There is no happiness for a society ruled by distrust.
Attributing her downfall to her love for Adrien, Marinette decides to try her best to give up on her love once and for all. Meanwhile, Monarch hasn't akumatized someone in days. It seems that he's given up... until Ladybug and Cat Noir find themselves forced to fight a swarm of giant Ikari Gozens!
Tropes:
- The Ace: Félix is revealed to be a triple medalist in kung fu and horsemanship, a chess prodigy, and the youngest to graduate high school in England.
- All According to Plan: Ikari's return was only a test run for Tomoe to try out one of the Miraculous powers while akumatized, transmitted through the smart device ring she's wearing.
- Almost Kiss: Just before Adrien can give a friendly kiss to Marinette (with some help from Alya), Ikari Gozen shows up, ready to demolish everything in sight. Downplayed, since Adrien is definitely only trying to display that he values Marinette as a very good friend as is usual in French culture, but Marinette is trying her best to commit to being a Celibate Hero to avoid any more mistakes as Guardian and probably fears her resolve will fail if Adrien kisses her even platonically.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Monarch brings back the gigantic Ikari Gozen, also giving her the Mouse Miraculous so she can multiply herself to make our heroes' mission harder.
- Benevolent A.I.: The Alliance Rings are crafted to serve its user like any good smartphone or computer would. Additionally, it can take the form of either Adrien or Lila when speaking to its user.
- But Now I Must Go: Su-Han declares that he will return to the Miraculous Order in the Tibetan mountains and bring reinforcements.
- The Cameo: Wayham has a short one where he waves at the heroes.
- Celebrity Endorsement: Gabriel and Tomoe show a commercial where Adrien and Lila (actually their scans) endorse the new Alliance Rings.
- Celibate Hero: Marinette decides to stop chasing Adrien in the name of love as she cites it as the reason for her mistake. From then on, she treats him like a "good friend" despite the awkwardness.
- Civilization Destroyer: Ikari Gozen hopes to become this by destroying the city of Paris to make room for a better world.
- Continuity Nod:
- Miss Bustier is now visibly pregnant, after having announced her pregnancy back in the Miraculous World: New York special.
- Alya brings up Marinette's past interactions from previous episodes like "Gamer", "Style Queen", "Gorizilla" and "The Puppeteer 2".
- Distracted by the Luxury: The celestial guardian was guilty of spending four months being distracted by the wonders of the modern world. Especially cat videos.
- Double-Meaning Title: Ikari Gozen uses the power of Multiplication, while it is revealed that Gabriel has developed a way to transmit Miraculous powers to his akuma victims through a new line of rings that act as cell phones — multiplying his powers, as it were.
- Evil All Along: This episode reveals Tomoe is aware of Gabriel's secret identity, and is actively helping him by developing the Alliance Ring that can transfer the powers of the Miraculouses to akumatized villains, allowing Monarch to create villains that are more powerful than ever. To a lesser extent, Amelie Graham de Vanily reveals at the end of the episode that she never had any intention of giving Félix up when she talked to Ladybug and Cat Noir earlier and refuses to consider that he could be a villain.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The beginning of the episode is an Immediate Sequel to "Evolution" which was already an Immediate Sequel to "Shadow Moth's Final Attack" two-parter. That means most of "Risk", the entirety of "Strikeback" and "Evolution" and the beginning of "Multiplication" all take place on the same day.
- Facepalm: Alya smacks her forehead while Nino goes for an "implied facepalm" the first time Adrien tries to greet Marinette with a kiss to the cheek, only for Marinette to pull away and offer a handshake instead.
- Foreshadowing:
- During the Time-Passes Montage, Adrien notices Tomoe Tsurugi visiting his house and conversing with Gabriel. The ending reveals a double alliance where they've bonded their companies and are working to steal the remaining Miraculous.
- Starting from the Alliance System reveal, Gabriel has a new outfit with gloves and a higher neckline. The next episode explains why.
- When Félix first puts on the Peacock Miraculous, Duusu asks him if he's his new holder. Félix cryptically answers that he's much more than that.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: While Chloé, as the bad cop, calls Ladybug out for her failures, Lila, as the good cop, comes to her defense (and enjoys the approval of her classmates).
- Good-Times Montage: The heroes and civilians alike lose their fear as the days go by without an attack by Monarch. After several weeks without any incident, Alya, Nino, and Nora have stopped boxing practice and are instead playing video games, Ivan is the only person left in Mylène's yoga class, and Ladybug and Cat Noir are playing cards on top of the Eiffel Tower to kill time while they're on patrol. Everybody is enjoying this time of peace.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Marinette is still blaming herself for losing the Miraculouses.
- Holographic Terminal: At the end of the episode, Gabriel and Tomoe unveil smart devices in the form of rings that project holographic screens.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Adrien commits to giving up the model lifestyle and wants to be a normal boy. To his and the audience's shock, Gabriel accepts his decision, with no argument.
- Immediate Sequel: This episode instantly picks off from Ladybug and Cat Noir finishing their time travel escapades in "Evolution".
- Internal Reveal: Alim decides to reveal Alix's secret as the Rabbit Miraculous wielder to her entire class to explain her long-term absence, as it'd be difficult to justify the sudden disappearance of his child otherwise.
- The Internet Is for Cats: Su-Han reveals that he has spent much of his time in Paris watching videos about cute cats.
- Irony: Monarch appeared before Paris stating he would attack relentlessly until someone gave him Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous. As we see, the events of "Evolution" mean that not only does he not attack, he seems to just completely vanish for what looks like weeks or months. The reason for this time of peace is that he was busy making an alliance with Tomoe and creating the Alliance Rings with her.
- Jaw Drop: Adrien's reaction when his father agrees to let him step down from modeling.
- Loophole Abuse:
- The downside of using the Multiplication power is that the user shrinks in size to make clones of themselves. Monarch gets around this by gifting the power to Ikari Gozen, whose size allows her to create more than a dozen copies without seriously impacting the threat any individual copy poses.
- Previously, a person had to wear a Miraculous in order to use its abilities. Now, Monarch has somehow found a way to transmit Miraculous powers from himself to the akuma without needing the physical jewel.
- Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: Amelie believes that the Miraculous holders are harassing her son for malicious reasons, rather than because he stole from them and they want him to help recover what is rightfully theirs.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": Marinette, Adrien, Alya and Nino have one when they see Ikari Gozen. Later, Ladybug and Cat Noir do this when Ikari activates Multiplication.
- Monumental Damage: Ikari Gozen starts her rampage by targeting Paris' iconic landmarks.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Su-Han accepts during his sobbing fit that he should have done a better job in helping Ladybug and Cat Noir with their duties rather than only showing up to berate them for perceived mistakes and letting himself getting distracted by the modern world.
- The Nicknamer: The Mouse Miraculous-empowered Ikari Gozen gets the unofficial name "Ikari Dozen" from Cat Noir. He also refers to himself as "Fisher Cat" after Ladybug gives him the fishing rod her lucky charm summoned.
- No Ontological Inertia: Deakumatizing Ikari Gozen also banishes her copies. This would appear to be because Monarch is transmitting the power of the Mouse Miraculous through her ring, so cutting off the primary connection (the akuma) also severed her connection to the Miraculous.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Su-Han, the stern and harsh celestial guardian who only shows up to scold Marinette, appears before her and Cat Noir and breaks down crying, clearly upset about his failure to live up to his job in protecting the Miraculouses. Ladybug is clearly uncomfortable with this.
- Pose of Supplication: Su-Han does a kowtow note in front of Ladybug and Cat Noir. Understandably, they feel rather awkward about it.
- Post-Modern Magik: Gabriel has somehow figured out a way to transmit the other miraculous powers in his possession to akumatized villains. It's suggested at the end that this is done through the new smart device rings created in a merger between his and Tomoe's companies.
- Pushover Parents: Despite learning that her son assisted a domestic terrorist, Amelie doesn't confront Félix about his nefarious antics and dotes on him like an oblivious mother.
- Running Gag: Once again, the Eiffel Tower is destroyed.
- Self-Duplication: On top of her size and strength, Ikari Gozen can now split herself into multiple copies and gain a better advantage over Ladybug and Cat Noir. Soon the heroes face at least 15 enemies.
- Shipper on Deck: Alya is still this for Marinette and is driven up the wall by Marinette trying to deny her feelings. She goes so far as to restrain Marinette so she'll be forced to accept a friendly kiss from Adrien, which is ruined by Ikari Gozen showing up.
- The Stinger: Scene after the end card reveals that Félix actually returned home and his mother is covering for him.
- Super-Empowering: On top of the abilities he can already grant, Monarch has worked out a way to also give his akumatized villains the other Miraculous powers he has access to. Ladybug and Cat find this out when Ikari Gozen suddenly uses Multitude.
- Taught by Experience: Ikari Gozen wisely dodges any attempt the heroes make to break her bokken, and is especially cautious of Cat Noir. Ladybug has to trick her into attacking a building so Cat Noir can use the Lucky Charm fishing rod to pin the bokken with rubble long enough for him to Cataclysm it.
- Time-Passes Montage: A period of time passes as the heroes keep an eye out for villainous activity while the civilians train themselves for any Akuma attacks (ex. Mylène holding yoga sessions to promote positive mental health, Nora teaching Alya and Nino how to box).
- Took a Level in Badass:
- In the past, Ikari Gozen was a high ranking boss that required summoning Ryuko to defeat her. In the present, Ladybug and Cat Noir are able to defeat her and her squadron of mecha-taurs using only their wits and teamwork.
- Ikari Gozen herself since she can use the power of the Miraculouses, in this case Multitude, creating more than a dozen, slightly smaller copies that are every bit as dangerous as the original.
- Trouble Magnet Gambit: The Alliance Rings are very helpful under normal circumstances. But if somebody who is wearing such a ring gets akumatized, Monarch will be able to transmit the power of his Miraculouses to their villainous akumatized form.
- Understanding Boyfriend: When Mylène mentions how she's starting to be fearful about the Monarch situation, her boyfriend Ivan suggests that she do her yoga sessions to help with her stress.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Downplayed. Marinette decides to stop pursuing Adrien until Monarch is defeated, even though she's still in love with him. This decision comes just as Adrien is starting to realize that maybe Marinette is more than a good friend to him, so Marinette's decision causes her to refuse friendly kisses from him.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Ladybug whispers her plan into Cat Noir's ear. It goes off without a hitch.
- Villain Has a Point: As unsettling as it is to hear from her mouth, Lila makes a valid argument about how Ladybug has a tough job protecting Paris and how it's understandable that she would make mistakes now and then. She also correctly points out that Ladybug is still a kid that shouldn’t be burdened with such huge responsibilities.
- Villain Team-Up: Though the circumstances are unclear, Gabriel gets a new partner in Tomoe Tsurugi who is now an active player in his goal of stealing the remaining Miraculouses.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Nathalie returns to the Agreste mansion and peeks at Adrien sleeping. There's no word about what became of her afterwards, nor how Gabriel decided to handle her defection.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Tomoe passes herself off as another victim of akumatization after she's "rescued" by Ladybug and Cat Noir and claims not to have the Mouse Miraculous, leaving them confused as to how Monarch gave her that power. Of course, they're none the wiser of her new allegiance to Gabriel/Monarch.
- Writers Cannot Do Math:
- The heroes count twelve versions of Ikari Gozen, but there are actually at least fifteen of them. Of course, "Ikari Fifteen" makes for a much less Punny Name, so they probably just chose to ignore the rest.
- In the Alliance Ring commercial, Adrien asks his for the square root of 71,174, which is approximately 266.78455. The ring answers with 8.14261, which is closer to the square root of 71.174, and still wrong even then.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Ladybug shows a picture of Félix to Cat Noir, apparently from an article on a "Wikipage". Anyone who's visited Wikipedia on a mobile device will recognize its web design.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Literally shouted by Alya when it looks like Adrien might be finally starting to fall for Marinette only for her to decide to treat him as just a friend to focus on her superhero duties.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Though Lila presents a fair point that even Ladybug can make mistakes, Marinette's expression shows she's still loath to be defended by the likes of her. Lila's tone of passive aggressive condescension doesn't help.
