Tropes:
- 10-Minute Retirement: Since nobody knows how Monarch was able to immediately discover the new heroes' identities, the original Ladybug and Cat Noir have to return by the end of the episode. They were effectively only retired for one battle.
- Apocalypse Wow: Tikki and Plagg both use their unrestricted powers, which will eventually cause the Earth to be destroyed. In the meantime, this causes buildings and monuments in Paris to constantly be created then immediately destroyed.
- Badass Normal: The entire Resistance qualifies. Marinette, while wearing a Ladybug costume and motorcycle helmet to hide her identity, tricks Monarchbug with a fake Lucky Charm and comes close to grabbing his earrings. Then, Nino takes a sting of Venom for her, and the others attack Monarchbug and spray sauces on him, preventing him from turning invisible. They managed to capture Sole Destroyer offscreen, and threaten to use her power on him, which forces him to recall the Megakuma. This distracts him long enough for Adrien to steal the earrings back and give them to Ladybug, allowing her to transform and fix everything. They do all of this without any powers of their own.
- Badass Unintentional: Adrien was just helping Ladybug and his friends defeat Monarch when he stole the Ladybug Miraculous from him and gave it back to her. He had no idea this was the first time his Abusive Dad would knowingly witness an act of defiance from him and not be able to do anything about it without revealing his Secret Identity.
- Battle Couple: Defied with Scarabella and Kitty Noire; Scarabelle is quick to insist they're merely partners in light of the media's rampant speculation about Ladybug and Cat Noir, though Kitty Noire playfully flirts with Scarabella when the topic comes up.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Plagg offers to Cataclysm Chloé in response to her bullying of Zoé, and reveals that he killed the dinosaurs on purpose because they made fun of him.
- Call-Back:
- Monarch uses the same Multitude, Venom, and Sublimation-granted invisibility strategy he tried in "Illusion". But since he uses it against untransformed heroes while they're alone, it's successful this time.
- Chloé's akumatized form is a redux of Zoé's akumatized form from last season, Sole Crusher. Monarch evidently wasn't feeling very creative on the spot.
- Plagg's reaction upon seeing he's been taken by Monarch is to immediately attempt to Cataclysm him on the spot without a further word, just like when Shadow Moth had taken him in "Ephemeral". Unlike in that episode, where Shadow Moth ordered him to stop as his new master and Plagg was compelled to obey, Monarch simply protects himself with the power of the Ox. This backfires on him as Plagg instead is able to destroy his Miraculous and deny him its power.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Exaggerated - even after Marinette has non-verbally confessed her love of Adrien who has reciprocated, she is seen having to try to force her own left hand to hold Adrien's right hand over the cafeteria table.
- Card-Carrying Jerkass: Chloé doesn’t understand the meaning of “generously” and finds the idea behind it to be utterly abhorrent.
- Cold Equation: When Plagg uses Cataclysm on his Miraculous, he creates a massive explosion in the middle of Paris, definitely killing a lot of people. And the combination of Plagg and Tikki's uncontrolled power use starts to destroy the whole planet. But this is still preferable to Monarch winning, as that threatens the entire universe.
- Contrived Coincidence: Invoked. Tikki conjures a Lucky Charm and "entrusts it to the universe", so that it will end up where it needs to be, which is almost literally right in Marinette's lap.
- Cowardly Lion: Zoé immediately caves to Chloé's demands when she catches her sneaking around at the beginning. But when Zoé sees her bullying Marinette, she intervenes and forces Chloé back to her seat, not affected by Chloé's threats. Plagg encourages her to be that person full time when they part ways.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Sole Destroyer seems to be a double case of this. Not only does her power only turn her enemies into singing shoes, she doesn’t even seem to have enhanced physical abilities like the usual Akumatized villains, given she is easily defeated by normal teenagers.
- Cute Kitten: Invoked - the drawing shown for an example of Zoé, Juleka, Rose and Max trying to prevent an akumatization has Zoé, Max and Markov each displaying a large image of a cutesy cat's head before Mr. Damocles with the akuma outline appearing in front of his face.
- Death Glare: Everyone gives Chloé one when she tries to humiliate Marinette at lunchtime by revealing her crush on Adrien. But since everyone already knows that, they tell Chloé to knock it off.
- The Dinosaurs Had It Coming: Plagg states that the T-Rexes bullied him, before he used his Cataclysm, rendering them "not so smug".
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The song in the background during Gabriel’s Happy Dance is sung by writer Fred Lenoir.
- Dog Pile of Doom: The Resistance dog-piles Monarch after stealing back the Ladybug earrings so Ladybug will have an opportunity to transform.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Nino wonders to Alya why the two of them weren't chosen as Ladybug and Cat Noir's replacements, oblivious to the fact that Alya was chosen, and that Plagg strongly considered choosing Nino.
- "We would have had to lie to each other to protect our secret identities," Alya says to Nino, lying to him to protect her secret identity.
- Everyone Knew Already: It's been very obvious to everyone except Adrien that Marinette has a crush on him, and now that Adrien is finally reciprocating that crush, he's unfazed when Chloé points this out during lunch it an attempt to embarrass Marinette.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: Chloé tries to embarrass Marinette by announcing to Adrien that she's in love with him in front of the whole cafeteria. Unfortunately for her, Adrien (and everyone else, for that matter) already knows that, so Adrien just tells her it's rude and mean to blurt out other people's secrets and to leave them alone.
- Food Slap: Chloé prepares smash some pie into Marinette's face when trying to embarrass her in the cafeteria, but Zoé stops her and forces her to sit back down.
- Forced Transformation: Sole Destroyer transforms everyone she kicks into talking high-heeled shoes that constantly sing her praises.Shoe: Chloé, you’re so pretty, I’m just a shoe. What a pity. Sole Destroyer is your name. Crushing us is your vile game.
- Fusion Dance: After getting the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous, Monarch gets ready to obtain his wish by first unifying with both. However, Plagg uses Cataclysm on his own Miraculous before Monarch can unify with it. In order to restore the destroyed Miraculous, he fuses the Ladybug Miraculous with his own to become Monarchbug.
- Godzilla Threshold:
- In the past, Chloé never told Adrien about Marinette's crush, probably because she worried that he'd return her feelings if he knew. But when she sees Marinette and Adrien getting closer, she does tell him in a last ditch effort to ruin things between them. Of course, at this point Adrien already knows, so the only effect it has is that he gets angry at Chloé.
- Plagg tries to Cataclysm Monarch when he realizes that Monarch has taken both him and Tikki, but is foiled by Monarch protecting himself with Resistance. Then, to prevent him from winning, he has Tikki use Lucky Charm before using Cataclysm again on his own Miraculous, an action that would have destroyed the entire world eventually if not for Ladybug saving the day.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: At the end, Zoé feels terrible for failing to protect her Miraculous. Plagg assures her that it wasn't her fault, and she did a great job. This makes her feel a bit better, but not completely.
- Heroic Suicide: Not actually suicide, but Plagg destroys his own Miraculous to prevent Monarch from using it, effectively preventing himself from interacting with the human world.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Resistance somehow manages to subdue Sole Destroyer offscreen, and Juleka and Rose wield her as a living battering ram against Monarch, forcing him to strip Chloé of her powers before he falls victim to them. That crucial distraction allows Adrien to grab the Ladybug earrings.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Marinette tells Adrien over the phone not to come over because she's busy "shaving her socks". She at least follows up on that odd phrase by claiming that she just hates lint and then Face Palms to herself about how ridiculous her excuse was.
- Internal Reveal: Ladybug learns that Monarch has transformed the stolen Miraculouses into rings.
- Lady Macbeth: Lila wants to stop Adrien and Marinette from getting closer but can't intervene without everyone knowing she's trying to sabotage them, so she just uses Reverse Psychology to make Chloé do it.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Alya asks if she "missed an episode" when commenting on Marinette growing closer to Adrien. It doubles as a subtle Take That! on the show's habit of airing certain episodes out of order.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: When Nathalie interrupts Gabriel's victory dance, the background music suddenly peters out comically.
- Made of Iron: Monarchbug throws an untransformed Marinette against a concrete wall hard enough to crack it. She just shrugs it off.
- Mad Libs Catchphrase: Similar to Scarabella and Mister Bug before him, Monarchbug uses "Miraculous Monarchbug" for the Ladybug World-Healing Wave. Unfortunately for him, what he's holding isn't a real Lucky Charm.
- Meaningful Rename: Before the originals are forced to un-retire, Nino has Alya prepare to change the Ladyblog to the Scarablog in honour of the new heroes.
- Musicalis Interruptus: Gabriel's celebration comes to an abrupt end when his dancing brought him in front of Nathalie, wondering what got into him. The music returns and comes to a more proper ending as Gabriel prepares to let Nathalie know who Scarabella and Kitty Noire are.
- Near-Villain Victory: Monarch successfully steals the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, and comes moments away from unifying them and making his wish. He just didn't expect the kwamis to fight back.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Sole Destroyer, who is Not Brainwashed, attacks and transforms Sabrina and Lila, the only two students who are friends with Chloé.
- No MacGuffin, No Winner: Plagg uses Cataclysm on his own Miraculous so Monarch won't be able to combine his power with Tikki's, while having Tikki use Lucky Charm to provide a fix that Ladybug can exploit.
- No-Sell: Monarch uses the power of Resistance to make sure that no magic can hurt him. It's even effective against Plagg's Cataclysm. However, Plagg notes that the power only covers Monarch's body, and he applied it before putting the Black Cat Miraculous on. This leaves the Miraculous vulnerable to Plagg's power.
- Not Hyperbole: Chloé really doesn't know the meaning of the word "generous"; she has to have Sabrina look it up for her.
- Not So Above It All: Gabriel doing a victory dance routine to celebrate learning the new heroes' identities. It also doubles as O.O.C. Is Serious Business in regard to Gabriel usually being stoic and uptight when not being Monarch.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Nino wonders aloud to Alya that it's strange neither of them were picked to be the new holders of the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses, sure that Alya would be awesome as Ladybug. Alya claims that it's better this way since they would have had to lie to each other about their identities (as she is doing right now because she is the new holder of the Ladybug Miraculous).
- Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: Plagg implies that he Cataclysmed the T-Rexes to elaborate on how Zoé shouldn't let Chloé push her around, and he sounds even more boastful about it than the last time he alluded to facilitating the extinction of the dinosaurs.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: After unifying with Tikki, on top of his outfit becoming partially red with black spots, Monarchbug's eyes turn from blue to red, as befitting a villain who is one step away from victory.
- Replaced with Replica: Marinette paints a fake Lucky Charm before confronting Monarch, knowing that he'll easily be able to steal it from her since she's facing him without powers and she needs to think a step ahead of him. She tries to go for the earrings when he's fooled, but he manages to throw her off. Luckily, the distraction buys time for the Resistance to intervene.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons:
- Clara Contard asks if Ladybug and Cat Noir retired in order to love each other in peace. This is true, but not even Ladybug and Cat Noir know that it's true.
- As in previous episodes this season, Marinette and Adrien continue to make the right choices to avoid Gabriel's Alliance detection without actually realizing the connection. They resume their roles at the end while assuming another new duo could also "slip up" without knowing that the reason Marinette and Adrien are able to avoid Monarch finding them out is because they're two of the few people in Paris without Alliance rings.
- See the Invisible: When the Resistance make their move on Monarchbug, he turns invisible, only for the Resistance to spray him with various sauces to render his invisibility useless.
- Silly Song: Gabriel suddenly begins dancing about when he learns the identities of the new Miraculous holders. It's utterly random and emphasizes how ecstatic he is to finally know something, perhaps also keying the viewer in on how he's losing sight of his original goal and replacing it with "take out the Miraculous holders", but it is a catchy toe-tapper.
- Sizeshifter: Akumas are shown to be this. One of the Monarch copies releases a shrunken Megakuma from his miniaturized cane, and it immediately grows to full size.
- The Song Remains the Same: Gabriel's Villain Song doesn't change for the English dub. Some closed captioning has translated lyrics.
- Status Quo Is God: The original Ladybug and Cat Noir return at the end, because they can't risk choosing new holders for fear that Monarch will figure out their identities just as quickly as he did Alya and Zoé's. However, their brief retirement gave Marinette and Adrien a chance to get together, and that's not undone by the end of the episode. Ultimately, the quick break accomplished what Tikki and Plagg intended, if not necessarily how they thought it would.
- Sucksessor: When Zoé was Sole Crusher, her power let her absorb people to make herself larger and stronger, to the point that Ladybug and Cat Noir couldn't challenge her directly. Chloé's Sole Destroyer form, by comparison, simply turns whoever she kicks into talking shoes at no benefit to herself, allowing a bunch of normal students to very quickly subdue her off-screen.
- Take a Third Option: Ladybug tries to force Monarchbug into relinquishing the earrings so she can fix the damage being caused by the unrestrained powers of Tikki and Plagg, which will eventually destroy the world. Naturally, he's not keen on giving up so close to victory and attacks her to seize the Lucky Charm for himself. She thought ahead, however, and painted one of the school trash cans as a decoy.
- Taking the Bullet: Nino steps in front of Ladybug just as she's about to be hit by Monarchbug's Venom, letting himself be paralyzed so she can keep fighting.
- Transformation Is a Free Action:
- A whole cafeteria full of students witnesses an Akuma fly into Chloé's sunglasses, then there's a long dramatic build up before she transforms, yet in that time no one thought to just take her sunglasses. To be fair, the people sitting closest to her were Sabrina and Lila.
- Averted with Alya and Zoé; Monarch's entire plan hinges on the fact that he's able to jab them and their kwamis with Venom before they can speak their transformation phrases.
- Use Their Own Weapon Against Them:
- Monarch paralyzes Zoé with Venom, the same power she used against so many of his minions.
- The Resistance manages to subdue Sole Destroyer and plan to use her against Monarch. He cancels her akumatization before they actually hit him, but this draws his attention away for a crucial moment.
- Villain Song: Gabriel gets a brief one when he plays "Snapping My Fingers" as he celebrates knowing Scarabella and Kitty Noire's secret identities. While he doesn't sing it out loud, it is sung by his voiceover, though it isn't dubbed over in English.
