Gabriel Agreste died doing what he loved the most: manipulating a child 😍

S5 finale: wrapping up the "running out of time" theme

So I have been mentioning frequently that there is a theme of "running out of time" in season 5, but I wasn't able to make out the meaning of it, until now.

We can say that there are three situations where the theme explicitely manifests:

If you think I have forgotten other strings of running out of time, feel free to let me know!

Now let's look at these three strings individually:

This one is the simplest one as it starts very early on in the season, with the episode Destruction where he gets the cataclym wound, and ends in Recreation with his "sacrifice." Also worthy noting the names of the episodes. What starts as Gabriel running out of time in Destruction is concluded in Recreation with him making his wish, accomplishing his wish, and dying. We can consider this thread concluded.

2. Ladynoir running out of time

Of course, the first episode that comes to mind is Jubilation. In Jubilation we (and the blorbos) learn that they actually desire to be together, romantically. And indeed they get to live a perfect little life in their dream, ignoring the increasingly bigger alarm clocks that are trying to wake them up. Except that at the end Ladybug realises that they must wake up (duty calls!), and she abandons Chat Noir in the dream universe, broken.

From here on, nearly every episode is a warning for Marinette against being romantically together with Chat Noir:

The overarching message from Jubilation to Elation is that: if Maribug ends up with Chat Noir, it'll be a disaster.

So Marinette decides to close up her heart to anyone, and after a brief depression, Adrien finally convinces her to be with him and they become an official couple. From this point onwards, the key ship becomes Adrinette.

Does that mean that Ladynoir has run out of time? Not necessarily. They just decided to love each other in a different way. I should remind here that even though we tend to polarise the sides of the square as fandom, the creators have repeatedly told that the love square is one, there is one love.

The Ladynoir relationship has a direct connection to the Adrinette dynamics because after all, they're the same two people.

3. Adrinette running out of time

Now that Adrinette is finally together, they should have all the time in the world, right? Right? It's what Adrien says, after all.

But I couldn't shake this sense of urgency throughout this season. Every time they said that they had time, it made me feel like they actually don't and they don't know it. And it was exactly what they wanted to make us feel: with Adrien's move to London, it turns out they didn't have time. Worse is that, Adrien actually knew that he'd need to move to London but he couldn't tell it to Marinette, he kept it a secret all the way till he was shipped off to London.

And there is a parallel between Jubilation and Revolution here: in both episodes, their dream is shattered, they share one last dramatic kiss, and they are torn apart from one and other (@asukiess had a big brain time and pointed this out back when Revolution aired).

But now, in Recreation, Gabriel is gone. Everything is fixed? Everyone will be happy, right?

Well... No.

As I pointed out in a previous post, the world that Gabriel creates is a bit too bright, too perfect. The show is notorious for associating the sun with fake happiness at this point, while the "real" moments are rainy and/or dark. And let's see the colour palette in the end:

Another detail that makes me put on my tinfoil hat:

They're not very visible on the static image, but there are white butterflies flying over the flower arch. Those could be symbolising the end, as a reference to how Ladybug releases the purified akuma at the end of each episode. But it might also have a second meaning, a reference to how this world was in fact created upon the ideals of Gabriel.

And that can't be good for anyone. I explain more the consequences and aftermath of this episode in the post I mention above, but basically this world is Gabriel's ideal, and it is far from being a good place for neither Marinette, nor Adrien.

One main reason why: Gabriel has left Marinette with the truth about the Monarch, and she agreed to keep it a secret from Adrien. But we know that it will eventually come out. Either she tells it to Chat Noir, or maybe Lila plots something, but it won't remain a secret forever. And when it does... it will have tremendous impact on not only Adrinette, but also Ladynoir.

This world is a fantasy world where Marinette and Adrien have ended up together, just like in: Chat Blanc, Ephemeral, Oblivio, Jubilation. And at one point the alarm clock will ring, the hammer will drop, and both Ladynoir and Adrinette will run out of time. Except that this time, we may not be able to revert back to the status quo.

Gabriel has left them with a tickling time bomb.

Proof that Miraculous Ladybug is actually a Greek tragedy:

Throw goddess Athena shapeshifting somewhere in there and I can play this in 5th century BC Athens.

S5 finale: A perfect world and a fake victory

EDIT: I have jumped the gun and thought that Lila had also figured out Ladybug's identity, but now I see that may not be the case. So this post has been edited accordingly. Sorry!

Gabriel's "sacrifice" has created a perfect world but an imperfect end, which I think was the point of this season finale.

Just before he makes the wish, Ladybug tells Gabriel that perfection is not possible, but solutions can be found. Gabriel refuses her offer of help and goes on to make the wish a create his perfect world.

But the world is actually perfect only for him. Even though he is gone in this world, everything still revolves around him: he is remembered as the "great designer" (actual quote from Nadia Chamack), the hero, the good father.

Meanwhile, Marinette is left with the weight of a tremendous secret from Adrien, and we see no addressing of Adrien's fear of becoming Anti-Chat or Chat Blanc and destroying everything and everyone. Since he is still the holder of the Cat miraculous, the possibility (hence his fear) probably remain.

The way that Gabriel is defeated also resonates a return to season 4 dynamics where Ladybug is doing all the work, while Chat Noir is nowhere to be found (due to his father's control over Adrien).

Now the Monarch is gone, but the fact that Ladybug defeated the Monarch alone means that we're back to a place where Marinette thinks she needs to do everything by herself.

Which is very dangerous, given that the new Butterfly miraculous holder Lila knows that Ladybug and Marinette are the same person, and from her threat to Marinette at the very end of the episode, we know that she won't hold back from attacking her both in civilian and superhero life.

The season finale gives the feeling that Ladybug has won, but if you flip the perspective, you see that Gabriel has also somewhat won: he may have died, but he did accomplish his aim. He was already dying due to the catalysm wound, so this ending is a very positive one for him.

Meanwhile, the real winner here is Lila, who ended up with the Butterfly Miraculous. Plus, no one knows that, so she has the advantage of information asymmetry.

Whereas Ladybug and Marinette... sure, everything may look fine, if not perfect in the world, but they're actually running out of time. Remember the recurring theme this whole season that "they're running out of time?" Gabriel already ran out of time. Ladynoir had already ran out of time in Jubilation, and their friendship will also likely be impacted by Marinette's secret. But also, once the secret comes out, Adrinette will also run out of time...

S5 finale: A perfect world and a fake victory

Gabriel's "sacrifice" has created a perfect world but an imperfect end, which I think was the point of this season finale.

Just before he makes the wish, Ladybug tells Gabriel that perfection is not possible, but solutions can be found. Gabriel refuses her offer of help and goes on to make the wish a create his perfect world.

But the world is actually perfect only for him. Even though he is gone in this world, everything still revolves around him: he is remembered as the "great designer" (actual quote from Nadia Chamack), the hero, the good father.

Meanwhile, Marinette is left with the weight of a tremendous secret from Adrien, and we see no addressing of Adrien's fear of becoming Anti-Chat or Chat Blanc and destroying everything and everyone. Since he is still the holder of the Cat miraculous, the possibility (hence his fear) probably remain.

The way that Gabriel is defeated also resonates a return to season 4 dynamics where Ladybug is doing all the work, while Chat Noir is nowhere to be found (due to his father's control over Adrien).

Now the Monarch is gone, but the fact that Ladybug defeated the Monarch alone means that we're back to a place where Marinette thinks she needs to do everything by herself.

Which is very dangerous, given that the new Butterfly miraculous holder Lila knows that Ladybug and Marinette are the same person, and from her threat to Marinette at the very end of the episode, we know that she won't hold back from attacking her both in civilian and superhero life.

The season finale gives the feeling that Ladybug has won, but if you flip the perspective, you see that Gabriel has also somewhat won: he may have died, but he did accomplish his aim. He was already dying due to the catalysm wound, so this ending is a very positive one for him.

Meanwhile, the real winner here is Lila, who ended up with both the Butterfly Miraculous, and Ladybug's identity out of it. Plus, no one knows that she has these two very crucial gains, so she also has the advantage of information asymmetry.

Whereas Ladybug and Marinette... sure, everything may look fine, if not perfect in the world, but they're actually running out of time. Remember the recurring theme this whole season that "they're running out of time?" Gabriel already ran out of time. Ladynoir had already ran out of time in Jubilation, and their friendship will also likely be impacted by Marinette's secret. But also, once the secret comes out, Adrinette will also run out of time...

Do you actually expect Lila to be a serious treat?

Maybe if they didn't have their Adult powers she would have been, but I don't think she actually is.

Also why would they run out of time?

The main villain in Season 6 is probably going to be all the Love square drama and not Lila, she's moderately effective set dressing as she always has been

I actually adressed your first question in a different post: they may have adult powers now, but also the new Butterfly holder antagonist Lila has a very critical information: Ladybug's identity. And she is sly enough to use that information to make her life a living hell as Marinette.

In a way, i think you're right in saying that the next season will be love square drama, but that drama will be encouraged and utilised by Lila, who has shown to have great capacity at taking her time and plotting in the backgrounds.

About running out of time: it was a running theme in the season: in Jubilation, then in Derision when Adrien says that they have time, and also frequently repeated by Gabriel, who gets a time limit on his life at Destruction. It was very unsettling seeing the entire season characters believe that "they have time" to live a good, dreamy life, and no real conclusion was brought to that theme vis-a-vis Marinette and Adrien. That's why I say that at some point, we're likely to see them run out of time too. Now that I think about it, i'll make a post dedicated to that, to expand more on it :)

Why pool party though? Quite an interesting choice of setting, isn't it? And the way the sun shines and everyhing is light and bubbly and... quite ironically perfect. Even though Ladybug had just told Gabriel that there won't be a perfect solution...

Contrast with all the other times it was sunny, like, I don't knoooow, Jubilation, or Oblivio...

Meanwhile, some of the most real moments we got between the love square blorbos were during night and/or when raining.

I get a feeling that that ending wasn't supposed to be settling. If anything, it was unsettling. But idk maybe it is just me.

and this makes me realise that adrien, even while owning his amok, free of gabriel's orders and expectations, is still living in a world of his father's creation, one where he's a hero, one where he's the ideal to live up to, one where he's absolved of his crimes, with a mother of his father's vision and obsession and since tomoe is still alive, a very high chance of his schemes living on as eco-friendly capitalism. like, he's still not free. he's still not fucking free. his father's shadow still hangs over him with all this happiness around him. this is even worse than the fanon trope of him being ostracised or pitied by paris because gabriel has been outed as a supervillain. what's worse than being branded as a supervillain's son is his abuser being branded as a hero and that everything that he went through because of him to be erased like it never fucking happened.

i like to believe that marinette telling adrien to be himself and not live up to his father's so called heroics required a lot of energy and effort because she's kind of the only one who knows that all of this is fake. this new world is fake. adrien's idea of his father is not real. but adrien still has to fight to be himself because his father unlocked his prison cell but left him with the handcuffs on. (also one of ladybug's lucky charms in this episode.)

Yes!!! I also want to add onto this by pointing out the flowers peppered in the garden, especially in that final Adrienette kiss scene. Considering how everything is (usually, mostly) intentional, I believe their use of wisteria is quite peculiar, even more so in conjunction with the butterflies lingering around.

oh very brilliant. because marinette and adrien are happy and in love. adrien owns his rings and has two mothers in place of his father now. marinette's got a fulfilled superhero team and has got her guardianship back. but the location where adrienette have been showcased to be "living happily ever after" is gabriel's garden. more specifically in the very location where emilie's statue, the object of gabriel's obsession used to lay. the very location we saw adrienette having fun on their date in protection while gabriel was watching over them, ready to strike and break them up. they're still under his wing, under his power, even when the location has been stripped of his physical presence. it's frightening.

Here, have some Gabby abuse

Alright now what's the deal with this "Paris special"? Can someone tell me more about it?

So here’s the synopsis and there’s also a trailer (you can watch it on chatblog009 Insta). We’re probably getting Evil Ladynoir! 😍

what the hell but also this is gonna be interesting because i miss seeing ladynoir on screen

so weird how marinette's nightmare from part 1 is very well on its way to becoming true. of a sort.

the statue of Emilie in the garden was removed, to symbolize that she is no longer looming over the Agreste household, that she no longer will be a metaphorical ghost haunting the halls.......

..... meanwhile, a statue of Gabriel is erected in Paris. a new ghost, haunting the entire city, a new statue looming over adrien's life. a new dead parent that he must mourn and revere, without ever knowing the complete story. a new lie fed to him.

sad and poetic, i think

is it weird that im grieving gabi

i hate him but i loved making fun of him whenever he showed up on screen

its true, he's def immortalised in my memories the way that one kid who dumped a bucket of sand on me in elementary school is

Ladynoir in Bug Noire's design:

I need a break writing other posts so let's talk about a detaile I appreciate so freaking much about Bug Noire’s design:

This entire design SCREAMS how much Marinette wished Chat Noir were with her right now and how much she needed him (which she absolutely did, she fucking LOST.)

Chat Noir is with her as the legs that carry her, the shoulders and arms that support and steady her.

In her eyes while she keeps wearing her normal mask, so that when Monarque looks her in the eyes he not only sees her as Ladybug she's also pircing him with every eye-contact with one of Chat Noir's most distinguishing featurs: his green non-human eyes. And it's noteworthy that here it's of crucial importance that her mask and eyes do NOT combine the two miraculous as the rest of her outfit does. Cause now every time Gabriel looks in her eyes she's making him ackowledge them as seperate individuals.

Marinette is not just standing here as Bug Noire for herself, she's also representing her partner who she lost to Gabriel and wants to get back:

Which - if I may point out - is extremely relevant in this fight because Marinette just saw how badly Gabriel treated Nathalie who then met her end right in front of Marinette because she sacrificed her life and health to help him as Mayura:

Ladybug and Hawkmoth BOTH lost their partners that day but only ONE of them honored hers in this last battle because Marinette ackowledges that she wouldnt have gotten this far without Chat Noir, meanwhile Gabriel in the end basically completely disregarded Nathalie and everything she ever did for him.

But let's continue.

Chat's in her ears that have his green all around on its borders because she most likely can hardly imagine him without his extra ears on his head (Mister Bug being the only rare exception), and then topped it off with a hair style reminding of her Lady Noire hair.

And in the weapons she fought with. Bug Noire fought so much more with Chat's baton than with her own yo-yo which she also colored exclusively in his colors while only changing the footprint color to her red. The yoyo accurately represents Chat's colors (mainly black) while for the baton the main colore should have ben red to represent her suit (but I get why they didnt to that. Not only is she here wearing her suit and red as her main color, it also wouldnt have fit very well overall)

And the weapon with which she hit the butterfly miraculous off of Gabriel was the baton too. The fight choreography took so much care to have Marinette include Chat's baton and cataclysm as much as possible. She didn't just wore both of the miraculous, she fought for the BOTH of them. Using Chat's things so often because thats all she has left of him right now and incorporating him so crucially into her suit design that it's heartbreaking. She literally projected the support Chat gives her onto her suit design because she wished so BADLY that he was by her side right now.

i had a gd heart attack at this before i realized that she's wearing BLACK, and black is AMELIE'S colors 😭😭 Emilie wears white, Amelie wears black. That's how they've always been differentiated, and since every character is here, it makes sense that Amelie would be, too. But we only see one twin.

Also, notably, she is shown in the shot right after Felix is shown

I think Gabriel's wish simply transferred Nathalie's illness to himself, killing him and saving Nathalie. This is why there weren't any sudden deaths or illnesses to account for in the ending— Gabriel took Nathalie's illness. That's all. No other balances to account for.

And this shot is Gabriel essentially deciding to "join" Emilie in "heaven" (you get what I mean)

After he watched the video of Emilie saying she didn't want to be revived, Gabriel took it to heart. He didn't revive her. He simply joined her.

ok just one thing and i'll go back to sleep i swear: this is just the scarf situation but on a much bigger scale: marinette hiding something fucked up that gabriel did so adrien has a chance at being happy.

Look, I loved the episode, but I have a question:

Where was Chat Noir while Ladybug was fighting the Monarch literally all alone?

Yes yes, in a cell in London, but like, why make this narrative choice?

Weren't Ladybug and Chat Noir partners? Wasn't the entire season 4 about Ladybug trying to act as the only one responsible of everything and failing? Didn't they establish in Strike Back that Ladybug needed Chat Noir's support?

Why omit all that now?

I love to see a gender roles reversal in the damsel in distress trope, but I'd love more to see Chat Noir actually somewhere in the finale too.