There's plenty of Nightmare Fuel to be found in the Alternate Universe created by Gabriel's selfish Wish: the Dad Villain AU.
- Two words: Hawkmoth won. After everything Marinette, Adrien, and their fellow Miraculous heroes endured, it all came to naught when Gabriel Agreste was able to get his hands on the Miraculouses he wanted. And what did he Wish for...? That all of Ladybug's loved ones would bear the cost of his wife using the broken Peacock Pin. As he gleefully reveals when confronted by Viceroy for the first time, he specifically Wished for anyone she loved to suffer the magical backlash, out of pure, singular spite towards the superheroine — a heroine whom he fully expected wouldn't even exist in the rewritten reality. Not as Ladybug, anyway.
- He also Wished to be the only person with Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory, and ensured that he and Emelie would still come across the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses. If Nooroo hadn't run away, the Agrestes would have been able to continue abusing both kwamis to their heart's content... and what would have stopped him from seeking out other Miraculouses?
- Emelie proves to be a solid source of nightmares in her own right, simply by being so self-absorbed that Gabriel was able to center his revenge around the assumption that she would freely abuse the Peacock's powers. Even though the Pin is clearly broken, she sees absolutely nothing wrong with using it whenever and however she sees fit — after all, she's not suffering, and she doesn't spare a single thought for what Duusu might be going through.
- In Emelie's eyes, Adrien is little more than an adorable accessory she crafted for herself with the Pin. She fully expects him to be helplessly reliant upon her; after all, she made him that way. Raised him that way. People who view others as nothing more than an extension of their will should NOT have children, and both of the Agrestes are Abusive Parents and Control Freaks.
- One Flashback shows just how far this goes
, when Adrien falls sick for the first time and is coughing in bed:Emelie: Oh Adrien... please get better soon... Adrien... stop coughing, please... be healthy again...
Gabriel: Emelie, all children get sick sometimes. We should see it as a good thing that he's sick, it means he's more real than ever—
Emelie: But he's not just any child, he's ours! He's perfect! Adrien... it will be okay...
Adrien: (starts coughing harder)
Emelie: Oh no! No, no! Adrien! Please, breathe — you're coughing so hard—
Gabriel: Em, he can't get better if you're smothering him—
Emelie: He shouldn't HAVE to 'get better', he shouldn't get sick in the first place! We made him perfect!
Gabriel: Perfection IS that he's a real child, and real children get sick! What are you going to do when he's older and going through puberty—
Mayura: ADRIEN, STOP COUGHING.
Gabriel: (as Adrien stills) Emelie—
Mayura: You see, Gabe? All he needed was a mother's touch.
- Thanks to Gabriel's selfish Wish, the Dupain-Chengs have been through hell. Sabine was the first hit by the "mysterious illness", and all of their efforts to find a cure or even figure out what was causing it were doomed to failure. This was an Outside-Context Problem no doctors could solve, and Marinette and Tom were forced to watch as their beloved mother and wife gradually grew sicker and sicker, with spates of terrible attacks triggered every time Emelie thoughtlessly used the Peacock Pin.
- The only reason Tom hasn't been following in his wife's footsteps is because of Nooroo. Though the kwami doesn't realize it, his presence is protecting Tom from the redirected backlash... which led to it striking Marinette herself.
- Adrien happens to be visiting the Dupain-Cheng bakery when the effects hit Marinette for the first time. Not only does he witness her collapsing, barely managing to catch her before she hits the ground, her symptoms bring back traumatic memories of the original timeline.
- Gabriel's attempt to have a Just Between You and Me moment with Viceroy even as the new Butterfly holder hoists him up by his neck. He's so proud of how he screwed over Ladybug that he simply can't resist bragging about what he did to her.Gabriel: I'm sure I know what you want — you want a miracle wish to bring someone back, to save someone, to change your past in a permanent way. All you have to do is find the guardian of the Miraculous and take the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous—
Viceroy: I already know all about that, Hawkmoth.
Gabriel: Then maybe you're more interested in the specifics of my wish? I had to be careful you know, and you'll have to be too, if you want to change the past. You could easily make a "monkey's paw" mistake. All I had to do was wish for anyone Ladybug loved to suffer the effects of my wife's broken Miraculous. She's from a dead timeline, as you can guess, but you'll find those pesky guardians are well worth the bitter revenge I gave to them. You'll have your run-ins with "heroes" too, when you forge your fate. I suggest you release me and we can set up an accord— (catches sight of Adrien staring at him in utter horror) ...why are you looking at me like th-
(Viceroy glares at him, mask fully flared with all its eye spots glowing violet, before mutely sweeping Gabriel down to meet the floor face-first.) - Adrien gets to go through an existential crisis at the charity ball. Not only is his own father the supervillain he tried and failed to stop in the original timeline, he's completely unapologetic about what he's done, openly gloating about figuring out a way to screw over Ladybug despite her no longer existing in this reality. And thanks to Felix, he already knows that he's a sentimonster — meaning that his own creation contributed to Sabine's illness and eventual demise. And he gets to have his mother's callousness hammered in further by how she uses the Peacock Pin to become Mayura despite having just learned that using the broken Miraculous hurts others... and the backlash hits him. Because Marinette was Ladybug, and she loves him enough that he's now a viable target.
