Characters / Miraculous Ladybug: Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Miraculous Ladybug Main Character Index
Heroes (Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Adrien Agreste, Team Miraculous, Félix Fathom, United HeroeZ) | Kwamis | School Characters | Villains (Hawk Moth, Akumatized Villains – Season 1, Akumatized Villains – Season 2, Akumatized Villains – Season 3, Akumatized Villains – Season 4, Akumatized Villains - Season 5, Amokized Sentimonsters) | Assorted Civilians

Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug/Lady Noire/Multimouse/Multibug/Multinoir/Multifox/Dragon Bug/Lady Bee/Pega Bug/Pennybug/Ladyfly/Bug Noire

The Girl Who Can Fix Everything

Akumatized forms: Princess Justice (incomplete), Unmasker (incomplete), Panic (incomplete)

Kamikotized form: Ladybiquity (Ladybug)

"Tikki, spots on!"

^Ladybug

^{Lady Noire}

^Multimouse

^{Dragon Bug}

^{Lady Bee}

^Pegabug

^Pennybug

Voiced by: Anouck Hautbois (FR), Cristina Valenzuela (EN), ^{Foreign VAs} 여 민정/Yeo Min-jeong (KOR), Aya Hamza/آية حمزة (ARA), Guiomar Alburquerque and Laura Pastor (SP, Season 1 and 2, respectively), Jessica Ángeles (MEX), Sapir Darmon/ספיר דרמון (HEB), Adrienn Pekár (HUN), Marta Dobecka (P), Carla Garcia (EP), Jessica Vieira (BP), Anna Isbäck (SW), Valeria Stoianu (ROM), Letizia Scifoni (ITA), Damla Babacan (TUR), Darya Frolova/Дарья Фролова (RUS), Rozita Erbanová and Anežka Saicová (CZE; Season 1 and Christmas Special/Season 2, respectively), Nadežhda Panayotova/Надежда Панайотова (BUL), Lydia Morgenstern (GER), Charlotte Hellebostad (NOR), Karin Nanami (JP), Marija Stokić (SER), Zrinka Antičević (CRO), Suela Xhonuzi (ALB), Lis Kurniasih (IND), Hanna Sobolyeva/Ганна Соболєва and Yuliya Perenchuk/Юлія Перенчук (UKR, voice-over and dubbing, respectively)

"Every day I think about how lucky I am to live in Paris, and I'm even luckier to get to see all those places through Ladybug's eyes."

The protagonist, a teenage girl and aspiring fashion designer who lives with her parents over a successful Parisian bakery. At school, Marinette is friendly, if self-effacing (especially around her crush, Adrien) but has a knack for leadership, and is well-liked by most of her classmates and peers. When danger threatens Paris, Marinette rushes to the rescue, using her magic earrings to transform into Ladybug!

As Ladybug, she's much more confident and assured. She's a clever and skilled fighter but is still working out some ethical knots, like where lies the line between personal and superhero life.

She's Master Fu's student and closest aid in the fight against Hawk Moth, tending to go to him for advice when necessary and, if needed, being the one to grant a Miraculous to another person to temporarily help with the current problem at hand.

---

#-F

• Abandoned Catchphrase: Early in the show, Marinette had a tendency to say "A [thing]? What am I supposed to do with this?" after she got whatever random junk her Lucky Charm decided to provide her in order to defeat the latest villain. She eventually drops this altogether in later seasons, as by then she's gotten used to the idea that she'll have to think outside the box to make this work.
• Action Girl: She is the main heroine of the setting and she has defeated countless villains across her career with nothing but her yo-yo, quick-thinking and acrobatic martial art moves.
• The Adjectival Superhero: "Miraculous Ladybug".
• Aesop Amnesia: Generally her lying and tricks result in akumatizations (Befana, Anansi, Bakerix) but since it all turns out well in the end she never seems to learn. More prominently her attitude toward Kagami took a nosedive after Frozer and didn't get better until Ikari Gozen.
• Affectionate Nickname: Cat Noir tends to refer to her as either "bugaboo" or "my lady". She doesn't like the first one much.
  • He uses "Buguinette" in the original French version, which doesn't carry any of the unpleasant associations of "bugaboo" (see Embarrassing Nickname below). It still comes off as quite ridiculous and dorky.
• All Your Powers Combined:
  • In "Kwamibuster", she uses sixteen different Miraculouses at once ^note of the known nineteen, the only ones she doesn't use are the Moth, Peacock (both held by the villains), and Turtle (kept by Master Fu).. That being said, she only uses the powers of the Mouse, Fox, Cat, and Ladybug.
  • After becoming the Guardian, Ladybug gains the ability to summon any of the Miraculouses to herself through her yo-yo. While she has loaned out the Miraculouses to their respective holders this way, circumstance or practicality has meant Ladybug has just as often used the Miraculouses herself. In terms of wearing and activating the Miraculouses, Marinette takes the cake having used the Ladybug, Cat, Mouse, Fox, Bee, Dragon, Horse, and Rabbit at various points.
• Animal Motif: Beetles, specifically ladybugs and scarabs. Scarabs are symbolic of creation and ladybugs of both regeneration and good luck, fitting with both the creation-based abilities of the Ladybug Miraculous and Marinette's talents as a novice fashion designer.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing:
  • Ladybugs, specifically.
  • Her aquatic version trades this for carp motifs.
  • As Multimouse, she has a mouse motif.
  • As Lady Noir, she has a black cat motif.
• Ascended Fangirl:
  • She's a big fan of Jagged Stone, and is predictably delighted when he commissions her to design the cover of his next album.
  • She's a big fan of Gabriel Agreste's fashion line and was able to impress him with her hat design.
• Asian and Nerdy: Downplayed. She's biracial, being Chinese on her mother's side. She's also a proficient gamer.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: While her "Lucky Charm" gives her the item to defeat the akumatized victim, Ladybug herself has to look around and figure out how to use whatever random piece of junk she was just given, in a sequence reminiscent of Action Man (2000) and its eponymous hero's AMP Factor ability. "Oblivio" shows that this isn't one of Ladybug's superpowers but rather an ability Marinette herself has. Which is most likely why she was chosen to be Ladybug in the first place.
• Back from the Dead: Not her herself, but according to Word of God, her Miraculous Ladybug power can restore anyone killed in a battle with an akuma back to life.
• Badly Battered Babysitter: At the beginning of "Stormy Weather", Marinette is having a hard time preventing little Manon from wreaking havoc on her home.
• Bat Deduction: Some of her more convoluted plans can veer into this, especially when they involve details that she logically couldn't have predicted.
• Beautiful Dreamer: According to Adrien, in "Startrain". He goes so far as to join her.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Ladybug's insistence that Cat Noir back down from flirting with her in the fourth season came back to bite her in season 5 when she falls in love with Cat Noir, who outright says in "Elation" that he only loves her as a friend now.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  • "Origins" reveal that the reason she and Alya are best friends is because Alya stood up for Marinette when she was getting bullied by Chloé.
  • Marinette didn't like Adrien at first when she caught him cleaning up the chewing gum that Chloé had intended to put in her seat, assuming he was in on the prank. However, the next day, Adrien offers her his umbrella and explains what had happened. After seeing how kind he was, Marinette immediately falls for him, signified with stammering.
  • She starts to see Luka as a romantic option in "Captain Hardrock" because he apologized to her after making fun (in a non-malicious way) of her stuttering, gave her his Jagged Stone guitar pick, and complimented her bravery to Ladybug.
• Beneath the Mask: Much more Downplayed than Cat Noir since Marinette's just more confident and assertive when she's become Ladybug. However, the "Sandboy" still makes her of two minds from on and off the Ladybug job since her nightmare as Marinette is Adrien declaring his love for Chloé while her nightmare as Ladybug is losing her powers.
• Berserk Button: Zigzagged. Despite having to lie herself to cover her double life as Ladybug, she states that she hates liars, especially those that lie to get close to Adrien. Cue Marinette, as Ladybug, calling Lila out big time in front of Adrien and resulting in Lila's akumatization.
• Betty and Veronica:
  • She primarily serves as the Betty to Chloé's Veronica for Adrien's Archie. She ends up successful.
  • In Season 3, she's the Betty to Kagami's Veronica to Adrien's Archie. She's successful yet again.
  • On the other side of things, she's the Archie to Adrien's Betty and Luka's Veronica where Adrien eventually comes on top.
• Beware the Nice Ones: While Marinette is very sweet and considerate, she can be scary when pushed.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: Marinette has to deal with her grandmother getting akumatized on her 14th birthday in "La Befana".
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Inverted since she's a hero. A couple of times early in Season 5, she has Monarch dead to rights, but wastes enough time gloating and explaining her heroic plan that he has enough time to figure out a way to escape.
• Braids of Action: As Lady Noire, she sports a floor-length braid.
• Brainy Brunette: Zigzagged. Her hair is colored blue, but is described as black In-Universe. Either way, Marinette is still an intelligent girl who regularly saves the day with a single Lucky Charm item and MacGyvering a use with it.
• Break the Cutie: The finale of Season 3 and the first few episodes of Season 4 are one long Trauma Conga Line for Marinette.
  • In "Heart Hunter" and "Miracle Queen", she lets go of Adrien so he can be with Kagami, accidentally leads Hawk Moth and Mayura to Master Fu, and becomes the new Guardian when Fu passes the Miracle Box on to her, an act which erases his memories of the Miraculouses (and since his life since childhood has revolved around the Miraculouses, Fu forgets pretty much everything).
  • "Truth" sees her budding relationship with Luka crumble because of the strain of leading a double life and Marinette despairing that as long as Shadow Moth is around she has no agency over her life. "Gang of Secrets" likewise shows how her strained her relationship with her friends has become, and how Marinette spends most of her downtime alone, crying.
  • In "Furious Fu", she's so defeated by her inability to stop Hawk Moth that she considers giving the Miracle Box to Su-Han, knowing that doing so will erase her memories of the past year or so (i.e. of her ever being Ladybug, meeting Alya and Adrien, etc). Thankfully, Cat Noir snaps her out of it.
  • In "Strikeback", the S4 finale, she lost all the Miraculous to Shadow Moth due to being unable to realise that she entrusted the Dog Miraculous and info about her access to the Miracle Box to Félix disguised as Adrien until it was too late. With consequences as huge as that, she gives up pursuing Adrien for everyone's sake.
• Building Swing: She can do this by throwing her yo-yo and swinging, as a Spider-Man Send-Up should be able to.
• But Not Too Foreign: Marinette's mother is Chinese, while her father is French-Italian. You wouldn't be able to tell she's partially ethnically Chinese from her appearance, nor from her clothes, unless counting the flowers on her T-shirt which lightly evoke traditional chinese paintings, and that would be stretching things quite a bit.
• Butt-Monkey: Downplayed Trope. While most of the show's slapstick humor comes at her expense and the universe seems to actively cause her to be clumsy and to prevent her from confessing to Adrien in multiple ways ("Cat Blanc" being the most spectacular example), she usually accomplishes her other goals before the episode ends.
• Cannot Spit It Out: She goes into either a Gibberish of Love or Motor Mouth when around Adrien, only managing to say what she wants with help from Alya, but otherwise keeps her feelings hidden. She also paradoxically seems to prefer Adrien not knowing she loves him if the possibility he might have figured it on his own comes up. "Simpleman" has her admit to herself and Tikki that her Complexity Addiction while trying to romance Adrien is out of the fear of getting rejected if she actually tries to be straight with him… and then she tries to tell him she loves him plainly only to find she is unable again to say the words correctly. Part of why she is unable to tell him is because a year prior to the series she told Kim she liked him, he played a cruel prank on her on Chloé's advice after she had tormented Marinette for years. This led to her being a lot more guarded with her feelings.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin':
  • Many of her moments of weakness implode spectacularly in her face. For example, defending herself from one of Chloé's false accusations gets her labelled no better than her, while calling out Lila for her Celebrity Lie gets her akumatized.
  • Tikki and Master Fu more than once warn Marinette that she shouldn't use her Miraculous for personal gain. It always ends up in catastrophe, the most spectacular one being in "Cat Blanc".
  • It extends beyond the simple use of her own Miraculous. Even before being the new Guardian, choosing/calling a Miraculous holder to get a personal advantage always backfires big time. Cases in point:
    • In "Heart Hunter", instead of teaming up with Chloé (who rightfully points out she should be called as it's HER parents who got akumatized after all), Ladybug literaly abducts Kagami to drive her away from Adrien while the two were sharing a sweet moment. And she does it even after Fu expressed doubt about the Dragon being the right Miraculous for the task. This leads directly to Queen Bee's akumatization and treason. And indirectly to the revelation of the real identity of the others holders of Miraculouses (sans Adrien); Master Fu entrusting her with the Miracle Box, thus erasing his memories ; and Hawk Moth and Mayuri getting their hands on a digital copy of the Book of the Guardian. Chloé ends up as the enemy of Ladybug, this time for good.
    • The two times she gave a Miraculous to Adrien (not Cat Noir) with little and questionable reasoning, it ends up as big failures. When she gives him the Snake Miraculous, "Aspik" accomplishes nothing as he is too distracted trying to woo Ladybug. When she gives the Dog Miraculous to "Adrien" (in fact his first cousin Félix), it causes a Near-Villain Victory: Shadow Moth seizes all of the Miraculous, save for Marinette's and Cat Noir's.
• Character Catchphrase: She has a few, not counting her transformation call.
  • She'll sometimes use "Bug out!" as a means of exiting.
  • In the first two episodes only, she'd mark breaking the akumatized object by saying "get out of here, you nasty bug".
  • When deakumatizing the akuma, she'll always say these phrases in the exact order:
    • "Tu as assez fait de mal comme ça, petit Akuma." / "No more evil doing for you, little Akuma."
    • "Je te libère du mal !" / Time to de-evilize!"
    • "J't'ai eu !" / "Gotcha!"
    • "Bye bye, petit papillon." / "Bye-bye, little butterfly."
  • She has a tendency to yell "THIS IS A DISASTER!!" ("C'est la CATA !", "cata" being "catastrophe" shortened) when in a state of panic.
• Character Development: Zig-zagged.
  • Retroactive, but the "Origins" episodes show that she had low confidence and would let Chloé do whatever she wanted. As the present timeline shows, she becomes a more assertive person.
  • When it comes to her crush on Adrien, Marinette can be skewed in her decision making as she will often abuse her powers just to keep other girls away from him. This catches up to her in "Volpina", as her jealousy of Lila lying about their "relationship" just to get close to Adrien, leads Marinette to transform as Ladybug just to reveal Lila's lies in an inappropriate manner which not only gets her called out by Adrien but also causes Lila's Akumatization. Fast-forward to "Riposte" as Adrien shows mild attraction to fellow fencing peer Kagami, and while Marinette is expectedly jealous of their interactions, she manages to control her jealousy in a more mature manner and thus becomes friends with her.
  • After every previous attempts at exposing Lila backfired, by the time of "Penalteam", Marinette kept her grievances with her to herself.
    • When the time came to expose Lila for her lies in "Confrontation", she did so by showing it to her friends and classmates rather than just telling them which, again, had previously always backfired.
  • Having spend the previous season keeping Cat Noir Locked Out of the Loop and at a distance treating him as just another member of her superhero team, in the season 5 premiere, she gives him the powerful Bunny-Miraculous instead of taking it herself showing her trust in him as an equal.
  • In the season 4 finale, after her blind love for Adrien resulted in Shadow Moth getting most Miraculous, Marinette decides in "Multiplication" that she can't be in love with Adrien anymore as it puts things at risk. Then, a few episodes later in "Determination" , when he calls her to meet up with her to talk about his feelings for her, she initially tries to avoid it.
• Chef of Iron: A secret superhero who is noted to be an excellent baker.
• The Chooser of the One:
  • During certain missions, Ladybug's Lucky Charm doesn't provide her with a tool to defeat the villain but tells Ladybug this time she needs help at which point she goes to Master Fu who entrusts her with a Miraculous and allows her to choose a temporary wielder.
  • In "Backwarder", Master Fu reveals he intends for the Miracle Box to go to Marinette when he dies (which he thinks is imminent due to some mild indigestion) and she will become the next Guardian. In "Feast", he reiterates that he intends to train her to be the next Guardian, though he no longer believes his death is imminent. This eventually comes to pass in the season 3 finale, though Fu is merely robbed of his memory instead of killed.
• Clark Kenting: She wears a mask, and has hair and eyes a shade lighter, and that's about it. And, like Superman, she has a close friend that desperately wants to know Ladybug's identity, but never connects the dots until she tells her. It's later explained in the New York special that the transformation comes with a Perception Filter that helps mask any similarities those familiar with the person might notice.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Marinette struggles with her self-confidence, and it was even worse before she became a Miraculous holder.
• Class Princess: Marinette is beloved by almost everyone in her class for her willingness to help others and stand up to Chloé's tyranny.
• Class Representative: Became her class' representative in "Darkblade". Unfortunately, she ends up losing this position to Lila and Chloé in "Revelation".
• Clingy Costume: A positive example, since it protects her Secret Identity: if anyone attempts to unmask her by simply pulling, it seems to be super glued to her skin. The only way to get it to turn loose is to either remove her earrings or wait for the time limit to run out after she's used her Lucky Charm.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She doesn't mind Adrien hanging around girls...as long as the girls don't have an interest in him and give off bad vibes. She will however take brash actions if she sees anyone really push hard when it comes to getting close to Adrien, such as when she summoned a record through Lucky Charm to interrupt a slow dance song Chloé requested from The Bubbler's at Adrien's birthday party.
  • Subtle, but she becomes somewhat angry about Cat Noir supposedly changing his feelings to her instead of Ladybug, which is essentially Marinette getting jealous of herself.
  • However, in "Animaestro", Chloé uses their shared jealousy towards Kagami to convince Marinette to try keeping Kagami away from Adrien by publicly humiliating her. The only reason they're unsuccessful is because of external factors- Marinette only changed her mind after they had already failed. Somewhat downplayed in this case: Marinette had previously helped Adrien and Kagami go on a date together, and had not tried to interfere. Here, Chloé used Marinette's tendency to spiral against her and told Marinette that if Adrien dated Kagami, then he would move away to Japan and they would never see him again.
  • In "Oni-Chan", Marinette spies on, chases after, and attempts to see into Adrien's bedroom when he and Lila interact. Though in this case, she might have been equally worried about Lila's villainous tendencies, since Marinette had already seen Lila's true colors more than once, while Adrien was still making excuses for Lila's lies.
  • In "Ikari Gozen", it's Subverted. She's paired with Kagami in a treasure hunt race which goal is to find and meet Adrien. Acting on her jealousy and self-confidence issues (as for her Kagami is better than her at pretty much everything: "She's beautiful, smart, a great fencer[...]"), she first refuses to work with the latter. Then she goes for sabotaging their partnership in fear of Kagami taking the spotlight in Adrien's eyes, if Marinette and Kagami were ever to win. (Un)fortunately, Kagami is too smart and motivated to fall for Marinette's poor traps. It's only after Marinette discovers through Kagami's cell phone the latter's Friendless Background and use of an app to try and befriend her that Marinette has a My God, What Have I Done? moment. They don't win the game, but nevertheless become friends at the end of the episode.
• Clueless Dude Magnet: Marinette is completely unaware of how a few guys find her attractive, either as herself or as Ladybug. As revealed in "Copycat", she doesn't even seem to think Cat Noir actually has feelings for her.
• Color Motifs:
  • Pink — It's her main color scheme in her civilian attire and the color can represent femininity and love.
  • Red and black — Her main color scheme as Ladybug, to match her animal-themed Miraculous. Both colors can represent power and leadership.
• Complexity Addiction: Coupled with Zany Scheme. A recurring theme with Marinette is that she will always come with the most complicated explanations and plans to accomplish simple tasks. For instance, Kwami Buster takes the gold when Marinette comes up with an over-elaborate ruse to hide her secret identity from Cat Noir by getting "Marinette" and "Ladybug" to interact with each other. (To really hammer it in, it's immediately contrasted with Cat Noir's far simpler measure of making himself look like he doesn't know anything about their high school by blatantly misidentifying it as an elementary school.) It generally backfires on her when she isn't Ladybug, and will surely fail if her objective involves Adrien in some capacity.
• Consummate Professional: As Ladybug, she'd rather stay focused on the task at hand than flirt, joke, or indulge in celebrity fame while in costume.
• Control Freak: Marinette has a tendency to try to control all aspects of a situation, especially when stressed or afraid of uncertainty. This is revealed in the fifth season to be a defense mechanism caused by the incident caused by Chloé that pyschologically scarred her.
  • In "Glaciator 2", Marinette admits that when things are really important to her, she get so scared that it won't work out that she can't help trying to control every possible outcome.
  • In "Kuro Neko" this comes full force. Ladybug's constantly impatient and dismissive toward Cat Noir due to The Chains of Commanding being the Guardian of the Miraculous, yet she also won't let him share the burden and help her distribute or collect other Miraculouses.
  • Her tendency to do everything on her own and not allow anyone to help her with the Miraculouses ends up biting her back in the season 4 finale. Since if she had accepted Cat Noir's help, she would have saved at least some of the Miraculouses.
• Costume Evolution: In season 4, she learns how to create anti-akuma charms. This comes with a change in costume, inverting her color scheme around her waist and gloves, adding a zipper down the front, and a slightly lower neckline. After the first instance, it's integrated with her Lucky Charm, allowing her to cover both bases at once.
• Covert Pervert: In "Simon Says", Marinette goes into a dream-like state when she thinks Adrien is in the shower.
• Crush Blush: Marinette turns red as a beetroot on a regular basis when it comes to Adrien.
• Crying Wolf: One reason nobody believes Marinette when she tells them that Lila is a bully is because Marinette is known to be irrationally jealous of her romantic rivals, of which Lila is one. Unfortunately, Marinette was telling the truth, and Lila is a hell of a lot more malicious than she is.
• Curtains Match the Window: Zigzagged. Marinette has blue hair and matching eyes. However, she's noted to have black hair by the other characters even though her hair is styled blue.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Marinette is shown to be very clumsy, specially around Adrien. As Ladybug, though, she becomes much more competent, though accidents (like bonking Cat Noir or herself with her yo-yo) sometimes happen.
• Daddy's Girl: Downplayed. Marinette has an equally close relationship with both her parents, but she has slightly more close one with her father (i.e., taking her father to career day, etc).
• Dance Battler: During fights, she is always moving; twirling around and never staying still for long.
• Didn't Think This Through: Despite the fact that outsmarting her opponents is Ladybug's whole thing, Marinette's plans tend to fall into this as she tends not to take the social ramifications of her plans into account. This is especially true in season four, where her holding Cat Noir at arm's length is steadily fraying their partnership.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Regardless of being in the right and justified, she publicly humiliated Lila by calling her out on her lies in front of Adrien as a result of acting on her jealousy, resulting in Lila becoming akumatized and receiving a minor What the Hell, Hero? from Adrien himself on her tactlessness.
• Doesn't Like Guns: When given a BFG as a Lucky Charm in "Malediktator", she tosses it away to opt for the laser instead, remarking she would never use one of those. She also expresses disdain for other excessively large weapons (the two BFS Swords from "Antibug" and "Sandboy").
• Does Not Like Spam: When her grandmother came to celebrate her 14th birthday, she brought Marinette's childhood favorite candy, Dolo Befana. However, Marinette now hates the candy.
• Domino Mask: Ladybug's costume sports one. It's actually bonded to her face, as Lady Wifi discovered, so unmasking her isn't as simple as one might think.
• Dork Knight: Downplayed. She's the protagonist to Adrien's deuteragonist, and a compassionate, genuinely nice Girly Bruiser, who likes fashion, and trumps people at video games left and right. And as Ladybug she stands for responsibility and justice alongside Cat Noir. Despite all that, she gets pretty flustered and even more clumsy than usual around her crush, Adrien, alternating between Cannot Spit It Out and a hilarious case of Motor Mouth.
• Dragons Up the Yin Yang: Her costume as Dragon Bug, when using the Dragon Miraculous alongside the Ladybug, is partly designed to resemble a taijitu.
• Dude Magnet: Either as Marinette or Ladybug, she has her admirers.
  • Adrien aka Cat Noir only has eyes for Ladybug, therefore Marinette as well if he knew who Ladybug and wasn't staggeringly Oblivious to Love, which is more meaningful since he is surrounded by hordes of cute fangirls.
  • Nathaniel dreamt of saving her from an Akuma attack and all he wanted to do was go on a date with her as Evillustrator. It's implied at the end he gets over his crush on Marinette...only to possibly transfer it to Ladybug. He's later implied to have moved onto being with Marc.
  • Nino tried to confess his love to her in "Animan" but instead said Alya's name out of nervousness. By the end of the episode, he gets over his crush after becoming an Official Couple with Alya.
  • Théo has an intense liking towards Ladybug and part of the reason he is akumatized into Copycat is because Cat Noir lied about them being a couple to keep Théo from pursuing her.
  • According to Word of God, Luka fell for her when they first met in "Captain Hardrock" and he actively flirts with her in "Frozer". They briefly start dating at the start of season 4, but they quickly break up cause of Marinette's secrets (her identity as Ladybug and the Guardian of the Miraculous) that she keeps from him, however Luka remains in love with her even after they break up.
  • "Adoration" reveals that Zoé has a crush on her, and Zoé confesses this at the end.
• Eccentric Artist: She is either completely spaced out or completely fixated on one thing, to the exclusion of all else. There is no middle ground.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Cat Noir nicknames her "bugaboo", which annoys more than flatters her. A bugaboo is a fairy creature on par with a hobgoblin or bugbear, and in some cases an alternate name for the bogeyman.
  • In the original, french dub, he goes for the much more neutral and endearing "Buguinette". It still sounds both dorky and a tad too familiar, justifying Ladybug's annoyance. The "bugaboo" pun cannot be implemented in the french language, as none of the french words for these creatures is suited for a Ladybug pun ("hobgoblin" = lutin/gnome ; "bugbear" = épouvantail/croque-mitaine ; "bogeyman" = croque-mitaine).
• Enemy Mine: In "Animaestro", she teams up with her archrival Chloé to sabotage what she thinks is a romantic moment between Adrien and Kagami.
• Even the Girls Want Her:
  • In "Adoration", Zoé confesses that she's in love with her.
  • Kagami's bio◊ and her statement in "Protection" about loving both Adrien and Marinette and wishing that their love for each other wouldn't hurt her this much implies that her feelings for Marinette may also be more than platonic.
  • Before "The Battle of the Miraculous", Chloé used to be a big fan of her as Ladybug, cosplaying as her, wanting to take multiple selfies with her and generally acting like she has a celebrity crush on her.
• Expressive Hair: In Ladybug PV one strand of her hair would change with her mood, such as forming a love heart.
• Expressive Mask: Downplayed with her domino mask as Ladybug, which is clearly as flexible as the rest of her outfit and so molds to her face. The placement of the spots on the mask also fit very well to make them resemble eyebrows whenever Ladybug's expression changes.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: As Dragon Bug, her suit has a swirling asymmetrical design that invokes a taijitu; her right side has black spots on red like her regular Ladybug outfit, while on her left it's inverted to red on black.
• Fatal Flaw: Impulsiveness. Her tendency to do or say things on a whim, especially when Adrien is involved, has not only driven a wedge between her and her friends, but it has also led to a substantial number of akumatizations along with making an enemy out of Lila Rossi.
  • Her Complexity Addiction combined with her Control Freak tendencies especially in later seasons. When she's scared or gets panicked she'd rather control every aspect of a situation rather than let someone else handle it. This leads to overly complex plans that have a lot of moving parts and variables, which inevitably fall apart when an aspect she never thought about crops up (see above in Didn't Think This Through).
• The Fixer: Her job involves a little bit of everything, from lockpicking to combat to potion-brewing. What she can't accomplish herself, her vast amount of friends both magical and mundane can.
• Flower Motifs: Pink flowers with black leaves can be seen on her civilian t-shirt and in a number of her designs. She also used the codename "Lotus" during the events of "Gigantitan", the lotus flower being a symbol of rebirth, enlightenment and self-renewal which plays in her character development. It is also a symbol of purity and incorruptibility in Chinese literature, relating to the various times she dodged being akumatized.
• Friendless Background: "Origins" and "Derision" imply she became this after her best friend Socqueline started high school, with Chloé's bullying making it hard to befriend her other peers. Thankfully, Alya's presence changed that.
• Fusion Dance: After learning how to combine the powers of multiple Miraculouses, Marinette makes frequent use of the skill. This is facilitated further when she becomes Guardian of the Miraculous, allowing her to summon the Miraculous to herself on demand. Fusions shown include:
  • Marinette, as Multimouse, has her various clones wield the both the Mouse and Cat, Ladybug and Fox Miraculous becoming Multinoir, Multibug and Multifox
  • Marinette wields both the Ladybug and Dragon Miraculous to become Dragon Bug against Miracle Queen.
  • She wields the Ladybug and Bee Miraculous to become LadyBee against Style Queen.
  • She wields the Ladybug and Horse Miraculous to become PegaBug against Sentibubbler and Shadow Moth.
  • She wields the Ladybug, Horse and Rabbit Miraculous to become PennyBug in "Strike Back".
  • As part of her plan to defeat the team up between Shadybug, Claw Noir, and Monarch, Marinette unifies her world's Ladybug Miraculous and the parallel Gabriel's Butterfly Miraculous in order to become Ladyfly.
  • After Plagg gives her Cat Noir's ring in order to even the playing field with Monarch, she unifies the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous to become Bug Noire for the events of both "Conformation" and "Re-Creation".

G-L

• Gamer Chick: Everyone (including Max) assumes Marinette's a newbie at the game focused on in "The Gamer," but she's able to beat both Max and Adrien at it (much to the former's chagrin) with ease due to spending plenty of time playing it with her parents.
• Genki Girl: Downplayed. While Marinette isn't super energetic like most examples on there, she can be pretty bubbly otherwise (except for when Adrien is there).
• Gibberish of Love: In earlier episodes, she's incapable of speaking a complete sentence in Adrien's presence. It's shown in the Origins arc to have only started right when she fell in love with him. While she does get better over time, and finds it possible to talk about some subjects to him normally, she'll still resort to gibberish occasionally (at least it's more likely to be in full sentences now.)
• Girlish Pigtails: Her default hairstyle, which she keeps as both Ladybug and when unified as Dragonbug.
• Girly Bruiser: Marinette is a hyperfeminine teenage girl who loves pink is cutesy, bubbly, and romantic, designs and sews her own clothes from scratch (and even models them on occasion), a talented Sweet Baker, and is affectionate with her friends and family, not to mention absolutely smitten with Adrien Agreste (as well as Luka Couffaine for some time). She's also a strong fighter as the superhero Ladybug, and is the protector of Paris, who tends to pick up the slack of her male and more conventionally masculine partner Cat Noir often, even winning in fights against him when he is Brainwashed and Crazy.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Her outfit includes mainly pink colors. She's open about her crush on Adrien (at least, only to those she can trust). Plus, she's an aspiring fashion designer. Marinette can also be as aggressive as she needs to be and is skilled at video games.
• Good Is Not Soft: When faced with the chance to end Gabriel forever, and the fate of the universe riding on her victory, Marinette has no problem attacking her true love’s own mother to gain the advantage.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She can become really jealous when other girls like Chloé, Lila or Kagami come close to Adrien and tends to make some rather poor choices. Thankfully, she's making progress on overcoming this.
• Hair Color Dissonance: In-universe, Ladybug's hair is described as "jet black", but her CGI model has blue hair. It actually does become properly black when she transforms into Lady Noire, but not as Ladybug or Multimouse.
• Has a Type: Inverted. Most of the boys who develop feelings for Marinette are artists.
  • Ironically, Adrien, whom she begins dating in S5, is not.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Her "Lucky Charm" often gets the What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway? reaction from the Villain of the Week, but she quickly shows them that whatever item the "Lucky Charm" gives her is the key to her victory.
• The Heart: Just about everyone in Marinette's class feels comfortable with confiding in her and asking her for help. (A Freeze-Frame Bonus implies that she keeps tabs on everyone's schedule, not just Adrien's- presumably to plan group activities.) This is one reason why Adrien doubts that she likes him; everyone else can talk to Marinette freely, but she can't get away from him fast enough.
• The Hero: She and Cat Noir are partners, but she's unquestionably the leader of the duo and the show's main hero.
• Hero's Muse: Cat Noir sees her as one, if his poetry is any indication.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Once she has set on Marinette and Ladybug for her arch enemies, Lila does all she can to frame one, the other, or both at the same time:
  • In "Ladybug", Lila sends an anonymous message framing up Marinette for supposedly cheating on a test, then accuses her of stealing her necklace. Both the test's answers and the necklace are found in Marinette's locker. Lila finally pretends Marinette pushed her down the stairs. She gets expelled as a result. Marinette can only come back after Adrien more or less blackmailed Lila into retracting her accusations and confessing her lies. Marinette never finds the reason of Lila's 180° turn, while Lila gets away with it by invoking a medical condition making her a compulsive liar. She gets to stay at Collège Françoise Dupont.
  • Later in season 5, Lila manages to make Kagami sufficiently doubt of the sincerity of Marinette's friendship twice, allowing Shadow Moth to akumatize her both times.
  • In "Adoration", then "Confrontation", Lila, allied with Chloé, engineers two schemes in order to once again Frame-Up Marinette. First, they use the Dog Miraculous to try and get her framed for theft. Ladybug quickly clears her name. Secondly, the much more vicious plan to sabotage Marinette's classroom comrades vows forms for highschool. Both schemes fail.
  • In "Revelation", Lila even manages to make Monarch believe it's Marinette who thwarted his plan, while in fact it was all part of an elaborate scheme by Lila to get revenge against him.
  • People who spend too much time on social networks of the Alliance rings become easy preys of conspiracy theories hostile to Ladybug.
  • Jalil, Alix's big brother, missing his sister, believes the malicious slander that Alix/Bunnyx is only a tool for Ladybug who doesn't care about her as a person.
  • The season five two finale has holders of the Alliance rings from all around the world being brainwashed into believing Ladybug and Cat Noir kidnapped Kagami and Adrien. They consequently begin to relentlessly chase the two heroes.
• Heroic Ambidexterity: Marinette has shown to be ambidextrous and is The Hero of the show.
• Heroic BSoD: In "Heart Hunter", the combined stress of her unrequited feelings and the Miracle Box being stolen piles up on Marinette. She collapses in Luka's arms, sobbing about how she never feels like her true self anymore.
• Heroic Seductress: A G-rated version. She is willing to use any feelings an Akumatized might have for her as a distraction. Which is the only reason she got out of the Cat Blanc fight alive.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: "Perfection" has her trying to keep away from Kagami in the shame that she has failed to manifest Kagami's support of her into an actual romantic relationship with Adrien. By the end of the episode, Marinette realizes that she similarly fails to talk to Adrien due to not thinking of herself as good enough.
• Heroic Willpower: In "Derision" she manages to reject the Akuma before being fully akumatized after she figures out the cause of her distress around Adrien.
• Hero with a Unique Name: Unlike Adrien and their peers, Marinette's last name is a hyphenation between her father and mother's.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: She and Alya are as close as sisters, and tell each other practically everything. In the season 4 episode "Gang of Secrets", Alya is the first person that Marinette willingly reveals her identity to.
• Hidden Depths:
  • She turns out to be quite the skilled Gamer Chick.
  • As it turns out, the episode "Oblivio" shows that Marinette's "Lucky Vision" isn't a superpower at all. Marinette is just naturally clever and creative enough to MacGyver her way out of a dangerous situation with what anyone else would see as something completely useless.
• Hypocrite:
  • In "Copycat", Marinette steals Adrien's phone and in "Reflekta" she steals Chloé's, but in "Volpina" she criticizes Lila for stealing his book. Before seeing Lila throw it away. She's also stolen a photographer's memory chip and Juleka's bike (both returned but they were still taken without permission).
  • More concerning is that she has repeatedly stated she hates liars, and yet has a habit of lying to avoid potential embarrassment. Particularly to Adrien.
  • Ladybug is adamantly defensive about her private life, even getting annoyed at Nadja Chamack when the reporter asks standard interview questions. However, Marinette has invaded Adrien's privacy many times (and attempted many more).
  • Marinette is often disgusted with Chloé's bullying nature but actually helps her to try and humiliate Kagami in front of Adrien in "Animaestro" after Chloé convinces her that Kagami would take Adrien away to Japan. She does realize what she did, but only when the plan fails. But then she proceeds to do it again in "Ikari Gozen" and although she once more stopped herself it puts her in a very questionable light as to whether she's really any better than Chloé when it comes to acting out in jealousy.
  • Marinette has criticized Chloé for abusing her rich status to get what she wants even though she's abused her powers as Ladybug multiple times to get what she wants. Namely interrupting Adrien and Chloé's slow dance with Adrien in "The Bubbler", stealing Adrien's phone in "Copycat" and sneaking into Adrien's room to deliver a letter in "Cat Blanc."
  • Marinette expects the class to listen to her about Lila's lies, yet in "Santa Claws" she refuses to listen to Adrien when he says Santa isn't an akumatized villain.
  • She refuses to give Chloé a Miraculous because she says Hawk Moth knows her secret identity and it will put her and her loved ones in danger. Throughout Season 4 she has no problem at giving miraculous to other superheroes (mainly Alya) who have their secret identities busted.
  • Throughout the series Ladybug is 100% firm to not reveal her civilian identity to anyone (especially to Cat Noir), but in “Gang of Secrets”, after a emotional meltdown, she reveals herself to Alya, making her de facto superhero confidant. Probably justified because she doesn’t want to repeat the Bad Future that happened in “Cat Blanc”, and because, as Plagg stated in “Rocketear”, now that she’s the Guardian, she’s the one who makes rules, even those that would only benefit herself.
  • Marinette doesn't put up with lies and has repeatedly called out Lila for manipulating people by lying to them. However, in "Ephemeral" she is willing to do exactly what Lila does: get a secret out of Cat Noir by "telling him what he wants to hear".
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: A platonic example with her father — along with her mother, Tom dwarfs Marinette.
• Iconic Outfit: Marinette's ladybug-patterned suit she wears as Ladybug.
• Imagine Spot: Played for laughs as her imagination tends to go to the extreme for either the best or the worst possible consequences, usually the latter due to worrying about trying to get Adrien to notice her. One positive scenario that came out of her excitable mind was an immediate Happily Ever After scene following a supposed successful fruit smoothie date, having already decided the names of her and Adrien's "future" three children.
• I'm Not Afraid of You: Shown in many episodes where she is outnumbered. In the Origin episodes when Hawk Moth projects his head as a menacing mass of akumatized butterflies she is the first to confidently and swiftly take on all the butterflies by unakumatizing them, and as a bonus makes a powerful speech to Hawk Moth that she isn't afraid.
• Improbable Weapon User:
  • Her main weapon is a Killer Yo-Yo
  • Moreover, the entire nature of her "Lucky Charm" is that it grants her a random and seemingly useless item that would normally serve no purpose in combat, but is actually exactly what she needs to defeat the Villain of the Week.
  • As Multimouse, Marinette uses what appears to be a jump rope.
• Improvisational Ingenuity: Lucky Charm almost never gives her anything that could obviously be used as a weapon, but Ladybug displays enormous creativity in making the most of it with an improvised plan.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: As Multimouse, Marinette's creation of an army of duplicates is accompanied by her and the duplicates shrinking.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Of the heroic and idealistic variety.
• Innocently Insensitive: When it comes to her crush on Adrien, Marinette has a tendency to let it cloud her judgement to the point she hurts someone else's feelings.
  • This trait actually extends to other aspects of her life. While she never means any harm, her tendency to stress herself out over her own problems tends to hurt the people around her. Her secret keeping from Cat Noir is a prime example of this, but others include ”Crocoduel”, where she tries to ask Juleka to get her brother Luka away from his own birthday party because she wanted to avoid him (hurting both twins in the process) and in “Perfection”, when she ghosted Kagami because she was too embarrassed to face her about Adrien, which makes Kagami think Marinette hates her.
• Insecure Love Interest: Marinette is this towards Adrien, explaining why she is so shy in his presence and Cannot Spit It Out. Later, impressed by Kagami (because of her riches, ability in fencing, and bold attitude), Marinette feels the latter is more deserving of him. When she learns Kagami and Adrien had quickly broken up, Marinette vainly tries to reconcile Adrien with this "perfect girl". It takes Kagami, of all people, to assure to Marinette that she is the perfect match for Adrien.
• Invincible Hero: Ladybug wins every battle, even as Marinette. However, this is at least somewhat balanced out by the not-small amount of Near Villain Victories that she ends up having to fight through.
• Irony: "Origins" reveal that Marinette used to dislike Adrien due to a misunderstanding on her part. Now, she's completely smitten with him.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Being the Ladybug superhero takes quite a toll on her civilian life, from damaging her friendships to stressing her schoolwork to destroying her love life.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In the season 3 finale, she flip-flops between leaving Kagami to be alone with Adrien and trying to separate them, using Miraculous duties as an excuse for the latter. Eventually her better nature wins out. Notably, she is the only one of Adrien's various suitors (Chloé, Kagami, Lila, and herself) to back off for the sake of his happiness. More specifically, she was the first until season 4. Kagami backs off in the fourth episode, partially for Marinette and Adrien's happiness, and also because Kagami is disappointed in Adrien after the events of "Lies".
• Jeanne d'Archétype: French teenager chosen by higher power to protect her native land. (This seems to be a theme with Tikki, because the actual Joan of Arc was also a bearer of the Ladybug Miraculous.) Also like Joan, she did so reluctantly.
  Joan: There will be no help [for the kingdom] if not from me. Although I would rather have remained spinning [wool] at my mother's side ... yet must I go and must I do this thing, for my Lord wills that I do so.
• Killer Yoyo: Ladybug's main weapon. Its string is magically as long as it needs to be.
• Late for School: More often than not. In the opening, she is seen running to school with a croissant in her mouth as a homage to the manga cliché. The episode "Migration" has Nino remark in confusion about how Marinette is running over to them when she's not late, causing Alya to quip "Creature of habit."
• The Leader: Of the duo, Marinette is the one making the decisions to down the akuma and she covers all four types. She uses her Awesomeness by Analysis skills to defeat the akumatized villain (Mastermind), is less Hot-Blooded and more mature than Cat Noir (Levelheaded), speaks out against Hawk Moth and his plans (Headstrong), and is quite popular either as a civilian or superhero (Charismatic).
• Lethal Joke Item: Her "Lucky Charm" always gives her a random item that is seemingly useless, but that after some quick thinking turns out to be the key to defeating the episode's Villain of the Week.
• Like Parent, Like Child: Marinette is just as brave, selfless, kind, funny, and skilled at gaming as her parents.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: In "Simon Says", Adrien comments that she has his mother's smile. It's her eyes in the English version, which he presumably meant metaphorically given that Ladybug's eyes are blue and Emilie's are green. Though "Wishmaker" shows a flashback in which Emilie's eyes are blue.
• Likes Clark Kent, Hates Superman: Downplayed. Marinette has a massive crush on Adrien, but finds his alter-ego Cat Noir's flirting to be obnoxious, although she still cares about him.
• Limited Wardrobe: Even more than the usual cartoon trope, her pajamas consist of an off-white t-shirt and pink pants just like her regular outfit. Her civilian outfits consist of a dark gray blazer, a white t-shirt with black stitching and a design below the collar (pink flowers and black leaves), pink pants, light pink ballet shoes with dark red soles adorn her feet, and her Miraculous earrings.
• Love Epiphany: Marinette fell for Adrien after he revealed that he wasn't the one who put the gum on her seat and opened up about his lonely childhood and how he wanted to make friends. He then gave her his umbrella because of the oncoming thunderstorm.
• Loved by All: Both in and out of her hero mask. As Ladybug, she is the city's savior who bravely defends the people against Hawk Moth and wins the Single-Target Sexuality of her partner. In her civilian life, she is the Class Princess who gets along with everyone and is always willing to help. She even wins the approval of the adults around her. The only two people who don't hold some sort of affection for her are Chloé and Lila.
• Love Makes You Dumb:
  • Downplayed. Marinette's infatuation with Adrien tends to make her even more careless than her usual clumsiness despite having good intentions. She has caused three akumatizations as a result of being blinded by her love.
  • Gets hit with this full force in "Desperada". First, she tries to get Adrien to become Jagged Stone's guitarist, even though everyone else can see that Luka is the better choice. Then after she picks Adrien to wield the Snake Miraculous, knowing that's she working with her crush leaves her distracted and unable to concentrate.
  • Gets hit with it again when she partners with Catwalker (who, unknown to her, is Adrien putting on a different persona than Cat Noir). She's so smitten with him that it screws up her "Lucky Vision" insight powers, needlessly adding him to her plans when in fact he's in the way; he even blinks distractingly when she looks at him rather than just being highlighted normally.
  • She says this about herself at the beginning of Season 5, stating it to be the main reason Félix had been able to double-cross her in the first place (as he had been passing himself off as Adrien). Alya reassures her that he would have fooled anyone this way, but Marinette insists it wouldn't have happened if she truly did know Adrien as well as she'd always claimed.
• Loving a Shadow:
  • Averted. While she tends to be blinded by her crush, seeing Adrien as Purity Personified, Marinette does care about his insecurities. As seen in Gamer when she reassures him and Malediktator when she listens to his point of view.
  • Discussed in "Ephemeral". After finding out that Adrien, her crush and the ideal boy in her eyes is also Cat Noir, her goofy and reliable partner, Marinette is seen wondering which one is the true Adrien and if she hasn't been in love with a public mask. After a talk with Luka, she spends some time observing him and Cat Noir to eventually realize that they are two halves of the same coin.

M-R

• MacGyvering:
  • Ladybug's Lucky Charm almost always provides her with some mundane object and she has to work out how to defeat a supervillain with it, often by making complex traps. The only exception is when it provides her with a replica of something in Master Fu's house, which is a sign that she needs to go recruit another hero for the job.
  • Even in her daily life, Marinette has created "magic" boxes to hide personal stuff like the Miracle Box. They are very effective. Just ask Sabrina.
• Mad Libs Catch Phrase:
  • In Season 1, she almost always commented on her Lucky Charm with "A [thing]? What am I supposed to do with this?" She eventually stopped, having gotten used to the idea that she'd have to think outside the box.
  • When lending one of the other Miraculous, she says some variant of, "[Full name], here is the Miraculous of the [animal], which grants the power of [power]. You will use it for the greater good. Once the job is done, you will return the Miraculous to me. Can I trust you?"
• Magnetic Hero: Either in her superhero or civilian identity, she is well-liked by nearly everyone.
• Man of the City: The list of things she won't do to protect Paris is very, very short.
• Married to the Job: She was not the most punctual of people even before she got her Miraculous, but akuma-fighting and patrols cut into her reliability even more. In season 4, she learns the hard way that Guardian/Ladybug/civilian duties render her incapable of giving a boyfriend the time he deserves, and swears off dating entirely.
• The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: She and Luka start dating at the end of Season 3, but break up soon after because the strain of her constantly disappearing on him and then lying afterward becomes too much even for him.
• Master of All: After training with Fu, Marinette is familiar with the activation commands and powers of all the Miraculous she has access to.
• Master of the Mixed Message: Towards Adrien, due to her constantly running away from him whenever he gets too close due to her nervousness.
  • Marinette goes full blown with this trope in the third season, even more than Adrien. Constantly denying her attraction to him and having their mutual friends do the same. It gets to the point where he thinks she hates him rather than being head-over-heels.
  • Less obviously, Ladybug sometimes flirted back with Cat Noir because she didn't think it was serious, leading him to conclude that she was toying with him. More confusing is that she only started calling him "Kitty" after his feelings for her are revealed and she shut him down.
  • She ends up falling in love with Cat Noir in the fifth season, and isn't terribly subtle about it while in costume...but of course, Adrien's alter-ego still doesn't get it, ironically but somewhat understandably considering their previous agreement about their relationship. How she acts around Adrien despite her insistence that she's not in love with him anymore still rather brings the cliche "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" to mind...which a number of Shippers On Deck would corroborate.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Ladybug, who has good luck-based powers.
  • "Marinette" is the French version of Marieta, which is Catalan for "ladybug" and also doubles as a nod to her blue (marine) hair.
• Motor Mouth: Whenever she gets nervous (especially around Adrien), Marinette has a tendency to ramble at a fast pace.
• My Greatest Failure: Losing all of the Miraculous in the Miracle Box due to entrusting the Dog Miraculous to who she thought was Adrien in the Season 4 finale Strikeback broke her more than any previous mistake did.
• Mysterious Woman: A rare protagonist example. The cast have varying degrees of knowledge about who Marinette is and why she behaves the way she does, but nobody has the full story (not even the viewers; a significant part of her backstory is only revealed in Season 5)...though a lot of them think they do. There's a lot of overlap between the secrets she keeps and the things Adrien needs to learn to be free.
• Next Tier Power-Up:
  • After training under Master Fu to become a guardian, Marinette gains knowledge about fusion spells, recipes for the potions which grant more powers to the Miraculous. However, since he was only able to partially decode the Miraculous spellbook, it is likely her understanding is limited as well.
  • In season 4, she gains a couple new powers. Thanks to becoming the Guardian, her yo-yo connects directly to the Miracle Box, allowing her to bring out other Miraculous on demand. Later on, she gains the ability to generate a protective charm after purifying an akuma, which protects the victim from being akumatized again so long as they have it on them. This also comes with a change in costume, which she integrates into her Lucky Charm after the first instance.
• Nice Girl: Marinette is very friendly and kind to her classmates and friends. She is perfectly satisfied to have Adrien think his neglectful father sent him a birthday gift when it was really from her if it makes him happy.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sometimes she doesn't think things through and it results in Akumatizations.
  • In "Volpina," Marinette's jealousy gets the better of her when she embarrasses Lila in front of Adrien. This causes Lila's Akumatization and her grudge against Ladybug.
  • In the Christmas Episode, circumstantial evidence causes Ladybug to jump to conclusions, and she attacks Santa Claus under the assumption that he is a supervillain who kidnapped Adrien. The furious Santa falls prey to Hawk Moth as a result.
  • In Season 2 and 3 her track record gets much worse: she creates Befana by being insensitive toward her grandmother (granted, her own grandmother was also at fault for not being aware of how much her granddaughter has grown since she last met her), helps create Dark Owl by accidentally humiliating Mr. Damocles, indirectly creates Gigantitan by frustrating Adrien's chauffeur with her ridiculous plan, and her own dad, Tom, becomes Weredad because of her "overacting" her reaction on Cat Noir's rejection.
  • In "Reflekdoll", she drives the titular sentimonster on an out-of-control rampage with a badly-placed Cataclysm.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Her attempts to stand up for Sabrina when Chloé treats her poorly just result in Sabrina acting creepy towards her, and when Marinette tries to let her down gently Sabrina accuses her of being worse than Chloé.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Chloé convinces her to help bully Kagami because they were both jealous of her.
  • Despite being a foil to both Chloé and Lila, Marinette herself has displayed a mean streak and can give a hard time specially to people who haven't earned her trust, like Adrien in the Origins episodes and Kagami in "Ikari Gozen". She can even be very harsh for petty reasons. As Ladybug, she occasionally criticizes Cat Noir, whether he deserves it or not.
  • For all the times she gives Cat Noir lectures about being hasty and not thinking, many of Marinette's problems are caused by her own hastiness.
• Nom de Mom: Marinette uses both her French-Italian father's and Chinese mother's surnames as her own.
• Oblivious to Love: Spends the first season and a half believing Cat Noir's flirting isn't serious. She's shocked in "Glaciator" to learn that he's in love with Ladybug "for real."
• Only I Can Kill Him: Justified. Ladybug is the only hero capable of purifying an Akuma.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • When Marinette's uncle is visiting and she's worried about making a good impression in "Kung Food", the usually speechless and shy Marinette is calm and sullen around Adrien.
  • Word of God has noted that Marinette is a hard person to akumatize because she's such an optimist, but came very close in "Zombizou" and "Chameleon" because someone (Chloé and Lila, respectively) made her significantly angry.
  • Marinette makes no secret of her extreme dislike over Chloé in many episodes. So, when she decides to help Chloé to keep Kagami away from Adrien, after she manipulated Marinette into thinking Kagami would take him away, it shows just how desperate she is. Thankfully, she came to her senses eventually.
  • Her Heroic BSoD in "Loveater" is preceded with the words, "I'm so tired."
• Open the Iris: More than any other character in the show, her irises are particularly subject to varying in size whenever she's flustered (the fact that she's the character with the most extreme facial expressions helps). For instance, they will grow to saucer-like proportions when she's talking about Adrien, and reduce to pinhead size when she finds herself unexpectedly in front of him or embarrasses herself in front of the class. This is more frequent when she's in her Marinette persona, as Ladybug is usually more collected.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Was a fairly average middle school student before gaining powers, as seen in the Origins Episode.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Marinette's disguise is basically a small mask over her eyes; the transformation doesn't even change her hairstyle! Even so, many people mistake other characters as Ladybug when dressed in the costume; this is most blatant when Lady WiFi reveals that Chloé dresses as Ladybug in private and thus believes that Chloé is the real thing. So far Jagged Stone seems to be the only person who notices that Chloé's hair is different. When Chloé showcases her Ladybug outfit, it even includes a replica wig that's, of course, identical to Marinette's hair. It's finally explained in the New York special: the miraculous creates a "quantum masking" effect which makes the wearers unrecognizable to human eyes.
• Parental Title Characterization: Marinette refers to her parents as "Maman" and "Papa" in the original French (in contrast to Adrien calling his father "Père", which just means "Father"), hinting at their close and loving relationship; in the English dub, she uses the equally affectionate "Mom" and "Dad".
• Patchwork Kids: Marinette has her father's head and eye shape, but has her mother's hair color and skin complexion.
• Personality Powers: Played straight. It's unsurprising that an energetic, physically expressive, and impulsive artist would be the one tasked with recreating the world after akuma battles. (Symbolically, her Miraculous is associated with the yang/assertiveness symbol, which denotes all those traits.)
• Pink Means Feminine: Wears pink pants and a pink-accented shirt in her everyday outfit, and a large part of her room is pink. She is also quite the girly girl with an interest in fashion and huge crush on Adrien.
• Plucky Girl: She stays optimistic and determined no matter what predicament she's in.
• The Pollyanna: Always manages to remain upbeat and positive. The creators even confirmed that the reason why she's hard to akumatize is because she's an optimist.
• Poster-Gallery Bedroom: Yet another tipoff to the fact that she's got a huge crush on Adrien is that her wall is covered in photos of him. Doubles as something of a Stalker Shrine, since she's also got his schedule down somewhere.
• Power Makes Your Hair Grow:
  • When using the Cat Miraculous as Lady Noire, Marinette's hair grows long enough to form a braid that trails all the way down to her legs, serving as the "tail" for the costume.
  • Her fusion forms with the Bee and Horse Miraculouses result in her gaining a single, longer ponytail, though nowhere near as long as Lady Noire's. For the Bee, it's puffy to keep with the Bee theme, while the Horse ponytail is straighter.
  • Her costume upgrade in season 4 makes her hair a teeny bit longer than normal.
  • Her costume as Bug Noire combines the long braid from her Lady Noire transformation and two additional, shorter braids that replace her pigtails.
• The Power of Love: She manages to overcome an Akuma's influence before being fully transformed in "Elation" after Cat Noir kisses her.
• Pragmatic Hero: Marinette is acutely aware (except when blinded by jealousy) of how important her duty as Ladybug is. To uphold it, she will betray, pickpocket, and hurt people- as shown when, after they've all tried to grab it the normal way, she slams down on Cat Noir and the villain's hands to smash the akuma-hosting whistle.
• Promoted Fanboy: In-Universe. Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale are Marinette's favorite artists. She ends up designing the album cover for Jagged's new album and almost stars in Clara's new music video. Also, both of them have written songs about Ladybug, much to Marinette's glee.
• Properly Paranoid: Her sticking to the rule about keeping identities secret hurts everyone involved - including herself - but given how often Miraculous bearers are brainwashed or extorted by akuma, it is entirely necessary. Hawk Moth himself is enough proof that bearers can deliberately become corrupt, given the right motivation.
• Protagonist Title: Marinette's alias, "Ladybug", is part of the series' title.
• Punny Name: "Du pain" is French for "some bread" ^note doubles as "of bread", although it's irrelevant to the pun. "Cheng" is Chinese for "to make".
• Purple Is the New Black: Often illustrated with blue hair, described in-universe as having black hair.
• Random Effect Spell: Her "Lucky Charm" produces a seemingly random item that, when used correctly, can solve whatever problem she summoned it for. Marinette just has to figure out how to apply it. Once the day is saved, the item serves as the catalyst for her World-Healing Wave.
• Reality Warper: Can create day-saving MacGuffins and invoke World-Healing Waves, though only in once-per-episode Limit Break form.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Inverted. As Ladybug, she wears a mostly red suit with black spots, but is the heroic protagonist.
• Red Is Heroic: Her Magical Girl outfit. With a bit of Dark Is Not Evil, because her main colors are red and black, the most common villain colors, considering her ladybug theme.
• Refusal of the Call: After failing her first outing as Ladybug, Marinette is so distraught that she removes her earrings despite Tikki's horrified protests.
• Reset Button: Invoked; it's actually one of her powers. She "presses" it after defeating a villain by using her powers to undo all the damage they cause.
• Running Gag:
  • Her Imagine Spot future with Adrien where she gushes about they'll get married and have a house and have three kids, a dog, and a cat... nah, forget the cat—Oh! And a hamster named—
  • As of Season 2, someone always interrupts her before she can say what her and Adrien's future pet hamster will be named.

S-Z

• Second Super-Identity: In "Kwamibuster", she briefly uses the Mouse Miraculous, becoming Multimouse.
• Secret Diary: She keeps one, which Chloé tries to steal precisely because it contains Marinette's deep dark secrets. Marinette's perfectly aware that this may happen, though, and rigged its case to clamp shut around anyone who tries to steal it; just ask Sabrina.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: She knows the identities of all of the auxiliary Miraculous holders—having been the one who gave them their Miraculouses in most cases—and freely acknowledges it as Ladybug, but she has to play dumb about it in her civilian identity to avoid revealing her own secret I.D.
• Self-Duplication: As Multimouse, Marinette gains the ability to create clones of herself, but she and the clones shrink in proportion to how many of them she creates.
• She-Fu: Leaps around as part of her combat style.
• Shipper on Deck: In general she supports all romance unless someone's target is Adrien.
  • She is excited for her parents' 20th anniversary and helps them with dressing up.
  • Marinette went into instant Squee mode when Nino stated he was in love with Alya.^note Technically, he was in love with Marinette at the time, but said Alya because he didn't have the nerve to tell her. However, after talking to Alya in a locked cage, they realized they had a lot in common and became a couple.
  • She explicitly states that Ivan and Mylène were made for each other.
  • She's very supportive of helping Marc get together with Nathaniel (officially to create Ladybug comics together, but unofficially...)
  • In "Mr. Pigeon 72", she even sheds the 'unless someone's target is Adrien" bit, spending the entire episode trying to get Kagami, her only serious rival, back together with him.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Chloé attempts to upset her by revealing Adrien is being enrolled at a school in London, Marinette quickly shuts her up by throwing it back in her face that she already knows, that she also knows Adrien loves her, and that Chloé no longer has any power to make the lives of others around her miserable before hanging up on Chloé.
• Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Zigzagged. Marinette actually has quite a bold personality around other people, but she's too shy to approach Adrien directly, and gets nervous when he does pay attention to her. She also has blue hair.
• Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Subverted. Marinette is established as having a huge crush on popular Teen Idol Adrien, but it soon becomes clear that it wasn't his fame that attracted her but his positive personality. In fact, his popularity initially turned her off, as it led her to associate him with local Alpha Bitch Chloé.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man:
  • In the end what attracted her to Adrien wasn't his good looks, his fame or his money, but his kindness.
  • She shows a modicum of attraction to Luka, not because of his cool guitar playing, but because of how kind and attentive he is.
• Smitten Teenage Girl: Adrien is a model with a sweet personality, but Marinette doesn't really know him all that well (although she knows him better than either of them think). Despite this, she's frequently seen mooning over him, and in earlier episodes her crush would cause her to become basically catatonic in his presence. Not to mention her Stalker Shrine.
• Socially Awkward Hero: Marinette has saved Paris numerous times but can't muster up proper sentences in front of Adrien. This is lampshaded by Tikki.
• Spider-Man Send-Up: Marinette holds many similarities to Peter Parker, both in and out of costume. She struggles to balance her hero work with her personal life, only continuing it out of a sense of moral duty, with a blond crush (Adrien/Gwen), a blonde bully (Chloé/Flash), a high-class villain that is the head of the various villains in the series (Hawk Moth/Green Goblin) and a villain who happens to be the father of someone close to her (Gabriel Agreste, father of Adrien/Norman Osborne, father of Peter's friend Harry). As Ladybug, she is an Animal-Themed Superbeing named after an arthropod with blue and red being predominant in her color scheme, she has enhanced flexibility, transports herself via Building Swing, and possesses an enhanced sense of intuition when using the item her lucky-charm deposits. She also has a Love Interest themed after a black cat (Felicia Hardy a.k.a. Black Cat and Adrien Agreste a.k.a. Cat Noir).
• Spin to Deflect Stuff: Ladybug does it by spinning her magic yoyo; however in this case it doesn't so much deflect than create an impenetrable shield that disintegrates what's thrown at it. She uses it once to protect herself and Cat Noir from a blown-away bus; this doesn't stop it, but they end up safely inside through a perfectly round hole on its side.
• Stalker with a Crush: Marinette has a huge crush on Adrien and knows his entire daily schedule. Her worst moments include sniffing his pillow and persuading her parents to pay for an international flight. She grows out of this after she and Adrien become an Official Couple.
• Stalker Shrine: She has the wall above her desk and her laptop filled with Adrien's photos, not to mention a very detailed record of his daily activities. "Troublemaker" extended her photo collection to also being hidden under her bed and furniture cushioning. Played for Laughs, though. Especially when Adrien actually visits her and Marinette desperately rushes to hide all the photos.
• Stealth Expert: Marinette is shown to be quite stealthy even without transforming, often sneaking by her peers unnoticed.
• Stock Shoujo Heroine: Downplayed. Marinette is a feminine aspiring fashion designer who is sweet, klutzy, self-effacing, and tongue-tied around her crush. But her superhero alter-ego, Ladybug, is far more proactive and assertive than the usual example of this trope.
• The Strategist: A tactical prodigy who daily outwits superpowered enemies.
• String Theory: It's shown in "Mr. Pigeon 72" that she spent most of her summer holidays compiling a corkboard of akuma victims, a sign that the long hunt for Shadow Moth is cracking her nerves.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: She is normally completely heterosexual, and devoted to pursuing Adrien, but things get... unsteady where Kagami gets involved. In "Ikari Gozen", she admits that she finds Kagami cute and talented, and in "Heart Hunter", when she, Adrien, and Kagami are buying a couple's cone, André Glacier asks which combination of flavors she wants, she seriously considers getting a combination for just her and Kagami before asking if it's possible to get a triple cone.
• Sweet Baker: Marinette and her family own a bakery, and they're all very kindhearted people, with her being the titular hero and the others all being notably kind as well.
• Sweet Tooth: The Zagtoon illustrations show that Marinette likes sweets.
• Tareme Eyes: To represent her Nice Girl personality.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Marinette is a definite girly-girl, and is shown to be capable of bringing the clothes she designs to life.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Chloé tries to get one last jab in at her by revealing Adrien's being moved to London, Marinette snaps and gives her a cold "The Reason You Suck" Speech that reminds Chloé she'll never have the power to hurt her or anyone else ever again, ending by calling her "utterly ridiculous" like how Chloé often did.
• Thinking Tic: When thinking on what to do with her summoned tool, Ladybug scrunches up her face while looking around the area.
• Threshold Guardian: To Adrien, who had been in school for barely a minute before she started a fight with him. His merciful, diplomatic response impressed her, after which she bent considerable effort towards integrating him with the class (the "guardian as future ally" subtype).
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Or, better said, "Thinks Like a Shoujo Manga", given the Art Shift in her rather excessive daydreams.
• Took a Level in Badass: The Origins Episode shows that Marinette lacked confidence and was afraid to stand up for herself. After accepting her role as Ladybug, she learns to be more assertive, and even gives Chloé a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Transformation Trinket: Ladybug's earrings - like all examples of a Miraculous, they transform the user into a superhero after stating a phrase (in English, it's "Tikki, spots on!") which also causes the kwami Tikki to be inside the earrings while transformed.
• Trauma Button: Has two by Season 5:
  • Her losing nearly every Miraculous to Monarch at the end of the fourth season becomes this, along with My Greatest Failure. Merely mentioning it can send her into a spiral of depression and/or anxiety, and she frequently beats herself up over it and cites it as the reason why she can't and shouldn't pursue a relationship with Adrien ^noteShe mistook Félix for Adrien and subsequently gave him the Dog Miraculous, which he then used to swipe her yo-yo (and all the Miraculous inside) and turn it over to Monarch. even though he has started to show genuine romantic interest in her by now.
  • Going to the pool with a guy she likes turns out to be this in "Derision", to the point where she is hit hard by numerous panic attacks. It turned out Marinette had a crush on Kim, who (at Chloé's "suggestion") played a cruel prank involving spiders on her after she confessed to him. This incident also turns out to be the reason behind most of her odd behavior and stalkerish tendencies toward Adrien, as she vowed to learn everything she could about a boy first (including if he was Chloé's friend) before pursuing him to make sure she won't be victimized like that again.
• Tsundere: A mild example. She's usually very dere, especially as a civilian, but she often displays a tsuntsun streak toward Cat Noir when dealing with his humor, cockiness, or attempts to flirt with her. She has to get hit by a truth-telling ray before she'll admit to liking his jokes.
• Underhanded Hero: To protect Paris, Marinette has created an incredibly complex web of lies, connections, and safeguards, which she supplements with theft and paradox amnesia when necessary.
• Unluckily Lucky: Marinette literally has a magical power as Ladybug called "Lucky Charm" to give her just what she needs to defeat the villain (with a bit of lateral thinking and some other objects as well)...she also has to constantly lie to almost everyone she knows to keep the Paris and the Miracle Box safe (which turns out to make a romantic relationship near impossible for her to maintain), will soon have to deal with an akuma whenever she dares to exhibit poor character, and "Cat Blanc" implies the safety of the universe itself will be at risk if she gets romantically involved with Adrien while Hawk Moth is still at large. She'll always save the day, but the day won't be easy for her.
• Variable-Length Chain: Her yo-yo can go from short enough to serve as a shield when spun around to long enough to string someone up from the rafters of a building.
• Warrior Therapist: A tactic she uses to help akumas, especially Kagami's. In "Re-creation" she gives Monarch a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about his monstrous coping mechanisms and the lengths he's willing to go to get what he wants.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • In "The Bubbler", she uses her "Lucky Charm" to break up Adrien and Chloé during a slow dance instead of to stop the Villain of the Week. Tikki quickly calls her out on it, as now they have to wait for Tikki to recharge before Marinette can transform again, thus giving Bubbler extra time to cause mayhem.
  • As much as Chloé deserves it, Ladybug's "The Reason You Suck" Speech toward her in "Antibug" was a little unnecessary considering she was only trying to help and turned out to have been correct on the location of Vanisher's Akuma. Cat Noir even calls her out on it, and this results in Chloé becoming akumatized herself. She later apologizes to Chloé after de-evilizing her.
  • Similarly, while Lila was wrong to tell several Blatant Lies, Ladybug exposing her right in front of Adrien was still extremely harsh, as Adrien is quick to point out.
• Women Are Wiser: Zigzagged. While Adrien is not an idiot, he does have a habit of making impulsive decisions as Cat Noir and is less socially skilled in some areas due to being homeschooled. However, Marinette as Ladybug, has proven to be the strategist of the two and is usually the one to get the job done even when her partner is brainwashed or occupied. But that doesn't mean she isn't prone to making foolish and/or irresponsible choices, and indeed Marinette as a civilian errs leading to Can't Get Away with Nuthin' a lot more than Adrien does out of costume.
• Workaholic: Marinette is seen extremely busy non-stop (including doing favors for others) in "Gamer 2.0".
• Work Hard, Play Hard: Her determination to stop crimes when she's on duty only barely outstrips her habit of committing them when she's not. The trope is partly an expression of her character flaws and partly a sign that she did not choose her job.
• World-Healing Wave: Once she's pacified the Villain of the Week, she throws her Lucky Charm into the air to cast a spell to undo any damage related to the Akuma, even retroactively cleaning up damage caused long before she cast it. But the Lucky Charm must be specifically been related to the villain in question and Ladybug must to some degree be aware of what she's fixing. In the New York special, Paris has to clean up the mess from a sentimonster attack (created as a distraction because Hawk Moth assumed the heroes were still in Paris) because Ladybug was occupied in New York by another villain and had no idea the sentimonster even existed, so her spell only affected the damage caused by the villain she knew about and directly engaged.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Downplayed - despite Marinette being a superhero (with a bug motif, no less), there's been some indications she's easily scared by bugs. "Oblivio" has her initially terrified at the appearance of Plagg and Tikki after her transformation ends due to the episode's Laser-Guided Amnesia (describing them as "giant" and "bug-mice"), and "Sentibubbler" has her scream and run away to Alya at the sight of a tarantula. This doesn't render her useless or anything, though. It's later revealed that Marinette was psychologically scarred when she opened a box of spiders that Kim gave her at Chloé's suggestion.
• Youthful Freckles: Can be seen on a close-up of her CGI model. They emphasize her youthful, excitable nature.
• Zany Scheme: Marinette often plans complicated, crazy plans in order to romance Adrien. "Simpleman" has her admit to herself (and Tikki) that she does these crazy plans with regards to Adrien rather that simply telling him she has a crush on him out of the fear that she'll get rejected if she did. It's also revealed in Season 5 to be part of her defense mechanism after being traumized by cruel prank.

---