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matt0044 · 5 months

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There’s been a recurring tread in Fandom Discouse(TM) or Fanwank for those who tell it like it is. And it revolves around Redemption Arcs.

These type of stories have been the most controversial on various levels for good reasons. It often comes down to how we may identify with or project onto the character in question and the discomfort it may bring.

Specifically in regards to characters that may hit too close to home. Characters who are very much perpetrators of conflict and violence rather than victims. They hurt others for their gain be they sociopathic or just apathetic to what they wrought.

Many have dealt with these precise people in their lives and will thus have very strong words to say when a character of similar attributes appears to be turning themselves around. There will be some deliberation over how “earned” it felt on a narrative level but either way, they are on a better path in life.

For these aforementioned fans among others, it’s a difficult pill to swallow… if not one they nearly choke on. In their eyes, this character is barely even human but a monster in every sense of the word. They’ve hurt characters they love. They’ve either enjoyed it or brushed it off in indifference.

Where does Chloe factor into this? Well… it fascinates me that we got a circle of fandom that advocates for a character, a female character no less, and their could’ve-been development from Mandy but crossing way more lines.

She’s the inciting incidents for nearly every Akuma in Season 1 and is almost intentional about it. While Season 2 would humanize her and show a likely source of her behavior, I have seen more characters get shit for far less and they would rarely mean the things they say or do when in a mood.

There’s also the, um, gender thing. It have especially been my and others observations that a female character is likely to have a borderline hate campaign against them for either exhibiting a trait that male characters will get a pass for or just… making a mistake.

My Adventures With Superman subverted the very long standing secret identity dynamic Clark had with Lois Lane by having the aspiring journalist put the pieces together fast.

Her reaction to Clark not being straight with her was hardly terribly welcoming, especially given her father being deceptive with her. The Fandom’s reaction was extra less welcoming and overlooked her possible complexes over liars in favor of her behavior.

So… why is Chloe somehow exempt? There are likely multiple factor but I think there's a large one that's gone underexamined.

Obviously there's the feeling of being cheated out of a redemption storyline that Season 2 seemed to kick start. Yet it's not like Season 3 just had her be mean again out of the blue. Chloe is still very much a brat even if Despair Bear, Zombizou and her Queen Bee trilogy had her take a good look at herself.

Old habits die hard. Hawk Moth just took the time in Season 3 to gradually give said habits a clean bill of health.

My observations of Fandom Culture at large leads me to feel like Chloe's case is about less what did happen and was undone but more like what seemed to be happening but didn't. Fandom loves the hypothetical. The theories, the speculation. A lot of it is very personalized even when fans come together to pitch their own takes.

As such, there's a personal investment factor in these malleable concepts that's distinct from engaging in the hardwared canon. It's a sandbox where the material you're working with can be molded into what suits you. Canon can be too often, "Here it is: take it or leave it." Fanon is more accomadating to those who might want to change things.

Bare in mind, I'm not trying to advocate for one or the other here. Fanon depends on canon, warts and all, and a Fandom can't flourish without it period. But sometimes we mistake Fanon for what should happen and ignore the innate placeholder status they have. Thus Canon is seen as an intrusion when, well, it's just the show itself.

Another reason may be because for all the grouching about redemption arcs, we've... rarely seen such backslide let alone one that sticks considerably. We've had our Majin Vegetas and Book 2 Finale!Zukos but rarely have we (outside of specific circumstances and specific mediums) had a redemption arc reverse course.

As such, many seem keen to ignore how organic the journey from Queen Bee to Miracle Queen really was. Her insistence of joining the fray with Ladybug, her tendency to shoot her mouth with a sharp tongue to boot returning more like in Stormy Weather 2, making a Bee Signal of all things.

The ground work was laid for Queen Wasp's return and the soil was beyond fertile. Thus her villain arc for Season 4 and 5 involves tripling down on her banal evil from brainstorming Marinette's fall, getting evilized intentionally and keeping Sabrina from sleeping (boy howdy, was Chloe lucky she didn't go to her dad, A police officer :P).

Now... nobody needs to like this or stop disliking what they dislike. It just would be nice if considering other perspectives and looking beyond one's expectations was encouraged.

#redemption #redemption arcs #chloe bourgeois #miraculous ladybug #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #miraculous lb #miraculous meta #mlb #mlb fandom #fanon #canon #meta analysis #fandom analysis #queen bee #vesperia #miracle queen #queen mayor #penalteam #antibug

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strawberrystar7 · 8 months

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There’s 3 types of stopping an Akuma and here’s how:

How I see it there are 3 types of stopping an Akuma. Maybe 4 if you want to be very exact to the tiniest detail but I categorized 2 of them in 1 category because I think they are close enough. This does not include defeating the Akuma and cleansing it with the Ladybug Miraculous.

People oftentimes argue that Chloé has been the very first character to resist an Akuma when others bring up Alya as the first to reject an Akuma but that’s the thing. She was the first to resist an Akuma’s influence but she wasn’t the first to reject an Akuma and she was not the first to repel an Akuma. People tend to treat all of these the same but I think they are different cases and categories.

Now this may be a bit confusing without knowing what I mean by the categories repulsion, resistance and rejection so here are my explanations as to what these categories are supposed to mean and include. (If anyone has better fitting names for the categories I am open for suggestions. Those were the best fitting ones I could come up with but they may not match like I wanted to).

1. Repulsion:

What do I mean by repulsion? Well usually this includes instances where an Akuma does not touch an object and therefore gets repelled.

Examples for this are: Su-Han’s mantra in the season 4 episode Furious Fu. Or that time in the season 3 episode Chameleon where Marinette calmed down before the Akuma could touch her belongings. But I also include instances like in the season 5 episode Revolution where Mister Damocles almost gets akumatized but because of his students encouragment he gets courage again which results in the magical charm manifesting as a shield allowing him to cleanse the Akuma before it could touch anything. But then there is the instance in the season 5 episode Collusion where Miss Bustier manages to cleanse an Akuma through meditation (at least I am assuming that was some form of meditation technique). Yes an object of hers got touched by the Akuma so technically it’s a bit different compared to the other instances but it’s also kinda similar to Damocles case since the Akuma got cleansed so I’d still count it as repelling.

So generally we can summarize this category with characters and instances where characters have calmed down before an Akuma could touch them or when they have cleansed the Akuma. (Those are actually the 2 sub-categories which I have categorized in one category because to me cleansing an Akuma and stopping the Akuma before getting touched are both ways of repelling an Akuma to me.)

There is a bit of a side effect to this tho. While in some cases the Akumas do get cleansed because of meditation or the magical charms, it can also happen that an Akuma instead gets redirected to the next victim because the Akuma hasn’t been cleansed.

2. Resistance

What do I mean by resitance? Well usually this includes instances where an Akuma does manage to touch an object but the target managed to resist the temptation and offer of power. However the Akuma doesn’t get cleansed.

Examples for this are: Chloé Bourgeois resists getting turned into an Akuma Villain even after the Akuma touching her picture by rejecting the temptation and Hawk Moth’s offer for power in the season 3 episode Miraculer. Or Félix Fathom when he resisted getting turned into an Villain even after the Akuma touched his stuff simply by rejecting Shadow Moth’s offer (and Senti!Gabriel’s threats) in the season 4 episode Gabriel Agreste.

However because the Akumas don’t get cleansed they just target a new victim so someone else gets turned into an Akuma instead.

3. Rejection

What do I mean by rejection? Well usually this includes instances where an Akuma manages to akumatize the target and fall under some semblance of mind control (since Akuma Villains do tend to act in a way the target would never have acted like without the Akumas influence). However the target eventually manages to break free from that control and manages to deakumatize themselves.

Examples for this are: Alya Césaire in the season 4 episode Gang of Secrets, when Alya managed to break free and turn herself back from Lady Wifi into Alya. Nino Lahiffe in the season 4 episode Rocketear, when Nino managed to break free and turn himself back from Rocketear to Nino. Chloé Bourgeois in the season 4 episode Penalteam, when Penalty got sick of her clones and eventually turned herself back into Chloé. Kagami Tsurugi in the season 5 episode Perfection, when an akumatized Kagami sees how much other people actually care about her. She breaks free from the Akumas control in that moment and managed to turn herself back from Ryukomori into Kagami. Lila Rossi/Cerise (or whatever her name is. I’ll call her Lila for simplicity) in the season 5 episode Revelation, when she manages to deakumatize herself from Hoaxer to Lila after she got the information she wanted from Nathalie.

What I’ve also noticed about the instances in this category is that the characters seem to retain their memories from when they have been akumatized which is something that usually never happens after getting deakumatized. Usually characters are disoriented and don’t remember anything but whenever a character manages to deakumatize themselves they seem to know where they are and what happened. Take Lila as an example. She smirked right after deakumatizing herself like she knew exactly what she did. Or Alya, she didn’t look confused at all and could instantly respond to Ladybug’s comments which is something that Akuma Victims usually never do due to the disorientation and confusion. They usually take a moment to collect their thoughts and realize where they are or why they could be there meanwhile Alya didn’t take that time. She only took a little time to catch her breath. Or Kagami who seemed to remember what happened while she was Ryukomori. It’s similar like with Alya where she didn’t seem disoriented at all and she didn’t seemed confused on why Marinette’s classmates where there with a big picture of Kagami. It was like she knew exactly what happened similar as Alya and Lila.

Anyway…

There really are differences between how a character may stop an Akuma from targeting them.

Anytime someone brings up the characters that have rejected an Akuma there is always someone who brings up Chloé Bourgeois. The character who had a picture touched by an Akuma in the season 3 episode Miraculer and then resisted the Akuma’s influence by rejecting Hawk Moth’s offer for power. People keep bringing up Chloé was the first to resist an Akuma. And that is true but the problem is that they throw it into the same category as repulsion and rejection. How I see it’s not the same thing so I don’t think Chloé should be brought up when people talk about characters who have rejected an Akuma. Same thing the other way around. And same thing with characters who have repelled Akumas. Characters like Alya should not be brought up when talking about characters who have resisted an Akuma. At least not if you are trying to say they are the same thing. It would be like trying to compare apples and pears.

Even if we would act like repulsion, resistance, and rejection are all the same thing, Chloé would still not be the first to stop an Akuma from targeting herself. In that case, it would be Marinette who was the first to stop an Akuma from targeting herself since the season 3 episode Chameleon (in Chameleon Marinette managed to stop the Akuma from targeting her by calming down) was canonically before the season 3 episode Miraculer (in Miraculer an Akuma landed on a picture Chloé was holding and Cloé managed to resist the Akuma’s influence by rejecting Hawk Moth’s offer for power). However like I previously said these are not the same thing. Yes generally speaking all 3 are ways to stop an Akuma from targeting a specific person but they are different ways to do that. Some stop the Akuma from targeting only one person, others stop the Akuma from targeting everyone and the rest stop the Akuma from controlling someone (which kind of is also a form of targeting in a sense. Maybe not the traditional way but it is kinda targeting someone if you try to control them). I don’t want to treat them the same because to me they are not the same. If we go as a whole then yes, Marinette would be the first to stop an Akuma without explicitly using the Ladybug Miraculous. Chloé would be second, and Alya would be 3rd. However, if we divide this into sub-categories like I did Marinette is the first to repel, Chloé is the first to resist and Alya is the first to reject. It just makes more sense to me to divide them into separate categories.

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dragonchris · 2 years

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Some screen redraws of my favorite boys from the Penalteam episode

#miraculous ladybug #marcnath #nathmarc #marc anciel #nathaniel kurtzberg #mlb #penalteam

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artzychic27 · 1 year

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Marc as Penalteam with the science kids and akuma class doing soccer match (shorties vs glamazons) with possible person that made him mad being Marinette or someone else.

Hamlet (Jean): Now, as long as we’re all in agreement on this, I think we can work well as a unit… This is Marinette’s fault; she caused this.

Purple Tigress: Agreed.

Lapin (Aurore): Oh, hell yeah.

Ladybug: Well, let’s not-

Minnie (Mireille): Yep. All her. I mean, who can blame Marc? The girl had the nerve to insult his own boyfriend!

CapriKid: She what?

Minnie: Yeah, she said it was a good thing Nath wasn’t here during the game since he’s bad at sports and would make her team lose. I mean, I know he’s not the best, but there’s no need to say it out loud.

Pluto (Zoé): So, we’re all in agreement! What’s our game plan?

Wyvern (Cosette): Uh… Kick the ball and don’t get totally slaughtered by the guy whose been playing soccer since he was five.

Pluto: Solid plan!

Bronco (Simon): I actually feel good about this.

King Cobra (Ismael): Great! LET’S FUCKING DO THIS!

*One minute later*

King Cobra: *Passes out* We’re so bad at this!

CapriKid: Why did no one help me? I have cleat marks up and down my back!

Ladybug: Guys, if we just follow my plan-

Fennec (Lacey): Boooo! Give us actual advice!

Wyvern: God, is it gonna be like this for three more quarters?

Lemon Bee (Reshma): And it’s only been one minute!

Leonardo (Denise): Forget this, y’all, because all of us are fucked. Okay, we can’t win. Game over.

Roi Singe: Oh, you think he’s just gonna let us leave? I’ve seen this guy play! Marc’s not gonna stop even if we surrender! Either we find Nath and have him talk Marc down, or find Marinette and force her to apologize!

Ladybug: … So, where’s Nath? I think he’d like having ten boyfriends fawning over him.

CapriKid: … *Sneaks away to transform back*

Bronco: Huh. You seem awfully eager to give him up like that.

Ladybug: W-well, it’d be our safest option, right?

Bronco: … Hm.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous #mlb season 4 #penalteam #marc anciel #nathaniel kurtzberg #marc x nathaniel #science kids #akuma class #kwami swap #answered ask #ask me stuff #akuma

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