own nefarious purposes. Despite the rotten things she’s done, up to and including an attempted coup to set herself up as a dictator, she still has fans cultivated through a heavy social media presence. Her behavior sets up a dynamic where her wickedness becomes an example for other people to follow. (wheeze) Analyzing the symbolism here isn’t like shooting fish in a barrel; it’s like running over the barrel with an eighteen-wheeler. Never mind trying to chop down that tree; I’m surprised she didn’t try to build a ballroom over the whole garden. Fortunately, she’s just as stupid as the person she’s representing by proxy, so her impromptu ruse to humiliate her old rivals failed.
Notice how Audrey and Noe didn’t intervene back there? Just let Chloe’s scheme fall apart and sat back while she crashed out? Yep, they don’t really care about her; she’s just a means to an end. In fact, her breakdown serves their purposes just as much as it suits Chrysalis… which may not be a coincidence.
The Queen of the Dreadzone’s power is fear, but Chloe never needed an akuma to do that. For most of her life, people have been afraid of her popularity, her wealth, her influence, her cruelty, and how she could (and often did) weaponize them to hurt and ruin people. The sheer terror she induced made people so scared they usually “complied in advance”, or she stunned people so badly they couldn’t come up with an effective response. (As proof, if LB and CN weren’t so affected by the Queen’s power, they probably would have figured out the ranged-attack gambit sooner.) Connect this point to the metaphor du jour as you will.
Vesperia mocked Chloe for losing ownership of the Bee Miraculous, then set herself up as Chloe’s victim to lure her into a trap. The Queen of the Dreadzone didn’t learn anything from Queen Banana.
Oho, what’s this? Our designated villain getting tripped up by the regulations she ignored and the rule of law? Verrry iiiinteresting. Funny thing, or not so funny: Ms. Bustier used to be one of Chloe’s most stalwart defenders (some might say enablers). Now she’s come out swinging against her. And Roger is there in his capacity as designated lawman. All that time he was completely ignorant of how badly Chloe treated Sabrina, and now he’s ensuring her latest failure.
Chloe doesn’t want the Magical Charm, but Noe certainly does. Perhaps he wants to analyze it, to figure out how to recreate Gabriel’s Megakumas?
I have a feeling everything else in the Chloe closet will go straight in the trash as soon as Sabrina gets home. Might I suggest bringing some positive energy into space with a framed photo of Zoe out where everyone can see?
We’re no strangers to Marinette’s powers of observation, usually seen when she’s puzzling out how her Lucky Charm object ties into defeating today’s villain. But we rarely get to see her performing outright detective work. She’s figured out there’s a rabbit hole, but she doesn’t realize how deep that hole goes. And apparently that hole’s so deep it goes all the way to China… specifically, Shanghai. Lila’s making a deep-dive into Marinette’s background, but to what specific end? And will Fei unwittingly figure into whatever script she’s writing?
