I just felt like drawing all the different Ladybugs that are complete pieces of work, aka @zoe-oneesama’s Scarlet Lady, @nionom-art’s Cochineala and my own Princess Ladybug. I herby dub them the Lady-buggers because they all bug everyone who works with them. I drew this because I just knew they’d bug each other if they ever met. Anyways, here they are, and they’re all fighting for your attention. :)
*Edit—I had no idea what Bugger meant, weirdly—I just thought it meant like they bug you, like bother or annoying or something? Gee, now I feel like an uneducated American. Oh well. The more you learn. :)
Okay. I have written and rewritten this thing three times now because they keep turning into massive essays about the problems of Sabrina in Canon—and there are a LOT of problems with Canon Sabrina, let me tell you. I would even say that other than the “rule” that Marinette has to make a mistake and learn a lesson every episode regardless of whether or not she is actually in the wrong or just everything about Lila and how she functions in the world, the show’s treatment of Sabrina remains one of my biggest gripes.
But I am trying to avoid falling into simply ranting about Canon rather than why I love the version of her in Scarlet Lady other than that she’s not the Sabrina of Canon. SL Sabrina deserves better than that, so hopefully this third time is the charm and I can adequately explain why she deserves a spot on this list in and of herself.
1. Breaking Tropes
There’s a general expectation in stories that any bully characters need to have a sidekick, also called a Dragon or a Beta Bitch. Otherwise they look rather lonely and it begs the question of how a single bully is expected to be an ongoing antagonist of any real merit if no one likes him and he lacks strength and numbers to make the protagonist an underdog. This is even more important with female bullies (aka the Alpha Bitch) who tend to target people socially and emotionally, which should be impossible if they themselves aren’t social. Thus we get a character who serves to fill the empty space on the bully’s side and make the bully look stronger. Someone who can highlight the bully’s power and cruelty while also doing most of the legwork for them in order to highlight their role as the “bigger bad“ of the group.
It should come as no surprise that Sabrina is this in Canon to the point that at the time of writing this, she is the image on the TV Tropes page for the Beta Bitch trope. Which makes sense, given how happily subservient she is to Chloe’s whims and how horrible she could be at Chloe’s order.
The thing about these characters is that they are generally shallow at best but more commonly shallow and two dimensional. There is nothing more to them and nothing more to do with them, so we don’t get to explore their lives or reasons or build on them as characters—THAT’S reserved for the bullies and other more important characters. Maybe they’ll get a day in the limelight episode…maybe. BIG maybe. But they’re just not as interesting of characters as the main antagonist. Heck, many of them aren’t even named.
As such, there usually isn’t much to do with them, so their fate is often to fall alongside the bully they support, surpass the bully they served to somehow be even worse, or to simply fade into obscurity once their role is no longer needed. IF there is any focus to be had among this group, it will go to the head bully—whether it be as an antagonist or a future redeemed ally. Even if the sidekick betrays the bully at the end, it’s usually portrayed less about personal growth or the character doing the right thing and more about the bully getting their long deserved comeuppance at the hands of “the least likely person”.
VERY rarely do we actually get to see this character be recognized on an individual level AS an individual. And even more rarely do we see them break away of their own will from the toxic environment they were in because of how toxic it was instead of betraying their former “friend” out of greed or necessity once it’s convenient. Then even IF they help the heroes and betray their leader, we still get little focus on them—no real focus on why they did it, and they usually still disappear afterwards. Even worse if the bully is redeemed, in which case the follower (despite often being less antagonistic or capable than the leader) will turn out to somehow be even more evil than the original bully ever was and takes over, showing that the bully and primary instigator can be a three-dimensional and decent person, but their followers (who only ever seemed to do bad things at THEIR direction) are just the worst ones ever—usually to highlight the nuance of the former bully leader and downplay their previous bullying as “not that bad”. From start to finish, they serve to make the bully character look “better“ and have no real life or character outside of that.
SL Sabrina breaks the mold. Not just with Canon but the trope setup as a whole, and in such a way that I can’t help but admire her for it. She’s more than just a crony or a follower, she is a person with her own development and it really shows here. She is a character with her own story and role that while it relates to Chloe, it isn’t necessarily about Chloe. And certainly not to the extent that Canon did.
Story-wise, Sabrina is the tale of someone giving her all in a relationship only to constantly be taken advantage of before she finally has enough and decides to live her own life for herself. She is the coming of age story of a girl who has to navigate a major change without the support she previously relied on. She’s the cautionary Aesop of the girl who realizes that her “best friend” is neither a friend nor best for her. A lesson about toxic relationships and that as scary as the unknown is, it can be worth taking the step away. Her whole arc is about discovering who SHE is, who she could be, and who all will actually stick with her through this journey. She grows up. She opens up. She moves on. Chloe may not change, but that doesn’t mean Sabrina can’t.
In any other story, she would be prime for the role of the main character. The fact that she isn’t a starring character of the series doesn’t mean she isn’t a central part of it.
2. Symbolism
Narratively speaking, Sabrina is a symbol of change throughout the series. She serves as a sort of representation of the stability of Chloe‘s life. At the start of the series, Sabrina is one of the staples of Chloe‘s reality alongside her father and his status, her mother and her status, Adrien and their roles as each other’s “only friend”, and Chloe’s own new status as the “Hero of the City”. Sabrina started off as one of the pillars that held Chloe up and let her appear and feel superior. She was a yes man who went along with anything Chloe wanted, did her dirty work, prioritized her wellbeing over her own, and told her what she wanted to hear while being silent on her own opinions. She was always there to support and cover for Chloe when needed. Over the course of two seasons, we got to see in slow motion each incident that helped to contribute to Sabrina’s changes until she eventually had enough and finally broke away at the start of season 3. Both from her relationship with Chloe and as her symbolism as Chloe’s stability. Sabrina was the first break to Chloe’s world as she knew it.
Think about it: in Sabrina’s akuma episode (and by the way, she got her own akuma episode), we had two major plot points: Sabrina cutting off Chloe and Marigold’s arrival. These are major changes to the previously established dynamics. And as such, this set the tone for the third season also being the beginning of a change in the overall setup of the series as a whole.
And look what all happened in season three? We have a new hero partner to help Chat and get to see the two of them build their relationship. Alya and Nino get together. Kim and Odine get together. Marigold and Chat gain more popularity and recognition in their own right. Kagami and Luka make their appearances. Adrien’s situation starts to improve. Adrinette finally gets some forward momentum!
Season three wasn’t necessarily when everything changed and was better, but it was a starting point that set the foundation for the changes that occurred in the following two seasons. It was also the first big break from the Canon that Zoe had been following fairly closely up until that point.
Sabrina is an indicator of the direction of the rest of the series. She is the one who kicked off the changes. She started off as a symbol of Chloe‘s stability and turns into a signal of it starting to fall apart. She is a sign not just of change, but of permanence for the series when she finally broke off her friendship with Chloe.
No, this isn’t a joke.
No, this isn’t temporary.
No, this isn’t going to be fixed (or retconned) by the end of the episode and things just “go back to normal.“
This IS the new normal. It happened. It matters. And what we get from there are the characters simply having to live with it and figure out how to move forward.
Through Sabrina, we saw that not only is there continuity between one episode and the next, but that the things that happened have consequences that continue to impact the future. She is the first real indicator of Chloe‘s coming downfall. She is the biggest source of change in the story and the herald of further change to come.
If you think about it, it kind of says something when the season that starts with her “breaking up“ with Chloe ends with her forming a new friend group and two other couples getting together (with one more at least finally becoming recognized as an option).
It becomes a season of discovery and forming new relationships.
Which brings up my next point…
3. Relationships
Let’s go ahead and start by addressing the elephant in the room:
Chloe and Sabrina’s relationship is abusive. It is toxic, harmful, and has an entirely one-sided power dynamic that really only benefits one of the two involved. There is a LOT to be said about the problems of their dynamic in Canon, and most of it is needless to say.
In Scarlet Lady, there is no mistaking the issues in this friendship. As much as Sabrina may care about Chloe, it is clear that the feeling is not mutual and no amount of inconsequential “good” (aka not AS bad as usual) moments from Chloe or playing the abuse for laughs can hide that.
So Zoe didn’t.
Yes, the relationship is emotionally and physically abusive. It may be played with humor at times, but at no point did I get the impression that’s “just how it is” or “Chloe will be Chloe” or that it is in any way normal or acceptable. Because it ISN’T. It SHOULDN’T be.
And Sabrina KNOWS this. She knows and no, she is NOT okay with it. She never was. From the start until the end, we see her reacting to the things Chloe does like a person instead of a positive affirmation recording and we see how she feels about it. She doesn’t like the treatment, she puts up with it because she considers Chloe a friend. That makes it hit harder when eventually she comes to terms with the reality that Chloe…really isn’t. A friend wouldn’t treat her this way and someone who would isn’t a friend. Zoe herself says in one tag for a bonus that "not every bonus is funny" and "some are just cold hard sad truths".
SL puts the responsibility for the relationship on Sabrina. Not because it’s Sabrina’s fault that Chloe does what she does, but because it is in Sabrina’s power to change the situation and break it off. And that’s hard for Sabrina because more than just being the beta bitch or a bully’s follower, SL Sabrina is a friend. We see her WANT to be a friend. We even saw how she has tried to support Chloe without fully understanding what Chloe was doing or why. And we saw her floundering after the break up as she doesn’t know what response she’s going to get as she tries to reach out to other people. We see it in her title card!
This shows that Sabrina isn’t simply an extension of someone else’s will. (We see that in her responses to Chloe‘s antics.) Or a placeholder. (Chloe tries and fails to find a replacement.) Or a background to prop Chloe (Even if that’s all Chloe sees her as.) She is a person with her own ties and her own reasons for those ties. She gets to choose who her friends will be.
Even BEFORE the breakup with Chloe, we see Sabrina having interactions and building relationships with the other classmates.
We see "Sabrina will remember this" when Chloe throws her under the bus, but less obvious is that she will also remember how Alix defended her when Chloe tried to blame her.
She refused to sabotage Juleka or Marinette, helped the other classmates understand what was going on, and joined or rather was INVITED to join the group picture in Reflekta. We SEE how much that meant to her.
And in turn, she helped in the group huddle to try and fix Alix’s watch in Timebreaker.
We see her accept the job as “Chloe Wrangler” with all seriousness for Marinette’s party in Befana. And that she invited Lila even after what happened in Volpina.
And these were all instances while she was still friends with Chloe! It didn’t have to be an either/or thing. We saw Sabrina branching out and getting closer to the classmates while still trying to be Chloe’s friend.
With this in mind, the trio she ends up forming with Lila and Alix MAKES SENSE!
Alix defended her! Lila was in a similar position of uncertainty. I never would have considered it, much less expected it to work but it DOES! And Sabrina ends up with significantly healthier relationships because of it. Relationships that help make her stronger, too. And helped her to open up on what she felt inside.
4. Sabrina Reacts
Among many other things, Sabrina‘s reactions are one of the aspects of the series I most enjoy.
Even when she will follow Chloe’s orders, she has her own opinions about it, especially as things go wrong or she suffers some repercussion while Chloe is left relatively untouched. She’s not a puppet. She has feelings. She feels resentment. We see it early on in the comic that while she cares for Chloe and wants to support her, she isn’t immune to the effects of what Chloe does. She has thoughts and feelings that don’t align with Chloe’s.
She was icked out over the thought of touching gum. She internally whined about wanting to go home during a movie production. She was caught up in the clothes in Marinette’s room.
Here’s a comparison that hits the point home: *Rogercop*
In Rogercop, Canon Sabrina had no reaction to her dad being fired. She was focused on defending herself from accusation of theft, which is understandable. But this was a situation where even if she was cleared, her life would be irrevocably changed because her dad no longer had a job and she just…didn’t care? Didn’t show any concern for her dad’s wellbeing after being unjustly fired and didn’t show concern about how her family would afford to live. What did she think would happen, that Chloe would house her? I had to go back and confirm Roger was Sabrina’s dad because she was acting like he was a stranger and his firing meant nothing to her.
In Scarlet Lady, we see Sabrina immediately react. IMMEDIATELY and with great devastation. Not just that her dad was fired but that her BEST FRIEND was the one responsible. Heck, we saw her breakdown start the moment Chloe demanded Roger be fired rather than after the Mayor actually did so. She doesn’t care when she’s being accused, her life is already drastically impacted. And in her words, “over a bracelet that probably rolled under the table or something”.
Is her spiraling funny? Yeah kinda. But it is still a major indicator of Sabrina’s mentality and proof that she isn’t immune or amenable to Chloe’s selfishness. It goes to show that while she may be Chloe’s friend, she isn’t ONLY here to serve as Chloe’s satellite the way she was in canon. And we see these things stick with her through later episodes as well.
Sabrina tried. She legit tried to support Chloe even when it was wrong or she had no reason to or no understanding why Chloe was doing or saying the things she did. But Sabrina is a person and every person has a breaking point.
We see so many of these little moments leading up to the events of Vanisher. This affords buildup. And it also shows that there is an overall continuity throughout the story.
Of particular note would be Reflekta. A point when Sabrina hadn’t yet broken off from Chloe but was clearly reevaluating the relationship. Same thing with Darkblade. Her ending the relationship with Chloe was not a sudden thing. It wasn’t an impulse. It wasn’t even simply the “final straw“ that warranted an immediate response. It was calculated and something Sabrina had been clearly thinking about for a while.
Then Evilustrator happened and we saw Sabrina was finally done with Chloe and her antics. She even got to stand up for herself in a scene that was sweet, powerful, and long overdue. That yes, there are other people in the world besides Chloe, Sabrina is NOT limited in her options of friends, and that the way Chloe has treated her is not okay. Granted, it was mostly Sabrina defending the classmates rather than herself, but it was still everything I and I think many others had wished Canon had given us.
Sabrina had even warned Chloe she was on her last chance.
5. Sabrina’s Growth
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how Sabrina takes the experience she gained being friends with Chloe to use it against her? Sometimes the thing about changing is how we still hold onto the things we learned from our worse times. And Sabrina learned a lot from her time with Chloe but has changed in how she's able to utilize it. Or perhaps the purpose she is able to utilize it for?
Relationships and character growth aren’t just in how people get together, but in how they grow apart. Sabrina’s growth is a great deal evident through her relationships and her progression in them. We see her slowly change over time while she’s with Chloe until she finally breaks away and makes new and significantly better friends. But that doesn’t mean she’s “fixed” or fully developed.
The other part of Sabrina’s growth is clear by her confidence and the way she presents herself. Leaving Chloe doesn’t fix anything with her. Neither does replacing Chloe with someone else. Sabrina is still Sabrina and the core issues and flaws that make her who she is are still there. It's something that takes time to truly grow.
Even after having new friends—even when she is chosen to be a hero, Sabrina still talks down about herself. She blamed herself when Frighningale happened. Even after saving the day, she called herself a sidekick— showing that she still views herself as being in a role of a subordinate or “lesser”.
That’s not the sort of thing you can fix. It’s especially not the sort of thing that can be fixed in a single episode regardless of Marigold reassuring her or the “power of plot”.
Confidence and self-esteem are slow to build, but that’s what makes them so important. And we see that in Sabrina throughout the course of the series.
We see her go from silently suffering to open snark to outright defiance. She’s been in a toxic friendship. She’s been a loner. And finally, she’s found people that she can be herself with…even if she doesn’t quite know who that “self“ is yet.
But that’s okay! She has friends who will help her figure that out and support her in the meantime.
And I wish her nothing but the best in that.
Conclusion: Sabrina
She’s a girl.
She’s a friend.
She's emotional.
She’s supportive.
She can be dangerous.
She lacks confidence and isn’t quite there yet.
She is smart in her own right.
She is capable.
She has an inner wild side.
She is amazing when she is happy.
She is the classic teenager trying to figure herself out.
And the signs are there even long before she realizes it.
I just love her.
Whether she’s subservient and internally snarky or openly defiant and supportive, I find myself admiring Sabrina and cheering her on. That’s why I’m glad that among the characters who find their happiness and place in the course of the comic, Sabrina finally gets to be one of them. She deserves it. Not just because of what she was put through, but because of what she has accomplished in the process. For herself, for her classmates, and for Paris.
