"Dearest Family, I am Shadow Moth. Don’t worry, your Magical Charms won’t stop you from getting your powers back. Each of you thinks you know Marinette better than the others; to help you figure this out, I’m returning your powers to all of you. Weredad, Bakerix, Befana and Qilin, may the strongest of you raise Marinette as you please, but in return, bring me the Miraculous of Ladybug and Cat Noir."
— Shadow Moth
At last, Shadow Moth has discovered a way to destroy the magical charms prohibiting his plans and proceeds to re-akumatize all of Marinette's closest relatives. And if dealing with the 4 of them wasn't enough, Tikki has suddenly gone berserk and causes citywide chaos with her uncontrollable powers!
Tropes:
- Aesop Amnesia: In "Crocoduel" Shadow Moth realized that empowering two villains who were more interested in fighting each other than in seizing the Miraculous was not a good idea, yet this time he creates four villains with conflicting agendas. It doesn't work any better.
- Bad Powers, Good People: Notably Cat Noir's destructive powers are necessary to save everyone from the more traditionally heroic kwami of Creation.Plagg: There is a reason there is also a kwami of Destruction.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Would you imagine that the sweet, cookie-munching kwami with the chirpy voice and friendly powers of Creation is, in fact, the most terrifying of them all?
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Cat Noir shows up to save Ladybug from having her earrings stolen by Bakerix.
- Cat Noir also saves Paris from being crushed by a giant galette by taking it out into space as Astrocat and destroying it with a Cataclysm.
- Call-Back:
- Gabriel is experimenting with the magical charm Ladybug gave him (or rather, his sentimonster) back in "Gabriel Agreste".
- In "Mr Pigeon 72", Alya deduced from the Grimoire that Ladybug's powers are limited solely by the user's imagination, allowing Marinette to produce Magical Charms simply by willing it. Nathalie has come to the same conclusion in her reading, noting that it holds true for all Miraculouses, allowing Shadow Moth to adapt simply by wanting it badly enough.
- Character Development: Although they still have their different ways of doing things, Rolland and Tom are able to finally work together to create baked goods that combine their experiences and know how together. Which is very heartwarming that they're able to get along compared to how bitter they were in the past.
- The Cameo: Gabriel briefly turns into the Collector in order to test his new megakuma.
- Cool Bike: Gina arrives to bestow a new motorcycle to her beloved granddaughter. This causes controversy among the Dupain-Cheng adults as they argue over whether Marinette should be allowed a bike to begin with.
- Delicious Distraction:
- Tikki gets progressively more and more distracted by the tasty, appetizing galettes in the Dupain-Cheng bakery, to the point that she's nearly seen by Marinette's family when trying to snack on the last galette.
- Ladybug is affected by Tikki's hunger, which makes her prioritize wolfing down galettes instead of fighting off the villain trying to steal her earrings. Thankfully, Cat Noir comes to the rescue just in time.
- Didn't See That Coming: Having trouble catching Tikki, Marinette gets the idea to transform, reasoning it will drag Tikki to her. It works, but Tikki's hunger affects her in turn, severely hampering her combat effectiveness and only postponing the problem instead of fixing it.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Tikki's insatiable hunger for sweets is treated like an addiction: she sports Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises, wolfs down every galette in the bakery, and when they run out she heads into the city looking for more, stealing it from their owners. She never told Marinette about this because she was ashamed, and Marinette has to assure her that she can overcome this hunger if she tries.
- Fighting Your Friend: A familial example. This time Marinette has to battle against her parents and grandparents in their villain forms. They seem to be fighting each other over who can best take care of her.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Tikki unleashes her Lucky Charm power, she also reveals a humongous humanoid version of herself bathed in pink light and with multiple wings.
- Funny Background Event: As Gina arrives with Marinette's gift, Chloé can be seen yelling at her dad from her limo for not getting her a galette.
- Giant Food: After eating all the galettes around, a ravenous Tikki uses Lucky Charm to create a planet-sized one up in the sky. Its mere proximity is enough to cause devastation across Paris. Cat Noir goes Astrocat to use Cataclysm on it.
- Here We Go Again!: After the Dupain-Chang family decides to hear out Marinette's opinion about the motorcycle, she honestly states that she is currently too young for it, but would like to have an electric scooter instead, causing another argument among the family members.
- Honorary Princess: The one who finds the féve, the trinket hidden inside the galette, is crowned King or Queen for the day and gets to choose a consort. Cat Noir ends up finding the féve inside the Dupain-Cheng's galette, becoming the King, and playfully asks Ladybug to be his Queen.
- Hungry Menace: Tikki becomes a danger to the whole city when her hunger compels her to summon a gigantic galette as a Lucky Charm without a channeled user, nearly crushing Paris.
- Impossibly Delicious Food: The galette recipe developed by Tom and his father in this episode is given a sparkling golden aroma to illustrate how delicious it is. Everyone from across Paris comes to get one, even Shadow Moth is seen eating it, and it urged Tikki into an eating rampage. According to Plagg, that hasn't happened since people invented chocolate, and Tikki claims that the galette recipe Tom and Rolland created is a history-making event.
- Lensman Arms Race: Shadow Moth upgrades his akumas to megakumas, nullifying Ladybug's Magic Charm advantage.
- Mascots Love Sugar: Played for Drama. Tikki's craving for candy gets so out of control that she uses her creation powers without her holder to create the biggest galette to satiate her hunger. This puts everyone at risk as the gigantic object threatens to crush a sizeable portion of Paris when it lands. Plagg comments that, in a similar incident far in the past, Tikki summoned an 8-day rain of chocolate mousse.
- Mirror Character: Plagg and Tikki are often presented as opposites, but this episode reveals that both have insatiable appetites for certain foods. If anything, Tikki is even worse in that regard since her appetite causes her to use her powers to create more of the food she likes, with disastrous results.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The titular Dearest Family is formed by a werewolf, a gun-toting witch, a Gaul made of bread, and a mythical Chinese creature.
- New Rules as the Plot Demands: Gabriel doesn't need to renounce Nooroo in order to akumatize himself this time. Though given all the information about the Miraculous he now has at his disposal, he could have potentially found a way to remove that restriction.
- Now, Let Me Carry You: Marinette remarks that Tikki has always encouraged her to overcome her fears and become a better person; now, it's Marinette's turn to help Tikki overcome her insatiable hunger for sweets.
- Off the Wagon: Apparently, Tikki’s insane craving for galette isn’t the first time that she went on rampage. According to Plagg, the last time it happened was when humans invented chocolate and she made rain chocolate for a few weeks, and it’s implied that he was the one who kept her powers in check and contained her massive damages, thanks to his destructive powers.
- Old Flame: Whatever is Roland and Gina's current status, it's at least clear that Roland still holds a torch for her. When Gina arrives in the bakery, Roland hastily try to fix his "hair".
- The Parent Trope: Each family member has different ideas on how to parent Marinette.
- Rolland/Bakerix is a super-strict Helicopter Parent.
- Gina/Befana, wanting to give Marinette a motorcycle at 14, models the Permissive Parents.
- Sabine/Qilin is for Hands-Off Parenting.
- Tom/Weredad wanting to protect her from danger is the Papa Wolf.
- Power Incontinence: Subverted. While other kwamis tend to have their powers backfire or affect larger areas than intended, Tikki can create exactly what she wants. The problem is that, in her sugar-crazed state, she doesn't care about the damage she causes when she creates a planet-sized galette over the city.
- Properly Paranoid: The kwamis are rightfully afraid of Tikki losing control of herself if she eats too many galettes as it leads to her unleashing her creation power.
- Rain of Something Unusual: The last time Tikki went on an eating binge, when humans invented chocolate, she made it rain chocolate for days to satisfy her cravings.
- The Reveal: Tikki has a severe weakness for certain sweets like chocolate during its invention and the galettes made by Rolland and Tom. According to Plagg, over 1000 years ago, she went out of control with chocolate causing her to use her powers to make chocolate mousse to rain from the sky for several weeks. Plagg also implies that this sort of disaster is the reason that it was necessary for him to exist - The Kwami of Destruction can counter the Kwami of Creation's powers if they go out of control.
- Status Quo Is God: Shadow Moth inventing Megakumas that pierce Ladybug's Magical Charms neutralizes their benefit and restores the status quo before they came into play - Shadow Moth can akumatize anyone he wants, emotions permitting.
- The Stinger: The episode ends with Gabriel in his hidden sanctuary and vowing to his comatose wife that he'll destroy the world to create a new one where they two can be together forever.
- Third Time's The Charm: It takes Gabriel three attempts to make a Megakuma that can break through Magical Charms.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Cat Noir has quite a few this episode. He saves Ladybug when she isn't in her best, manages do destroy a moon-sized galette and it's he who finds the prized galette piece (which holds the akumatized item).
- Weaksauce Weakness: Tikki is revealed to have an unexpected weakness, an overwhelming cosmic appetite for sweets.
- Wham Episode:
- Gabriel finds a way to destroy the magical charms by creating a megakuma, which means that people who have one are no longer safe from akumatization.
- It's revealed that Tikki has a highly unstable appetite for sweets if she discovers a really delicious one. Added to that, it's hinted her current appearance isn't her true form, as when she uses her creation powers, a ghostly silhouette of a much larger humanoid form appears above her.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Befana creates two angels to help her capture Marinette but once she's intercepted by the rest of the family, they vanish from the story. While it can be presumed that the Miraculous Ladybug put them back to normal in the end, what they got up to in between is a total mystery.
- Worf Had the Flu: Marinette isn't very effective when she first transforms as Tikki's hunger affects her and forces her to eat the galette cakes while fighting. Even after she and Tikki resolve to work past Tikki’s sweets cravings, Marinette struggles to not devour the galette with the akuma inside it - fortunately, she is able to hand it to Cat Noir, who has no such problems.
