No Bars
is an Alternate Universe Fic made by RockSunner, for Miraculous Ladybug. Part of the Smart Adversaries AU for Miraculous Ladybug on AO3, in which Ladybug villains make smarter decisions. The series has a tropes page here.
This is a 5-chapter work and it is now completed. It has some spoilers for the new episodes of Season 2 (released March 30th, 2018 on Netflix).
This fanfiction series contains examples of:
- Alternate Universe Fic: A What If? with the change that Hawk Moth directs Lady Wifi to make the more sensible choice of trying to take Ladybug's earrings instead of forcing her to use a Lucky Charm.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Marinette enlists the help of Max and his AI robot Markov to crack Hawk Moth's identity with time and distance clues after only five akuma attacks (Stoneheart, Bubbler, Lady Wifi, the Halloween special villain, and Santa Claws).
- Bittersweet Ending: Hawk Moth and Emilie go to jail, but Marinette and Adrien's identities are exposed and they both stand accused of being in cahoots with Hawk Moth in a scam to drive up his fashion business.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Averted, since Hawk Moth makes a more sensible choice than in the original episode. Ironically it leads to his early defeat by scaring Marinette into more detailed analysis and planning.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Adrien has to confront his father and mother, both evil.
- Elopement: Marinette would like to do this with Adrien after her secret identity is spilled, leaving Chat Noir to hold the fort against Hawk Moth with both of their Miraculouses.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Hawk Moth and Emilie initially intend to force both Ladybug and Chat Noir to take Emilie's vampire curse, but relent when they learn that Chat is their son Adrien.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Ladybug and Chat Noir find themselves with an undeserved bad reputation when all secret identities come out.
- Our Vampires Are Different: In this case, vampirism results from a curse after using a Miraculous selfishly. Hawk Moth wants to transfer the curse from his wife to the heroic duo.
- Secret Identity: The major theme. Many fanfictions treat the revelation of the secret identities between the two heroes as a pure good, ending the love square and advancing the main ship. Here there are many dangers and complications once identities start coming out, starting with the exposure of Ladybug's identity to Chat Noir.
- Superhero Paradox: It is a real thing in Ladybug's Paris, because Hawk Moth created a series of villains to draw out Ladybug and Chat Noir. Once people find out the close connections between civilian identities like Chat Noir being Hawk Moth's son, and Ladybug being Chat's girlfriend, some make the leap to a Meta Origin for both heroes and villains, that they were all created by Hawk Moth for the publicity and profit of Gabriel Fashions.
