I can probably guess the answer, but what did you think of seasons 4 and 5 of Miraculous Ladybug? And what about the movie?
We didn't really watch seasons 4 or 5 since at that point the interest in canon was... in hell. a couple of episodes here or there, yeah, but we'd both lost faith in the show at that point. And form what either of us have heard of them, we didn't miss much.
The movie on the other hand, while simple (and as a theatre kid the songs.... hurt....) definitely was an improvement. there were some elements we thought needed work, but- when Astruc said 'the movie gives you what you want the series gives you what you need' i guess he didn't realize we need narrative catharsis, because though it's hardly perfect the movie actually completed the damn narrative
and really, in the end that i feel like is what people both wanted AND needed for a good show
I (mod aimee) was having a Thought re: Sandy, which is that although he and Ralph don't like each other he doesn't seem to find Ralph threatening to his and Alec's relationship (at least in my analysis.) I would hazard a guess that this is because he can tell that Ralph isn't looking to get back with Alec, which means he's "safe" from that angle, whatever Sandy might perceive Alec's feelings to be towards Ralph. I would however say that Sandy probably feels a bit of a third wheel intellectually when he, Ralph, and Alec are in company, because Ralph clearly thinks Sandy isn't that bright and Alec also seems to view him as a little less smart (or maybe less deep a thinker?) than himself and Ralph. I don't think Alec rubs that in on purpose, or that he necessarily expresses this to Sandy in so many words, but he does seem to view Sandy as less mature and developed in his mind than Alec himself, or than Ralph. Which, fair, but I bet it stings Sandy a bit, especially since Ralph definitely doesn't hide his opinions, so it probably feels like they've got a bit of a coalition going on sometimes.
Also, speaking of being less deep as a thinker, Alec complains about Sandy's fits of jealousy and histrionics, which, also fair, but it never seems to occur to him that he directly contributes to that by repeatedly engaging in the exact behavior that he knows causes those fits. Sandy's definitely responsible for how he chooses to act, he's a grownup with his own agency. But Alec pushes his buttons all the time and then wonders why he gets a response.
Tell me, why did you decide to make the old Miraculous Order antagonists?
Short answer: we thought it would be more interesting
Long Answer: From our experience, the kind of supervillain hawkmoth is, isn't sustainable for as long as he was active in the series, Even as he gained more power the formula for the show is never really broken, and as such he got stale around the time he became Shadowmoth- an interesting villain needs to do more than sit in the dark cackling.
For instance- I spent a long time in the ninja turtles fandom and i can say from experience you have to know when to let the Shredder not fight the turtles. if you have one villain who's shtick never changes, then he becomes stale the second things become formulaic
Hawkmoth got away with it for awhile with the different kind of akumas he could make but even those started to get repetitive, and as such, if we wanted to keep the story interesting, we needed to change things before he overstayed his welcome
and we had in mind the origonal idea for Paon being as Zag had once promised us ('she will make Hawkmoth look like a baby' and all that) but when we figured out the way Amok's work in canon and how we figured it would be best to adapt to we had the same problem of it continuing with a formula. And when the Order of Miraculous got brought up as a concept we figured that that connection to a larger world of magical items would be much more interesting if it wasn't just 'shows up like two or three episodes and then dips' since it had HUGE implications for the rest of the greater ML world, so-
In the end it would make for a more interesting story. since we had the idea for Gabriel starting to actually question what he was doing getting wrapped up in a war he didn't ask for was the perfect way for him to realize they'd lost the thread of what they were doing this for.
The New Order was to help the heroes grow, the old order was to help the villains grow
So the description of the story on the back of the current printing of the book says Laurie has to choose between innocence and the pleasures of experience, or words to that effect, it's late and I'm tired idk. In my estimation, what Ralph offers Laurie, for most of the book, isn't actually pleasures of experience at all, in the sense the book blurb probably means. It's the pleasures of knowing and being known...and the discomfort and complications of that, too. Andrew knows a part of Laurie that maybe Ralph doesn't see or know as much himself. But Andrew doesn't enter into the same kind of knowing and being known, because he doesn't know all of Laurie. He can't, because in knowing all of Laurie he would have to know and come to terms with all of himself, and he can't do that, he isn't ready to, and Laurie knows it. Sex is only one aspect of this difference, and frankly it's WAY more a symptom than an underlying cause, so to speak.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
there’s been a lot of action on this blog lately so i (mod aimee) am going to be a self-promoting weasel and link the first installation of my so-far 3-part post-canon fix-it fic series here
We open on a pair of thin shaky hands sliding the ram clips into straw blonde hair. Emilie Agreste summons Duura and tries to transform. She raises a hand high and shouts for the ram to transform her. Grey sparks dart from the Miraculous, but they don’t encompass her.
“Duura, Transform me!”
“Duura, Transform me!”
“Duura!” she glares down at the Kwami who flutters about nervously. “Why can’t I transform?”
“Mme Agreste, I’m… I’m terribly sorry, but- You’re not fully healed yet, your life force is extremely weak. The Miraculous transformation is a melding of Kwami Magic and Human Life, You cannot sustain a transformation in your weakened state.”
“What do you mean? I’m strong enough to stand!” She gets up and though she wobbles on her feet she does remain on them.
“Well… yes but-”
“But nothing! I don’t know what’s going on but with all of them gone that can’t mean something good! Adrien said he was leaving to tell Gabriel so why hasn’t he come back yet?!”
“I.. I can’t say that I know. But, you still can’t transform Mme Agreste! I’m not denying you! In fact you’d make a lovely little sheep! But in your current state you’d be doing more harm than good!” Emilie glares at the Kwami, but sighs.
“Fine-” But a rustle of the doors makes her jump, the door beginning to open with a cautious creak instead of the confident way the others opened the doors.
Gabriel Agreste enters the base, looking around in a mixture of curiosity and suspicion.
We cut abruptly to his POV and Emilie has in the nick of time dove for cover, he doesn’t see her.
“Duura? Duura, I need you.” His gaze ends up resting on the little space in the rafters, the hot pink fluff of one of the Kwami pillows poking out in sight. “Duura I know you’re up there. You’re the only one nobody has right now. Look, I know none of the Kwami trust me at the moment, and for good reason. But- But Adrien is in grave danger, and so are all of the people he holds dear. And their Kwamis as well, your friends. I’m not going to say this is for any greater good because we all know I’m not that kind of person. But I'm asking your permission. Will you help me protect my son?”
There’s silence for a moment, and Duura drifts out from their hiding spot, holding the Ram clips. Gabriel doesn’t go to investigate, this is a rush job after all. But once the ram Miraculous are placed in his hands he clips them to either of his shirt sleeves, turning them into makeshift cufflinks. Gabriel grins slightly at Duura, who nods at him gravely.
We cut to Emilie Agreste, still hiding, hand over her mouth and squeezing her eyes shut tight, tears beginning to build in her eyes as the flash of grey and the call of ‘Transform me!’ echoes through the base.
Cue intro, one last time.
We come back to the blackness. In the darkness we hear Zhao Kai’s voice.
“As our elders had learned long ago, the Miraculous have great and many potentialities.” the world snaps into focus when Zhao Kai looks the Tiger Miraculous over, turning it this way and that in his hands. “Not just in the amount of Miraculous that exist in relation to the amount of virtues there must be beyond the realm of the physical to power them, but also in how their powers can be applied.” He hands the Tiger back to Tsering Wan, whom fastens it around his wrist “The virtues much like the elements, or the very atoms that make up the elements can be combined and turned into something greater than the sum of its parts.” Shoor reluctantly is summoned forth “With these combinations of course there are drawbacks. Things that one may or may not expect to balance the world back to its natural state. But desperate times tend to call for desperate measures.” We cut to Zhao Kai, now standing before Nathalie and Hoàng Tuyến as if giving a lecture. He turns to the two women “And this, ladies, is what you both will be focusing on tonight. Yes, I am aware you’ve decided to go into training to be a warrior Miss Sancour, but your late start means you do not get the luxury of staggering a more rounded training out over the years. So you’ll be working under me tonight while our ‘Mighty Warrior’ does the heavy lifting.”
Wu Lian hands over the Dog to Scorpion, which he fastens around his neck, at the third miraculous addition he sways on his feet for a moment before sitting down heavily on the bed Wu Lian is still resting on.
“Tsering,” Wu Lian places a hand on his shoulder. “This does not have to be your burden. I’m sure any of us will be just as willing to-”
“No. I can do it.” he reached up and places his own hand over Wu Lian’s, smiling in a strangely sincere way. “Great Healer, should something go wrong with such an untested assault, You are far more valuable.” Wu Lian looks about to debate it but Tsering Wan Stands again, this time approaching Manabe.
“How does the black cat fare?”
“He struggles with Liiber. They’re not a struggling balance, but I have experienced more pushback than Hoàng did with the Ram, or Miss Sancour with the Wolf. The Cat doesn’t seem to play well with others.”
“He played well when Adrien was doubling up” Nathalie huffs. “He’s just stubborn.” When she looks up she realizes that most eyes were looking at her for the commentary. Nathalie turns a little red, but Tsering Wan waves it off.
“Indeed. This will require a bit more force than the others. Little Izumi?” Manabe flinches at the diminutive, but nonetheless slips the ring off and hands it over to Tsering Wan.
Plagg of course remains defiant.
“I know you believe this a bad combination, Black Cat. But your former master isn’t here to save you.” He jams the ring onto his own finger. “You have been returned to your old home, the Order of Miraculous you deserved to be in. Plagg. Awaken.”
Plagg comes out in a shower of black sparks. He glances angrily to the side and once again refuses to speak.
“Now Plagg, Where is all of that talk about us not knowing what we were getting ourselves into? All of those prophecies of doom and insistence that we won’t be winning the day? Is all of that gone?”
“No!” Shorr pipes up “Because you all ARE going to fail! My Chloe outsmarted you before and her team can outsmart yours again! You may have the upper hand for now but you can’t even ACTIVATE the total destruction spell yet! Not until you have everyone you want revenge on! And Master Fu is nowhere you can find him!”
“I don’t need Little Fu. This isn’t about him anymore. Shorr, this hasn’t been about him for some time.”
Shorr blinks up at him nervously before shaking their head and growling. “You still won’t win! The Total Destruction Spell throws everything out of balance! If you use it then the universe itself will go against YOU! You won’t hurt our kids! Right Plagg?!” Shorr turns to Plagg, but he doesn’t look defiant anymore. His tail is curled around his body and his ears are drooped. He looks scared. Shorr’s expression drops. “Plagg, they won’t be able to actually hurt our kids, right? Plagg you know me and Fidde never remember when the spell gets used PLEASE tell me they won’t be able to actually hurt our kids!....Plagg?”
Plagg doesn’t meet their eye. Shorr slowly sinks down to his level and curls their tail around his.
“Now that that’s settled, everyone come along. I believe we should make sure we don’t damage Miss Sancour’s apartment too much.”
Tsering Wan takes a few steps forward, staggering for a moment and a few people go to help him, but he shrugs them off and stalks forward. “Well, Misso, detransform me. Wouldn’t do to already be transformed while this starts.” The Scorpion transformation melts away and he huffs, staggers again as the extra protection from Misso falls away. This time when Manabe and Nathalie appear on either side to stabilize him he allows it.
Zhao Kai helps Wu Lian to her feet, and Tsering Wan grins feral through grit teeth.
We cut now to the team. Ladybug, Ox Adrien, and Ryuuko standing infront of the rest of them, the three are discussing things quietly before Ladybug gives a sharp whistle to get everyone’s attention.
“Okay everyone! We’re splitting into two teams. Evac and Attack. Attack Team we’re gonna draw the Old Order back out to make sure they can’t start the Total Destruction spell. Me, Adrien, Ryuuko, Queen Bee, Carapace, Rena Rouge, Lionheart, and Kraken. We have the most battle experience, but more notably, we’re all the ones they want, So we can draw them out.”
“Viperion-” Luka stiffens. “I want you leading Evac team.” Luka startles.
“But wouldn’t it be more useful if I-”
“Luka.” Ladybug’s expression is hard as stone. “I know you want to protect us, but we’re prepared to face this. Evac Team is keeping the civilians safe, they’re not prepared for this. I’d much rather you use Second Chance saving a little girl from falling rocks than not use it keeping an eye on us.” Luka looks away but nods.
“Alright, everyone else who can transform, you’re also on Evac. Except Bridget. Bridget, you get back to the Base, grab Mme Agreste and Felix. Amber, Juleka, you guys track down everyone’s families, and direct Felix and Bridget in the right directions. On the chance that I get hit with Dispell again we need to be prepared to not have a Lucky Charm at our disposal.”
“Everyone be ready for anything.” She summarizes. “We’re team Miraculous. The New Order. We’ve got this.”
The teams break up and though a few people give lingering uncertain looks one way or another, they go their separate ways. We hold on the attack team. They look among each other and nod.
“So where we going, Bugaboo?” Adrien summons the Ox’s bat, it’s still clearly a bludgeon, but it’s more narrow than Juleka’s version.
“Somewhere away from residential areas.” She says aloud. “Make Evac easier.”
“The Trocadero?” Queen Bee offers. “Haven’t had a fight there in awhile.”
“Isn’t that the place where you became Miracle Queen?” Rena Rouge wonders aloud “YOU’RE suggesting that?”
“I mean it’s a decent area.” Carapace admits quickly “Not super close to the residential areas, big open paved spaces so we won’t do too much property damage... probably”
“Trocadero it is.” Ryuuko says after a moment’s pause. “We should hurry before they track us down here.”
There’s a quick nod shared among the team, and they’re bounding away.
Just as the team gets in reach of the Trocadero the world is plunged into blackness. Like the very concept of light itself had been snuffed out. The buildings hopped on turn to blank space, and all fall into shadow until they reach the ground.
Some land more gracefully than others, but the darkness the world is shrouded in isn’t all encompassing.
“Lionheart? Kraken? Any idea on what this is?” Ladybug asks.
“Not a clue.” Sun Min huffs “I can see you all but-”
“-it’s like everything around us has turned to nothing.” Yun Eun-Ji continues.
“Let’s see how high it goes then.” Rena huffs. “‘Pace, give me a boost?” Carapace takes off the shield and rena does a run and jump, using the shield a springboard to rocket upwards, her own fox strength added in going higher and higher until-
She hits the top of something. She struggles to keep upright, dig her claws into the top of it, but falls, Adrien catching her. “We’re in a dome.” She states simply. “Must have passed right through it without realizing.”
“What?!” Queen Bee shrieks, she looks around rapidly and runs in a certain direction, clearly intending on ramming the walls of said dome, but when she hits the wall it's unyielding. “No! This is Stupid! We can’t have come all this fucking way just to get done in by a stupid dome trap!” She makes another ram against the side, and soon enough joining her is Sun Min baring down with his brass knuckles. But the dome refuses to shake. “Adrien! Get your Oxen butt over here we need Unstoppable Force!”
“Guys! We don’t even know what this is!” He responds, carefully placing Rena down. “We could be doing more harm than good, at least, we need to try to think things through.”
“Listen to your leader little Bee, you might want to stay away from the edges.”
Just as Chloe was about to ram the edge again a black energy jolts up her arm.
Chloe screams, and falls back against Sun Min, the afflicted arm’s uniform dissolved and exposing smoldering flesh beneath. Sun Min of course catches her and drags her away before it can get worse.
“What the hell is that?” Sun Min wonders breathlessly.
“This is three of the four, traitor.” There's a building black mass, and standing before the team is Tsering Wan. “The Cat, the Tiger, and the Scorpion. The combination of Revenge, Destruction and Communication, I suppose you could say, is agony. Interested in testing its limits, anyone?”
“All I need now is to add in the dog’s particular skills and-” he waves a hand “Well everybody in this dome would be dead before they knew what they were doing.”
“You’re such a freak-” Nino huffs. “All of this because you’re upset with a bunch of kids.”
“Perhaps if you all had been less than stubborn brats about this we might have been able to come to an understanding. But you made your choices. Your actions have consequences.”
“But yours don’t?” Adrien asks. “That’s what you told Nathalie right? That since you guys are right you can do whatever you want? Where is she? I thought she would want to be here.”
“She did, but she has to learn when something isn’t about her.” he shrugs “Besides, surely she’ll rather appreciate tearing Gabriel limb from limb than she would watching you perish. Now-” he raises a hand. “That Agony? Let’s see how close it can come!” The dome takes on a slightly purplish tint so the heroes can see the edges begin to shrink in on them.
“Uhm, you’re here too!” Rena huffs, she holds the flute to her mouth and with a Mirage! Three semi corporeal rena clones begin to batter at the walls, but with a flash of black energy they vanish. Ladybug looks around, taking in the scene until-
“Queen Bee! Send your swarm there! Kraken get ready with the ninetails, Ryuuko, throw your sword where Queen Bee’s Swarm is going on my mark!”
“What?” Tsering Wan’s expression drops as Chloe does just that, the swarm heading straight for the smallest breach in the dome, right behind Tsering Wan’s standing. Plagg and Shorr looking out for their kids. The swarm rockets outside, and Chloe whirls out the trompo for the bees to grab and pull the wire further. Yun Eun-Ji wraps the others up in the lengthening ninetails until they’re all pulled together as one.
“And tug!” Queen Bee cries out, her bees quickly following the guide and sending all the heroes as one rocketing forward.
“Ryuko now! Carapace!”
Ryuko throws the sword at Tsering Wan, forcing him to dodge just as Carapace throws up Shelter, the lot of them breaking through the breach as one.
A dark purple boot stopping shelter as it rolls across the trocadero grounds.
“Well-” Nathalie huffs. “I guess Tsering Wan overestimated his abilities to rant.” She pulls out the cane, but just as she’s about to try and slam it down onto shelter-
“Immovable object!” a being seemingly made of stone grabs the cane. Nathalie turns, and-
“Gabriel!?”
“Father?” Adrien echoes quietly. Carapace throws down the shield and the others get ready as the rest of the Old Order begins to descend.
Just because the members of the Old Order we’ve grown used to are at Trocadero doesn’t mean the council isn’t still around causing harm and mischief. What descends on Paris seems to be a small army of different akumas, Perhaps just as planned to keep the Evac team busy as the Evac team were planned to keep them busy.
Buildings are crumbling, or being overgrown with nature, or decimated with sonic waves, but the nearby civilians are getting evacuated whenever we see them. Roi Singe with a small army of children clinging to his back as he bounds to safety, Vipereon helping an older woman out of a crashed bus, falling rubble about to crush a small group of people in a flash vanishing and reappearing a few feet away, unharmed.
A monster is currently in the middle of a proper battle with one of the council, Sabrina watching from a distance away, a fan spoke sticking out of her arm. Also doing battle is A-Fei, an assumed sky potion giving her bat wings that flutter against the wind as she goes against an airborne Akuma. Trying to get a shot in with her bolas again, but her opponent dodging expertly.
Another building seems about to fall on civilians, when this time a bright pink gorilla appears in a flash of light and holds the rubble back while Pegasus escorts the civilians to safety.
In a quick clip we see Nimh and Felix escorting a small crowd of the parents and siblings of the heroes into the hotel, Amber leading the small crowd, Andre being led to the elevator with her.
Sabine and Tom are in the very back, Sabine staring into the city with worry. “Are… are you sure this is all necessary?”
“If it’s not then we’ll be embarrassed.” Juleka responds properly, taking up the rear and placing a hand on her shoulder. “But Better safe than with dead parents, huh?”
Sabine huffs looking back into the city. “This is just.. Making me nervous.”
Tom puts a hand on her shoulder. “It’ll be alright, honey. If anyone can pull through, it’s our Marinette.”
Sabine laughs quietly. “Since when was it you that says things like that?”
All the same, they both step inside.
Passing right by the hotel is Alix, detransformed and quickly recharging Hopps while skating beside Vipereon.
“So how big of a perimeter do you think they’re gonna need? If the Hotel is the safe location, how far of a buffer zone is it gonna take to keep it safe?” Alix wonders as Hopps quickly scarfs down her carrot.
“I don’t know, a few blocks maybe?” Vipereon responds, pensive. “We have to keep the council busy so the others don’t have to worry about reinforcements coming in when they need a fair fight more than anything. Viperon looks off to the side, “I’m starting to get worried we’re not gonna be enough though, we’re not exactly in some unpopulated city of empty buildings.”
“Well…” Hopps finishes her food and nods at Alix who nods back. “Guess we’re gonna have to be quicker than ever.” She transforms but just as the two are about to leave there’s a shout and a ruckus behind them, turning back to the hotel one can see Nora, still dressed in her boxing clothes and struggling against Juleka and Nimh as they try to hold her back.
“How are you two pipsqueaks so strong?!” she grunts before finally breaking out. “Hey! I’m not sticking around in some bunker and acting useless! My sister is out there and I’m not gonna hide like a coward when she’s risking her life for this city!”
After a small ruckus a few more poke their heads out in similar fashion, Jalil, Kenji and Tomoe, Monika, Sabine, Anarka, Michael, and Roger. Semmix and Vipereon look at each other for a moment. And it’s obvious Nimh is looking to either of them for the judgement call.
“Absolutely not” “Okay but only for evac.” They look at eachother again.
“I’ll take it.” Nora huffs. “What’s your perimeter? Where’s the fight starting?”
“Trocadero.” Semmix responds quickly, Viperion blinking and looking about to interrupt.
“You’re gonna need to clear out about half of the arrondissement for a clear area.” Roger chimes in, looking pensive. “I’ll see if any of my old friends can help with that enclosure.”
“Well if we’re not to be fighting, then what use would an expert swordsman even be?” Tomoe huffs haughtily. “You have two of us and you use neither? Outrageous.”
“I can call in some friends, we can set up a triage station just outside of the perimeter for first aid.” Monika adds on.
“AH! I believe I might have an idea!” Ankara chirps, before pointing dramatically at Tomoe. “How are your sea legs Madame? Your son is just as adept as you I trust? We’ll hold the Seine for you all!”
“Room for one more?” Michael chimes in “I might be rusty but I was a trained Fencer for a while.”
“Not a problem!” Anarka cries.
“Jalil, was it?” Monika takes the older boy by the arm. “I’m gonna need a few more sets of hands to get things in order before the ambulance gets there.”
Sabine strides up and nods at her. “Mind if I join in too, Monika?”
“Not at all, where’s Tom?”
“He figured somebody should be keeping an eye on the little ones, not all of them are as well behaved as Noel.”
Vipereon looks about to argue again, but sighs. “Fine. But be careful.”
“Always are, honey.” Anarka puts a hand on his shoulder. “You be careful too, alright? I don’t have to worry about Juleka tonight, but you're still my baby too.”
“I know. I will.”
He looks over to see Jalil grabbing Semmix by the shoulders and demanding she make sure she survives this one. Alix is noticeably a bit more grim than usual.
“Sem. We gotta go.” Semmix looks over at him and nods.
“Yup. Lots of people to save.” Alix nods at Jalil and she and Viperion are gone.
Vipereon looks at Semmix “You okay?”
“Yeah- Yeah I'm fine. You okay?”
“Mmhm.”
We cut back to the attack group now though, just long enough to see the fight. Lionheart and Kraken are double-teaming Wu Lian, Yun Eun-Ji in particular keeping an eye on the woman as they go at it. Wu Lian of course is still injured, but she’s still masterfully holding her own against the most seasoned fighters among the heroes.
As we saw before Gabriel is fighting Nathalie, Nathalie seems to have a bit of an upper hand, but Gabriel in this stone form from the Ram simply will not go down.
Queen Bee, despite her arm laying limp is working alongside Carapace, the turtle covering her bad arm as the two of them take on Manabe, the Dolphin’s harpoon only not skewering either of them due to Carapace’s shield.
Ryuuko is currently going head to head with Hoàng Tuyến, the two surprisingly even matched, Hoàng Tuyến trying to keep Ryuuko at a distance but Ryuuko easily closing the gap whenever possible.
Ladybug is currently going head to head with Zhao Kai. She seems to be holding her own, but we all know how Zhao Kai can turn on a dime.
Rena Rouge and Adrien are less Fighting Tsering Wan and more keeping him distracted. If he’s too distracted keeping their grasping hands from the Multiple targets he has on him he can’t activate all four at once and do what they were trying to do.
Some of these powers you’ll remember though, have already been activated. Rena is on her last stripes, and as she stops Tsering Wan’s Spear from hitting Adrien in the face she whispers to herself ‘come on Trixx please keep holding up…’ similarly Nino and Chloe are running low on their marks as well.
And unfortunately, this isn’t a ‘last minute upgrades’ situation. At the exact worst time as Carapace throws up his shield the transformation undoes itself around him first. Manabe’s harpoon goes right into his arm. Nino shrieks in pain and Chloe lashes out with her trompo, but he grabs her by her injured arm and Chloe screams.
“Nino!” “Chloe!” Shouts of either name from panicked friends echo as Manabe gives a swift kick to Chloe’s side, ramming her into Nino and causing the two to fall over.
Alya strangely holds on for a little longer, not by much, and if she didn’t have Adrien to throw her out of the way she would have been pretty badly fucked up too, but her transformation undoes itself as well.
“Master, allow me to take care of this one.” Manabe darts in, now freed from his own entanglements, hefting his harpoon back up and swinging at Adrien. “Do what you must.”
“Thank you Manabe.”
Zhao Kai looks at this exchange and humms. “Looks like it’s time.” This time when Ladybug pulls in to try and get him out of the way he pulls out a small blade from his pocket and jolts it forward, piercing right through Ladybug’s side.
Ladybug chokes briefly, just long enough for Zhao Kai to lean in and carefully remove the earrings from her. “Sorry about that. But they have been warning us about keeping balance. Have to be prepared.”
Marinette clutches her side and wobbles a bit, before collapsing to her knees.
There’s the gentle skid of something sliding against the pavement, lightly thumping her on the leg. She glances over and sure enough they’d stopped watching Chloe and Nino, and the Turtle had been slid over to her. Nino shoots her a weak thumbs up.
“Misso, Shorr, Plagg, Fidde, May the virtues combine and the four become one, Revenge, Communication, Destruction, and Loyalty, together we are strong.”
A speck of black begins to form above everyone’s heads. The four Miraculous glinting and sparking around Tsering Wan as he keeps a hand angled upward.
“Stormbringer!” Ryuuko turns to lightning but as she nears Tsering Wan to at least get it to stop she’s blown back by the energy.
Adrien reels back with his bat, but the man seems rooted in his spot, even a direct blow from the Ox didn’t make him flinch.
There’s a ruckus in the background a distraction that lead to an opening-
A pure white butterfly zips through the air and lands on the back and yellow ribbon that ties back Chloe’s hair.
“Chloe Bourgeois, use this power to bring your friends to safety.”
Chloe looks to the side and sure enough Gabriel had gotten the upper hand in the fight versus him and Nathalie, the butterfly halo lighting up over his eyes.
She nods. And her outfit is a white and yellow version of the same Queen Bee look. Sure enough when she swings her trompo this time a cloud of white insects pours out, swirling around Nino, Alya, Kagami, Sun Min and Yun Eun Ji, but when it reaches Marinette and Adrien, Marinette waves them off.
“Go.” She stands, bracelet fastened against her wrist. “Go! Get everyone out of here!”
In a green flash the turtle Marinette look from all the way back in Hero Heart returns. “Someone has to stop this thing from taking the whole city.”
“Wait, Marinette-” Chloe tries to argue.
“Queen Bee, get the others to safety. That is a direct order.” Marinette’s tone goes hard. Chloe hesitates, but, eventually, she nods. A flash of light- and they’re gone.
“Shelter!” Marinette summons Shelter up over the black ball. It is still small enough to be concealed in the shell easily, but it’s growing in size, rapidly.
“We may want to get out of here.” Wu Lian huffs. “Before the little Ladybug runs herself dry.”
“I will stay.” Tsering Wan hisses through grit teeth. “Else we may not know if it will still work or not.”
“Master Wu couldn't you just use Dispell on the Ladybug to get rid of the shelter?” Hoàng Tuyến chimes in “It’s just, we have more work to do when this is over-”
“If you’re referring to your silly little theories then they’ll have their time Hoàng.” Wu Lian huffs “I’m sure the Mighty Warrior would rather watch the little one fail than simply have it be over so quickly.”
“You know me well, Great Healer.”
“Perhaps it would be best to get this ready right now-” Zhao Kai humms, about to put in the earrings when a blade presses to his throat. The cane blade of course, Gabriel glaring at the man.
Zhao Kai huffs “Fine. You’re lucky I’m rather fond of my head on top of my shoulders.” he hands him over the Ladybug. “We’ll take them back once the spell encases the city.”
Gabriel hisses back at the man and sure enough the rest of the order is eyeing him, but with more of a vague interest than anything else.
“What are you gonna do?” Manabe wonders aloud. “Fight us all one at a time? The only one of us you could take on was your own sister in law and she was untrained.”
“If he wants to play the hero I say let him.” Zhao Kai huffs, voice a little rough from the assault before he goes and lifts up the still unconscious Nathalie. “He can chase us and doom Miss Dupain-Cheng to die alone, or he can give a scared child a companion into the beyond.”
“Oh, that might be a fun moral dilemma.” Hoàng Tuyến adds on “let’s go right now! Before the shield breaks!”
Sure enough the spell is almost big enough now to start brushing the inside of the shell. Marinette keeps her hands up, as though to physically hold the shelter in place.
“You’ll inform us of how it goes won’t you Mighty Warrior?”
“Of course, Great Healer.”
“Well then, it was fun Gabriel Agretse, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, but we must be off.”
But just as they move to leave, the flash of a navy blue bat soars through the air, hitting Wu Lian in her injured side and sending her to the other side of the Trocadero. Adrien makes a rush for Tsering Wan as the others are distracted.
“Unstoppable force!” The blue energy laces up the bat and into his hands, but the rest of the Old Order has already left. Adrien glances at Gabriel and he nods. And they both descend on Tsering Wan. As Marinette holds the Shelter in place father and son go against the Scorpion.
And as the bat slammed down at the same time as the cane blade does, it seems that Tsering Wan is slower with this power combination, weaker. With all four Miraculous active at once he can’t quite dodge as much as usual. Adrien swipes his knees out from under him, and in one deft maneuver, the ring is swiped right from his hand.
But the spell doesn’t stop.
Tsering Wan smirks. “Seems as though you’re too late, it’s been out for too long, it won’t stop until it claims what it was summoned to claim.”
Marinette grunts and the Shelter is slowly being eaten through by the spell. And Adrien of course doesn’t think twice before rushing to her side, pressing his hands physically to the shelter to push it and the spell back, yet also ensuring that if it does eat through the bottom of shelter, it’ll get him first. Gabriel hesitates, looking down at Tsering Wan, at Adrien, at Marinette.
He grabs the Ring from where Adrien had dropped it in his haste, sliding it on.
We cut away from the fight now, to see the Evac team again, this time as a whole, the council members have cleared out, and it’s only now time to pick through the rubble, people being taken from buildings and we see the Evac team as well as the rest of the families of the wielders doing just that. When there’s an explosion of light, and dark. Shadow and sun. The light is so bright for a moment we clip back to Versailles and see Marianne and Fu peering out the window with suspicion.
But then we see Emilie Agreste running bandages to Monika and a look of realization passes over her face. She gasps and approaches Pegasus. We don’t hear any words, but she grabs Max by the arm and points heavily in the direction of the explosion. Pegasus’s eyes widen and just as he looks down at his boomerang, considering, the clouds of white bees make themselves known, Chloe touching down onto the ground with the others of the team behind, she’s also panicking a bit.
But then a flash of light echoes and Marinette and Adrien have reappeared on the bundle of bees curled around Kagami in specific. Both are startled and look around, and as it turns out, in a sort of ‘Miraculous Ladybug’ in its own right, the hero team all seem to have their wounds healed, though not flawlessly, the butterfly transformation undoes itself around Chloe and sure enough she and Nino both have scars on their arms from where their wounds once were.
The first thing that comes to anyone’s minds is ‘Miraculous wish’
There’s a rapid flight back to the Trocadero, Emilie carried along in Ryuuko’s arms, and it’s a mess. The ground is cracked, the stairs are rubble, and two men covered in dirt and dust are left laying in the decimation.
Tsering Wan, or, what seemed to be left of him, charred and stiff, as if he’d been turned to coal, the weight of the tiger and dog made his neck and hand crumble to nothing, the two Miraculous laying in the ash. The Scorpion is notably missing from his remains.
And second, buried beneath the rubble a bit, is Gabriel. Though the butterfly and the ram rest where they were before, the Ladybug and Black Cat are nowhere to be found. Gabriel’s body is still intact, but he lies still, unresponsive.
Adrien of course digs him out from the pit, and finds three pieces of twisted up metal as he does so, they’re ignored at first and tossed aside.
“Father?! Father!” Adrien shakes him a little, but he doesn’t awaken. “Come ON! Wake UP!” he shakes him harder, and Emilie crouches on the other side, hand over her mouth tears building in ehr eyes.
“Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME!?” Adrien continues to shout. “Put ALL OF THIS in motion! Pulled me through the FUCKING WRINGER! And FORCED ME to still care about you and you go and DO THIS TO US?!”
“..Adrien-” Emilie reaches out and presses a hand to his shoulder but Adrien jerks away.
“I JUST got you back and now HE’S gone? How is that fair?”
Marinette and Nino of course are a little behind them, Kagami would have been too, but as usual, someone has to take charge, and she finds herself drawn away by Chloe and Alya. but the glint of sunlight against metal catches Marinette’s eye. She kneels down beside Adrien and lifts up those twisted up pieces from before, revealing them to be the broken remains of Plagg and Tikki’s Miraculouses.
“He used it to save us.” Marinette speaks quietly with a huff. “And to heal the people that were hurt.”
Kagami, Alya, and Chloe, begin to examine Tsering Wan’s remains.
“You think the Scorpion was destroyed too?” Chloe wonders as she reclaims the Tiger. Shorr springs out of it and cheers happily upon seeing their wielder.
“I don’t see why it would be, if Shorr and Fidde are unharmed.” Alya reasons, lifting up the collar, and sure enough Fidde rises.
“Misso must have taken it away after the wish went off.” Ryuuko settles on. “Look, you can see kwami handprints.” sure enough in the indent where the medallion had been there are two little extra indents implying a kwami grabbing its own Miraculous. “Probably went right back to the Old Order with it.”
Nino places her hand on Adrien’s other shoulder, but his grip is more severe. “Adrien-”
“What?”
“Alya can you go grab my mom? Adrien, we need to get him to a hospital-”
Adrien turns to Nino who gives him a wide eyed stare.
“Brother, he's breathing.”
We cut away with that realization, panning up to the star flecked sky.
When we return the sun is on the horizon.
We hear the dubbed voice of Marinette now. “It’s weird when you think about it. The way it all tends to fall. After something like that you’d think it would take a long time, months, if not years, for things to continue.”
Marinette is seen straightening her uniform tie. “But nope, we had class the following Monday. And the Monday after that, and the Monday after that.”
There’s only Callid buzzing around Marinette’s head when she descends the staircase outside, and sure enough as they always were, Kagami and Adrien are waiting for her. Adrien notably wearing Fidde’s collar again.
“Hey guys.”
“Hey.”
“Good morning, Marinette.”
As the three walk over to the car Kenji makes an exaggerated gagging noise. We now see a soft montage, as… well.. Life goes on.
The three of them begin to talk in the car, gentle laughter and cheerful conversation.
Then we see Alya chilling at the base, a bunch of rejected Miraculous designs strewn around her, half of them labelled ‘Plagg’ the other half labelled ‘Tikki’ she has Yun Eun-Ji’s grimoire propped up in front of her and grumbles to herself. Nino arrives with a mug of coffee pressed to her cheek. Which of course Alya takes gratefully.
Still in the base we see Sun Min, A-Fei and Yun Eun-Ji looking over a world map, some regions labelled with post-its as ‘maybe’s and ‘definitely’s, regions. Tokyo, Los Angeles, and New York the only ones with ‘definitely’s over them, Yun Eun-Ji huffs and sticks another ‘definitely’ right over a certain part of China, the general Shanghai area.
But we cut then to see the falling of short blonde hair, growing even shorter now as Chloe, sporting a tank top so the burn scars up and down her arm are visible, cutting Amber’s hair again, far shorter this time. Sabrina bouncing up and down excitedly. And Amber looks equally excited when the new shorter look is revealed. Chloe’s cell phone goes off and the other two teenagers (as well as the three kwami) both shoot her smirks, which Chloe blushes at and flips them both off before answering the phone.
Cutting us of course to the other side of the line as Luka is chilling on the Liberty, Sass holding up his notebook of song lyrics as he strums out a melody. Juleka walks by texting on her own phone and says something with a smirk, Dynaa chuckles and Luka startles and gets thrown off his rhythm. We follow Juleka a moment longer as she gets off the Liberty and is greeted by Rose and Ali (Zhuu and Dynaa notably still in the open).
We cut then to the Louvre’s general reaction to a staff death, a general ‘such a tragedy’ with vague sympathy, but other than putting his name down as the donator of the medallion of the Old Order, Tsering Wan has no greater impact on the Louvre as a whole, something Alix is seen smirking at, leaning slightly just to brush the medallion’s stand with her shoulder. She grins at Hopps and the two share a fist bump.
Noticeably missing from the sympathies being shared around is Hoàng Tuyến, her workspace is shown in passing as being almost completely emptied out, but some things are still strewn about as if she’d left in a rush. The tablet she’d been studying is missing.
But we cut to Max before that continues, he’s speaking quietly with Markov, Kaalki barely poking her head out of his bag as the two are at the swimming pool again, Markov timing Kim and Ondine’s race. As the two are racing, Xuppu peers out from Kim’s bag, before dipping back in just as Ondine touches the edge of the pool triumphantly. Kim grins and whoops, and Ondine looks curious, as if expecting something.
Kim raises his fingers to his lips for a whistle, and Xuppu leaps out from the bag.
We pan away before we can see his girlfriend’s reaction.
Specifically we pan to Felix and Bridget, it seems like they were just coming back from a university tour, one they went on together apparently. Felix has some sort of hot pastry that Bridget is trying to get a bite out of, the two are struggling and Orikko and Duura are cheering their respective wielders on.
Then we cut to a hospital room, the pulse meter going steady. Gabriel Agreste lays there, bandages around his head and chest. Adrien has just been dropped off by his girlfriends, shrugging off what looks like questions of if he wants them to stay or not. Marinette and Kagami look at each other worriedly before Kagami huffs and Pulls Marinette away claiming something that makes them both laugh. Adrien leans back for a moment. Smiling after the two of them before it fades. He pulls Nooroo’s Miraculous from his pocket and the purple Kwami is summoned forth. They both chat for a time before the slightest movement on the bed makes them both look over. Gabriel beginning to stir. Adrien looks out to the doorway and shouts something, and we get a quick POV shot of blurrily, his eyes starting to open. Spotting Adrien looking over him worriedly.
But just as he’s trying to sit up it’s clear he’s having problems moving. Some real mobility issues. And the door opens. And Gabriel looks over to it on reflex. And Emilie Agreste is rushing in from her son calling for her.
There’s a pause. And Adrien breaks the wordless montage. “I see you two have already met…” he mutters with a small smile.
But we cut away before the dam bursts on that one.
We get Marinette’s voice again. “Sometimes life really does just have to… Go on.”
We get one last clip. We see Marinette in the base, pouring over Alya and A-Fei’s notes. Her hair is longer than we last saw, and we pull away a bit to see a few things, pictures of Luka’s graduation with Jagged Stone and Anarka standing behind him, a ‘save the date’ invite for Felix and Bridget. ‘Vow renewal’ pictures from Gabriel and Emilie, one of which showing that Gabriel had been wheelchair bound at the time of. Scattered notes based on the images of the tablet they still had, alongside a few polaroid selfies of the others in various states of messing around. A postcard depicting Moscow signed from Marianne and Fu stuck to the wall.
She’s bending together stainless steel earrings, not exact copies of the ones Tikki inhabited before, but close enough. She takes a breath.
“I invite the Kwami of Creation to make this her home. Tikki, if you’re near, if you can hear me, please.” She squeezes her eyes tighter. “I miss you.”
“...Marinette?” she blinks her eyes open and a small bundle of pink light descends into the earrings, a flash not dissimilar to when Tikki was first awoken from the Miracle Box.
And a little red god peers up at her with big blue eyes. She looks a bit different than before, the dot in the center of her forehead resembles more of a four leaf clover rather than a simple dot, but she rubs her little kwami eyes and smiles up at her.
“I missed you too.”
Marinette hugs her tight and as the two make their way up and out of the base, into a secluded room with a simple window Marinette looks out and smiles when she sees a flash of red and a spot of black against the twilight sky.
“Tikki, Transform me!”
We get one final dub over as Ladybug once again opens the window and joins her partners, Tackling Chat Noir excitedly and Ryuuko watches with fondness. “Things aren’t perfect, the Old Order isn’t gone, and they have new targets they might be going after. Paris might be safe for now, but the world at large may not be. But one thing is for certain.”
Ryuuko nods for them to get going and Ladybug nods back. “As long as we all still have each other, we’re not going down. Even if we had every Miraculous or none at all. It’s the hero not the Miraculous they wield that matters. Because anyone could wield one.” Ladybug lets her Yoyo fly and soars into the air, a pair of costume wings, ladybug shell and all fluttering out with the flight.
“You have all the weapons you need. You just need to know when to fight.”
