On Chloé Bourgeois And The Character Psychology That The Writers Put On Screen Without Meaning To At

on Chloé Bourgeois and the character psychology that the writers put on screen without meaning to at all

(when the reply is three times longer than the post I'm replying to then someone who didn't deserve it was about to be a victim of the hobby horse, so here it goes instead. For context: Astruc has once again stated that the point of Chloé's character is that she "doesn't want to change" and people who believe it are once again displaying the media literacy)

I'm pretty sure there was an episode or two about Chloé grovelling at her mother's feet for a scrap of attention or acknowledgment and it was made very much a point about how the mother who Chloé so adores is like Chloé herself on steroids and it was real funny until it wasn't because even Marinette looked upset when Chloé's mother told Chloé - in full public - that she was worthless and unworthy of her attention.

So then there was a whole deal about Chloé having stumbled over a miraculous and using it to show her mum that she too was exceptional and how that was a huge disaster and Chloé was summarily humiliated (up to and including her mother insulting her on live national TV)

And I could be wrong but I could have sworn it all ended with a scene where a very timid Chloé asks her mother why she doesn't love her. And that's upsetting, because

a) that's just something no child should ever have ask a parent, no matter how privileged or spoiled or mean they are

b) Chloé's mum has spent the whole episode proving again and over that she's such a toxic influence on everyone around her that Chloé is much better off without her around, even if Chloé - like most children with some degree of normal socialisation - loves the parents who have continually failed her

c) the episode has made a repeated point about Chloé emulating her mother to appease her, which recontextualises Chloé's entire character to the viewer

If we were going to spend previous episodes bringing up Chloé's vulnerable side and connect it to her mum having left the family (I'll drop the sarcasm: "Zombizou" and "Despair Bear"), then this new information about Chloé imitating her mother because she wants her attention is psychologising all of the attitude. Behind the privilege and the ignorance is a child abandoned by one parent and neglected by the other to be raised by the staff, and who has latched onto the most destructive option: Mummy is the strong one, so Mummy is right, and to win Mummy's approval I have to be like her

(and by god, the thesis to be written about how Chloé has first row seats to her mother's abuse of her father and intimate knowledge about how the only way to avoid being a victim herself is to be in Mummy's good books. It is so bloody nasty and the show plays it as a joke)

TL:DR: The show spent a whole bloody two-parter on how Audrey is the source and the fuel of Chloe's poison, ends it with Chloé openly confronting her mother about it -

and then Marinette is there, and our hero, officially the nicest kid on Santa's list, the Big Good, future Best Guardian in History, decides that what Chloé needs is for Audrey to stick around. So Marinette interferes and successfully reunites mother and daughter, who promptly start making each other even worse.

I'd say something about it being the most elaborate revenge ploy the show has seen if it weren't for the fact that it sincerely depicted as an act of selfless goodness, and the ending is framed as funny and not as the goddamn tragedy that it is. And the show that supposedly created a cosmic allegory about child abuse for some reason decided that a recurring theme was going to be "abused children idolising their abusers", an edifying lesson for the six-to-ten audience.