#HER AND GABRIELLE GRAHAM

[dyke-a-saur]

SAVE ME JONICA T GIBBS

[purplecatghostposts]

Rewatching Risk and thinking about how genuinely freaked out Félix gets when he sees Emilie in the basement. That’s not just his aunt but someone who looks exactly like his mom. He bolts the second he sees her and it honestly looks like he’s going to make a run for it out of the house before Nathalie and Gabriel find him. You can see him floundering a bit to act like Adrien again before he regains his composure. I just. AAA. I love this episode. It’s the definition of ‘Fucked around and found out’. Félix was prepared for a lot but NOT finding the basement.

[piromina]

ok but what if félix didnt get off on the wrong foot with adriens friends. what if they all rly liked him and didn't think of him as 'a cruel and inferior copy of the original'. what then. we would have so many good friendships there. félix + nino = gabriel agreste hate club. félix + marinette = gabriel agreste hate club. félix + alya = gabriel agreste hate club. félix + chloé = gabriel agreste hate club. guys do you see where im going with this. guys.

[ramen8008]

[bittersweetresilience]

AMELIE GRAHAM DE VANILY

wuthering heights / sense and sensibility / east of eden / the great gatsby / to the lighthouse / don quixote / middlemarch / jane eyre / the sun also rises / watership down

[eldritch-ace]

natalie ships are so funny to me, like stop fucking adriens family.

They’re all so fucking funny. Girl is out here pulling all the Graham de Vanilys and Agrestes. I can’t decide if she was just a third for Gabe and Emelie or if she rebounded with Gabe after Emelie and then rebounded with Amelie after Gabe. Either way it’s gold. Adrien is chill with it though.

[nixthelapin]

Miraculous AU where Gabriel is a little a lot more messed up, and when Felix comes around in s3 and takes the wedding ring, instead of just letting him go he, as Hawkmoth, goes to London after him, gets his own ring back (which is technically Adrien’s), but also takes Felix’s amok (maybe even brings Mayura with him to do the about-to-snap thing to make sure he can’t fight back at all), and forces him back to Paris where he’ll use the (still broken) Peacock miraculous instead of Natalie because he just really hates Felix and doesn’t care if he dies from using it and therefore is willing to make him create more frequent sentis than Natalie did in s3 canon. “You wanted the Peacock didn’t you? Well now you got exactly what you wanted.” And this will all be under the guise of Felix spending more time with his cousin to “improve himself” because of how he likes to cause trouble or whatever.

(This could be paired with an Enemies AU where Adrien is already being forced to be a villain with the Cat with his amok, but could also just be as is.)

Bonus: Felix would actually end up improving himself by spending more time with Adrien and being dragged along to hang out with Adrien’s friends (cough, Feligami, cough)

[adastra-rising]

A collection of WIPs from the Feligami Fic, now titled: “Roses of Blue”

I have no reason to be in misery because I wrote this. Yet, here we are. Why am I here just to suffer?

I kinda lost the plot a little because the election results has turned my family into a battleground and the best way to deal with daddy issues is NATURALLY to project them onto your morally gray blorbo of choice and use them to write fanfiction.

So its sort of become more of a Felix character study, with feligami elements because I really like writing in his head. Specifically, a lot of musings on his relationships with people: Kagami, Adrien, Amelie, Emilie, and regrettably Colt.

I’m hoping to get this fanfiction out within the next week or two.

[sora-kinomoto]

lol what if Félix had the Ladybug miraculous

[ninadove]

I’m really curious about the beef between Chloé and Felix, because it’s clear he 100% hates her guts. But like, not in a regular “Oh-Chloé-is-so-mean-I-hate-her-so-much” way - this one seems personal.

So far, I’ve counted 3 instances of Felix purposefully targeting Chloé as part of his shenanigans:

- The personalised dig in the video message to Adrien’s friends (“Felix”)

- Going out of his way to humiliate her while on a mission to investigate his uncle (“Gabriel Agreste”)

- She’s also the first person he snaps “out of existence” using the Red Moon powers, even before his main target Gabriel (“Emotion”)

I’ve learnt not to assume Felix does anything out of pettiness, so what’s the deal? Why would he repeatedly take the risk of derailing his plans for her? Is there some kind of deep narrative reason, or is she just so annoying to him that he can’t help it?

I want to know the tea. But also, I’d find it super funny if he just… Couldn’t stand her for no reason. After all, don’t we all have that one person that makes us grind our teeth?

[sherlockig]

[charlietheepicwriter7]

Hey, Little Songbird

Chapter 30 - AO3

Alya stared at him with an expression so filled with disgust and regret that Felix shuffled uncomfortable. She spun away, her shoulders shaking. “You know, I used to wonder how you and Adrien could possibly be related, but now? I totally see it.”

Felix sputtered. “Excuse me!?”

“You’re excused. This is too stupid and doesn’t make any sense; I’m not dealing with it. Let’s just… get this done, okay?”

“What are you talking about, it makes sense—!”

“I’ve learned my lesson about speculating hero identities. Trust me, it is not worth it. So can we please drop this?” She passed him a flash drive.

Felix considered her words and agreed. This really wasn’t the time for speculation. It was the time—he looked down at his chest, but unfortunately the brooch was still there—for action.

He and Alya walked to their homeroom, but while Alya went inside with a wave, Felix hid around the corner, so everyone would be inside before they started. As the morning bell rang, he stepped into the room.

Mme. Bustier frowned at him. “Young man, you need to go to your homeroom—” Felix removed his hood, Duusu squirming in the fabric to hide. “Felix? I guess your suspension is over now… Then the only person we’re waiting on is Marinette.”

“Marinette won’t be at school today,” Felix told her, taking a moment to survey the class. The sheeple were glaring at him, Alya was vibrating in her seat, Rossi looked smug… and Adrien. He looked horrified to see Felix here. Had Gabriel told him what Felix did? Was he on Gabriel’s side now? “Something about a family emergency? She should have a note to give you tomorrow.”

“Well… you were supposed to apologize to her today, but if that’s the case…”

“I’ve already apologized to Marinette,” Felix reassured her. “But there’s someone else in this room I must apologize too; after all, I was trying to frame someone as well. That’s why I created a video to properly explain my feelings. May I?” He gestured towards the computer. “It won’t take long.”

Bustier fretted but agree. “If you’ve already made something…” She even helped him setup the projector screen while Felix got to the video. There were only two files on the flash drive: one labeled “Apology”, and the other labeled “After.” He opened the “Apology” video.

Jagged Stone’s face covered the whiteboard. “Cat? I’ve never owned a bloody cat, especially not one saved by a Lila Rossi.”

One by one, her lies unraveled. Interviews with the celebrities Rossi lied about, logs indicating that the Italian Ambassador hasn’t left Paris in over a year, doctors explaining Rossi’s various illnesses to contradict her actions, exerts from her diary… Even though their classmates’ faith in Rossi broke with that first interview, it was fascinating to watch their opinions of her sink lower and lower as the tears and glares multiplied. Rossi was mortified, watching the video with wide eyes as her claws sunk into Adrien’s arm. Even Bustier, the supposed adult in the room, could only watch, even though stopping the video was totally within her power. The collective mood sunk,

And sunk,

And sunk.

It was glorious. Felix wished he was recording.

Felix paused the video before the last scene could play and smirked as Rossi glared at him hatefully. “I’m so terribly sorry I tried to frame you, Rossi. As it turns out, that was the only think you were actually innocent of!”

She jerked at his address, then turned around to the class, fishing for sympathy. She found none in the furious gazes and tear-filled eyes. She shook, from rage or humiliation, Felix knew not. “You… you bastard…”

“My parents were happily married when they had me,” Felix purred. “Pity the same couldn’t be said about you, no?”

Her eyes widened with fear. Oh, yes, Felix knew an awful lot about Rossi now, perhaps more than he ever wanted to know. Usually he wouldn’t taunt someone because they were the result of an affair, but… Rossi seemed to bring out the worst in him.

Realizing that she had no allies in the room, Rossi’s eyes welled with possibly-fake tears and she ran from the room, practically wailing. Felix sniffed. “How cliché.”

That snapped Bustier out of her daze. “Felix! We are going to the principal’s office right now!” He shot Alya a panicked looked, but she was already running to the front of the room as Bustier grabbed his arm. “There was no need to humiliate another student, no matter what she did—!”

He tore his arm from her grip. The only reason she hadn’t left claw marks was the protection is hoodie gave him. “If she didn’t want to be humiliated, maybe she shouldn’t have done something humiliating!”

That set certain people off.

“Dude, that’s too cruel!”

“She might have been horrible, but you didn’t need to be so mean about it!”

“I don’t know what has gotten into you, young man, but hurting people—”

Finally reaching the front, Alya restarted the video and the last scene played. Bustier shut up as she and the rest of the room saw the video footage Felix had taken of Rossi willingly taking an akuma. While they were enthralled, Felix took his chance to lock their classroom door. They didn’t have much time before Rossi showed up again. “She’s a terrorist; why should I respect her?”

Climbing up on the desk, Alya took her place before the class while Felix readily the second video. She addressed the class. “Like Felix said, it’s been confirmed that Lila Rossi is working with Hawkmoth. Thanks to this information, Ladybug has discovered the possible identities of Hawkmoth and Mayura and is now working with the police to conduct a sting operation while his attention is on akumatizing Lila.”

“Alya!” Bustier hissed, “Get down from there—”

They had anticipated that someone wouldn’t believe them, and Alya had planned ahead by getting evidence from a source no one could argue with. Felix opened the second video and now Ladybug’s face covered the whiteboard. “Hey, Mme. Bustier’s class, this is Ladybug speaking! As Mlle. Cesaire might have already told you, today the police, temporary heroes, and I are conducting a sting operation against the possible identity of Hawkmoth. But while I say ‘possible,’ we’ve received evidence that proves without a doubt that this individual we’re raiding is Hawkmoth.” Felix covered the brooch with his hands. “It’s because of this evidence that I asked M. Graham de Vanily and Mlle. Cesaire to expose Lila Rossi today. As his only known civilian helper, my partner and I are certain that Hawkmoth will akumatize her, given how successful she’s been against the heroes in the past.

“This is why I am talking to you now. As of now, all of you are part of the sting operation.” He noticed several classmates sit up at her words, the sadness and anger dissipating from the room. “I need you all to evacuate the school and help the other classes evacuate as well. But most importantly, you can’t do anything that will indicate that we’re attacking Hawkmoth during her akumatizations. I know I can trust you.” It felt… like she was talking directly to Felix. He held the brooch tighter, rough edges cutting into his hand. “Thank you. Bug out.”

The video stopped and Alya organized the evacuation out the windows. Fortunately, they were on the first floor, so it wasn’t much of a drop. Mme. Bustier left first and helped the other student drop down. Felix tried to help, but Adrien pulled him aside. “You’re working with Ladybug?” Adrien asked. Was that… awe in his voice? Did Gabriel not tell him anything yet.

“She asked,” Felix answered uncomfortable. “Come, it’s time for you to leave…” Felix tried to get Adrien out the window so they’d stop talking, but Adrien refused to drop. He just… dangled out the window.

“You’re not coming?”

Felix looked away. “I’m the bait. Hopefully we can keep Rossi focused on me long enough for Ladybug to defeat Hawkmoth, but to do that… I need to keep her mad.”

Adrien smiled. “Well, they picked the perfect person for that.”

He laughed. “Certainly. Adrien… about what happened at your house…” Something—or rather, someone—pounded on the door, making it shake on its hinges.

“What happened at my house?”

Had Gabriel told him nothing!? No, there was no time. “Adrien, you can’t go home.” He told him instead.

“What?”

“When you evacuate, you can’t go home, okay? Go anywhere else, anywhere at all, but don’t go home. Just trust me, you don’t want to be there.”

The door collapsed, and a hot rush of air ploomed into the room. Felix pushed Adrien out the window and he landed on the ground in a heap. There were still other classmates stuck inside—the goth girl, the jock, the dreadlock girl, he really should start learning people’s names—but there was nothing he could do now to get them out.

He faced Rossi. She… looked horrible.

Fashion-disaster Hawkmoth struck again, he supposed. Though, now that he knew Hawkmoth was Gabriel, perhaps these were designs that the board of directors at the company refused? Because instead of something relatively fashionable, Rossi loomed in the doorway dressed like a cartoon devil in a prom dress, her skin hazard orange and her pigtails mutated and curled up in mock devil horns. She scowled at Felix; her teeth looked like jagged shards of glass. “You…”

“Rossi.” He sneered.

Her eye twitched. “It’s End Days now! And I’m going to ruin your life, just like you’ve ruined mine!”

Taglist: @graduatedmelon @novicevoice@dur55@kris-pines04@18-fandoms-unite-08@moonlightstar64@bee-a-garbage-shipper@sol-o-shade@kittyotakunoir666@tinyterror333@allieoftheenemy@marichat00@xgxmxtx@two-faced-biatch@feliciakainzofspades@evil-cricket@emilytopaz@spicybelladonna@chocolateherringtacofan@user00000003@wannajointhecrabcult@happymonster-pants @duquesapincarrasca  @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen  @sxltinette @kittydemon9000 @thetrashypanda423 @unoriginalmess @toodaloo-kangaroo @troycattribunny

[wykwryt]

love how felix specializes in making fake ring duplicates

[ninadove]

"He would rather be dead, with her, than alive and caring for his own son."

So, this is very important. Emilie or Amelie?

(Answer: Amelie. But seriously, I'm getting ahead of myself, let's talk about it.)

This is kind of a long post. If you don't want to read all of my ramblings, feel free to skip to the final point. That's the important one.

A mysterious woman who is clearly one of the two Graham de Vanily twins was in attendance of the party at the end of the episode. But is she Emilie (Adrien's dead mom, revived by Gabriel's wish) or Amelie (Adrien's already alive aunt)?

Here's the thing. The answer to this question is actually extremely important. Emilie being alive would be a HUGE deal and would have extreme consequences on the narrative and themes of the show.

Seriously. We need to know whether or not Emilie is alive. So, let's discuss— what do we know?

1. Amelie should be at this party.

Seriously. Amelie would be at Adrien's party.

You know who is in attendance at Adrien's party? Not just his friends, but also adults in his life. Nathalie. Su-Han. Jagged Stone. Penny Rolling.

You know what Penny Rolling's relationship is to Adrien? She's the manager/new girlfriend of his friend Luka's recently-undeadbeated-dad. And she was invited to Adrien's party.

Seriously. This is a party of any significant character. Everyone and their mother was invited and— hey wait, where's Félix's mother? Félix is here, and certainly our favorite mommy's boy would invite his mother along. Surely Adrien's aunt would be invited to Adrien's party.

You know, Amelie's aunt, who had a not insignificant arc in the story? A family member to the Agrestes, who we've seen struggle, who would well deserve a shot of her smiling at a party at the finale?

Amelie, who had some unresolved tension with Nathalie, centered around their respective relationships with Gabriel? Tension that would likely be rectified after Gabriel's demise?

Not only would Amelie be at this party, but I absolutely believe she would be sitting next to Nathalie. (I mean, they do know each other. Who else at that party does Amelie even know?)

If that's not Amelie, then where is she?

Oh, and side note, what was the shot just before the shot of the mysterious woman? Oh, that's right. Amelie's son.

2. She only appears for a brief flash, given no more significance than any other character in attendance.

There's a reason why everyone is using the same shot of the mysterious woman when discussing her. That is the only shot of her. There are more shots of Penny Rolling than of her.

Here's the thing. Either Emilie is alive in this final scene, or she isn't. So, how would you expect this scene to play for these circumstances?

Here is a complete list of everything I would expect if Emilie were not alive:

A brief shot of Amelie.

Here is an incomplete list of some of the things I would expect from a "Emilie, the mother of the deuteragonist and ghost that has been haunting the narrative for 5 Seasons, is alive now" reveal, at the bare minimum:

A shot that lingers on Emilie.

Emilie, seated with Nathalie AND HER TWIN SISTER.

A shot of Emilie opening her eyes during Gabriel's wish.

The newscast, which they watch during the party, having a mention of "... and Parisians are still celebrating the rescue of Emilie Agreste, who was previously missing but recently found!"

Adrien literally acknowledging that his dead mother is suddenly alive at all? AT ALL? Looking at her, mentioning her, literally ANYTHING from him? I mean, seriously, what did he think happened—

3. Adrien's perception of his mother's reappearance would need to be addressed. It was not.

Adrien does not know the wish was cast.

Adrien does not know anything.

Here's the thing. While, yes, Emilie has been described as "missing"/"disappeared" in the show, it is absolutely clear to the audience that Adrien has been under the impression that Emilie is dead.

We know this from the painting in the foyer that depicts Gabriel and Adrien in mourning. We know this from the way that Adrien (correctly) draws the conclusion that "Nathalie has the same illness as my mother, therefore she is dying". We know this from the way that Adrien speaks about his mother in past tense, how he encourages his father to move on and date Nathalie, how he has never once in the show seemed to be under the impression that Emilie could come back.

So, if Emilie suddenly came back........... someone would need to explain it to Adrien. He would need to be fed another lie about it. We would need to be made privy as to what he believes happened.

Examples of how this could have been easily achieved:

Again, the newscast. Nadja acknowledging that the missing Emilie Agreste had been found. Maybe mentioning that "she was found being held captive by Monarch" or something. I dunno, whatever lie that works.

Adrien, during his conversation with Marinette, mentioning what happened to Emilie from his perspective, the same way he vocalized to her what his perception of Gabriel's death was. I mean, seriously, Adrien was already doing this expositional dialogue... why wouldn't he mention his mom during it?

4. Leaked production material does not change the final product.

Yes, scripts were leaked of this season. There are deleted scenes in the storyboards. There are script changes and allusions to certain things and mentions here and there in these materials that suggest that the mysterious woman could have, at some point in production, been Emilie.

... at some point in production.

So, here's the thing. This is the most solid Emilie argument we have. In fact, I'd argue it's the only argument that holds any real ground at all. .......... and it's in content that we aren't supposed to have.

( Actually, it's the only real Emilie argument I've seen... period. The only other one I've seen is the fact her statue is gone, but I'd argue that the removal of her statue has symbolic weight no matter what. It was a symbol of Gabriel's obsession over her, the way that she haunts the narrative, the way she looms over the Agreste household. Alive or not, this is not the case anymore. So it makes sense to remove it. )

If your interpretation of the source material is solely, and I mean SOLELY based off of out-of-context snippets of things that were in the writer's room Vaguely At Some Point, things that now directly contradict the final product, things that the audience was absolutely under no circumstances meant to see...

You're not interpreting the episode. You're interpreting out-of-context snippets of a rough draft of it.

So, here's the thing. I've seen some of these leaks, I've seen a lot of people talk about these leaks, I've seen the rumors and I've heard the gossip. I'm not going to parrot it, because honestly, I'm still annoyed that the leaks exist at all. It feels a bit insulting to the art form, tbh, that incomplete scripts are being passed around and touted as significant and more accurate than the actual completed script.

But I'll say one thing:

If the rough drafts of scripts, deleted scenes, etc pointed to Emilie being alive.......

Why did they remove them?

(The answer is simple: because they changed their minds. And you don't have to stress about or mull over why they did it, because you were never supposed to know that it was changed, because you were never supposed to know about out-of-context rough drafts of the script in the first place. It doesn't matter. It's not the product. Writers are allowed to toss around ideas and scripts and then change them. It's unimportant and you're not supposed to be privy to it. It's not for you. It's not what they made. It's certainly not more accurate to the direction they're headed than what they settled on. )

Point is:

IF THE LEAKS DIDN'T EXIST, YOU WOULDN'T BE CONFUSED.

YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO SEE THE LEAKS.

YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE CONFUSED.

5. So, Astruc on twitter.

Okay, I love perusing Astruc's twitter for snippets of information as much as the next obsessive miraculous fan. I have perused his twitter a lot. Astruc always addresses comments and concerns under like 20 layers of coyness.

People ask him, "is it Emilie or Amelie"? And basically, every time, he responds with some variation on "pay attention and you'll know".

He's been shooting down people presenting the clues they find to him, on both sides of the argument. Some examples (which include the Amelie wearing black and Emilie wearing white thing):

So, what does this mean, beyond the already known fact that Astruc likes to mess with us?

Obviously, I'm not Astruc. I don't know his mind. I also don't have much of vested interest in dissecting everything he says, nor do I take his word at face value a lot of the time (again, he likes to mess with us).

However, I think two things are fairly clear here:

It IS possible to know whether or not Emilie was revived by watching the episode.

It's not the small details he wants us to look at. Admittedly, color schemes and set dressings are small details. It's not the big picture. It's not important. It's not the heart of what he, or any writer in his position, would want us to interpret.

( Side note, but if nearly every single Emilie argument is based off of things NOT ACTUALLY IN THE EPISODE, then doesn't Astruc saying the answer is in the episode shoot that down right off the bat? But hey! I digress. )

So, what is the big picture? What are the things that writers are truly proud of? What is the thing that a writer would want us to pay attention to? What are the details of the show that can help point us to what transpired in the episode? What—

6. The WRITING of the ENTIRE SERIES, INCLUDING within THIS VERY episode, the dialogue, the themes, the character beats, the symbolism— Literally. All of it. Points to Emilie. STAYING. DEAD.

This is actually the heart of my point.

Emilie absolutely was not revived here.

Here's the thing. The themes of grief and loss and mourning are extremely present within the Agreste arc. Throughout the entire series, the following has been hammered in by the writing:

Gabriel is obsessive for wanting to bring Emilie back. His desires are not healthy or sound. He is delusional. He is hurting Adrien and Nathalie by living in this fantasy.

Gabriel should have moved on.

Nathalie wants to move on.

Adrien has already moved on.

EMILIE HERSELF wanted them all to move on.

Emilie is a nearly angelic figure. Adrien is literally the deuteragonist of the series. Nathalie is a morally grey character with a clear redemption arc. Gabriel is the antagonist.

The "better" the character is, the more certain they are that Emilie should not be revived.

The CORRECT choice, if Gabriel and Nathalie chose the "right" path from the start, would have been for Gabriel and Nathalie to focus on parenting Adrien themselves, instead of obsessing over bringing a dead woman who has already come to terms with her death back to life. That's what Emilie wanted. That's what Adrien wants. That's what Nathalie has wanted but was too afraid to say. That's what Gabriel refuses to accept.

Look, if I go in depth into the scenes where this is addressed, I'd be here all day. Instead, have a screenshot compilation, I guess.

Again. That's been a core message of the series this entire time. And while I don't have screenshots of it being spoken so plainly in seasons 1 and 2, Gabriel has always been depicted as sinister, and his obsession has always been framed in the wrong.

Now, if you're one of those people who refuse to analyze the text at all or interpret what the messages of the show are on the grounds of "the writing sucks so who cares, it's probably just inconsistent writing and they forgot about the themes in the final episode" or whatever, then like. Ok. But here's the thing— this theme is even more hammered home in the finale.

Guys. I'm serious. What the hell do you think the scene before the wish was saying?

Gabriel, at his lowest moment, brought down. Gabriel, detransformed and on his knees before Bug Noir. Gabriel, at the final hour of his life, near tears, still obsessing over his wife, still thinking of his wife his wife his wife above all else, as Bug Noir lays out the literal themes of the show to him in all their beautiful glory.

And then literally forces him to watch the very videos that he had tried to force Nathalie to delete. Forces him to face the very words he refused to acknowledge. Forces him, at his lowest, to come face-to-face with the truth he denied.

.... And it hits him. What she's saying hits him. Because how can he deny Emilie's own words? The very woman he's doing it all for? How can he bring her back to life when she would want nothing less? How can he force the love of his life to live knowing that someone had died for her to, when she didn't want that? How could he have lost himself so much in the madness?

And then Bug Noir comes in with THIS

.... And Gabriel says....

.... Note that, he does not continue to deny it. He does not plead his case that Emilie should be alive. He is no longer arguing that. Here, he has seemingly begun to accept the premise that Emilie should not be brought back to life. Instead, he has a new premise:

He does not want to be alive if Emilie is not.

Gabriel is not selfless. Gabriel is not a good man. Gabriel says, earlier in the episode, flat out, that he is more than willing to kill whoever it takes, whatever rando he wants, to get what he wants.

Here's the thing.

Gabriel wants to be with Emilie.

Gabriel is willing to kill anyone, whoever it takes, to make this happen.

Gabriel realizes Emilie does not want to be alive.

Gabriel decides that he will honor Emilie's final wish......... only partially.

Because Emilie wanted both Gabriel and Nathalie to take care of Adrien. But Gabriel does not want that. It's not that Gabriel is above killing someone to save his own life, it's that he realizes that he, too, does not want to be saved. Because he does not want to live in a world without Emilie.

He would rather be dead, with her, than alive and caring for his own son.

Gabriel Agreste's wish is a suicide. I mean, we already knew this— but I mean, literally. It's not a selfless sacrifice. It's not one final act of goodness. It's a suicide. He decides he wants to die, and he decides that he will save Nathalie in the act— because it's what Emilie wanted, and Gabriel is obsessive. The only person who would reason with him is Emilie herself.

And what does Gabriel's wish look like? How is it depicted to us?

Gabriel and Emilie, cast in a white light. Emilie lifts from her coffin, notably still limp, as Gabriel rises up with her.

He rises up with her, notably supporting her limp head with his hand. She is still unconscious. And he is joining her.

One last selfish act. The final nail into his "trying to be a dad" coffin. He doesn't want to be a dad anymore. He only wants to be with Emilie. And he will gladly pass that responsibility, the responsibility of parentage, onto Nathalie— The only character in the show who has been showing an explicit, vested interest in LIVING to take care of and be a parent to Adrien.

Nathalie is alive. Nathalie is well. A life for a life. One life for one life. That's all that's depicted. That's all that's shown.

Is it TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE that more could've been a part of that wish? Is it TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE that the wish could've been more complicated? Is it TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE that some random other person died? Is it TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE that all of that dialogue and that entire scene and the entire buildup of Emilie's recordings were just soooooo lol random and that Emilie just decided that she's totally cool with being revived and alive now and that the entire themes of the series were a lie?

I also think it's technically possible that Marinette has secretly been a hamster wearing a human suit this whole time, and Lila is actually secretly a sentimonster made by Gorilla. And maybe this show isn't a romance, actually, and that Adrien and Marinette aren't meant to be endgame. In fact, maybe the entire series was a big prank. Maybe I'm adopted and my parents lied to me about it.

But how it looks, from what I see, from what I've watched, what just happened is....

Gabriel accepted that Emilie is dead.

This made Gabriel want to die, too. Because he doesn't care about Adrien as much as he cares about Emilie.

So, he did. And he shirked parentage onto Nathalie.

Is this "winning", by the way? By any stretch? Is this "Gabriel getting what he always wanted"? Is this "Gabriel being proved right"? Is this a lack of consequences? Are we really going to call a broken man, who has been slowly turning to ash and rotting away for an entire season, who suffered and was beaten down and, at the very end, had the only people ever in his corner (Nathalie and Adrien) cursing his name and wanting him dead.... him being right all along? Is him committing suicide the series justifying his actions? Is him committing suicide (again, not a selfless sacrifice) him "doing good" and "being redeemed" by the narrative? Is a faux image of him, a false narrative, a complete fictional person that he never truly was being celebrated by ignorant Parisians, him "being redeemed"? I suppose that's another essay altogether. But I'm tired of writing.

also, there was still only one goddamn twin at that party

[kehannii]

Had the shocking realization today that Adriens whole extended family is English. Like no Felix didn’t use to live in Paris but moved to England, the Graham de Vanilys are literally an old English family and Emilè went and married a French man. Like Adrien and Gabriel are the “outsiders” in this situation.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

This is probably small in the grand scheme of things, but how did Emilie being noble play any impact in the story at all?

I mean, I'd get it if it was just a small detail to help deepen Emilie's character, but why nobility of all things? I don't know, from what I'm seeing so far, the whole "Emilie renounced her noble title" shtick just feels worthless if it's not going to impact the story or add depth to Emilie's character (like maybe upbringing or personal values?).

I don't know. Like everything else, the noble part just feels shallow and means nothing to the story, especially for a character like Emilie, who is the plot device for the whole show. Any detail about her, like her personality and life story, is supposed to influence the story and characters one way or another, namely Hawkmoth since she's his driving force.

So what was the point?

For context, this ask is about Félix's play which says that Emilie gave up her title to be with Gabriel. I'm gonna give a slightly larger section of the transcript of the play for full context, but the relevant but is at the end of the last paragraph:

Félix: The king and queen's twins grew up, each day as different in heart as they were similar in body. The firstborn, curious and brazen, despised life at court and escaped at every opportunity. The younger daughter, well-behaved and respectful, did everything she could to please her parents, and stayed quietly in the castle. Félix: (as Mr. Graham de Vanily) Oh, my queen. Did we entrust our legacy to the right princess? Kagami: (as Mrs. Graham de Vanily) She will fall in line, eventually. Félix: Confident that she would settle down as she matured, the king and queen allowed the curious princess to leave to study beyond the sea in another kingdom. There, she immediately found true love in a humble tailor. Félix: The tailor was making clothes so magnificent that they revealed the beauty of the soul of anyone who wore them. Although it made her parents furious, the curious princess gave up her rank, her wealth and her kingdom to live a bohemian life with the tailor.

Story wise, I have no idea why any of this was added since it adds nothing to canon. It's not like this finally explains why Gabriel and Emilie are poor while Amelie is wealthy. Along similar lines, it's not like Amelie's title has ever mattered. Prior to this play, I don't think that we even knew that she had a title or that she was the younger sister. The play is all about explaining things that we never had reasons to question in the first place.

My best guess as to why the writers wrote this pointless backstory is that they wanted to make Emilie seem even more pure and perfect so they went with the tired old trope of a rich girl giving up material things for the sake of love and art because good pure women don't care about material things! Only nasty, shallow women care about money. (Way to play into sexist tropes, guys.)

There may also be cultural elements at play here given that France doesn't have the greatest history with nobility, so giving up a noble title may be seen as good and pure to a French writer, but I don't know enough about French culture to say that with any certainty. If anyone who reads this blog is French and would like to chime in, then feel free!

While we're on the topic of the play, I wanted to point out that the above quoted passage is why I say that the Graham de Vanily parents can be as kind or as abusive as you'd like to make them. It's incredibly vague and you can read into it whatever you want to read into it. Were they good loving parents who were just upset about their daughter living in poverty or were they miserable controlling classist who Emilie fled England to get away from? It's up to you because you can get both reads from this. The play commits to almost nothing of value. Politicians could take lessons from this impressive level of noncommittal writing.

A better version of the play would have focused on things that actually matter to canon like the details of finding the miraculous and/or Emilie learning she's sick, but you could only have those details if they were coming from Nathalie or Gabriel. Félix is a terrible choice for a character to tell us the show's backstory because he knows so little of it, thus the play focusing on his largely pointless backstory.