u/DoseofLux

(Reposted for "violating" the spoiler rule even though this is a rewrite of previous season content and the episode hasn't even been released yet)

Okay, Queen of the Dreadzone is coming out, they're gonna hammer down Chloe's inability to redemption, yada yada yada. The comments on her arc are entirely like this. So I've been considering doing a little rewrite on her character like many have done before. I wanted to do this for a while, but many people only often summarise their rewrites as playing the anti-hero storyline completely straight, given that she has had emotional depth across Season 2 before scrapping it for a failed redemption arc as accorded to plan. This rewrite I wanted to do is more about softening the blow on her redemption arc instead of the crash and burn that happened after Season 3.

Now, I understand why it would seem like a bad idea. It sounds like I'm just flipflopping between the "will she won't she" idea behind her redemption. Miraculous is a show that deals with a lot of situational concepts and juggles them all at once. The identity reveals, the lie, the relationship drama, etc. And I wanted to give a try to convey the message that some people just can't be redeemed, without having it be aggressively broadcasted into our faces.

So to start with, yeah we all hate the Season 3 finale. And we all hate the Season 5 finale. But they somewhat countered the problems that saga finale had by threading it with a new plotline where Ladybug lied to Adrien's face about his father's role in the saga's climax. She did it to protect him and was under a lot of heat in the moment, but it also opened the door to a giant conspiracy web of how many people know the truth where she isn't even safe from herself. It also enabled complex themes like rearranged custody, Adrien developing an awareness of his trauma and abuse now that he's free to an extent, therapy, media manipulation.

So how do we bring this level of catharsis into Chloe's tale since she was the big driving point of Season 3 and (as of right now) hasn't had anything outside of the bare template of "some people just cannot be redeemed"?

Well, this shot from the Season 3 episode Miraculer has always stuck with me. You know, the one where Marinette approaches Chloe giving a heads up about Lila? It's one of the few non-Ladybug moments where somebody actually reaches out to her. It was brushed off real quick, but it's always been a season-defining moment for me. The whole journey through Season 3 was Chloe's attachment to Ladybug waning because she isn't being called on since she outed herself right away as a superhero. It's a little bit of support that Chloe really needed to feel like she has something worth sticking around, that could've become a real friendship. A bond forged in fire, if I might say. It's a take on the role reversal trope where Chloe feels backed up by Marinette and is happy to be her friend, while also resentful towards Ladybug for not being given a position of power. Yeah, remember when she was a Ladybug enjoyer back in Season 1?

This can be further expanded in Season 4, where it opens up a lot of story threads. Things like...

• Being kinder to Sabrina (and learning to write [the pen is mightier than the akuma])
• A passive love square with Adrien where Marinette helps Chloe be friends with Kagami since the three of them are children of rich families and Adrien is currently taken, and Marinette has no reason to have Chloe as a rival since she's going out with Luka. However, this all turns volatile as the superhero work leaves both the couples to break up
• Exploring the mayor's more sympathetic side of being a filmmaker and getting along with Zoe while making the movie, but the blitz and glamour leaves her hot-headed and unsafe to work with
• Trying to appease her trophy mum Audrey (which doesn't work since we now know she's part of the Kingdom)

Essentially, this takes a look into the unstable life of being in power, but her position remains strong since she has something to fight for; her friendship with Marinette. This could also make it the first season in the show where she doesn't get akumatised. Yes, as is right now, every season in the show has had her being a villain in some capacity.

Then this all erodes over Season 5 after Adrien falls for Marinette, sparking her tag team-up with Lila. And then it comes crashing down when she's the mayor and becomes dictator thanks to her living up to her mum's standards and takes Marinette out of the picture for ending their friendship because of the betrayal. Everything plays out the way it did in that episode, except the good memories she had with Marinette are still there, they got along well at one point. This could work well with Sabrina's feelings in the episode, where the minion-pining rose-tinted glasses are enforced by the genuine respect over Season 4.

And then they book-end the story for now by saying that Sabrina, Marinette and Ladybug can't be friends with Chloe ever again, but that doesn't mean they have to dislike her either. Things have changed, they've grown up, and they just aren't ready to have her in their lives again. They'll just... tolerate her presence, especially since they've got more bullies who they are far less willing to open up to. This of course is not going to go down as easy now that the Kingdom is partially involved with Chloe. She's a teenager who craves power, and maybe the idea that she's been outfavoured by both her parents will lead her to stand on her own two feet.

Whatever road is taken from there, who's to say. The damage has been done, and I'm not in charge of the long-term planning. For all we know, she could defeat the Supreme and either save the day, or go full "under new management." Who knows? Life is messy, it's not always forgiving, but it's certainly not as simple as constant irredeemability