Episode 29
- Guitar Villain - Tales of Jagged Stone the Rock Star
Jagged Stone finishes playing a song for Penny and Bob Roth, suggesting that it would be perfect for his upcoming album. Bob claims it'd be better for the rockstar to have a duet with XY; when Jagged Stone refuses, declaring he's not going to sing alongside someone who doesn't even shave yet, Bob retorts that XY is currently topping the sales charts. Penny points out that the two of them don't even share the same music genre, but Bob dismissively declares that it's perfectly doable, provided that Jagged Stone changes everything about himself and conforms to XY's style. Jagged Stone bluntly tells his producer to "F@$# off."
Bob also intends to "modernize" Jagged's style, presenting mock-up ideas for the album's cover. But Jagged Stone rejects them, declaring they remind him of perfume ads. Penny then reveals that she and Jagged want to commission Marinette to design the cover instead. Bob angrily declares that they can't seriously want a collége student to take the job but backs down when Fang starts growling, beating a hasty retreat while asking the rockstar to at least consider the duet.
Nathalie informs Adrien that Chloé has requested his presence for a "surprise." While he tries to get out of it by claiming he needs to review his Chinese, Nathalie pointedly remarks that he's always asking to spend more time with his friends and questions why he's refusing now. Besides, his father has already accepted on his behalf, so it's a moot point.
As Chloé gloats about how her Adrichou has been secured, Tikki asks why she called him. Chloé explains that she wants to introduce him to Jagged Stone, citing Rule of the Bourgeois No. 148: "Have a best friend to pamper" (preferably somebody who's rich). However, she acknowledges that Gabriel might not let his son come over, so she sends a special request to the pizza parlor where Luka works, asking for no sauce, no cheese, a gluten-free crust, and that they send their cutest delivery guy. After all, Rule 72 states that all guys have to be crazy about you.
Bob Roth approaches Marinette, informing her that he wants her to design Jagged Stone's new album cover... but claims that Jagged wants to head in a new direction before giving her a visual reference. After he leaves, Marinette complains that these references are cold, soulless, repetitive, and banal—the complete opposite of both her and Jagged Stone's styles. On the other hand, though, it's what she was asked to do. Pollen asks how her parents handle bad requests; Marinette explains that one approach they use is giving the clients a sample in hopes of helping them recognize how bad it was... which only works part of the time. Other times, the customers just like the results even more.
Luka drops off the pizza Chloé ordered with one of the hotel staff, having her take it up instead. Marinette bumps into him in the lobby, explaining that she's there to meet Jagged Stone. She also shares her concerns about what he had her design, comparing it to a perfume ad. Luka remarks that the whole "image change" thing sounds sketchy and that she should talk to her clients about it. He also offers to give her a ride home afterwards, which she happily accepts. As she boards the elevator, she catches sight of Luka frantically trying to strip off his uniform before she gets back, making her blush.
Seeing Marinette's album design, Jagged Stone asks how somebody as talented as her turned out such a disappointing result. When Marinette tries to explain what M. Roth told her, he cuts her off, but Jagged Stone still catches on to what happened and encourages her to do it in their style. Bob complains, but Fang wards him off again.
Hearing the elevator chime, Luka turn to greet Marinette—but Chloé ambushes him instead, leering about how she knew they'd send him. She then spots Adrien and waves him over as Luka realizes that she's pursuing them both.
Meanwhile, Jagged Stone sees a news report about XY holding a live concert on top of the Eiffel Tower. XY brags about beating the rockstar in sales, calling him a has-been and taunting "Ragged Stone" to come to his concert, reminding Jagged to bring his hearing aid. The young singer then gets beaned by Jagged Stone's tablet, tossed out the window with surprising accuracy as the rockstar screams at XY to "Stop trash talking outside [his] hotel!"
Returning to the lobby, Marinette finds Chloé chatting with Adrien while hanging off of Luka, who begs Marinette for help. Chloé tries to order Marinette out of her hotel, proclaiming that she never invited Marinette to meet Jagged Stone; Marinette retorts that she doesn't need Chloé's permission to meet him. Guitar Villain then arrives, tauntingly asking the two not to fight over him. Marinette is in utter disbelief at the sight of the akumatized rockstar—he was fine when she left him just a minute ago!
As he attacks, all of the teens duck down. Chloé wails for Luka and Adrien to get her out of there, and they oblige... by pushing her into the elevator. She complains about how that wasn't remotely what she meant as Tikki points out that she can at least transform safely, now. Marinette's got the same thing on her mind, instructing Adrien to see if he can find and flag down Chat Noir while she looks for Marigold. But Luka volunteers to stick with her, saying they can cover more ground on his bike. Helpful, but not what she had in mind...
Outside, they see Guitar Villain riding atop Fang, who's been transformed into a dragon. Scarlet Lady taunts "Ragged Stone" and gets sent flying for her troubles while Chat Noir spots Marinette and Luka and tells them they should head home. Scarlet Lady orders him to call Marigold, but he can't get in contact with the Bee heroine, noting how strange that is while Marinette Sweat Drops beside him.
Pursuing the akuma, the heroes find him threatening Théo Barbot to find out where his XY is. Théo reveals that the singer's currently doing another interview at the TV station. Irritated, Guitar Villain tries to blast Théo at point-blank range, but Scarlet Lady lassoes the sculptor and pulls him to safety just in the nick of time. As Guitar Hero takes off again, though, Théo thanks Chat Noir for rescuing him, much to Scarlet Lady's ire.
Luka drops Marinette off at the bakery; her parents reward him with several boxes full of pastries. He promises to text her after checking in on his family. Marinette claims that her phone died after she burned through its battery filming footage for the Ladyblog; he laughs, reassuring her that Alya will appreciate it. Once he's out of sight, Marinette ducks into the bakery, frantically telling Pollen, "Buzz on!"
Meanwhile, the other heroes have already arrived at the station. Alec warns XY that they'll have to cut the interview short since Scarlet Lady says they're in danger. XY asks who that is, then dismisses her as "the bug lady." Marigold arrives, apologizing for how hard it was for her to slip away; Chat Noir laughs it off while Scarlet Lady berates her. XY declares that he'll just skip the concert, claiming live ones are lame anyway... right before he gets snatched up by Fang.
Forcing XY to stand on the end of a plank extending off the top of the tower, Guitar Villain lists off all the insulting things the young singer called him. XY frantically offers to perform a duet with him in Jagged Stone's style, but Guitar Villain starts playing a Seismic Solo, making everything shake. Scarlet Lady demands that her "sidekicks" save XY and deal with the dragonized Fang as well, ignoring their question of what she intends to do in the meantime.
Marigold manages to tie up Fang's snout with the string of her trompo, riding him over to pick up her partners. Chat Noir is awestruck while Scarlet Lady derides the Bee heroine as a show-off... and winds up clinging to the dragon's tail as they ride it towards their targets. Marigold then keeps flying him around as a distraction, upsetting Guitar Villain. But once Scarlet Lady has summoned her Lucky Charm—a can of extra-hold hairspray—Marigold pops up behind the Ladybug heroine, declaring she has an idea. (Meanwhile, Fang, unfortunately, has gotten stuck in the scaffolding, taking him out of the battle entirely.)
As he performs another Seismic Solo, Guitar Villain headbangs—and Marigold sprays his dreadlocks with the hairspray, temporarily blinding him. The plank XY is on starts cracking, but Marigold swiftly lassoes and pulls the singer to safety, only for Scarlet Lady to complain about how roughly the Bee heroine is treating her XY. After Jagged Stone has been cleansed, Scarlet Lady apologizes to XY, who declares that both she and Jagged Stone are crazy and that he's going home. She offers to take him down, but he insists on taking the elevator. Marigold internally panics about how she's still got work and homework to do, along with needing to text Luka with a cover story, while Chat Noir asks Jagged Stone for an autograph.
Sometime later, Marinette presents Jagged Stone with her new design for the album cover. Jagged Stone is thrilled—all the more so when she shows him that she also made a scented sticker that smells like leather and sweat. Bob Roth refutes Jagged Stone's declaration that it's perfect, insisting that it's not what HE wanted. Jagged Stone casually replies that if his producer doesn't like it, then he'll leave Roth's record company, confident that another one will happily take the second-most popular artist into their own label. Though Marinette silently wonders why the rockstar didn't just threaten this in the first place, she still walks away from the meeting in a good mood, waiting until she's boarded the elevator to cheer with glee.
Once the album comes out, Adrien asks Marinette if she could autograph his copy. Lila and Sabrina also interject, Lila excitedly asking for her own autograph as Sabrina asks about what Jagged Stone was like. Rose asks Marinette to sign her magazine, too, as most of the class crowds around her, chattering away.
Chloé, naturally, isn't among the well-wishers. As she irritably gnaws on the edge of her own magazine, she spots Luka dropping off Juleka and runs at him, calling him, "Mon Chouka!" But he blocks her with one hand, congratulating Marinette on the album cover while Juleka raises an eyebrow at her brother and questions the nickname.
This episode contains examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Along with her usual treatment of Adrien, Chloé actively pursues both Luka and XY. She justifies this to Tikki by claiming that it's one of her family's personal rules that all guys must be in love with her.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Jagged Stone assaults XY with a tablet before being akumatized. In canon, he just threw it to Fang.
- Adaptational Sympathy: Downplayed. XY is still the same Jerkass he was in canon, but it's easy to feel bad for him when he gets a tablet dropped on his head by Jagged. Him being creeped out by Scarlet Lady's crush on him and seeing her as an Abhorrent Admirer also helps.
- Answer Cut: When Scarlet Lady asks Marigold what happened to the dragon, we cut to Fang, showing how his head has been lodged in some of the scaffolding.
- Be Careful What You Wish For:
- Adrien has repeatedly requested opportunities to spend time with his friends. His Control Freak father "generously" accepts Chloé's invitation on his behalf, forcing him to go.
- As Guitar Villain attacks, Chloé begs Luka and Adrien to get her out of there. They respond by shoving her into the elevator.
- Comically Missing the Point: When XY declares that both she and Jagged Stone are crazy and that he's heading home, Scarlet Lady offers to carry him down herself, not understanding that he specifically wants to get away from her.
- Control Freak:
- Bob Roth tries to tamp down and micromanage Jagged Stone and is frustrated by the musician's stubborn resistance—and the rockstar's frequent threats to get Fang involved.
- Gabriel forces Adrien to accept Chloé's invitation to hang out since she's the mayor's daughter. Ironically, Chloé herself actually acknowledges that Gabriel is one of these in order to justify making a backup plan.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: When Jagged Stone ultimately declares that he's willing to leave Bob Roth's company and sign on with another label if his producer keeps trying to force an unwanted image makeover on him, Marinette wonders why Jagged didn't just threaten that from the start.
- Curse Cut Short: Jagged Stone happily declares Marinette's cover art to be "the shi—" before Penny cuts him off, scolding him for his language.
- Delayed Reaction: Sometime after hearing Jagged rave about her album design, Marinette leaves his hotel room, walks to the elevator, and waits for the doors to close before cheering in excitement.
- Didn't See That Coming: Marinette tells Luka that she's going to try and find Marigold, hoping to use it as an excuse to leave and transform. She's caught completely off guard when Luka instead offers to help her by giving her a ride on his bike.Marinette: [thinking] Wait, that's not part of the plan!
- Didn't Think This Through: After learning that Jagged Stone wants Marinette to design his next album cover, Bob Roth goes and meets with her first, presenting her with his vision of what he wants the cover to be while claiming it was Jagged Stone's idea. Somehow, he never considered the possibility of Marinette telling Jagged Stone about what he did or that the whole plot could be cleared up with one conversation.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Despite her tendency to ignore most aspects of reality that clash with her desires, Chloé actually recognizes that Gabriel is a complete Control Freak who micromanages his son's life, so she comes up with a "backup plan" in case Adrien isn't allowed to come. She does this blissfully unaware that Gabriel is, in fact, the only reason why Adrien is accepting her invitation in the first place.
- Marinette asks Adrien to see if he can flag down Chat Noir and alert him to what's going on, unaware that he is Chat Noir and she's unintentionally offering him the perfect chance to find somewhere safe to transform.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: When Jagged heavily protests against Bob Roth's idea of doing a collaboration with XY, Penny tries to reason with Bob, pointing out that a duet between the two probably wouldn't work due to them having such wildly different styles of music. The record executive replies that everything will be fine once Jagged modernizes his music, finds a new style, and changes everything about himself (namely to conform to XY's style), thus defeating the whole point of a collaboration. Jagged promptly swears at his producer.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Scarlet Lady actually does something legitimately heroic when she pulls Théo to safety, only for him to thank Chat Noir instead.
- Everyone Has Standards: Adrien might view Luka as a love rival for Marinette, but when he sees Chloé clinging to a visibly uncomfortable Luka, he still tells her to leave Luka alone.
- Exact Words: Chloé screams for Luka and Adrien to get her out of there when Guitar Villain starts attacking. The two comply by nonchalantly shoving her into an elevator.
- For Want Of A Nail: After inviting Adrien over, Chloé decides to make a backup plan by arranging to have Luka deliver pizza to her hotel room, which leads to Luka being present when Guitar Villain starts attacking and insisting on looking for Marigold with Marinette, which prevents Marinette from transforming in her superhero identity straight away.
- Foreshadowing: Bob Roth's whole scheme to get the album cover he wants hinges on poor communication. One season later, we learn just why he expected this to work so well.
- Funny Background Event:
- After Jagged Stone drops his tablet on XY's head, you can see the akuma that will akumatize Jagged into Guitar Villain fluttering by and a hotel staffer looking at it nervously.
- As Marigold freaks out about all the stuff she has to deal with once she transforms back, Chat calmly asks Jagged for an autograph.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Jagged Stone manages to hit XY in the head with a tablet from several stories up.
- It's All About Me:
- As per usual, Chloé expects the world to revolve around her every whim. This time, she draws particular focus upon the idea that all the guys she's interested in should be gaga over her.
- Bob Roth insists that Jagged Stone needs to completely reform his style in order to conform to the cookie-cutter image the record executive desires. This culminates in him outright saying that Marinette's final design is nowhere near perfect because it's not what HE wanted.
- "Just Joking" Justification: As Guitar Villain lists out all the insults and taunts XY threw out towards Jagged Stone, XY pleads that he was just joking.
- Malicious Misnaming: Both XY and Scarlet Lady refer to Jagged Stone as "Ragged Stone."
- Moral Myopia: Scarlet Lady regularly steals the credit for others' heroics while contributing next to nothing herself. She's also infuriated when Théo thanks Chat Noir for a rescue that she did on her own.
- Mythology Gag: Chloé gives her Rule 72: "All guys have to be crazy about you." This is one of the rules she gives Zoé in the canon episode "Sole Crusher." In a tag the author adds, "#so nice of sole crusher to come up with these Rules of the Bourgeois that I can exploit lol."
- Nepotism: Bob Roth wants to help prop up his son XY's career by having Jagged Stone perform alongside him.
- Pizza Boy Special Delivery: Chloé tries to invoke a non-sexual version of this by ordering a pizza from Luka's workplace and telling them to send their cutest delivery guy, AKA him.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- Averted with the album cover. Despite Bob attempting to talk over Marinette's explanation of how he came to the bakery to commission her on Jagged Stone's behalf, the musician immediately realizes what went wrong and clears matters up, encouraging Marinette to make the cover their way.
- Played Straight with XY, who apparently either doesn't know or doesn't care that his father is angling to arrange a collaboration between him and "Ragged Stone." His taunting and gloating about how he's topped the other musician on the charts not only reinforces Jagged's unwillingness to work with him, it pisses him off enough to trigger his akumatization into Guitar Villain, who intends to kill XY outright over the insults.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: XY has this reaction after Guitar Villain is defeated, calling both Scarlet Lady and Jagged Stone crazy, declaring he's going home, and telling the Ladybug heroine to stay away from him.
- Shout-Out: Chloé's pizza order is "no sauce, no cheese, and gluten-free crust." This is a reference to the episode "Pizza Street" from The Most Popular Girls in School.
- Springtime for Hitler: Discussed. When Marinette struggles to design a new album cover that Bob Roth would approve of, Pollen asks her what her parents do with bad requests. Marinette responds that they usually make a sample of what the customer asked for just to prove how bad it is. Sometimes it works, but other times, it just makes the customer like it even more.
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Scarlet Lady gets a taste of the mistreatment she regularly inflicts on the other heroes, particularly Chat Noir, when she saves Théo from Guitar Villain, only for her schoolmate to thank Chat Noir for saving him instead while Chat Noir happily accepts the credit for the rescue.
