Science is magic that works.
"Kwamibuster, I am Hawk Moth. They made a mockery of your science. I am ready to believe you."
— Hawk Moth
Determined to prove the existence of kwamis, Ms. Mendeleiev is akumatized into Kwamibuster.
Tropes:
- All Your Powers Combined: To defeat Kwamibuster, Marinette seizes all the available Miraculous and their kwamis. However, she only activates a few of them — namely the Mouse, Fox, Ladybug and Cat — merely wearing the others so their kwami will be released as part of her plan to disable Kwamibuster.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: The "experts" of Alternative Truth are willing to believe that the pyramids are crashed alien spaceships and snow is just boogers from a giant in the clouds, but think Ms. Mendeleiev's theory about the kwami is too out there. She had actual video evidence of their physical if not visual presence, of Plagg eating the cheese, but they presume it was faked.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: While using multiple Miraculous grants the wielder access to a variety of abilities, it also appears to take a massive strain on the body. Marinette is winded just by wearing the Miraculous without activating their powers. She takes some of the strain off by using Multimouse's powers to split herself into several copies and then giving the copies additional Miraculous to invoke, only personally invoking her own power in addition to the Mouse's. She also uses the kwamis as transport so she doesn't wear herself out getting there. Even so, she can barely walk by the end.
- Cutting the Knot: Ladybug uses an elaborate Fox illusion and the power of all the available Miraculous to convince Cat Noir that she isn't a student at Collège Françoise Dupont. Cat Noir manages the same thing by just pretending not to know what kind of school it is.
- Fusion Dance: The episode introduces the practice of one person wearing and activating multiple Miraculous. When it's revealed the Mouse's power is multiplication; Multimouse makes multiple copies of herself to use the various Miraculous combinations including:
- Multifox, the Mouse and the Fox.
- Multibug, the Mouse and the Ladybug.
- Multinoir, the Mouse and the Cat.
- Glamour: This episode demonstrates again that miraculous change appearance based on their wielders when Marinette puts on all the ones she does. Notably Kwami Buster sucking kwami out of a charged miraculous alters this, as Plagg's ring and Tikki's earrings are still in their charged colors, only they're missing their respective pawprint and spots.
- Identity Impersonator: Ladybug, knowing that Cat Noir must suspect they go to the same school, uses the Mouse and Fox Miraculous to arrange for Cat Noir to see "Marinette" and "Ladybug" interacting with each other, obscuring her identity from him.
- I Know You Know I Know: After Ms. Mendeleiev shows her drawings of Tikki and Plagg, Marinette comes to the conclusion that Cat Noir goes to the same school as her and probably suspects the same thing of Ladybug. Adrien comes to a similar conclusion after learning Tikki was with Plagg, and they both go out of their way to throw the other off about their own identity.
- Inconsistent Dub: At one point, Marinette refers to Mullo as "Toppo".
- Invocation: In order to fuse Miraculous powers, the user must wear both Miraculous and call out the names of both kwamis followed by Unify to fuse and Divide to unfuse.
- New Rules as the Plot Demands: It has never been mentioned before this episode that the main characters will have to give up their Miraculous if they learn each other's secret identities. In previous episodes, the only concern was if Hawk Moth or the public at large knew the secret. Later episodes would show that this really isn't a rule that has to be followed but only done so as a precaution in case one of them was ever captured and forced to reveal the identity of the other.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Plagg's hunger for aged cheese nearly gets kwamis exposed in this episode. Tikki's attempts to stop him clue their owners in to the fact that both go to the same school, which they then have to explain away as to avoid exposing their secret identities.
- Nice Mice: Mullo, kwami of Mouse Miraculous. Notably, kwamis are based on Chinese Zodiac, meaning that they should be a rat, but was likely changed to a "cuter" animal, similarly as Papillon was changed from butterfly to moth.
- Rainbow Pimp Gear: This episode demonstrates again that miraculous change appearance based on their wielders. Every one Marinette puts on changes when she wears them and the result is slightly mismatched just by sheer number of them.
- The Real Spoofbusters: The eponymous akumatized science teacher Ms. Mendeleiev, disgraced by disbelief of her claims of invisible on camera, intangible, supernatural creatures. She gets a backpack and nozzle that shoot out a beam that sucks them in.
- Retcon: The rule that neither heroic partner can learn the other's secret identity without both losing their Miraculous is retroactively introduced.
- Second Super-Identity: Marinette as Multimouse. In fact, she "accidentally" reveals herself as Multimouse to Cat Noir so that he won't suspect that she's actually Ladybug, using a Mirage (courtesy of the Fox Miraculous) so that both can appear at once.
- Secret-Keeper: Ms. Mendeleiev now knows the truth about the kwami, but Cat Noir convinces her to keep it secret so the superheroes can keep saving Paris. She takes comfort in the fact that she was right, just a bit ahead of her time.
- Self-Duplication: Multimouse's ability involves splitting into a bunch of miniature copies of herself.
- Ship Sinking: The newly-introduced rule about Ladybug and Cat Noir not being allowed to learn the identity of their partner without both forfeiting their Miraculouses puts an end to all reveal-based romance hopes, for now. Adrien is especially put off the track of Ladybug's identity with an elaborate illusion.
- Shout-Out:
- A skinny teacher with a bad attitude trying to catch small flying magical creatures belonging to her students with a butterfly net in order to expose them to the world? Sounds an awful lot like Mr. Crocker of The Fairly OddParents!, even though, unlike in that show, the butterfly net is woefully incapable of catching kwamis.
- Kwamibuster is most definitely an homage to the Ghostbusters. A character dressed in a somewhat plumber-esque costume, determined to prove the existence of supernatural creatures, and both wield blasters that fire plasma beams in a wave formation. Kwamibuster, Cat Noir, and even Hawk Moth use a few lines from the first film.
- Alternative Truths is a parody broadcast in which three idiots sign off on a variety of insane conspiracy theories. The term alone is a riff on a notorious concept surrounding a certain political figure, himself linked with obscene conspiracy theories. Funnily enough, the one conspiracy theory the judges don't buy is quite true.
- Sizeshifter: Multimouse's ability is to multiply herself into independent duplicates. She does this by shrinking down the more copies she makes.
- The Swarm: While they don't attack her, all of the kwamis Marinette selected charged at Kwamibuster to distract her long enough for Multimouse to enact her plan and also purposefully get caught to defeat her.
- Trojan Horse: Longg and Pollen let themselves be captured while carrying two copies of Multimouse and the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses. Once they're inside, Multimouse activates the Miraculouses and busts out with the Cataclysm, breaking the akumatized object and letting Tikki and Plagg go back to their wielders.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: After Tikki and Plagg are captured, Marinette goes to Master Fu for a new Miraculous. Not only does she grab every other available Miraculous (bar the Turtle), but she manages to use them effectively in a Trojan Horse Gambit. Furthermore, she manages to throw off Adrien by detransforming in front of him as Multimouse to hand over the Mouse Miraculous to Ladybug.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Master Fu warns Marinette that the power from using too many miraculous at once could drive her mad. It's considered a testament to her strength and discipline that she could manage with fusing the ones that she did.
