Marinette’s life is pain. But despite the endless abuse at school and constant supervillain attacks, she keeps on pushing. Things finally reach a breaking point when her mother is murdered right in front of her and when her father lashes out at her he lets slip that she’s adopted. Unable to handle it anymore, Marinette decides to leave her old civilian life behind and randomly selects Gotham to be her new home. There she hopes to start tracking down her birth family, unaware they are closer than she thinks.
Is it Stronger to Break
is a crossover between Miraculous Ladybug and Batman by Spiteful_Imp on Archive of Our Own.
Is it Stronger to Break contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Tom quickly becomes one to Marinette after Sabine dies.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
- Due to the Akuma attacks being much more destructive and violent than in canon, all of Paris is thoroughly traumatized and constantly forced to suppress their own emotions to avoid becoming an Akuma, while Ladybug and Chat Noir have to deal with all of that on top of saving the city and keeping their identities from being discovered.
- Special mention goes to Marinette. Aside from everything mentioned above, Lila has made Marinette’s civilian life a living hell, having turned almost everyone against her and subjecting her to nonstop bullying and abuse. And that was before her (adoptive) mother was killed right in front of her and she discovered her Dark and Troubled Past.
- Adaptational Badass:
- Canonically Marinette was an ordinary human with little combat ability outside of her Miraculous. Here not only has her Miraculous enhanced her natural physical strength, but she also has tons of Badass Normal martial arts training and powerful magical abilities of her own.
- Alfred once briefly wielded the Peacock Miraculous and it gave him the same Aura Vision Marinette has.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In the canon, Felix was borderline sociopathic in his first appearances and it wasn’t until after he’d betrayed Ladybug and went full-on supervillain that he committed a proper Heel–Face Turn. Here, his time in Gotham has mellowed him out considerably leaving him as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Adaptational Villainy: Lila was already horrible in the source material, her crimes consisting of bullying Marinette and willingly working with Hawkmoth even becoming his eventual successor, this story somehow manages to make her even worse. She’s gone out of her way to destroy Marinette’s life in every way possible, constantly subjecting her to ruthless bullying and death threats, taking advantage of Tom’s grieving state to turn him against Marinette, and even deliberately siccing a murderous Akuma on her.
- Afterlife Antechamber: Every time Marinette has died she finds herself in a grey void while she waits to be revived. When she dies fighting the Reaper, she instead finds herself in a copy of her old home and meets with Sabine.
- Angsty Surviving Twin: Damien is so traumatized by his twin Artemisia's supposed death at Deathstroke's hands that he tries to ignore the overwhelming evidence that Marinette is Artemisia. It takes a DNA test to finally break through his denial.
- Break the Badass: The Bat Family has dealt with the worst Gotham City and have pretty much Seen It All when it comes to horrific crimes. It's telling of how bad things are in Paris when they repeatedly break down the more they learn about the situation there, especially when they learn the full scope of what Marinette has been through.
- Bully Turned Buddy: At the start of the story Chloé makes amends with Marinette, having worked out her issues with a therapist after the events of Miracle Queen. She quickly becomes one of the few actual friends Marinette has left in Paris.
- Cerebus Retcon: While it’s implied to have started out to the show similarly early on, here Akuma are much more destructive and vicious than in canon and the consequences of their attacks are fully shown, such as the time Syren flooded the city and a video of the attack shows the streets of Paris filled with corpses.
- The Chosen One: Marinette is the reincarnation of Tikki’s very first holder and they are destined to find each other in every life.
- Class Princess: Marinette quickly becomes this in Gotham, much to her bewilderment.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Paris as a whole has gotten used to the constantly undone death and destruction caused by the Akuma attacks. Ladybug and Chat Noir in particular have died and come back so many times times that they’ve grown almost totally indifferent to the thought of dying. The Bat family is horrified by how casually they’re able to talk about it. It's also for this reason that Ladybug and Chat Noir are reluctant to recruit any new heroes, they don’t want anyone else to be forced to adopt their mindset.
- Contrived Coincidence: When Marinette has a breakdown after Tom hits her she opens a portal to avoid getting akumatized and winds up in Gotham, running into Red Hood...who just so happens to be the adopted son of her biological father. Later on, when throwing darts to decide her new home, she winds up picking Gotham. This is justified as one of her superpowers is literally good luck.
- Covered in Scars: Due to the way the Miraculous Ladybug interacts with her magic, Marinette has scars from all the injuries she’s healed. As she starts to regain her memories, several magically hidden scars start to reveal themselves.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Marinette was raised alongside Damien in the League of Assassins and put through their Training from Hell alongside him, such as when they were left in the wilderness to fend on their own when they were just four, while also being forced to hide her true relationship to Damian to avoid being killed. It ultimately culminated with her being stabbed through the chest by Deathstroke and having her memories of her childhood magically erased.
- Emotion Suppression: All of Paris has been forced to do this because of Hawkmoth. Even after moving to Gotham Marinette has a difficult time letting her emotions show.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Early on in the story, Marinette uses her magic to create an Akuma butterfly-proof barrier around the Couffaine houseboat. Much later, she suddenly gets the idea to create a scaled-down and greatly improved version of the spell that can be applied to jewelry, to finally allow her and Chat to safely reveal their identities to each other.
- Everyone Has Standards: When Red Hood first meets Marinette after she portals to Gotham, he immediately turns off his communicator and decides not to inform Batman of her after seeing the state she’s in. He lays into Batman after he tries to assess her as a threat.
- Fake Memories: Most of Marinette’s early childhood memories are magically created fakes.
- Heel–Face Turn: Juleka was initially complicit in Marinette’s bullying, but this changes after Luka and Anarka set her straight.
- Heroic BSoD: Marinette suffers a mental breakdown when she learns Lila Rossi is transferring to Gotham.
- Honorary Uncle: Jagged Stone considers Marinette to be his niece. He would’ve adopted her on the spot if she hadn’t insisted on postponing the adoption process.
- Hope Is Scary: Despite the numerous similarities to his sister, Damien refuses to consider the idea that Marinette could actually be his sister because he doesn’t want to give himself false hope that she could be alive.
- The Insomniac: Marinette has a very poor sleep schedule, often staying awake for days on just a few hours of sleep. It’s gotten to the point where the only things keeping her going are magic, coffee, and magic coffee. Even Tim, the Bat-family’s own resident insomniac, thinks she going too far.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Claude is madly in love with Marinette. However he recognizes that she isn’t emotionally ready for a romantic relationship yet, so he chooses to hold back his own advances for her sake
- I Was Quite a Fashion Victim: While on a trip to the Gotham Art museum, they have Nightwing’s infamous "Discowing" suit on display. Marinette is understandably horrified by it.
- Metaphorically True: When Ladybug explains that she’s been working closely with Marinette, she is technically telling the truth because Marinette is her Secret Identity.
- Motive Decay: When researching Hawkmoth, Jason notes that the supervillain gradually seems to be losing sight of his original goal and has instead begun taking a form of sadistic pleasure in the devastation his attacks cause.
- Must Have Caffeine: Exaggerated. The constant demands of being Ladybug means that Marinette literally uses coffee as a substitute for sleep. She once fixed a cup comprised of coffee mixed with Red Bull, Monster, Five-Hour energy, a cup of sugar, and tons of creamer, with all of it being boosted by her magic...while subduing several people who tried to stop her from drinking it.
- Mythology Gag: Claude Blanchet is based on the civilian identity of Kid Mime, with "Claude" being a popular fanon name for the character.
- No Endor Holocaust: Averted. The Akuma attacks caused large amounts of collateral damage and resulted in a massive number of casualties in Paris. Even canon Akumas have body counts, as shown in a video of when Syren flooded Paris. The only reason Paris is still standing is due to the Miraculous Ladybug undoing all the death and destruction caused by each attack.
- The Not-Love Interest: By the time the story starts, Marinette and Chat Noir have long since gotten over their crushes for each other's alter egos. They’re still very close friends in both sets of identities, they just no longer have romantic feelings towards each other.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- Marinette never told Tom and Sabine about her issues with Lila or the bullying she received at school. When Lila makes it seem like Marinette is the bully, the still-grieving Tom is quick to turn against Marinette.
- Marinette made the same mistake with her new family. Since she never got around to telling them the full details of her situation about Paris, Bruce ended up funding a class exchange program because he thought he might want to see her friends again, unaware that the majority of her class relentlessly bullied her.
- Reset-Button Suicide Mission: Ladybug and Chat Noir have had to resort to these to take down Akuma’s. It’s usually Chat Noir who pulls them off but Ladybug has had to do them too and have Tikki hand off her earrings to Chat so he can finish the fight.
- Second Super-Identity:
- When in Gotham Ladybug and Chat Noir alter their costumes and go by Scarlet Hood and Lynx to avoid getting Hawkmoth’s attention.
- Red Robin takes the identity of Souris Gris when using the Mouse Miraculous.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Alfred reveals that he knew Marinette was Ladybug the entire time, thanks to abilities he received from wielding Duusu
- Shout-Out: It mentioned that Paris’ initial S.O.S to the Justice League was dismissed as prank by a Green Lantern.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Invoked. While there was an attempt to contact the Justice League early on, the idea of dealing with an akumatized superhero quickly shut down any further attempts at seeking outside assistance. The mayor even went as far as to get a magical information barrier created to prevent any knowledge of the situation from spreading outside of Paris. This doesn’t just extend to information, as when the Bat-Family tries to Zeta tube to Paris, they discover it simply won’t work. Subverted when Marinette enlists the Bat-Family’s help in tracking down Hawkmoth’s civilian identity.
- There Are No Therapists: Subverted. There are therapists in Paris, but the whole "supervillain who mind controls anyone who feels negative emotions" makes going to therapy within the city limits extremely risky. Several characters mention that they weren’t able to receive help for their issues until after they’d left Paris. Justified in Marinette and Adrien’s cases, as a normal therapist simply isn’t equipped to handle their issues, and seeing one would require them to reveal their identities. Tim suggests the possibility of Ladybug and Chat Noir sees one of the Justice League’s therapists.
- The Unchosen One: In contrast to Marinette, Adrien isn’t Plagg’s true holder. He was just the best option available but has done a good job, despite not being able to use his Miraculous to his full potential. Turns out the Miraculous he’s meant to have is the Peacock Miraculous.
- Unperson: Marinette has this done to herself, having her entire history in Paris erased so she can start fresh in Gotham.
- Wretched Hive: Gotham City, as usual. Alix notes that this actually works in Marinette’s favor, as almost no one would notice or care about the obvious holes in her new ID.
