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Nightmare Fuel / Scarlet Lady

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  • Chloé straight up does not CARE about the destruction wrought by Hawkmoth and his akumas. In her mind, his terrorizing Paris simply provides ways for her to show off to her adoring public; the sheer hell said civilians go through at the hands of his minions doesn't matter. Her Lucky Charm serves as a magical Reset Button, so why does it matter if anyone gets killed? It's no skin off HER nose! The utter lack of regard she shows towards others is downright chilling.
    • The moment that marks her going from being just lazy to outright evil is when she attempts to get Marinette killed by The Gamer, just because Marinette had spent time practicing for a video game tournament with Adrien earlier.
    • "La Befana" depicts Chloé actually enjoying watching her classmates getting attacked and turned into coal or angels by the titular akuma.
    • One moment that really drives it home is when she first shows this aspect of her personality: Volpina threatens to collapse a building if Scarlet Lady doesn't give up her Miraculous... and the heroine flat-out declares that once she beats her, everything will be back, much to the akumatized villain's disgust. Not even (pretending to) take Adrien as the hostage works; she just thinks about how she can turn this into a romantic moment.
    • It gets worse in "Prime Queen," where Scarlet Lady refuses to save Alya twice because Alya snubbed her during the interview, and she doesn't see the problem of letting her get killed if she can just bring her back afterwards... which is revealed in front of the MILLIONS of Parisians watching the interview, all of whom are absolutely horrified their "hero" would be so petty and callous towards someone's life.
    • "Frozer" and "Frightingale" show she can be just as destructive and horrible as a civilian, thanks to her father: in the former, she has her father destroy an ice rink and ruin a man's life work to build her a gym so she can ruin Adrien and Marinette's first date, and in the latter, she forces her father to shut down Clara's video shoot because it doesn't feature Scarlet Lady. Makes one wonder (and fear) what kind of stuff she'd be willing to do if she really wanted to ruin someone's life.
    • She does essentially the same thing in "Malediktator" as she did in canon, intending to leave for New York just because her father wouldn't do an outright illegal thing—in this case, banish Zoé from Paris and shut down the school. When Tikki asks her how she intends to fight Hawkmoth from New York, she says she'll come back—after Paris grovels a bit. She doesn't care about the destruction the akumas will cause, even though she's the only one that can purify the butterflies Hawkmoth uses. Paris could actually be destroyed because she wasn't there, and she wouldn't give a damn.
    • When Adrien is turned into a glitter statue in "Style Queen," Chloé only briefly laments his fate before remarking she might actually prefer him like this. The fact she can be so lackadaisical about the safety of her supposedly beloved Childhood Friend really drives home how she doesn't care about anyone other than herself.
  • Because Marinette isn't Ladybug in this 'verse, she lacks her canonical Plot Armor, meaning she can become a true victim of akuma attacks. Throughout the comic, especially in the first two seasons, she's much more likely to be placed in mortal peril than she was in the canon series, and there are several instances where she's genuinely captured or imperiled with no way out on her own, brainwashed, or even nearly killed by the akuma (case in point, La Befana SUCCEEDS in turning Marinette into coal). Watching someone who's known as The Hero in her own series be so helpless in this comic's first two seasons is unsettling. This is made worse by how Chloé/Scarlet Lady actively wants her dead for the grave sin of being close to Adrien and is more than happy to set her up to suffer.
  • Chloé assaults Sabrina at the end of "The Bubbler" with the latter's own tablet... by throwing it at her head, all because her friend had told her that Adrien's present will be delivered late. Not only does Sabrina end up with a huge bump on her head, but the poor girl notes that this kind of violent behavior is becoming increasingly common for Chloé. Just how much physical abuse (on top of everything else) did Sabrina suffer before she finally wised up and ended her friendship with Chloé?
  • The fact that Jalil was determined to perform a Human Sacrifice before being akumatized, just to prove one of his conspiracy theories correct (despite being told how demonstrably untrue it is), raises quite a few questions about his sanity and what he would've done if he hadn't been akumatized.
  • Both Marinette and Chat Noir see Chloé seemingly fall to her death in front of their own eyes in "Rogercop." She only survives because she had the Ladybug Miraculous with her and used it to transform, but if she hadn't, Chat Noir would have to spend the rest of his life knowing his rescue attempt ended up getting his childhood friend killed.
  • In "Timebreaker," while she's an Asshole Victim galore, Scarlet Lady gets drained by Timebreaker right in front of Marinette. Unfortunately for Marinette and Chat Noir, when the Ladybug heroine fades out of existence, she takes the Ladybug earrings (and Tikki) with her, meaning the damage done to that particular timeline couldn't have been fixed. As much as they hate Scarlet Lady, the actual heroes can't let anything happen to her, or the entire city is doomed to destruction by akumas.
  • A bit of Ascended Fridge Horror occurs in this version of "Simon Says": Chat Noir cataclysms the elevator mechanics while his bodyguard (hypnotized to attack him) is inside. The elevator promptly falls down the shaft and audibly crashes. Chat Noir gives a thousand-yard stare down the elevator shaft and tells himself, "...I'm sure he's fine..." The comic strip is tagged, "#remember watching simon says like #'i think cat noir might've just killed a man."
  • The very first page of "Vanisher" shows Sabrina (the titular akuma) as a shadowy creature with a Slasher Smile. No wonder Tikki was terrified. Things become worse when it's revealed that Vanisher turned Chloé invisible, inaudible, and unable to interact with the real world. While it's appropriate for someone like Chloé, it also means she's unable to transform into the only superhero who can purify akumas and undo the damage.
    • What's more, death by thirst and starvation is a real possibility. Chloé missed her breakfast and won't get anything to eat unless Vanisher allows it. Even though she's an Asshole Victim, this feels like Disproportionate Retribution. (But so is being made into soup for sabotaging a recipe. That's what akumas do.)
    • The photo Vanisher posts shows Chloé terrified of something, and all around her are yellow objects that look like leaves (actually flower petals from a vase that Vanisher breaks). Since real-world objects are solid to her and can't be moved, flower petals would go through her like bullets.
  • Imagine being the pool guy in the background of the panels right before Ondine becomes Syren. You look up from your job to see a very familiar black and purple butterfly in the pool building as you're cleaning it and a teenage girl crying her eyes out. You knows where this is about to go and clearly don't want to be at ground zero of the latest akuma attack that you KNOW will probably be water-themed. That's being a background character in this story in a nutshell, and it's terrifying. The worst part is that all we see between Hawkmoth contacting Ondine and the beginning of the building's water leaking is the pool guy running, so we don't know if he escaped in time.
  • The fact that Adrien really does have claustrophobia in this AU means he probably didn't handle Marigold putting him in a sarcophagus in "Riposte" very well. The caption even refers to it as a "CLAUSTROPHOBIA NIGHTMARE."
  • Syren very nearly manages to kiss Kim, which would have turned him into a Brainwashed and Crazy merman. Even worse? Kim had no idea what would have happened to him.
  • "Intermission" ends with Marigold and Chat Noir talking about Scar and realizing that she'd be too selfish to ever give up her Miraculous even if Hawkmoth is defeated. When one remembers that in canon, Chloé had to be kicked out of the team of heroes because of her selfishness, this does bring up the very dark topic of how the two are going to function if Scarlet Lady isn't going to put in any effort in stopping Hawkmoth just to keep her fame since she's the only one with the power to reverse his machinations. This is outright confirmed in "Sandboy" when Chloé became furious when she learns Tikki had been attempting to find Hawkmoth, telling the Kwami she doesn't want him found since she knows she wouldn't be a superhero anymore if that happened. She is more than content to keep the Forever War going and keeping Tikki hostage if it means she get to keep her fame of being a hero, uncaring of either Tikki or Paris's well-being.
  • While very briefly touched on and used as part of a gag, "Animan" shows just how far Chloé's sense of entitlement to Adrien goes. After overhearing Adrien's plans to go to the zoo with Nino, Alya, and Marinette, Chloé dons a disguise while ranting to an irritated Tikki. However, she sounds like a emotionally abusive girl who wants to control every aspect of her boyfriend's life and is just shy of committing outright physical abuse against him for going to a place she dislikes. One has to remember that in this AU, she's a superheroine, so she shows a surprising amount of restraint.
    Tikki: Chloé, this is ridiculous. Adrien is free to date whoever he wants!
    Chloé: Of course he is! As long as it's me! But why did he have to choose the stinky, sweaty, gross zoo?! I'll have to talk to him about his lack of consideration for me.
    Tikki: Ugh.
    Chloé: The sacrifices I make for love.
    Tikki: You don't have to—
    Chloé: Sacrifices!
  • Like in canon, "Princess Fragrance" begins with Tikki getting sick. However, because she's stuck with the apathetic Chloé (who failed to recover the Grimoire and thus never met Master Fu), there's a very good chance she's not going to get medical treatment. Not even when the otherwise strictly secretive Tikki offers the otherwise untrustworthy Chloé a chance to meet Master Fu (which would have no doubt had serious consequences) in exchange for getting some medical treatment does Chloé even budge.
  • Chris is kidnapped by the Sapotis, and it's not by random chance; they blame him for taletelling their antics. It's bad enough when a multiplying akuma makes random chaos, but when you suddenly have all their attention...
  • Jagged and Penny are clearly panicking as they realize the Sapotis have carjacked them and are driving like crazy. The fact that the Sapotis's legs are too stubby for them to reach the brake pedal from the driver's seat means they probably won't be able to stop the vehicle unless they crash into something.
  • In "Anansi," Lila and her mother are clinging to each other as they and Sabrina scream in terror from inside a pod of the Ferris wheel that the titular akuma is flinging across Paris.
  • After discussing the wish-granting powers of the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous following Robostus's defeat, Chat Noir and Marigold both conclude that "Hawkmoth can never win." While the prospect of the villain getting his hands on the two Miraculous and rewriting reality gives them cause enough to be concerned, there's also the fact that Hawkmoth may never be able to truly win even if he did get to make his wish since the Equivalent Exchange nature of how it gets granted means he'd essentially end up right back where he started. Moreover, the fact that Hawkmoth hasn't realized this yet himself strongly hints that should he ever manage to make his wish, once it's granted, he'll just keep trying to rewrite reality with the Ladybug earrings and Cat ring in the futile hopes of finally having it all.
  • Lila gets targeted by Prime Queen for pretty much no reason (at most, you could argue she partly ruined Nadja's interview by calling in just to insult Scarlet Lady, though that was far from the biggest reason why the interview ended up being a disaster) other than the fact the akuma needed a hostage.
    • What makes it worse is that assuming Lila's mother isn't in, Manon has been left alone. Worse, Prime Queen deliberately sets her up to die as part of her blackmail.
    • Prime Queen then ups the ante by kidnapping Alya, putting her into a mummy coffin, and then threatening to drop her into the Seine to drown unless the heroes unmask. Scarlet Lady simply outright states she has no problem in letting Alya die since she can bring her back... while all of Paris is watching. Meaning everyone now knows just how little she values their lives.
  • "Zombizou" emphasizes the horror of what the titular akuma is actually doing and how it parallels Mme. Bustier's failures as a Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher. Because Marinette pointed out that Mme. Bustier can't force her to "forgive" Chloé and pretend she was anything other than a Spoiled Brat, Zombizou proceeds to try brainwashing everyone into being "her sweethearts." And unlike canon, most of the cast goes down screaming, possibly because while they trust Ladybug to always save the day, many of them are now aware that Scarlet Lady is distinctly untrustworthy.
    • Once again, Scarlet Lady is willing to allow an akuma to bring harm to Marinette for the pettiest of reasons. This time, she's pretending to stay with the group as their protector when in reality, she just wants a front row seat for when Marinette gets zombified and may not even step in should the group get cornered. It really highlights how dangerous Scarlet's Skewed Priorities are that she would doom all of Paris just to settle a petty grudge against her favorite bullying target.
    • When only she, Marinette, and Chat Noir are left uninfected, Scar outright sabotages her partner while he's fighting off zombies, leading to him falling victim to the akuma's powers.
    • Finally, when it's down to just her and Marinette, Scarlet Lady drops all pretenses and intentionally attacks the latter... only to end up getting kissed instead, meaning that as far as anyone was concerned at the time, there was no way for the akuma to be purified. If not for Marigold's panic-induced Next Tier Power-Up, Zombizou would've won.
  • "Gorizilla" has a chilling reminder of Gabriel's Lack of Empathy towards his son. His reaction towards Adrien (seemingly) turning out to not be Chat Noir is to sigh and tell the akuma to let Marigold save him, simply because he "can't make ads with a pancake son" and not because, you know, Adrien is falling to his death and (seemingly) isn't a superhero! This happens again in "Style Queen": Gabriel deliberately angers Audrey Bourgeois so he can akumatize her and makes himself scarce, not caring whom the akuma might target—and when she attacks Adrien, transforming the teen into a statue of glitter... all Hawkmoth cares for is that Nathalie will strike him over it later.
  • In "Sandboy," Chat Noir's nightmare is an akumatized Marinette resembling a demon, and she implies that she ended up like that because Chat Noir failed to protect her.
  • Audrey Bourgeois's complete lack of care for her children becomes obvious in "Malediktator": after Chloé decides to leave for New York with her, she just ignores the fact that Zoé isn't there before leaving the hotel. Though it's later shown that Audrey wasn't paying attention when Chloé announced her decision and instead though they were heading to her office in Paris, the fact she was lost in her own world for so long means there's a high chance she would've already been on her way back to New York before she did notice. In short, she's essentially playing the fear of every child—their parent abandoning them in a strange place—and doesn't even seem concerned.
  • One of Malediktator's first actions? Force his wife to dedicate herself to the family and stay in Paris. While intersected with Chloé's Parental Sexuality Squick, it's still the akuma doing something that's inching too close to actual sexual assault.
  • Zoé sees Scarlet Lady's Lucky Charm take the form of a rocket launcher and is visibly horrified at the thought that the heroes of Paris may use it to kill her stepdad. Moreover, she isn't aware of Scarlet Lady's World-Healing Wave yet, so as far as she knows, André would remain dead if the heroes decide to kill him.
  • Chloé stupidly outing herself as Scarlet Lady, which is then broadcasted across Paris, meaning that, even if Hawk Moth wasn't literally standing right next to her when she transformed, he would no doubt have found out either way.
  • Chloé's akuma form combines her Queen Wasp and Miracle Queen's powers—meaning she controls wasps that both paralyze people and put them under her control. Zoé, Chat Noir, and Marigold barely escape her on time, with the Bee heroine remarking how much of a threat Queen Wasp is compared to the incompetent Scarlet Lady. There's also fact that, unlike in canon, she's already this powerful without any Miraculous, making one wonder how much more powerful she'd been if she were to get her hands on one.
  • In "Catalyst", Nathalie creates an illusion of Chat Blanc vaporizing Marigold to throw Paris into despair.
    • Then Hawkmoth takes advantage of this to empower himself into Scarlet Moth and send hundreds of butterflies that manage to akumatize hundreds of people at the same time - including most of Adrien and Marinette's classmates.
    • While it's Played for Laughs, Scarlet Moth whining to Catalyst about how Sabrina and Lila managed to avoid being akumatized underscores what a possessive Control Freak he is, as he specifically refers to them as "MY Vanisher and Volpina". As in his eyes, the girls' only value is as akumas, and he considers them his property.
  • In "Hawkmoth", it turns out that Chloé wasn't reakumatized as Queen Wasp; Hawkmoth gave her the Peacock Miraculous and she created a red copy of her akuma form instead. Which means that, assuming the Peacock Miraculous is still damaged as it was in canon, Hawkmoth was willing to give a teenager an item that would make her chronically ill and possibly even kill her, most likely without warning her about it beforehand.

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