I’ve Never Wanted To Hug Mari More.

I’ve never wanted to hug Mari more.

On the subject of rivalry

Specifically, I want to briefly discuss Chloe and Marinette’s relationship (or lack thereof), and how people continue to mistakenly define them as being rivals. First, what is a rivalry between two people suppose to look like?

In the most basic understanding, I can see how Chloe and Marinette standing as foils to each other can give people the idea initially, especially since the recent trend is to look at any two characters who are antagonistic towards each other and call it a rivalry. Just by being who they are, their morals and their understanding of how the world works clashes. So occasionally the two will butt heads if Marinette perceives something to be wrong and wants to stop Chloe from doing her usual shenanigans. 

But I think a lot are missing what a rivalry should be, and that is a relationship that is competitive at it’s core. It’s people who clash because of a need to be better then the other, or who fight over a specific objective. 

Their interactions to date have consisted of Marinette standing up for others in the face of Chloe’s antagonism, like Juleka in Reflekta, or standing up for herself. The relationship between the two is a series of antagonistic behavior from one end while the other is usually playing defense, and there is a word for that; it starts with a B and rhymes with sullying, but it’s definitely no rivalry. 

They don’t even fight over Adrien. There’s jealousy to be had, sure, but Marinette has shown that her jealousy isn’t specified to only Chloe, and just being jealous over a guy is a long way from actively sabotaging another person’s chance with a guy… something that Marinette actually did to Lila in a fit of anger. But never with Chloe. So strike that off the list. 

These characters were even in two actual competitions with each other, and it still didn’t reflect what two rivals should look like.

First, the bowler hat contest. I barely count it anyway, since it was for the entire class, but even looking beyond that fact there was little Chloe vs. Marinette aspect to be found. Chloe did single Marinette out, because I do think on some level Chloe might think of her as someone who she has to beat, but it’s for all the wrong reasons and she goes about it through plagiarism anyway. Meanwhile, Chloe wasn’t even on Marinette’s radar (which is what often happens, Marinette does not seem to care about Chloe unless she does something nasty) until she discovered that she stole her design, which she handled quickly and without much fuss at all. But this was a contest Marinette worked hard to be better than everyone so she could win for her own gain, not to beat Chloe specifically. 

Then there was the class presidential election. This is closer to the mark of what two rivals should look like, but it’s ignoring the core of it’s two characters and the message the story is trying to get across. The point of it wasn’t that these two fight to gain something they want and that’s it, it was that once again, Marinette saw wrong in Chloe’s behavior and took matters in her own hands to correct a bad situation. It just so happened that competing against her was the best way to go about it this time.  

The issue seems harmless and inconsequential, but defining their relationship as a rivalry puts Marinette and Chloe on the same level of culpability for their antagonistic behavior towards each other. It suggests that they compete with each other over their ideals, or over an objective, or over a boy, when the show has been explicitly clear in showing that Chloe is always the one to start a fight while Marinette is usually the one having to defend herself, or someone else. There’s nothing competitive about that, and saying otherwise puts blame on Marinette for their relationship being as awful as it is, as if she’s equally as antagonistic and petty for simply not taking it. 

One could look at Chloe, and conclude that the only reason she acts this way towards Marinette is because of jealousy, and that Marinette is someone who she has to beat because the way Marinette accomplishes goals and makes friends is opposite of everything Chloe was every taught, so she could think of her as her own rival. But this is never reciprocated by Marinette, who only ever fights back hard enough for her own defense. But this is also a flawed way of looking at it, because this wasn’t always the status quo between the two.

I think we need to remember Origins for a moment, because the behavior from Chloe can often be dismissed because Marinette now stands up to her very easily. But what if she didn’t? We got a taste of how Marinette use to cow in front of Chloe when she made her change her seat when the school year started, and before that we knew that Marinette put up with this for 4 years, and hated it. She stands up for herself now, but does that make it any different? Keeping in mind that Marinette use to dread going to school because of how Chloe still acts presently, can we call this relationship a rivalry? The answer should be a very firm no. Maybe Chloe sees Marinette as someone to beat now, but she sure didn’t when Marinette was insecure and quiet, and she was still just as antagonizing and mean. 

TLDR: Don’t confuse someone who’s a bully and their target for two people competing with each other on equal terms, just because said target doesn’t take it lying down anymore.