Lila Rossi is a girl who doesn't have friends. She has assets. People that she's got twisted round her fingers, dancing at the end of her strings... like Adrien Agreste, the poor little rich boy. So trusting. So naïve. So easy to manipulate...
...Right?
All's Fair in Love and War (And Turnabout's Fair Play)
is a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic by GalahadWilder that asks "What If? Adrien decided that two can play at Lila's games?" The result: a seemingly normal day at College Francoise Dupont turns out to be anything but, as Lila walks into a minefield of her own making.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- At Least I Admit It: Well... not to others, but Lila believes that she's the only person in her social circle honest enough to admit to herself that there's no such thing as a relationship that isn't based on mutual manipulation and self-interest.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Lila demands that Hawkmoth go through with akumatizing her. As he complies, Hawkmoth's voice oozes with cheerful malice.Hawkmoth: Remember, Empathy, this is what you asked for.
- Believing Their Own Lies: So far as Lila's concerned, people lie to themselves all the time, pretending that they're not inherently selfish creatures and that they actually care about others beyond whatever benefit they stand to gain from feigning friendship with them. She's so completely convinced of that that it makes her an example of this herself.
- Bullying a Dragon: Lila has the audacity to threaten Hawkmoth, ordering him to "Give me my power or I'll make you regret it!"
- Continuity Snarl: Hawkmoth is shown learning from Lila that Adrien was at the museum during The Puppeteer's attack. However, in the episode, Adrien’s visit was a business call which Gabriel would’ve had to know about.
- Death Glare: One of the first things that tips Lila off that something's wrong is Alya giving her one of these. She's not the only one giving her a dirty look, either.
- Didn't See That Coming: Despite her firmly held belief that everybody is just out to use and manipulate everyone else to their own ends, Lila fails to consider that Adrien could ever be ruthless enough to 'betray' her.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While Hawkmoth is very much willing to use Lila's raging emotions to akumatize her, he pauses when she swears to use that power to destroy Adrien.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Lila truly doesn't understand the idea that people really can care about each other for unselfish reasons, to the point that she believes friendship doesn't exist beyond being a pretty word used to hide one's true intentions.
- Fatal Flaw: Points out Lila's biggest weaknesses:
- First and foremost, she believes that people are naturally inclined to think just like her, putting themselves and their own interests ahead of all else. To her mind, there's no point in caring about others beyond whatever you stand to gain from them, and 'friendships' — and relationships in general — are just social constructs. Nobody genuinely cares about anyone else; certainly not enough to help or defend someone without ulterior motives.
- Despite holding such a cynical outlook, Lila still sees Adrien as too naïve to understand 'how the world works'. As a result, she's completely unprepared for him to turn on her, despite him warning her about hurting his friends any further.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: Adrien uses Lila's own actions to set up her downfall.
- Internal Reveal:
- Adrien tells the media about how Lila has harassed him, such as kissing him without his permission and taking a selfie that she then posted online. This naturally exposes the deception to their classmates and peers, who then look at said selfie and all her other actions and claims in a whole new light.
- It's All About Me: Lila, naturally. She assumes everyone is naturally like that.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: After his 'betrayal', Lila's convinced that Adrien always 'plays innocent' and merely pretends to be a 'golden boy'.
- Precision F-Strike: Used by Lila when arguing with Hawkmoth.
- Psychological Projection: Lila sincerely believes that Marinette is just like her — that her sweet, helpful facade is all a lie and her interest in Adrien stems from using him as a ladder for social climbing. In fact, she believes this of practically everyone.
- Skewed Priorities: After discovering what Adrien did, Lila fixates on how Alya deleted her interview off the Ladyblog.
- Tabloid Melodrama: Weaponized by Adrien through a 'Shocking Interview' where he accuses Lila — without naming names — of stalking and harassing him.
- Useless Superpowers: When Lila demands that Hawk Moth give her powers to try and hurt Adrien with them, he gives her the power to feel the emotions of others. Since Lila's preexisting skills at manipulation are rendered useless with everyone knowing she is a Consummate Liar, it does very little to enhance her natural abilities. Not only that, but since she is The Sociopath, she finds many of the more alien emotions (like genuine concern for other people) confusing and can easily be overwhelmed by the conflicting emotions of multiple people around her.
- Villain Protagonist: A natural result of the story being from Lila's POV.
- We Can Rule Together: Lila briefly laments the lost opportunity to enact this with Adrien, believing that if she'd known his 'true nature', they could have become a true power couple.
