Story Hangover Thoughts: Miraculous

 In the Miraculous Ladybug series, (which isn’t a Disney show, it just airs on Disney Channel in the United States), there’s one question on everyone’s mind. While we’re well aware that Adrien Agreste AKA Cat Noir, was educated at home until middle school, (Fun Fact: The French word “collège” translates roughly to secondary school rather than actual college or high school), because of his modeling career, they never specify what his life was like before his mother’s “disappearance”. (Not telling because it’s a huge spoiler!) When Emilie was around, was Gabriel less overprotective and more involved in his son’s life? Was Adrien tutored by someone other than his father’s personal assistant, Nathalie or was Gabriel at least home for dinner more than twice a year? (Update: as of season five, the answer is yes. Both parents may have been busy, but Emilie was as present in her son's life as she could be).

When I say Gabriel is overprotective, I mean it in almost every sense of the word. Despite receiving a top-notch education, Adrien literally hated homeschooling because he was lonely. He actually ran away from home to go to school! His father only agreed to let him attend if his bodyguard came with him and he kept up his extracurricular activities.

 How many kids do you know who get punished by being kept home from school? (Not kidding!) Adrien is also rarely allowed to have friends over or to go out when his father is home, which apparently isn’t often, because Gabriel (whose alter-ego is the main villain, obviously unknown to his son) is busy a lot. To make him feel included when this happens, his friends FaceTime him so he can hang out with them. 

At least despite his upbringing, he’s not spoiled. Adrien has a huge heart that’s as golden as his hair. He’ll go out of his way to help others, even if they don’t deserve it, and has been crushing on his classmate, Marinette Dupain-Cheng AKA Ladybug, since they met. She returns his feelings, but they were both too embarrassed to say anything until season five, even though literally everyone else had noticed. 

And I do mean everyone. Their parents, friends, teachers, fellow Parisians, even people from other countries! 

Look at them! Tell me they're not a perfect couple!

Adrien definitely has good taste. As well as being an amazing designer and seamstress, Marinette’s parents run a very popular bakery, and she’s as sweet as any of their baked goods! She once visited her paternal grandfather who didn’t even know she existed since he hadn’t left his house in twenty years, (it’s a long story), just to get him to visit her dad for his birthday! She may be a little clumsy, but in an endearing way. 

I personally am really glad they finally got together, since it’s almost unanimous among the fans that they’re the cutest couple! Ironically, neither of them has any idea of the other’s alter-ego, and they both have a huge crush on their partner, too. 

Season four introduced the character, Zoè Lee, the maternal half-sister of Chloè Bourgeois, born from an affair their mother had while overseas. Even though Audrey apparently spent most of her time in New York (the series takes place in Paris, France), Zoè wasn’t her foremost priority either.

 In fact, Zoè spent the first three seasons as an unpopular boarding school student in New York because of a chronically busy and negligent single dad and only moved in with her equally inattentive mom when the bullying got so bad that she couldn’t take it. 

While Chloè has the same negligent mom problem, she grew up with a wealthy and overcompensating father. And I don’t mean he overcompensated by trying to simultaneously be a mom and a dad, I mean he made his daughter feel like the world revolved around her. 

I honestly can’t believe Chloè and Zoè are related. Sure, they both take after Audrey with blonde hair and blue eyes, but Zoè’s one of the nicest characters in the show. During her first appearance, she gave a taxi driver the complementary croissants Marinette had given her after the two became fast friends because the driver had said his children loved the Dupain-Chengs’ baked goods. Not to mention she’s beyond creative and friendly to the point where all her new classmates love her, while Chloè… well, she makes the term “the devil wears Prada” come alive. 

That’s the nicest way I could phrase that since we’re talking about the kind of girl who pulled the fire alarm on Career Day because she didn’t want to get dirty during the baking activity which Marinette’s father provided for the class. And who blamed it on her usual target, Marinette, whose friends vouched that she didn’t do it. Since nobody confessed to the false alarm, the entire school was punished by cleaning the schoolyard. Which Chloè used her status as the mayor’s daughter to get out of. She wasn’t even the least bit sorry about getting everyone else in trouble, saying that if they enjoyed getting dirty making cookies, they’d enjoy getting dirty cleaning. 

By the way, that was one of the worst things she could’ve done. Not only was it unfair to get her classmates in trouble for something they didn’t do, but did Chloè even consider the fact that while the Fire Department responded to her false alarm, there could’ve been an actual emergency? Everyone knows that it’s illegal to call 9-1-1 with a non-emergency. (Or since the show is set in France, 1-1-2). Especially since Sabrina, the girl Chloè considers to be her best friend, her father is a police officer. 

Back to my point, I just don’t find it fair that we have no idea about Zoè’s life before moving in with her mother but we know a lot about Chloè, one of the worst bullies I’ve ever seen, who I’m sure if she could read this, would whine to her father if I didn’t write exactly what she wanted to hear, even though it wouldn’t make me change my mind. I don’t take orders from entitled brats. I honestly don’t know why she has it in for Marinette so badly.  It’s not like she did anything to her. That girl makes sugar seem sour in comparison!

The only reason Chloè and Adrien were childhood friends is because when Adrien was little and his father wouldn’t let him out of his sight, she was kind of his only friend.

 Chloè actually refers to Zoè as her “half-of-a-sister”. She doesn’t mean it as a reference to Zoè being her half-sister, she means it because just like she does with almost everyone else she’s ever met, she has no qualms about showing that she thinks she’s better than her. (I wish we could've seen the look on Chloè's face if they confirm the hopefully true rumor that her father has started filing the paperwork to legally adopt Zoè).

Believe it or not, there might actually be a worse villain. Lili Rossi. She's apparently the daughter of an Italian Ambassador, and she uses that as an excuse to cut school whenever she wants to, claiming that they're traveling. Literally none of that is true. Yes, Ms. Rossi is an ambassador, but she doesn't bring Lila with her. In fact, we recently found out that Lila has somehow managed to get herself adopted by at least three different "mothers". None of them are aware of this and no, I don't know if any of them are her biological or legal parent. In case you haven't guessed, Lila is a huge liar. She's lied about everything from having a hearing problem so she can wear earbuds in class, to Marinette, who doesn't believe her lies, picking on her because she wants the latter out of the way. I can't believe it took that long for her to get busted.