♪ The Sandboy just checked in! ♪
♪ Now nightmares can begin! ♪
♪ Now nightmares can begin! ♪
"Kwamis are able to communicate with their kind on their cycle — or birthday — but we won't get another opportunity for a long time, see, a kwami's cycle lasts several hundreds of human years."
—Tikki
Marinette lets Tikki meet with the other kwamis in order to figure out how to rescue Nooroo from Hawk Moth's clutches. Meanwhile, a young boy suffering from bad dreams is akumatized by Hawk Moth into Sandboy, who turns people's nightmares into reality.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Nickname: Plagg calls Tikki "Sugarcube," although she's not really fond of it. She suggests she might call him "Stinky Sock," but he actually likes it.
- As You Know: Sass uses this phrase while explaining to kwamis how they can communicate with Nooroo.
- Bedsheet Ghost: The nightmare ghosts of Master Fu's old order manifest as little floating blanket spectres.
- BFS: Nightmare Ladybug is using one just like Antibug did.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: One civilian gets chased by a giant spider.
- Birthday Episode: The episode takes place on the day of Nooroo's 3500th "cycle" — an event kwamis celebrate every several hundred years which Tikki compares to a birthday. It's an important plot point since it allows kwamis to try to contact him.
- Bittersweet Ending: Although the heroes managed to defeat Sandboy, not only the kwamis have failed to talk to Nooroo on their only chance before a long time, Hawk Moth also got an idea of their exact location!
- Brought Down to Normal: Marinette's nightmare as Ladybug is to be rendered powerless, so Sandboy's power makes that happen. Her Miraculous Ladybug is still able to fix things, however, allowing her to restore her powers once Sandboy is defeated.
- Butt-Dialing Mordor: The Kwamis' attempt to contact Nooroo goes horribly wrong. As Hawk Moth is currently transformed, the call goes straight to him and he's able to narrow down their location in Paris.
- Call-Back: Like Antibug before her, Nightmare Ladybug summons a giant sword. However the sword she summons has a vastly different appearance to Antibug's sword.
- Characterization Marches On: The Rabbit Kwami speaks normally in this episode. However, we'll later come to know her as Fluff, who grants power over time, and sees time very differently from humans or even other Kwamis, making her EXTREMELY confusing to try to talk to.
- Continuity Nod:
- Marinette talks in her sleep about having three kids and a hamster, which she talked about back in the first episode.
- The peacock kwami is said to have been missing for a long time. The peacock Miraculous was previously seen in Gabriel's safe, and presumably the kwami is sealed inside.
- Creepy Child: Sandboy, a blue-skinned kid that flies around city, spreading nightmares and chanting his nursery rhyme.
- Easily Impressed: Kwamis that live in the Miracle Box are fascinated by something as simple as a yellow marker pen, even before they figure out what it does.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Invoked by Gabriel, claiming it's why he doesn't make Nooroo's mouth vanish completely.
- Evil Knockoff: Adrien's nightmare as Cat Noir summons an evil Ladybug that tries to kill him.
- Evil Laugh: Gabriel lets one out at the end of the episode.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Cat Noir's nightmare of Ladybug has a noticeably lower pitched voice than the real Ladybug.
- Face Your Fears: The main conflict of the episode.
- Faux Horrific: Plagg’s worst nightmare is dairy-free cheese.
- Foil: Tikki and Plagg exemplify this; Tikki tells Marinette the truth about where she's going and brings a gift for the other kwamis, Plagg doesn't even tell Adrien he's leaving at all and eats his gift (cheese) and lies about it to the other kwamis.
- Geas: A spell compels the kwami to obey their owners, as well as preventing them from revealing the names of their owners, even to each other. As Gabriel demonstrates, he can force Nooroo to stay within a few feet of him at all times, and can even cause Nooroo's mouth to disappear (though he immediately undoes this one).
- I'm Your Worst Nightmare: Said verbatim by Plagg as he thwarts the Sandboy's attempts to follow him by tricking him into the path of an oncoming subway train.
- Insult Backfire: Tikki calls Plagg "Stinky Sock" in an attempt to discourage him from calling her "Sugarcube," but he likes the name.
- The Internet Is for Cats: There are in-universe internet memes about Cat Noir. In the production order, this episode comes immediately after the one where Cat Noir's mind was turned into that of a normal cat so this may be meant as a continuity nod.
- I Shall Taunt You: Cat Noir taunts Nightmare Ladybug so she'll attack and break her sword on a building, allowing Ladybug to use the broken tip to destroy Sandboy's pillow.
- Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: Sandboy's civilian identity is a kid who watched a horror movie before bed, which gave him nightmares and made him vulnerable to akumatization through fear.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: It looks bad when the Sandboy spots Plagg en route to Adrien, but in short order, Plagg tricks the Sandboy into the path of oncoming subway, mocks him, and leaves without incident.
- Never My Fault: Plagg at the end of the episode. It's Played for Laughs, as Marinette, Wayzz, and Tikki all try to shoulder responsibility for the kwamis being out of contact in the Miracle Box, and Plagg (whose idea it was in the first place) agrees with them.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The kwamis attempt to use their combined power to contact Nooroo, but they wind up connecting to Hawk Moth because he's currently using Nooroo's power. Realizing what they're up to, he is able to hijack their signal and use it to trace them instead, though they're able to cut off the signal before he can pinpoint their specific location.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Sandboy is able to neutralize Ladybug's powers before she can use her Lucky Charm, making it effectively impossible for the heroes to stop him. Then he ruins that by bringing Cat Noir's nightmare to life, creating an evil Ladybug whose own Lucky Charm serves as a replacement for Marinette's.
- No Name Given: Sandboy's real name is never mentioned.
- Oh, Crap!:
- The kwamis' reaction when they contact Hawk Moth by accident and the villain tries to track them down. Followed by another one when they realize that, if Hawk Moth is using Nooroo's power, it means he just akumatized someone, and Ladybug and Cat Noir are powerless.
- The reactions of the human characters when facing their fears.
- Played for Laughs when Adrien thinks that Plagg was transformed into a sock.
- One-Handed Zweihänder: Nightmare Ladybug can effortlessly carry and gesture with her BFS in only one hand as if it was light as a feather, although she uses two hands to actually attack with it.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Despite his usual laidback nature and his "Cat Noir" act with Tikki, Plagg is uncharacteristically adamant about reaching Nooroo and even very proactive in the episode. Him saying Adrien is the best Cat Noir he has ever had says a lot.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Plagg can tell Marinette’s nightmare copy of Adrien isn’t the real one because, for all the “nonsense” he spouts, he’d never do it about flowers.
- Parodies for Dummies: Master Fu spends the first half of the episode asleep, having dozed off while reading "La méditation pour les zéros".
- Poor Communication Kills: Unlike Tikki, neither Plagg nor Wayzz tell their respective owners/heroes about the kwamis' plan to contact Nooroo. Because of this, Adrien and Master Fu are caught completely unprepared by the akuma attack, totally unaware of where their kwamis are.
- Power Glows: Gabriel's miraculous lights up whenever someone in Paris become emotionally vulnerable to Akumazation.
- The Power Of Music: The kwamis use a magic song to try and contact Nooroo.
- Properly Paranoid: Fu says that Tikki and Plagg shouldn't leave their hosts, even for a few minutes. He's proven right: the kwami party has barely started before someone gets akumatized.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent:
- One of the background characters is chased by a crocodile.
- Averted with Sass, a snake-themed kwami who's as friendly as the rest of his race. He even appears to be the de-facto leader among them.
- Shout-Out: A group of kwamis at the party dance what appears to be the Macarena.
- Sleeping Dummy: Plagg makes one out of a sock, so Adrien won't notice that he's gone.
- Time Abyss:
- A kwami cycle takes hundreds of human years, and Nooroo turns 3500 cycles old in this episode.
- The other kwamis have been in the box for a while, at least long enough that a colored marker pen is a new thing to them.
- Tongue-Tied: Kwamis are unable to reveal their owner's real name. As Gabriel shows, a kwami's owner can push it even further by silencing them completely.
- Transformation Is a Free Action: Averted. When Ladybug tries to use her Lucky Charm, Sandboy blasts her mid-summon, canceling the spell and Ladybug's powers at the same time.
- True Companions: The kwamis enthusiastically greet and recognize each other, even if millennia pass between their meeting.Plagg: Brothers and sisters...
- "What Do They Fear?" Episode: The akuma brings nightmares to life, including those of our heroes. Surprisingly, their civilian and superhero identities have different fears.
- Marinette's fear manifests as a creepy version of Adrien telling her how much he's in love with Chloé.
- Adrien's fear is being trapped; bars close him in as he frantically screams for Nathalie and his father.
- Ladybug's fear is losing her powers; as a result she literally loses her powers and becomes clumsy and weak, having to rely on Cat Noir and her wits to save the day.
- Cat Noir's fear is a nightmare version of Ladybug herself saying she despises him and attacking them.
- Master Fu's fear is the ghosts of the old guardians blaming him for losing the two Miraculous.
- Marinette's father's fear is that his bread will come to life to eat him.
- Wipe That Smile Off Your Face: Gabriel is so annoyed by Nooroo's request to go celebrate his birthday that he toys with the idea of forbidding him from talking at all and taking away his mouth. It only lasts for a second, though, as Gabriel says he's not that cruel, but even the fact that someone could do that to their kwami is pretty creepy.
