Chloe – Page 3 – ringsabel

“Antibug” will go down in history as the episode that actually managed to make me kind of like Chloe. I mean come on, Chloe has always been the class bitch everyone loves to hate. In many ways she’s only been that. “Antibug” delivers some depth.

First of all, we’ve previously learned that Chloe was enough of a Ladybug fan to cosplay as her. However we didn’t know that she dressed up with Sabrina, made-up ridiculous akuma backstories, got the butler involved, and played pretend around the hotel.

That’s adorable.

Second, I got the feeling that we saw a little more vulnerability in Chloe this time around. Sure, Chloe is a brat who cries when her hair gets a little out of place. Yet getting dissed by Ladybug was enough to make her break down and get akumatized. She might have just felt angry and humiliated but then getting unintentionally outed by Sabrina should have done the trick. Chloe must have been really hurt.

Third ,we get a little bit more detail into Chloe’s relationship with Sabrina. This episode absolutely implies that Chloe is a bit of a tsundere. After Sabrina embarrassed Chloe, she insulted Sabrina, refused to look at her, and overall acted like she didn’t exist. Yet when Sabrina left, Chloe looked back before huffing and looking away again. When Sabrina nervously hovers in class, Chloe dismissively told her she should go ahead and sit down. Then she smiled, which made both Marinette and Alya think she looked really happy in her own way. Then Chloe, just as dismissively, gave Sabrina another broach before smiling at her again.

Chloe is a spoiled, selfish, bratty rich girl who gets everything handed to her. She’s likely too proud to admit the world doesn’t revolve around her and doesn’t display affection well. She isn’t very nice to Sabrina, as she isn’t very nice to anybody, but she gives her accessories. It’s probably the only way she really knows how to show affection.

On a slightly unrelated note, this episode is a good example of how the show can show development without a strictly linear plot. Chloe is still a total brat. Any development is just subtle enough to where you can rearrange the episode order without her behavior being jarring. You could watch Chloe dangle a beret in front of Sabrina in “Evillustrator” and think she’s trying to buy her off. You can watch it after “Antibug” and think there’s more to it. It doesn’t matter what episode you watch before or after because either way she’s being a shit.

All in all I’m excited about several development points in “Antibug,” and I’m excited to see more episodes like it. Yeah I got spoiled by all the ship teases, which this episode didn’t have much of, but good writing requires expanding on characters and switching things up once in awhile.