Yesterday I sketched my Ladybug design for my old comic idea I had that was going to be based on the in between concepts of the Ladybug PV and the CGI show we have now. I was going to name it “Here Comes Ladybug” after the awesome rejected theme song for Miraculous that never happened.
I have been hiding her away for quite some time just hoping, one day, I would make that comic. Turns out I just couldn’t do it so I may as well show her off.
The AU was meant to celebrate the spirit of Miraculous but not be the same because that would be rather boring.
If you want to learn more about her, it’s under the cut.
Her civilian name was originally going to be Bridgette (because I was not very creative) but now I want to call her Jeanette. It has “ette” in it (which was important to me for some reason) and I always thought the name was pretty. Jeanette is beloved by her friends for her high-energy, positive attitude as well her creativity. She loved art, tinkering, and fashion. She also loved cats and with every outfit she designed you could always find a cat somewhere, sometimes it just took some searching. It was basically her signature.
Honestly, you could kind of compare Jeanette to Tohru from Fruits Basket but just more headstrong which is ironic because I hadn’t watched Fruits Basket for years when making this. I barely even remembered it.
Also, her best friends were Adele (basically like a mix of Alya and Alix who is the only one to know Ladybug’s true identity), Renée (basically a mix of Zoe and Mylene, ironically before we knew Zoe was even gonna be a thing) and Adrien, who I have renamed Liam (man, I was not freaking creative at all with these names). Liam and Bridgette were best friends since childhood but have had a bit of a rift between them ever since the death of his father. Unbeknownst to her, Liam has a crush on her. Yeah, I really wanted a reverse love square for some reason.
Her flaws included bottling up her own emotions which sometimes leads to reckless behavior and not thinking before leaping into action among other things.
The ladybug miraculous in this AU represented Good Luck and Creativity.
As Ladybug her powers included good luck; good luck would effect her for only a 5 minute time period and therefore she usually used it once she used her main power to have an extra advantage for the 5 minutes she could stay transformed. She could also channel it and give some of it to other people. Tikki (I kept Tikki and Plagg’s names because I liked them too much) also had a residual effect afterwards where she would bring Jeanette a lot of good luck, though it was minor but not completely unnoticeable so Jeanette has to be careful after a battle.
She also had creativity, or gadgetry, which was her main power. It could only be performed if she was in possession of her weapon “The Bug” which looked like a slightly bigger version of CGI Ladybug’s yo-yo that attached to her back. With it she could transform it into any gadget she so desired. This was based on the old concepts of Ladybug creating a staff to fight with from her yo-yo, as well as a shield and a smoke bomb. She could also, only use it about 2 times so she had to make it count.
If she lost her weapon she only had good luck and the abilities the miraculous gave her due to the ladybug it was based off of and the high power a kwami possessed. These included enhanced agility, enhanced strength (though near the level of the CGI show), the ability to walk on walls and ceilings, and flight (though I’m still pretty indecisive if she could actually fly without the bug or not because I like the concept of the yo-yo giving Ladybug wings but that would mean she couldn’t fly without her bug).
Ladybug also grew a huge crush on Chat Noir not only for his heroic nature but because he was the only one she felt she could truly talk to despite not knowing his true identity. The idea being, they only don’t reveal themselves because they want to see if they can trust each other. Though, part of it for Ladybug is just that she’s afraid.
The fun idea for her first transformation was that it would look a lot like CGI Ladybug’s default design because that has been her default throughout almost the entire concept process, it was to symbolize her just getting started. It was also a sneaky way to pay homage to what inspired her. And then eventually she designs her own Ladybug costume and transforms into that to show she’s finally excepted who she is now.
Her appearance also changed a bit as Ladybug to better conceal her identity along with the magic. As Jeanette her hair was more blue whereas Ladybug it was a light back. Her eyes changed from blue to black and she was also a lot shorter as Ladybug.
Originally in concept she also lived in the bakery with her father and her parents were divorced. Her mother was happily in a relationship with someone else and she often visited her but her mom lived in a different country and both her parents decided it would be more beneficial for her if she got to stay where she was raised and where her friends were. Her parents were on good terms as well, though she found it hard without her mom.
I really miss her and I’m very sad I never got to bring this to fruition. I just found no one truly seemed interested in it and I didn’t think it would take off so I lost all motivation to make it. But I still draw the characters occasionally because I love them and their designs.
I thought up a whole world. Kwamis and akumas worked differently. There was a few different villains. It was a bit darker (like the PV) but I tried to keep some of them charm of the show. I had a few twists thought up and heroes that didn’t have kwamis and worked more like Batman or Robin. And a miraculous even worked differently. I still love this world and think of it often.
But, to finish this off, take some of my old art which was back when I completed her design (you can see I changed a little in the final product above).
