History Recap / ScarletLadyS2E2TheGamer

!![[https://zoe-oneesama.tumblr.com/post/617220809098919936/your-literature-report-is-doomed-marinette-just Episode 12 - The Gamer - Tales of Max the Pro Gamer]]

!!Episode 12 - The Gamer - Tales of Max the Pro Gamer

Rose tells the girls that there's an ''Ultimate Mecha Strike III'' tournament, and the school has organized tryouts to select the two best players for them to send. Kim figures that it'll be pretty much choosing who's going to be partnering with Max (who mocks Nino due to the latter's low score in the game, even though Nino explains he only joined to boost numbers), who has been training for the tournament for almost an entire year. When Adrien asks Marinette if she wants to join, Kim tries dismiss the idea, only for Marinette (who is a GamerChick through and through) to muffle him and express interest her interest in the tournament, too, proclaiming her love of ''Ultimate Mecha Strike III''.

Sabrina sends a message to Chloé telling her about Adrien participating in the tournament. Chloé doesn't care: she doesn't need to play a stupid ''videogame'' to spend time with Adrien, after all. She quickly changes her tune when Sabrina sends another message, this time telling her Marinette is Adrien's partner. She grabs Tikki and runs to Marinette's house, where she stalks the duo as they enter the boulangerie, planning to crash the date.

* AdaptationalSympathy: Played straight for Marinette while inverted for Max. In canon, the former was accused of being selfish for competing in the tournament simply to spend time with Adrien, as well as "stealing" Max's spot by defeating him without considering his feelings, with his subsequent akumatization blamed entirely upon her. Here, Max is instead portrayed as a SoreLoser who failed to qualify for the tournament fair and square, even after [[CheatersNeverProsper cheating]], solely blaming Marinette for this despite losing to both her ''and'' Adrien out of anger over [[IWasBeatenByAGirl losing to a girl]]. [[VillainHasAPoint Even the villains point this out to him]], and he apologizes after having a JerkassRealization.
* AdultsAreUseless: {{Averted}}. Sabine seems to have learned her lesson since Sabrina snuck into her daughter's room to steal Marinette's diary and refuses to let Chloé into the bakery when her daughter's bully tries to crash Marinette and Adrien's date.

** Max is akumatized over not being selected to represent his school in a video game tournament after getting beaten by Marinette, even though, as many remind him, he lost to two people, not just her. To his credit, he does have a JerkassRealization about this after being deakumatized and apologizes to Marinette for it.

* GracefulLoser: Max attempts to be this at first, but his anger at [[IWasBeatenByAGirl losing to Marinette]] gets the better of him. Thankfully, he has a JerkassRealization after being deakumatized and becomes this for real, apologizing to Marinette for unfairly blaming her and even protesting when Adrien offers to give his spot in the tournament to Max because Adrien earned that spot fairly (he wasn't aware that Adrien is actually bad at co-op mode despite being good at single player mode).

* JerkassRealization: When Scarlet Lady "thanks" Max for only going after Marinette while leaving Adrien alone, Max realizes just how out of line his behavior was.

* PhraseCatcher: Multiple people point out to Max that he lost twice, to both Marinette ''and'' Adrien.
* PlotParallel: Adrien's very good at ''Ultimate Mecha Strike III'', but mostly in single player mode, as his co-op skills are quite weak; Marinette attributes this to him not having played the game with other people before. This reflects how he's doing a great job as a hero despite being forced to deal with most of the fighting himself because his "partner" barely lifts a finger to help fight akumas.

* AdaptationalSympathy: Played straight for Marinette while inverted for Max. In canon, the former was called out for being selfish due to only competing in the tournament to spend time with Adrien and stealing Max's spot in the tournament without considering his feelings and how much he wanted to compete, with Max's akumatization blamed entirely on her. Here, Max is instead portrayed as a SoreLoser who failed to qualify for the tournament fair and square and [[IWasBeatenByAGirl solely blames Marinette for it]] despite losing to ''two'' people. [[VillainHasAPoint Even the villains point this out to him]], and he apologizes after having a JerkassRealization.

** Marinette gives one to her father when he interrupts her and Arien's gaming practice.

** During tryouts, Nino's score is so low that Max wonders if it's the former's first time playing. Nino says he's just boosting numbers.

* GracefulLoser: Max attempts to be this at first, but his anger at [[IWasBeatenByAGirl losing to Marinette]] gets the better of him. Thankfully, he has a JerkassRealization after being deakumatized and becomes this for real, apologizing to Marinette for unfairly blaming her and even protesting when Adrien offers to give his spot in the tournament to Max because Adrien earned that spot fairly (he wasn't aware that Adrien is actually bad at co-op mode despite being a good at single player mode).

* PhraseCatcher: Multiple people point out to Max that he lost twice.

* EpicFail: Scarlet Lady takes the mecha controls, thinking it won't be hard to pilot it. She promptly gets their mecha hit with a NonLethalKO by the Gamer's own.

Chloé attempts to get into the Dupain-Cheng's home, claiming to have a project with Marinette. However, Sabine can tell that Chloé is lying through her teeth and prevents her from entering the bakery. Chloé tries to still get in by asking for cookies, but Sabine is prepared for that as well and shows her a bag she's already prepared, though an increased cost.

The Gamer opens fire with his mecha's weapon. Adrien manages to save Marinette from the attack, which destroys the bench they were sitting on, and the two briefly blush as he lands on top of her. Marinette and Adrien split off, hoping to keep the Gamer distracted enough to escape, but the akuma quickly follows Marinette, who gets ticked off with Max...
and then suddenly trips over.

This turns Scarlet Lady's doing: the Ladybug heroine used her yo-yo's string to lay down a trap for Marinette, hoping that the Gamer will thus have an easy time killing her. Fortunately, her plan gets ruined when Chat Noir suddenly appears, quickly taking Marinette away in his arms. Marinette asks Chat Noir to go back--her friend Adrien is still in danger! Chat Noir tells her Adrien's safe already--only for Marinette to point out that Scarlet Lady is deliberately leading the akuma to them!

* MoralEventHorizon: InUniverse. This episode marks the moment where Chloé/Scarlet Lady transitions from being just a petty and selfish NominalHero to an outright [[EvilHero evil]] VillainProtagonist: she actively attempts to get Marinette killed by the Gamer [[DisproportionateRetribution just because Marinette was hanging out with Adrien]].

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Max's monomaniacal obsession with Marinette beating him leaves Hawk Moth unsettled; he evne points out to Max that he lost to two people, not just Marinette.

* WhatTheHellHero: Chat Noir calls out Scarlet Lady for blatantly luring the akuma to him and Marinette.

* DramaticIrony: Master Fu has following Adrien and Marinette with the double quest of (a) determining if he should give Marinette another Miraculous and (b) finding the identity of Scarlet Lady. He ends up meeting the latter while she's stalking Adrien and Marinette and doesn't realize it's her.

* IWasBeatenByAGirl: Max fixates upon this, making the Gamer obsessed with getting revenge upon Marinette and Marinette ''alone'' despite Adrien's involvement.

* MoralEventHorizon: InUniverse: This episode marks the moment where Chloé/Scarlet Lady transitions from being just a petty and selfish NominalHero to an outright [[EvilHero evil]] VillainProtagonist: she actively attempts to get Marinette killed by the Gamer [[DisproportionateRetribution just because Marinette was hanging out with Adrien]].

* SweetAndSourGrapes: PlayedWith; Max apologizes to Marinette and Adrien, but still gets to play in the tournament after all... because ''Adrien'' cedes his place to him, rather than Marinette giving up her spot.

* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Scarlet Lady praises Max for only targeting and trying to kill Marinette despite how ''Adrien'' had defeated him as well. This forces Max to recognize his own sexism, much to his dismay.

* MoralEventHorizon: This episode marks the moment where Chloé/Scarlet Lady transitions from being just a petty and selfish NominalHero to an outright [[EvilHero evil]] VillainProtagonist: she actively attempts to get Marinette killed by the Gamer [[DisproportionateRetribution just because Marinette was hanging out with Adrien]].

* WhatTheHellHero: Chat Noir calls out Scarlet Lady for blatantly luring the akuma to him and Marinette.

Marinette's class has to do a report, and Alya convinces Marinette to go to the library after class to deal with the report. However, when they arrive, they find everyone watching Max and Nino playing a videogame.\\\

Rose tells the girls that there's an ''Ultimate Mecha Strike 3'' tournament on a local level, and the school has organized this event to select the two best players in the group. Kim figures that it'll be pretty much choosing who's going to be partnering with Max (who mocks Nino due to his lack of experience in the game, even though he just joined to make numbers), who has been training for the tournament for almost an entire year. When Adrien asks Marinette if she wants to join, Kim tries to claim she wouldn't be - but Marinette (who is a gamer girl through and through) shuts him up.\\\

Alya pulls Marinette aside to check if she actually intends to participate: isn't this some excuse to flirt with Adrien? Marinette quickly shoots her down by pointing out that, if she were to participate in the tournament, it would be because she's proven to be one of the best in the group.\\\

Adrien manages to win his bout against Max, and Marinette takes the former's place. Max begins to explain how to play the game, but Marinette quickly tells him she's got it. Max arrogantly taunts Marinette - only to see Marinette also beat him, making her and Adrien the school's representatives for the tournament. Max calmly admits defeat and leaves... while he's suffering a mental breakdown trying to process it all. Hawkmoth senses this and sends a butterfly, only to be a bit stunned that Max only blames Marinette, even though, as Hawkmoth points out, he was defeated by two people.\\\

Sabrina sends a message to Chloé telling her about Adrien going to the tournament, but Chloé doesn't care - she doesn't need to play a '''stupid''' videogame to spend time with Adrien, after all. She quickly changes her tune when Sabrina sends another message, telling her Marinette is Adrien's partner for the tournament, and she grabs Tikki to run to Marinette's house, where she stalks the duo as they enter the boulangerie, planning to crash the date.\\\

Meanwhile, The Gamer (Max's Akumatized form) attacks innocent people in order to gain the power needed to carry out his plans, eventually obtaining a mecha like the one in the game.\\\

Marinette presents Adrien to her parents before they go to her room to train for the tournament. Sabine and Tom become ''very much'' interested in the boy, since he's (likely) the first boy Marinette's brought home. Marinette starts the game, and when the two of them move to grab a controller, they end up touching hands, causing both of them to blush.\\\

Chloé attempts to get into the Dupain-Chengs home, claiming to have a project together. However, Sabine can tell that Chloé is lying through her teeth and prevents her from entering the bakery. Chloé tries to still get in by asking for cookies, but Sabine was prepared for that and shows her a bag she's already prepared - but they come with an increased cost.\\\

Marinette and Adrien practice playing, and Adrien says her parents seem nice, which she agrees, even if they are a bit invasive - just as Tom interrupts them, offering some croissants. Crossed by the interruption, Marinette silently accepts the croissants before closing her trapdoor with strength. Continuing to play, the teens win against the machine, with Adrien complimenting her, saying that he's nothing compared to her - which she agrees with, as she's noticed he doesn't have any experience playing co-op mode, something Adrien agrees with as well. Marinette decides to loan him her "secret weapon", one of her bracelets, to see if it improves his play. However, the moment gets once more interrupted by Marinette's parents: seeing her getting angry, Adrien suggests to take a break.\\\

Still waiting outside the boulangerie, Chloé is complaining that she was prevented from "saving Adrien", only to see Adrien and Marinette coming out. Chloé, hiding behind a tree, plots out loud how to ruin Marinette, but her planning gets interrupted when an old man tells her to step off - that's '''his''' spying tree!\\\

After a short walk and sitting on a bench at the nearby park, Adrien and Marinette feel ready to return and further train for the game, but they are interrupted by the sudden arrival of the Gamer, riding a huge mecha. Chloé briefly realizes this is the perfect moment to get rid of Marinette, much to Tikki's horrified shock, before she transforms into Scarlet Lady.\\\

The Gamer opens fire with his mecha's weapon: Adrien manages to save Marinette from the attack, which destroys the bench they were sitting on, and the two briefly blush as he lands on top of her. Marinette and Adrien split off, hoping to keep the Gamer distracted enough to escape, but the Akuma quickly follows Marinette, who gets ticked off with Max - and suddenly trips up.\\\

This turns out to be Scarlet Lady, who has used her yo-yo's string to lay down a trap on Marinette, so the Gamer will have an easy time killing her - only to get that plan ruined with Chat Noir's sudden appearance, quickly taking Marinette away in his arms. Marinette asks Chat Noir to go back - her friend Adrien is still in danger! Chat Noir tells her Adrien's safe already - and then Marinette points out that Scarlet Lady is deliberately leading the Akuma to them!\\\

Chat Noir furiously calls out Scarlet Lady, who claims she just wanted to meet up with him to deal with the Akuma. When he realizes they need to get the Akuma off the streets, Marinette suggests going to the Parc des Princes - the stadium should be large enough to fight the mecha and containing it.\\\

Chat Noir and Marinette (no thanks to Scarlet Lady) manage to defeat the mecha, and they get a mecha of their own - only for the Gamer to reveal he's got a save point, restoring his mecha. Marinette and Chat Noir quickly activate their own mecha: Scarlet Lady attempts to take the controls, assuming it will be easy - only to be proven instantly wrong when the Gamer quickly punches out their mecha.\\\

Even with Marinette in driving and Chat Noir with weapons, though, fighting the Gamer is incredibly difficult - Marinette herself comments that Max would have won the tournament if he had played like this. Scarlet Lady finally summons the Lucky Charm - a spray paint can. Chat Noir grabs it and uses it to cover the Gamer's mecha's visors, forcing the latter to come out to see what's going on, which is when Chat Noir grabs the Akumatized object - the Gamer's oversized glasses.\\\

As Max recovers, Marinette tells him about the fight, making him wonder how much of it was being Akumatized and how much was his real skills. Scarlet Lady thanks Max - he forced Adrien and Marinette to split off, and only went after the latter. Marinette tries to defend Max, but the latter tells her not to bother - he's got a lot of stuff to think about.\\\

The next day is the tournament. Max shows up to apologize to Marinette, agreeing that he shouldn't have underestimated her, much less targeted her as an Akuma, which she accepts. Max asks if they could play together in the future, only for Adrien to tell him he can play with her ''now'' - he's realized that his co-op game is weak, and that would make him a liability in the tournament, so he encourages him to go on to win with Marinette. Which they do.

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Tom and Sabine mean well, but they keep [[MomentKiller interrupting]] the teens with offers for food, eventually driving Marinette into a rage.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: When Alya thinks Marinette is only joining the tournament to flirt with Adrien, Marinette has a very good retort:
-->'''Marinette:''' Hey, by virtue of how tournaments work, won't I only earn that spot by '''being''' the best to represent us?
* TheAtoner: Max apologizes to Marinette for not only attacking her as an Akuma, but also for acting the way he did before then.
* BreakTheHaughty: Max suffering this at Marinette's hands is what triggers his Akumatization.
* BridalCarry: How Chat Noir carries Marinette after saving her from The Gamer.
* CheatersNeverProsper: Max's been coding his own special mecha moves for the UMS 3 tournament. Adrien and Marinette beat him anyway.
* ComplimentFishing: Adrien tries this as he compliments Marinette on being such a good player, saying he's nothing compared to her. It backfires when Marinette agrees with the statement, although mostly because, as she points out, he's got little experience in playing co-op mode.
* CrushBlush: After Adrien does a DivingSave to protect Marinette from the Gamer, he ends up on fours atop of Marinette, who's lying face up on the ground. They sport a mighty blush.

** Marinette gives one to her father when he interrupts the gaming practice.
** She also fires one at Scarlet Lady after she leads the Gamer to Chat Noir and her.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Chloé tries to get Marinette killed because she was spending time with Adrien.
* DramaticIrony: Master Fu is following Adrien and Marinette with the double quest of (a) determine if he should give Marinette another Miraculous, and (b) find the identity of Scarlet Lady. He ends up meeting the latter while she's stalking Adrien and Marinette, and doesn't realize it's her.
* EpicFail: Scarlet Lady takes the mecha controls, thinking it isn't hard. She promptly gets their mecha sent flying arse over teakettle by the Gamer's own.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Hawkmoth points out to Max that he was defeated by two people, not only Marinette.

* GamerChick: Marinette is a skilled player that ends up trouncing Max in the entrance tournament.
* JerkassRealization: When Scarlet Lady "thanks" Max for going only after Marinette while leaving Adrien alone, Max realizes his behavior was way out of place.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: When Marinette tells Max that he was fighting so well they had to resort to cheating with the Lucky Charm, Max wonders if it was because he was an Akuma or because he wasn't relying on the prewritten codes he was using earlier.
* MoralEventHorizon: This episode marks the moment where Chloé/Scarlet Lady transitions from being just a petty and selfish NominalHero to an outright [[EvilHero Evil]] VillainProtagonist, as she actively attempts to get Marinette killed by The Gamer - [[DisproportionateRetribution just because she was hanging out with Adrien]].
* NotSoInnocentWhistling: To round up how much of a sleaze she is, Scarlet Lady is whistling as she leads the Akuma to Chat Noir and Marinette.

* PlotParallel: Adrien's very good at UMS 3, but mostly in single player, as his co-op skills are quite weak, which Marinette attributes to him not playing enough with other people. This reflects how he's doing a great job as a hero, but he's forced to deal with most of the fighting because his "partner" barely lifts a finger to help fight Akumas.
* PsychologicalProjection: Chloé claims that Marinette is "going to put her grubby paws all over poor Adrien". Chloé is also a PersonalSpaceInvader (both in civilian and hero identities) that keeps glomping and hugging Adrien, and has even tried to kiss him multiple times, even when he's obviously trying to get loose.
* SaveScumming: One of the Gamer's powers is to have a save point, which allows him to recover his mecha after Chat Noir destroys it.
* ShipTease: Marinette and Adrien have a LuminescentBlush when they accidentally touch hands, and again after he does a DivingSave to protect her from the Gamer.
* ShockinglyExpensiveBill: In order to get back at Chloé for stealing Marinette's diary, [[MamaBear Sabine]] severely increases the price of the bag of cookies she's selling the former.
* SoreLoser: Max gets akumatized because [[IWasBeatenByAGirl he was defeated by Marinette]] at ''Ultimate Mecha Strike 3''.

* ThrowTheDogABone: Adrien tells Max to replace him in the tournament, as the former figures the latter is better than him when playing co-op mode.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Sabrina ends up triggering Chloé's attempts to kill Marinette by sending Chloé messages about the tournament results.
* WhatTheHellHero: Chat Noir calls out Scarlet Lady for blatantly attracting the Akuma to him and Marinette.

This turns out to be Scarlet Lady, who has used her yo-yo's string to lay down a trap on Marinette, so the Gamer will have an easy time killing her - only to get that plan ruined with Chat Noir's sudden appearance, taking Marinette away on a hurrty. Marinette asks Chat Noir to go back - her friend Adrien is still in danger! Chat Noir tells her Adrien's safe already - and then Marinette points out that Scarlet Lady is deliberately leading the Akuma to them!\\\

Chat Noir and Marinette (no thanks to Scarlet Lady) manage to defeat the mecha, and they get a mecha of their own - only for the Gamer to reveal he's got a save point, restoring his mecha. Marinette and Chat Noir quickly activate their own mecha, only for Scarlet Lady to arrogantly take the controls, assuming it will be easy - only to be proven instantly wrong when the Gamer quickly punches out their mecha.\\\

Even with Marinette in driving and Chat Noir with weapons, though, fighting the Gamer is incredibly difficult - Marinette herself comments that Max would have won the tournament if he had played like this. Scarlet Lady finally summons the Lucky Charm - a spray paint can. Chat Noir grabs it and uses it to cover the Gamer's mecha visors, forcing the latter to come out to see what's going on, which is when Chat Noir grabs the Akumatized object - the Gamer's oversized glasses.\\\

As Max recovers, Marinette tells him about the fight, making him wonder how much of it was being Akumatized and how much was his real skills. Scarlet Lady thanks Max - he forced Adrien and Marinette to split off, and only went after the latter. Marinette tries to defend Max, but the latter tells her not to bother - he's god a lot of stuff to think about.\\\

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Tom and Sabine mean well, but they keep interrupting the teens with offers for food, driving Marinette into a rage.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: When Alya thinks Marinette is only joining the tournament to flirt with Adrien, Marinette has a very good reply:

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When Adrien attributes their victory to her, Marinette mentions that Adrien's co-op skills are almost non-existant (see PlotParallel). [[spoiler:Next season, Adrien (as Chat Noir) will gain an actual hero partner in Marigold (Marinette), giving him the teammate he needs to work on his co-op skills as a hero.]]

* PlotParallel: Adrien's very good at UMS 3, but mostly in single player, as his co-op skills are quite weak, which Marinette attributes to him not playing enough with other people. This reflects how he's pretty much the only hero in Paris actually doing his job, as Scarlet Lady never actually helps when it's time to fight Akumas.

* ShipTease: Marinette and Adrien have a LuminescentBlush when they accidentally touch hands. They also do some FlirtingUnderFire (albeit Adrien is Chat Noir).