Let your despair be embodied in a powerful protection.
"Hawk Moth. I am Mayura. You're up against the wall, plagued by your deepest, darkest despair. Let me help you."
The heroes battle against Scarlet Moth's assembled villains. But a new villain rises to aid him when the heroes put him in a corner!
Tropes:
- All-Loving Hero: Marinette shows in this episode that she's even capable of compassion for Hawk Moth. She tries to warn him that whatever wish he asks for will have dangerous consequences and gently encourages him to do the right thing and give up his Miraculous willingly. Unfortunately, this Hawk Moth is just an illusion.
- Likewise Nooroo. Even after being cruelly enslaved by Hawkmoth for the entire season, his response to his defeat was still a genuinely concerned "Master?"
- Anywhere but Their Lips: When Adrien is about to leave, Marinette finally works up the courage to kiss him in front of everybody, even if it's just on his cheek. Judging by Adrien's smile, it's clear that he sees his relationship with Marinette as more than Just Friends.
- Art Imitates Art: The static shot of the citizens of Paris at the barricade is a horizontally flipped homage to Eugene Delacroix’ Liberty Leading the People.
- Nora represents Liberty, and both of them show more skin than is usual for street clothes (but not the same area of skin, because this is a children’s show).
- Luka Couffaine represents the student brandishing pistols standing next to Liberty on the opposite side to her flag hand.
- Tom Dupain represents the craftsman standing on the other side, with a baguette substituting for the sabre of the original.
- Anarka Couffaine represents the member of the bourgeoisie in the top hat.
To really hang the lampshade, the original appears as a mural on the wall beside the barricade.
- Autobots, Rock Out!: An in-universe, villainous example. When he sends his army of villains to attack, Scarlet Moth orders Guitar Villain and Frightningale to play music. And no, he doesn't mean use their Musical Assassin powers to attack the heroes, he just wants them to play some battle music.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Once Rena Rouge becomes Rena Rage, Queen Bee becomes Queen Wasp, and Carapace becomes Shell Shock, Ladybug and Cat Noir take this pose.
- Badass Bystander: The whole of Paris come to Ladybug and Cat Noir's aid, forming a barricade in the streets, a la Les Misérables, and charging at the villains. They don't even stop with the regular human-sized villains, taking on the Kaiju villains too: distracting Gigantitan and Gorizilla with cars and helicopters, respectively, holding down Stoneheart with construction vehicles and bringing down Horrificator.
- Bait-and-Switch: When confronting Scarlet Moth, Ladybug's Lucky Charm takes the form of a Miraculous box. She initially declares it a sign that they're going to make him fork over his Miraculous, but it turns out that the Scarlet Moth they are facing is just one of Volpina's illusions, and Ladybug sees the real one sneaking up behind them reflected on the box's open lid.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Mayura summons a giant purple moth who can cause gale-force winds with its wings.
- Big Damn Heroes: Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Queen Bee. Mayura pulls the villainous version on Hawk Moth's behalf.
- Big "NO!": Carapace yells this when witnessing Rena Rouge akumatized as Rena Rage.
- Also Hawk Moth when Ladybug and Cat Noir purified Dark Cupid, preventing him from creating more akumatized villains.
- Lastly, Catalyst when sensing Hawk Moth losing his empowered form.
- Bilingual Bonus: "Mayura" is Sanskrit for 'peacock'.
- Bishie Sparkles: As Adrien is walking away from the party, Marinette sees him framed in a pink border and sparkling bubbles.
- Blow You Away: The moth ally Mayura summons for Hawk Moth is able to flap its wings with enough force to create gale-force winds. Ladybug manages to snare it with her yo-yo and pull herself back, but Mayura simply dispels it because it's done its job of allowing Hawk Moth to escape.
- Cast from Hit Points: The Peacock Miraculous works this way, but only because it has been damaged somehow. After using its power, Nathalie is physically drained to the point of needing to be carried by Gabriel, who tells her it's much too dangerous to use.
- The Cavalry: Nora leads an army of Parisian civilians to support the heroes and slow down the villains, buying them enough time to destroy Scarlet Moth's cane and de-akumatize everyone.
- Combat Pragmatist: Scarlet Moth has Dark Cupid shoot his Hate Plague arrows at everyone he sees, which instantly fill them with negative emotions and make them vulnerable to akumatization.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Most of the villain army are defeated fairly easy, since the heroes now know exactly where to aim. Unfortunately for them, Scarlet Moth has ways to re-transform his victims.
- Continuity Cavalcade:
- Another pack of villains joins the first group: the Pharaoh, Animan, Darkblade, Rogercop, Despair Bear, Riposte, Syren, Style Queen, Queen Wasp, Malediktator, and Frozer.
- Diving into the water, Ladybug and Cat Noir use their water transformations once again.
- Luka, Anarka, Nora, Marc and Gina Dupain can be seen leading the fight against the akumatized army to help Ladybug and Cat Noir.
- At the after party, Adrien recalls all the nice things Marinette has done for everyone, which is why they got together to help her put together the party she promised.
- After being hit by Dark Cupid’s arrow, Alya calls Nino “flyweight”, the same dismissive nickname her sister gave him a few episodes back.
- Cooldown Hug: When Rena Rouge is initially infected by Dark Cupid's arrow, Carapace grabs her and holds her tightly in a hug and speaks to her calmly. Sadly, this doesn't work.
- Crazy-Prepared: Scarlet Moth has Syren waiting in the sewers just in case the heroes might try to escape that way.
- Despair Event Horizon: Hawk Moth/Gabriel reaches this when it looks like he's about to be defeated, causing Catalyst/Nathalie to panic and use the Peacock Miraculous to become Mayura.
- Dirty Coward: Mayor Bourgeois, despite telling Parisians to stay strong, is running away with his wife and butler to watch from a safe distance. Although it seems he is far more terrified of his wife than the army of villains, so he might have willing to stay if she wan't making him leave, though it's very unlikely.
- Emotion Bomb: Dark Cupid's arrows are used by Scarlet Moth to fill the civilians with anger to make them vulnerable to akumatization.
- Fake Shemp: Many of the returning supervillains are either silent (like Riposte) or voiced by stand-ins (like the Pharaoh).
- Fastball Special: A variation. Cat Noir uses his staff as a seesaw, helping Queen Bee to reach Stormy Weather.
- Fighting from the Inside: Rena Rouge briefly shows some fight when she takes Dark Cupid's arrow that was going to hit Carapace, but ultimately succumbs.
- Foreshadowing: Back when Nora was akumatized in “Anansi", she frequently backtalked Hawk Moth and told him she couldn't care less about getting the Miraculouses. Nora's defiance against Hawk Moth eventually pays off when she singlehandedly assembles the citizens of Paris to help the heroes fight Scarlet Moth's army.
- From Bad to Worse: The team manage to take out several akumas at the fight's beginning only for Dark Cupid to infect them with negative emotions and cause them to become reakumatized almost immediately. Things take a turn for the worse when he strikes Rena Rouge, who becomes akumatized, causing Carapace to despair and become akumatized. Despair Bear then holds Queen Bee in place while Dark Cupid strikes her and she once again becomes Queen Wasp.
- Giant Mook: Hawk Moth sends his giant minions like Gigantitan against the heroes all at once.
- Godzilla Threshold: We get to see why Gabriel hasn't done anything with the Peacock miraculous in all this time — one use of it leaves Nathalie dangerously drained. She only uses it here because Hawk Moth was cornered and outnumbered five to one.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: While everyone is enjoying Marinette's picnic, Lila is stuck in her room due to her lie about being in Achu.
- Hope Spot: Invoked by Scarlet Moth and Catalyst. After the heroes initially manage to de-akumatize several villains, Scarlet Moth uses Dark Cupid's arrows and a swarm of akumas to immediately re-akumatize all of them, revealing that he and Catalyst deliberately allowed the heroes to gain some victories to give them a false sense of hope.
- Internal Reveal: Mayura's intervention to save Hawk Moth shows Cat Noir and Ladybug that the Peacock Miraculous is being used by an ally of his.
- Karmic Jackpot: It is acknowledged by her friends that Marinette dedicates so much of her civilian time helping her classmates, so not only do they not hold it against her that she was unable to keep her Heroes Day declaration (that is to prepare a baked-goods feast for her entire class in the park), but they all pitch in and bring their own goodies to share at a picnic. Not only that, but they all do their own small part to push Marinette and Adrien together, finally getting that Big Damn Kiss two seasons in the making.
- Little "No": Hawk Moth when he loses his empowered form.
- Made of Indestructium: Cat Noir's staff is immune to its owner's Cataclysm, as shown when Cat Noir is fighting Scarlet Moth with Cataclysm active. It does not apply to other Miraculous weapons, though, as shown by Hawk Moth's cane getting destroyed.
- Minored In Ass Kicking: Hawk Moth fights both Ladybug and Cat Noir hand-to-hand and is able to overpower them. Taking on five heroes at once, however, proves to be a bit much for him.
- Mook Maker: Downplayed with Dark Cupid. While he doesn't convert them into mooks themselves, he does induce negative emotions in individuals so Hawk Moth can re-akumatize them.
- Mutual Kill: At one point, Gamer and Glaciator hit each other while aiming at the heroes, neutralizing them both.
- Near-Villain Victory: This episode is the closest Hawk Moth has ever gotten to triumphing over Ladybug and Cat Noir. He had an army of powered villains including three akumatized Miraculous holders, and had it not been for the Parisians rising up to stop him, he would have succeeded.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Because Scarlet Moth is using Prime Queen to broadcast his triumph over the heroes, she records Ladybug and Cat Noir fighting, showing the citizens of Paris that their heroes are alive and well. This causes them to rally against Scarlet Moth and buy the heroes time to regroup. Scarlet Moth himself realizes his mistake when Ladybug uses it to her advantage and has Prime Queen kill the broadcast, but by then it's too late.
- Noodle Implements: Although we briefly see Ladybug scan the environment, we never do find out what the hell Ladybug would have done with a tennis racket, a boat, a lamppost and the five heroes before three of those heroes are akumatized and Ladybug's plan is rendered useless.
- No Ontological Inertia: Catalyst empowered Hawk Moth's cane to power him up. When it's destroyed, all of the red akumas are purified, their victims de-akumatized, and Scarlet Moth reverts back into Hawk Moth.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: You know Plagg is serious when he's willing to share his precious cheese with Adrien.
- Palette Swap: When Rena Rouge and Carapace are akumatized, their outfits merely turn red instead of them getting an akumatized Miraculous form like Queen Wasp.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Hawk Moth gives one to Ladybug and Cat Noir after defeating them.Hawk Moth: You're never going to win. Not today, or any other day. You're still so green, young superheroes. You can't even stay transformed after you've used your powers.
- Secondary Character Title: The titular Mayura doesn't show up until last five minutes, although it helps that as Catalyst, Nathalie is present and important throughout the whole episode.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Rena Rouge sacrifices herself to stop Carapace from being hit by one of Dark Cupid's arrows, but the despair he feels when she's akumatized makes him vulnerable to akumatization anyway.
- Shipper on Deck: The entire class (except Chloé) breaks into cheers when Marinette kisses Adrien. Prior to that, they all very blatantly conspired to force Adrien to sit next to Marinette.
- Shout-Out:
- One shot where the camera circles around the Miraculous heroes is similar to a scene from The Avengers.
- Gorizilla again gets a King Kong one, when he's attacked by helicopters.
- The Parisians climbing over a street barricade is reminiscent of Les Miserables.
- As she leads The Cavalry, Nora declares “We can be heroes, just for one day!”
- Story-Breaker Power: Thanks to Scarlet Moth being able to akumatize as many targets as he wants, as long as they feel negative emotions, Dark Cupid's Hate Plague arrows become this.
- Tag Team: Cat Noir with both Carapace and Queen Bee in different points.
- Taking the Bullet: Rena Rouge throws herself in front of one of Dark Cupid's arrows to save Carapace.
- Taught by Experience: Hawk Moth reveals that with enough experience, a Miraculous user will no longer need to de-transform and feed their kwami after using their special ability. Presumably this also means that the special ability will no longer be limited to a single use per transformation, explaining how he was able to akumatize Chloé so soon after Sabrina was de-akumatized all the way back in "Antibug" (although he's still limited to only one active akuma at a time, hence the need for Catalyst).
- Undying Loyalty:
- On the heroes' side, Ladybug and Cat Noir prove to be loyal to each other by not considering to take a peek at the other's civilian identity once when detransformed. They jump into the sewer together to transform again and even then they continue to respect each other's secret identity by doing so with their eyes closed. Now that's a team.
- On the villains' side, Nathalie uses the Peacock Miraculous to transform into Mayura and save Hawk Moth even though she knows that its power is Cast from Hit Points. And, surprisingly enough, the feeling is mutual - Hawk Moth is horrified when he realizes she's using it and begs her not to, and Gabriel is later seen tending to her with concern.
- The War Sequence: Three quarters of the episode are devoted to a massive battle against nearly every akuma the heroes have ever faced up to this point.
- Waxing Lyrical: In the English dub, Nora says as she inspires the Parisians to fight back, "We can be heroes, just for one day."
- Wham Episode: Nathalie uses the Peacock Miraculous to become Mayura for the first time and creates a sentimonster to save Hawk Moth.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Alix was shown to have been akumatized into Timebreaker in the previous episode, but she is never shown fighting the heroes in this episode, possibly because of how strong her abilities are. Also, Guitar Villain, Frightningale and Prime Queen are never seen leaving Scarlet Moth's side, but they're gone by the time Ladybug and Cat Noir reach him.
- Wrecked Weapon: Cat Noir uses his Cataclysm on Scarlet Moth's cane, which de-akumatizes everyone, purifies all of the red akumas, and causes Scarlet Moth to turn back into Hawk Moth. It dissolves after Hawk Moth detransforms, reforming when he powers up again.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Catalyst and Hawk Moth had been preparing for this event for a long time, having planned out nearly every move, including letting the heroes initially think they were winning before re-akumatizing the villains they had purified.
