I watched the Dark Castle trailer and read the synopsis. Before that I’d come to the conclusion that it wouldn’t have anything to do with Mr. D’Argencourt or Darkblade the akuma. Despite the name being similar. Instead about Alix and her brother Jalil. However after watching it, I have way more questions.
In Darkblade, to build an army, he goes around turning people into his guards. Now they don’t look like the Dark Castle guards because the helmet design isn’t the same, the paldrons aren’t the same, there doesn’t seem to be any plume’s on the helmets. And they used a green colour instead of a red colour.
But the Darkcastle guards look nearly exactly the same to Darkblade himself.
These are the Darkcastle guards. They have a black and red colour scheme. An emblem on their chest armour that’s black with a red symbol. Four red parts on their helmets and some sort of plume on the back of the helmet. Do you know who they look like?
FUCKING DARKBLADE!!!
He has the red and black colour scheme (although is more of a mid tone grey) the symbol on his chest, that’s just reversed in colour, being mainly red with the animal part being black. The plume thing on the top of the helmet. He even has the fucking lines around his neck like they do! The only differences are the paldrons, because they don’t have spikes like the Dark Castle guards do. Yet they still have the red detail pattern. And the Dark castle guards have almost fully black armour.
The synopsis implies that there’s nothing to do with D’Argencourt or Darkblade and it’s just a Alix focused episode with Marinette getting the rabbit for a bit. Judging by the end card. But the trailer has….this In it. So am I slightly right and there’s at least some ties to Darkblade? And if so how? It seems the Louvre gets taken over. Is there suddenly a Darkblade exhibition the akumatised person takes inspiration from? And if so, why bring Darkblade back after 5 seasons. And if there’s no Darkblade mentioned why make the guards look so similar? If they’re reusing the model, why add the spikes on the paldrons and make the armour darker and swap the colours on the emblem.
Can I just say I appreciate the scale you’ve put into Darkblade as an akuma in “Crossing Blades”? The threat is big enough for four heroes to be running around, and only three meet each other while one still gets to have an impact by drawing away forces through their own determination. It’s really a nice piece of work I’d struggle to write myself.
Due to differing circumstances, everyone isn’t at city hall already, so things are initially more spread out.
It's also simply a narrative trick. When you have too many in one place, especially in writing, you either have people standing around or the narrative cluttered. Sometimes a cluttered narrative works, but often times showcasing individuals and small scale cooperation works better.
"Le Chevalier noir" means "The Dark knight". I guess translating it literally would've lead to some copyright issues with Batman hahaha.
Nadja doing the news
En: Armand d'Argencourt, one of Bourgeois' opponents and a fencing instructor at Françoise Dupont High School, was pummeled in the polls. In fact, d'Argencourt acquired the least number of votes in Paris history.
Fr: Face à lui Armand d'Argencourt, professeur d'escrime au collège Françoise Dupont, recueille un pourcentage de voix extrêmement faible. Tellement faible que si l'on regarde les élections depuis 1977, aucun candidat n'avait...
Against him Armand d'Argencourt, a fencing professor at Françoise Dupont middle school, obtained an extremely low percentage of votes. So low that if we look at the elections since 1977, no candidate had... (her voice is muffled)
In recent history, the first mayor of Paris was indeed elected in 1977 (it was Jacques Chirac). However, there have been different times when mayor elections were held before that, including after the French Revolution of 1789 (there were 6 different mayors over the course of 5 years, including one who quit the very day he got elected because he had received too much threatening mail).
Marinette, asking Kim why he won't run for class president
En: So, what did Chloé say to you this time? She offered to go on a date with you?
Fr: Alors raconte, elle t'a dit quoi Chloé cette fois-ci ? Qu'elle ne sortirait jamais avec toi ?
So, tell me, what did Chloé tell you this time? That she would never go out with you?
Love how the English dub just said the absolute opposite of the French one.
Marinette when Alya asks her about her election program
En: Uh, I have no idea. I still can't believe I raised my hand.
Fr: Oh, j'ai pas encore réfléchi. Oh pourquoi je me suis mis dans un pétrin pareil ?
Oh, I haven't thought about it yet. Oh why did I put myself in such a mess (lit. in a kneader)?
In French, when you say you're in a kneading machine it means you're in trouble. It can be seen as a clever pun here since Marinette is a boulangerie girl.
Overall, the English dub is more about on the campaign and speech, when in French the focus is put on Marinette's program and how she's actually gonna represent the students once she's elected.
Armand d'Argencourt talking about his ancestor's story
En: Until he was overthrown thence by a wealthy Frenchman who used his dirty gold to buy the loyalties of the common people.
Fr: Jusqu'au triste jour où il fut renversé par un roturier, qui se servit de son or pour acheter la loyauté du bas peuple de Paris.
Until the sad day where he was overthrown by a commoner, who used his gold to buy the loyalty of the common/lower people of Paris.
Classist much?
Related to the previous point, d'Argencourt has a very old mannered way of speaking which is shown a little bit differently in French. He uses a tense called "passé simple" which is today only used in writing but never orally, except by old or very conservative/aristocratic people. He also uses very old mannered sayings. An example of that is at the end of the fencing class when he says "le cours se termine séance tenante", which could be translated as "the class ends forthwith".
Nadja's catchphrase
En: Don't be bemused, it's just the news.
Fr: Si vous voulez de l'info, j'ai ce qu'il vous faut.
If you want info, I have what you need.
"-fo" and "faut" are pronounced the same way in French, which makes her catchphrase rhyme.
Nadja, quoting mean comments about d'Argencourt to him
En: [...] That you're "stuck in the dark ages, like a stubborn old rusted battle axe".
Fr: [...] Que vous êtes "un fossile moyenâgeux" et que vous êtes "buté et complètement dépassé".
That you're "a medieval fossil", and that you are "stubborn and completely outdated".
D'Argencourt
En: Poisonous wretch.
Fr: Palsambleu.
Can't really translate that one, but it's a very old curse word. It comes from shortening "par le sang de Dieu", which literally means "by God's blood". Indeed, it used to be frowned upon to use God's name to swear, and the word was replaced by "bleu" (blue), of which the final sound is the same, as a euphemism. "Palsambleu" is today not used by anyone, and you can only find it in old comic theater plays.
Chloé to Sabrina
En: Why do I bother?
Fr: Roooh, t'es un vrai boulet.
Roooh (the sound French people make when they want to complain about something), you're a real "boulet".
I've explained before what boulet means, but it's interesting to notice that Chloé is using it for someone other than Marinette for once, especially considering that Sabrina is supposed to be her friend.
Marinette to Rose
En: Your cushions could be very pink.
Fr: Ton coussin pourrait être rose pailleté.
Your cushion could be glittery pink.
Can't forget about the glitter!!
Darkblade's knight
En: Listen or be imprisoned.
Fr: Écoutez-le ou vous serez embastillé.
Listen to him or you will be imprisoned in the Bastille.
The French language has a specific word to say "sent to the Bastille".
Chat Noir to the knights
En: Guys. Do you only know heavy metal?
Fr: Mais c'est qu'elles sont dangereuses les boîtes de conserve.
These tin cans sure are dangerous.
I can't translate the exact turn of words he uses there literally, but the point is that his pun is different as he calls Darkblade's knights tin cans.
Marinette after she sees Chat Noir get tackled by knights
Identity theory to the Black Cat knight in “Feast” - Part 2
There is one detail in “Feast” that has me almost upset because of my own short coming. Not because it’s badly written, out of nowhere or anything, quite the opposite, its brilliant! It’s the detail of the former cat miraculous holder, the knight
You know why this has me almost upset? I had this as serious theory since one evening I rewatched “Darkblade” and researched the historical background given there, since miraculous takes real life history and changes it to fit into their universe. The people and events are more or less accurate (as we know from episodes like “the pharaoh”). But I never completed the research nor did I made my theory into a post.
Well anyway. I guess it’s never to late to present my theory to who this former cat was.
Part 1: Who is the black knight? And the entire basis for the Theory
This is Part 2, here I will cover: The flag comparison is “Darkblade” and “Feast”
Part 3: Are the Cat Miraculous holder knight and Darkblade the same people?
Alright guys buckel up, it’s history time and these are gonna get LONG
Part 2: Comparison and Connections of the flags in “Darkblade” and ”Feast”
Its an incredibly interesting detail and I LOVE IT!
Just so we are all on the same page, the two flags I’m talking about are those two:
At first looking at these two flags made me think I hit a dead end because they dead ass look nothing alike. Of course I can just say “Oh I bet the flag from the portrait is the real life one and the Darkblade one is for the show and they included the real one as an history easter egg” but frankly I thought that would have been just a cop out way to present this theory.
So I went back to the research and would you look at that, if I’m correct with this then the Miraculous crew really did their history homework and “darkblade” reaches a new level of awesome episode for me.
To figure this out one character was of huge importance: Monsieur Armand D'Argencourt
He is of such importance because not only in his episode “Darkblade” a crucial lore source for the later part of this theory, its also his design and ESPECIALLY his name that helped me aplenty finding my way through the research (But more to him in part 3).
Cuz you see, while researching Edward of Woodstock there was a name in the battle history between England and France, I didn’t paid much attention to at first. But then later when I wanted to look up Monsieur D'Argencourt’s ancestors story (Darkblade himself) given to us in the episode, the name “D'Argencourt” caught my eye immediately.
Because one of the biggest battles between the English and French for the control of France and also one of the most celebrated victories in English history was The Battle of Agincourt. D'Argencourt, Agincourt (in French Azincourt), you know where I’m coming from here. I will spare you the details of this battle because for the theory we’ll only need the flags used in the battle.
These are the flags the armies carried into the battle.
Comparing the Flag the Cat knight holds in the painting in “Feast” to these historical Flags here, I would say its quite save to say that Knight Noir is either carrying the Flag of “France” or “Saint Edmund”, though I’m strongly leaning towards “Saint Edmund”, the national Saint of England before getting replaced by Saint George, for context reasons.
Another thing that needs to be said here is that, yes, the flag doesn’t look 100% like the real one, but just like with the change of title from Prince to Knight in part 1, I’m not sure if the Miraculous crew would have even been allowed to use one of the actual flags of Saint Edmund in the first place. This is a difficult aspect to work into a show without offending anyone, especially when the real life historical figure you are connecting it with isn’t going to be portrait in a positive light the whole time.
Just like with the title and identity, what’s important here is that even though the flag isn’t historically right, for the people who know history the flag is still recognisable. I mean even I was able to pin point it to one of the saint Edmund flags and I’m not a history nerd so real historians will get it no doubt too. And for everyone else the not 100% correct flag isn’t doing any harm or did anyone notice it and felt cheated by it in “feast”? No? That’s what I thought.
Alight lets continue with Darkblades Flag
Once again just like Knight Noirs Flag, the flag from “Darkblade” also has a real life historical background even though this time its much more obvious and I’m sure a lot of people already noticed this.
The flag seen in “Darkblade” is quite obviously a slightly changed version of the flag that was for a long time the national Flag of England and would still be a part of it today if history hadn’t decided otherwise. Where things get interesting is that the English red flag with the white Dragon is once again a flag of Englands former national Saint Edmund. Unfortunately, to the history behind the flag I couldn’t find all too much to fact check but what I found out I will gladly explain. Please correct me though if I’m wrong and someone knows the actual reason.
Edmund was the King of East Anglia (England in todays language) from about 855. That is also why the Flag features a white Dragon. Two flags in England’s history featured a Dragon, one the Anglian with their white one and the Welsh’s red one. There is a great legend that comes with these two dragons and their connection to each other, check it out if you’re interested in stuff like this, its certainly worth a look. But here for this theory its only important that the white dragon flag originates from Anglia and then later the Dragon flag was resumed as Englands national flag when King Edmund became the Martyr and national Saint of England and therefore his/Anglias flag got used to represent and symbolize England.
So very interestingly, both flags shown to us in connection with a Black Knight (with one of them in universe confirmed to have been a former Cat Miraculous holder) are Flags of Saint Edmund. This not only gives us a geographical area but also a time frame to work with.
England, around the 14th - 15th century.
AND TO THE TIME FRAME the episode “Darkblade” also put in a cool Art easter egg comfirming it.
The real life illustration they use for Monsieurs D'Argencourt’s history monolog here is from the most famous and possibly the best surviving example of French Gothic manuscript illumination, “Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry” (The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry) created in, you guessed it, the 1400s (God I love details like this!)
But, well sure, all of this is nice and good, but the timeframe and the changes done to him still kinda leaves my original statement open to a default and that’s what I’ll cover next in Part 3: If Edward of Woodstock is the Black Cat Miraculous holder in the painting in “Feast”, is he also Monsieurs D'Argencourt ancestor Darkblade?
And back to Part 1: Who is the black knight? And the entire basis for the Theory
Instead of just responding to the question like a normal person, I did a post. Because the answer is hilarious and speaks to all the artists in the fandom. Plus, I’m lazy and this was an easy post :D
Here is what @spinzgirl is referring to:
Mr. Pigeon / M. Pigeon & Darkblade / Le Chevalier Noir
Here’s the thing; Nathaniel chooses to sit directly behind Ivan. When Ivan moves to the other side of the bench, so does Nath:
Rogercop
Why? Easy. Because when a giant, hulking figure is NOT blocking him, he gets caught drawing.
The Evillustrator / Le Dessinateur
He hides behind Ivan so no one will notice he’s drawing instead of paying attention in class.
Rogercop
Bonus:
It might have worked for Nino if he’d waited until Ivan got there before trying to hide in the back xD
