y’know, i almost wish they DIDNT show us that Hawkmoth is Gabriel. Hear me out: We see Gabriel, as the seasons go on, start to connect with Adrien more. After certain akumas that put Adrien in danger specifically, we see Gabe act as a concerned father, someone who- despite still grieving his wife- truly wants the best for his son. Then Maurya appears and the audience wonders just who would be close enough to Hawkmoth to not only join him, but to be willing to overlook the harm he’s doing to Paris. Add Maurya early season 2, have her around more, have her drop hints as to Hawkmoth’s true goal. Maybe Ladybug and Chat Noir make remarks about how she is helping Hawkmoth when all he wants to do is ruin the world- to which she tells them about how they could never understand Hawkmoth’s reasons. And then Maurya starts to get more and more sick in each battle. The heroes are concerned. What is happening to her? And in a dramatic reveal, Maurya lets it slip that the Peacock Miraculous is broken. It’s a big revelation- does this mean that their own miraculous could hurt them if pushed too far? Could they irreparably hurt if the battle drags on too long? Then have a finale similar to heroes day where Hawkmoth and Maurya put their power together to create either a mass akuma event or an akuma/sentimonster fusion of some sort. As the heroes are in peril and think all hope might be lost, they manage to get the drop on Maurya as she goes after one of them- maybe she’s too far into her illness to keep going or they make a plan to get her out of the game. Regardless, they manage to corner her and they claim that the miraculous is going to kill her if she keeps using it. That’s when she reveals that the wish Hawkmoth wants is to heal the previous user, to bring back the love of his life and a cherish friend of hers.
Maybe this makes the heroes falter- if they could just help heal this person this whole thing could be over. But theyre not given the choice to offer their help. Hawkmoth drops in or Maurya turns the tide and manage to slip away. By pure luck or a great act of team work, the heroes manage to win the day.
But as the seasons go on, the guardian still gets captured and the means to fix the peacock miraculous is in the hands of Hawkmoth. With it newly fixed, they can start revamping their plans, pushing harder and harder to make the heroes break.
And eventually, when all is said and done and Hawkmoth is defeated and revealed? The emotional impact of hearing Hawkmoth’s story, seeing Emilie frozen in time, Adrien’s utter dismay? Would have been glorious.
That being said, having us know Gabriel is Hawkmoth and the characters not is a great way to utilize dramatic irony and tension. So I think the writers have done a great job with that too c:
