Okay, this is gonna get into some mildly woke shit and references microaggressions immigrants or children of immigrants might have experienced in school. All in the service of trying to work through a headcanon of mine.
I'm fascinated by the idea that Marinette and Kim are (nearly) the only two Asians at their majority-white school in their overwhelmingly majority-white country. (Though obviously Vietnam and China aren't the same country, white people tend to lump all Asian countries together, esp. CJK and Vietnam).
I imagine, based on what I saw in my own childhood, the shared experiences as children of opening up their mom's homemade food for lunch and Chloe walks by "ew yuck that smells bad!" or something. Getting similar comments like "why'd you get a C on the math test? You're all meant to be math wizards!"
Setting that aside, Kim is a himbo, and we never see him have many redeeming behaviors. But Marinette had a crush on him. Yes, he's attractive, tall, athletic, etc. Yes, she was 12yo or something. (Trying to consider various interpretations here.)
But, I'm curious what people's thoughts are on her having a crush on him because she just kinda...heard it enough from people in school. Things like "Oh you should date Kim; you have so much in common!"
It's certainly a known phenomenon of the two Asian kids in school being told some variation of that, that they should date bc they have "so much in common" (translation: your ancestors came from the same continent) I think it might've even been a Claudia-centric plot-line in a Babysitters Club book.
And ever since Derision, I've wondered why they specifically picked the one Asian guy at the school for Marinette to be crushing on.
