YMMV / Cheshire (Miraculous Ladybug)

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Marinette a victim of bully that you can't help but feel bad about and that needs other people to help her or she's just a spineless girl that can't stand up to her bullies because Status Quo Is God? Does she want to collect Miraculous because she truly worries for the Kwamis or she just selfishly want other beings to talk to? Does she genuinely want to help others or she just want to because people will be nice to her?
• Arc Fatigue: The whole arc about the United Heroes being in Paris, especially the Thunderbird fight, is considered by many to be really drawn-out, with some even saying that it doesn't mesh well with the other arcs. Considering it lasts for around twenty chapters or so, with most of the scenes being fighting, it's not hard to understand where they are coming from.
• Base-Breaking Character: Marinette has grown into one. Either you sympathize with her and find her a good example of a Broken Bird...or you dislike her for her absurd amount of paranoia, self-commiseration and harm and lack of character development. Not helping is the fact the author seems to like building up her angst, which can comes across as annoying in the long run.
• Crazy Is Cool: Cheshire arrives at the end of the Rogercop fight riding a T-Rex Amok.
• Genius Bonus: Crossed with Fridge Brilliance, but in norse folklore, the Nuckelavee is a near-centaur like creature with both the body of a horse and man fused in a way that looks as if the man were riding a one eyed horse. Fitting for the horse kwami's own akuma.
  • The Nuckelavee is also said to bring about death and destruction to the world wherever he goes. Kaalki's akuma wish is to prevent one of his holder’s death from a black cat by going through time, thereby bringing about the death and destruction of the current timeline.
  • Although it became a missed opportunity for the author, the Nuckelavee from the folklore has three notable weaknesses: rain, freshwater, and the smoke that comes from burning seaweed. Ultimately, Marinette (as the Jabberwock, a cat/dragon user) used air manipulation to defeat it, the dragon miraculous grants the user the ability to wield the elements of the storm (Air/Thunder/Water). This is the closest to being faithful to the original Nuckelavee’s weakness.
• Harsher in Hindsight: This fanfic has Marinette being The Woobie that's been singled out by Chloé for abuse, using her authority to isolate her from the rest of her class with Kim as her most active enforcerer. While at the time it was a case of Adaptational Jerkass, the fifth season episode "Derision" reveals that the fanfic is more accurate to the source material than originally thought; Chloé targets Marinette with a bullying campaign, the rest of the students are too afraid to do anything about it, and Kim being too dumb to realize that he was an accomplice in Chloé's bullying.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The first fight between Cheshire and Misterbug/Pegasus introduced the concept of a miraculous outfit with a different colour palet than what is originally expected (to the point that they believed that it was in fact the combination of the fox and miraculous instead). Several months later, this concept is carried to canon, through Rena Furtive, that being Literally Rena Rouge but with different colours. The difference is who used it, and what inspired the colour motif (Marinette used it to look like a crossfox, whilst Alya used it in Rocketear inspired by the arctic fox).
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • In Chapter 20, almost immediately after Alya's Akumatization, Chloé crosses this when she decides to threaten Alya's parents' careers and Nora's favorite gym by using her father's influence unless Alya joins her social circle and abandons Marinette.
  • Kim was never on Marinette's side to begin with (whether as Marinette when he joined Chloé's bullying circle, or as Cheshire in the class' debate teams just to continue his petty rivalry with Alix), but what settles Kim as one of the worst members of Marinette's class is when he assists in Chloé becoming Queen Bee by brushing off Pollen's theft, thinking the leader of the bullying ring he's a part of would make a better hero than the innocent girl he's bullying. Xuppu is horrified by his holder's actions.
    • As King Monkey, he prioritizes attacking Cheshire for Max's lost Miraculous over stopping Akumas, resulting in more damage done to the city during Akuma attacks and Misterbug's Team Miraculous' already sour reputation. However, he definitely crosses it when he Uproars Cheshire (as Knightmare), stranding her in New York City and leaving Fu and Misterbug's Team Miraculous at the mercy of Black Queen an act that costs him and Queen Bee their Miraculouses.
• The Scrappy: Chloé is supposed to be a Hate Sink but she goes beyond the Love to Hate territory. Most find her too clichéd and Laughably Evil to be considered entertaining, not to mention her apparently Invincible Villain status. Her appearances are always hoped to be brief.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Because there are no good things coming for Marinette except more suffering and misery, readers that are less inclined to read angst might lose interest in the fic since there has yet to be something good in Marinette's civilian life.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Adrien is supposed to be seen as the one in the wrong when it comes to Cheshire since he apparently can't see that she's actually a good person and is still somewhat antagonistic towards her. However, it's easy to forget he was told not only by Master Fu but Tikki as well that the Cat Miraculous was evil due to its predecessors. In the end, Adrien was just doing what he thought was good in opposing her because of what the people around him told him.
• Vanilla Protagonist: Marinette is this in spades. Most of the development revolving around her tend to be concentrated on the Kwamis around her or her abilities as Cheshire, with little left to her character itself. Most of the development instead goes to Adrien and Alya (mainly the former than the latter).
• The Woobie: Marinette certainly qualifies at the start of the story. Also Pollen, under Chloe's command.

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