#this is in no way a reflection of my feelings for canon Audrey who sucks ass irredeemably

[zoe-oneesama]

Uh, this might be my own personal desire for Audrey to be slightly less awful than canon (in part so she can’t be fully blamed for Chloe’s actions the way ML writers tried to), but was Audrey actually feeling bad for Zoe when she cried? I know it might be more of a general discomfort with vulnerability and sadness, but to me it felt like maybe Audrey does care that she made her kid so distressed, even as an akuma.

You are not hallucinating. She felt kinda bad that Zoe was crying. This is an SL exclusive.

#I've rebuilt Audrey from a half scrapped animatronic I found in a junk yard for the sake of my own ending #this is in no way a reflection of my feelings for canon Audrey who sucks ass irredeemably #but to me Audrey's always been more of a prop in Chloe's story than an actual character so I don't feel bad at all #sl ask #sl:audrey

[zoe-oneesama]

Sorry if the "absent parent" topic is already getting your nerves, but it is a very important topic imo, especially nowadays where you need to work more since living and having children is getting more and more expensive, and so there are more and more children "suffering" from busy parents. I wish they would use this topic not as an excuse to lash out, but to teach us that we're still loved although our parents are rarely at home, that we can find love in different places and to be more positiv

The topic doesn’t irritate me so much as the way that ML/Zag uses it, so don’t even worry about it.

The thing is, absent parent can mean so many things because it ultimately just means A Parent That’s Not There. That could mean they’re like Gabriel, where they do what they can to avoid you, that could mean they’re like Audrey, where they abandon you altogether, or that could mean they’re like Lila’s Mom, where they literally aren’t home because of work and otherwise would be here. And depending on the reason for your absent parent, that’s a different kind of pain.

Adrien and Chloe both suffer from their parent not having an interest in them and that’s legitimately sad and is a reflection of how terrible their parent is. And like it or not, some kids have parents like that, parents that leave or treat them less like their child and more like an obligation. It’s important for children in this situation to have media representation, to know that they’re not the only abandoned kid in the world and that the world knows they’re there and that they can move past that.

But they don’t do anything with this. I mean, who would ever look at Chloe Bourgeois and see a positive role model? If your only representation was Chloe, that’d be devastating. Or worse, it could make someone think that because their situation is similar, they should act and lash out like Chloe does and nothing bad will happen to them because nothing bad happens to Chloe. 

And if instead you saw Adrien as your role model for this situation, you see a kid who’s not doing anything about it. He’s just stuck there. You don’t see him form bonds with friends to compensate, or do things for himself. They just have him depressed about it and latching onto the handful of times his dad does pay attention to him. Wouldn’t you want kids to learn that they can find worthwhile bonds beyond their Only Around When It’s Convenient Parents?! That these kinds of parents are not worth the effort!?

But then there’s the third kind. The Lila kind. The one you came to me about. The (presumable) single parent/working parent, who, despite working so hard to provide for their child, obviously loves them. Yes, there’s pain involved in this situation. Sometimes plans are cancelled. Sometimes they can’t make it to school events. Sometimes you might not see them for days on end. Sometimes it’s lonely. But that doesn’t mean you’re unloved. That doesn’t mean you aren’t considered. They’re working hard to make sure you get fed and clothing and shelter and schooling and higher education and a laptop and a phone and all these things that Lila clearly has at her disposal. It may suck sometimes and you might feel resentful sometimes, but ultimately they’re working so hard out of love.

Lila’s mom and Lila’s possible I’m So Sad Because of my Absent Parent plotline isn’t set in stone or even canon yet. It’s entirely possible they won’t go this route and try to blame her being a manipulative liar on her mom. But I can see the writing on the wall and this IS the third time (possibly 4th if the leaks on Kagami’s Mom are anything to go off of) and I don’t see it going well. It would be so …damaging to tell kids that being in that environment is license to manipulate and bully them.

(You know, there are other characters with possibly “Absent parents”. We haven’t seen Alix’s mom even though we’ve seen her dad AND brother. We haven’t seen Juleka and Luka’s dad. And I’m guessing we probably never will, but I’m just saying you don’t see THEM using their one parent household as excuses to be dicks to everyone.)

#ml salt #lila salt #chloe salt #adrien salt #sad parents salt #ask zoe