#also does mari not realize SHE COULD HAVE TAKEN THE PEACOCK MIRACULOUS RIGHT THEN AND THERE

[imperfect-storm]

Might I point out the obvious issues THESE two will have coming up, as well

So many trust issues, first of all. For good reasons. But still.

At the same time, they would naturally be able to talk openly about secrets hanging over them, worry over Adrien together, etc etc. Spending some good ole fashioned frienemy time together.

Adrien/Chat will be SO CONFUSED why LB/Mari and Argos/Felix are so cozy all of the sudden. Jealous as a hero, jealous as a boyfriend, suspicious of his cousin who is seemingly "just a good friend" to his ex, his current gf, AND his superhero partner, all at the same time.

Meanwhile NONE of them know he's Chat Noir lmao. Aside from Luka, who I suppose would be returning? Idk. Poor Luka on the other end of Adrien's ranting, unable to say anything helpful....

I just know Nino would be there to be sus with Adrien though, plotting against Felix somehow, while Alya is doing damage control and trying not to kill her boyfriend.

I don't have time for a silly angsty comedy fic about this, or to make beautiful art scenarios, but if someone else DOES....tag me immediately. xD

I love these idiots.

[liquid-luck-00]

Reverse Robins + Identities

Bio!Dad Bruce

Day 18: Reverse Robins - Day 19: Identities

Ao3 ~~~ First ~~~ Previous ~~~ Next

~~~~~~~~~~

How this came to happen Mari had no idea.

She was leaving Gotham to patrol Paris like usual, but all of her brothers decided that they wanted to go with her. Mainly to get Andre’s Ice cream for breakfast, and hopefully not be yelled at for doing so by Alfred.

One minute she and her brothers were patrolling Paris in the early morning, some time around 5 am. The next they saw a flash of golden light.

"Let's go. Everyone is on comms" Nightwing took the lead. "Rosu how long for your team to arrive?"

At that moment, her yo-yo rung "Hey Bug who do we have this time" Chat Noir answered in that moment Abeille, Viperion, and Ryuko appeared on screen.

"Comms on guys" she took the lead as easily as Dick had. "The bats are here" with that they all logged off and made their way to where the golden lights kept flashing.

"Any idea on the akuma's powers?"Red Robin asked the miraculous team that arrived before them. Ryuko shoot her head.

The akuma then noticed them "Ladybug, Chat Noir everyone's big sister and big brother. Let's see how you feel taking orders now!" A golden light swept thought the area engulfing the heroes.

"Ha! I think your powers are busted. Um... I don't know your name" Chat yelled.

"Chat!" she scolded but her voice was sharper. She looked around and that was when it hit her. Well specifically she saw a mini Nightwing who looked no older than 15.

"What the hell!" was yelled by a younger Red Hood, 16, complete with a voice crack.

"Huh I didn't change" was spoken by Red Robin.

"That is because you are the middle child, imbecile" was said by an older, 27, Robin.

"Why are you older you’re a big sister" the akuma began throwing a verbal tantrum.

"Sorry I'm actually the youngest in my family" she spoke, 30.

"But everyone listens to you" the akuma stomped her foot "All the heroes listen to you since your older" she huffed trying to find an answer.

"Actually, I'm the oldest in the Miracle Team" Viperion commented, seeming to be a year or two younger.

"Besides" Ryuko spoke stepping towards the girl "We listen to Ladybug because we trust and respect her."

"But that's not how it works" the akuma wrung the wand in her hands.

Ladybug knelt next to her and took the wand releasing the akuma and capturing it.

“Chat catch the butterfly when it is released" she ordered, and he nodded his head. "Lucky charm" she called and, in her hand, fell a small tracker.

She released the Akuma which chat caught and placed the tracker on it. She opened her yo yo and saw the blip on the screen.

"Robin" she moved to her brother who removed his hood and handed it to her, which her brothers then formed a protective circle around her covering her completely. She de-transformed, fed Tikki, and transformed again handing her brother back his hood.

"Ladybug what are you planning?" Abeille asked.

"Give me a moment. Kaalki" the little Kwami came out. She held out her hands and the little horse sat down, and she touched their foreheads together.

"Understood" Kaalki nodded and flew through a portal.

"Follow me" she motioned once the little kwami had left.

"Please tell me you are going to fix us?" Red Hood whined.

"Not yet"

"Why?" this time Nightwing asked.

"Because" she held up her yo-yo showing the blip "we can end Hawkmoth right now"

"How sure are you that the butterfly went to Hawkmoth?" Red Robin asked. As if on cue a ladybug landed on her screen, a bee landed on Abeille, and a cat rubbed against Chat Noir's leg.

"Okay point taken" Robin spoke. "Red can you get the coordinates, and we can make plan?"

"On it"

"Azur can you and Chat go inform the police" she said as they both nodded and left." Vipereon and Ryuko do a quick spar with Hood and I'll spar with Robin" everyone nodded.

"Why the spar bug" Robin asked as they began to pass blows.

"Chat, Abeille, Ryuko, and Red didn't change the rest of us did"

"So, this is to figure out the changes, and sending Nightwing off was better because he is more aerial" Robin hummed as she nodded.

Red Robin sent the location to Nightwing and chat as the rest of us stopped to plan.

The storm at Agreste Manor.

Red Robin shut down all security measures. Robin, Vipereon, and Ryuko went in to scan the rooms and that was sent to Red Robin. "Who is inside" Red Hood asked the three who just came back.

"The Agreste bodyguard, Gorilla, is here and these two would be Gabriel and his assistant, Natalie” Chat explained.

"Doesn't Gabriel have a son?" Robin asks "Adrien correct"

"Yes, he does but he is not here " Abeille answered ending that conversation everyone nodded in acknowledgement as they made their final preparations.

They first took out Gorilla and left him with the police instructing than to stay out of sight.

The team split up to converge on the office. She and Chat Noir were the first to enter.

"Good Morning Monsieur Agreste and Madame Sancoeur" she began.

"As much as I appreciate the visit from our beloved heroes" Gabriel started with a slight venom in his voice. "But this is breaking and entering"

"We are sorry for the inconvenience" but Chat was cut off as Natalie lunged at him.

"So, the calm way is off the table" she sighed as the rest of the team crashed into the room. Gabriel took that time to descend by a hidden elevator, which she followed. She watched as Gabriel transformed and akumatized himself.

In the end the fight took no longer than five minutes as the group of heroes escorted Natalie and Gabriel out of the mansion. They found the body of Emilie Agreste in a cryo chamber comatose.

She went back inside to find the butterfly with the tracker, as well as to retrieve the peacock miraculous from the safe. She also found the grimoire and now she had recovered the two miraculous and the book of miracles all before 8 am and everything looked bright.

She stepped outside and was going to cast the cure when the was a flash and a smiling Wonder Woman and a Superboy holding up a phone.

"This is far too interesting to not document my sister, you will send me that won't you Superboy" he gave Ladybug a bright smile and nodded to Wonder Woman and Mari could only smile as she now cast the cure.

"We have a few things to discuss" she motioned to the Miraculous team to follow her. Leaving the Batboys, Wonder Woman, and Superboy in front of the Agreste Mansion.

They landed on the roof of Le Grande Paris. "Now that Hawkmoth was been defeated, and as guardian, I would like to know whether you would like to keep your Miraculous in order to protect others in this world?"

"But I thought" Chat was beginning to cry "Yes I want to keep being a hero." the others seemed to share his sentiment.

"Alright. Tikki spots off." in a flash there she stood as Marinette. "As a means to protect the Miraculous, hello my name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng Wayne, but you guys already know that" she smirked.

One by one they dropped their transformations.

"Figures that the only idiot to be dorky enough to be Chat Noir would be you Adrien" Chloe rolled her eyes smiling.

"Meow-ouch your hurting me Queenie" Adrien feigned hurt.

"Chloe can we go to your room" Chloe nodded and they followed her.

"What is your plan Mari-hime?" Kagami asked once in the room.

"Chloe meet your father and set up a meeting/announcement for noon" Mari started.

"As me or Abeille?" she asked.

"Power up, you too Luka. I need you to go to the police, so that Gabriel and Natalie are present."

"What about me?" Adrien asked.

"You'll be on stage"

"Why?"

She was going to answer but Kagami beat her. "Your father is going to be revealed as a terrorist. Your involvement will be questioned. I assume that is why Wonder Woman is here."

Mari nodded." Everyone but you will be transformed but Chat will still be there"

"Do we want to know your plan, Melody" Luka questioned.

"I think its best you don't" she smiled. “we'll meet up when it's time, stay in touch" she transformed and was about to leave.

“Where are you going?" Chloe asked the question on everyone's mind.

"I need to speak with Wonder Woman then check in with my dad since I'm supposed to be in Gotham."

A collective group of "Ohs" sounded through the room remembering that their friend was supposed to be in America for the break.

She made it to her brothers, Wonder Woman, and Superboy. She then explained the planned conference and why she called Diana and Jon. At noon, the Mayor held the conference in front of City Hall. He stepped aside and allowed Ladybug to command the stage.

"Hello citizens of Paris. This morning my team and I" she motional to the Miraculous team to her left "With the aid of Gotham's vigilantes Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, and Robin" she motioned to her right "Were able to discover and defeat Hawkmoth and his accomplice Mayura.”

There were cheers from the crowd, but many were apprehensive.

Out walked Gabriel Agreste and Natalie Sancoeur being escorted by guards, behind them walked

Adrien and Wonder Woman.

Ladybug moved to stand next to Chat Noir and allowed Wonder Woman the stage. She draped the Lasso of Truth over them.

"This is the Lasso of Truth; it's power compels you to only speak the truth." she started "What are your names?"

"Gabriel Agreste"

"Natalie Sancoeur"

"Were you the villains Hawkmoth and Mayura?"

"Yes, I was Mayura" Natalie answered.

After an internal struggle Gabriel also spoke "I was Hawkmoth, and this is not where I fail Ladybug" he spat towards the young heroine.

"Why is that?" Wonder Woman asked.

"Lila Rossi aided me in creating Akumas as well as took them willingly, she will continue in spreading fear, hatred, and distrust for when I gain my freedom again." He looked smug until he realized he spoke aloud. Gabriel and Natalie were escorted off stage and Wonder Woman beckoned Adrien forward.

He willingly took hold of the lasso. "What is your name?"

"Adrien Agreste"

"Did you know your father was the Villain Hawkmoth?"

"I only learned that today" He answered "But I can totally see it with how neglectful and emotionally abusive he was as a father" he answered still holding the Lasso.

Everyone was now staring at the boy known as Paris' Teen heartthrob and sweetheart with looks and words condemning Gabriel.

Wonder Woman regained her composure and spoke "I believe this is a discussion best had in private." Adrien gave her a sheepish smile as she led him off stage.

"Ladybug, Ladybug, Ladybug" several reporters shouted but she ended on calling on Aurore.

"Ladybug are you, or any of the heroes on your team, going to stay and protect Paris, will the Miraculous remain active?"

"The Miraculous will remain active, if I or my team so wish to continue wielding them." she answered "the same can be said of Paris, if anyone from my team or I wishes to stay in Paris that is their choice, if they decide to protect another city it is within our right to do so. Bug Out." she finished and all the heroes on stage dispersed in every direction.

"You know you really can pull off orange" she hummed.

"I prefer my red and blue" Jon stated as he de-transforms, leaving Super boy in place of the fox.

"Who knew Superboy would make such a good fox" she teased.

"You know both of us can't lie to save our lives" he gave her a grin "but we can see through them much easier than most"

"Come on this go get ice cream to celebrate with everyone, they found Andre."

"Lead the way" he gave her a bright smile and they were off.

~~~~~~~~~~

Clear a few things up:

1. Lila stayed in Paris but everyone in the school knows she is a liar and take everything she says with a heaping ton of salt

2. Mari’s knowledge and control of her powers granted by the Miraculous were expanded as if she had held it for 15 years, that is reversed when she cast cure but is something she will be able to do later.

~~~~~~~~~~

Next

~~~~~~~~~~

Taglist:

@mochinek0 @justafanwarrior @abrx2002 @ranger-gothamite @fantasiame @moonystars14 @mochegato @bigbeautifulandfullofsugar @maribat-is-lifeblood @iglowinggemma28 @miraculous-ninja @talutah0 @vixen-uchiha @danielslilangel @witchsblackfox @pawsitivelymiraculous @lizziejay @marinettepotterandplagg @colorfulmongerpsychicranch @dast218 @sassakitty @miyla-lokidottir @lilkymilky @tazanna-blythe @tired-butterfly @lozzybowe @smolplantmum @queencommonsense @loopingtangent @chez-pezeater @paintedhope7 @technicallyburninggarden @meme991001 @wannajointhecrabcult @melicmusicmagic @trippingovermyfeet @greatcatblaze @fidget-eep @miraculouslydumb @iamablinkmarvelarmy @laurcad123 @hauntedwintersweets @fc-studios @fusser90 @madking-warqueen @buginetye @little-lady-bird @thebooki3h @iamabrownfox @galla02006 @syrencall @gimpedmercy

[princess-of-the-corner]

Could you please do more headcanons for the Beetle and Tomcat au or it's variant Red Velvet and Tuxedo? Gabe with the earrings sounds like a trip. Also this could be an au with Régalien in it (what I've taken to calling Peacock!Adrien)

Okay! So! I can't find the original post, but I remember it was Tom vs. Gabriel with the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous. 

I think I prefer Red Velvet vs. Tuxedo just for Kwami shenanigans alone. Because Tikki living in a bakery is great. And Plagg would spend his free time fucking with Gabriel. 

So, plotwise here's how it starts: 

The Black Cat Miraculous is lost when the Peacock and Butterfly are. So Gabriel has all three. The Peacock is still broken, Emilie goes into her Magic Coma, and Gabriel becomes Tuxedo to lure out the Guardian and get the Ladybug Miraculous. 

Fu still tries to give the Ladybug to Marinette. However, Tom comes up to Mari's room and finds the box on her desk. Curious, he opens it and finds Tikki. After finding out that Mari is supposed to be a Hero, Tom's like "no she is a child i am not putting her in danger like that!!!" And decides to be a Hero himself, becoming Red Velvet. 

Despite the usual 'secret identities' rule, Tom does tell Sabine. Because you don't hide things from Sabine. Marinette does find out too. She does get a bit of a confidence boost from hearing that some mystical guardian guy had believed she was the right person for the job, even if her dad said no. 

Meanwhile, school drama is pretty similar. Though without the Lovesquare. Which means Mari and Adrien have mutual crushes and it doesn't take long for them to get together. 

As for the Peacock: while Peacock!Adrien could be fun…. I have a different idea for both the Peacock and the Butterfly. 

As I said, Plagg does whatever he can to fuck with Gabriel. This includes hiding the other Miraculous. Now, Plagg can't stray too far from Gabriel. But he can go anywhere in the mansion as long as Adrien and any staff don't see him. 

So if the other Miraculous happen to end up in Adrien's room, well, it's the last place Gabriel would look when he goes to look for them. 

Adrien finds the brooches and is a little confused. They don't look familiar, and this happens after his birthday so they're not gifts. Shrugging it off, he thinks the brooches arent really his style and decides to gift them. 

Which two girls are close enough to him for him to give gifts? Marinette, his crush, and Chloé, his childhood friend. 

Marinette gets the Peacock, Chloé gets the Butterfly. I'll focus on Chloé a little later. For now, Mari and the Peacock!

Marinette brings the brooch home, and Tikki immediately recognizes it. She also realizes it's damaged. As the Ladybug Miraculous is supposed to fix the others, they quickly fix it and talk to Duusu to ask her where she's been and if she knows who Tuxedo is or where the Butterfly is. 

Unfortunately, Duusu has no idea. Her Miraculous being broken affected her memory of that time. She remembers someone using her Miraculous, and that that person was hurt by it, but she can't remember who or even when that happened. 

They decide to try and work backwards. Marinette knows that Adrien gave her the brooch. Well, Adrien's obviously not Tuxedo. Even if the Miraculous could change his height and build like that, Tuxedo uses Cataclysm multiple times in battle and is therefore an adult. Next best suspect is Gabriel. 

Marinette gets up the courage to partner with Adrien on a school assignment so that she can snoop. She feels bad using him like that but this is important!!

Unfortunately, Gabriel is already working on faking his alibis, and Marinette is the perfect kind of person to be a witness. While Tuxedo shows up and is destroying stuff, Nathalie uses hologram!Gabriel to check on Adrien and Marinette, insisting that Marinette stay until the danger has past and ordering dinner for them. To Marinette, it looks like Gabriel is here while Tuxedo is in a fight, proving they're not the same person. 

Believing this to be a dead end, they assume that the missing Miraculous probably got separated over the years.

Marinette makes another decision. The Peacock is the second Miraculous to be gifted to her. Clearly the Universe wants her to be in this fight. Tom and Sabine say no, but she has an idea. 

Marinette uses the Peacock Miraculous and creates a Sentimonster of herself. As she's holding both the Peacock and the Amokized item, she can essentially astral-project and puppet the Sentimonster. Therefore, she can fight while also remaining safe. 

The catch is powers. On one hand, Marinette can make the Sentimonster have any power. But if she wants to have a different power she needs to remake the Sentimonster. She ends up basing the various powers on other Miraculous, changing the Sentimonster's costume to reflect that. So theres a Senti!Multimouse, a Senti!Fennette, a Senti!Bee, etc. 

Gabriel assumes that Red Velvet's "sidekick" is just using the other Miraculous, not that she's a Sentimonster. 

I want to give her a single name because the public would realize that it's the same girl and not "Red Velvet's 15 identical daughters". I'm thinking Mockingbird. A bird reference for the Peacock, and a reference to her imitating other Miraculous powers. 

Now for Chloé and the Butterfly Miraculous!

Chloé puts on the brooch at home and meets Nooroo. On one hand she would like to be a Hero, but she hesitates. This is early on when they don't know how dangerous Tuxedo is, and Cataclysm is kind of terrifying. 

Unlike Duusu, Nooroo does remember what happened before. Unfortunately, he's been forbidden from talking about it without being asked directly, and Chloé doesn't know enough background to ask. 

So Chloé plays it safe. Mostly just keeping Nooroo as a friend no one knows about. Sometimes though, Monarch wanders the rooftops at night. Occasionally stopping petty crime if she runs across it. She becomes a little bit of an urban legend. Paris's little Cryptid. 

As a civilian though…. Chloé's having an interesting time. 

Obviously she doesn't have the same relationship toward Red Velvet as she has toward Ladybug. Though she does gain a little bit of a hero crush on Mockingbird when she shows up. 

However, Chloé's feeling toward Red Velvet is more "oh? Is this what genuine parental affection is like?". Because yeah even though Tom and Mari know what Chloé is like, she's different with Red Velvet and Mockingbird. Also Tom just radiates dad energy. 

The biggest thing with Chloé though is that, because she's wearing the Butterfly Miraculous, she can feel everyone's emotions. 

This means that when she's mean to someone, she can feel what they're feeling. And honestly she doesn't like that. So she kinda… stops going out of her way to hurt them. 

Then it becomes 'okay, someone is upset and if you're upset I have to feel it so fuck you we're going to fix your problems!!' Which confuses the hell out of everyone else. 

This leads to her realizing that okay yeah making others feel happy is kinda nice? Even if it's from a selfish 'I don't want to feel your bad vibes' way. 

No one's really sure why she's doing this. The class comes to the agreement that Chloé probably reevaluated her priorities after a near-death experience with Tuxedo. 

The biggest nail in the coffin though is when Audrey comes back, and Chloé can physically feel the lack of love from her. Like, some small part of Chloé always knew Audrey might not truly love her. But just. There's no real way around it with Magic Empathy Powers. 

This is probably when Monarch becomes known to the people as more than 'local Cryptid'. Because she goes for a rooftop run during the day to avoid Audrey. And of course both sides are interested in a new Hero. 

Monarch bumps into Tuxedo first, but she runs because YIKES. Red Velvet and Mockingbird show up next. Red Velvet fights Tuxedo while Mockingbird chases down Monarch. 

Red Velvet and Mockingbird get to talk to Monarch after Tuxedo disappears. They ask her about her powers, and she admits that it's the Butterfly Miraculous, and she got it because a friend gave her a brooch that happened to be Magic. 

Monarch also kinda rambles about how she usually goes out at night because that's when she feels restless and sad, but she's out now because the Butterfly's Empathy powers let her know that her mother doesn't love her so you know how it be. 

Red Velvet and Mockingbird are like "okay you're family now we're adopting you!". They don’t want to let her in on the fight, and Monarch points out that technically she doesn’t have to be, she can just power them up when necessary. 

Meanwhile, Gabriel believes that Monarch has joined the Heroes, and decides "hey, let's give Nathalie the Butterfly because this is starting to get difficult". Except he can't find the Butterfly. Or the Peacock. He finds out that Plagg hid them months ago and 'doesn't remember where'. Gabriel goes through the mansion looking for them but can't find them. 

He doesn't immediately connect Mockingbird and Monarch to the Peacock and Butterfly. Partly because he doesn't think the Miraculous could leave the house. Partly because Monarch has yet to display her powers and Mockingbird has always been a different miraculous-themed sentimonster. 

Lets take a break to check in on other characters like the classmates and especially Adrien!

Alya still runs a blog dedicated to the Heroes, but after the earlier dangerous activity, Red Velvet sat her down and explained why her actions were dangerous. So she's less invasive. 

The class is doing fairly well since Chloé has decided to be nicer. I already said that they assume she decided to turn her life around after a near-death experience. 

A lot of their plots and drama are still the same, but altered since there are no Akumas to shake things up. They are better at talking things out though. Ironically, they're also better at voicing when they're upset because Chloé can always tell who's feeling bad, no matter how much they try and hide it. And after a few rounds of her deciding to fix things they know to speak up first. 

Adrien is blissfully unaware that everyone around him is a Hero or Villain. He has a mini hero crush on Mockingbird, but doesn't know it's technically Marinette. Doesn't know he gave away Magic jewelry. Doesn't know Gabriel is Tuxedo. Etc. 

Adrien does, however, think his house is haunted. Because even though Plagg has been banned from letting Adrien see him, he wasn’t banned from talking! So Adrien thinks that Plagg is a friendly-ish ghost hanging around. 

That’s what I have for now.

[michael-in-the-shitter]

Hi, I want to discuss Gabriel. And Season 2, Episode 1. But mostly Gabriel.

So I have quite a bit to say about these season 2 spoilers, so PLEASE read at your own discretion!!! I’ll be analyzing this episode thoroughly.

Finally, this show is getting some weight to it.

Marinette is clueless yet again.

I have so much discourse on the Agreste family right now.

Gabriel is Hawk Moth.

And, funnily enough, I’m more sure of it now than I was last week. But first, I’ll walk through what I believe to be the chronology of the episode, since most of the clips in the spoiler video seemed to be out of order.

So Marinette goes to Master Fu with the book she found in the Volpina episode. Already, this is a direct continuation of Volpina and not a standalone episode. Here, she learns about the history of the Miraculous - but not just of Ladybug and Chat Noir, but also of Volpina (and presumably the others, but Volpina is the most important).

Cue the surprise when Marinette realizes that the ancient Volpina looks exactly like Lila, which, to Marinette and Tikki, clearly means that Hawk Moth, whoever he is, knows about this book and is able to draw designs from it in his akumas. And who does Marinette quickly suspect?

Yours truly, Adrien Agreste. She knows that he had the book in his possession, and suspects him of being Hawk Moth (blah blah, clueless Mari strikes again). We’ll get back to this picture later, because it’s very important.

And of course, Marinette begins a wild goose chase trying to find him, ending up in the boys bathroom at school (this is where the bit outside Francois-Dupont happens, with Tikki trying to rationalize with her). But no, inside the school she finds not Adrien, but…

Chloe, crying real tears. This is unusual, as Marinette can see in the bottom left with a worried glance at Nino. We also known she walked in on this because she’s the only one here wearing a backpack (so this is a direct continuation of the bathroom picture. She found Chloe on her hunt for Adrien). Chloe, although you can’t see it very well in this image, is holding her phone in her right hand. Whatever happened, it did so very quickly through her phone. And, although it might be due to something completely unrelated, my guess is that it had something to do with Adrien being pulled out of school. I could do a whole discourse on why this would vividly upset Chloe, but I’ll save that for another post. For now, let’s jump on over to the Agreste household.

Remember this picture? That’s not Marinette holding the tablet. It’s either Nathalie or Gabriel, and very likely the latter of the two. Somehow, Gabriel found out about his son stealing the book from him. And boy, are there consequences. Sure, he gets grounded from things often, but… we know this is serious. Why?

Because in this picture (taken between two frames because it was hard to catch), Gabriel is throwing pictures of Adrien down from the wall onto the floor. Hoooooo boy. Something upset this man. We’ve known him to be stern, but level-headed. For this book to send him flying off the deep end and literally resenting his own son so much as to throw his pictures onto the ground, we know that it’s important to him. The Miraculous is important to him. Still, we could already assume that much from the Peacock Miraculous literally being in his safe. But it is very important to Gabriel that this book stays in his possession. To Gabriel, Adrien stealing this book (for whatever reason) is the ultimate act of betrayal. And this leads to the Collector.

Before we skip to the end of the battle, I’d just like to point out that not only does Gabriel toss Adrien’s modeling photos onto the floor, but he also trashes this, a handmade drawing by Adrien from when mom was still around. Don’t even try to tell me that Gabriel would normally act like this. He is beyond angry at his son. This image could be the last piece of young, innocent Adrien that he has left, and he chucked it onto the floor like a piece of garbage. We later see Chat Noir’s boots in front of it while it’s on the floor, so cue Adrien being sad that his dad hates him, and still pushing through to rescue him from his akuma form. I love character development, especially that of family dynamic.

I haven’t taken any images of the battle itself, because it seems fairly generic as far as battles go. We do know that the Collector has a book as a weapon and captures people and items in it à la Pixelator. The Lucky Charm itself is unknown at the moment, but we know that the solution involves Adrien’s foosball table, his shelf, and Chat Noir’s tail. Chat also Cataclysm’s his shelf. Whether this is undone after the akuma cleansing is unknown, but it probably is.

Now comes the speculation part of this analysis, and why I’m more sure than ever that Gabriel is Hawk Moth. This picture shows Gabriel (yes, it’s him, we can tell by the suit sleeve) scrolling through various images that were found in the Miraculous book. I have no idea what setting this takes place in but Gabriel, despite his lashing out earlier, still has copies of all these images. I’ve stopped at the image of Chat Noir because that’s where Gabriel stopped. And, lo and behold, two episodes ago Gabriel was checking out his son’s ring. But… why would Adrien taking his book make him so angry when he already had saved copies of every page in the book? Because, my friends, his son - who he now suspects as being Chat Noir - is closer than ever to finding out his identity.

But not in the “I can’t have Chat Noir defeating me” kind of way; it’s in the “I don’t want my son to despise me more than he already does” kind of way. He’s worried that Adrien will figure out that he’s Hawk Moth and do everything in his power to stop him, even if Gabriel’s intentions are good and, like many have speculated in the past, he’s just trying to bring Mrs. Agreste back. He knows that at this point the only way to succeed is if his son breaks his trust with Ladybug and joins forces with his father. But he knows that’s not going to happen. Adrien is too good, too kind for that, and Gabriel knows that the only way to throw his son off his trail is to akumatize himself. This is why, for the first time in the series…

We see Hawk Moth transform, back into Hawk Moth. He’s just come back from being a regular human being with his Miraculous. But at this point, after he’s tried so hard to enact his plan only to find out that his son is not only his arch nemesis but is also that much closer to learning that his own father is Hawk Moth, Gabriel knows he’s a lost cause. All he can do now is stall the moment that the reveal occurs, which means doing everything in his power to stop Ladybug and Chat Noir from learning who he is - to make himself his own victim. It may have just not been filmed, but what if there was no “fly, little akuma” in this episode? What if? What if the whole thing occurred in Gabriel’s office? If he akumatized himself in his office to throw his son off his trail? After all, he’s come to his own conclusion that it’s inevitable at this point. He knows he’s lost if Adrien ever finds out. He knows that very well.

And judging from this look of pain and condolence, Nooroo does too.