History Fanfic / CrumblingDown

--->'''Chat Noir''': Bad Ladybug.
--->'''Ladybug''': Bad Chat Noir.

* BigSisterInstinct: When Nora sees how upset Alya is, she threatens to beat up whoever caused it and had also warned her to stay away from Lila.

** After their mutual identity reveal, Marinette and Adrien end up confessing their less than stellar actions during Copycat. While they are upset with each other, they agree to let it go, since they both acknowledge they acted stupid and regret what they did, and enough time has passed that they can see the humor in how much trouble could have been avoided if they were honest from the beginning. Cue the pair giving each other a brief parody of a scolding:
---> '''Chat Noir''': Bad Ladybug.
---> '''Ladybug''': Bad Chat Noir.
---> '''Both''': Don't do it again! (''uncontrollable laughter'')

** Nathaniel and Marc are explicitly in a romantic relationship. Though both are confirmed in canon to be LGBT+ and romantically interested in each other, they are not offically confirmed to be dating.

* BewareTheNiceOnes / BewareTheQuietOnes: Noted with some characters like Adrien, Rose, Juleka and Nathaniel. Lila's true character provokes them to moments where they show hints of a genuinely scary darker nature. The latter two are noted as having noticed off things about Lila because their quiet nature makes them both easily overlooked and keenly observant.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Kim. His first conclusion to a mysterious invitation to Chloé's hotel by Adrien, Marinette, Alya and Nino was that they were planning to kill and replace them all with clones, which causes his boyfriend Max to FacePalm in embarrassment.

* DeconstructionFic: Of the Salt Fic genre. It follows the FandomSpecificPlot of Lila being on top and manipulating everyone against Marinette at the start, but quickly goes in another direction from there. It does not engage in character bashing with the exception of Lila and subverts the typical demonisation of the characters in other salt fics. In turn, this fanfic is also a {{Reconstruction}} of the pre-Season 3 status quo.
** Alya; is taken in by Lila at the start and has distanced herself from Marinette, believing her to be simply jealous of Lila, but she is the first one to realize Lila's true nature when she sees her pushing a wall onto Ladybug whilst filming an akuma battle and is horrified when it sinks in that not only did she not believe her best friend, she posted lies on her beloved Ladyblog. Alya is the first one to set the plot in motion by researching Lila's lies and going to Marinette to apologize, both accepting the truth and expecting her best friend to not forgive her. This is in contrast to Salt Alya, who is a gullible, mean and spiteful harpy who hangs onto Lila like a limpet, treats every word she says as gospel and refuses to accept the truth even when it's hitting her in the face.
** Adrien; initially maintains his "high road" approach to Lila, but this changes when he finds out about both Lila's continued bullying of Marinette and her murder attempt on Ladybug. Usually depicted in salt fics as being spineless, selfish and entitled to Ladybug and Marinette's feelings, here Adrien is horrified at what his naivety almost cost his friends and Ladybug and throws himself into taking down Lila. The author points out that Adrien did not have all the facts with Lila and Marinette, thinking that Lila was just telling stories for attention and not that she would do it to bully and hurt Marinette, and it is said in-story that Adrien would never have given that advice had he known the full picture. He does have one brief moment of annoyance and entitlement when Ladybug still refuses to date him despite their mutual identity reveal, but he calms down and accepts it when she points out that it is still too dangerous with Hawk Moth around because he would exploit it readily to weaken them.
** Miss Bustier's class; usually depicted as turning on Marinette at the drop of a hat despite their friendship to flock to Lila for being more interesting, they are depicted here as being caught between the two's accusations of lying and bullying and not knowing who to believe, though Nathaniel and Juleka both reveal suspicions about Lila due to cracks in her facade when she thought they weren't looking. When they are shown evidence of Lila's true character, all of them immediately throw themselves behind the anti-Lila effort.
** Miss Bustier; like Marinette's classmates, she's often depicted as believing Lila's lies and happily punishing Marinette for the smallest offenses without giving her the chance to explain herself, here Miss Bustier believes Lila's lies without checking them because she genuinely thinks all her students are trustworthy kids, can't imagine that somebody would feign disabilities to get preferential treatment, and in general, her desire to be seen as a CoolTeacher makes her act unprofessional at times. She's also horrified when she learns how much she screwed up by being so trusting of Lila and not trusting enough of Marinette, who she considers her best student.
** Marinette; usually depicted as being bitter about her friends not instantly believing her about Lila and content to let them sink on their own, here she forgives them and tells them that she was only looking out for them as she didn't want them to be hurt by Lila's lies, though she does specify that she was a bit hurt that they didn't hear her out.
** Lila; her influence over the class and the school is usually hyper-inflated to the extent that she can have people beat up Marinette and then get her blamed and punished for it. Here she is not at all infallible, with her lies about Marinette being doubted and slipping up big time in trying to murder Ladybug which is caught on film by Alya, resulting in a slow spiral of doom.

* DistractedByTheSexy: Max's attempted analysis of the situation with Lila is complicated when his boyfriend Kim rips off his hoodie in a rage and is left barechested, distracting him until Kim covers up with a blanket.

* ForWantOfANail: Lila attempted to kill Ladybug, not noticing that Alya was there, too, and was filming the whole time. After finally seeing [[BitchInSheepsClothing Lila's true colors]], Alya shows the film to all her friends, who then disprove Lila's claims and dig up her past through research. Then, they show the films to their superiors, like their teachers or IntrepidReporter Nadja Chamack, or to their parents who have power in Paris, like Chloé's father Mayor Bourgeois and Sabrina's dad police lieutenant Roger Raincomprix. Lila is exposed on live TV with the footage and her class's research. Gabriel fires her, sues her, then sends her an akuma only so he can gloat to her as Hawk Moth that she outlived her usefulness to him and he's dropping her as an ally. Lila is brought to court, successfully convicted for her many crimes, and deported back to Italy where she spends the rest of her life caged, as she still refuses to change her selfish ways, landing her in solitary confinement in the DistantFinale, still dreaming of her escape and revenge against all who exposed her. All this because she FailedASpotCheck.

* FourIsDeath: As part of her plan to keep Lila from getting suspicious while the class plots her downfall, Marinette gives Lila a scarf that symbolically represets bad luck in every way possible, including the Chinese character for four embroidered all over it. Lila doesn't know a word of Chinese, so this goes right over her head.

* InternalReveal: Kagami reveals to the class that Lila manipulated her into trying to kill Ladybug when she was akumatized into Oni-Chan, recalling some of her memories from that time, and regretting that she never informed Ladybug of it so she would be more on-guard around Lila. Marinette, being Ladybug, makes a note to visit Kagami as her hero self to assure her that she doesn't blame her for it.

** Downplayed for Audrey Bourgeios; she's a PoliticallyIncorrectVillain and abusive mother who is completely disdainful of everyone around her, and while she isn't taken to task for any of these things, she does endure some well-deserved humiliation when [[spoiler:Edna Mode]] calls her up and publicly dresses her down for some scathing comments she made about the latter's fashions.

** The rest of the class reacts in the same way once it becomes clear that Alya, Marinette, Nino and Adrien are telling the truth.

* PapaWolf: Zigzagged by Gabriel. He initially has trouble believing Adrien about just how bad Lila is. Then he learns about [[spoiler: her threatening to rape him]] and demands to know why they aren't exposing her right then and there. It even carries over into his Hawk Moth persona, where he deliberately engineers a situation where Lila grabs his akuma and reveals her past instances of doing so on live camera, before withdrawing the akuma so she can't hurt anyone or escape using powers. The author specifically notes that Gabriel might not have been willing to double-cross Lila in this fashion had he not known about the [[spoiler: rape threat]]. However, he still persists with his quest to get the Miraculouses even after Nooroo informs him that the wish might kill Adrien as a price.

** Mrs. Rossi is this. When Lieutenant Roger shows up and informs her of the situation with her daughter, she is naturally doubtful but also willing to hear him out and then decides to go and see for herself. When the truth is made clear, she is naturally heartbroken and horrified but does not stand in the way of Lila's arrest, trial and imprisonment because to do so would be an abuse of power, downright illegal and pointless anyway since her authority and position are temporarily revoked for just that reason.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Ms. Mendeleiev gives an admittedly deserved one to Miss Bustier and Mr. Damocles for not doing their jobs properly (such as not demanding evidence of Lila's claims of disabilities/injuries, like a doctor's note, or checking with her parents regarding her prolonged absences) and taking Lila's words at face value. She also points out the sheer absurdity of believing that a student with such a squeaky clean reputation like Marinette would engage in bullying, theft and physical violence. Though she softens it at the end by saying that she doesn't think they're bad people who did it out of malice, but need to start acting in a more professional manner.

** Marinette isn't dating Adrien at that point, but when she learns about [[spoiler: the rape threat]], she gets right up in Lila's face and Lila admits that she did look rather scary - and later gives her a MegatonPunch.
** Chloé also isn't dating Adrien, but is not happy to learn about what Lila's been saying and doing to him, at one point ranting about having Lila chopped up and fed to dogs.

** Nino is a successful DJ and aspiring movie producer and has taken up weight lifting as a hobby.

** Kim has Olympics swimming aspirations.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Hawk Moth sends an akuma Lila's way, knowing she'll grab it, just so he can gloat to her personally as his villain self about how he is discarding her now that she's exposed. He does this just when she's been exposed on live TV, hit with multiple lawsuits and about to be arrested for aiding him. Clearly, he's trying to [[PayEvilUntoEvil rub salt in the wound]] for her assaulting and harassing his son, plus desecrating the memory of his late wife.

* TheRevealPromptsRomance: Subverted. When Marinette and Adrien learn each other's identities, they openly acknowledge their mutual attraction, but Ladybug maintains (and Chat agrees after hearing her out) that starting to date could give Hawk Moth leverage against them and would put them both in danger if one of their identities is ever made public. They ultimately agree to stay JustFriends for the time being and wait to pursue a RelationshipUpgrade until after Hawk Moth is dealt with.
* RuleOfSymbolism: While in the planning stages of Lila's doom, Marinette gives Lila a scarf as an "apology" gift. Unknown to Lila, the entire scarf is designed to bring bad luck, with embroidery invoking FourIsDeath and the colors -- black and white -- also being considered deeply unlucky in Chinese culture. Even the name Marinette gives it (a ''huan'') is really a Chinese word that refers to a hangman's noose, which aligns with how the class is planning to (metaphorically) give Lila the rope to hang herself with. Fittingly, Lila later publicly exposes herself as an ally of Hawk Moth by forcing an akuma into the scarf, [[spoiler:only to be told that YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness and have the akuma withdrawn. When Lila tries to chase the butterfly, Marinette grabs the scarf and yanks her back hard enough to choke her with it.]]

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When Adrien accidentally calls Ms. Mendeleiev "[[Literature/HarryPotter Professor McGonagall]]" out loud, Mendeleiev replies with "Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Agreste." Needless to say, the class is surprised to see how the resident SternTeacher took a joke at her expense so well.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: The author freely admits to having no knowledge of how the French legal system works and just throwing together a standard court scene for Lila's trial; at the very least, they don't make it a KangarooCourt.

** What the fic slowly builds up to for Lila. She has all her lies exposed on ''live TV'', along with her murder attempt, gets filmed trying to seize an Akuma, shipped back to Italy in chains and no one believes anything she says ever again.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Hawk Moth sends an akuma Lila's way, knowing she'll grab it, just so he can gloat to her personally as his villain self about how he is discarding her now that she's exposed. He does this just when she's been exposed on live TV, hit with multiple lawsuits and about to be arrested for aiding him. Clearly, he's trying to [[KickTheSonOfABitch rub salt in the wound]] for her assaulting and harassing his son, plus desecrating the memory of his late wife.

** Marinette is a highly popular fashion designer working under [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles Edna Mode]] and she is now in a happy relationship with Adrien.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The second chapter has the line "and that's usually when [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles the cape snags on a missile fin]]", hinting at [[spoiler:the appearance of Edna Mode in the epilogue.]]

* ArtisticLicenseLaw:
** The author freely admits having no knowledge of how the French legal system works and just throwing together a standard court scene for Lila's trial, though they do not make it a KangarooCourt either.

** Later, when Kagami tells the class about what happened during the Oni-chan incident, Mylène asks, "Who is this girl? The fucking Anti-Christ?"

* AnAxeToGrind: Alix, with a fire axe she liberated from the Grand Paris hotel and fully intends to use on Lila before Marinette talks her down. It's mentioned later on that she makes a habit of throwing it at pictures of Lila to vent some anger, and she ends up incorporating it into her Bunnyx outfit.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Hawk Moth sends an akuma Lila's way, knowing she'll grab it, just so he can gloat to her personally as his villain self about how he is discarding her now that she's exposed. He does this just when she's been exposed on live TV, hit with multiple lawsuits and about to be arrested for aiding him. Clearly, he's trying to [[KickTheSonOfABitch rub salt in the wound]] for her assaulting and harassing his son, plus desecrating the memory of his late wife.

Lila Rossi has it all at her school, mostly thanks to the neverending stream of lies that she utters to draw in and maintain her popularity. But unlike everyone else in Paris, she has a burning hatred for the superheroine Ladybug, one of the few people to see through and call her out on her bull***. So when she is caught up in an akuma attack and sees a large section of crumbling wall above where Ladybug happens to be standing, she takes advantage of this opportunity and pushes it onto her, almost resulting in a victory for Hawk Moth. Lila is frustrated that she failed to actually kill Ladybug, but takes solace in the fact that she did hurt her… unaware that the whole thing was caught on camera by Alya Césaire. Karma is not mocked, Lila Rossi, and she's gunning for you.

* GetOut: A variant occurs at [[spoiler: Adrien's mother's funeral. When his aunt and cousin show up, he simply throws his parents' rings at them (the reason they were actually there) and slams the door in the faces]].