http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/MiraculousLadybugS05E25ConformationTheLastDayPart1
Summer Break has started in Paris, and everyone is getting ready for a summer of fun. For Adrien and Marinette however, their greatest struggle is yet to come. With hours of his life remaining, Monarch and Tomoe begin their final gambit to defeat Ladybug and Cat Noir and seize the ultimate wish.
Tropes:
- Absurd Phobia:
- Tom's nightmare is that Marinette will fast in response to Adrien’s departure and shrink down to the point a mouse can eat her.
- Myléne dreams that aliens will steal all the planet’s trees.
- Accidental Murder: In Marinette's dream of being a Ladybug-themed Knight in Shining Armor saving Adrien from an Akumatized Gabriel, she stumbles and accidentally hits Gabriel with her sword after de-Akumatizing him, causing him to disappear.
- Ankle Drag: Monarch yanks Marinette out of her hiding spot by her ankle, only to be shocked when he realizes who he's grabbed.
- All Your Powers Combined: The Miraculized army has access to Voyage, Venom, and Clout.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: It's not actually clear whether the initial brainwashing itself is magical—most of Marinette's friends resist it handily—but the Alliance rings produce soothing content with "perfect" Adrien and Kagami in order to deal with Nightormentor's nightmares and headaches, which then switch to showing pictures of Ladybug and Cat Noir kidnapping the two. Then, an image of Gabriel appears, telling them to say magic words to transform the wearer into an army capable of fighting Ladybug and Cat Noir, and those that consent are clearly magically brainwashed after transforming.
- Blah, Blah, Blah: When Alya worries she may be akumatized if she becomes the new Cat Noir, Plagg responds with this trope because that's the same excuse Adrien used.
- Bloodless Carnage: When Marinette accidentally hits Gabriel with her sword in her Knight in Shining Armor dream, he simply vanishes, leaving no trace of blood.
- Broken Record: The Miraculized constantly repeat “Where are Kagami and Adrien?” and “Release them!”.
- Call-Back:
- Gabriel uses the Magical Charm gifted to him by Ladybug in "Gabriel Agreste" to acquire her quantum signature (even though he destroyed it near the end of the season).
- Tikki warns Marinette against using her powers for personal benefit just before she decides to break into Gabriel's home. "The Bubbler" and "Cat Blanc" are two instances where Marinette doing so caused problems. Marinette counters that she's specifically doing this to help Adrien, and things pan out better for it.
- Sabine’s nightmare is essentially the events of "Weredad", only with Tom as a more bakery themed Akuma.
- Cliffhanger: The first act ends with Marinette transforming into Bug Noire so she can have her final showdown with Monarch.
- Crippling Overspecialization: As was Safari's weakness in "Passion", the Miraculized army is given the ability to detect Ladybug and Cat Noir, but only in those forms. They cannot detect Marinette, so detransforming gives her a minute of respite. Monarch still knows she's in the building, however, so he quickly finds her thanks to Plagg dropping his ring when he gets there first.
- Deathbed Confession: Ladybug has a talk with the near-death Nathalie after Monarch brings her to her bed, during which she tells Ladybug that her condition was caused by using the Peacock Miraculous when it was still damaged, thus indirectly confessing to Ladybug that she was Mayura. She also warns her that Monarch is going to send all of humanity to hunt her down.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Gabriel and Tomoe's plans involve using Nightormentor's Nightmare Weaving to impose nightmares so vivid that the stress causes the victim physical pain, then using an Alliance Ring app that pacifies them to an extent that borders on mind-control. The whole thing reeks of an addiction allegory, Gabriel and Tomoe being pushers who get everyone hooked on something incredibly addictive and then sell them something for their fix (the app's effects not unlike depressants), the addicts spiraling into criminal behaviors to keep up the habit (the Miraculized attacking people tangentially related to Ladybug and Cat Noir in some way when they think they kidnapped Adrien and Kagami). Even when it becomes clear that it's all a part of Monarch's Evil Plan, Ivan winds up giving in and using it when his fears overwhelm him, not unlike a Recovered Addict falling Off the Wagon.
- Double-Meaning Title: The theme of conformation is present in Gabriel's final attack by making the whole world overly-reliant on the Alliance Rings to soothe their nightmares. Then he enacts the next phase of tricking everyone into conforming as a Miraculized. Additionally, Marinette would conform Tikki and Plagg, the strongest and most sought out of the Kwamis, to become a new hero called Bug Noire.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Bug Noire's transformation gives her green eyes like Cat Noir, but with four, Ladybug-like spots around the iris.
- False Flag Operation: Operation Perfect Alliance revolves around the population being plagued by nightmares created by Nightormentor, allowing Gabriel and Tomoe to come in with their "heroic" program that soothes the pain, which also subconsciously makes the user pliant for when Gabriel needs them to be "Miraculized" into his own personal army. Nobody cottons on that this is all Monarch's doing until Alya makes the connection.
- Foreshadowing: Before losing consciousness, Nathalie warns Ladybug to cancel her transformation. Moments later, Perfect Alliance enters its second phase and Ladybug is attacked by the Miraculized after they detected her.
- Follow the Chaos: Plagg sees the Miraculized heading into Gabriel's home and correctly deduces that Ladybug must be where all the villains are going.
- Fusion Dance: Marinette fuses the main two Miraculous to become Bug Noire.
- Gaining the Will to Kill: Nathalie is terrified enough by her nightmare that she makes a last-ditch attempt to kill Gabriel while she still can.
- Godzilla Threshold: Terrified as a result of her nightmare of Monarch destroying the world with the Miraculous, Nathalie tries to kill Gabriel to stop his plans. But he's quicker on the draw with his powers than she is with her crossbow, disarming her as her body begins to fail.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Gabriel's Magical Charm and his Cataclysm wound allow Tomoe to isolate Ladybug and Cat Noir's quantum signatures, giving his Miraculized army the ability to track them.
- Internal Reveal: Marinette finally learns that Gabriel is Monarch and Nathalie was Mayura. Gabriel, meanwhile, learns that Marinette is Ladybug.
- Impairment Shot: Nathalie's vision goes dark after Monarch knocks the crossbow from her hands.
- I've Come Too Far: Gabriel tells the unconscious Emilie that he’s sacrificed his friendships and his morals all in order to bring her back, and that he intends to claim the Miraculous by the end of the day.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Marinette dreams herself as a Ladybug-styled knight rescuing Adrien from a dragon.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Adrien knows that he won't be any help in his current emotional state, so he stays in his room and sends Plagg back to Paris with his Miraculous.
- Malevolent Masked Men: And women. The Miraculized all wear white masks with circles in the center and are Brainwashed and Crazy villains bent on hunting down Ladybug and Cat Noir.
- Never Say "Die": Nathalie stops just short of telling Ladybug that she (Nathalie) will soon die during her final conversation with her. Ladybug still seems to get the hint.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Marinette might not have been so driven to break into Gabriel's home as Ladybug, thus setting her up to learn the truth about him, had he not amplified her nightmares as Nightormentor and made her even more concerned for Adrien's well-being.
- Nightmare Sequence: Marinette has one that starts out pleasant, with herself as a Knight in Shining Armor saving Adrien from a dragon. However, after she de-Akumatizes the dragon, who turns to be Gabriel Agreste, she stumbles and accidentally stabs him with her sword and causes him to vanish, much to both her and Adrien's horror.
- Only Sane Man:
- Even while suffering from the nightmares, Myléne can tell that Perfect Alliance is just a corporate conspiracy of some kind and refuses to wear it.
- Alya is the first to realise that the Perfect Alliance image of the heroes kidnapping Adrien and Kagami is a fake, since the pair would never do that.
- Pet the Dog: From all appearances, the version of the antidote Adrien and Kagami receive is an actual treatment for nightmares, with the pair not being subjected to the Miraculized part of the process.
- Poison and Cure Gambit: Gabriel poisons the world with Nightormentor's fear gas, then he and Tomoe release the antidote in the form of Perfect Alliance, which shows calming images of Adrien and Kagami. As it only works as long as it's being used, the next part of the plan is to take it away, claiming Adrien and Kagami were kidnapped by Ladybug and Cat Noir, so the users will transform themselves into an army to hunt the heroes down.
- Power Makes Your Hair Grow: Bug Noire's transformation not only includes the long ponytail from her Lady Noire transformation, but also grows out her twintails to braids about half the length of the main one.
- Properly Paranoid:
- Alya’s nightmare is that Monarch will figure out her connection to Ladybug and use that to try and discover her identity, which has happened before.
- Even though Plagg is undetectable to technology, Adrien is aware that Gabriel can still hear his half of the conversation, and even if he could transform covertly, it would be suspicious if he vanished from a locked room. Plagg disables the cameras, but the service robot is still present. Adrien dials up the volume on his Alliance Ring and uses it to blind the camera on the robot so Gabriel won't be able to see or hear him, then has Plagg take his Miraculous to Ladybug.
- Rescue Romance: Marinette has a dream where she's a Ladybug-themed Knight in Shining Armor saving her boyfriend Adrien from his father Gabriel, who has been Akumatized into a dragon. However, it soon turns into a nightmare when she accidentally stabs Gabriel with her sword after de-Akumatizing him, causing him to vanish.
- Second Super-Identity: Barely averted in Alya's case. Alya refuses the Black Cat Miraculous on the grounds that she knows Ladybug's secret identity and might be vulnerable to akumatization, the same fear that made Adrien send away Plagg in the first place.
- Series Continuity Error: Gabriel uses the Magical Charm given to him by Ladybug to acquire her quantum signature. Problem is, he destroyed his first Magical Charm when testing his improved megakumas back in season 4's "Dearest Family", and Ladybug never gave him another (onscreen, at least).
- Super Mode: When cornered by Monarch, and with no other options, Marinette fuses Tikki and Plagg together to become Bug Noire, wielding both the powers of Creation and Destruction at once. In tandem with overcoming the five-minute limit in "Revolution", this means she is going into the final rumble at maximum strength.
- We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future: Gabriel and Tsurugi-san’s plan revolves around sending holographic images of Adrien and Kagami doing whatever their specific target is interested in to everyone and then having holograms of the heroes come in to kidnap the pair for upstaging them in the hero business. Only Alya questions its veracity, with even Nadia taking it at face value.
- With Us or Against Us: Gabriel's ultimate plan is to forcibly transform all of humanity into Miraculized zombies with the single-minded motivation of capturing Ladybug and Cat Noir. Anyone who tries to get in their way will be labeled as a Miraculous ally that must be neutralized.
- Worf Had the Flu: Previously, Nathalie was able to physically manhandle Gabriel early in the season. But her affliction has reached its final stages during her attempt to kill Gabriel with a crossbow, with Gabriel quicker on the draw with his powers as he quickly disarmed her as her body begins to fail on her.
- Zerg Rush: The Miraculized army comprises what has to be a significant portion of all Alliance users, a number likely measured in millions at least given worldwide distribution. So many Miraculized attack Ladybug that she barely gets a moment's rest as they portal in en masse.
