Fanfic / The One to Make It Stay

The One to Make It Stay is a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic written by xxoceanswavesxx. Set in an alternate version of Season 3, the series diverges when the events of "Chameleon" play out slightly differently, with Rose contacting Prince Ali, wanting to hear more about Lila from him. His response leaves her with proof that their recently returned classmate has been less than truthful, and after talking things out with Marinette, the members of Kitty Section rally around her, cementing themselves as her strongest supporters.

But even as she grows closer to them, and her friendship with Luka starts developing into something more, Marinette finds that other relationships are growing more complicated. With Alya stubbornly pursuing her goals regardless of what Marinette or Ladybug want, and Chat Noir getting pushier, life as a Miraculous heroine isn't getting any easier... oh, and how is she going to make sure her identity stays a secret from Luka?

The full collection on AO3 can be found here. The series consists of the following entries:

• Silence Can Be Beautiful: After dealing with Silencer, Marinette puts some serious thought into moving on from her crush, and focusing on the things — and people — that make her happy.
• Thinking of Ways: A Prequel detailing how Kitty Section first learned about Lila's true nature, and how they chose to approach it.
• White Hot Morning: Alya crosses a line on the Ladyblog. This sets off a domino effect of line-crossing... but Marinette's determined to set boundaries.
• The Radio Still Plays: School's out, and Kitty Section's headed to Summer Sesh. And Marinette's going with them... but it might not be the holiday Fu was hoping for her to have.
• Paper Sky Peels Off the Walls: A collection of side stories set throughout the series, including alternate perspectives of certain events.
• All the Laughs We Had in the Past: Marinette returns home from Summer Sesh with a major revelation. Unfortunately, the surprises won't cease as certain cruelty and betrayal results in making major changes and facing two wrathful akumas.
• A Bottle of Exquisite Stuff: After all of summer's excitement and upheaval, the new school year brings yet more for Marinette to contend with. New classmates, new allies and enemies, and wild cards working towards their own ends...
• There's a Horror in My Head Marinette has been through it all for the past few months, but it seems there's one more challenge coming her way.
• The Blue Skies and Your Eyes: After long last, Hawkmoth has been defeated. Everyone reflects in the aftermath about moving on.
• TOtMiS Anniversary Edition: A bonus collection to celebrate the one year anniversary of The One to Make It Stay.

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The One to Make It Stay contains examples of:

A-I

• Accomplice by Inaction: While Nino didn't help Alya edit or post her footage, he also didn't do anything to stop her, despite his discomfort with the idea. This leads to Carapace spending the summer in time-out along with Rena Rouge.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Instead of being an extreme Mood-Swinger who seems oblivious about being Forced into Evil, Duusu is more of an Emotionless Girl, resigned to the point of apathy and casually sassing their new holder.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: Fu. When he was training under the guardians, he had a friend called Bo, who eventually ended up betraying him. During the conflict, both the Butterfly and Peacock were lost, the latter of which was damaged and never returned.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Rather than simply being Innocently Insensitive, Alec Cataldi was deliberately being rude and antagonizing Aurore when he commented about how much she'd lost the Weather Girl contest by. He also harassed Vivica enough to cause her akumatization into Desperada, and in The Radio Still Plays, Collette predicts that he'll cause somebody else to get akumatized. She's right; he planned on setting Mirelle up to fail for the sake of turning her performance into a viral video.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • Rather than Second Chance, the Snake Miraculous offers the power of Hypnosis, called Snake Eyes.
  • Miracle Queen is able to use her own version of the powers of five of the seven 'primary' Miraculouses: specifically, she can use Ladybug's Lucky Charm, the Black Cat's Cataclysm, the Fox's Mirage, the Turtle's Shelter, and the Bee's Venom. She can only call upon each power once before its gem turns gray.
• Adults Are Useless: Zig-Zagged. It depends on the adult in question — something Rose realizes when she suggests that Ms. Bustier would be able to help deal with Lila only for Marinette to remind her of how poorly she's handled bullying and other tense situations in the past.
  • In Revolutionary Sister Got It Going On, Alya reflects on how fortunate she is to have parents and an older sister who are willing to intervene. As upsetting as that was for her at the time, when she compares it to someone like Gabriel Agreste, or how Adrien doesn't seem to have any adults he can rely upon to have his best interests in mind...well, it's a sobering thought, to say the least.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: A couple of these.
  • Vivica is cousins with Colette, who is a background character in canon.
  • Felix is still Adrien's cousin, but he is also now the great-grandson of Marianne.
• Advice Backfire:
  • Alya keeps pressuring Marinette to go after what she wants...while ignoring Marinette's insistence that her desires have changed. Naturally, she's surprised when this leads to Marinette putting her foot down and asserting herself in ways that Alya didn't actually want.
  • After learning that she and Alya had some kind of disagreement, Adrien immediately tells Marinette that she should apologize, despite not knowing any of the details. She calls him on this, much to his astonishment.
• All Your Powers Combined: Downplayed. Miracle Queen has the ability to call upon and use the powers of the Ladybug, Black Cat, Fox, Turtle, and Bee Miraculous. She can only use each power once and doesn't combine any of them.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Though Alya largely dismisses Ladybug's concerns over the video she posted, she's thrown for a loop when Ladybug points out that Hawkmoth likely follows the blog himself, searching for any personal information he can find on the heroes:
    Ladybug: Now thinking that the two of us are dating, what do you think he's going to do now?
    Alya: (eyes widening) I'm sorry. I didn't think about that.
  • After Ladybug calls Chat out on refusing to listen to her, Tikki questions how her chosen handled the situation, only for Marinette to hit her with three of these in a row:
    Tikki: Are you sure it was a good idea to not listen to what Chat might have had to say? What if he gets akumatized?
    Marinette: I'll deal with it. And maybe I should have dealt with it better. But Tikki, how many times do I have to tell him to get him to leave me alone? What if I end up akumatized because he won't leave me alone? Is it really fair to prioritize his feelings over mine?
  • Alya and Marinette's argument over her giving up on Adrien has a variant. When Marinette tells her point-blank that she's seeing Luka, Alya asks "But are you official official, or just seeing him to make Adrien jealous?" While Marinette immediately counters with "I'm seeing him because I like him, Alya," she also lets out a bitter laugh, realizing that her friend is so obsessed with pushing her towards Adrien that she refuses to accept such a simple concept.
  • When Nora calls Alya out for causing her to miss an important match, Alya's attempt to defend herself yields one:
    Alya: I spent the whole day trying to help my friends with boy problems!
    Nora: Oh, so you could focus on that and not helping me with our sisters?
  • Played With when Lila asks Chloé "Are you calling me a liar?", as Chloé immediately responds with "Are you giving me reason to?" Both Sabrina and Fleur respond by looking away uncomfortably while Lila glares at her, but Chloé just returns her stare until she relents.
  • In one of the alternate scenes in TOtMiS Anniversary Edition, Master Fu asks Chat Noir why, if he's so bothered by Ladybug taking charge, he doesn't offer up any plans or ideas of his own, and wastes so much time flirting and joking around. Unable to counter that, Chat glares him down.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • While texting with Nino, Alya defends her decision to trust Lila's word over Marinette or Ladybug by telling him that 'People change.' Nino's reply to that leaves her temporarily breathless:
    N: yeah, they do. you're looking like a pretty good example of that now and not for the best.
• Bait-and-Switch: The summary for All the Laughs We Had in the Past seems to imply that Alya is going to get the Fox Miraculous taken from her permanently. Instead, Alya has a sticking Heel Realization after Ladybug reveals Lila's true colors and still has a chance to fully redeem herself; instead, after Marinette narrowly averts Aurore's second akumatization, it's Chloé that gets permanently benched as a hero.
• Beach Episode: The Radio Still Plays revolves around Marinette and Kitty Section heading to Prado Beach for Summer Sesh.
• Beneath Notice: Alya believes that she and Lila count as this, despite her efforts to promote her blog as a 'source of all things Ladybug' and posting an interview with 'Ladybug's best friend'. Why would Hawkmoth pay attention to anything like that?
• Betrayal Fic: White Hot Morning sees Marinette/Ladybug dealing with Alya and Chat Noir repeatedly acting against her wishes, and lashing out at her when she stands up for herself. The series as a whole, meanwhile, diverges from canon by having her grow closer to Kitty Section after the events of "Chameleon", forging stronger relationships and coming to understand that she deserves better treatment than what she's gotten.
• Birthday Episode: Act II of There's a Horror in My Head focuses on a shared birthday party between Adrien and Felix, and the inevitable drama that comes of it.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: When Adrien and Felix have a shared birthday party during There's a Horror in My Head, Marinette and the rest of the Miraculous Team are Genre Savvy enough to expect trouble to rear its ugly head. Rose also specifically comments on how all of the parties they've been to recently got hijacked by Hawkmoth, though she hopes the trend won't continue.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • There's a Horror in My Head is ultimately sweeter than it is bitter, as Gabriel, Nathalie, and Lila are all arrested and the stolen Miraculi recovered. However, using the broken Peafowl Pin has left Lila seriously ill, and while Emilie is being kept alive by a statis pod, the chances of her surviving for much longer are grim.
  • The Blue Skies and Your Eyes offers up quite a few of these as conclusions for certain individuals.
    • In Adrien's case, he finally has a proper Jerkass Realization... after his father is exposed as Hawkmoth and arrested. While he finally apologizes for his bad behavior, it's made clear that simply apologizing isn't enough; thankfully, he's mature enough to accept that. On top of all that, he discovers why his father became Hawkmoth in the first place, and has to go through the pain of losing his mother all over again. At least he has family in London, with Aunt Amelie willingly taking him in.
    • Kagami must deal with how her mother's business partnership with Gabriel has led to Tomoe's reputation being tarnished, with Tomoe planning to move back to Japan in order to avoid further backlash.
    • Chloé lets Sabrina make a clean break from their 'friendship', and contacts her mother in order to discuss joining her in New York, with the intention of rebuilding herself into a proper 'Queen Bee'.
    • Alya visits Lila in the hospital, only to be Disappointed by the Motive she offers. She also has to deal with the matter of what to do with the Ladyblog now that Hawkmoth's been defeated, and begins writing up something titled "Confessions of a Ladyblogger".
    • Overall, things are looking up for Kitty Section, with them planning a trip to Scotland and Rose, Juleka and Ivan getting accepted into the Gauguin Institute alongside Marinette. However, Ivan has to face the idea of not going to the same school as Mylene, and while they manage to resolve that conflict for the time being, their future together is uncertain.
• Breather Episode: All the Laughs We Had in the Past's third chapter provides a chance for Marinette, Luka, Master Fu, and their allies to recuperate from recent events.
• Broken Bridge: Invoked by Space Patrol, whose powers allow him to set a requirement for those trapped within his spaces to pass through. Nino recognizes this as "RPG logic" and explains it as such.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Rose goes through this twice over in Thinking of Ways. Not only is she disappointed to discover that Lila was deliberately deceiving everyone all along, when she suggests that Ms. Bustier should be able to help, Marinette gently reminds her of all the times their teacher has refused to deal with Chloé's bullying, or otherwise mishandled discord in their class. Reflecting on those incidents causes Rose to realize that Bustier isn't quite the wonder worker she'd originally believed.
  • Marinette's faith in Alya had already taken a severe blow after Lila's return, but the reporter's decision to cut up a video of Chat Noir confessing his feelings while under Oblivio's influence, editing the footage to falsely make it appear that Ladybug reciprocated, crosses the line.
  • The bloom had already come off the rose when it came to her crush, but Marinette still gets hit hard when Adrien tells her that she should apologize to Alya despite supposedly not knowing anything about the situation. Not that she'd likely be much happier if she knew he'd overheard their chat at the wax museum.
    Irritation isn't a unfamiliar feeling to her. But directed at Adrien, it feels completely new and a bit scary. There had been only one other time she felt this way toward him, and that was his first day of school. But he took the time to clear up the misconception and she thought they were headed toward sunnier, happier days. Looking at him now is like looking through a bout of fog; she’s not exactly sure what’s waiting on the other side, but she’s pretty sure she doesn’t like it.
  • Taureau Furieux expresses this when Chat declares that he's bailing on them rather than helping them fight Miracle Queen.
    Taureau Furieux: Then don't come back. You know, we used to look up to you, but the fact that you're willing to defend Chloé to prove a point is disgusting.
• Busman's Holiday: Happens in The Radio Still Plays, as Hawkmoth strikes at the Summer Sesh. Master Fu informs Marinette that this likely means Hawkmoth is in the area, as his powers don't have enough range to effectively control a target that far away.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When shown evidence that Lila lied about being friends with Prince Ali, Alya suggests Prince Ali knows so many people he probably forgot about Lila.
• Cassandra Truth: When Rose and Juleka show the other girls in their class proof that Lila has been lying to them, Alya rejects it, blowing them off and making excuses. Similarly, Nino and Kim both refuse to listen to Ivan, though Max and Nathanial are more receptive.
• Children Are Innocent: In A Bottle of Exquisite Stuff, it's revealed that Ella and Etta are still fans of Chat Noir, even wanting to see a team-up between him, Ladybug, and Viperion. Alya doesn't have the heart to tell them what Chat Noir is really like.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Miracle Queen has five gems along the top of her sunglasses: Black, Green, Orange, Yellow, and Red. Each one represents her ability to use a copy of one of five different Miraculous powers.
• Complexity Addiction: Downplayed in The Radio Still Plays, but there's something to be said for the fact that Alec came up with a whole scheme to sabotage Mireille's performance at Summer Sesh, setting her up for a humiliating failure in hopes of the results becoming a 'so-bad-it's-good' viral sensation at her expense... as opposed to just, say, putting on a solid show.
• Concept Album: In-Universe, Kitty Section decides that their first album is going to be one of these. The concept is all there in the title: Hawkmoth Can Suck It: The Album.
• Control Freak: Alya repeatedly attempts to force Marinette to comply with her desires, such as pushing her to continue pursuing Adrien even over her insistence that she's no longer interested, staging an 'emergency meeting' at her house, talking over her, and generally refusing to listen to what her friend actually wants.
• Culture Justifies Anything: When Lila greets Luka by stroking a finger down his chest, she responds to his rebuff by claiming that such gestures are how people 'pal around' in Italy, adding that there wasn't anything flirtatious about it. Luka bluntly reminds her that they're not in Italy and that a social faux pas is still a faux pas.
• A Day in the Limelight: Several stories in Paper Sky Peels Off the Walls focus on the perspective of other characters.
  • Hearing Only Yourself recounts the events surrounding the trip to the wax museum from Adrien's point of view.
  • The Hour Glass is Drifting Away focuses on Nino being visited by Ladybug, delving into his thoughts about what she has to say to him.
  • It's Gonna Feel So Rare provides Ivan's perspective of the second akuma attack in The Radio Still Plays.
  • I Owe You Every Joy of Love follows Alya over the summer, leading up to the events of All the Laughs.
  • When the Dream's So Real offers a brief look at Jagged's perspective and thoughts on taking Kitty Section under his wing, as well as his intern Ruby.
  • You Smile Like an Angel explores Juleka's thoughts after being broadsided by the second wham of All the Laughs — namely, her guilt over not being able to take down Hawkmoth.
  • Don't Step Over My Head provides Gabriel's perspective of the same events as above.
  • My World is Wishing Me Asleep checks in on Adrien again, exploring his take on the events of All the Laughs, cementing how much has changed and how little he has, as he blames everyone else for what happened.
  • Revolutionary Sister Got It Going On is once again in Alya's POV, exploring her trying to rebuild the Ladyblog, talking about Adrien with Nino, and running into Marianne.
  • I Know All the Songs shows Luka hanging out with Marinette before she goes to meet and talk to Alya. It also explores his issues with keeping his emotions in check.
  • And It Won't Be Long is a series of journal entries written by Felix about arriving in Paris and starting school at Francois Dupont.
  • Tears Are in Your Eyes Tonight shows Kagami's perspective on her relationship with Adrien, and her feelings of loneliness.
• Death Glare:
  • Seeing Lila give these to Marinette and Ms. Mendeleiev after they fail to play along with her attention-seeking behavior fully convinces Rose that she's much nastier than how she presents herself.
  • Alya gives Marinette one when they run into each other at the museum. The look on her face is enough to unnerve Manon.
  • Chat Noir aims an especially hateful one towards Viperion when he steps up to defend Ladybug from his attempts to pin all the blame for the growing gulf between them on her.
    The glare Chat gave her moments ago has nothing on the look on his face now. She's so used to thinking Chat is either really laid-back or more recently, a bit pathetic, to the point that she wasn't sure if he was capable of genuine hatred. Now, she's had that misconception completely shattered and she almost winces from the sight of it.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype:
  • Chat Noir serves as one for Dogged Nice Guy; his persistent pursuit of Ladybug over her protests only serves to strain their relationship. He refuses to respect her feelings and opinions entirely because they don't line up with his, and doesn't recognize that he's sabotaging any chance of them ever getting together by pushing the issue. Proves to be a Fatal Flaw during the clash with Miracle Queen, as he fails to question why 'Ladybug' would suddenly return his affection right after having an argument, in the middle of a huge fight.
  • Similarly, Alya's Shipper on Deck antics towards Marinette/Adrien and Ladybug/Chat Noir ruin her relationships with both (as she's unaware that Marinette IS Ladybug). She can't accept that Marinette has moved on from her crush, or that Ladybug has made clear that she doesn't return Chat's feelings — and in the latter case, even falsifies footage to make it seem otherwise. Their frustration over her refusal to leave well enough alone doesn't matter to her; she only cares about making her ships happen.
• Delayed Diagnosis: Luka was diagnosed with autism as a kid. Before he was diagnosed, he would lash out more often at things like losing a game to his sister or if his mom didn't have time to play guitar with him. His mother initially dismissed these outbursts as a phase young children go through until his temper issues went on for way too long. That was when she suspected that something much more complex was going on and brought him to mental health specialists. He mellowed out after a few years of therapy and learning to meditate.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Lila is honestly surprised by Adrien's attempt to defend her from Kagami, having fully expected him to stand impotently on the sidelines and not do anything, much less try and help her.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • For some reason, Chat Noir fails to grasp the idea that refusing to cooperate with Ladybug will simply lead to her recruiting other temporary Miraculous holders. Or that his childish, petty behavior will only encourage her to rely upon them more, as he keeps proving himself to be anything but a reliable partner.
  • Alya staging an 'emergency meeting' with the other girls, shoving her way into Marinette's space and refusing to let her deescalate the situation does force her best friend to deal with the issue then and there... but not the one she expected. Mainly, she didn't consider that she was making herself the issue.
• Digging Yourself Deeper:
  • Alya does an impressive job of this when Ladybug warns her about her behavior in White Hot Morning. Even as the superheroine makes clear just how much she disapproves of posting that edited video, Alya openly blows off her complaints, acting like Ladybug's feelings about it just don't matter to her. And when she's informed of her punishment, she immediately attempts to deflect heat off herself by complaining about Chloé, which Ladybug Lampshades:
    Ladybug: Interesting that you would drag your teammate into this. It's not making your case any better.
  • Chat also engages in this after seeing the edited video. After Ladybug calls him out on ignoring her feelings yet again and makes clear that she's not interested in him that way, he proceeds to double down on his spiteful behavior, refusing to work with her against Reflekdoll, then turning right around and focusing on flirting over fighting against Gigantitan. His jealousy over Viperion entering the picture also fails to do him any favors.
  • When Nora confronts her about accidentally skipping out on her babysitting duties, Alya attempts to defend herself against her accusation of being self-absorbed by revealing she was trying to help her friends with their romantic troubles. Nora is less than impressed, and it only serves to further reinforce their mother's point about her Skewed Priorities.
  • When Ladybug calls Chat out on how he doesn't treat her like an equal partner or treat the other heroes with respect, Chat promptly blows her off, then snarls at Viperion when he speaks up, completely proving her point.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: A chapter of Paper Sky Peels Off the Walls reveals Luka to be on the autism spectrum. There is no mention of this in the show proper.
• Disappointed by the Motive: The Blue Skies and Your Eyes has Alya confront Lila in the hospital, wanting to know what drove them to act the way that they did. She's dissatisfied by their response, especially when they mock her, noting that she has no way of knowing whether or not anything they told her is actually true.
• Disappointed in You:
  • While Nora is openly livid about Alya not responding to their attempts to contact her, causing her to miss a major match, their mother is much quieter and calmer while expressing her disappointment, explaining to her middle daughter just how badly she let them down.
  • Later on, Alya admits to Ladybug that this is why she was so dismissive of all the warnings she got about Lila. If she was wrong about her, then that would mean she'd let down those who counted on her to be fair and honest, and she was afraid of facing that possibility.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • When he confesses his feelings to her, the Obliviated Chat mentions that he hopes that he'll eventually find the courage to tell her how he feels after having his memories fixed...completely unaware that his 'normal' self not only has no problems with making his romantic inclinations known but refuses to accept no for an answer.
  • Chat Noir regards Viperion as a potential romantic rival for Ladybug while blissfully unaware that the two of them are already in a relationship as their civilian selves.
  • Alya really, truly believes that Lila wouldn't have any issues with her having her date Adrien purely as a way to pull an Operation: Jealousy on Marinette, with an Adrien/Marinette hook-up as her endgame. Her only real hesitation in that regard comes when she thinks that Adrien might have a crush on Lila.
  • Chloé's declaration of "Once a bad guy, always a bad guy" is rife with this. Not only is her hypocrisy on full display — since, as Marinette points out, she's been akumatized twice herself — this incident also convinces Marinette that Chloé hasn't changed one bit, and leads to her losing the right to become Queen Bee... the very thing she used to try and deflect Marinette pointing out how unheroic she was acting.
• Dramatically Missing the Point:
  • When Ladybug confronts Rena about posted Chat's edited love confession, calling her out on cutting the clip to avoid sinking the 'CatBug' ship, Alya replies that "Actually, LadyNoir is the official name." Suffice to say, this doesn't help her case. Nor does her attempting to dismiss Ladybug's anger as being about 'dating preferences'.
  • Upon crossing paths at the museum, Alya attempts to drag Marinette away from her outing with Luka and Manon so she can strongarm her into spending time with Adrien. When she resists, Alya completely misinterprets what she means by her protest:
    Marinette: But I don't want to confess to Adrien.
    Alya: That's exactly my point. Now come on, Adrien is waiting for you.
  • This leads to Alya Staging an Intervention at Marinette's the next day, where the two wind up arguing about the latter's refusal to continue chasing after Adrien. Even after being told flat-out that she's dating Luka, Alya suggests that she's only going out with him to make Adrien jealous, insisting that she needs to keep pursuing the blond because Alya refuses to let her give up:
    Marinette: I appreciate that you were trying to help me get with Adrien, and I'm sorry you gave up so much time to make it happen, but it's just not working out.
    Alya: That's because you're not trying hard enough!
    Marinette: Or maybe it's because you keep pushing me into doing things I'm not ready for or that I don't want to do.
    Alya: Because you need pushing!
    Marinette: No, I don't! What I need is for you to listen to me for once!
  • Similarly, when Ladybug calls out Chat for ignoring the fact that she's repeatedly told him that she's not interested in him and has someone else in her life, Chat responds by sulking and trying to call her out... claiming that she doesn't treat him like an equal partner. Something that normally requires listening to said partner... the very thing that he refuses to do, since she isn't telling him what he wants to hear.
  • In Hearing Only Yourself, Plagg decides enough is enough and calls Adrien out on how he's been treating Ladybug. Adrien focuses instead on getting annoyed:
    Adrien: Now you're lecturing me? C'mon, Plagg, you used to be fun.
  • Similarly, when Chat attempts to confront Ladybug and accuse her of not treating him like a real partner, she fires back at his Moral Myopia, pointing out how he doesn't treat her or any of the others with respect. Rather than acknowledging her point, he instead tries to side-step the issue by accusing her of 'airing out their dirty laundry' in front of an audience... ignoring that he was the one to start the fight in the first place.
• Dream Episode: Act V of There's a Horror in My Head revolves around each member of Kitty Section and Marinette having one of these.
• Dumped via Text Message: Played With in Tears Are In Your Eyes Tonight: Lila attempts to stage this by stealing a phone and texting their partner 'Sorry, but I don't have time to waste on you. I have better things to do.' While this ultimately has the intended effect, it's because Adrien defends her after the ruse is revealed, showing the same dismissiveness towards Kagami's feelings as the original message.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Given the opportunity, Gabriel Agreste has Nathalie stop using the Peacock in favor of an non-broken Miraculous.
  • Despite this, he has no problems with sending the Miraculous to Lila, who ends up getting sick after using it. So it's more that he cares enough about Nathalie to preserve her health, but sees Lila as a far more disposable pawn.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • The moment she sees Luka and Marinette together, Lila immediately starts flirting with him for no other reason than wanting to take away everything Marinette has.
  • Chloé decides to harass Aurore about the Weather Girl incident simply because she can, and it lets her feel smugly superior to the other girl.
• Exact Eavesdropping:
  • Downplayed when Kitty Section witnesses Lila confronting Marinette. While he can't make out precisely what Lila is whispering, he gets enough of it to tell the others that she just threatened her, declaring that she's going to take away all of her friends.
  • The side story Hearing Only Yourself reveals that Adrien accidentally overheard Alya and Marinette's argument at the wax museum. As a result, he now knows that Marinette used to have a crush on him, but has chosen not to act upon that information yet in hopes of avoiding any further awkwardness.
• Exact Words:
  • When Ladybug visits Nino, she asks if he's already heard that she'd benched Rena Rouge for the summer. He replies that no, he hadn't... because Alya had told him that she'd been stripped of the Fox permanently. (He chooses to avoid stating precisely what he was told in order to avoid getting her into even more trouble.)
  • When Kagami and Marinette discuss their experiences with Adrien, Kagami brings up how she assumed Marinette was the girl he'd mentioned having feelings for. By this point, Marinette has figured out that he was crushing on Ladybug but avoids saying so by replying that she thought he had feelings for Kagami instead.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Alya has a really bad tendency to presume that her first conclusions about a situation are right. Once she has an idea in her head, she staunchly resists any evidence to the contrary, twisting things around to support whatever theory she's latched onto. Not only is this a poor trait for a journalist to have, it causes no end of troubles with her personal relationships, as she can't accept that Marinette might dislike Lila for reasons more valid than simple jealousy or that her relationship with Luka isn't some kind of Operation: Jealousy.
  • Chloé cannot conceive of the possibility of her actions having any consequences that stick, as she's far too used to getting her way without having to make any real changes in how she behaves. Even when she recognizes that her actions are morally wrong, she cannot bring herself to make the effort to stop falling into bad habits. Evil Is Easy, while change is hard and not worth bothering with.
  • Adrien/Chat Noir's refusal to accept that his dogged pursuit of Ladybug isn't getting him anywhere — and is, in fact, only harming their relationship — ultimately proves to be this when Miracle Queen presents him with a Mirage of Ladybug who seemingly reciprocates. Despite this making absolutely no sense, given how he just had a huge argument with Ladybug, Chat is so singularly obsessed with the idea that they're meant to be that he doesn't question her abrupt reversal at all. This lets her slip the ring right off his finger while he's distracted with a kiss, exposing his identity and leading to the ring ending up in Hawkmoth's hands.
• Foil: Has its own page of examples.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The story Master Fu tells Marinette about his past in All the Laughs We Had in the Past. Particularly the fact that the way he describes his troublesome Evil Former Friend Bo has more in common with Chat Noir than he does with Alya, right down to the fact that he used to be Fu's partner, and was underestimated in part due to his tendency to joke around... and Fu didn't realize how self-serving he could be until it was too late.
  • Marianne mentions in All the Laughs that she has a mischievous great-grandson that likes to poke his nose into her research, and that she's going to have to be careful once he comes to Paris.
  • Also in All the Laughs, Jagged gives Marinette a "Surveillance Stuff" app to help her put some extra measures in place to protect herself.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: Felix's interlude And It Won't Be Long has the distinction of being the only chapter told in first person, and written in journal format.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Not even Adrien himself is willing to forgive Gabriel for everything he did as Hawkmoth, observing that "He had all the means in the world to work past his grief. Doctors and therapists would have been gladly available to help him, and he could have reached out to Aunt Amelie, too. He wasn't doomed to make this decision, not that being doomed would have made it okay."
• Gone Horribly Right: Felix believes that Adrien needs to grow a spine and act out in the same way he does. He's blissfully unaware that Adrien has, in fact, found an outlet in being Chat Noir... and used that to be just as awful and entitled a little shit as his cousin.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Chat is not happy when Viperion comes into the picture.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Alya, particularly when it comes to Lila. I Owe You Every Joy of Love reveals just how bad it is, given that she honestly believes that Lila would be perfectly fine with being incorporated into one of her Zany Schemes to get Adrien and Marinette together.
• I Have This Friend: Marinette uses this in order to talk to her mother about Chat Noir's behavior.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: When Ladybug tries to expose the fake Ruby by commenting on how unoriginal Hawkmoth is being, they're infuriated by the suggestion that Hawkmoth created them, snapping to correct it.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: While Obliviated, Adrien feels this way towards Marinette, and his Love Confession before their memories get restored are more about getting his feelings off his chest than expecting her to return them. Sadly, Chat Noir does not feel the same way.
• Ignored Epiphany:
  • When confronted about her edited video, the only thing that pierces through Alya's insistence that she didn't do anything wrong is the idea that Hawkmoth might be following her blog and may incorporate what she's posted into her plans. Despite that brief moment of realization, however, she snaps right back to calling Ladybug's decision to bench her over the summer unfair.
  • Not long afterwards, when arguing with Marinette, Alya dismisses the idea that Hawkmoth would 'waste time' on her or Lila, hinting that this is how she's chosen to ignore Ladybug's concerns over the potential of him keeping an eye on the Ladyblog. This despite her touting her blog as a major, trustworthy source of information on Paris' heroes, the villain would still consider it beneath his notice.
    • I Owe You Every Joy of Love delves into why Alya is so willing to grasp at any reasons to ignore potential self-revelations: because acknowledging that she might have been wrong means admitting that the growing strain in her relationships is her own fault. When she finally does face that Awful Truth, it hits home hard.
  • Chloé has a brief look of horror when Marinette points out that Ladybug wouldn't approve of her bullying, but then blows her off with claims that she's just jealous because she's a superhero and Marinette isn't.
  • Gabriel's thoughts throughout Don't Step Over My Head illustrate that while he isn't unaffected by the revelation that he was fighting his own son all along, he's also swift to shift the blame.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Alya still posts evidence of an intimate moment between the Obliviated Ladybug and Chat Noir on her blog. Instead of a kiss (since that didn't happen), she uploads an edited video of Chat's confession, making it appear that Ladybug accepted his feelings and that they started dating.
  • The side story Hearing Only Yourself reveals that just like in the original episode, Adrien pretended to be a statue as part of an ill-conceived prank and overheard something he shouldn't as a result.
  • Marinette still selects the Snake Miraculous as the one she gives to Luka.
  • In All the Laughs We Had in the Past, Marinette still has a tearful breakdown in the face of a harrowing setback in the fight against Hawkmoth that forces Master Fu to leave Paris, as his identity as the Guardian has been compromised. Thankfully, Luka is still there to comfort her.
  • Kagami's mother is still akumatized into Ikari Gozen, though the impetus here is her outrage over how her daughter has been hounded in the wake of her own akumatization into Friend Zone.
  • A kwami swap still occurs. Sort of. Alya takes up the bee and Luka takes the turtle during their fight with Ikari Gozen, becoming Abeille Dorée and Maturin respectively.
  • Despite the events of All the Laughs, a new Peacock appears... it's just not Natalie behind the mask.
• Innocently Insensitive: Combined with Misery Poker in The Blue Skies and Your Eyes. Adrien complains about the prospect of having to take a three-hour train ride to visit his friends in Paris after moving to London. He then belatedly realizes that he's saying this to someone who will have a significantly harder time arranging any visits if her family moves back to Japan, provided Tomoe even lets her visit at all.
• Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!:
  • This is why Mirelle gets akumatized in The Radio Still Plays. Alec planned to sabotage her performance by deliberately giving her a bad song and messing with her microphone in order to engineer a viral video that he hoped would be regarded as this.
  • In Tears Are in Your Eyes Tonight, Kagami fears the extra humiliation that will come from her breakdown and akumatization into Friend Zone being spread around on places like the Ladyblog. Alya offers some reassurance by deleting the footage she shot.
• Internal Reveal:
  • In White Hot Morning, Luka figures out Ladybug's Secret Identity and immediately comes clean to her about it.
  • Hearing Only Yourself revolves in part around Adrien learning that Marinette used to have a crush on him when he overhears her arguing with Alya.
  • All the Laughs We Had in the Past has Ladybug affirm for Alya that she was never friends with Lila, at a point where Alya is ready to accept that rather than reject it.
  • All the Laughs also has the massive revelation of Adrien Agreste being exposed as Chat Noir when Miracle Queen steals the ring, coupled with Master Fu grimly recognizing that his own identity as the Guardian is now effectively forfeit, due to Adrien being aware of it. (You Smile Like an Angel clarifies that said reveal only involved Ladybug, Viperion, Hawkmoth, Mayura and Chloé witnessing Chat's unmasking.)
  • The final chapter of All the Laughs has Viperion figure out Rena's identity, and Space Patrol revealing that Adrien overheard Alya and Marinette's argument at the wax museum and blames Marinette for how awkward he feels about it.
  • During the Just Want to Relax arc in Bottle, Jukela, Rose, and Ivan learn each others' respective secret identities when Ladybug activates all three of them to deal with the Rubys.
  • In "Counting Stars in Her Perfume Jar", it's revealed that Lila found out about Alya's Operation: Jealousy plan.
• It's All About Me:
  • Adrien/Chat Noir's inability to accept that Ladybug doesn't feel the same way about him is severe enough to impact his performance during battle, as he flips between flirting and spitefully refusing to work with her while accusing her of being the unreasonable one.
  • In a relatively subtler example, when Adrien accidentally overhears Alya and Marinette arguing and learns about her old crush, he wishes that she would have told him purely because he finds it awkward learning about it the way he did. He also fails to understand, even with Plagg's explanation, how his actions (and inaction) might have impacted their friendship.
  • Nora accuses Alya of this after her thoughtlessness forces her to miss a very important match. One that would have allowed her to break into a bigger division.
    Alya: I-I'm sure you'll get another chance. It's not that big a deal-
    Nora: No, it is that big a deal! Alya, this isn't some hobby or something I just like to do with my time! This is my livelihood, how I make my money! I would think that as someone who puts in a lot of work into their passion, you would understand how much that means to me, but now I see that you don't really care about anyone else.
  • Chloé's belief that the world revolves around her and her desires, dismissing the notion that her actions could have any kind of negative consequences for her rather than just the people she bullies and belittles, is what ultimately costs her the Bee Miraculous.
  • Space Patrol naturally exemplifies Adrien's issues with this, seeing absolutely nothing wrong with abducting their 'friends' and forcing them to play games. They're also responsible for revealing that Adrien spied on Alya and Marinette's conversation at the wax museum, and that they blame the latter for how awkward they feel about that, and about having to pretend he doesn't know about her former crush.

J-Z

• Jerkass Has a Point: Felix is sincerely concerned about his cousin's Extreme Doormat tendencies. Sadly, he's an absolute prat in how he goes about 'helping' him, such as calling in Nino and Kagami specifically to witness him giving Adrien a dressing-down, roping Luka into it purely because he happens to be passing by.
• Jerkass Realization: Adrien has one during the climax of There's a Horror in My Head, upon discovering that his father was Hawkmoth, forcing him to finally recognize how selfishly both of them acted.
• "Just Joking" Justification: Adrien invokes this on behalf of someone else when they're caught out, claiming that Lila only sent a nasty message to Kagami with his phone as 'a joke'.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia:
  • Oblivio still inflicts this upon their victims, including Marinette and Adrien.
  • In All the Laughs, those who participated in the ritual are granted the ability to erase memories related to the Miraculous and Guardians, as a way of protecting their identities if they get compromised.
• Like Father, Like Son:
  • Both of the Agrestes are shown to be inherently selfish, focused upon their personal desires to the detriment of others. Both attempt to impose their will upon others, Gabriel terrorizing the city as Hawkmoth while Adrien blithely ignores Ladybug's clear disinterest. Of the pair, Gabriel is slightly more willing to acknowledge his misdeeds, but only while writing them off as 'necessary', while his son can't see that there's any epiphany for him to ignore in the first place.
  • Eventually, after the events of There's a Horror in My Head, their positions are reversed: Adrien realizes just how self-absorbed his behavior was after Gabriel is unmasked, while Gabriel continues to insist that he did was what best 'for their family'.
• Love Confession:
  • Luka makes his confession from "Silencer" shortly before the events of Silence Can Be Beautiful play out, as Marinette mulls over the best way to respond to him.
  • Chat Noir makes one to Ladybug while they're still under Oblivio's effects. While he accepts her gently turning him down, it causes more drama due to Alya filming and posting an edited version of it to the Ladyblog.
• Loving a Shadow: Marinette comes to realize this was the case with her crush on Adrien, though the point is really driven home in All the Laughs.
• Manipulative Editing: Alya deliberately edits the Obliviated Chat Noir's Love Confession in order to make it appear that Ladybug reciprocated his feelings, and posts the results on the Ladyblog. Ladybug is naturally outraged by this, calling it for what it is: clickbait.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: In All the Laughs, Master Fu provides one to Ladybug, along with all her other trusted allies. This grants them protection against akumatization and akumas' powers, the power to create distractions to help shield their identities, and the ability to erase memories related to the Guardians and Miraculous.
• Moment of Weakness: Luka admits in All the Laughs We Had in the Past that he's afraid of his own anger. After what happened with Bob Roth and, more recently, Chat Noir, he fears letting his own emotions get the better of him and getting akumatized again.
• Moral Myopia: So far as Chat's concerned, there's nothing wrong with him blowing Ladybug off all the time and ignoring how much she dislikes his flirting and joking around during fights. She deserves his disrespect because she won't agree to date him... and she's not treating him like a real partner, anyway. What with how she doesn't listen and won't give him what he wants.
• Moving the Goalposts: Alya rejected Marinette's attempt to warn her about Lila by claiming she didn't have proof. When Rose shows her proof positive that she lied about knowing Prince Ali, Alya dismisses it as not enough; at best, it only proves that she fibbed about that one thing, and unless they provide proof that everything was false, she's going to keep believing that they're just jealous.
• Musical Theme Naming: Each of the stories is named after a song or a lyric in a song:
  • Silence Can Be Beautiful and Paper Sky Peels Off the Walls come from the song Pauline by Darling Violetta.
  • Thinking of Ways comes from the song of the same name by The Boo Radleys.
  • White Hot Morning and The One to Make It Stay both come from the song Blowin' Cool by Swervedriver.
  • The Radio Still Plays comes from the song Son of Mustang Ford by Swervedriver. The chapter titles Drove Down to the Shoreline and Hey, Shoreline, Take Me Far Away also count.
  • All the Laughs We Had in the Past is from the song Etheriel by Lush.
  • A Bottle of Exquisite Stuff comes from Iceblink Luck by Cocteau Twins.
  • Chapter titles also apply here. In addition to the above, we have The Evening Mist Melts Away (All Through the Day by Asobi Seksu), Hearing Only Yourself (Slide by Low), The Hour Glass is Drifting Away (Lost in Space by The Veldt), It's Gonna Feel So Rare (Kill Rhythm by Catherine Wheel), I Owe You Every Joy of Love (Color's Running Out by TOY), When the Dream's So Real (Feel So Real by Swervedriver), You Smile Like an Angel (Frozen by Curve), Don't Step Over My Head (Wish You Dead by Curve), My World is Wishing Me Asleep (Lose My Breath by My Bloody Valentine), Revolutionary Sister Got It Going On (Revolutionary Sister by the Veldt), I Know All the Songs (Saturn Jig by All Natural Lemon and Lime Flavors), And It Won't Be Long (When You Sleep by My Bloody Valentine), and Tears Are in Your Eyes Tonight (Tears Are in Your Eyes'' by Yo La Tengo).
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • After struggling with the question of her culpability for some time, All the Laughs We Had in the Past sees Alya complete her Jerkass Realization after learning the truth about Lila.
  • In All the Laughs's second chapter, another one hits Chloé when she hears that she successfully helped Hawkmoth obtain the Black Cat Miraculous.
  • And in All the Laughs's third chapter, Alya starts working herself into a tizzy when Ladybug visits her, blaming herself for the chain of events that led to Chat losing the Ring.
  • "Cyclone Full on Feeling" delves more into Chloé's lingering guilt over the knowledge that she was responsible for Hawkmoth getting the Ring, as well as the other lasting consequences of that incident for her.
• Never My Fault:
  • Zig-Zagged with Alya. While she dismisses most of Ladybug's anger over the edited footage, she does recognize that Hawkmoth might be monitoring the Ladyblog for information... but later brushes that off with the self-justification that it's under his radar. I Owe You Every Joy of Love sees her wishing that she could argue this when it comes to how she caused Nora to miss her match, but recognizing that her family's frustration with her is valid, even if the punishment still seems excessive.
  • Adrien plays this painfully straight when it comes to his ongoing conflict with Ladybug, accusing her of being the unreasonable and stubborn one for insisting upon setting boundaries and refusing to put up with his refusal to listen.
  • During their argument in the middle of the Miracle Queen incident, Chat's response to her calling him out on his blatant double standards is to try and deflect the blame by shaming her for arguing in front of the others, ignoring that he started the fight in the first place:
    Ladybug: Maybe if you actually acted like a partner, and treated our teammates with respect, I would have given your opinion more consideration. Why is it that I have to entertain what you want but when I tell you to back off and stop hitting on me, you get to act like I'm being unreasonable?
    Chat Noir: Come on. Are you seriously airing our dirty laundry in front of everyone right now?
    Viperion: If you don't want her to call you out, don't give her material to work with.
  • Don't Step Over My Head, Gabriel's mid-All the Laughs interlude, shows him doing his level best to gloss over any responsibility he has for how his actions hurt his own son.
  • My World is Wishing Me Asleep reveals that Adrien blames Plagg for being used by Feline Fatale, and doesn't spare a single thought towards the notion that he's in any way responsible for his ring being stolen.
  • One of the alternate scenarios in TOtMiS Anniversary Edition allows Master Fu to call Adrien out directly on this:
    Master Fu: You are so quick to point out the flaws of others, and yet, you never point a finger at yourself. I've seen reports of you longing about while battles were going on, refusing to cooperate with Ladybug's plans. You always accused her of taking charge, but then why do you not offer up support or a counter proposal instead? Why do you flirt or distract her during fights instead of help?
    Chat Noir: (glares sulkily)
• The New '10s: I Owe You Every Joy of Love indicates that the story takes place in 2016.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Chat's refusal to work with Ladybug, Viperion and the other temp heroes against Miracle Queen due to blaming them for everything results in him falling for an illusionary Ladybug who steals the ring while kissing him. This reveals his identity as Adrien to Ladybug and possibly the other heroes, and Plagg ends up in Hawkmoth's hands. Fu also ends up leaving Paris as a safety precaution.
  • Don't Step Over My Head affirms that, just as Ladybug feared, Hawkmoth has been following the Ladyblog for information, and was inspired by the content Alya produced to exploit Chat Noir's feelings for Ladybug to his own ends.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • By the end of The Radio Still Plays, Gabriel Agreste ends up back on Ladybug's radar because not only did he create two akumas during Summer Sesh, but he himself actually showed up to help Clara with her outfit. When she mentions this to Marinette, she begins to wonder if maybe she was too quick to write him off. Downplayed in that she doesn't conclude that he's Hawkmoth, but that he could still be involved.
  • I Owe You Every Joy of Love and All the Laughs We Had in the Past imply that Lila may have unintentionally shot herself in the foot by disabling the notifications on Alya's phone. Whatever her reasoning for doing so, the end result is that this helps Alya accept the idea that she's been a False Friend all along.
  • Tears Are in Your Eyes Tonight has a more Downplayed example: using Adrien's phone to send a nasty message to Kagami blows up in her face, but she still succeeds in driving a wedge between them. Not how she originally planned, but because Adrien defends her instead of Kagami.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • In The Radio Still Plays, Marinette comes to realize that both she and Master Fu have been putting aside their own problems and regrets in order to focus entirely upon their duties as Ladybug and the Guardian. This encourages her to open up to him more and speak more frankly about her issues with Alya/Rena Rouge and the Ladyblog.
  • During a discussion about Adrien in A Bottle of Exquisite Stuff, Marinette recognizes how she, like him, used to be afraid of disappointing others by asserting herself, and that he hasn't learned to stand up for himself.
  • Lila firmly believes that everyone is just as Secretly Selfish as she is. When she discovers that Alya only wanted to set her up with Adrien as part of an Operation: Jealousy to break up Marinette and Luka, she simply takes it as proof that she's right, and all the more reason not to feel the least bit bad about being a False Friend to her.
  • Chloé directly compares herself to Lila during "Cyclone Full on Feeling", musing that both of them have endured similar setbacks as of late as both of their reputations have taken a severe beating.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: All the Laughs shakes things up considerably: Miracle Queen successfully steals and passes on the Black Cat ring to Hawkmoth, exposing Chat Noir's identity and stripping Adrien of all the 'perks' he associated with that. Master Fu leaves Paris, with Marianne stepping up to serve as his proxy. Natalie trades the busted Peacock for the Black Cat, becoming Feline Fatale. Marinette and her remaining allies undergo a ritual that offers them extra protection against akumas, as well as special powers that aren't reliant upon them having the Miraculous. Viperion becomes a permanent hero.
• Oblivious to Love: Adrien's obliviousness to Marinette's former feelings for him is so extreme that he needs Plagg to explain it to him even after he overhears and witnesses Alya trying to force Marinette to spend more time with him at the museum.
• Once More, with Clarity: Hearing Only Yourself revisits Marinette and Alya's confrontation in the wax museum, revealing that Adrien witnessed it while pretending to be his own statue.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Plagg drops his usual Trollish attitude and gets serious when calling Adrien out for his continued harassment of Ladybug. He even foregoes his usual disgusted shuddering when talking about love.
• Operation: Jealousy:
  • Alya accuses Marinette of dating Luka solely as a way of staging this.
  • I Owe You Every Joy of Love subsequently reveals that Alya's attempt to arrange an outing between Lila and Adrien was actually her attempting to pull this on Marinette by exploiting her supposed jealousy of Lila to get her to start pursuing Adrien again.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat:
  • Lila enjoys hiding barbs beneath a veil of Sugary Malice and false concern. Adrien favors passive-aggressiveness as well, clinging to his image of being the 'sunshine child' who never rocks the boat.
  • Defied in There's a Horror in My Head when Adrien tries to guilt-trip Marinette at his birthday party, making pointed insinuations about her being 'too busy for her friends'. Mari calls him out and tells him that if he's got a problem with her, he should just come right out and say it rather than dance around it.
• Point of Divergence: The whole story kicks off when Rose receives a message from Prince Ali telling her that he doesn't know who Lila is. This leads to Marinette getting closer to Kitty Section, and eventually entering a relationship with Luka.
  • Due to growing closer to Luka, the Obliviated Marinette has pictures and messages from him on her cell phone and thus assumes that he must be her boyfriend rather than joining Adrien in thinking that they must be related. Adrien is saddened by this, but accepts it, and instead of sharing a kiss before they're cured, confesses his feelings for her instead. Alya records this and uploads an edited version to her blog, spurring several confrontations as a result.
  • Rather than being reakumatized into Reflekta, Juleka is akumatized into Reflekdoll after the figurines she worked on were thrown out.
  • How Luka becomes Viperion. During her fight with Gigantitan, Chat's lack of cooperation and focus stresses Ladybug out to the point where her Lucky Charm advises her to speak with Master Fu. This leads her to pick Luka as the snake.
  • Vivica is akumatized into Desperada because of a conflict involving Alec Cataldi.
  • Tom, Marianne, and Manon aren't akumatized because Marinette isn't stressed out or distracted by something else.
  • Since she's dating Luka by this point, Marinette doesn't go after Adrien when he boards the train with Kagami to go to London. Instead, Alya takes Lila in order to make Marinette jealous. It doesn't go according to plan.
  • Marinette doesn't falsely confess feelings for Chat Noir as a ploy to cover her identity. After the fight with Gigantitan, Luka comes by the next day to check on her, and later tells her that he knows she's Ladybug.
  • Thanks to Marinette arriving just in time, Aurore's second akumatization is prevented. This incident also causes her to permanently ban Chloé from hero work much sooner than in canon.
  • While there is a kwami swap, it doesn't happen in Reflekdoll. Instead, it happens in the fight against Ikari Gozen, with Alya taking the bee and Luka taking the turtle, becoming Abeille Dorée and Maturin respectively.
  • Due to the events of All the Laughs, Natalie becomes Feline Fatale, not Mayura, with somebody else taking up the Peacock Miraculous.
  • Rather than targeting Marinette, Lila sets up Alya for expulsion by planting test answers and faking an injury. Because they have cameras in their lockers, Marinette and friends are able to clear Alya's name.
• Playing the Victim Card:
  • This is one of Lila's favorite tactics. She's quick to turn on the Crocodile Tears whenever anybody questions her stories, trying to paint her doubters as unreasonable.
  • Alya also pulls this when Marinette suggests they should take a break from each other. Despite the fact that Alya was the one who kept forcing herself into her space and putting her on the spot, ignoring her 'best friend's' discomfort with her pushy, demanding behavior, she acts as though Marinette is the one who's crossed a line. She also exaggerates the severity of their disagreement; while Marinette just wants some space over the summer, Alya treats it as though they've completely broken up. Unsurprisingly, I Owe You Every Joy of Love shows that Lila encouraged her to do this by convincing her that Marinette had little interest in reconciling.
  • Adrien frequently employs this as well as part of his 'poor little rich boy' self-pitying, refusing to acknowledge how his own actions have contributed to any of his problems. No, it's always the fault of everyone else involved.
• Plot Parallel:
  • Chat Noir's insistence on pursuing a romantic partnership with Ladybug parallels Alya's efforts to help Marinette get together with Adrien... particularly with how both ignore Ladybug/Marinette repeatedly stressing that she's not interested. Alya also supports LadyNoir, and her decision to manipulatively edit footage of one of his Love Confessions draws the plotlines closer together, inviting further comparison of how both handle being called out on it. Particularly after Alya has her Jerkass Realization while Adrien continues to ignore Ladybug and Plagg's input.
  • While Marinette's strong sense of responsibility serves her well as Ladybug, it has also led to her putting others ahead of herself to her own detriment. Master Fu has done much the same thing as the Guardian, focusing on how he Must Make Amends for past mistakes. When Marinette realizes this, it encourages her to open up to him more and strengthens her determination to set things right and find a better balance for both of them.
  • Marinette's struggle to continue trusting some of the temporary Miraculous holders reminds Fu of his past: his friend Bo, who was considered ideal for the Monkey Miraculous due to his troublemaking personality, wound up betraying him and the Order. He relates this story to her in hopes that it will help her come to the right decisions, whatever those might be.
  • Alya's strained relationship with Marinette starts running alongside Chloé's in All the Laughs We Had in the Past, showing how their respective mindsets align and differ. Alya's circumstances mean that trying to change and improve means facing consequences for her past mistakes, yet she is willing to try. The biggest obstacle in Chloé's way is that she doesn't want to change, and that costs her the Bee.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Master Fu shows himself to be one throughout White Hot Morning. When Marinette confides about her growing problems with the current roster of temporary holders, he hears her out, then praises her thoughtfulness and willingness to address these issues, calling it good judgement and signs of how she's grown. Later, when she needs to pick out a new Miraculous, he accepts her reluctance to use the Fox, Turtle, or Bee and introduces her to the Zodiac. And while he wants to talk to her after the battle, he accepts her desire to head home without complaint, recognizing that she needs time. He also acknowledges that Luka figuring out her identity isn't ideal, but is willing to figure out how to work around it, and reassures Marinette that he doesn't blame her.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • In All the Laughs We Had in the Past, Chloé receives one from Ladybug:
    Ladybug: Another chance? Chloé, you've been given plenty of chances to clean up your act! That one girl you bullied for four years threw you a party after saving the city! Your teacher has been nothing but patient with you, punishing the victims of your actions! I allowed you to keep the Bee because I thought being a hero would force you to become a better person, with or without the mask. And yet, you continue to harass other people, then expect I'll give you the Bee when they're nearly akumatized? Someone who is so entitled, stubborn, and cruel cannot be a hero. You're off the team, Chloé.
  • Following this, Chat attempts to give Ladybug hell for not treating him like a partner, only for her to call him out on his blatant Moral Myopia:
    Ladybug: Maybe if you actually acted like a partner, and treated our teammates with respect, I would have given your opinion more consideration. Why is it that I have to entertain what you want, but when I tell you to back off and stop hitting on me, you get to act like I'm being unreasonable?
  • Felix confronts Adrien at their shared party in There's a Horror in My Head, bringing in an audience to witness him dressing him down for his passivity and difficulty establishing boundaries.
    Felix: (with a little yawn) I don't understand how all these people could choose to be your friends when you don't choose to stand with them. You seem to cower to the opinion of those who don't mean you well.
• Relationship Upgrade:
  • Marinette asks Luka out at the end of Silence Can Be Beautiful. They are officially dating in White Hot Morning.
  • Alya edits her footage of the Obliviated Chat Noir's Love Confession to make it appear that he and Ladybug have gotten together when that's not actually the case.
• Rule of Three:
  • As Ladybug points out to Chat Noir in White Hot Morning, she has already made clear to him twice before that she wasn't interested in having a relationship with him. Having to rebuff him after Alya's video makes the third time, and she's putting her foot down.
  • The Pig Miraculous has three different special powers its user can choose from: Mud Bomb, which covers the target and highlights the akumatized item, Glue Stick, which glues them in place, and Sock Launcher, which tags the target with a powerful scent. Daizzi warns that they can only use one before their countdown to powering down starts, though.
• Saying Too Much: Adrien accidentally lets on that he knows something he shouldn't when he defends his stance that Marinette should apologize to Alya by declaring that "the two of you can't keep feuding just because of me."
• Selective Obliviousness:
  • No matter what proof others have to offer, Alya refuses to entertain the idea that Marinette has any kind of valid reason to distrust Lila. Nope, she's just jealous of her! That's all there is to it!
  • Similarly, she rejects the notion that Ladybug's anger with her over uploading falsified footage to the Ladyblog to push her LadyNoir ship is valid, acting like her temporary benching is Disproportionate Retribution.
  • Marinette's frustration with her trying to force her and Adrien together gets ignored right up until the moment Marinette puts her foot down... at which point she acts like Marinette is being unreasonable in setting boundaries.
  • Chat Noir also opts to ignore Ladybug's repeated insistence that she's not interested in him, save for when he decides to be sulky and punish her for it by refusing to cooperate against akuma.
• Shipper on Deck: Deconstructed with Alya, whose investment in the notion of helping Marinette get together with Adrien outlasts her interest in him. She continues trying to push them together over Marinette's protests and refuses to accept that she's moved on, even suggesting that she's only dating Luka to make Adrien jealous. She also does the same with LadyNoir and acts like Ladybug is being unreasonable over her decision to intentionally deceive everyone in service of her ship.
  • The Hour Glass is Drifting Away reveals that after Marinette finally got through to her that she wasn't pursuing Adrien anymore, Alya switched targets and attempted to hook him up with Lila. In front of Kagami. Turns out that she had ulterior motives for that which Lila wouldn't have appreciated, though...
• Shout-Out:
  • Some of Luka and Juleka's cousins, knowing how much she likes figurines, hook her up with all the episodes of Action League NOW! to watch. This directly inspires her idea for a music video starring custom figures.
  • When explaining the "RPG logic" aspect of Space Patrol's powers, Nino uses the example of "a drunk old guy blocking the road while his granddaughter claims that he 'hasn't had his coffee yet'."
• Sibling Rivalry: Minor example between Juleka and Luka. While they generally get along, they compete against each other at Guitar Hero and tie all the time. This competition was actually how they both ended up being guitar players in Kitty Section.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Ladybug's costume shifts the first time she uses Lucky Charm after the ritual in All the Laughs.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • Alya puts her desire for a 'big scoop' ahead of her integrity and relationship with Ladybug when she cobbles together footage of Chat's Love Confession to make it look like she's got video proof of them getting together. She then fails to grasp why this upsets Ladybug so much, even after having it spelled out for her.
  • Chat Noir repeatedly puts his romantic interests over his work as a superhero in White Hot Morning. First by refusing to listen to Ladybug when she tries to talk to him about the edited video, then getting salty at her for rejecting his feelings and refusing to work with her to deal with Reflekdoll, then by trying to flirt with her during Gigantitan's attack. And when she shows up with Viperion, Chat immediately storms off to do his own thing again.
  • Alya's mother points this out as the reason she's in so much trouble. She's been so focused on the Ladyblog, dating Nino, and trying to set up Marinette with Adrien that her grades have slipped significantly.
  • Following one of the biggest whammies of All the Laughs, Adrien is more concerned about Feline Fatale giving cats like him a bad name than the fact that she's running around Cataclysming and terrorizing Paris.
• Spot the Imposter: Ladybug and the other heroes have to do this when a second Ruby appears and causes mischief at the studio. While Princess Piggy and Tigresse Rayé attempt to ask questions that only the real Ruby would know, the fake Ruby is able to speak in unison with her. Ladybug instead decides to insult Hawkmoth's creation, causing the akuma to get offended and reveal themselves and the fact that they actually weren't created by Hawkmoth. The holder of the Peacock created them.
• Staging an Intervention: Alya attempts this in White Hot Morning, holding an "emergency meeting" at the Dupain-Cheng Bakery wherein she attempts to force Marinette to keep chasing after Adrien despite having already been told that she's not interested in that anymore.
• Stern Teacher: Ms. Mendeleiev responds to Lila's attempts to worm out of work by bluntly informing her that she needs to handle requests for special accommodations through official channels, repeatedly shutting her down. This impresses Marinette enough that she asks if she can transfer to Mendeleiev's class for their next school year, with Juleka, Rose, and Ivan following suit. Ms. Mendeleiev's clearly surprised by this, but agrees, provided they have their parents write official letters of request.
• Sympathetic P.O.V.:
  • Hearing Only Yourself is a somewhat Downplayed version. While Adrien's reasons for choosing not to deal with what he accidentally overheard at the museum are presented as understandable, at least from his perspective, it's also hammered home just how self-absorbed he is when it comes to Ladybug.
  • I Owe You Every Joy of Love explores Alya's perspective following her blowout with Marinette, delving into the reasoning behind her actions and revealing what's going on inside her head.
  • Some entries in Paper Sky, like Don't Step Over My Head and My World is Wishing Me Asleep, border on Aversions; seeing things through their eyes serves more to underscore their selfishness.
• Take Me Instead: Pulled against Reflekdoll by the intern who accidentally ruined her figures, who confesses and offers herself up to protect Jagged.
• Take That!: The Blue Skies and Your Eyes takes potshots at those who consider Lila to be worse than Hawkmoth, emphasizing how he was a grown man manipulating everyone around him to his own selfish ends.
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Adrien and Alya both have this issue. Adrien has convinced himself that he's a Dogged Nice Guy who WILL win Ladybug over eventually, while Alya believes that she understands Marinette's heart better than her bestie does. Alya eventually moves on from this.
• Totally Radical: Beach Bum talks like this.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Marinette suspects that Lila is proving to be this for Alya; the aspiring reporter was always stubborn, but that seems to have grown far worse ever since Lila's return. What's more, she starts using some of the same tricks and tactics.
• The Unapologetic:
  • Chloé. It's not that she doesn't know that her behavior is wrong; she just refuses to acknowledge or admit when she's crossed a line.
  • Adrien also shows signs of this. Whenever somebody calls out all the issues with his attitude, he deflects and tries another line of accusation rather than acknowledging their point.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • The Obliviated Chat Noir only wanted to tell Ladybug how he felt. He didn't want or expect her to return his feelings; he just wanted to make them known. He had no idea that Alya would film his confession, or that she would post an edited version of it to her Ladyblog... or that he normally wasn't so considerate of his lady's feelings.
  • As it turns out, Juleka's figures got wrecked completely by accident; the culprit mistook the box they were in for one she needed to throw out and is horrified that their mistake got someone akumatized.
• We Used to Be Friends: Downplayed. Marinette and Alya drift apart, and both Ladybug and Marinette want time apart from Alya for the summer. However, Alya seems to treat it like they aren't friends.
  • In A Bottle of Exquisite Stuff they finally make up.
• Wham Episode:
  • All the Laughs We Had in the Past begins with Chloé being stripped of the Bee because of how she bullies Aurore.
  • Its second chapter delivers another whammy when the rift between Chat Noir and Ladybug widens due to the above, and Miracle Queen successfully uses a Mirage to trick him, stealing the ring, revealing his identity, and successfully getting the ring to Hawkmoth. This also leads to Master Fu deciding to leave Paris, leaving Kaalki and several other Miraculous with Marinette, as he knows Adrien could compromise his identity.
• Wham Line:
  • In White Hot Morning, Luka drops one at the climax of the penultimate chapter, revealing that he's figured out that Marinette is Ladybug.
  • Aurore drops one in The Radio Still Plays while talking to Marinette and Mylene about Alya:
    Aurore: I see. That's pretty irresponsible for an investigative journalist. Maybe that's why she put the Ladyblog on hiatus.
• What If?: TOtMiS Anniversary Edition includes some alternate scenes detailing scraped scenarios:
  • The first has Marinette speaking to Adrien's wax statue in the museum, getting old feelings off her chest and leaving her charm bracelet behind, unaware that Adrien was pretending to be the statue the whole time.
  • The second diverges from All the Laughs We Had in the Past, altering the nature of the Wham Episode by having Master Fu strip the Ring from Adrien after Miracle Queen is successfully dealt with.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • White Hot Morning opens with Ladybug calling Alya out for posting her heavily edited video of Chat's Love Confession.
  • Later in White Hot Morning, one of Chat's quips ruins Ladybug's chance to get to an akumatized object and cleanse it quickly. Worse, he responds to her criticizing that by sniping back, accusing her of seeing him as 'just a sidekick' and not caring about her feelings, making clear that he's still sore about her rejecting him.
  • Hearing Only Yourself has Plagg 'pull a Tikki' and call his holder out about blaming Ladybug for their recent arguments over his stubborn pursuit of her:
    Plagg: Kid, there's a major difference between 'fun' and 'unwanted harassment', especially when it comes to love. Fun is a two-way street where all parties enjoy themselves, while harassment is continued even when it's made clear it's not welcome at this party. And you were kicked out a while ago.
  • In All the Laughs We Had in the Past, Chat Noir blames Ladybug for Chloé's akumatization. Ladybug counters, only for him to throw more accusations her way, trading barbs back and forth while their teammates watch uneasily.
  • In All the Laughs' final chapter, Nino calls Adrien out for seeing himself as the victim when he was the one who eavesdropped on a private conversation, and for blaming Marinette for his decision to pretend he doesn't know about her former crush.
• Wild Card: Felix Graham de Vanily enters the story as one, as he's very interested in learning more about akumas and the secrets of others, including his Grand-Mere Marianne.
  • It seems that even Marianne doesn't know whether or not to trust Felix as a potential Guardian/Miraculous wielder. She lists his relationship with Gabriel, his grief over his father's death, and his general lack of social skills as key reasons.
• Woman Scorned: In A Bottle of Exquisite Stuff, Kagami is akumatized into Friend Zone when she thinks Adrien prefers to hang out with other girls over her, and goes directly after Lila.
• Would Hurt a Child: Gabriel has no problem with giving the peafowl miraculous to Lila, despite its damaged state, causing her to get sick.
• You Are Grounded!: The Hour Glass is Drifting Away reveals that Alya has been grounded and that this is the real reason that the Ladyblog has been put on hiatus, as being grounded has naturally impeded their ability to focus on that.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: During an argument, Marinette points out to Alya how dangerous Lila advertising her supposed friendship with Ladybug could be, and how Hawkmoth could use the information she posts on her blog against them. Alya blows her off, claiming Hawkmoth wouldn't want to waste time on her or Lila since "it's not like we're superheroes," causing Marinette to ask herself She has to be joking, right? Not just for the Dramatic Irony, but because this hints that Alya has chosen to ignore the one thing that caused her to falter and apologize to Ladybug: the idea that Hawkmoth might follow her blog to glean any intel he could about his opponents.
• You're Just Jealous:
  • How Alya prefers to play off any accusations made towards Lila, especially when they're coming from her supposed 'best friend' Marinette.
  • Chloé pulls the same card when Marinette points out that Ladybug wouldn't approve of her bullying.
    Chloé: You know, your mouth is moving and your voice is making sounds, but all I'm hearing is 'I'm jealous, I'm jealous!'
• Zany Scheme: Alya's eagerness to use these to try and help Marinette and Adrien get together is Deconstructed, as it's pointed out that they do more harm than good, and her insistence upon doing so over Marinette's protests is a sign of the gulf widening between them. Even after being called out on this and asked to take a break, Alya promptly follows up with a plan to hook Adrien up with Lila in hopes of making Marinette jealous enough to leave Luka and resume her efforts to pursue her old crush.

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