Talk:Lila Rossi/@comment-30639225-20161210165916/@comment-28080187-20161210172437

Well hello there! I'm one of Lila's biggest fans, so I'll do my best to respond to your request.

First off, I don't think of Lila as a bad person, but I don't think of her as a good person either. She's more complex than that: while she is willing to lie and scheme to get ahead, she clearly doesn't want to hurt anybody in the process—possibly just because she wants people to like her, but her emotions there may have been more genuine. Since she never intended for anybody to find out about her lies, in her plan nobody would have been hurt by them (except for Chloé). She already got viewer numbers up on the Ladyblog for Alya, she could return to Nino with fabricated words of praise from one of his idols…from her perspective, she's doing something nice for people in order to get them to like her. Yes, it's not actually a good thing, and the reveal of her lies did end up getting people hurt, and she appears to have been mostly working towards selfish objectives. But this illustrates her complexity as a character, and that's one of my favorite things about her.

Another reason that I like Lila is because I'm a sucker for a good diabolical plan. Lila is certainly a very clever person, and is good at manipulating people. Her lie to Adrien is brilliantly crafted, with just the right amount of backstory and material proof. But I have an even deeper appreciation for her evil plan as Volpina. She's given a power that's very restrictive: she can only make illusions by playing a very obvious tune on her flute, and the illusions will disappear when touched. All the other villains had powers that were useful for physically fighting the heroes: Volpina had none of that, and still managed to get closer to stealing the Miraculouses than any other villain. She was quick to discern Ladybug's weaknesses, and preyed on them masterfully by subtly diverting Ladybug's attention using an illusion of Hawk Moth, and at the same time she tricked Cat Noir into trusting her. I'm not saying all of this in defense of her actions: while she was akumatized, she was certainly evil, just like nearly every other akumatized villain. I'm saying all of this to justify how Lila is very clever and excellent at reading people, and that's one of the greatest reasons why I find it so thrilling to watch her in action.

So when thinking about Lila, I wouldn't recommend thinking about her from the same perspective as Marinette sees her. Think instead about the interesting dynamics she adds to the preexisting relationships between the characters, and about how her wit and guile lead to the creation of interesting stories, which, after all, is the reason to watch the show.