Zoénette

Zoénette is the femslash ship between Zoé Lee and Marinette Dupain-Cheng from the Miraculous Ladybug fandom.

Season 4
Zoé meets Marinette in the Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie bakery. Marinette bumps into her, causing them to fall down. They get to talking. Zoé buys something from their bakery as a thanks to Marinette, but before leaving Zoé asks Marinette her phone number, so she notes it in Zoé’s delivery bag. Then Marinette asks her to write her phone number but since she has nowhere to write it, Marinette tells her to write it in her hand, flustering Zoé.Before she leaves, Marinette gives her goodies from the bakery. They than meet again at school. Zoé is forced to act rude to Marinette because her powerful sister, Chloé, does not like her. Marinette, however, can tell that it isn't like Zoé. They text each other but Chloé finds out, causing Zoé to come up with an excuse.

When Zoé is akumatized into Sole Crusher, she grabs Marinette in her hand. Though it is currently unknown on what Marinette said to her, it seemed to make Zoé sad. Zoé then trips over Chat Noir's staff, letting Marinette escape and transform into Ladybug. After being de-akumatized, Ladybug gives her a charm that protects her from akumatizations. After that, she goes to Luka and Juleka's ship. There she and Marinette chat and than she introduces Zoé to Kitty Section. Zoé and Marinette than eat macarons together happily.

Now that Zoé is part of Marinette's circle of friends, it allows her to be part of the short film that their shared friends plan to make. Zoé portrays one of its main characters, while Marinette makes their costumes. As Marinette watches Zoé rehearse a scene with Mylène in the school's art room, Chloé walks in and demands to be in the film or she'll send Zoé back to New York. Not wanting to lose her friend, Marinette stands up on Zoé's behalf. Chloé's demands and threats anger Marinette, while Zoé stays calm and offers to have an off-screen role to please her half-sister. Marinette understood that Zoé gave into Chloé's threats on her and their friends' behalf, but her anger has Marinette coming up with a way to give Zoé gave her original role and do the film as they all originally wanted behind Chloé's back.

When Chloé discovers this, she's furious. This causes her to become akumatized into Queen Banana. Marinette decides to offer the Bee Miraculous, once Chloé's miraculous, to Zoé to help them save Chloé. After some hesitation, Zoé accepts. She takes on the title of Vesperia, and helps Ladybug and Cat Noir defeat Queen Banana.

Throughout the rest of Season 4, Zoé is called on periodically by Ladybug to assist with particularly tough villains. This shows that Marinette has deep trust for her.

Season 5
When all of their friends are trying to get Marinette and Adrien together, Zoé shows concern for Marinette. Everyone is certain that things are working out perfectly, but Zoé asks if any of them have actually checked on Marinette. She is the only one who attempts to call Marinette, leaving a voice message saying that she understands how complicated feelings are. After she ends the phone call, Zoé is approached by Plagg, who offers her the miraculous of the Black Cat. Later, in the cafeteria, Zoé stands up to Chloé when she tries to throw a pie at Marinette and embarrass her in front of the whole school. Plagg calls her very heroic for doing so, even without super powers. Unfortunately Monarch discovers Zoé's secret identity as the Miraculous holder by using his Alliance rings. Zoé must relinquish the miraculous, and she never has the chance to fight alongside Ladybug as Kitty Noir.

In “Adoration”, Marinette and Zoé are selected as their class representatives for planning the end of the year dance. Marinette invites Zoé to her room, which she replies in a fascinating way that it’s beautiful. Marinette remembers that she had never invited Zoé to her home before, so she starts presenting her around it. Zoé seems pretty amazed by everything Marinette shows her and acknowledges her dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Marinette shows Zoé their classroom plan about doing the school dance on the Eiffel Tower, but still need the permission of a high authority of Paris. Zoé gets the idea of talking to André Bourgeois, as he is the mayor of Paris and her stepfather. When Zoé brings Marinette to their mansion, Chloé sees Marinette and tries to make her leave the place, but thanks to Zoé defending her, and partially Audrey Bourgeois, Marinette is able to stay. Without losing any more time, Zoé and Marinette tell their plan to André, and he accepts. As Marinette and Zoé hug from excitement, Chloé was listening to their plan, without them noticing.

Zoé invites Marinette to her room now and start talking about their crushes, and while Zoé was struggling to say the one she’s in love to, due being scared that “this person” would be mad for being in love with someone who is already in love. Marinette assumes she’s in love with Adrien and gets shocked but doesn’t tell her that, and instead tries to cheer her to declaring to “that person”, as she knows anyone would feel honoured of being loved by Zoé. The last one, becoming extremely happy about Marinette’s words, feels confident about herself, and they later head to the Eiffel Tower to plan everything for their ball dance. There, with all their classmates, it is revealed that Chloé tried to blame Marinette from stealing and breaking stuff to get her expelled, but Zoé, knowing it was her half sister’s doing, steps in and blames everything on herself, so instead Zoé gets expelled. Suddenly an akumatized Sabrina starts attacking, so Marinette transforms into Ladybug and takes the chance to blame everything on the akumatized person, so Zoé doesn’t get in trouble.

That night, Zoé and Marinette encounter in front Le Grand Paris. Zoé feels sad as she feels she’s a horrible friend to Marinette and knowing that “this person” will never see her the way she does. Marinette tells her she’s already a wonderful person, repeating the phrase that one would feel honoured to be loved by her, finally telling her that she will never be mad at her for liking Adrien. Zoé, thinking of her friend’s words, tells her she never loved Adrien, prompting Marinette to ask for the person. Zoé looks directly to Marinette’s eyes and smiles, making Marinette realize Zoé is in love with her. She feels a bit confused at the beginning, but then hugs her and tells Zoé she feels honored of being that person. Zoé thanks Marinette, and after this, she motivates Marinette so she can go and ask Adrien out, as Zoé feels she is helping her a lot, but isn’t following her own advices. Marinette, with more confidence, thanks Zoé for everything, and after hugging again, Zoé heads to her home, and a confident Marinette heads to confess her feelings for Adrien, since Zoé motivated her and gave her enough courage to do so.

In "Emotion", Zoé decides to skip out on the Diamonds' Dance to go to the movies with Marinette. However, once she hears how worried Marinette is about Adrien, she offers Marinette her mask as entry to the dance. Marinette is grateful for the opportunity, and thanks Zoé for her help.

Fanon
The fandom began shipping them when teasers of Queen Banana and Sole Crusher were released of Marinette and Zoé hanging out. Their happy interactions and cute friendship seemed like a healthy and great ship, but the ship became even stronger when Sole Crusher came out. People pointed out how Zoé seemed to blush when exchanging phone numbers with Marinette, or how their actions reminded them of some Adrienette moments. Zoé's English voice actor is also supportive of the ship and personally thinks that Zoé has a crush on Marinette.

"I think Zoé may have a bit of a crush."

- Deneen Melody's addressing the question of what she thinks of Zoénette

After it was confirmed in episode “Adoration”, many fans felt excited for the ship and started rooting for both of them, and even some fans started joking saying Zoénette might be a better ship than Adrienette. Fans were also quick to notice that Zoé was a holder of the Black Cat miraculous, and Marinette is in love with the current holder of the miraculous. Zoé is often portrayed as the holder of the Black Cat miraculous opposite Marinette's Ladybug in fan works.

The ship is still rather small, however the community that ships it grows everyday. So far, the ship has over 50 works on AO3, and many shippers reside on TikTok.

Fandom
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