History Fridge / TheKarmaOfLies

* Lila got away with millions of euros, possibly gained new insight on how to get away with her crimes, knows who Ladybug, the Miraculous guardian, is (as well as the fact that she hated both her and Marinette a lot before she even found out that they were the same person) and the only thing meant to keep her from continuing her cons and bullying tactics is a threat on her life that could potentially be fabricated given to her by the very person she despises. She's also obviously a worse person than Gabriel could ever be. Even ignoring how she was able to steal the Butterfly Miraculous in canon, she's still clearly able to do some pretty impressive and horrifying things when she wants to. Lila now has all the tools and possibly all the experience necessary to succeed where Gabriel failed and steal not only her Miraculous, but potentially all the others as well, including those that belong to her new Miraculous heroes. And if she ever finds out about the Ultimate Power, Adrien would have suffered through all the punishment of accidentally helping Lila and Gabriel (nearly in Gabriel's place) succeed "[[AllForNothing for nothing]], since she'll make herself the ruler over everything with that wish and crush Marinette's happy ending under her heel all over again, which is the whole reason he was forced to rot away inside Marinette's old room to begin with. At the very least, considering [[WorldOfJerkass how awful everyone is in this version of Paris, including the civilians]], Karma will definitely get its debt just as thoroughly as it did to Adrien and the rest of Marinette's class.

* Lila got away with millions of euros, possibly gained new insight on how to get away with her crimes, knows who Ladybug, the Miraculous guardian, is (as well as the fact that she hated both her and Marinette a lot before she even found out that they were the same person) and the only thing meant to keep her from continuing her cons and bullying tactics is a threat on her life that could potentially be fabricated given to her by the very person she despises. She's also obviously a worse person than Gabrial could ever be. Even ignoring how she was able to steal the Butterfly Miraculous in canon, she's still clearly able to do some pretty impressive and horrifying things when she wants to. Lila now has all the tools and possibly all the experience necessary to succeed where Gabrial failed and steal not only her Miraculous, but potentially all the others as well, including those that belong to her new Miraculous heroes. And if she ever finds out about the Ultimate Power, Adrien would have suffered through all the punishment of accidentally helping Lila and Gabrial (nearly in Gabrial's place) succeed "[[AllForNothing for nothing]], since she'll make herself the ruler over everything with that wish and crush Marinette's happy ending under her heal all over again, which is the whole reason he was forced to rot away inside Marinettes old room to begin with. At the very least, considering [[WorldofJerkass how awful everyone is in this version of Paris, including the civilians]], Karma will definitely get its debt just as thoroughly as it did to Adrien and the rest of Marinette's class.

* When Adrien insists that his classmates aren't giving up anything to Lila that they can't ''afford'' to lose, he's not just referring to material goods. He's also emphasizing just how little ''Marinette'' matters to him. He's perfectly aware that she's being [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer socially isolated]] thanks to Lila [[MadeOutToBeAJerkass painting her as a]] BitchInSheepsClothing, and that it's been taking its toll... but he doesn't care. At best, he expects everyone to be EasilyForgiven for their treatment of her; at worst, he's implying that ''her friendship isn't worth anything''. They can ''afford'' to treat their "Everyday Ladybug" like trash, because it's not like she's ''irreplacable'', right?

** This also makes Lila a foil to both of the above characters; like Adrien, she has no intention of changing her ways and continues to rely on the same tactics that have worked for her in the past (in her case, lying and manipulating people). However, like Chloé, she's able to recognize when blindly doing as she's always done is no longer an option. Instead, she ''actively'' changes her goals, [[KnowWhenToFoldEm cutting her losses in order to focus on more pressing issues]], which ultimately allows her to [[KarmaHoudini escape karmic backlash]] and gain an unexpected windfall in the process. Like Adrien, she refuses to change and undergo CharacterDevelopment, but like Chloé, she takes action when it matters and comes out better off for it.

* The Karma system has shown to be allow someone to get off the hook for everything they've done, including high felonies and federal crimes, as long as they can find someone who will be unlikely to call them out to act as their scapegoat. Karma gave Lila an easy out through Adrien by using the fact that his father was Hawkmoth to make all of humanity want to tear him apart and allowed her to also steal 50M euros from his trust fund. This means that Karma rewarded her for pulling off her cons so well. How many other times has this happened? How many other people were able to get away with all their crimes and bad deeds just because they found someone who (sometimes accidentally) was an easy fall guy just because they failed to call them out for their behavior or even notice it in the first place in time before Karma decides to collect their dues? How many guardians or Miraculous holders were able to do this in the past? And finally, had anyone, especially Lila, found out how Karma's debt system works and took advantage of it?

* The Karma system has shown to be allow someone to get off the hook for everything they've done, including high felonies and federal crimes, as long as they can find someone who will be unlikely to call them out to act as their scapegoat. Karma gave Lila an easy out through Adrien by using the fact that his father was Hawkmoth to make all of humanity want to tear him apart and allowed her to also steal 50M euros from his trust fund. This means that Karma rewarded her for pulling off her cons so well. How many other times has this happened? How many other people were able to get away with all their crimes and bad deeds just because they found someone who (sometimes accidentally) was an easy fall guy just because they failed to call them out for their behavior or even notice it in the first place in time before Karma decides to collect their dues? How many guardians or Miraculous holders were able to do this in the past? And finally, had anyone, especially Lila, found out how Karma's debt system works and took advantage of it?
* Lila got away with millions of euros, possibly gained new insight on how to get away with her crimes, knows who Ladybug, the Miraculous guardian, is (as well as the fact that she hated both her and Marinette a lot before she even found out that they were the same person) and the only thing meant to keep her from continuing her cons and bullying tactics is a threat on her life that could potentially be fabricated given to her by the very person she despises. She's also obviously a worse person than Gabrial could ever be. Even ignoring how she was able to steal the Butterfly Miraculous in canon, she's still clearly able to do some pretty impressive and horrifying things when she wants to. Lila now has all the tools and possibly all the experience necessary to succeed where Gabrial failed and steal not only her Miraculous, but potentially all the others as well, including those that belong to her new Miraculous heroes. And if she ever finds out about the Ultimate Power, Adrien would have suffered through all the punishment of accidentally helping Lila and Gabrial (nearly in Gabrial's place) succeed "[[AllForNothing for nothing]], since she'll make herself the ruler over everything with that wish and crush Marinette's happy ending under her heal all over again, which is the whole reason he was forced to rot away inside Marinettes old room to begin with. At the very least, considering [[WorldofJerkass how awful everyone is in this version of Paris, including the civilians]], Karma will definitely get its debt just as thoroughly as it did to Adrien and the rest of Marinette's class.

* Adrien's final fate. His Aunt Amilie places him under house arrest, making clear she's only going to do the bare minimum to support him simply to keep her own reputation intact. This means he's eventually going to have to reintegrate into society once he turns 18, and nobody is making any effort to rehabilitate the toxic mindset that led to all the awful decisions he's made. Adrien will almost certainly be left to his own devices with no understanding of how he went wrong and the public reputation of a willing accomplice to a supervillain who only got away with it through sheer luck, meaning the only logical fate for him is self-destruction.

** This also allows Chloe to serve as a narrative {{Foil}} to him in another fashion. Both are {{Spoiled Brat}}s who are used to having their fathers handle things for them -- Chloe [[PushoverParents badgers]] her father into doing so and throws fits to get her way, while Adrien plays TheCharmer and is a BitchInSheepsClothing. But Chloe goes through CharacterDevelopment over the course of the story, putting real effort into changing her ways, while Adrien repeatedly insists that he doesn't ''need'' to act because he hasn't done anything wrong!

!!FridgeBrilliance

* WordOfGod justifies their choice of punishment for Adrien by stating that [[spoiler:Adrien suffers the fate that would have otherwise happened to Lila ''or Marinette'', depending on who would've won the conflict between them. Had Marinette completely won--which Adrien prevented--Lila would have been the one distrusted, made to pay back all she scammed, abandoned, and sent off to boarding school. But had ''Lila'' completely won, ''Marinette'' would have suffered the fate Adrien does--alone, abandoned, confined, framed, and distrusted by everyone--''but for no fault of her own,'' capped off with her [[DespairEventHorizon losing her Miraculous to Hawkmoth]] as was hypothetically discussed in the early chapters of the story. And the point is made that Hawkmoth is a man not particularly concerned with resurrecting the casualties he killed in battle. Marinette's KarmicJackpot doesn't just punish Adrien with Lila's karma, it ''[[LaserGuidedKarma specifically]]'' punishes him to suffer through [[BadFuture what Marinette would have suffered had Lila succeeded]]. Just let that sink in.]]
* Adrien's final fate. [[spoiler:He's placed under effective house arrest by his aunt, who has made it clear she's only going to do the bare minimum to support him and keep her reputation intact. The horror comes in when you realize that he's eventually going to have to reintegrate into society when he turns 18, and that nobody is making any effort to rehabilitate the toxic mindset that led to all of the awful decisions he's made. Adrien will almost certainly be left to his own devices with no understanding of how he went wrong and the public reputation of a willing accomplice to a supervillain who only got away with it through sheer luck, meaning the only logical fate for him is self-destruction.]]

* The clothes charity party in front of the bakery causes karma to hit the class in another way, and not just because it causes Marinette to leave. The class and Adrien treat Marinette's handmade clothes like they're worth very little and take for granted that they can be replaced. The class giving away Marinette's custom designed clothes and Lila subsequently dumping most of it at a secondhand shop means they don't get to benefit from Marinette's past generosity [[spoiler:when Marinette Dupain-Cheng is revealed as Ladybug and becomes a household name with her fashion career hitting the big leagues, almost certainly making her early work into collector's pieces in the eyes of both superhero and fashion fans and therefore extremely valuable, particularly pieces confirmed to be handmade by her and her alone. The class probably could have sold those clothes to wealthy Ladybug fans or, if they waited a year or two, rich fashion enthusiasts, and recoup or even net exceed their losses to Lila... if they hadn't [[AllForNothing given them away to impress a stranger.]]]]
* There's actually two factors about Adrien's testimony that makes him appear villainous, though the second isn't directly addressed. The first is, of course, that reporting Lila's crime after months of "dating" her and immediately after his father was arrested looks like a FrameUp to cover his own illegal attempt to hide assets from the law. The second is that, since Lila testified in his "defense" just days earlier and "unknowingly" gave the police information that made Adrien sound like his father's accomplice, Adrien's testimony circumstantially looks like he's trying for a one-two punch of framing her for the disappearance of the emergency funds ''and'' discrediting her testimony, which incriminated him. While Adrien's actually extremely naive, WhoWouldBeStupidEnough means it's chillingly easy to read this as Adrien making calculated, if flawed, attacks on perhaps the only witness who can connect him with his father's crimes--it's no wonder the police's view of him is implied to change so much over this interview.