Miraculous Rewrite - Darkblade
Now Darkblade, this one was fun, this is switching a lot of things up and gives a pretty big shake to the eventual status quo as well as setting up a few future points of interest. It’s already a pretty fun episode, but we’re gonna make it a little less lean in significance.
So, this cold open is changing. The diary can stay as set-up for maybe something later that it could be involved in, but Alya’s there leaning on the back of Marinette’s chair, having arrived to make sure she gets to school on time since she knew she’d just been out as Ladybug. As the new girl, she’s not as aware of things at the school, so when Marinette bemoans the fact that Chloe’s running for class delegate, it’s with an added “again!”
“Again? She’s run before?”
“Every year I’ve been in class. There’s always one new kid that tries to run against her, but she digs up dirt and ensures the votes will fall to her in a landslide.”
“Well then, someone’s gonna have to run against her. And I doubt Adrien’s gonna, so guess that means me!”
Both Marinette and Tikki look at Alya in surprise, Marinette more so, and Tikki just that it wasn’t Marinette, given how much confidence the spotted hero has been gaining.
The news plays in front of the three of them, sharing the same story that it does in canon. M. D'Argencourt Absolutely abysmally losing to M.Bourgeois in the mayor elections. However this time Nadja looks, almost concerned as she delivers the news, claiming that despite being overwhelmingly more popular in the polls D’Argencourt lost by over a 90% margin. Something unprecedented in Paris’ Democratic history for the past decade.
The camera clips then to Andre and Chloe in the middle of a press conference, Andre waving into the press refined as ever, But Chloe looking off into the distance, something close to a perplexed look on her face.
Alya mentions that Chloe’s been a little off lately, so maybe whatever schemes she usually pulls will be less on the mark than usual. She shrugs and says that nothing Chloe could dig up on her would hurt her anyway. Her life is an open book. Marinette is excited and relieved and moves to Hug Alya before either of their phones start to go off.
Alya and Marinette dash off, Marinette asking who she had in mind for her deputy.
Chloe and Sabrina stand at the front of the class, Mlle Bustier asking the class if anyone else wanted to run. She seems resigned at this point, well aware of how Chloe is, but unable to stop it if nothing is in fact happening just yet. The other kids all look around either nervously or apathetically. Either too afraid of what Chloe’s track record with running could mean, or simply not caring about the election.
However, everyone is surprised when Alya raises her hand. Insisting that she already kind of is the class rep by running the school blog, so clearly she has what it takes for long term administrative work. Mlle Bustier is pleasantly surprised and tells her that she’s going to need to pick her deputy as well as figure out a campaign. Chloe huffs and puffs at being challenged for once and she and Sabrina return to their seats.
When lunch comes along Alya and Marinette are talking to everyone in their class about why they usually vote for Chloe when this isn’t the first time someone else has ran against her. Everyone reveals stories about the kids from before bit by bit.
Kim tells the story of how she promised to throw a pizza party for everyone back in kindergarten. Ivan the three other kids that withdrew from the race in the third grade, Chloe slipping them envelopes covered in sparkly stickers. Its uncovered that a trail of bribery and blackmail is Chloe’s real undisputed winning streak’s core. Marinette insists that nothing she could say or do will shake Alya. Alya’s way too brave and her sense of justice way too firm to let Chloe scare her. And the class must be sick of her themselves right? Isn’t it time to knock her off her ivory tower?
While they’re focusing on making real progress, the rallying motto is basically just ‘Anyone who’s not Chloe’
Despite this, no one is keen on stepping up to the plate with Alya; yeah, they want change, but none are willing to put themselves up to get slaughtered, metaphorically or not. And Marinette’s certainly not able to help out, much as she wants to. The girls both know she’s got other things on her plate that are more important, even if Chloe’s a pain. It’s in this moment of “can we even do this” that Nino steps up, hands in his pockets, but a grin on his face nonetheless.
“So, you run the school blog, and I do morning announcements, yeah? We’re both helping the school already, and we know each other, so…”
Alya jumps to her feet from the park bench the girls were on and hugs the boy she’s only just started dating a few episodes back, thankful for his offer. Marinette warns that this does give Chloe something to target, “can the class trust a girlfriend-boyfriend duo to care for the school more than their relationship,” but Alya is still determined.
Rose, always here for the romance is their first supporter. Saying excitedly that they’d almost be like a Power couple! Showing that, at least they have a bit of a platform to stand on.
So, as the class bands together around the newly christened “Power Couple,” Chloe and Sabrina stand off to the side, as is canon, but when Sabrina asks if they’ll follow “the usual tactic,” (much to the bespectacled girl’s dismayed expression) Chloe hesitates, pressing her lips together and looking far away for a moment before responding in the opposite, that she’s going to fight fair and square, She wants to see what this whole ‘doing things for the right reasons’ thing will pan out in the end. Stating quietly that she wants to do better. Sabrina looks surprised, but then her face lights up, and she grabs Chloe’s shoulder and tells her excitedly that she’s been waiting for the day they can do some proper campaigning. Chloe smiles back.
So, when we return to the main group, Marinette has brought Alya and Nino up to her bedroom for the rest of the lunch period, giving them a private space to start planning their campaign properly. For some visual continuity, she claims that she’ll be taking notes for them in her personal journal. Alya asks why her diary when she has a proper notebook, and Marinette smirks knowingly and waves off her concerns. Saying her security is far better for this thing. The last thing they need is Chloe getting hold of their campaign notes.
Nino then asks her specifically why Marinette couldn’t be Alya’s deputy, and then there’s this great scene where Marinette and Alya give two totally different conflicting excuses as to why Marinette couldn't. Both of them knowing it’s Ladybug but neither of them able to make a cover story that they both can latch onto. “Design projects” “Parent’s bakery” uhhhh “Parent’s bakery” “Design projects” or something like that. Nino blinks blankly at them both before shrugging, saying how he can see why Marinette couldn’t. Being overbooked sucks.
We get a glimpse of a text from either Rose or Juleka, before the trio run off out of Marinette’s bedroom. This is when we cut (without showing what was sent to the trio, but we do see Marinette glance at a poster on her wall of Jagged Stone) to why Adrien wasn’t with them in Marinette’s room, the reason being his private fencing lesson with M. D'Argencourt
M. D’Argencourt is as usual, a total beast and makes quick work of Adrien. Whom asks him how he got so good. D’Argencourt removes his mask and starts to put his things away. He asks Adrien how much he knows of French history before Napoleon. Adrien shrugs and says History’s one of his weaker subjects. So D’Argencourt goes on to say that his family line dating back during the first monarchy was a line of noble knights, the one clan that held chivalrous principles long after the days of camelot in England. His family’s proud history of knights all came from a french knight of the Round Table. No, not that one. A lesser known knight whose name had been lost to history but was known in the myths as Darkblade; For the dark steel his sword was crafted from. Likely from a meteorite, he explains. Going on to say the sword was lost to time, but the principles Darkblade instilled in his clan last to this day.
Which is when Nadja invades the campus, asking M. D’Argencourt if his sense of chivalry was his reason for running in the election. Nadja is less invasive though, less cruel. In fact she seems almost sympathetic when she mentions his crushing defeat in the elections. D’Argencourt looks away, shame in his features, he says offhandedly that people just don’t appreciate noble intention as much anymore. When Nadja mentions how odd it was how popular he was in the polls versus how greatly he lost D’Argencourt has had enough and says he can’t exactly get an entire city to endorse the days of old.
Nadja and her camera man were eventually shooed off campus by the custodian, but D’Argencourt’s usual stress relief, his fencing, was already over for the day, and after he dismisses Adrien, spends a long moment going through the motions. Going through moves, teeth grit and motions sharp, trying to calm himself and failing. In the end his own anger does him in as he swipes his foil just as the Akuma flies near and it enters through the tip of his blade.
D’Argencourt walks out into the world, now Darkblade, when Nadja and her cameraman, still discussing the results of the election itself. Nadja still baffled by how opposite it had panned out. The two of them are interrupted by Darkblade announcing that the people of Paris don’t appreciate a noble heart any longer. Nadja gets her cameraman to keep filming as she approaches Darkblade, nervously, yet valiantly, asking him what his plans are as an Akuma. He claims that the world will see true chivalry once again if he has to drag them there himself. Nadja asks if The way forward is in fact moving backward, but he claims that the more society advances it loses more of what it once found good and true. Then he turns Nadja and her camera men into knights.
Adrien of course sees this and transforms, and thankfully from here on out Darkblade’s action sequences can play out as normal. Chat fighting hoards of black knights as more and more are made, trying to quip about how M. Bourgeois had the numbers and he’s acting like a sore loser. To which Darkblade would respond that the people were the ones who failed, not him. After everything the Bourgeois family has put this city through, allowing Andre to win again was failure on everyone’s part.
Meanwhile, the trio arrive at city hall, where Chloe is currently campaigning with promises of a better fine arts program and had even invited Jagged Stone, who was staying in the area, to say a few words on behalf of the arts. Sabrina is walking around the space with one of the food baskets people wear at sports games, carrying buttons supporting Chloe, cupcakes and cookies, and even a few of Jagged Stone’s signed CDs. The latter of which is in low supply, of course.
Marinette, Alya, and Nino after arriving on the scene almost don’t know how to respond. Chloe is still kind of bribing everyone of course, but much less obviously. And what’s more she’s actually kind of making sense. Chloe’s obviously reading off of a cue card, sure, but her argument about the art and music program is sound.
Marinette thinks for a moment before pulling out her journal and tearing out a page before handing it to Alya. Alya scans over the page before smiling at Marinette.
She steps up onto the stair that Chloe was standing on, asking her how she’ll go about this project of hers. Will she be swinging her father’s weight onto the school? Shelling out her own money? It’s a great Idea, sure, a wonderful idea actually, but Class rep as a position doesn’t actually have much power in the school hierarchy, you can’t just make huge proclamations with nothing to back them up because nothing will actually change in the end.
Alya then hashes out what the three of them had already been thinking, a school bake sale to afford seat cushions, in various colors, blue, pink, red, black, whatever. Negotiating the allowance of headphones in the library to allow people to listen to their own music, addressing the problems that actually have solutions.
Chloe grits her teeth and behind her Andre glares. For a moment it looks as though he were going to respond in Chloe’s place. But She shuffles through her queue cards and makes her own statement. Swearing to put an end to the schools…. She calls Sabrina over and asks if the card said ‘snake grabbing empire’ Sabrina insisting that it says ‘Snack gambling empire’
This actually has a less desired effect, Alix openly booing the idea.
But before the debate could continue Darkblade reaches city hall. Now alerted to the Akuma, Marinette and Alya trade a look. Alya starts taking charge, telling everyone where to get and how to get there. Chloe is left flustered and unable to come up with a gameplan of her own. Alya leads the charge in bringing everyone to safety after the doors get barricaded, saying someone needs to volunteer to stay behind to close off the windows. Marinette--obviously--is the volunteer. They trade a wink before Alya gets everyone up to the higher floors.
And Ladybug joins the fray.
The fight continues from there, wow what a kinetic fight scene. Dammit Zag where did this go off to recently?
But You know the fight scene, Ladybug saves the day and is clever, and M. D’Argencourt is de-akumatized. However, when Marinette comes back into city hall to see how everyone else is, Alya is being swarmed by the class, everyone saying that while they did get turned into Knights for a little bit there, they would have been done in far, far, sooner without her skills.
Max is doing something on his phone, and asks her if Marinette’s parents would be helping with the bakery, or perhaps her mother, and Alya says no, they’re doing this under their own power. “After all, isn’t the point of us being kids to grow up to be better than our parents?”
Max types something out and says that they’d need to be just a little pricey on whatever they sell to have enough for cushions for the whole class, but it’s doable.
Nino pumps a fist and says he knew it was a good idea. Now about the whole headphones in the library thing.... The class begins to laugh. Excepting Chloe and Sabrina. Sabrina is rifling through the cue cards, wondering out loud what was wrong about banning snack gambling, but Chloe’s expression has turned inward, pensive.
“I guess I lost.”
“Of course you didn’t Chloe, dear.” Andre walks up behind her and puts his hands on her shoulders. Trying to be comforting, but the light squeeze he gives her doesn’t look very reassuring. All the same Chloe waves his hands away.
“I lost.” She says again. “The world isn’t ending, nothing’s imploding.” Sabrina walks up beside her again and The two of them take a step toward the crowd of kids. “And no one had to cheat.” Oh hey look a tie in to Mr. Pigeon.
When we cut back to the classroom, in a landslide vote Alya and Nino win the election. Marinette being first to cheer and she and Alya meeting each other’s eyes. Sharing a particularly warm grin with each other.
