MLB Season 5 Character Analysis: "Illusion"
Here we are again with another character analysis. Sorry that it took so long. If you missed my last analysis, you can find that here and if you want to see my season 4 character analyses, you can find that here. In this series, I basically look at the relevant characters of an individual episode of season 5 and look into their emotions, motivations, and behaviours in order to outline their overall journey across the episodes.
This episode is the beginning of Gabriel starting his good father act along with the birth of the Resistance created by Nino. There also bits of reverse love square Adrienette which we're going to get into as well. So let's get into that, shall we?
"It's not like we have any Miraculous Monarch can steal from us. The only ones who need to protect their secret identities are Ladybug and Cat Noir, not us. And anyway, I already told Adrien about Carapace."
The most prominent part of this episode was the creation of the Resistance by Nino. Seeing the doubt in the minds of the people of Paris, he decided to form this group to assist Ladybug and Cat Noir in anyway they can rather than just sit around and do nothing.
While casually revealing his and Alya's superhero identities may seem stupid at first, when you think about it, Nino does have a point. He and Alya no longer have any Miraculous that could be stolen from them so it doesn't matter whether their identities are known or not. He also needed a way to show them that the Resistance is not some silly club that he formed and that he means serious business when he's talking about helping Ladybug and Cat Noir and there's no better way of showing that than letting them know he and Alya were once superheroes. Even then, it's not as if he is making his and Alya's superhero identities public knowledge, he is simply revealing it to his two most trusted friends who he knows would never betray him.
Nino's plan to purposely akumatize someone may seem cruel as well especially with the high risk that comes with angering Gabriel. But while it is cruel, there really wasn't any other options to understand how Monarch transfers the powers of the Miraculous to his akumatized villains and so far Ladybug and Cat Noir had made zero progress in defeating Monarch, hence why it had to be done.
"I've never felt better. You know, Adrien, you and I were a lot closer before... your mother disappeared. Since then, I've spent far too much time working and have allowed too much distance to grow between us. Can you imagine? I couldn't even see that you didn't even want to be a model any longer."
After receiving his Cataclysm injury and finding out that his days are now numbered, Gabriel decides that he might as well become the picture perfect father for Adrien in case he fails or decides to become the picture perfect father again since he's so close to victory now with all his power. As the title of the episode suggests, this his perfect father act is just an illusion.
Now he manipulates Adrien in a way where his abuse isn't obvious, speaking of which...
"Well, it's just my image. And it's allowing me to spend more time with the people I care about, like my father, my friends, you"
Adrien felt uncomfortable about having his face on all the Alliance rings but when he attempted to confront his father about this, he was gaslit into believing that it wasn't a problem because it was just his image and it allowed him to spend more time with the people he cares about as Adrien not being the avatar of the Alliance rings interfered with Gabriel's plans and further convinces Adrien by subtly threatening to have him return to his previous life as a model.
This was enough to convince Adrien to put aside his doubts and see the Alliance rings as something good that allows him to have more freedom, despite it being something that makes him uncomfortable and done without his consent due to his long history of abuse with Gabriel.
"No it's not! Whenever I'm near Adrien, I can't concentrate! What if I lost my Miraculous because of love-induced lack of focus?"
Lastly, we have Marinette's continued fear of getting close to Adrien once again originating from her loss of the Miraculous in "Strikeback" and first seen in "Multiplication". This fear is only reinforced when their plan to learn how Monarch transfers Miraculous powers to his akumatized villains without having them physically possess the Miraculous itself when Gabriel returns to his strict and controlling parent status and gets Adrien out of school. Alya attempts to dissuade Marinette from this but to no avail.
Speaking of their plan, while she was aware of the cruelty and risks associated with getting someone purposely akumatized to learn the secret of Monarch's ability to transfer Miraculous powers, she also had no other leads to figuring out so they were running out of options. She was getting desperate for some progress in defeating Monarch so getting someone purposely akumatized was their best shot.
That's it for this episode. Let me know if I missed anything and feel free to make your own analyses on the characters.
