Fanfic / Jerk in Sheep's Clothing

Henri LeRoi, drawn by valdy.draw and commissioned by the author.

Marinette is lonely. Ever since Lila returned to school, things have been tense between her and her class. Her friends still believe Lila is innocent, and Adrien is still insistent on the high road. During this trying time, all Marinette wants is a true friend at her side.

Enter Henri LeRoi, the handsome new boy who takes a shine to her on the first day of school.

When Henri arrives, Marinette believes he is the answer to her prayers. Unlike most of the class, he automatically believes her about Lila, and stays by her side as often as he can, lavishing her with kind words and undoubting loyalty. Eventually, he even wins her heart away from Adrien.

But all is not as it seems, and the class soon discovers Henri’s true nature when he starts bullying them whenever Marinette’s back is turned. Only this time, they don’t have the support of their everyday Ladybug. She believes Henri’s innocent of any accusations they hurl at him, and the class soon find that the tables have turned.

BroadwayCutie16’s Jerk In Sheep’s Clothing is yet another fanfic seeking justice for the wrongs expressed in the Miraculous Ladybug episode "Chameleon". While not as spiteful as most salt fics in the ML fandom, it does address some of the issues of the infamous episode and the mistakes made by Adrien and the class. Even though this story holds them responsible for their actions and reminds the audience that they are wrong, it does not portray Adrien, Alya, or the others as selfish monsters who wish to make and/or see Marinette suffer, which is rare for salt fics.

In this fic, Henri LeRoi arrives at Françoise Dupont soon after Lila’s return and uses his charms and wits to turn Marinette against her friends, leaving her all alone so that he can keep her all to himself, a toxic relationship. Adrien must figure out what went wrong and how to fix it before Henri finishes working Marinette over.

A Spanish translation is available on Wattpad here. For another story by the same author, check out: Wed Locked.

This fanfic provides examples of:

• Arch-Enemy: Henri is this to Adrien. Adrien sensed something was wrong with Henri on his first day, but eventually learned how much of a Manipulative Bastard he was when he started attacking the other classmates and playing the victim. Henri threatens Adrien in the bathroom that he will turn Marinette against him if he tries to tell Marinette the truth, and even plants seeds of doubt in her mind to make her think ADRIEN is the toxic one in her life.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: In the Chameleon episode, Marinette tries to convince the class that Lila is lying and using them to suit her own desires, but none of her friends believe her and get mad when she tries to push the issue, thinking she’s being a bully to “poor, innocent” Lila. As mentioned in the story above, the main plot of the story follows the same friends trying to warn Marinette that that the person she is friends with is a psychotic manipulator. But because they broke her trust with Lila, Marinette is now the one who refuses to listen, and whenever they try to prove Henri is lying to her, she starts to believe that they’re ganging up on him like they ganged up on her.
• Accusation Fic: Played With and a rare exploited example: while Lila is a true-blue bitch, she is the Greater-Scope Villain. The real Big Bad is Henri, who is trying to manipulate Marinette by doing the typical things an OC does when they are "on her side" in a Salt Fic.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • When Alya complains about Henri offering to switch seats with her, Henri points out that she didn't have a problem pushing Marinette to the back. Alya protests that Lila needed the front seat, only to find herself unable to answer when Henri asks why Lila had to take Marinette's seat, even though Nino was the one who sat in the front and thus should have been the one to move to the back.
  • Henri has this to say regarding Adrien's affirmation that he and Marinette are Just Friends.
    Henri: Say, when was the last time you said that while looking someone in the eye?
• Bad Samaritan: Henri treats Marinette kindly and fairly from the moment they meet. He believes Marinette about Lila’s true nature when she tells him the day they meet, as opposed to the other friends who shrugged off her warnings despite knowing her for years. He keeps her company during lunch, sits in the back row with her, and even assures her that her feelings in the matter are valid, as opposed to everyone else diminishing her feelings in favor of Lila. However, he’s only laying the land to convince her that he is the only one who truly cares about her, so he can turn her against all her friends to keep her all to himself.
• Betty and Veronica: From Marinette’s (the Archie of the story) point of view, the trope is played straight, Henri as the Betty (the kind, loyal best friend who is completely devoted to her) and Adrien as the Veronica (the rich and handsome but fickle and cold hearted jerk who does not really care for her). However, in reality, this trope is switched. It is Adrien who is kind-hearted and truly cares for her (the Betty), and Henri who is the cold-hearted jerk who only wants her as a trophy girlfriend (the Veronica).
• Betty and Veronica Switch: In reality, Adrien is the Betty, the sweet and kind boy who truly cares for Marinette (the Archie), while Henri is the handsome but cruel and selfish Veronica in the dynamic. However, since Henri IS the Manipulative Bastard Veronica, he’s warped Marinette’s perspective to make her believe that HE’S the Betty (the one with a heart of gold who is completely devoted to her), and that ADRIEN is the aloof, disloyal Veronica.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Downplayed with Lila and Henri, who form an alliance at the beginning, as their goals gel with each other; both want Marinette and Adrien separated and they're not competing for the same person, so they work together to cover multiple angles to separate Marinette from her friends. Lila also realizes at the beginning that Henri isn't somebody she wants as an enemy, since unlike Marinette or Adrien, he's very unscrupulous and cutthroat.
• Big Bad Friend: Henri may seem like a loyal and kind friend to Marinette, but in reality, he’s only kind to her so he can manipulate her into isolating herself, and he can have her all to himself. He even knows how to expose Lila to the class and her mother, but not only does he choose not do it, he actually teams up with her to help separate Marinette from Adrien and their friends.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Around Marinette, Henri presents himself as the kind, caring, trustworthy and loyal companion that she has been hoping for. But to Adrien and the rest of the class, he shows his true colors as a vicious, manipulative bully and toxic boyfriend who will go to any lengths to get what he wants.
• Brutal Honesty: One tool Henry uses to manipulate Marinette is simply pointing out the various characters' problems without attempting to excuse them or mentioning their good points. He's not wrong that Adrien is an Extreme Doormat or that Marinette's friends failed her by taking Lila at her word, but he's encouraging Marinette to think more on these bad traits to the point where they overwhelm her views of them. All so she won't believe her old friends when they say Henry's bad news.
• The Bully: Henri and Lila, natch. OC Henri is Lila’s Spear Counterpart, both are vicious, cruel and manipulative, preying on those around them to get what they want. The only difference is their choice of prey.
• Cassandra Truth: The class tries to warn Marinette that Henri is a mean, vicious bully that is lying to her about how they treat him, but all their warnings are ignored. This is because they did not believe her own Cassandra Truth about Lila, leaving her emotionally vulnerable to Henri’s charms and exploitation.
• The Charmer: Henri is smooth with his words, showering Marinette with praise upon their first meeting. He’s even able to charm her parents, who are all for their daughter dating such a nice, funny, charming boy..or so he seems to be.
• Consummate Liar: In addition to Lila, we also get her male counterpart, Henri LeRoi, who serves as an evil love interest to Marinette, who wastes no time in getting his hooks into her by proclaiming unconditional love and loyalty to her and her alone. He claims that he truly cares for her and her well-being, but in Chapter 8, when he threatens Adrien to stay away from Marinette, he reveals that he only wants her as a trophy girlfriend. To keep her all to himself, he worsens the distance between Marinette and the class. He sets them up to look like they’re attacking him physically or emotionally, and makes her question their character by twisting the perspective of recent events to make them seem disloyal and petty.
• Continuity Nod: Many scenes in the fic reference events in the episode “Chameleon”, since it’s those events that layer the foundation for the fanfiction, that left Marinette vulnerable to Henri’s manipulation.
  • Chapter 17 also references events from “Queen Wasp” and “Malediktator”.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Sweet, trusting, kind-hearted Marinette, the Everyday Ladybug of the class, spends the story being poisoned against all her friends. In a bid to make her solely dependent on him, Henri warps her perspective of recent events to make her believe that her classmates are cruel and fickle with no true loyalty or affection for her.
• Crocodile Tears: Henri demonstrates the ability to fake tears when Adrien confronts him.
• Death Glare: Henri gives Alya one when she refuses to switch seats with him.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Henri is one to the standard OC or crossover character who appears in Salt Fics. He does exactly what these characters do to support poor sweet Marinette, the two of them against the rest of the class (if not the world)... except he's essentially Lila's Spear Counterpart and he's exploiting Marinette's desperation for his own vile ends.
• Deconstruction Fic: An interesting example in that it does double-duty as one of both canon Chameleon and a common anti-Chameleon Salt Fic plot.
  • For canon, it shows what negative effects Chameleon actually had on Marinette's psyche, leaving her emotionally vulnerable. It also forces the class to go through being in her position.
  • A very common Salt Fic premise is that an original character shows up and sees through Lila's BS, takes Marinette's side, and the two have to fight off (usually figuratively) Marinette's Lila-bewitched classmates so Marinette can wash her hands of the whole school and leave for somewhere else that doesn't take her for granted. Here, an OC shows up and does pretty much exactly that... but he's lying and taking advantage of Marinette's feelings to manipulate her for his own ends. Marinette distancing herself from the rest of the class is played less as her cutting ties with a bunch of toxic assholes and more falling prey to the emotional isolation common in abusive relationships.
  • Next, it deconstructs the commonly-held notion that Marinette did not buy Lila’s innocent act because she was smarter than her classmates. In the first chapter, she reminds herself (and by proxy the readers) that she did fall for it at first, and only realized Lila was lying when she included an element that Marinette knew for a fact couldn't be true- her friendship with Ladybug, which Marinette knew was impossible only because she was Ladybug. The story centers on her making the same mistake when Henri leRoi supposedly takes her side... but this time, there's nothing he says that would alert her to his untruthfulness.
  • Third, there's the idea that the class actively joins Lila in bullying Marinette, often to the point of physical harm and destroying her belongings. While her friendships with her classmates have been strained by Lila's manipulations, nobody's bullying her and they actively try to defend her against Henri.
  • And finally, we have the type of person that salt fic writers turn Marinette into, or as it is known amongst the salt fandom, Saltinette. Saltinette is a bitter, angry person who holds grudges and blames the class for her problems with Lila, because they didn’t automatically believe her word over Lila’s. She acts like she’s better and smarter than them for not falling for Lila’s trickery and often looks down on them for giving Lila the benefit of the doubt. Worst of all, she takes pleasure in their pain and enjoys “punishing” them for their “stupidity” by dishing out petty revenge, using her Ladybug side and her celebrity connections to ruin their lives, and watching her salt OC friends do the same. However, in the story above, the one time Henri attempts to harass and humiliate one of her friends in front of her, she is horrified by his actions and voices her disapproval, as she has forgiven them easily and Henri has no right to make things hard for them on her behalf. Even when she thinks the class is bullying Henri, she does not give them any more than a scolding and a “Disappointed in You” speech.
  • This story points out how Lila's worst actions were complete unknowns to Adrien in canon. Adrien has no idea Lila stole the book from him or that Lila threatened Marinette.
    • It then deconstructs the fact that Marinette never told Adrien. Adrien's constant shielding and excusing Chloé's actions despite the harm done meant that Marinette genuinely had no faith that Adrien would behave differently if he knew the full truth.
  • It then deconstructs Adrien's friendship with Chloé. Adrien has excused Chloé a lot, and he has even chewed out her victims for celebrating when they thought they would be free of her. Despite her feelings for him, Marinette had no faith in Adrien because he gave a precedent that he wouldn't help her even if he knew how bad things truly were. The realization that he has lost the trust of Marinette, the girl he loves, and that she is in the arms of Henri because of his relationship with Chloé causes Adrien to angrily sever their friendship.
  • Chapter 21 deconstructs the show's concept of Marinette giving a miraculous to each one of her classmates: Because she lost her trust on Alya, she decides to hand over a miraculous to Henri. In the show, her classmates never questioned too much why Ladybug thinks they're trustworthy enough to be handed one, but Henri questioning why Ladybug thinks he's worthy of one leads to him figuring out she's Marinette as she's one of the few people who doesn't know his true nature.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Deconstructed as well. Both Kagami and Nino call out Adrien for still pining after Ladybug who explicitly said she was not interested in him and expecting to one day magically change her mind.
• Domestic Abuse: Henri to Marinette. Sure, he treats her nicely and takes her at her every word about Lila, as opposed to all the other “friends” who have known her longer and yet failed to do such. Sadly, it’s all an act. He’s only nice to her to turn her against all her friends, leaving her completely isolated except for himself. Even if the class deserved to lose Marinette, making her completely dependent on one person alone is not a healthy relationship. But Henri doesn’t care about healthy. In his eyes, he is the only one who deserves Marinette, and vice versa.
• Evil Is Petty: Once he’s established his hold on Marinette, he starts acting out against the class, pulling mean pranks and messing with their stuff, all to remind them who is in charge. And the class does not bother to tell Marinette about the petty stuff because Marinette has shown by now that she’ll believe Henri over them.
• Formula with a Twist: Takes the typical "OC joins Ms. Bustier's class, befriends Marinette and sides with her over Lila" plot and makes the OC a Spear Counterpart to Lila, who's only pretending to befriend Marinette for selfish reasons.
• For Want Of A Nail: Adrien running out of hair gel forces him to go to the store to buy a new jar, which causes him to meet Lila's mother and come up with a plan to expose Lila.
• Frame-Up: When Ivan tries to call out Henri on his behavior, Henri sets things up to make it look to Marinette that he is bullying him. He stands on the top of the stairs, places Ivan’s hands on his shoulder, then falls backwards down the steps just as Marinette has come onto the scene. Of course, when she gets there, she only sees Ivan’s hands on Henri just before he takes a nasty tumble down the stairs, so you can predict the conclusion she draws from the incident.
• Freudian Excuse: Not that it comes close to justifying his manipulative actions and entitlement, but it's implied that Henri learned his behavior from his Gold Digger mother.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Lila's actions set up the story and she's still weaving her webs, but this is mostly there to explain why Marinette was so ready to believe Henri when he painted all her friends as Lila's hopeless dupes. The real Big Bad is Henri, with the plot focusing on the rest of Ms. Bustier's class finding themselves in the same situation that Marinette was in during Chameleon. Then again, Lila does call "Gabriel" at the end of chapter 2 to check in, hinting that the true Greater-Scope Villain in this whole mess is good ol' Hawk Moth...
• Green-Eyed Epiphany: When Marinette announces that she and Henri are now a couple, Adrien feels as if a black hole just swallowed his heart, which makes him wonder if his feelings towards Marinette are stronger than he first thought.
  Adrien: Ever since Marinette started dating that jerk, my feelings have been on this sorta rollercoaster ride! One moment, I'm happy around her, and the next, I'm seething at Henri just for saying hi! I can barely sleep, I've almost completely lost my appetite, I can't go an hour without thinking about Marinette! What is going on with me?
• Gold Digger: Henri's mother is strongly implied to be this, given that she has been married to (and then divorced from) multiple powerful and wealthy men.
• Hate Sink: If you think Lila was bad, just wait until you meet Henri. Not only is he, if anything, a worse bully than Lila, he's smart. While Lila goes for spinning grandiose lies to distract the class from her bullying, Henri goes for more subtle psychological manipulation spiced with just enough truth to make him genuinely believable.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Thanks to their decision to believe Lila’s Blatant Lies, the class is on bad terms with Marinette. Then Henri comes along and starts acting just like a tabloid reporter, twisting the perspective to make them look even WORSE in Marinette’s eyes.
  • Adrien gets hit with this especially. Henri often singles him out whenever he goes on one of his rants about what awful people Marinette has in her life, using his high road advice and Extreme Doormat personality against him to make him look like a toxic friend. This is probably because he sees Adrien as his only competition for Marinette, with the former being the latter’s former crush and first love.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • The whole plot is set in motion by the events of “Chameleon”, where the whole class chose to believe Lila over Marinette. This leaves Marinette feeling hurt and separated emotionally from her friends, wishing for someone who will be there for her against Lila. Of course, this makes her the perfect prey for Henri LeRoi, who swoops in to grant her wish and be the companion she’s been hoping for. Because he acts like the ally against Lila that no one else was, she trusts him more than her other friends and refuses to believe that he is the cruel, two-faced bully that the class says he is, leaving her friends at his complete mercy to be tormented with no end or consequences in sight. The author themselves have said in a comment that it would be harder for Henri to turn Marinette against her friends if “Chameleon” had never happened.
    • Adrien’s advice about the high road and how no one is being hurt by Lila’s Blatant Lies is used as ammo to make him look the like the toxic one instead of Henri, who points out to Marinette that, besides her, Lila’s lies ARE hurting her friends in the long run, setting them up for disappointment and tarnished reputations when the truth comes out. Henri insists that Adrien silenced Marinette not out of sympathy for Lila being the new kid, but out of a selfish desire to maintain a situation where he himself is unharmed, even if those he supposedly cares about are not.
• Hourglass Plot: In Chameleon, Lila makes it look like Marinette’s bullying her for no good reason, making the class get mad at their class president. When Marinette tries to tell them she’s lying, no one believes her. In Jerk In Sheep’s Clothing, Henri begins bullying his classmates. If they stand up to him, he pulls the same stunts as Lila and pretends that they assaulted or bullied him. The class tries to warn Marinette about him, but because Henri was there for her when they weren’t, she believes him and thinks that they’re bullying him.
• Hypocrite: The class. Even though this fanfiction is not meant to bash anyone except Lila, the class can often come off as this. I mean, come on guys—you’re mad at Marinette for taking a stranger’s word over yours? After you did the same thing to her?
  • On the flip side, the class sees Marinette as this. After all, Marinette got mad at them for not automatically taking her word about Lila. But now that Henri’s out to get them, she refuses to listen to their warnings, even though it’s the same situation she complained that they put her in. Sadly, they fail to realize this is because a) Henri is manipulating her, and b) they broke her trust first with Lila, so it's easy for her to think that Henri is the one in the situation she was in, instead of her other classmates.
• It's All My Fault: Adrien gets hit with this after Chapter 17, when he visits Marinette as Chat Noir and she tells him why she’s so hellbent on defending Henri from their classmates’ “bullying”. She tells him how all her friends practically deserted her for Lila’s pretty words, how she was bullied and threatened by the liar, and how lonely and unwanted it made her feel. She explains she never confided fully in Adrien because of how he was always making excuses for Chloé and her picking on Marinette and their classmates, leading Mari to believe that Adrien might do the same for Lila, even if he knew the whole truth. So of course, when Henri came along, he made Marinette feel as if she had finally found a true, faithful friend. This hits Adrien with a truckload of guilt, making him believe that if he had stood up to Chloé sooner, Marinette would have trusted him with all the info on Lila, which would have spurred him to expose Lila right away, which would have prevented the growing rift between Marinette and the class, which meant that Marinette would not have been desperate enough to fall into Henri’s clutches. In Adrien’s mind, it’s his fault that Marinette is in an abusive relationship.
• Kick the Dog: Henri gets two particularly mean-spirited ones:
  • First he knocks the crystal dove sculpture Rose saved so hard to buy from her hand, which causes it to smash.
  • Then he deliberately drops a little china cat that was given to Chloé by her mother, smashing it to pieces.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The class didn’t believe their best friend and staunchest defender against Chloé’s bullying ways when she claimed that the new girl was manipulating them. Now thanks to their neglect, Marinette was left emotionally vulnerable to the false kindness of Henri. Once he’s won her trust, he starts bullying the class and pretending it’s the other way around, much like Lila did to Marinette in the Chameleon episode. Now, it’s Marinette who doesn’t believe her oldest and closest friends over the manipulative liar. Although, in her case, it’s more justified, since said liar is the only one who acted like a true friend to her after Lila came along, while all Lila had to do to convince the class of her innocence is make up some fairytales about her life.
• Let Me Get This Straight...: In Chapter 15, Adrien insists that he can't be in love with Marinette because he loves another girl (i.e. Ladybug, who unbeknownst to him is Marinette). Upon telling Nino and Kagami that she rejected him but he's still waiting for her to return his feelings, he get this response:
  Kagami: Wait a minute...so your plan is to just sit around and wait for this girl who has already informed you she is not interested in you romantically to somehow suddenly change her mind?
  Adrien: Yes?
  Nino: Dude, don't take this the wrong way... but that's kinda lame. You're just gonna stay single for the rest of your life?
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Henri had nothing to do with Chameleon, but had it not happened, he wouldn't have been able to manipulate Marinette nearly as well, and he'd be far easier to expose. Chameleon planted the seeds of distrust between Marinette and her friends, and made her feel desperate for someone to believe her, making it easy for Henri to swoop in and play the role of 'new friend you can actually trust'.
• Love Epiphany: His Green-Eyed Epiphany above helped him open his eyes a little, but it's not until a conversation with Nino and, ironically, Kagami, when Adrien realizes that he fell in love with Marinette:
  Adrien: And that's why it cheeses me off to see her with Henri! She deserves better than him. She deserves to be with someone who gets her, who understands her. Someone who loves her for all her little quirks and the things she does and not in spite of them, like the cute way she sticks her tongue out when she draws, or how she flaps her arms around when she's nervous, or the adorable way she gets flustered and messes up her words. Someone who can support her and be her hero when she needs it, instead of isolating her and trying to pass it off as helping. Someone who won't see her as some shiny object to be won, but as her own person. Her own amazing, incredible, beautiful per...
  (beat)
  Adrien: Oh my God. I'm in love with Marinette.
• Manipulative Bastard: Henri LeRoi, of course. Unlike Lila's overt schemes that rely on wowing others with fantastic stories so they don't think to look to closely at any lie in particular, Henry prefers psychological manipulation, carefully isolating his victim and manipulating their point of view so they remain vulnerable. Most of his lies aren't audaciously unlikely, but instead just true enough to be believable to someone already predisposed to trust him.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The class has this reaction when they find out Marinette was telling the truth about Lila being a liar.
• New Transfer Student: Henri transfers to Francois Dupont at the start of the story.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: This whole thing happens in part because the class chose to believe Lila over Marinette and Adrien chose to take the high road instead of speaking up. Thanks to their actions, Marinette is left feeling hurt and abandoned by everyone she thought cared about her. Along comes Henri, who does everything she had expected from her friends, making her believe she can trust and depend on him more than the others. This leads her to trust Henri, the boy she thinks she can always rely on, over the friends who flaked on her.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • This is Lila's reaction when Henri reveals to her that he knows a way to prove she's been lying to everyone.
  • Alya has this reaction when Marinette shows her the video of her ranting about Marinette being a hypocrite who overlooks the flaws of anyone she falls in love with.
  • Chloé has this reaction when Henri proves that he isn't lying about being the stepson of one of her father's biggest political supporters.
  • Henri has this reaction when he sees what Shatter Queen's power can do and realises that if she touches him, his façade as Marinette's perfect boyfriend will be destroyed.
  • Lila has this reaction again when her mother shows up at the school.
• Perspective Flip: The story follows standard Salt Fic conventions up until the moment Henri enters the stage, and then from that point onward it still does but instead it's Marinette who is the one who fell under the spell of the Consummate Liar.
• Post-Support Regret: Adrien's realizing that he is in love with Marinette and that she didn't actually trust him to help with the Lila situation because of his relationship with Chloé devastated him. When Chloé starts insulting Marinette again, he realizes he should never have been friends with her.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After months of making excuses for Chloé’s bratty behavior and bullying of their classmates, Adrien finds out that it was this Extreme Doormat attitude with her that made Marinette feel unable to trust him to talk to him about everything with Lila, leading her to seek comfort and companionship in Henri’s arms. After learning of this, Adrien is so regretful of his former passivity that when Chloé launches into a speech about how pathetic Marinette is, it pushes him over the edge and he finally snaps at her, calling her out for her bloated ego and mistreatment of others.
  Adrien: Enough, Chloé! With the insults and the mean jokes and the tricks you play! I've had it with you and you snobby attitude!
  Chloé: Adri-kins, what's wrong with you?!
  Adrien: Nothing's wrong with ME, Chloé. Something's wrong with you. You go around Paris, insulting people, picking on them, playing nasty tricks on them and getting them in trouble if they stand up to you. You strut around with your nose up in the air, thinking you're better than everyone else, thinking that gives you the right to treat everyone around you like garbage. Half the people in our class got akumatized because of your cruelty. And don't even get me started on the akumas you caused outside our classmates. And you know what the worst part is, Chloé? The worst part is, you rarely show remorse for your actions. And even when you do, it's so little it's barely even there. You think you can mumble out a little 'sorry' and it automatically washes away all the pain you caused. It doesn't, Chloé. It takes more than a half-hearted apology to make up for something bad. And even after all the hurt you made, even if you say sorry, as soon as it's all over, you snap right back to bullying some poor new soul. You're a spoiled brat who's vain and selfish, and you don't care who you have to push around to get your way. It's no wonder the school threw a party when they found out you were leaving.
  Chloé: WHAT?!
  Adrien: Oh, come on, Chloé! Do you really think that party on the day your dad was akumatized—once more because of your meanness—was to celebrate your being Queen Bee? That party started hours ago! And the real reason behind it was because everyone was happy when they found out you were moving away! Even the teachers were laughing and dancing! How about that, Chloé? Those people were so sick of you, that they threw a giant party to celebrate the fact that they didn't have to put up with you anymore! Funny enough, it was Marinette who convinced everyone to change the party to thank you for everything you did as Queen Bee. But you know what, Chloé? You don't deserve to be Queen Bee. If you did, you would stop treating people like their only purpose in life is to be there for you to hurt or belittle. You've had plenty of chances to be better, but you've wasted all of them. And I've given you a pass because we used to be friends, and I wanted to believe there was good in you. Well...not anymore. I'm done defending you, Chloé. I'm done sitting around, waiting for you to change your ways. I'm done turning a blind eye to your misdeeds. I'm done with you, Chloé. I'm not interested in being friends with a bully. I wish Sabrina the best of luck dealing with you.
  Chloé: But you can't go! You promised me! Remember, Adri-kins? You promised we'd always be friends!
  Adrien: You broke that promise first. I told you you had to be nice to people. You and I both knew I meant long-term. But the second I took back my threat, you went right back to picking on everybody. So this time, I'm not going to be your friend until you've proved you can be a better person, for good. I'm sorry, Chloé. Not for what I'm about to do, but because this is the way it has to be. I'm sorry it's come to this. But I can't be friends with someone who does awful things so easily and doesn't feel any remorse or even try to change. It's not good for anyone. Not for me, not for you, not for anyone else. And I should have realized that a long time ago.
  • Henri gives a massive one to the class in Chapter 24 after they try to call him out for not warning them about Lila’s lies, rightfully pointing out how they refused to believe in a supposed friend’s warnings, simply dismissing them as 'her being jealous' and then 'wanting her back' after she got close to him.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Played straight and subverted by two characters.
  • Chloé is used to using her clout as the mayor's daughter to get away with things. Henri quickly reveals why that will not work on him.
  • Henri has a parental relationship with the head of a very powerful tech company, which is a major part of the mayor's campaign. Thus, his connections go higher than Chloé and he in fact has pull that can ruin her father.
• Semantic Superpower: Shatter Queen, the akumatized Chloé, can shatter physical both objects and concept. Including relationships or facades.
• Shout-Out:
  • Henri name drops Aquaman in Chapter 21.
  • In Chapter 23, Lila's mother claims that three months is too long to skip school "unless someone dumped pig's blood on you at the dance!"
• Shown Their Work: In Chapter 15, Henri asks Adrien when was the last time he said Marinette is "just a friend" while looking someone in the eye. This has caused multiple readers to look back on the series and confirm that, yes, Adrien has never once said he and Marinette are Just Friends while looking someone in the eye.
• Spear Counterpart: Henri LeRoi is essentially a Reverse Lila. Like her, he's a manipulative liar who turns friends against each other in pursuit of their goals. The only real differences between them are gender, methods, and choice of targets. Lila likes to dazzle with grandiose lies to charm most of the class, while Henri focuses more onto getting into the head of a single target- Marinette.
• Undying Loyalty: Henri makes promises of these to Marinette to win her away from her friends, giving him the upper hand in her emotions. Because all her friends neglected her for Lila, these promises draw her in like a dangerous drug, and makes her believe that he is better for her than Adrien or anyone else in the class.
• Villain Has a Point: One of Henri's strongest points, and what makes him more dangerous than Lila, is that he doesn't need to lie most of the time to get what he wants. The class really did screw up by allowing Chameleon to happen, so all Henry needs to do is enhance what was already there.
  • When Alya confronts Henri and the topic of the rearranged seats comes up, Henri points out that, if they really wanted to just accommodate Lila, all they needed to do was for Nino or Adrien to move to the back, since they're the ones who sit in the first row, yet it was Marinette who ended up alone in the back despite the fact that her seat wasn't even in the first row. Alya finds herself unable to refute his statement.
  • During a confrontation with Adrien, Henri points out that if he has been able to woo Marinette so easily and so quickly is because the rest of the class have been shunning her and making her feel unwanted. Adrien is forced to admit that he has a point.
• Villain with Good Publicity: It’s not just Marinette. Her parents adore Henri, too. They allow him to bake with the family, laugh at all his jokes, and even encourage Marinette to date him.
• Villainous Crush: Henri towards Marinette. Even worse, she returns his affections, believing him to be her Knight in Shining Armor, completely unaware that he’s a Manipulative Bastard who is tormenting all her friends.
• Wham Episode: In chapter 21: Revolution, Henri refers to the recently departed Ladybug as Marinette; revealing he knows they are the same person.
• Would Rather Suffer: When Marinette asks Adrien to help her impress Henri for their first date, Adrien privately thinks that he'd rather wax himself with duct tape or get pummelled by an akuma than help her.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit:
  • When Ivan confronts Henri about digging up the past to steal Alya’s seat, Henri warns Ivan to stay out of his way. When Ivan rebuffs him, Henri stands on the edge of the stairs, places Ivan’s hands on his shoulders, and falls backwards just as Marinette is coming back. She sees Ivan’s hands on her boyfriend just before he takes a nasty tumble down the steps, and rushes over to help him. When Ivan tries to defend himself, Henri pretends his ankle is hurt, stealing back Marinette’s sympathy.
  • Kim tries to prove Henri is faking his injury by purposely throwing a paper football in his direction, which he catches before it touches his face, lunging forward on his supposedly injured ankle. When Kim points this out, Henri claims he was trying to prevent the paper from scratching Marinette’s face, to which she is touched. Then she scolds Kim for what he did, thinking her classmates are trying to bully her boyfriend.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Henri initially teams up with Lila to isolate Marinette from her classmates so he can have her all to himself. However, once Adrien exposes Lila as a liar, he wastes no time throwing her under the bus, simultaneously taking credit for Adrien's plan and making himself a hero in Marinette's eyes, turning her even further against her classmates.

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