Recap / Miraculous Ladybug SP01 - "Miraculous World: New York"

Miraculous World: New York - United HeroeZ is a Miraculous Ladybug special first broadcast on 25th September 2020.

In order for the class to celebrate the friendship between France and the United States, Marinette's class is traveling to New York. However, Adrien's father refuses to let him go. In anticipation of her departure, Ladybug asks Cat Noir to watch over Paris but does not specify the reasons for her absence. Cat Noir takes the mission very seriously until Gabriel sees a video of a necklace worn by Marquis de Lafayette and realizes it is a lost Miraculous: the Eagle Miraculous. He permits Adrien to go on the trip so he can accompany them and take it for himself, and Adrien leaves Paris to accompany his friends.

During the flight over, the plane is attacked by the American supervillain Techno Pirate, but they are rescued by American superheroes Majestia, Knightowl, Uncanny Valley, and Sparrow. The group lands in New York and attends a party hosted by some students from Queens. The next day, the French students visit a museum, covertly observed by Uncanny and Sparrow in their civilian identities of Aeon and Jess. However, Hawk Moth akumatizes Techno Pirate and sends the newly-dubbed Techlonizer to steal Marquis de la Fayette's sword. Uncanny, Sparrow, Ladybug, and Cat Noir attempt to subdue him, but Cat accidentally kills Uncanny with an errant Cataclysm. Ladybug is able to revive her, but an angered Knightowl suspends Sparrow for disobeying her and demands the French heroes surrender their Miraculouses. The two flee into the sewers, where a broken Cat Noir renounces the Cat Miraculous as penance.

Meanwhile, Hawk Moth's plan was a success: While the heroes were busy fighting Techlonizer, he was able to walk in and steal the Eagle Miraculous unopposed. He again akumatizes Techno Pirate and gives him the Eagle Miraculous on top of that. Techlonizer, now Miraclonizer, uses the Miraculous's Liberation ability to free the American heroes from their ethical constraints, sending them on a rampage. Uncanny recruits Ladybug and returns the Cat Miraculous to Adrien, and together with Sparrow the four defeat Miraclonizer and reclaim the Eagle Miraculous. Leaving the Eagle Miraculous in Sparrow's hands, the French heroes return home to Paris while Hawk Moth realizes there are more lost Miraculouses he can travel the world to claim. Meanwhile, Uncanny Valley and Sparrow — now Eagle — are approached by a Guardian who demands that they return the Eagle Miraculous to him, but Eagle convinces him to help them protect New York.

Tropes in this special include:

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• 10-Minute Retirement: Out of guilt over leaving Paris to the mercy of a sentimonster and accidentally killing Uncanny Valley, Adrien renounces the Cat Miraculous. Fortunately, Uncanny is able to convince him to return in time to save New York.
• Accidental Murder: Cat Noir accidentally kills Uncanny when Techlonizer throws him at Ladybug and Uncanny takes the Cataclysm for her. Fortunately, Ladybug is able to revive her with Miraculous Ladybug.
• Action Prologue: The special starts off in the middle of a fight between Ladybug/Cat Noir and Mr. Pigeon. Since Mr. Pigeon is taking the Eiffel Tower into space, Ladybug and Cat Noir power up into Cosmo Bug and Astro Cat, which gives them fully sealed suits and flight capabilities.
• Affirmative-Action Legacy: The original Knightowl and Sparrow were white men. Their replacements include a black man, a lesbian and a Native American girl.
• Alone Among the Couples: On her way to the restroom of the plane, Marinette is depressed by the sight of her classmates (Nino and Alya, Ivan and Mylène, Rose and Juleka) sleeping in each other's arms.
• And the Adventure Continues: The episode ends with Eagle and Uncanny Valley about to ambush a group of criminals in an alleyway before a man — a Guardian with his own Miracle Box — appears and demands for the Eagle Miraculous to be returned. Eagle proposes that instead he should help start a new generation of heroes in New York. The man seems genuinely intrigued by the idea.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Marinette follows the car that takes Adrien back home, but can't catch it. She tearfully confesses "I love you", but he cannot hear her.
• Artificial Family Member: Majestia created the gynoid superhero Uncanny Valley and she's protective of her in the field. Uncanny Valley for her part refers to Majestia as her mother.
• Batman Gambit: Ladybug exploits Doorman's curiosity to get him to teleport to her location and from there to the Statue of Liberty.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Marquis de La Fayette is revealed to be a former Miraculous wielder, and his Miraculous passed through George Washington's hands.
• Big Applesauce: The main characters visit America, and naturally the city of choice is the Big Apple.
• Big "NO!":
  • Marinette does this at the prospect of Adrien staying in Paris with Lila, then quickly covers by saying that he should come because he participated in the project.
  • Majestia shouts this when Uncanny is hit by Cat Noir's Cataclysm, then punches Techlonizer through several buildings for causing the collision.
• Call-Back: During the dance, Adrien recalls last time he danced with Marinette, at Chloé's birthday party. They're even dancing to the same song thanks to Alya and Jess' assistance.
• The Cameo: Animated versions of Alex Hirsch and Dana Terrace appear during the rooftop party.
• Captain Ersatz: Majestia and Knightowl are obvious knockoffs of Superman and Batman, with Sparrow even being Knightowl's Robin (including the parent-child motif). Knightowl also shares a first name with a Batgirl and a sexuality with a Batwoman. Sparrow's name, Jess, is similar enough to Jason, as in Jason Todd. When Sparrow gains the Eagle Miraculous, she is renamed Eagle, a nod to the first Robin becoming Nightwing. Uncanny Valley is an android with a Third Eye, kinda like Vision from the Avengers. With her shield and Captain Patriotic costume, Victory looks a lot like Captain America. Bonus points for all five being genderflipped versions of the comic heroes. After akumatizing, Techlonizer shares some similarity with Doctor Octopus, particularly his Post-One More Day version.
• Captain Obvious: Invoked by name, Sparrow comments that Uncanny sounds like Captain Obvious when she sees fit to inform "him" of what's happening right before "his" eyes.
• Cast as a Mask: Imari Williams and Scott Whyte voice Knight Owl and Sparrow in disguise, to preserve the Samus Is a Girl reveal within the special.
• Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: It is at this point that Marinette has resigned herself that she will never go beyond Just Friends with Adrien, so she has decided to try giving up her pursuit of him. As they begin their vacation, her friends (and even the environment, it seems) are still conspiring to push them together. Since Marinette is still infatuated with him in spite of her claims, she is on the verge of several panic attacks by the time their plane takes off.
• Continuity Nod:
  • "Timetagger" featured the 24th (and later 25th) defeat of Mr. Pigeon. The beginning of this movie features the 51st.
  • Nathalie's health has deteriorated after using the broken Peacock Miraculous, leaving her bedridden but not in a coma like Emilie. Now that it's been repaired, she is able to become Mayura and create a sentimonster as part of Hawk Moth's plan without further risk to herself.
  • Mr. Damocles dresses up as the Owl to try to impress the United Heroez, but disappointedly changes back when they leave before he's done.
  • Majestia's quote that all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is good people doing nothing, which was previously mentioned in the Origins episodes, is brought up by Aeon.
  • Plagg reminds Adrien that kwamis can't be captured or noticed by technology. This is to explain why Uncanny can't see him.
  • The Guardian who shows up at the end presumably came from the temple that was restored after Feast was defeated.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: During the first fight with Techno Pirate, Majestia is busy stabilizing the plane and leaves him to Knightowl. During the second fight, when she's not so restricted and he effectively caused the death of her daughter, she takes him down in seconds.
• Disappointed by the Motive: When Techclonizer is first akumatized, he is initially confused by Hawk Moth's request that he steal an antique sword and suggests stealing something more valuable or dangerous. Since Hawk Moth is doing it as a distraction, he just reiterates his demand and Techlonizer rolls with it.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Jessie and Aeon are looked down on by Majestia and Knightowl for being less capable as heroes due to their youth.
• Eagleland: Type 1. The French main characters visit America and have a great time in the land of opportunity, one of the most prominent American characters predominantly wears red, white, and blue, and the central Miraculous of the episode represents the American national bird and the American ideals of liberty and freedom.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Some of the locations in New York, like the graffiti wall, were developed for Ghost Force first.
  • The Tag shows Cash, who is a prominent character in Miraculous World Shanghai.
• Felony Misdemeanor: After Miraclonizer releases Knightowl from her own code of ethics, she's seen knocking on an apartment door to arrest two individuals inside it for the crimes of not recycling their cans and failing to return their library book.
• Flowers of Romance: A subversion here, as while Cat Noir has tried to give Ladybug these in the past, here he gives her a yellow rose meant to symbolize their friendship.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • In the intro, glowing dots that presumably represent the locations of Miracle Boxes include Paris, New York City, Greece, Scandinavia, Novaya Zemlya, the Middle East or Egypt, India (seems to be Mumbai or Bangalore), Central Asia, Australia (possibly Darwin), and somewhere in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Somalia (possibly Socotra or Victoria, Seychelles).
  • Likewise, the animals shown with the New York City Miracle Box appear to include the sparrow, owl, snake, and other undiscernible animals.
  • The plates of the self-driving car Gabriel/Hawk Moth uses to get around New York read "TSURUG-1".
• Freudian Slippery Slope: Marinette can't so much as mention Adrien without accidentally referring to them as a couple in one way or another.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Techno Pirate is effectively just a powerful henchman for Hawk Moth. This is because he's the first Villain of the Week who was already a supervillain before becoming akumatized so there isn't really much to say about him other than that he steals technology.
• Glamour:
  • Uncanny has a holographic disguise that makes her look human.
  • Uncanny mentions that Ladybug and Cat Noir have "quantum masking" from the magic of the Miraculous, which explains why people have trouble recognizing them as Marinette and Adrien. Since this only works on humans, Uncanny can recognize them easily.
• Good Powers, Bad People: Not unlike Hawk Moth, Miraclonizer wields heroic power and twists it to evil usage. It's hard to imagine how power to remove one's restrictions and help them gain their full potential could be evil... unless the targets are superheroes and their only restriction is their sense of morality.
• Gray Rain of Depression: It's raining when Adrien is leaving for France. He doesn't want to and Marinette neither. She tries to call him to make him stay but her phone battery is dead. She then decides to catch his car with a bike she just found, but the rain water makes the poor girl slip. The car disappears and Adrien doesn't hear Marinette saying "I love you".
• He's Back!: Learning from Uncanny that Ladybug can't work without him is more than enough to bring Adrien back to action.
• Hurl It into the Sun: Once Majestia regains her sanity, she easily takes care of the nuke the villains launched in this manner.
• I Am a Monster: Cat Noir feels awful due to leaving Paris defenseless and accidentally using his Cataclysm on Uncanny. It's enough for him to put away the ring, but fortunately, Uncanny is able to convince him to come back.
• I Like Those Odds: Sparrow dryly jokes this:
  Sparrow: Okay, on one side there's me, my basic training, and zero weapons. On the other side, an army of superpoweful heroes gone insane. (sees Majestia attempting to move the moon) Sounds evenly matched.
• Instant Costume Change: All the American heroes wear bracelets that allow them to switch from their civilian to superhero outfits in an instant. In the case of Uncanny Valley, it instead masks her obviously robotic appearance with a human guise which she removes to fight crime.
• Invocation: The Eagle Miraculous:
  Good invocation: Liiri, Wings of Liberty!
  Evil invocation: Liiri, Wings of Prey!
• I Surrender, Suckers: Miraclonizer pretends to surrender so he can draw in as many heroes as possible, then uses the Liberation power of his Miraculous to unleash their worst traits and turn them against the city.
• It's Up to You: The United Heroez are driven insane by Miraclonizer, so the only ones who can save the day are their sidekicks and the visiting champions of Paris.
• Just Whistle: Ladybug leaves Cat Noir a remote for a little black cat toy that shakes and meows when the button is pressed. If he needs her to return to Paris, he can simply press it to alert her.
• Lampshade Hanging: Nino and Alya hang a lampshade on the root of their BFFs romantic troubles when they witness yet another emotional moment between Marinette and Adrien ruined by his obliviousness and her devolving into gibberish when talking to him.
  Alya: I can't decide whether they're the cutest people I know or the most embarassing.
  Nino: Yup. I love Adrien, but he's like a baby chick that just started cracking out of his egg. He has a hard time understanding the signals people send him.
  Alya: What signals? Marinette isn't exactly sending them clearly.
• Legacy Character: The identities of Knightowl and Sparrow date back to at least The Wild West, with each Sparrow becoming the new Knightowl upon their predecessor's retirement and recruiting a Sparrow of their own.
• Legacy Immortality: Knightowl and Sparrow maintain the lie that the original Knightowl and Sparrow were never replaced despite being the fifth iteration of the duo. They would easily be over 150 years old if they were actually the originals.
• Living Emotional Crutch: This episode shows that Cat Noir is this to Ladybug; when he enters his 10-Minute Retirement, she's absolutely devastated. She doesn't even picture herself as Ladybug anymore if Cat Noir isn't around.
• Loss of Inhibitions: The special power of the Eagle Miraculous, "Liberation", allows the user to remove specific inhibitions from their target. Used heroically, this can help people to become their best selves. Used for evil, it can remove moral or ethical restraints, turning good people into maniacs.
• Love Floats: Marinette and Adrien share a magic hotdog, and become weightless. They start to slow-dance in mid-air in front of the full moon. Alya even says next morning that it was romantic.
• MacGuffin: The Eagle Miraculous.
• Mundane Fantastic: Many of the superheroes in New York don't bother keeping their civilian identities a secret, and nobody cares; it's just normal for them. The main exceptions are Knightowl and Sparrow, but that's more to hide the fact that the originals are long dead than to keep their own identities secret.
• Mundane Utility: Less mundane usage of powers and more of heroes themselves. According to Alya, New York has heroes for everything, including directing traffic.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Techlonizer gains four robotic arms to make up for the fact that he's handcuffed.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Adrien has this reaction to accidentally killing Uncanny Valley and blames himself for the damage in Paris caused by the Robostus Sentimonster. Because of his guilt about these events, he considers himself unworthy of being Cat Noir and briefly gives up his Miraculous.
• Namedar: Uncanny somehow correctly refers to Miraclonizer by name even though the only time his name was said before this was during one of Hawk Moth's telepathic messages to him. Unless she can pick up his telepathy like a radio signal or has a literal namedar in her somewhere, she shouldn't have known it.
• Never My Fault: A recurring theme with Marinette in the special is that she can't perceive her lack of initiative with Adrien as her fault. Alya even calls her out for that. At same time, while she's depressed about Cat Noir giving up his powers, she considers that as his own decision, as if her harsh words weren't part of that.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Marinette unknowingly gives Gabriel the perfect excuse to scout the new Miraculous in New York and Plagg convinces Adrien to actually attend the trip. And, of course, Adrien himself doesn't make the wisest decision. It doesn't end well for any hero in the long term.
  • While she was justified in what she said, Ladybug's harsh words to Cat Noir during a fight cause him to lower his guard at the worst possible moment and leads into Uncanny's temporary death. These facts combined, it's more than enough to make him resign from his hero duties.
  • It doesn't come up with Uncanny Valley's death already occupying the scene's attention, but Majestia punching Techlonizer through multiple buildings shouldn't strike anyone as having been a particularly safe way to handle him.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Before Adrien learns he'll be allowed to go to New York with his classmates, Kagami suggests he use the extra time to improve his fencing since defeating him is so easy she can't enjoy it.
• No Tech but High Tech: Techlonizer averts this: the first piece of technology he steals and clones is a Revolutionary War cannon.
• Not So Above It All: Jess is initially dismissive of Aeon's Shipper on Deck antics towards Marinette and Adrien, but once she decides to get involved she gleefully comes up with a convoluted plan to push the two of them together.
  Aeon: For someone who didn't want me to meddle with other people's lives, you seem deeply involved.
  Jess: (excited) This is more fun than babysitting socks!
• Power-Up Food:
  • Hot Dog Dan's magic hot dogs, though what you get from them varies in usefulness.
  • At the beginning of the movie, Ladybug and Cat Noir change into their Astro forms by eating their power-up macaroons/cheese themselves while transformed rather than feeding it to their kwamis before transforming.
• Race for Your Love: Subverted. Marinette doesn't want Adrien to leave for Paris, but is unable to catch his car.
• Reset Button: Averted with the destruction of Paris by the sentimonster. Because Ladybug wasn't there to create a Lucky Charm, she can't undo the damage the sentimonster caused before Mayura dispelled it.
• Samus Is a Girl: Knightowl and Sparrow use form-concealing costumes and voice changers in order to obfuscate the fact that they aren't the originals. Once Sparrow becomes Eagle, with a costume that makes her gender quite obvious, Knightowl decides it's time to give up the act and implies she's going to give up her own bulky suit for something more form-fitting as well.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Jess is reluctant to disobey orders after Miraclonizer drives the other heroes insane, but Aeon points out that part of being a human is knowing when to bend the rules.
• Scylla and Charybdis: Adrien is essentially left in a no-win situation: Marinette manages to "convince" Gabriel to let him go to New York, but Ladybug has already asked Cat Noir to protect the city in her absence. With his dad demanding he go, Adrien has no choice but to leave the city unprotected. Since he doesn't want to disappoint Ladybug by having to bail on his promise right after assuring her he could take care of things, he reasons that he can simply use his Astro form to fly back if there's an akuma sighting, after which he can call her in. Ladybug is understandably beyond angry when he's forced to reveal himself, but Cat Noir can't explain himself without revealing his secret identity.
• Secret-Keeper: Subverted. While Uncanny was able to learn of Ladybug and Cat Noir's true identities, she assures the heroes that she'll erase that information from her memory so their identities can be kept a secret.
• Sequel Hook: At the end, Uncanny and Eagle run into a Guardian, who wants the Eagle Miraculous back, but the two convince him to stick around and start a new superhero team with his Miraculous. Additionally, Hawk Moth notes that the Eagle Necklace being lost in the world means that there are probably other lost Miraculouses scattered about for him to grab.
• Shipper on Deck: Alya and Nino continue trying to hook Marinette and Adrien up with each other, even though the two are seeing Luka and Kagami respectively now. Jess and Aeon also notice pretty much immediately, and join in on the fun because they have nothing better to do.
• Ship Tease: Sabrina and an American boy named Delmar have this.
• Shout-Out:
  • In the Action Prologue, Mr. Pigeon declares that in space, no one can hear you coo.
  • When a hot-dog-themed superhero is about to land his flying machine next to the students, Marinette asks if it's a bird and Adrien asks if it's a plane.
  • One of the magic hot-dogs gives Sabrina long Rapunzel-like hair.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Lila offers to keep Adrien company during the week while their classmates. The thought of Lila having Adrien for herself during that time is unbearable for Marinette and makes her determined to stand up for Adrien and convince his father to let him go. Since it fits to his plans, Gabriel agrees.
• Something We Forgot: The Gorilla's last scene in the special shows that while Adrien was forced to go back to Paris, the former is still in New York, listening to the comforting track he put on during the flight.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: As befitting the genre, the American superheroes and supervillain have this.
  • Techno Pirate's real name is Mike Rochip (microchip).
  • Majestia's real name is Olympia Hill, a play on Mount Olympus where the Greek gods lived.
  • Doorman's real name is Dean Gate.
• Superhero Capital of the World: Unlike Paris, New York is swamped with superheroes, many of which taking mundane jobs out in the open when their powers aren't called for hero-based emergencies.
• Superhero Episode: Though technically a superhero show anyway, this episode focuses on standard American DC style superheroes instead of just Magical Girls.
• Taking the Bullet: Cat Noir activates his Cataclysm, but Techlonizer grabs him and throws him at Ladybug, only for Uncanny to jump in the way. While fortunately reversed by Ladybug this does result in trauma for Majestia and Cat Noir.
• Transformation Trinket: All of the American heroes wear bracelets that change them into their costumes and back into their civilian clothes at the push of a button (or in Uncanny's case, activates/deactivates her holographic human disguise).
• The Unfettered: The power of the Eagle Miraculous is Freedom, removing whatever restraints are holding people back from their potential. Miraclonizer twists this to remove all the adult heroes' ethical restraints, making them run wild. For example, Majestia no longer cares that her world is made of cardboard and decides to test the full limits of her powers, destroying everything and even trying to Colony Drop the Moon onto the Earth; Knightowl abandons "his" moral code and adopts an All Crimes Are Equal policy, blowing up cars for sloppy parking and threatening to throw people in jail for not recycling; and a super-speedy hero... relaxes in a comfy chair.
• The Un-Reveal: Much is made of a safe in the Statue of Liberty whose key is in the Eiffel Tower. Ladybug and Cat Noir bait Doorman with this to get inside the Statue, and even get their hands on the key, but they never open the safe itself. Doorman's shouting out to be at least shown what's inside the safe is palpable.
• Villain Team-Up: Local American supervillain Techno Pirate teams up with French supervillain Hawk Moth. Techno wants revenge on the American heroes, while Hawk Moth desires the Eagle Miraculous. Once he acquires it he gifts the Miraculous to Techno in order to sow discord among the Heroes, while he remains safe in his hotel room.
• We Need a Distraction: Hawk Moth akumatizes Techno Pirate and orders him to steal Marquis de Lafayette's sword. While everyone is busy fighting him after the theft, Hawk Moth strolls in and takes the Eagle Miraculous uncontested. He also has Mayura create a sentimonster in Paris while this happens to distract Ladybug and Cat Noir, not realizing that they are also in New York.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: Techno Pirate keeps waking up confused as to where he's been, since being akumatized wipes his memory each time it's dispelled.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Ladybug and Cat Noir never bother explaining to each other what they were doing in New York.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: New York has a superhero for every application you can think of. There's one with the power to direct traffic, and another one with the power to make magic hot dogs. The latter is said to have two sidekicks themed after ketchup and mustard.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Ladybug goes off on Cat Noir for abandoning Paris seemingly on a whim, since he can't explain why he left without revealing his identity. This and using Cataclysm on Uncanny by mistake are what cause Adrien to briefly renounce being Cat Noir.
  • Knightowl lays it on both Ladybug and Cat Noir for "allowing" Uncanny Valley to die.
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: Gabriel already plans to allow Adrien to go to New York, but Marinette is so determined to convince him that it takes him a couple tries to tell her as much.
• Xanatos Gambit: In his entire stay in New York, Hawk Moth does not once curse his defeat. He was still able to procure the Eagle Miraculous even though Techlonizer was defeated the first time. When Miraclonizer is defeated and he loses the Eagle Miraculous, he walks away pleased to have discovered that there are more lost Miraculouses around the world than he can track down and try to take for himself.
• Zany Scheme: Jess and Aeon come up with a convoluted plan to get Marinette to confess her crush on Adrien by locking them in the same room and having Aeon create a hologram of a supervillain who targets people no one loves and having it attack Adrien, which would prompt Marinette to say she loves him. This gets interrupted by the arrival of Techlonizer.

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