Marinette Dupain-Cheng, also known as her superhero identity Ladybug, is one of the titular main protagonists of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. She was a normal French girl, until she received a Miraculous from Master Fu, the guardian of the miraculous. The miraculous is a magical jewel that, with the help of a kwami (a magical being), can turn her into a superheroine.
Marinette received the Ladybug Miraculous, one of the most powerful, alongside the Cat Miraculous, and it gave her the power of creation. She used it to protect Paris from the evil Hawk Moth, who often akumatizes normal people (turning them into super-villains).
She is voiced by Anouck Hautbois in the original French version and Cristina Vee in the English version.
What Makes Her a Base Breaking Character?[]
What Do People Like About Her?[]
- She has a quirky and cute personality which makes her endearing, as well as being able to solve problems with her intelligence.
- As the superhero Ladybug, she finds innovative ways to defeat the akumatized villains and never gives up no matter what, which people like.
- She is a very compassionate person who is always able to forgive others (unless they are irredeemable) and usually shows mercy to akuma victims, another things fans like.
- She always tries to learn from her mistakes over the course of the show and better herself as a person.
- Although she called out Lila too harshly in "Volpina", she did regret it and tried to make amends with Lila even though the latter would later reject her apology. Some find it hard to blame her for it as Lila's lies would've twisted her reputation and she interfered with Adrien's personal space, and besides she was already a fraud and manipulator beforehand.
- She often suffers a lot when she gets bullied by Chloé or Lila or dealing with the stress of being the Miraculous' guardian after Fu sacrificed his memories, making fans sympathize with her.
- One infamous example was in "Chameleon", where Lila sending Marinette to the verge of tears by turning her friends against her began lots of "salt fics" defending Marinette from her cruel treatment.
- Even some of her biggest haters think Cristina Vee did a good job voicing her, adding expression and liveliness to the character.
What Do People Hate About Her?[]
- Her stalkerish obsession with Adrien was portrayed as funny and cute but to fans instead comes off as creepy, as she often stalks him to unhealthy degrees, is willing to steal his things and even break into his house. Moreso, she also acts completely flustered whenever she talks to Adrien, which is considered annoying to some. What makes it worse is that her stalking was meant to be seen as a character flaw played for laughs, and the in-universe characters encourage this behavior rather than calling her out.
- The episode "Derision" gives a justification for Marinette's stalking as a traumatic event where she fell in love with Kim but after he made a cruel prank on her she was traumatized from the incident and swore to never fall in love with a boy unless she knew everything about them to an obsessive level. Detractors consider it to be a poor explanation for Marinette's behavior since it came out of nowhere and retconned the show's continuity just to give a justification. Detractors also felt like this contrasts with the series’ humor since the episode portrays as a serious trauma what was portrayed as a gag for most of the series, so Kim being portrayed as a jerk for joking about it feels hypocritical to many.
- Speaking of hypocrisy, she is considered to be that person as she insists that she and Cat Noir must keep their identities a secret from each other, yet allows her classmates to keep using the Miraculous despite their identities being revealed after Chloé's betrayal and even let Alya know her secret identity, only letting it slide when their knowledges get reversed by the Miraculous Ladybug superpower.
- While some of her meaner moments are justified, some go way too far and cause devastating consequences which fans are annoyed they were justified by the narrative and thus didn’t get acknowledged, such as when she tried to humiliate Kagami in "Animaestro" which led to Thomas Astruc's self-insert being akumatized and denying Chloé the Miraculous and giving it to Kagami just to get her away from Adrien in "Heart Hunter" which led to Chloé's permanent betrayal and Fu's sacrifice.
- While having every episode make Ladybug or the other main focus characters make mistakes and learn from them sounds like a decent concept on paper, some viewers didn’t like that Ladybug’s actions in several episodes were excessively reliant on Informed Wrongness at times due to the aforementioned format.
- In "Rogercop", most viewers don't agree with the episode painting her as acting like Chloé when the latter immediately accused her without proof, while all Marinette did was just point out she’s a suspect like everyone else, with her even agreeing to have her bag searched if all the bags get the same treatment.
- In "Gamer", she was portrayed in the wrong for taking a spot in a video game tournament from Max even though anyone at her school was allowed to compete for it and she won fair and square, making Max’s akumatization (or at least his behavior at the end of the episode) less sympathetic in the fans’ eyes.
- In "Qilin", she ends up taking the blame for Sabine getting arrested and akumatized in the episode and it is framed as her being responsible. Viewers don’t like that she took the blame for something she wasn’t truly responsible for while Roger and the Ticket Inspector suffered no consequences for abusing their power.
- Some viewers think that she isn’t the only one to blame in Season 4 for Cat Noir feeling resentful due to thinking he’s being overshadowed by the new heroes, since he didn’t try to tell her how he was feeling.
- Some camera shots throughout the show (and some renders) emphasize her rear while wearing her skintight Ladybug suit, which to fans seem to sexualize her, even though Marinette is canonically stated to be 14 years old (13 in the first season).
- She is infamously involved with an issue of the now non-canon Miraculous Adventures comics, where she encounters a group of Black people and assumes that they're looting a building before asking them not to kill her. This comic is infamous for having implications of being racist with her being used as a mouthpiece, with one of them being literally referred to as "Ghetto Blaster".
- The show's creator Thomas Astruc often expresses a biased attitude towards Marinette, imagining her as an ideal child with his former girlfriend, which fans consider to be creepy especially given the implications on why he idealizes Marinette so much.
- Some people felt the Chronobug suit design was unnecessary logistically and it was flashy to the point of being out of called such in-universe in a situation where stealth was necessary as the universe was at risk of getting destroyed.
External Links[]
- Ladybug on the Heroes Wiki
- Ladybug on the Guile Heroes Wiki
- Ladybug on the Love Exalted Wiki
- Ladybug on the Near Pure Good Wiki
- Marinette Dupain-Cheng on the Miraculous Ladybug Wiki
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 Base Breaking Characters
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Major Characters | ||