YMMV / Karmic Backlash

• Catharsis Factor: For readers of The Karma of Lies who found the fic was far too lenient on both Lila and Chloé or too harsh on Adrien or just found Marinette's character Unintentionally Unsympathetic, this fic is a must read. Especially because Marinette's half-assed plan to scare Lila straight completely backfires, as it would with a character who is supposedly the embodiment of evil.
  • In the same vein, for those who hated Plagg for virtually doing nothing but scolding Adrien, this fic has similar satisfying moments that see him get tortured and smacked around by Lila in her Ox/Monkey hybrid form, rejected by Adrien for using him and doing nothing to help, and do nothing but watch while Golden Boy!Adrien gets a superior partner in the form of Platinum Retriver.
• Karmic Overkill: This fic is something of an In-Universe Deconstruction of this trope.
  • Chloe starts the original 'Karma' story as someone who, though still entitled, has stopped bullying others. Over the course of that story she begins making genuine amends with those she hurt, gets her ego under control, learns to do good works even when there's no credit or glory to be gained, and improves herself to the point where she's judged worthy of wielding a Miraculous again. Despite having truly become a better person in the previous story and not morally regressing during this one, though, Chloe is punished by being driven to a mental breakdown and permanently institutionalized, seemingly just for being friends with Marinette.
  • Marinette herself is also subjected to this. Her 'karmic' punishments include being brutally beaten by Lila, her father being shot and almost killed by Lila, her family disowning her, and her losing her home (to the point of having to sleep in a Cardboard Box Home for a night) and later being forced to flee to the Order's monastery and become their servant for life just so she has somewhere to live. But while Marinette was called out for actions such as stalking Adrien and not doing more to exonerate Adrien or deal with Lila, she never injured, killed, or enslaved anyone, and Adrien losing his family and home were primarily due to Gabriel being arrested on account of his own supervillainy and couldn't really be blamed on Marinette. (To a lesser extent, Adrien losing his house could also be blamed on him failing to show enough maturity for the Agreste brand's board to consider letting him take over the company once Gabriel was arrested, but that's also wasn't something Marinette did to him). It can thus read as if Marinette is being subjected to massive unjust punishments for things that weren't her fault.
  • The other new heroes are also harshly punished, including at one point being chased by a lynch mob, even though most of them didn't know about the things Marinette was criticized for doing and were essentially just punished for being Marinette's friends and superhero colleagues. (Ironically, Rose and Juleka—who in this story were the only ones who had seen firsthand that Adrien wasn't Mayura's willing accomplice—got off more lightly than the others, who had no way of knowing that until a year later when Alya dug up a video proving it.)
  • Plagg gets off lighter than some other characters, but he's still tortured by Lila and otherwise treated extremely harshly even though his only 'misconduct' were giving Adrien advice that—had Adrien listened—would have solved a bunch of his problems, and then being snarky when Adrien didn't take that advice and instead complained about what was happening to him.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: In the same vein as many other 'Karma' spinoffs (and, to some, 'Karma' itself), some of the characters suffer through such misery that it can become hard to read the stories. Examples include Chloe, who has a mental breakdown and is institutionalized, and Marinette herself, who winds up Hated by All, disowned, and made a virtual slave of the Order of the Miraculous.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • Though the story argues that all the bad things which befall Marinette are her just deserts based on her actions in the original 'Karma of Lies,' the sheer scale of the tragedies she undergoes—including her father being shot, her famiy disowning her, her being rendered homeless, and finally her being made a virtual slave—dwarfs anything she did in the first story and thus can make her seem much more sympathetic than intended.
  • Chloe is an even bigger case. She doesn't do anything wrong in either story, instead focusing on making up for her errors and learning how to be a better person and better hero. Yet she's still driven to a mental breakdown for seemingly no reason other than trusting Marinette. While the story tries to condemn her for her actions on the show (taking place before the original 'Karma of Lies'), her horrible fate combined with her lack of misdeeds in either story still makes her come across as sympathetic to some.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Similarly to the above trope, while the story presents Adrien as deserving good things after what he went through in the original story, the combination of Adrien playing off all his errors as just forgiveable childish immaturity while condemning Marinette for her mistakes and insisting that it's right for her to endure all of the pain and punishment inflicted upon her—despite her mistakes also originating from immaturity and insensitivity instead of genuine malice—can make him come across as a hypocritical jerk.