Broken Karma
is a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic on Archive of Our Own and is a Recursive Fanfiction to Karmic Backlash, set somewhere during chapter 9 of said fic.
A student at Dupont named Andrew Gregas has been dealing with his own thoughts with what happened during the events of The Karma of Lies and Karmic Backlash and what it'll mean for him and his family when he quite literally bumps into the disgraced heroine Marinette Dupain Cheng herself, who had been kicked to the curb by Audrey Bourgeois the day prior. After Marinette makes a fool of herself trying to get Andrew to forgive her for everything, the boy finally lets loose on all his pent-up frustrations around how badly Marinette messed up.
Broken Karma provides examples of:
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: Andrew is not associated with Marinette outside of going to the same school as her and mostly serves as a viewpoint to how other civilians might think or feel about Marinette's Broken Pedestal status, the potential fate of Adrien and the horrifying prospects of what Lila can do with the Miracle Box and tens of millions of euros.
- Berserk Button: While Andrew was tearing down Marinette's excuses and arguments beforehand, he ends becoming livid when Marinette not only uses the excuse of her potential Akumatization as the reason why Adrien's initial fate was "karmic justice", but also implies that she views the Ladybug Miraculous, and by extension herself, as superior to all the other Miraculous due to the Miraculous Ladybugs. This makes him determined to destroy every possible argument she could have left after that point.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Andrew spells out to Marinette that the only 2 things she needed to do was vouch for Adrien's innocence and to either arrest Lila or get her to turn herself in when she had the chance, while also lambasting her for how obvious it is that she neglected to do those things because she decided to make Adrien the target of her ire.
- Didn't Think This Through: The crux of several of Andrew's arguments against Marinette boil down to this, even more so than in Karmic Backlash:
- Andrew brings up that even if Lila would die like Marinette warned would happen, the only ways that it would happen is if she either bullied or conned the wrong person or got involved with someone worse than her. He states that in both scenarios, Lila's murder could have been avoided if she was arrested, as well as that in the former case, her final victim could have been saved, and the latter case means that her killer would become her successor who'll continue ruining lives like she did.
- Andrew also says that Marinette arresting Lila could have led to previous victims getting justice. Namely that anyone she conned could have gotten their money and items back, especially if she used the Miraculous to help find the stolen goods, and that anyone that Lila inflicted a falsified bad reputation or even jail time against could have been saved and been able to rebuild their lives again. He states this as yet another example of Marinette's short-sided Stopped Caring attitude and petty wrath against Adrien making her blind to those she's inadvertently hurting to do that.
- Andrew mentions what Marinette said in her interview after Hawkmoth was defeated about creating a Sentimonster version of Alix to not have to give the real Alix the Rabbit Miraculous was illogical, pointing out not only the timeline discrepancies that could still cause paradoxes (such as how Bunnyx used her memories from her younger self to help defeat Timetagger), but also that it likely became part of why Alix became as entitled as she was in The Karma of Lies, meaning Marinette had a hand in making Alix into a worse person by essentially using the Rabbit and Peacock Miraculous to play a sick joke on her across space and time if Marinette was really going to make a clone of her like she said.
- After Marinette tries to argue that Adrien was making her susceptible to Akumatization by keeping quiet about Lila, one of Andrew's counterarguments against it was that not only did the Timertagger incident prove that there was going to be another villainous Butterfly Miraculous holder, but that Lila now has that very Miraculous and could come back at any time to Akumatize Parisians all over again. He goes as far as to state that since Adrien would most likely hear of her misdeeds and the reasons why she decided to let his life and future fall to pieces, he'd be a prime candidate for a potential permanent Akumatization, especially if Lila gives him back the Black Cat Miraculous. He gets even more angry when Tikki reveals the Chat Blanc since it meant that Marinette had every reason to see something like that potentially happening, especially when combined with the Timetagger attack.
- Hated by All: As a Fanfic going off of Karmic Backlash, especially one set after Adrien's suicide is leaked to the public by Tikki in chapter 8, Marinette is still on the path to becoming this, as shown by the crowd that forms around her and Andrew constantly reacting to her with disdain.
- Insane Troll Logic: Andrew views the way karma works as this due to many inconstancies in how Marinette claims it works. He claims that, by its logic, Adrien should have been accused of being Hawkmoth while Gabriel gets off Scott free since Adrien should be considered an accomplice to Hawkmoth as well. He also says that Chloe and Lila should have both been revealed as witting accomplices and either take the fall for Mayura or just be arrested alongside Adrien. He then questions not only how it took a long while even after Marinette got the Ladybug Earrings to deal with Chloe and Lila, and then ended up rewarding them both by letting Lila get away with all her stolen cash and goods and letting Chloe become Queen Bee again like she wanted even though the latter recently betrayed Marinette and caused her to lose her mentor prematurely.
- It's Personal: Andrew has a couple of reasons of his own for despising what Marinette did in The Karma of Lies.
- First is that, back when he lived in North Carolina, he was enraptured by a bully who was basically a male, American version of Lila. He'd tell tall tales and claim that his rich parents made it possible, and was crafty enough to not only get away with it for nearly the entire school year, but even cause the rest of the class sans Andrew to be physical when it came to their bullying, something that Andrew points out that Lila was never able to accomplish with Marinette. To say the least, finding out just how badly Marinette handled her former classmates after they did a lesser version of what his class did back in Raliegh struck a nerve due to it hitting close to home.
- Because of the effects that Marinette's misdeeds being exposed has had on the French economy, the company Andrew's parents work for are one of many companies that are pulling out of France altogether, having them reassigned back to their original workplace back in Raliegh, North Carolina, much to Andrew and his parents' chagrin. Andrew had viewed coming to Paris as a fresh start and even managed to make new friends, but he views it, as well as his attempts to boost his perception, as All for Nothing now that he and his parents are being forced to leave it all behind, with next to no chance to be able to visit France, let alone Paris again in the future. Combine that with how long it took for him to find out the true nature of the bully back in America, and he's left in tears at the potential inability he'll have to make any more friends when he and his family return there.
- Loony Fan: Andrew reveals that Marinette had many both in Paris and online who were calling for Adrien to be killed for being "Hawkmoth's accomplice son" as well as the rest of the class for making her susceptible to Akumatization, especially Alya and Alix for the former being considered the biggest Fair-Weather Friend in their eyes and the latter being easily replaceable with a "much better" clone with the Peacock Miraculous. He claims that it was a miracle in its own right that no one acted on any of it despite the death threats and wishes being so prevalent for the whole year before the footage of Adrien's innocence went public.
- Old Shame: Andrew, much like Marinette's old class, was taken in by a bully back when he lived in Raliegh and didn't find out until he overheard said bully threatening one of his victims by chance a mere 3 days before graduation. It's stated that Andrew tried to find ways to increase his perception so that he didn't fall for someone like that again.
- “The Reason You Suck” Speech: Andrew gives a long and brutal speech against Marinette while debunking her excuses, saying on how she failed as a hero by letting Lila get away scot-free, was indirectly responsible for making everyone wrathful to psychotic levels against Adrien, possibly putting her old classmates' lives at risk, and ruined France's economy. The speech is too long to be put here because it encompasses the entire fic, but he finishes with a summarization.Andrew: Because of you, the French economy is in ruins, the fashion industry is in tatters, people have been traumatized, friendships continue to be torn apart, Chloe's gone insane despite her genuine attempts to be a better person finally, thus paying for all the evil she's done at the worst possible time she'd be forced to do so, the worldwide public has become even more wrathful, Adrien is likely going to die or be a radically different person even if he does wake up, and Lila is going to do Heaven only knows what with all the Miraculous in her possession, including the one that Gabriel used to start this horrible chain of events to begin with. I can easily forgive you bumping into me, but I will never forgive the rest, especially the last three things I listed. You're a villain, Marinette. You abused your Miraculous and your falsified good reputation and then claimed you didn't while you made us civilians into your personal, emotionally paid assassins, which need I remind you, that even with Adrien's suicide attempt notwithstanding, was very close to being literal if the death threats against your former classmates were any indication. So don't ask for forgiveness again. Not to me or anyone else. Forgot not deserving it. We don't have the capacity to give it to you anymore.
- Shout-Out: The fic starts with a quote for Flowey that comes from the Neutral Ending of Undertale Yellow.
- Skewed Priorities: Andrew calls out several of the ones Marinette made in both The Karma of Lies and Karmic Backlash.
- Andrew calls out how Marinette thought that Alya was somehow only motivated in hurting her when she leaked the video of Adrien's innocence, partly because Alya didn't even know that Marinette had any involvement in him being falsely accused of abetting his father until after she had not only revealed the video to Nadja and the press, but also confronted Juleka and Rose the next day when the studio techies noticed that Juleka was there at the scene.
- He also figures out that Chloe was Miracle Queen due to his own deduction and Tikki filling the rest in for him. He then questions why Marinette would allow the girl who not only bullied her for 4 years but very recently betrayed her alter-ego to Hawkmoth a second chance, but not the rest of her class who didn't become active accomplices to Hawkmoth's schemes.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Aside from the ones mentioned by characters in Karmic Backlash, Andrew gives one to Marinette to counter her claim that Adrien's ruined life was justified because his inaction threatened her with Akumatization and nearly handed Hawkmoth his victory. He tells Marinette that all she had to do was tell Tikki to take her Earrings off and find a temporary replacement if Tikki realizes that Marinette's about to become Akumatized and that she could have also told Tikki to warn the other Kwamis to hide themselves and their Miraculous after she became the new Guardian, stating that since in this scenario, if she became Akumatized, she likely wouldn't clue Hawkmoth about being Ladybug without any Earrings to take off or reason to go to her house and get the empty Miracle Box, thus making her Akumatization more manageable than she makes it out to be.
- Take That!: When Tikki gives the context to the incident of Adrien smelling Marinette in Animan, Andrew wonders if Marinette has a compulsion to lie by omission "like a standard YouTube commentary channel".
- Toxic Friend Influence: Discussed when Andrew is grilling Marinette about her Skewed Priorities in giving Chloe a second chance over the rest of her class. Specifically, how she allowed Chloe to place the blame of her own bad behavior onto Adrien for not pushing back against her cruelty enough. Samual counters this by not only pointing out that her parents were more at fault than Adrien was due to Andre spoiling her and Audrey dismissing her, but that it could much more easily be argued that she was a bad influence on him instead of the other way around.
- Unfortunate Implications: An In-Universe and discussed example as a nod to the creator's two previous fics based on The Karma of Lies. Andrew points out that all the punishments that were allegedly caused by Karma weren't caused by random mishaps or forces of nature, but entirely by other people being inept or cruel, not just to Adrien and the original class, but to Marinette and her new friends as well. He then states that that could only mean that karma has the ability to control everyone's minds and thoughts and declares that if that's the case, he hopes that karma isn't real at all, because that means that no one, not even Lila or Marinette or even Andrew himself, had any autonomy at any point. He even mentions how fatalistic Marinette's description of karma is with that in mind.
- It gets even worse when Andrew finds out that Plagg never said anything about Adrien's innocence despite being in a position to witness it note . He half-jokingly mentions that, under the rules of karma's debt system, it would mean that him being captured by Lila, and thus potentially having his powers used by her to hurt and kill many innocent people, could also be seen as his punishment for not saying anything, showing how the system Marinette claims that karma operates on clearly doesn't care about causing collateral damage, even if it could become colossal in scale.
