There's been a lot about Chloe lately with the new eps, and I thought I'd give a different, unbiased opinion of sorts, from what I've noticed and seen.
From the very start of the show, Chloe's picked on all the kids at school, but particularly Marinette.
This is really important info for later.
We learned that her father gives her anything she asks, likely partially because he's too busy as mayor to be around much, and has a passive attitude when it comes to raising her, likely from being married to Audrey. And her mother treats others poorly and that everyone is beneath her. Including her own daughters. Chloe in particular has been shown to be treated especially badly, her mom never remembering her name, saying there's nothing about her that's exceptional on likely national and possibly even international television.
Chloe has had a severe lack of genuine love and care in her life.
She's been led to believe that people will not like her for her, but for her money, and that it's important to surround herself with others like her and her family, likely because they'd think the same way. You either stomp on others, or they stomp on you. Chloe and Zoe both know that in order to fit in with their mother, they have to mimic and act like her for her approval and possibly love. Chloe even asks her "Why don't you love me, Mom?" because she's never felt love from her. No kid should ever have to feel that way to the point they have to ask their parent why they're not loved.
But Chloe's relationship with Adrien seems pretty clear in the way that their parents worked together, Andre and Emilie, and thus as kids spent a lot of time together. Adrien's been Chloe's only real solid friend and person to show her care and kindness. Of course, she'd want to hang onto this as much as possible.
Skip ahead to Despair Bear where Adrien warned her that he couldn't be friends with her anymore if she couldn't learn to be nice to others.
She took that to heart and felt horrible. She consumed several chocolates and needed her teddy bear to try to feel comforted and then made quite an effort, for Chloe, to do better.
We know how she's always felt about Ladybug. She admired her, roleplayed as her, wanted to be her friend, and wanted to be a superhero alongside with Ladybug and make her proud. Ladybug is a symbol of goodness and kindness in Paris. Someone who's completely nasty and horrible at heart would never idolize a superhero who's compassionate, kind, and brave, and would never want to achieve things to make that person proud. I mean, look at Lila as an example.
Chloe opens up and admits to Ladybug that the reason she wanted to leave Paris in Malediktator isn't Marinette, but it's the fact that nobody likes her and she feels useless. She's vulnerable and emotional and completely honest with Ladybug about it.
And then after this is when things start getting really bad.
She doesn't take the fact that she can't be Queen Bee anymore well. Which is understandable. Being Queen Bee, spending time with Ladybug, it made her feel good and important because she was doing good and important things. Now she's just back to being Chloe Bourgeois, the mayors daughter that gets whatever she wants while her dad's busy, her mom's around again but has her attitude and tends not to treat her daughter well, and she still doesn't have friends.
So she lashes out, she gets akumatized and wants to join Hawk Moth out of desperation. She's hurt and angry and tells Ladybug she'll go to New York and be Queen Bee there, she doesn't need Ladybug, she doesn't love her anymore and isn't her fan. Her behavior there was of someone that's just throwing a tantrum because they're deeply hurt. Which mind you, doesn't make it right at all, but that's just what she's feeling.
And so she's taking all that anger, pain, loneliness, and even betrayal (for giving the Miraculous to others whose identities were ousted, but not to her) out on everyone around her. It's why she's being especially awful to Sabrina. It's why she's horrible to Zoe and wants to be better than her and
feels really angry that she so easily becomes friends with Marinette and the others.
Marinette's the girl in school that almost everyone likes. She's so likeable that someone who wants what she has is going to feel jealous and bully her for it.
You see Chloe's desire to be part of the class, to have kids like her, in episodes like Guiltrip where if you see here:
She's hanging around the class but at a distance. Because she still wants to feel included and know what's going on, but she doesn't want them to know it. Same goes for right after this, Rose makes a joke and Chloe asks why they never laugh when she says things like that. Chloe wants to feel included and liked.
We also saw a few episodes back that when Adrien warned her at a time where she was already feeling upset and replaced, that he said he wasn't going to be her friend anymore if she continued to treat people horribly. This time, considering how much she's lost already and how isolated she already feels, she's writing him off too while on one of her tantrums.
What I'm thinking is, Chloe is hitting her rock bottom. To quote Avatar Aang in Legend of Korra: “When we reach our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change.”
Chloe can't get too much lower at this point. She's lost almost everything she had that had meaning to her. And when you're at your lowest, you need some help to see things as they are to come back from it all. And that's where Zoe comes in.
But now she's gained a sister who is going to show her what love is like, and love her no matter who she is or what she does, even if everyone else hates her.
That sister will probably help her open the door to so many things, including eventually becoming friends with the other kids, realizing that what she's done is wrong and the reasons for her not becoming Queen Bee again was truly for the safety of everyone else and nothing more.
We know Chloe is capable because we've seen her apologize and admit her wrongdoings before. We know she's a good person deep down because Adrien's been friends with her all these years to know a side to her the others haven't seen.
So I know that people think the writers just purely hate her.
How could they have her gain redemption only to lose it again if they didn't?
Thomas must hate someone named Chloe in order to have written things like this.
Zoe's being brought in to replace her and show kids that kids like Chloe aren't worth redemption!
I've seen or heard the gist of what's going around.
But I really don't think any of this is true at all!
Chloe's a character who is worthy of and can change.
If the writers hated her so much, she'd just be another Lila. She wouldn't have such a complex and interesting character who's shown time and again she has a heart and wants to be a good person. She's just buried under a lack of love and a lot of negative emotions and that's honestly really sad. Chloe as a person cannot improve until the relationships she has with other people change and she has a better outlook on life and people around her. A person changing so much and coming out of so much in life doesn't happen so quickly, and you have to remember, in the show's timeline it really hasn't been all that long since the start of the show! Maybe a year and a half at this point? And she is a teenager, and teenagers have a lot of growing and learning to do about themselves and life.
Just give it some more time, things are setting up for her to find her way back on the right path and knowing what familial love is supposed to be like.
