Episode 11 - Chlophidian

This episode’s song is Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus, which I unironically really like. It ties in several points lyrically – Chloé doesn’t want people to think she’s walked away from Ladybug; Chamela, Heikegana, Mayura, and several other characters burst through plans like the wrecking ball from the lyrics.

Miraculous Communications Network

So, here we have what Max, Markov, and Kaalki have been working on since Mayura 2, apparently with Chloé, Zoé, and Maria’s help. I came up with this idea long before I got to this part of the story – with so many Miraculous in the field, especially the four with their Kwamis permanently, having a secure method of communication made sense. Fairly obviously, I came up with the idea long before Season 6 began airing and we discovered the Miraculous could summon each other.

The MCN has a slight advantage over the method we’ve seen so far in the show – that appears to only be usable while they’re transformed, so it doesn’t allow people to communicate prior to that. Here, the whole team can talk, in relative security and, if someone who doesn’t yet have their Kwami sees something that requires Ladybug’s attention, they can let her know more easily.

Lila and the Rogues

This episode is very heavily about her. That section at the beginning, where it mentions that Lila has stolen the exam papers so that she can cheat, was originally meant to be a fourth Rogue Miraculous plot in Munici-Pals, but I couldn’t make it work.

Throughout this episode, Lila was being unusually honest with Papillon – her plans still relied on their alliance at this stage, so she was willing to work with him. Everything would have gone much better for her if she hadn’t picked the day when Alix was introducing Aodh to the group. Their rivalry continues to grow, especially with how he wrecks two of her plans in rapid succession today.

This is a long episode, so there are some bits I had to cut – one was that if Aodh had been able to look at the phone Chamela was using to lure him down that well, he would have seen a hastily chopped up video, shot from outside Maria and Danyll’s window, showing Maria playing video games with an invisible opponent (which would have been Riggly). The sequence was meant to highlight how sinister Chamela could be, as well as tip Aodh off that his cousin is a Miraculous. Instead, we get the reveal at the end (originally, Maria wasn’t meant to appear at all in this episode)

Chloé

Oddly, despite this episode basically being the culmination of Chloé’s redemption arc, Chloé spends most of the episode firmly as the bad guy, because she’s been Akumatised. It would have been really fun to imply that Chloé was actually a sleeper agent for Papillon, but it would involve adding a whole lot of intrigue in the episodes before this. I tried to make a little frisson of concern with the episode blurb at least.

In the first draft, Chloé was more argumentative with Ladybug about not being able to keep Pollen, but it felt like that wouldn’t really be in keeping with her character growth. Instead, she’s quietly bitter about it, and admits that she understands the reason at the end.

Originally, Ryuko and Korvid didn’t make appearances in this episode, but given how Chloé and Kagami have grown to have a firm respect for each other in this draft, it made sense for Kagami to insist on coming along. If Chloé wasn’t Force-Akumatised, Ryuko would be the one who might be able to talk her down.

When I wrote Miraculous: Contingency, Chloé has always been one of my favourite characters, but I had forgotten just how good a fighter Queen Bee was – she went toe-to-toe with Mayura. I had to hurriedly edit the moment with Kagami and Chloé in Dakukani, as well as the short episode Chloé’s Kickboxing Trainer to adjust for the fact that Chloé is a skilled savate tireuse while Season 2 was actually uploading. When I got to this episode, I felt like I should highlight that again, so we get this moment of Ryuko taunting Papillon.

Korvid revealing her secret identity to help protect Alya turned out to be a bit of a damp squib because the only people she revealed her identity to in the end were Zoé (who almost certainly already knew) and Alix (who could have worked it out), but the intention was good at least.

At the end, when Chlophidian has been defeated and Chloé begs Ladybug to believe her, the first draft only had Ladybug say “I believe you” after the descriptive text saying “Somehow, deep down, Ladybug knew that the choice she made here would decide a lot more than just who she believed.” I felt like Chloé deserved a little more, here, considering how much effort she’s put in across Miraculous: Contingency. So I extended the descriptive text so Ladybug could admit that Chloé is now her friend, and added the line about Chloé being Queen Bee – which was a nod back to Queen Bee’s very first appearance in Miraculous: Contingency, in Legion, where Chloé said “I am Queen Bee, after all.”

Technically I always think of Chlophidian as the end of Chloé’s redemption arc. There are a couple of episodes in Season 4 which look at her again, but they’re not about her improvement anymore. Also, Chlophidian is another of my top three bilingual pun Akumas (Chloé and ophidian – meaning snake-like).

Betrayal

As I mentioned earlier, I wish I could have teased the betrayal actually being Chloé, only to turn it around here. I mean, a lot of people would probably assume it was going to be Lila as well, but making it be Gabriel who betrayed Lila was fun for me.

As a semi-omnipotent audience, we all know that Gabriel has made a bad decision here, but the character believes that Lila doesn’t know who he really is. The treachery is a large driving force behind Season 4, although Lila isn’t in most of that. Gabriel does have second thoughts about turning on her, because she can be famously vindictive.

Nathalie’s Mind

This is another situation where the second draft fixed something I hadn’t properly thought through in the first draft. When we got to this moment originally, it basically meant nothing because I’d done no work establishing exactly how the parasite personalities worked. Now it’s a lot clearer, Invisibelle-Nathalie assuming control of the other eight parasites has a more aggressive impact.

There’s a big question regarding whether Invisibelle-Nathalie had actually manifested a physical form, albeit one only Nathalie could see, or if the pushes that tripped Nathalie over were entirely caused by Nathalie herself.

The final point that needs to be covered here is that, when Nathalie forces the voices all down, defeating them and subjugating them once and for all, she has done damage to her own, natural, psyche. It will be incredibly obvious from the first episode of Season 4 that something has changed in Nathalie, and not necessarily for the better.

This Isn’t Over Yet

In the original version of the second draft, the sequence of Lila on the coach out of France came before Nathalie’s fight against her parasitic personalities, and it was a lot shorter – ending when she disappeared in the tunnel. My editor commented at the time that the ‘To Be Continued’ felt less ominous than the previous two seasons’ cliffhangers. When I was tidying up the episodes, trying to clean up any errant spelling errors or grammatical mistakes (I still didn’t catch them all), I decided I’d adjust the ending of this episode. By moving Lila’s sequence to the end and adding just that little bit showing her preparing her revenge, we’ve got much more of a cliffhanger moment.

I wanted to make it clear, Lila is still struggling with what’s happened to her. All of her plans fell apart in one moment, mostly because she didn’t take into account just how far Gabriel’s mental health has fallen. The tear was genuine. The revenge will be terrible