Some Quick Portrayal Notes!

❛ The point of Heroes' Day is for you to do something good for someone, Chloé, not your money. ❜ Marinette lets out a sigh, shakes her head, and gives an exaggerated roll of her eyes. Despite her exasperation, she strides forward to link an arm through Chloé's with a wry smile. ❛ Come on, think of someone you want to do something nice for. I'll help you. ❜

( unprompted asks / always accepting !! )

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐏𝐈𝐃. Not because Chloé didn't want to do something nice, but because — in all honesty — she didn't think anyone would believe she was sincere. She had been trying, really trying, lately to turn it around. She wasn't perfect ( as much as she liked to pretend she was ), and she had definitely stumbled along the way, but she liked to think she had made a little progress in mending the bridges she had burned. Chloé just hoped everyone else saw it that way.

Her scowl softened a little, morphing into something like defeat as she slumped forward with her head bowed. If someone had told her a year ago that she and Marinette Dupain-Cheng would end up being somewhat friends, she would have laughed. Long and loud. Yet, here they were, and Marinette hadn't begrudged her for her mishaps as Chloé tried to make amends.

❝ But — ❞ Everyone likes getting gifts! is what she wanted to say. Whenever she was sad or upset — which, in the past, had been pretty often — she could always count on her father spoiling her to curb any unseemly outburst. Maybe it didn't make her happy, true, but... it had placated her for a while. It had been enough, or she had thought so, anyway. Maybe Marinette had a point. And really, if she thought about it, the person she had been thinking of probably wouldn't have been placated by flashy shows of money. Chloé let out a breath. ❝ ...Fine. I... want to do something nice... for Sabrina. ❞

open to mutuals.

❝   Yes,  I  have  arrived.  Please  —  don't  hold  your  applause.  ❞

i am gonna be active again. this is entirely @yinbug's fault.

setting up my thumbelina ( don bluth 1994 film ) blog tonight. please look forward to it. :))))

❛ For now, if you feel like you have to keep the deception going, I am hardly in a position to contradict you. ❜ luka → chloé ♡

( the cruel prince prompts / accepting !! )

𝐋𝐔𝐊𝐀 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐅𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐁𝐎𝐘 𝐒𝐇𝐄'𝐃 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐌𝐄𝐓. Unlike most of the others at school, he didn't scramble to get out of her way in the hallway, or on a good day, offer to carry her books. Worse than that, he didn't seem to be completely enamoured with her by her mere presence in his boring, unfulfilled life. Didn't he know who she was?! In fact, Luka seemed to be completely unphased by anything Chloé did.

Not for lack of trying, though. She had, at one time, tried to make him angry. Had tried to push his buttons, poking and prodding so much that she ended up being more mad herself in the end than he was. Luka was, in fact, so calm as she threw a fit, she wondered if he even knew how to be angry. It wasn't like Juleka's quiet calm. Juleka was quiet to the point of painful shyness. Luka just seemed to be relaxed no matter what the situation was. Chloé would have been impressed if she weren't so annoyed by it.

They only ever saw each other in passing at school. At least at the start. Sometimes, on the rare occasion she could be convinced by Adrien to come hang out with everyone at the Couffaines — sit in on band practise, or whatever else they had going on — she'd stand off to the side and pull faces every time Luka so much as glanced at her. He always smiled, though. In that easy sort of way that got under her skin and made her want to jump into the Seine.

Do you... like him, Chloé? Sabrina had asked at one point as she caught the blonde staring at Luka's retreating figure in the cafeteria, timid because she knew that the other girl would likely blow up at the accusation. And she had. Of course she had.

Infuriating. Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous!

That was how they ended up here. In the park. She'd bee-lined for him as soon as she saw him, a girl on a mission because there was no way she, Chloé Bourgeois, had a crush on someone like Luka Couffaine. Luka was strumming away at his guitar; blissfully ignorant — or, perhaps, choosing to ignore — Chloé as she went on another one of her tirades.

She paced back and forth in front of him, gesticulating wildly as she seethed.

❝ —— And Sabrina had the gall, the utter audacity, to insinuate I might have a crush. On you! Can you believe it?! ❞

Do you?

❝ Excuse me? ❞

Do you have a crush on me?

She felt the heat rising to her cheeks, though it was less fuelled by anger and more by sheer embarrassment at his forwardness to even ask. He was looking at her curiously. No thread of judgment in his expression. Chloé scowled.

❝ Of course I don't. Don't be ridiculous! ❞

Mm.

❝ I don't have a crush on you. ❞

For now, if you feel like you have to keep the deception going, I am hardly in a position to contradict you.

Chloé's hands balled into fists at her side. She stamped her foot and didn't care how childish and unreasonable it made her look. ❝ Couffaine... ❞

Chloé.

❝ You — You — I'm leaving! ❞

She stormed off without another word, barely registering his soft laugh and murmured 'See you at school, Chloé'. It wasn't until she was out of the park and couldn't hear the gentle strumming of his guitar anymore that she finally stopped and pressed a hand to her heart. It was thrumming so wildly, she thought it might burst out of her chest. Adrenaline, she told herself. It was just adrenaline. She did not have a crush on Luka.

❝ ...Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous! ❞

𝘾𝙃𝙇𝙊𝙀 𝘽𝙊𝙐𝙍𝙂𝙀𝙊𝙄𝙎 , lookbook .

i realized the other day that i haven’t really talked all that much about the last handful of episodes of season 5 and haven’t really touched on the ending of chloe’s story at all. and i really only see people who are upset about it talk about her last few scenes so i do want to offer an alternative take on it, which is basically: to me, chloe’s story ended in tragedy. i don’t really care what astruc has said on twitter or what was leaked in bibles or scripts. i’m looking at the story we actually got, the one that ended with this moment.

does marinette tell her off right before this? yes. and this should be a moment of victory for marinette, right? she’s finally free from chloe, in every way.

but we don’t see marinette after this. this is the last shot of marinette in the episode before it cuts to chloe’s reaction. marinette’s face is still there, but only as the contact image on chloe’s phone. marinette herself is gone. the rest of the episode only shows us chloe and lila. from here on out, we are not in marinette’s story. we’re in theirs.

and it’s here, when we move out of marinette’s story, that we see chloe’s is tragedy. chloe is the villain in marinette’s story and the victim in her own. this is not just about protagonist centered morality, though that plays a role. it’s about not just whose side the story takes but also what marinette is allowed to know and see. marinette only ever gets the smallest glimpse of chloe’s home life and family, but as the viewers we get to see more. and it is after marinette dismisses her and hangs up in revolution that chloe stops being a part of marinette’s story, and, in that moment, loses the role of the villain. freed from marinette’s story, we see her alone, sobbing, because she’s left with only her own story, where she is the victim.

and it’s notable that chloe tried to reject that story. she chooses marinette’s story, again and again. that’s why she called marinette in the end. chloe would rather play the villain. calling sabrina, asking for comfort, would be accepting that she’s a victim, which chloe isn’t ready for. unfortunately, marinette doesn’t give her a choice: marinette’s story doesn’t have room for chloe anymore. she’s fought her demons and has new ones to face. the only role left for chloe to play in marinette’s story is the girl ladybug couldn’t save.

so yeah, this ending is tragic. and i genuinely hurt for chloe in that moment. but i never once thought we were supposed to see her as unredeemable or celebrate her being sent off to her mother. i don’t know what the story plans to do with chloe next - whether she’s gone for good or she’ll come back worse or come back better. but i know this moment, by taking us out of marinette’s perspective, asked us to sympathize with a girl suffering at the end of her downward spiral.

SABRINA CARPENTER Espresso (Official Music Video)

what  are  those?   [   those  are  wings,  thumbelina.  these  are  fairies  and  fairies  have  wings  so  they  can  fly.   ]   have  you  ever  seen  a  fairy?   [   well,  i  thought  i  did  once.   ]   really?   [   yes.  and  here,  the  fairy  prince  and  princess  are  having  a  wedding.   ]   and  they  live  ...  happily  ever  after!   [   usually,  my  dear.   ]   i  ...  suppose  it  works  best  if  two  people  are  about  ...  the  same  size.   [   yes,  of  course  ...   ]   well  ...  well,  that's  not  fair.  i  ...  i  must  be  the  only  little  person  in  the  world.  i  wish  i  were  big.   [   oh  no,  thumbelina.  no.  don't  ever  wish  to  be  anything  but  what  you  are.   ] ©

❛   ▌┊𝐑𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑 :   adrien  ( @yangnoir ) .  

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐄𝐂𝐇 𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐍, the more Chloe's eyes began to glaze over. Every part of her wanted to scream, to order him to stop and let it end already so she could do better things with her time. She hated being stuck here, wearing an itchy dress her mother forced her into, putting on a nice façade for the public so Papa would get the support he needed.

Enduring this campaign event was her own personal torture; but, at least she knew one face here. She glanced across the room to where he stood and could glean from his posture that he felt as bored and unnecessary as she looked. Without a word, Chloe bee-lined through the crowd and stopped by Adrien's side, arms folded.

❝ This is ridiculous. It feels like he's been talking for hours! ❞ she hissed, just audible enough for Adrien to hear without disturbing those around them actually listening to her father's awful, droning speech.