Look into the lens...
"Pixelator, I am Hawk Moth. I'm giving you the power to capture your hero's smile... forever. But in return, you'll need to do some capturing for me as well."
—Hawk Moth
Vincent Aza, a photographer who is turned down from taking pictures of Jagged Stone, gets turned into a super villain by Hawk Moth with the ability to trap people within pictures.
Tropes:
- All Animals Are Dogs: Fang acts more dog like here than in "Guitar Villain" with his slobbering tongue, wagging tail and playing dead.
- And I Must Scream: Pixelator's victims, who can only get help if someone sees their photographs.
- An Arm and a Leg: Non-amputation, of course. Ladybug's right arm and leg get pixelated by the Pixelator during her battles with him, which is a problem since she's right-handed.
- Badass Bystander:
- Nadja Chamack, who manages to get an interview with Pixelator.
- Jagged Stone offering himself as a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Batman Gambit: Ladybug tricks Pixelator into freeing everyone in exchange for a chance to see Jagged Stone. Hawk Moth protests, but it doesn't work.
- Blatant Lies:
- Tikki is forced to pretend she's a cat when a civilian spots her and Marinette talking out in the open.
- Pixelator claims to be Chloé's fan. She completely buys it, even when he asks for her name.
- Brick Joke: Fang is shot into the Prison Dimension, and doesn't appear until Adrien and Chloé spot him there. He later shows up after some absence on a bed Sabrina is working on, causing her to faint.
- Bullying a Dragon: Chloé to the Pixelator when he walks in, mistaking him for a normal person. He proceeds to send her into a White Void Room, along with Adrien who tries to save her.
- The Cake Is a Lie: Pixelator's reaction to realizing that Ladybug wasn't going to give up Jagged Stone to him.
- Call-Forward: Every episode with Jagged Stone is explained here, as well as his praise for Ladybug and his pet, Fang.
- Calling Your Attacks: Attempted by Jagged Stone in a Pokemon-like manner against Pixelator. It doesn't work.
- Character Development: At first it seems Jagged doesn't treat people who serve him well, given he snaps at André for thinking Fang needs a bubble bath and chewing out Marinette for not getting the glasses he wants. By the end of the episode, however, he offers himself as a Heroic Sacrifice to buy Ladybug time, wears the glasses that Marinette designs, and offers four concert tickets; one is for Marinette as a reward for her hard work.
- Childish Pillow Fight: Alix and Ivan have one at the beginning of the episode.
- Comically Missing the Point: Discussion with Jagged Stone and Ladybug about Vincent.Jaggged Stone: He has come to every one of my shows this year. He also sent me stacks of letters, gone through my trash; he even followed my mother to her weekly bingo night.
Ladybug: How creepy...
Jaggged Stone: Uh, not really, it's just a bunch of elderly ladies getting together having fun. - Cool Shades: The origin for the shades from "Guitar Villain" are explained here.
- Cultural Translation: In the English dub, Jagged's mom plays bingo rather than poker.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Pixelator quickly makes short work of Ladybug when she's forced to use only one arm in battle before eventually getting her leg pixelated.
- Dare to Be Badass: Tikki tells Marinette this whens she can't find the sunglasses that Jagged Stone wants. This motivates Marinette to create the sunglasses.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Jagged Stone plays the ending music for the episode on the piano just as the episode ends.
- Double Take: A mother and baby do one when they see Tikki talking.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Ladybug's arm and leg get pixelated.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: André actually punishes Chloé for goofing off and not doing any work by not letting her get a concert ticket like the rest of the students as a reward for the day's work. In nearly every other instance of her misbehaving, she assumes that he will enable her to get away with anything, and at most, simply won't give her any punishment other than not getting what she wants.
- Faint in Shock: Sabrina faints when Fang reappears in front of her on the bed she's making.
- Funny Background Event: Ivan and Alix are pillow-fighting in Chloé's room. They stop when Miss Bustier, Sabrina and the maid catch onto them.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Although Jagged had said that he should go out to see Pixelator because going on live television will make him look good, he offers himself as a subject to Pixelator right when the latter is about to pixelize Ladybug. This buys Ladybug enough time to use her Lucky Charm and Cat to use Cataclysm to free everyone.
- I Lied: Ladybug does this as part of her Batman Gambit to Pixelator. To say he gets furious is an understatement.
- I Owe You My Life: Jagged at the end of the episode writes a song for the girl who saved him: Ladybug.
- Impossible Task: Jagged wants a specific pair of sunglasses with the lenses shaped like the Eiffel Tower. After Marinette is unable to find them, Tikki encourages her to make a pair.
- Incompetent Guard Animal: Fang consistently act like a lovable pet, so when the titular villain Pixelator breaks into Jagged's hotel room with the intent of kidnapping him, Jagged tries to have Fang attack him, only for the crocodile to roll over, wanting a belly-rub.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Jagged Stone did dismiss Vincent rudely, Vincent was stalking him and he was rightly annoyed.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- The Pixelator gets temporarily trapped within his own dimension due to Ladybug's Lucky Charm.
- Ladybug saving Jagged Stone and protecting him leads to him writing a song dedicated to her.
- Marinette putting in the extra work to get the sunglasses earns her tickets to Jagged Stone's concert, and to Adrien's first concert.
- Chloé in contrast, who fixed the assignments to spend a day at the front desk with Adrien, does not receive the tickets. To add insult to injury, it's her father making the judgment.
- Living MacGuffin: Jagged Stone for the Pixelator.
- Loony Fan: Vincent Asa is one for Jagged Stone, even going through his trash and following his mother to her poker games.
- Mirrors Reflect Everything: Ladybug's Lucky Charm conjures a pocket mirror which she uses to reflect Pixelator's beam back at him, trapping him in his own Prison Dimension.
- Morality Pet: Even though Jagged Stone starts off as a Jerkass, he still loves dearly his pet crocodile.
- Nice to the Waiter: It's part of Jagged Stone's Character Development arc, where he starts the episode by chewing out people for failing him and ends it by wearing Marinette's glasses and dedicating a song to Ladybug.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Adrien when he recognizes Pixelator as an akuma who targets Chloé.
- Ladybug has this when her arm gets pixelated.
- "Oh, Crap!" Smile: Tikki offers one to a mother and baby that see her talking, before saying "Meow?"
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Cat Noir says this almost word for word when he gets sent to the Prison Dimension again.
- One-Steve Limit: Very unusual Aversion; Vincent shares name with another photographer who showed up in two episodes, but was never akumatized.
- Paparazzi: Vincent Aza. This is what leads him to become a villain.
- Pair the Spares: Minor characters Mireille Caquet (Aurore's rival) and Théo Barbot (ex-Copycat) are seen embracing each other when trapped in Pixelator's picture.
- Prison Dimension: Where everyone goes when the Pixelator shoots them.
- Robo Cam: Pixelator, what with having camera in his eye.
- Shout-Out: The scene where Alec meets Pixelator is similar to one from Terminator.
- Squee: Marinette's reaction when hearing that Jagged Stone wrote a song for Ladybug.
- Stalker Shrine: Vincent Aza has one of Jagged Stone. His victims also appear there.
- Sudden Lack of Signal: Inside of Pixelator's pictures phones don't work.
- Taking the Bullet: Subverted; Adrien tries when he sees that the Pixelator targets Chloé, but he only gets trapped with the later in a Prison Dimension.
- Too Dumb to Live: Given that akumatized people have attacked before, you'd think that Chloé would A) realize that Pixelator is probably akumatized and B) stay as far away from him as possible. Instead, she lets him take her picture.
- Verbal Backspace: Ladybug and Jagged Stone do this when commenting on her middle school in front of the principal.
- Villain Override: Once again, Hawk Moth is forced to take control of his victim to remind them of their goal. This time, he's a lot more forceful about it, causing considerable pain and doing so more than once to make the point.
- Wall Run: Ladybug shows once again her gravity-defying skills by running on the walls of the hotel room to escape the Pixelator's shots.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Vincent Aza is nowhere to be seen after being freed from the akuma.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Cat Noir's Cataclysm frees everyone from the Prison Dimension easily.
- White Void Room: Where the Pixelator's victims end up, and where he appears before Ladybug purifies him.
