Potentially Controversial Idea I Had For My AU (Season 4)
Alright, so I was going over my rewrite of Chat Blanc (link here: https://www.reddit.com/r/miraculousladybug/s/l4Q0jAKZ6W) that I posted on Reddit over a month ago, and I had a bit of a moment where I decided to potentially re-think how I was envisioning the end of Season 3 and the beginning of Season 4, just a bit. So I’m going to lay out this idea… which might be controversial, and would *definitely* be ground-breaking and a massive shake-up for the first few episodes of Season 4. So here we go.
Essentially, like my original concept, Chat Blanc serves as the two-part Season 3 finale… only this time, instead of Lila becoming Wingmaster, Marinette is akumatised into Couturiere (a seamstress themed akuma) after the stress of being falsely accused of instigating a fight between Ms. Bustier’s and Ms. Mendeliev’s classes (Lila and her ally Henri would have been building up tension between the two classes all season, resulting in several of Ms. Mendeliev’s students getting akumatised) and being expelled, with her akumatisation stemming from her stress and anxiety reaching a breaking point. Couturiere is confronted by Chat Noir and several other heroes (including a temporary wielder for the Ladybug Earrings) and while she *is* able to break free of the akuma after some positive affirmation from a detransformed Adrien, Lila and Henri are exposed as both the true masterminds behind the class conflict and allies of Hawkmoth, causing them both to get arrested. However, Hawkmoth and Mayura manage to track down Master Fu in the process and steal almost all of his Guardian-related memories using a Sentimonster, causing Chat Noir to reach his *own* breaking point and get akumatised into Chat Blanc - the main akuma of the second half. From there, the second half plays out pretty similarly to how I originally envisioned it, except that when the heroes choose to share each other’s identities in the end to re-build trust, the Marinette and Adrien reveal… generates a *number* of complex emotions, which combined with everything else that’s happened and Lila and Henri’s own mocking parting words (“Know that *we broke you*, Ladybug and Chat Noir)… it’s just too much for them. So in response to the reveal, Marinette and Adrien both decide they can’t take it anymore, and renounce Tikki and Plagg, leaving the Ladybug Earrings and Black Cat Ring with Nino (the new Guardian) and leaving Master Fu’s parlour, ending the season.
Now, when Season 4 picks up, it’s been about two weeks since then during summer vacation, and Marinette and Adrien are both struggling to re-adjust after their traumatic experiences with Lila and Henri, even though they no longer possess their Miraculouses. In the wake of Ladybug and Chat Noir’s unexpected retirement, Alya has taken up the Earrings to become Scarabella, while Félix (who has managed to figure out Adrien’s identity on his own) has been given the Ring to become Cat Walker. Meanwhile, the other five heroes have swapped Miraculouses in the wake of this unexpected change - Nino surrenders the Turtle Miraculous to Luka so he can focus on studying to be the new Guardian, Chloé has taken up the Fox to become Arctique (snow fox themed hero - essentially Rena Furvitive but Chloé in the suit instead of Alya), Kagami has taken up the Bee to become Mitsubachi, and the Snake and Dragon have gone back in the box. All other heroes are still considered temporary since they’ve each only been active twice.
So for the first few episodes of Season 4, we’d get a dual focus on Marinette and Adrien slowly coming to terms with both their identity reveal (which has forced to confront whether they ever really knew each other, especially now that they’re seeing other people) and the trauma inflicted by Lila and Henri’s manipulations in the previous season, and on Scarabella and Cat Walker’s incompatible dynamic as they try to fill in for Ladybug and Chat Noir against Shadowmoth’s first few akumas. After… let’s say three episodes of Marinette and Adrien not being in costume at all, an emergency that leaves the current heroes in desperate need of aid causes the steadily more confident duo to approach Nino, who in addition to taking a Miraculous to wield himself also gives Marinette and Adrien the Mouse and Dog Miraculouses respectively. With this, the former Ladybug and Chat Noir becoming Multimouse and Flairmidible to face off against the akuma alongside their successors.
This leads into the final part of this mini-arc that would end the first half of the season, where Shadowmoth creates an akuma strong enough to overpower Scarabella and Cat Walker, exploiting their lack of compatibility to steal both Miraculouses. However, Multimouse and Flairmidible manage to steal the Earrings and Ring back before the akuma can deliver them to Shadowmoth, and realise that they have to take up their old mantles once more, having finally regained their faith in themselves and sworn to face the uncertainties of the future together, as partners. With this, Ladybug and Chat Noir officially return, and the duo manage to defeat the akuma that Scarabella and Cat Walker could not, confirming to Paris and Shadowmoth that they’re back, and that they’re not going anywhere. As the duo reconnect with their superhero friends, Marinette and Adrien thank Alya and Félix for filling in and the entire team for not giving up hope that they’d one day return, swearing to never abandon them again. After this, Alya reclaims the Fox and the other heroes switch back to their standard Miraculouses, while Félix opts to serve as a fill-in for any of the other heroes instead of being given a Miraculous permanently. And with that, the first of the three parts of Season 4 officially ends, with the second focusing on Marinette and Adrien re-adjusting to working together again under their new dynamic as more heroes emerge in the wake of Shadowmoth’s escalation.
So what are your thoughts on this idea? I understand it may be controversial, but I feel like that if they did something like this right, it could’ve been one of the best wider arcs to happen in the entire series.
