Webcomic / Dad Villain AU

What if Gabriel got his Wish?

After a campaign of magical terrorism, Gabriel Agreste gets his hands on the Ladybug Earrings and Black Cat Ring, immediately combining the pair in order to Make a Wish to rewrite reality so that Emilie never became sick. Oh, she still used the Peacock Pin, despite how it was still broken; he simply altered things so that the magical backlash from using the broken Miraculous hits other people, not the user. Because why should he care if others suffer, so long as HE gets what he wants?

Among the victims of this misdirected, malign power is Sabine Dupain-Cheng, who falls mysteriously ill and eventually passes out, entering a coma from which she never awakens. And unlike the Agrestes, Tom doesn't have the money or resources to stash his wife away in cryostorage, leaving him to raise their daughter all by himself.

Managing to escape the Manor carrying his own brooch, Nooroo finds his way to the Dupain-Cheng bakery, mistakenly assuming that Marinette has still become Ladybug. Cue a fateful encounter with Tom, who swiftly gleans that somebody is responsible for what happened to Sabine. Somebody he intends to find and make pay for their crimes.

Thus begins the Dad Villain AU, another product of the mind of Big Fat Break of Feralnette AU fame. A Role Swap AU wherein Gabriel's Wish results in Tom Dupain Cheng becoming the titular supervillain in order to track down the one who created this world and teach them that all their actions have consequences.

---

This Fan Webcomic contains the following tropes:

• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Generally speaking, Marinette is more detached from her classmates here, as she's no longer attending Francoise Dupont regularly, spending more time at the bakery and supplementing her education with homeschooling instead.
  • On the flip side, Rose is closer to Marinette due to their Commonality Connection and how she supported her during a particularly harsh time at the hospital.
  • Marinette is no longer intimidated by Chloé. While willing to put aside her grudge to some extent so long as the Bourgeois is a paying customer, she also freely fires back with her own pointed remarks.
  • Contrary to his assumptions, Marinette has not Easily Forgiven Kim for the spiders incident and wants nothing more to do with her former crush. Tom also doesn't care for Kim, and is more than happy to kick him out of the bakery.
  • Since Marinette doesn't attend school as often, Lila doesn't perceive her as a major threat to her plans. In fact, she's eager to befriend her in hopes of scoring free baked goods and an ally in her campaign to take down Chloé.
  • Adrien becomes much closer to Marinette, even offering to help her in the bakery.
  • Nathalie has spent years yearning after Emelie; in the original timeline, she fell for Gabriel due to his apparent devotion to his wife and willingness to pursue extreme methods in hopes of saving her. She also develops a crush on Tom in the new reality, unaware that she's once again falling for a supervillain.
  • Zoé is specifically Audrey's illegitimate daughter here, and lives with her father back in New York rather than staying with her mother or step-family. Audrey refused to acknowledge her existence until Tom helped her father navigate the legal system and win child support.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Turns out Emelie Agreste is only pleasant on the surface, being a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who's just as self-centered and manipulative as her husband. It's implied that the original timeline's version of her became nicer because the Peacock being broken meant that she couldn't be as controlling of Adrien as this Emelie.
• Adaptational Sexuality:
  • Nathalie is explicitly bisexual here. Her attraction to Gabriel in the original timeline is linked to her admiring his apparent devotion to his wife, whom she'd been yearning after for years. She also finds Tom quite attractive, but respects that he's still mourning Sabine.
  • Jagged Stone usually has Ship Tease with his assistant Penny Rolling. However in this AU, he finds Tom attractive and shows up at the bakery to flirt with him.
• All Take and No Give: Viceroy Exploits the fact that Nathalie's relationship with her employers is entirely one-sided in this fashion in order to lure them to his side:
  Viceroy: Your heart sings and sighs with an aged bitterness and betrayal, as you have sacrificed all you could offer for those you love, and they have left you to suffer in loneliness, indulging in one another while using you. You need not buckle under their yokes. Some rots are sweet, Nathalie, some rots yield wine. Would you like to become wine with me, Nathalie? Would you like to be sweet again?
• Anti-Villain: Tom Dupain-Cheng is the wielder of the Butterfly Miraculous in this continuity and his goal is to find out who caused his wife's death. He also takes a far subtler approach to creating Akuma that doesn't cause nearly as much damage.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • Marinette counters her overbearing grandfather's attempt to force her to follow HIS recipes by pointing out they aren't just baking for themselves. Rolland clearly has no way of countering her logic, leading to him changing the subject — only to be staggered by her next response:
    Marinette: (interrupting him insulting her mother again) If you can't do what our customers want, then you need to leave.
    Rolland: Customers, what????
    Marinette: It doesn't matter what I or you think is the right way to bake bread. What our customers buy is rice bread. If you can't make the product we're supposed to be selling, then you need to leave.
    Roland: How in the world are you supposed to cook all that bread by yourself?!
    Marinette: Well! Considering you think my mom is never gonna come back, I'd better get used to opening up the store alone, right?
  • When Chloé gloats about Marinette having to work for her family when hired for a job, Marinette hits back hard:
    Chloé: Of course Marinette is going to cook for me, I actually have the money to pay her since she's got all those dead-mom bills or whatever!
    Marinette: at least my mom had to die to be apart from me, yours would rather be in New York than stomach your presence.
    Chloé: How da—!!!
    Marinette: (brandishing a large meat cleaver) Give me your order before I put YOU on the menu.
  • When Emelie confronts Viceroy as Mayura at the charity ball, he hits her with one of these:
    Viceroy: Even after hearing what he's done, you're still going to try to rescue him?
    Emelie: ...He's my responsibility, and my judgment would devastate him more than any revenge you could concoct, Butterfly holder. Now please—
    Viceroy: Please? I'm not surprised you think that way. After all, you're still using the peacock even after hearing your little stints are murdering people. I wonder who you're killing now, Mayura?
• Asshole Victim: While Viceroy only intends to kill one asshole — the one responsible for his wife's death and family's suffering — he also targets the self-centered "elite" of Paris.
• Attack Reflector: Albeit indirectly. The akuma Caspases has the ability to create a mirror chrysalis, a subspace protecting anyone he brings inside from outside forces. When he uses this to protect Marinette from the Peacock Pin's backlash, said backlash bounces back towards its user: Emelie.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • The whole AU comes about in the first place thanks to Hawkmoth triumphing and getting to make his reality-warping Wish.
  • Chloé's campaign of constant cruelty and harassment contributes to Marinette dramatically dialing back her attendance of Françoise Dupont after Sabine's passing. When she first finds out about this, Chloé relishes her victory.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Gabriel's revenge scheme hinges entirely upon Emelie's willingness to use the Peacock Pin's powers despite how the Miraculous is clearly broken. If she was more cautious or considerate, or looked into getting the Pin repaired, there wouldn't be any magical backlash in the first place. So, while Emelie may be an Unwitting Pawn, his plan simply wouldn't work if she didn't act just the way he anticipated.
  • In order to determine just who his prey is, Tom uses his influence to arrange a charity ball. Among the food on offer is a series of treats decorated with purple butterflies, red ladybugs and green pawprints. The whole plan hinges on the former Hawkmoth being unable to contain himself at the sight of anything reminding him of the original world and former nemeses, which works like a charm.
• Beneath Suspicion: Felix exploits this in order to swipe the Vanily rings from his aunt, knowing that while Gabriel will almost certainly suspect he's responsible, he's unlikely to be able to convince Emelie that he could be the culprit. After all, Emelie only sees him as her darling nephew, and a mere sentimonster, to boot.
• Berserk Button:
  • One of the best ways to instantly get on Tom's bad side is mistreating his daughter. When Kim casually dismisses how badly he hurt her and won't take no for an answer, Tom dons a Nightmare Face as he intervenes. And that's not even touching upon his vendetta against Hawkmoth...
  • For Gabriel, it's anything that reminds him of Ladybug or the fact that he's not an Invincible Villain that always gets what he wants.
• Blackmail: A key part of Tom's M.O. As Viceroy, he uses his butterflies to gather compromising information about the upper crust of Paris and bend them to his will. In order to protect his secret identity, he doesn't personally conduct all of this blackmail himself, recruiting various disgruntled employees and others to do so in his stead.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Downplayed with Tom, who is initially unimpressed with Adrien, but learning about him from different people and seeing how Marinette smiles around him are enough to make him approve (Adrien showing up for breakfast at 6 AM dumps his opinion of him to the bottom, though).
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Adrien is very disillusioned with both Gabriel and his revived mother. Gabriel due to the whole 'supervillain whose selfish Wish reshaped reality' thing and Emelie for her Selective Obliviousness to the impact of her own thoughtless actions. He fully agrees that Gabriel must be punished for his crimes, though unlike Viceroy, he's not too keen on seeing him dead.
  • Nathalie has also come to realize that she was Loving a Shadow with Emelie (which extended to Gabriel in the original timeline).
• Calling the Old Man Out: Adrien berates his father when he starts manhandling Marinette at the charity ball.
• Cast from Lifespan: The Peacock Pin works this way due to being damaged. Rather than repairing it, Gabriel used his Wish to redirect the backlash towards the former Ladybug and her loved ones. However, Miraculous magic can counteract this effect; Tom is protected by the Butterfly Brooch, and if all of the viable targets are shielded, then Emelie still suffers the backlash.
• Chick Magnet: Tom is to such a degree that Word of God states that Marinette doesn't mind Nathalie Eating the Eye Candy because most single women do.
• Condescending Compassion: Emelie fully believes that her son is hopelessly dependent upon her for everything, and likes it that way, as evidenced by how she "comforts" him after hearing about his dreams:
  Emelie: I'm sure you only felt lonely in that dream because I wasn't in it, Adrien. I'm your mother, if I wasn't here, of course you'd need a lot of friends to make up for it! Luckily I'm here to stay! I can't imagine what you'd do without me.
• Control Freak:
  • Gabriel, naturally. He had no intention of giving up the power that the Miraculouses granted him just because he'd gotten what he supposedly wanted; no, his Wish revolved around clinging to that power while ensuring others paid the price for his ambitions.
  • Emelie shares this trait with her husband, especially when it comes to Adrien; she fancies herself as his Living Emotional Crutch, to the point where she's happy to hear about the strange dreams he's been having about her being gone because they "prove" his absolute reliance upon her.
  • Rolland attempted to take advantage of Sabine's illness to force the Dupain-Cheng bakery to follow HIS preferences and recipes rather than their own, showing No Sympathy for their suffering.
• Crazy-Prepared: Justified; Tom/Viceroy designed Caspases long before an akuma with his specific powers was required specifically because of what Nooroo had told him.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Tom/Viceroy gives one to Emilie/Mayura throughout the Charity Ball arc. Combined with Felix stealing the Vanity Rings, her being hit with the Peacock Pin's powers after all intended targets are shielded (with her own son being on that list as well), nothing goes right for her.
• Deconstruction Fic: This series deconstructs the notion that Gabriel's tenure as Hawkmoth was in any way justified by having him switch places with Tom — a man who demonstratably cares about his family, and who conducts his search for answers in a much cleverer and less destructive fashion than the Control Freak.
• Delusions of Parental Love: Throughout the original universe and the new reality, Adrien has labored under the belief that his father is simply worse at expressing his love than his mother. In truth, Emelie is just as controlling and abusive as her husband, seeing their son is nothing more than an adorable accessory she's lovingly crafted and raised to be completely dependent upon her.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Gabriel arrogantly assumed that his Wish would ensure he got to keep the power of the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses, without considering that said Miraculouses were possessed by living, breathing, thinking beings. As Duusu points out after her fellow Kwami escapes, Nooroo is more than just his "helpless victim", and the powers Gabriel covets belong to him, not the former supervillain.
  • When Nooroo escaped the Agrestes, he went straight to Marinette, expecting that she'd still be Ladybug in this new timeline. Instead, he found that she was just a normal teenager... and it was Tom who found him first, becoming Viceroy.
  • Rolland decided to use Sabine's illness as an opportunity to force his methods onto Marinette, insulting her parents and implying he didn't believe her mother was actually sick. He didn't anticipate Marinette standing up for her family and kicking him out of the bakery.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Rolland tried to take advantage of Sabine's illness to force the Dupain-Cheng bakery to follow his recipes. Not only did he not foresee the possibility of Marinette standing up to him, he's caught completely flat-footed when she bluntly points out that all of their customers expect bread made with rice flour, not wheat.
  • When confronted directly by Viceroy, Gabriel assumes that he knows what the new Butterfly holder wants, telling him about the Miraculous Wish and revealing precisely what HE Wished for. Not only is he completely ignoring the possibility that Viceroy wants revenge on him, despite the fact that Viceroy has him by the neck in that moment, he also ignores the minor detail that they are surrounded by witnesses who might have their own opinions of what he's so blithely confessing.
  • Also, assuming he managed to get his way and Marinette ended up dying because of the curse... what was his plan? Because, as shown in the story, if Marinette couldn't be targeted, then Emilie would have suffered the effects of misusing the Peacock Miraculous, and he would have been back at square one. Especially if he was telling the truth about not retaining the knowledge of how to fix it from the last timeline.
• The Dog Bites Back: Many of the people Viceroy recruits to blackmail the "upper crust" of Paris are disgruntled employees, or people who have otherwise been hurt and screwed over by their targets' selfish actions.
• Dramatically Missing the Point:
  • When Adrien informs his mother about the strange dreams he's been having, revealing how much he misses the friends he had within them, Emelie completely fails to comprehend just how lonely her son is. Instead, she blithely reassures him that he was only lonely in his dreams because she wasn't there.
  • A Flashback reveals that Emelie did not take Adrien falling ill for the first time well. While Gabriel tries to explain to her that it's evidence that Adrien is becoming a real boy, she insists that their son is meant to be perfect, becoming Mayura just to force him to stop coughing.
• Entitled Bastard:
  • Gabriel Agreste. The whole Alternate Universe depicted here came about courtesy of his selfish Wish. Instead of Wishing that his family never found the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous in the first place, he tailored his Wish around his intention to keep that power for himself, attempting instead to shunt the cost of abusing those powers onto others. And make Ladybug pay, of course.
  • Emelie isn't much better, with her It's All About Me attitude. She intentionally raised Adrien with the expectation that he'd always be hopelessly dependent upon her, uses Nathalie's crush to string her along while expecting her to keep chasing after that unrequited love forever, and uses the broken Peacock Pin without a second thought to any potential side-effects.
  • In this universe, Kim staged his horribly traumatic 'box full of live spiders' prank on Marinette on the same day that Sabine fell into a coma, never to reawaken. This doesn't stop him from expecting her to donate a bunch of free baked goods to his swim team's upcoming bake sale, brushing off her dismayed rejection. It takes Tom getting involved to make him back off. Big Fat Break notes that Kim's more idiotic than malicious.
• Entitled to Have You: Gabriel and Emelie act this way towards Nathalie, the mere implication that Nathalie could be dating Tom making both of them visibly angry, with Gabriel even stating that he never approved of her dating Tom.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Adrien realizes Marinette was Ladybug when Gabriel reveals the Wish he made and Marinette mentions her mother's medicine, allowing him to connect the dots.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Jagged Stone finds Tom attractive, especially when he's annoyed.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: When Viceroy captures him, Gabriel is all too happy to assume he'll be willing to make a deal with him, not realizing Viceroy is actually intending to render him down to subatomic particles. He also seems completely baffled as to why Adrien is so horrified by the horrible things that he's publicly admitting to, which would be disturbing even without Adrien's knowledge of the old timeline.
• Evil Gloating:
  • Chloé does this upon learning that Marinette won't be attending Francoise Dupont after her mother succumbs to her illness, gleefully taking credit for driving her away.
  • Gabriel indulges in this during his first encounter with Viceroy, eagerly confirming his past exploits as a supervillain and bragging about his victory.
• Evil Is Bigger: The Butterfly Brooch made Gabriel slightly taller/larger whenever he transformed into his supervillain form. It does the same for Tom/Viceroy, making him even more physically imposing.
• Evil Is Petty: Despite his victory, Gabriel still wants Ladybug to suffer for opposing him for so long, to the point that he Wished she would bear the burden of Emelie using the Peacock Pin, whether directly or indirectly. He also outright refuses to use his resources to fix the Pin, with Duusu pointing out that he hardly cares about his wife's survival or safety anymore, especially after Caspases ensures that the backlash actually hits Emelie instead.
• Evil Laugh: Played for Laughs with Rose, who laughs (complete with red eyes) at Alya's despair over not being allowed to speak of Marinette's boulangerie on her blog.
• Exact Words:
  • Adrien, Kagami, Felix, and the Kwami all remember the new timeline because Gabriel wished that no people would remember the old one, and he doesn't view any of them as people. This also applies to Fang, Jagged Stone's pet crocodile.
  • He also only wished that Emilie using the Peacock would cause the damage to transfer to Ladybug and her loved ones, so Colt Fathom still died from the consequences of using it to have Felix, and Gabriel can't use it himself either.
  • Gabriel's curse was deliberately phrased to target Ladybug's loved ones first and foremost, leaving her to suffer only when none of her loved ones are left. This includes Adrien.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Marinette cut her hair because it kept getting in the way while working at the bakery; it also serves as a way of honoring her late mother and strengthening her resemblance to her.
• Fairy Companion: Nooroo acts like this to Marinette, being a source of comfort in her life.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Gabriel is a Smug Snake Control Freak who firmly believes himself to be an Invincible Villain, and simply cannot stand any reminder that he's not untouchable. This fuels his deep hatred of Ladybug, to the point that he devoted his Wish to punishing her out of sheer spite. His Skewed Priorities and petty vendetta against the former heroine repeatedly works against him, as does his refusal to acknowledge or accept that he can't control everything and everyone around him. Such as his underestimation of Nooroo; believing the kwami to be nothing more than his helpless victim enables Nooroo to escape the manor and seek out aid.
  • Emelie, much like her husband, believes herself to be completely above consequences. Even after learning the Awful Truth about Gabriel's selfish Wish, she continues using the Peacock Pin, suffering a Villainous Breakdown when she has to deal with the backlash herself.
• Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: Despite how Ladybug doesn't exist as a hero in the new reality, Gabriel still despises her enough to have devoted his Wish to making her miserable and ruining her life.
• Friend to All Living Things: Played for Laughs when Fang reintroduces Jagged Stone and Penny to Marinette by running away from his owner to visit the bakery. Both enter to see Marinette scratching the croc under his chin, glowing butterflies nesting in her hair, and comes to the obvious conclusion:
  Jagged Stone: IS THAT A DISNEY PRINCESS
  Marinette: IS THAT JAGGED STONE
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: A villainous version is heavily Implied; when Gabriel "woke up" in the new timeline, he was extremely excited to see Emelie alive and well. Nooroo escaped while he was "distracted", being shown flying past discarded clothing while glaring over his shoulder in utter disgust.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: Viceroy's attire is made up of dark purples and blacks, emphasizing that while he's nobler than Hawkmoth, he's still using Nooroo's powers for less than heroic purposes. Similarly, Emelie sports a dark palette when transformed into Mayura to drive home her innate selfishness.
• Has a Type: Played for Laughs — After seeing Nathalie take a long, appreciative look at a shirtless Tom, who shares only one trait with Gabriel, Adrien frantically wonders whether she has a thing for single fathers. He may not be that wrong, given the fact she has fallen for both Hawkmoth and Viceroy, in two different timelines, she may indeed have a thing for single dads who are also supervillians. Her reaction to seeing Viceroy's public debut just reinforces this.
• Heroic BSoD: Adrien has a major one during the charity ball upon learning that his father was Hawkmoth, realizing that Marinette was Ladybug and that his creation inadvertently contributed to Sabine's death.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: While confronting Marinette over the anonymously commissioned arrangement of Miraculous-themed treats, Gabriel declares that "I've always hated that bakery of yours, and now, now—"
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Tom hides the Butterfly Brooch by shifting its form so that it mimics the custom butterfly-shaped buttons Marinette made for his chef's frock.
• History Repeats: Adrien is akumatized in response to Marinette suffering from the backlash of Emelie using the Peacock Pin, using the powers granted by Viceroy to protect them. Later on, when he starts suffering the backlash from Emilie transforming into Mayura at the charity ball, Marinette gets akumatized.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Gabriel Wished that the magical backlash from Emelie using the broken Peacock Miraculous would be redirected towards others, not caring who got hurt as a result. His selfishness led to Tom becoming the new reality's version of Hawkmoth, using the powers Gabriel once wielded to ferret out his identity and hunt him down.
  • Gabriel also Wished to be the only person who recalls the original world. Since he doesn't consider the Kwami or sentimonsters to be "people", this granted them Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory as well; thanks to Nooroo, Tom is able to exploit this to stage a Batman Gambit and trick his target into exposing himself.
  • Gabriel's Wish also only causes the damage to be redirected if Emilie uses the Miraculous, so after Nooroo flies the coop, Gabriel can't use the Peacock to make up for it, unless it's through his wife, unless he wants to risk dying like Colt Fathom did (which is part of why Felix particularly hates him here), or tell Dusuu to shut up when the Kwami calls him out.
  • Chloé incorporated the internet into her efforts to humiliate Marinette and other victims, gleefully posting pictures and video online... meaning she created a record of her own cruelty which Tom turned against her after the spiders incident.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: Played With; while Gabriel and Emelie both act oblivious to her feelings, Gabriel remembers how devoted she was in the original timeline, while Emelie knows about her crush and deliberately strings her along. Both react jealously to the mere suggestion that she might be interested in dating somebody else, feeling entitled to Nathalie despite their treatment of her.
• Ignored Epiphany: Implied with Rolland. After Marinette counters his efforts to take over the bakery and points out that he just told her that her mother won't be coming back, he briefly looks remorseful while entreating her to let him help. But when she tells him to get out of her kitchen, he slams the door behind him.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Just like in the previous reality, Adrien has a fateful encounter with Marinette in the rain. Only this time, she's the one with the Umbrella of Togetherness.
  • Thanks to the Exact Words of Gabriel's Wish, Felix's father still died from using the broken Peacock Pin. This makes Felix's grudge even more personal, as Gabriel didn't even try to prevent Colt's death.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Played With; while Nooroo had informed Tom that his wife's illness was caused by an outside force, that's not confirmed for him until an incident where Marinette gets hit by the magical backlash and is saved by Caspases taking her into his pocket dimension. While he had prepared ahead of time for this possibility, he's still quietly devastated to learn Nooroo was indeed correct.
  • Felix informs Adrien that both of them are sentimonsters.
  • While he terrorizes the corrupt elite, Paris at large does not start learning about the existence of Viceroy until the charity ball arc. This coincides with Viceroy identifying Gabriel as Hawkmoth, right in front of Adrien.
  • In the same arc, Adrien also learns that his father Wished for the backlash from Emelie using the Peacock Pin would hit Ladybug and her loved ones, causing him to figure out that Marinette was Ladybug. Just to twist the knife further, this comes coupled with him being hit by the backlash effect from Emelie transforming into Mayura.
  • Emelie also learns about her husband's sordid past, along with how using the Peacock does have side-effects... just not for her.
• It's All About Me: Turns out Gabriel and Emelie have this in common. Both only care about getting their own way no matter what. Perhaps best exemplified by Emelie's reaction to learning the Awful Truth about what her husband has done: haughtily claiming that her judgment will prove more devastating than anything anyone else could do, while still using the Peacock Pin despite now being fully aware that others suffer every time she calls upon its powers.
• "Just Joking" Justification: Kim brushes off Marinette's pointed reminder of how he pranked her with a box of spiders in this fashion:
  Kim: Aww, it was just a joke!
  Marinette: It wasn't to me.
• Karma Houdini Warranty:
  • Tom's ultimate goal is to ensure that Gabriel doesn't get off scot-free for abusing the power of the Miraculous, causing the death of Sabine and the suffering of others.
  • Downplayed somewhat with Chloé. While she gloated about successfully driving Marinette out of Francoise Dupont, Tom turned around and pressed charges, wanting a restraining order against her. While her father successfully managed to prevent Chloé from winding up with a criminal record, he was still forced to promise that her behavior would be addressed... and as Viceroy, Tom ensures that the Mayor doesn't simply brush off his promise.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: As Mayura, Emelie wears a beautiful asymmetrical gown.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Despite Wishing to remember the original timeline, Gabriel didn't retain all of his memories; Gimme ate some of them. Such as those concerning Ladybug's Secret Identity.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Gabriel wished that the backlash from using the broken Peacock Miraculous would be directed onto others. Nooroo manages to escape his grasp and finds his way into Tom's hands, arming somebody who becomes hellbent on tracking the one responsible for his own wife's death and making them pay for all their crimes.
  • When Emelie uses the Peacock Miraculous in an effort to track the Butterfly down for her husband, Marinette suffers the backlash in her place... until Viceroy has Caspases protect her victim, causing said backlash to reflect back upon Emelie instead.
  • Emelie gets another taste of this at the charity ball: Even after learning about Gabriel's Wish, she uses the Peacock Pin to transform into Mayura, not caring who gets hit by the backlash so long as it's not HER. Unfortunately for her, Viceroy's magic ends up protecting all other viable targets, weakening her.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Rolland attempted to take advantage of Sabine's illness in this fashion. His son trusted him to help with the bakery, only for Rolland to try preparing that day's bread using his recipe rather than rice flour, yelling at Marinette when she protested.
• Loophole Abuse: Duusu takes advantage of the fact that Emelie is the one who owns the Peacock Pin to taunt Gabriel with how he can't order them to shut up:
  Duusu: Heh heh heh... Emelie has my Miraculous right now, remember? You're not my master. You can't make me do anything.
• Moral Myopia: Gabriel Agreste firmly believes that his vendetta against Marinette and Revenge by Proxy is "justified" by the fact she got in the way of his goals in the original timeline. Never mind that he was terrorizing an entire city to achieve his goals, while Viceroy proves more than capable of seeking out his own target with much less collateral damage.
• Motive Decay: Discussed; Duusu notes that Gabriel doesn't truly care about Emelie's safety anymore:
  Duusu: Ooooohhh, I get it! You wanted revenge on Ladybug first and foremost... Emelie's survival was just a participation prize, huh? You really think it's justified behavior so long as you win.
• Mundane Utility:
  • One comic shows Viceroy using his powers to make a mean girl who spent most of her online review insulting Marinette change it to be much shorter... and give the bakery five stars rather than two-and-a-half.
  • Another strip plays it for horror by having Emilie use her power as Mayura to stop Adrien from coughing from being sick when he's a baby.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Tom wakes up after drinking to sleep and sees how hard Marinette has been working to attempt to open the bakery on her own after Sabine's death, he realizes that he made a terrible mistake and makes the decision of starting to fix things.
• Neck Lift: Viceroy does this to Gabriel the moment he exposes himself as Hawkmoth at the charity ball.
• Needle in a Stack of Needles: Invoked by Viceroy; in order to prevent people from noticing how many of the glowing white butterflies created by his powers are around the bakery, he floods all of Paris with them.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Downplayed; while they don't realize it, Nooroo is unwittingly protecting Tom from being the next victim of the redirected backlash... which results in it hitting Marinette instead.
• No Sympathy: Rolland's racism spurs him to dismiss Sabine's hospitalization as her "faking it" to get out of having to work at the bakery. He also implies that Sabine would willingly abandon her daughter.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: While Gabriel continues to use what happened to Emelie as an excuse for his villainy, it's also made clear that he's not that concerned about her safety, as he's more than happy to treat her as an Unwitting Pawn simply so that Ladybug, despite not remembering the old timeline like he does, continues to suffer for opposing him, and refuses to fix the Peacock Miraculous once it backfires on Emelie again.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • It's clear from the look on Gabriel's face that he realizes just how horribly he screwed up upon Viceroy grabbing him in a Neck Lift once he outs himself as Hawkmoth:
    • When he finishes his Motive Rant, he looks at Adrien and notices the look of horror on his face, as Gabriel is unaware that due to his belief that sentimonsters aren't people, his son remembers the old timeline:
      Gabriel: ...why are you looking at like th-
  • Chloé has this reaction when Tom pursues legal action against her after pushing Marinette too far.
  • Adrien is horrified at what his own father was confessing while experiencing the drawbacks of the Peacock Miraculous as the pieces he's gathered leaves him to realize that his own father signed his death warrant without so much as a flicker of regret.
  • Emelie/Mayura has this throughout the Curb-Stomp Battle Viceroy gives her during the charity ball. Between her own miraculous weakening her and realizing she can't control Adrien (because Felix had already stolen the real amoks), nothing goes right for her.
• Operation: Jealousy: Downplayed variant; while Nathalie has fallen out of love with Emelie by this point, she flirts with Tom in front of the Agrestes in order to gauge their reactions.
• Papa Wolf: Tom is very protective of Marinette. He's furious when he sees Kim trying to coerce Marinette into baking for the swim team bake sale and says he'll take pleasure in destroying the ones who almost caused Marinette to fall to the same illness as her mother. When Gabriel reveals himself as Hawkmoth, Tom quickly shows up as Viceroy, and it's made clear a good part of his Tranquil Fury was because Gabriel was manhandling Marinette.
• Pet the Dog: Downplayed For Laughs when Emelie asks Audrey to critique her ensemble, and Audrey goes... relatively easy on her:
  Audrey: Not bad, but I hate crushed velvet. Looks too floral for my tastes, you know I prefer geometric patterns, but yes, you DO look nices in purples. I still think you look better in creams.
  Emelie: I'll take it.
  Audrey: At least you're TRYING to look fit for a fashion event. [André] still refuses to wear anything but his plain pressed suits.
• Plot Parallel:
  • A Flashback shows how much Rolland has in common with Gabriel Agreste: both are self-absorbed Control Freaks who try to twist the misfortune of others to their advantage. Marinette stands up to her raging grandfather much like how she defied Hawkmoth as Ladybug, making it clear that he will not get his way; Rolland then storms out of the bakery, implicitly ruining what remained of his relationship with the Dupain-Chengs much like how Gabriel has poisoned and destroyed his relationship with his own family.
  • Both Marinette and Emelie possess some awareness of Miraculous magic, but are Locked Out of the Loop when it comes to the full story surrounding those powers. Specifically, Marinette knows about Nooroo and has a close, friendly relationship with him, while Emelie is aware of both the Butterfly Brooch and Peacock Pin, with her usage of the latter playing a key role in much of the tragedy. Neither is aware of how Tom and Gabriel have used the Butterfly Brooch, or what they've done/have been doing with those powers.
  • Emelie emotionally manipulates those around her in much the same fashion as her husband did as Hawkmoth in order to get what she wants out of them. While Gabriel was primarily looking for victims to turn into akuma, Emelie seeks personal validation, wanting her victims to desperately desire her "love" and approval.
  • Emelie is shown to have a surprising amount in common with Kim, as both act completely oblivious to the negative impact their actions have upon others, as well as obnoxiously entitled to the people they've hurt. Kim exploited Marinette's crush on him to play an incredibly cruel prank, while Emelie exploited Nathalie's crush on her to pad her ego, stringing her along for her own amusement. Both expect their respective victims to do whatever they demand; when confronted outright with how much he hurt Marinette, Kim brushes it off by declaring his prank didn't mean anything and keeps pestering her for free baked goods, while Emelie is outraged to learn Nathalie is moving past her hopeless crush.
  • Viceroy's blackmail network is essentially a more mundane counterpart of akumatization. Instead of physically transforming others into monsters, he uses his butterflies to collect compromising information and pass that to others, arming them with what they need to use that information against those who have wronged them. While still serving as a devil whispering temptations in their ears, the vengeance he offers is much less destructive in nature, focusing on hitting his targets in their pocketbooks and reputations rather than physical retribution.
  • A Flashback reveals that one of the ways Emelie misused the Peacock Pin is by ordering Adrien to "stop being sick", as she saw his illness as nothing more than a flaw that she couldn't abide in her "perfect son". During the Charity Ball arc, she once again ignores the danger her son is in and orders him to her side, throwing a fit when he doesn't comply since she no longer has his ring.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Tom/Viceroy employs this heavily and prefers it. Until Marinette's health was directly threatened he used no akumas at all, relying on blackmail and coercion to get what he wants. It's even made clear that he would have never akumatized anyone at all until he found out who Hawkmoth was but Gabriel and Emelie's actions forced his hand. Even then he is laser focused on them specifically, showing no intention of harming anyone else.
• Privilege Makes You Evil: While she's Obliviously Evil, Emelie is extremely self-absorbed and tends to take it for granted that she'll get exactly what she wants. She also sees nothing wrong with manipulating and exploiting others' feelings, such as stringing Nathalie along or encouraging Adrien's dependence upon her.
• Put on a Bus: Played With through Zoé, who is in her father's custody rather than her abusive mother's. So while she visited Paris while her parents were in court, she returned to New York with her father afterwards.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Duusu taunts Gabriel after Caspases causes his own evil plan to backfire against him:
  Duusu: You're a funny man, Hawkmoth. Without Nooroo, you're nothing. You can't sense emotions, you don't have someone to beat up when you get frustrated, you can't akumatize strangers when you want to control someone... Nooroo's clever. He knew just went to slip out from beneath your nose, and I promise you, considering we Kwami remember everything you put us through... He's hiding somewhere you will never, ever find. Whoever is using his miraculous is likely plotting your downfall this very second. Nooroo is a kwami first and your victim second. He'll protect this world from you, no matter what.
• Revenge Before Reason: Gabriel tries to claim that he doesn't remember how to fix the Peacock Pin after the backlash hits Emilie once again. It's clear that he cares more about punishing Ladybug, be it directly or indirectly, for opposing him than he does his wife's health.
• Revenge by Proxy: Gabriel didn't just Wish for Ladybug to suffer the burden of the magical backlash from the Peacock Pin. He specifically Wished that her loved ones would be effected first — that the backlash would only hit her if she was the only option left.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: As the one who made the Wish, Gabriel recalls the original reality. He incorrectly assumes that he's the only one who remembers, as he specified that he would be "the only person" on Earth who remembers. However, he doesn't consider Kwami or sentimonsters to be "people", so they also recall the original reality. Fang has also remembered the original reality, as he is an unusually smart animal. Unfortunately for Fu, the Miracle Box remembers as well, so it still looks like it did when Marinette was the Guardian, and he can't access it.
• Role Swap AU:
  • The central premise: Tom Dupain-Cheng becomes the new Archnemesis Dad when he uses the Butterfly Brooch to become Viceroy, searching for the bastard responsible for Sabine's tragic death... a fate that was shunted off on them by Gabriel Agreste's selfish Wish.
  • Marinette and Adrien also subsequently swap their roles in the narrative, with Marinette being blissfully unaware of her father's secretive activities while Adrien gradually realizes the Awful Truth of how they got here and shoulders the responsibility of trying to figure out a way of fixing what his father destroyed.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • The Viceroy butterfly is visually similar to the Monarch butterfly, but is its own separate species, reflecting how Tom has switched roles with Gabriel but only resembles him on a superficial, surface level.
  • Viceroy designed Caspases around their powers, without anybody specific in mind. Yet it's fitting that Adrien is the one who ultimately receives those powers, as Caspases' design is based off of the caterpillar form of monarch butterflies — perfect for the son of a supervillain who once called himself Monarch.
  • Emelie's decision to continue using the Peacock Pin immediately after learning about the negative impact it has upon others drives home just how self-centered she is. In order to further emphasize that she's no innocent victim, her costume as Mayura has a dark palette, and the one who suffers the backlash from her transformation is none other than her own son, Adrien.
  • Much like it happened with Adrien, when Viceroy akumatizes Marinette into Bitterbug he picks a bug-based design. In this case, it's a bitter bug, the nymph phase of a ladybug, which Bitterbug lampshades when Adrien asks if she's Ladybug, and Bitterbug's power is very similar to the power of the Ladybug miraculous, of summoning an item once per transformation, an item that will solve the issue and fix everything in Ladybug's case and the weapon or power of any other Akuma in the case of Bitterbug.
• Sassy Secretary: Nathalie bluntly reminds Gabriel that he doesn't get to dictate her love life in this fashion:
  Gabriel: I don't recall you asking if such a thing was permitted.
  Nathalie: I don't recall needing permission from my employer as to whom I date. I'll see you two in the morning.
• Saying Too Much:
  • Happens at the charity ball when Gabriel demands to know who commissioned the selection of Miraculous-based food, specifically referring to Ladybug and Chat Noir — names that would be meaningless to anyone who didn't recall the original reality.
  • Then he does this again when he attempts to appeal to Viceroy by revealing exactly what he Wished for, without so much as a flicker of shame or remorse for his actions. Viceroy, very much infuriated at what he's heard, slams Gabriel's head into the floor.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Tom plays with this; on the surface, he's grown well-connected in the time since his wife's passing by working as a vendor at various high-end events, making plenty of powerful acquaintances along the way. The truth is much more complicated, as he has used the information he's gathered as Viceroy to blackmail his way up.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: To signal others who might recall the original timeline, Kagami and Felix have both incorporated red and black into their wardrobes. Specifically aiming to subtly mimic Ladybug's signature attire without alerting Gabriel to the fact that they've retained their memories.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • Played for Drama with Gabriel. For all his claims that everything he did during his tenure as Hawkmoth was Necessarily Evil for the sake of saving Emelie, he now cares more about punishing Ladybug for daring to get in his way, even devoting his Wish to ensuring she suffers in the rewritten reality.
  • So, your son's beloved wife has fallen ill and is currently hospitalized? Time to prove your recipes are superior!
  • Emelie's desire for complete control over Adrien's life is so strong that she attempts to order him back to her side while getting curb-stomped by Viceroy, when Bitterbug is carrying him to safety outside the collapsing building, only to fail, as Felix had long stolen both amoks.
• So Proud of You: During the Charity Ball arc, Viceroy is clearly pleased by Bitterbug preventing Mayura from creating a sentimonster, beaming with pride while asking her to evacuate the building.
• Take a Third Option: Duusu points out that if Gabriel cared about his wife's safety when using the Peacock Pin, he could use his knowledge of the original timeline and resources to fix the Miraculous. Gabriel claims that he didn't retain that little tidbit of information, but also makes clear that he just wants Ladybug to suffer for having ever opposed him.
• Targeted to Hurt the Hero: Gabriel deliberately phrased his Wish so that the redirected magical backlash from Emelie misusing the Peacock Pin would hit Ladybug's loved ones first, only hitting her if there were no other viable targets. In other words, he wanted the former superheroine to be Forced to Watch as everyone she held dear sickened and died before she herself faced the same fate.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine:
  • Played With by Tom. Chloé and her parents always acted with impunity, believing themselves to be above consequences due to their connections. Tom uses Blackmail to position himself as a "humble baker" who just happens to have high connections of his own.
  • Sabine takes this route in an AU where she is the Dupain-Cheng parent who becomes the Butterfly wielder after Tom falls ill thanks to Gabriel's machinations. As Trauermantel, her preferred method of revenge is summarized as "I am going to kill what you love most," showing her holding up the Vanily family rings and Nathalie's glasses to symbolize how she targets those around Gabriel, much like how he targeted Ladybug's loved ones just to draw out her suffering.
  • After both of the Agrestes have taken advantage of her unrequited feelings, Nathalie gets revenge by play-flirting with Tom in front of them.
• Tender Tears: Caspases's reaction when he realizes he saved Marinette.
• Too Dumb to Live: Gabriel; even when Viceroy has him in a Neck Lift, he outright begins bragging about his Wish to the man, not considering that the reason he's in this position is because Viceroy wants him dead for taking his wife away from him until Viceroy slams him to the ground and threatens to pull the identity of the Peacock user out of his head. On top of this, he's also in a very public place, meaning that pretty much everyone in Paris heard his confession... including Adrien.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After everything he endured at Gabriel's hands, Nooroo managed to escape the Agreste Manor in the new reality and make his way to the Dupain-Cheng bakery. While he's still being used by a villain, Tom treats him as more than just a vehicle to grant him powers, and lets him spend time hanging out with Marinette, who's very kind towards him as one of their "fairy guardians", one picture even depicts her kissing him on the head.
• Trauma Conga Line: Adrien is haunted by dreams of the original timeline, and eventually learns from Felix that said dreams were all too real, and evidence that he's a sentimonster. His love for both parents is whittled away as he realizes that both of his parents are Control Freaks, with his mother simply disguising her abuse with Condescending Compassion. He discovers that Marinette has lost her mother to a condition that mysteriously mirrors the one his mother suffered from in his "dreams", and is present when she suffers a similar attack, triggering his akumatization into Caspases. Then comes the charity ball, wherein he learns that his father was Hawkmoth and witnesses him bragging about his Revenge by Proxy, causing Adrien to connect the dots and realize that Marinette was Ladybug and that her mother died in part because of his creation. And just in case all of that wasn't bad enough, the backlash from Emelie's transformation into Mayura hits HIM.
• The Unapologetic: Gabriel takes so much sick pride in what he's done that he openly brags about the true nature of his Wish to Viceroy.
• Unwitting Pawn: Emelie doesn't know that using the Peacock Pin incurs a cost. Gabriel does, and makes no real effort to stop her from doing so, so that the backlash she unthinkingly generates can harm others, namely Ladybug and her loved ones.
• Underestimating Badassery: Due to his status as a sentimonster, Emelie remains none the wiser to the fact that Felix had stolen the rings containing the amoks and left her with a fake for weeks.
• Villainous Breakdown: Emelie does not have a good time at the charity ball, especially after all three of the potential victims of the Peacock's backlash are shielded by Viceroy's magic so that she's forced to deal with it instead. When she discovers that she can't force Adrien to come to her anymore, she really freaks out.
• Wham Episode: The charity ball. Gabriel not only admits to Viceroy that he was Hawkmoth, he also reveals the nature of his Wish, openly bragging about his villainous successes in front of several witnesses... including Adrien. Then Emelie uses the Peacock Pin to become Mayura despite having just learned that it's been getting people killed... and Adrien starts to choke the same way Sabine and Marinette did.
• White Sheep: Adrien is this in his family. Tom even notes upon meeting both Emilie and Gabriel that Adrien has freak show parents who care only about themselves.
• Wistful Amnesia: Thanks to his father's Wish, Adrien initially felt as though he'd woken up from a very long, vivid dream, only to find that the memories of said "dream" didn't fade away entirely with time.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Upon learning about Viceroy, Gabriel assumes it's a standard Role Swap AU where the villain took both his powers and motivation and smugly boasts about how he got his Wish granted, completely failing to grasp that he's only making his "replacement" even angrier.

---