Recap / Scarlet Lady S2 E6: Volpina

Episode 16 - Volpina - Tales of Lila the Liar/FOX

Mme. Bustier announces to her pupils that they have a new classmate: Lila Rossi. Introducing herself, Lila declares that she wants to become friends with everyone (while Adrien sleeps through the whole announcement, drooling over the table). After class, Lila starts regaling her new classmates with stories of all the people she's met—Jagged Stone, Prince Ali, Steven Spielberg... why, she's even best friends with Scarlet Lady! However, that last claim doesn't quite have the impact she expects, not that Lila notices. While some of her classmates are impressed, Marinette, Nino, and Alix are put off by it, having personally witnessed just how awful the Nominal Heroine of Paris is firsthand.

The next day, Adrien on his way to school when he overhears his father arguing with somebody on the phone. Following Gabriel back to his office, he sees that there's a secret safe hidden behind his mother's portrait! Once Gabriel leaves, Adrien eagerly investigates, curious to see just what's inside... and Plagg points out a book that looks particularly important, which Adrien decides to take.

At school, Chloé learns about Lila's claims from Sabrina, then spots the new girl dragging Adrien into the library. Adrien just wants to check out the book he found, but Lila takes it from him without permission. Chloé pops in to confront her; while the girls trade barbs, Adrien leaves, agreeing to meet up with Lila later... not realizing that she'd just stolen the book in the confusion.

Storming out of the library, Chloé plans to follow the pair... but is shocked when Tikki actually agrees with her, albeit for the sake of getting Adrien's book, declaring Chloé needs to retrieve it. Meanwhile, Lila checks out the tome, finding that it details various Miraculous. Since Adrien is clearly interested in such things, she decides that she'll pass herself off as a Miraculous heroine in order to impress him.

But the gig's already up: Plagg warns Adrien that she stole the book, much to Adrien's displeasure. Meanwhile, Mme. Bustier asks Marinette to find Adrien and give him a packet.

Arriving at the park, Chloé hides near Lila... and witnesses her throwing the stolen book into the trash. Tikki tells her to grab it, but the blonde refuses to touch it; it's in the garbage, after all! Tikki has to try and take it out herself, despite her small size making that much more difficult.

When Adrien arrives, Lila spins him a tale of how she met Scarlet Lady when the heroine saved her life. They hit it off and became close friends. Oh, and not only that, she's a descendant of a former Fox hero, Volpina! Isn't that all just—

A total crock. Deciding enough is enough, Adrien calls her out, revealing that he already knows about her theft. Not only is it incredibly contrived that she just happens to be connected to a Miraculous hero, Scarlet Lady isn't the sort who goes out of her way to help anyone.

Speak of the devil, and she appears: Scarlet Lady shows up (preventing Tikki from getting the book in the process) and wastes no time in thoroughly humiliating Lila, calling her out on her lies and tossing her into a nearby fountain. Several of her classmates show up just in time to witness this, and Lila runs off, deeply embarrassed. Noticing that some of them seem a little put off by what they just saw, Scarlet Lady claims she only went that far in order to ensure that Hawk Moth wouldn't target Lila. Adrien takes advantage of her distraction to hurry away while Marinette notices the book by the garbage.

Naturally, Hawk Moth akumatizes Lila into Volpina, giving her the ability to craft illusions. Soon afterwards, Adrien sees a meteorite descending upon Paris—but have no fear! Volpina shows up and knocks it away, declaring that she's the only superheroine Paris needs! Chat Noir sighs. Just what he doesn't need: another egomaniac.

Scarlet Lady confronts Volpina, who points out that Hawk Moth is apparently on a nearby roof. The two clash, arguing over who should lead them to victory while Chat Noir suspects that something is seriously amiss. Slipping away, he detransforms, seeing that he missed a call from Marinette. He calls her back, and she explains about the homework he missed... and that she found something in the park that she thinks he might be interested in.

Meanwhile, Volpina reveals her true colors by flooding the sky with missiles, threatening to collapse a nearby building unless Scarlet Lady hands over her earrings. But Scarlet Lady refuses—after all, her Miraculous Cure can repair and reverse any damage Volpina does, so why should she care about any of it? Even if others die, the Cure can just bring them back... so why try preventing their deaths in the first place?

Volpina is appalled, realizing that the so-called "protector of Paris" is actually more villainous than her! Taking advantage of her hesitation, Scarlet Lady tries to tie her up with her yo-yo—but both Volpina and the missiles turn out to be illusions. Scarlet Lady decides to head for the Agreste Manor, unaware that Marinette has gotten there ahead of her, bringing him the book she found... and the news that she found it in the trash.

That's when Volpina arrives, followed by Scarlet Lady. While the two superpowered girls glare each other down, Adrien asks them to leave, ducking into his bathroom so he can secretly transform before circling round the house to enter through the window. Outnumbered, Volpina creates a multitude of illusions to distract the heroes, then seemingly abducts Adrien... much to Chat Noir's annoyance.

Dragging her illusionary Adrien to the Eiffel Tower, Volpina once again demands that the heroes hand over their Miraculous, or else! But Scarlet Lady once again refuses: even if her beloved Adrien dies, she can just bring him back, and an irked Chat Noir dispels the illusion with his baton.

As Volpina creates another crowd of duplicates, Scarlet Lady summons her Lucky Charm: an ice cream bar. Rather than figure out how to use it, she decides to open it up in order to use the reflective inside of the wrapper to work on her tan. The glinting sunlight reflected off the wrapper winds up distracting and blinding the real Volpina, enabling Chat Noir to catch her and destroy her akumatized object. Scarlet Lady insults Lila again, but Lila fires back, calling her a weirdo and declaring that her hatred of the Ladybug heroine.

After returning home, Adrien finds Scarlet Lady lurking at his window, clearly intent on crafting some kind of "romantic moment," to which he responds by activating the security blinds his father installed to shut her out. He then settles down to read the book, only to find that he can't understand its contents... but Plagg knows somebody who can read it: a Chinese man who owns a masseur parlor and greets Adrien as Chat Noir.

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This episode contains examples of the following:

• Accidental Hero: Scarlet Lady manages to identify the real Volpina among the illusions by reflecting the sunlight with the wrapper she was trying to use to tan herself, causing Volpina to shield her eyes from the glare.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Lila's grudge against the Ladybug heroine is much more understandable here. Ladybug might have outed her as a liar and embarrassed her in front of her crush, but Scarlet Lady goes out of her way to completely humiliate Lila, dunking her in a fountain in the middle of winter.
• Catch Your Death of Cold: After getting wet from being thrown into a fountain during winter, Lila ends up catching a cold.
• Celebrity Lie: Lila claims to have met plenty of famous people in her travels around the world... and that she's best friends with local hero Scarlet Lady. This backfires upon her in multiple ways.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Chloé just can't handle the idea of another girl being near her Adrikins.
• Create Your Own Villain: Once again, Chloé/Scarlet Lady causes another akumatization by targeting Lila. This also earns her Lila's ongoing enmity.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • The only thing Lila knows about Scarlet Lady when she arrives is that she's popular in Paris. She has no clue what the superheroine is actually like, or how she might react to somebody falsely claiming to be her bestie. Moreover, giving an interview about her alleged "friendship" on a popular blog would quickly result in the heroine finding out about Lila's Celebrity Lie and Lila becoming a Liar Revealed even if Scarlet Lady weren't an Alpha Bitch. Scarlet Lady also points out that making such claims might draw Hawk Moth's attention to her.
  • After stealing Adrien's book to learn why he's so interested in it, Lila decides to throw it away rather than find some way to discreetly return it, not considering what would happen if he checked his bag, noticed the book was missing, and figured out what she'd done. When she later spins her tale, Adrien points out how incredibly convenient it is that she just so happens to be related to some past Miraculous hero... and decided to reveal this information to him right after his book about the Miraculous mysteriously went missing.
    Caption: Hey babes, what was your plan if Adrien looked in his bag before your meet up?
• Disproportionate Retribution: Since Lila falsely claimed to be best friends with her to get close to Adrien, Scarlet Lady humiliates her in front of Adrien and many of their classmates by tossing Lila into a fountain—which is ice-cold due to it being the middle of winter.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Lila taunts Chloé about being jealous while bragging about being Scarlet Lady's friend... not knowing that Chloé is Scarlet Lady.
  • Adrien manages to figure out that the
• Enemy Mine: Defied. When Marinette reveals she hates Scarlet Lady, Volpina is visibly excited, but Marinette makes it abundantly clear that she hates Hawk Moth more before the akuma can even propose an alliance.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Hawk Moth agrees with Lila that Scarlet Lady is a terrible hero and very quickly finds Lila's akumatized form, Volpina, one of his favorites to date.
  • When Scarlet Lady tells Volpina she doesn't care if the latter destroys a building as she can bring everyone back from death, Volpina is visibly horrified. Volpina also asks what's wrong with Scarlet Lady when not even a threat to Adrien's life shakes her.
• Everyone Has Standards: Adrien angrily chews Lila out for stealing Gabriel's book from him and then using it to try and trick him into thinking she's a superhero. Nevertheless, he gets no joy from seeing Scarlet Lady throw Lila into a fountain immediately afterwards, even calling the heroine out on it. Alya does much the same, though she begrudgingly admits Scarlet is right that Lila had to be exposed to protect her from Hawk Moth.
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • Lila brags to the class about her alleged friendship with Scarlet Lady, not noticing how horrified Marinette, Nino, and Alix all look as they're standing right behind her. Alya, Rose, and Kim also don't notice.
  • Plagg misses the Peacock Miraculous in Gabriel's safe, even though he was right next to it.
  • Defied when Plagg informs Adrien the first chance he has that Lila stole the Grimoire.
• Fantastically Indifferent: When Nathalie asks Marinette where Adrien is, Marinette nonchalantly replies she should ask the akuma that just abducted him.
• Foil: Chloé/Scarlet Lady and Lila/Volpina. Both of them are entitled egomaniacs who want to be the focus of everyone's attention and claim to be friends with Scarlet Lady. They also each pursue a potential relationship with Adrien while failing to notice that he can barely stand either of them and that their selfish and self-centered behavior is only driving him further and further away. The main differences between them is that when they transform, Volpina's behavior is influenced by being akumatized while Scarlet Lady doesn't need Hawk Moth to bring out the absolute worst in her. Moreover, even as Volpina, Lila is horrified by just how little regard the supposed "heroine" shows for others.
• Foreshadowing: When Lila first declares that she's best friends with Scarlet Lady, Alya immediately snaps up her cell phone and starts recording. Later, when Scarlet publicly humiliates Lila in the park, she's among the witnesses. Compared to her peers, Alya's expression is more puzzled than sympathetic towards Lila's plight, and she accepts Scarlet's excuse with relative ease. It's later revealed she has a personal reason to be okay with how harshly Lila was dealt with: she posted Lila's lies on the Ladyblog.
• Get Out!: Adrien orders a quarreling Scarlet Lady and Volpina, along with Marinette, out of his room so he can turn back into Chat Noir.
• Hypocrite: Scarlet Lady sees Marinette in Adrien's room and angrily asks why she's always where she isn't wanted. This ignores both how Adrien had actually invited Marinette in while Chloé just barged into his room, as well how Chloé regularly invites herself to or makes Mme. Bustier force the class to include her in their activities.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Scarlet Lady claims that she humiliated Lila for Lila's own good because Hawk Moth might go after her if he thinks Lila really is friends with Scarlet Lady.
• I Have Your Wife: Crush (and secret childhood friend) in this case. Regardless, it fails to sway Scarlet Lady to hand over the Ladybug Miraculous.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Plagg is more alert due to the heavy burden Adrien is saddled with, but he still fails to notice the Peacock Brooch hidden inside Gabriel's wall safe.
  • Lila still lies about knowing the Ladybug hero, only this time, the claim doesn't endear her to everyone (it horrifies Marinette, Nino, and Alix) as Scarlet Lady is nowhere near as nice.
  • Adrien despises Scarlet Lady here, but due to Chloé butting in, Lila fails to pick up on this and remains under the belief that he has a soft spot for the Ladybug heroine. This leads to her stealing the book on the Miraculous, lying to Adrien about being rescued by the Ladybug heroine, and faking being the Fox heroine when meeting up with him at the park, all of which also happened in canon.
  • The holder of the Ladybug Miraculous still spies on Lila and Adrien, but it's Chloé instead of Marinette. Additionally, despite seeing Adrien realize on his own that Lila is a liar and then call her out on it, the Ladybug heroine still humiliates Lila in front of Adrien and subsequently causes her akumatization into Volpina, though Scarlet Lady responding with Disproportionate Retribution makes Lila's grudge far more understandable here.
  • Marinette ends up with the book in spite of not having followed Adrien and Lila to the park in this fic.
  • As he is a Dumbass No More, Chat Noir is immediately suspicious when "Hawk Moth" appears in front of him, Scarlet Lady, and Volpina and soon deduces that the villain's presence is Schmuck Bait. However, he still fails to realize that Volpina is an akuma and the one behind the trap. Likewise, Chat Noir still gets separated from the Ladybug heroine and Volpina due to the latter successfully fooling him into thinking she's a hero, but here, he leaves due to being sick of Scarlet Lady and Volpina's bickering.
  • Volpina still uses an illusion to make it appear she's taken Adrien hostage, though here, Scarlet Lady tells the akuma to just drop Adrien. Annoyed, Chat Noir throws his baton to dispel the illusion, just as he did in canon.
  • Master Fu still gets to see the Miraculous spellbook at the end, but it's Plagg who suggests the visit and Adrien who brings the book to him.
• Internal Reveal: Adrien finally meets Master Fu, who immediately reveals he knows Adrien's secret identity.
• It's All About Me: When Volpina threatens to throw Adrien (actually an illusion she's crafted) from the top of the Eiffel Tower, Scarlet Lady's reaction is to tell her to do it, believing she can twist it into a romantic moment—and calling Adrien's possible death "[her] sacrifice for the sake of the greater good."
• Kick the Dog: Even though Adrien had already seen through Lila's lies and called her out on it, Scarlet Lady still tosses Lila into a fountain, drenching her in the middle of winter.
• Master of Illusion: Volpina's power allows her to create incredibly realistic illusions. However, being illusions, they aren't tangible and can't actually do anything.
• Me's a Crowd: Volpina repeatedly uses her illusions to confuse the heroes this way, creating several copies of herself to confuse and distract the heroes.
• Mirror Character: Both Chloé and Lila latch onto Adrien, forcing their way into his personal space and ignoring all signs of his discomfort. Chloé also cheerfully abuses her powers as Scarlet to publicly humiliate Lila; in return, Lila accepts akumatization in order to get revenge and to gain glory as Volpina, aiming to show Scarlet Lady up as a superheroine.
• Never My Fault: Lila seems to blame the entire episode-long Humiliation Conga that she receives as being all Scarlet Lady's fault, ignoring her own screw-ups:
  • The beginning of her Humiliation Conga was entirely her own fault: she stole Adrien's father's book of her own volition and then threw it away to dispose of the evidence in an attempt to win Adrien over, failing to notice from his expression that he hates the heroine. Adrien Spot the Thread in her lies all on his own (with a little help from Plagg, not that she knows that) and angrily called her out on it before Scarlet Lady even showed up, with many of their classmates within hearing distance.
  • While Scarlet Lady's Disproportionate Retribution was unjustified, Lila was still the one who lied about being friends with the heroine in the first place. Plus, since she let her lies be posted on Alya's blog, even if Scarlet Lady weren't an Alpha Bitch, it was only a matter of time before Lila's Celebrity Lie got exposed. She also failed to research Scarlet Lady's actions and mentality before making her claim, which might have also led her to finding out that the heroine is a Stalker with a Crush to Adrien.
  • When Adrien throws her, Scarlet, and Marinette out of his room, Volpina and Scarlet Lady blame each other for their respective unwanted intrusions getting them kicked out... despite the fact that Marinette was only one who was invited into Adrien's room.
  • Once she returns to normal and is on the receiving end of a Breaking Speech by Scarlet Lady, Lila refuses the Ladybug heroine and Chat Noir's aid in getting down from the building they were on out of spite, thus not getting home and drying off in time to avoid catching a cold, something she blames Scarlet Lady for... which is right, given Scarlet Lady threw her into a fountain in the first place. Still, if she had swallowed her pride and asked Chat Noir for a lift, she might have gotten one and stuck it to Scarlet Lady who the better hero of Paris was.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Lila realizes she may have bitten more than she could chew when not only does Adrien reveal he's seen through her lies, but Scarlet Lady also shows up and entangles Lila with her yo-yo string.
  • Scarlet Lady when Volpina seemingly summons a bunch of missiles and aims them at the heroine.
• Painting the Medium: The subtitle has the last word crossed out and replaced with "FOX" in all caps and a different font.
• Pulling the Thread: While Adrien already knew Lila was up to no good, the moment she claims to be a descendant of the heroine Volpina, he begins to pull, pointing out how interesting it is that she "revealed" that secret right after his book went missing.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Scarlet Lady refuses to hand her Miraculous over to Volpina when the akuma threatens to fire multiple missiles at a building and again when Volpina holds Adrien hostage. While she made the right call in both cases (the missiles were an illusion, as was "Adrien" since the real Adrien had already transformed into Chat Noir), she didn't do it because she saw through the akuma's trick but because she simply didn't care that people would get hurt.
• Sarcasm Mode: The caption for the page where Lila claims Volpina is "Stronger and more famous than Scarlet Lady" reads, "Ah yes, more powerful and more famous which is why no one's heard of her."
• Schmuck Bait: Volpina tries to do this by creating an illusion of Hawk Moth. Chat Noir sees through it, although he doesn't realize it might be because Volpina is an akuma.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • When she realizes Chloé is going to carry out another stupid scheme, Sabrina leaves her to her own devices.
  • Lila runs away from the park after being humiliated by Scarlet Lady.
  • Adrien skedaddles out of the park right after Lila, not wanting to be near Scarlet Lady more than what's strictly necessary.
  • Chat Noir leaves Scarlet Lady and Volpina when they begin to grate on his nerves.
  • After Volpina seemingly kidnaps Adrien (really just an illusion of him), Marinette leaves rather than pursue the akuma with the heroes.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Adrien flees from the park to get away from Scarlet Lady, there's a caption reading, "Team Rocket blasting off again...in different directions...separately."
  • Lila's line, "Arrivederci, weirdo!" is a direct quote from The Most Popular Girls in School.
• The Sociopath: Chloé/Scarlet Lady continues to show she's this when she's unmoved by Volpina's threat to blow up a building, stating that when she wins, she'll just bring back the people that died using the Miraculous Cure, causing even Volpina to regard her as a monster.
• Something Only They Would Say: When Plagg tells Adrien that Lila stole the Grimoire, Adrien states that maybe that proves she really is friends with Scarlet Lady.
• Spanner in the Works: Lila encounters a few of these:
  • Lila steals Gabriel's book from Adrien, hoping to use it to make her story that she's a superhero seem more believable, then throws it away once she's done with it. Her plan is derailed due to Plagg telling Adrien she stole the book. Additionally, Marinette later just happens to find the book while passing through the park and decides to show it to Adrien, making him realize that only did Lila steal from him, she threw his father's book away instead of trying to discretely return it, thus cementing his dislike of her.
  • Adrien tells Lila that even discounting the Contrived Coincidence of her divulging that she's secretly a superhero right after he noticed Gabriel's book was missing from his bag, he knew right away she was lying about being saved by Scarlet Lady; the Ladybug heroine being a Nominal Hero and constantly pushing all the work onto Chat Noir was all it took for Lila's claims to fall apart.
  • Volpina's attempt to hide amongst copies of herself fails due to Scarlet Lady attempting to work on her tan using a fudge bar wrapper. The Ladybug heroine accidentally reflecting the sunlight toward the akuma forces Volpina to shield her eyes, thus allowing Chat Noir to determine the real one.
• Speak of the Devil: Lampshaded by Adrien when Scarlet Lady shows up while he's arguing with Lila.
  Adrien: Dammit, we said her name too many times.
• Spotting the Thread: While Adrien was immediately suspicious when Lila claimed to have inherited a Miraculous at the same time his father's book went missing, the real clincher for him was when she claimed that Scarlet Lady saved her life once since he knows that Scarlet Lady would never go out of her way to save another person.
• Sustained Misunderstanding: Due to Chloé intruding on the conversation, Lila persists in believing that Adrien likes Scarlet Lady.
• Terrified of Germs: Not so much terrified as disgusted, as Chloé doesn't want to touch the Grimoire because Lila threw it into the trash.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Instead of being impressed by Volpina's flashy entrance, Chat Noir groans at the prospect of having to deal with two Attention Whores as fellow "heroes."
• Wham Episode: Adrien finds the Grimoire and meets Master Fu.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Scarlet Lady is called out by Adrien for throwing Lila into a fountain and also questioned about it by Alya. She resorts to an I Did What I Had to Do excuse, claiming that publicly outing Lila as not being her BFF would protect her from Hawk Moth.
  • Volpina's utterly taken aback when Scarlet blows off her threat to destroy a building, casually stating that she'll just bring everyone inside back after winning. The faux fox recoils in disgust, declaring to the Evil Heroine, "You really are a villain!" She does this again when Scarlet blows off her threat to drop an illusion of Adrien to their death, saying that she'll either catch them or bring them back afterwards.

    Scarlet Lady: [with a wicked grin] Do it.
    Volpina: Gawd, what is wrong with you?!

• You Can Keep Him!: Scarlet Lady isn't particularly worried when Volpina tries to hold a building hostage in exchange for the earrings; the Miraculous Cure will just bring everyone back later, after all. When Volpina later attempts the same ploy with Adrien, Scarlet straight up tells the akuma to drop him, thinking he'll surely understand her "sacrifice".
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Chat Noir's reaction when Volpina "kidnaps" Adrien.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: When Marinette states her hatred of Scarlet Lady, Volpina grabs her hand and sparkles with joy. Marinette is not amused, saying that she hates Hawk Moth more.

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