Scarlet Lady / Tropes A to B

"Scarlet Lady's ego is so big she needs this many trope pages!"

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A

• Abhorrent Admirer:
  • In "Copycat," when the titular akuma tells Chat Noir that Scarlet Lady has a crush on the hero (due to a misunderstanding), Chat Noir is horrified.
  • "The Pharaoh" sees Adrien learning that Scarlet Lady is one of those type of fans when she Glomps him from behind. His expression says it all.
  • Adrien also grows to see Chloé as one of these due to her absolutely refusing to accept that he has no feelings for her. This is best shown in "Volpina" when Adrien looks mortified as Chloé Glomps him from behind.
  • Adrien visibly doesn't welcome Lila's attempts to get close to him, especially after learning she stole the Grimoire and then threw it away. Lila notices, too, which causes her to quickly give up on him.
  • In "Riposte," Adrien rebukes Chloé for loudly cheering for him at the fencing trials, calling it "disrespectful."
  • As of "Guitar Villain," Luka sees Chloé this way as well.
  • XY is quickly creeped out by Scarlet Lady's crush on him.
• Accidental Hero:
  • In "Origins Part 1," Chat Noir complimenting Marinette and saying she should be a hero instead pushes Scarlet Lady's Berserk Button, and she rushes into the fight to confront the two, kicking Stoneheart hard enough to stagger him in the process.
  • Having chased Volpina to the Eiffel Tower, only for the akuma to hide by making multiple copies of herself, Scarlet Lady summons Lucky Charm, which appears as fudge bar. Rather than attempt to figure out how to use it to defeat Volpina, the Ladybug heroine decides to use the wrapper to work on her tan. She ends up reflecting the sunlight right at the akuma, causing Volpina to shield her eyes and thus helping Chat Noir identify the real Volpina from the illusions.
• Accidentally-Correct Writing: Happens In-Universe when Marc writes a story about Marigold being the Ladybug heroine, unaware that she actually was supposed to be said hero and Scarlet Lady stole the earrings from her.
• Accidental Public Confession:
  • When Marinette is announced as the new class president, Chloé protests that she gave Jagged Stone CDs to her classmates and asks about her votes. Mme. Bustier then questions her about whether she'd tried to bribe the class for their votes.
  • While dealing with Prime Queen, Scarlet Lady forgets that everything is being broadcast live, meaning that all of Paris has a chance to witness her casually declaring that it doesn't matter if Alya drowns when she can just bring her back to life once they win.
• Accidental Truth: When Kagami asks Adrien why he hasn't asked Marinette out yet, he describes a person that Kagami immediately identifies as Gabriel, but Adrien was talking about Hawkmoth. Given who the villain actually is...
• Acquired Situational Narcissism:
  • Being the director for the class's movie in "Horrificator" goes straight to Nino's head, and he makes several thoughtless calls while trying to boss everybody around. He does at least apologize for his "directator" behavior after the whole akuma debacle.
  • Along similar lines, Max assumes that he will easily beat everyone in the Ultimate Mecha Strike III tournament and is casually condescending to the other participants... right up until Adrien and Marinette both beat him.
• Actually Pretty Funny: In "Simon Says," Nathalie struggles to bite back laughter when the titular akuma makes Gabriel think he is a butterfly.
• Adaptation Deviation: The webcomic changes the circumstances of Jagged and Anarka's breakup so that Bob Roth was directly responsible for destroying their relationship. The stated reason for this change was because the author felt that the original show's explanation, or lack thereof, made Jagged come off as a deadbeat loser who ran out on his children.
• Adaptation Name Change: In canon, Marinette uses the superhero name "Lady Noir" when wielding the Cat Miraculous. Here, she goes by "Maotif" (a pun on "mao," the Chinese word for "cat," and "motif").
• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • While Marinette was a Shrinking Violet before Alya and her victory as Ladybug gave her more confidence in-canon, here, she's far more confident in herself, saving Alya from Stoneheart and helping Chat Noir even without a Miraculous. Her crush on Adrien also isn't as massive as it was in canon; she still likes him but doesn't obsess over him and has stronger feelings for Chat Noir instead. In addition, while in canon she is extremely strict about maintaining her secret identity as Ladybug, here, she immediately and deliberately outs herself as Maotif to Chat Noir, having expected her stint as a superhero to be a one-time gig.
  • Nathalie is far more of a Servile Snarker to Gabriel than she was in canon, and there's no hints of a Subordinate Excuse to be seen.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Nathalie is here a Hypercompetent Sidekick and Servile Snarker to Gabriel, with her Subordinate Excuse from canon completely absent.
  • Since Lila becomes a Liar Revealed on her first day of school and undergoes a Heel–Face Turn soon afterwards, her relationships with some of her classmates change:
    • Adrien was somewhat of an ally to Lila in canon, at least until he realized her true nature. Here, due to his Jade-Colored Glasses, he immediately dislikes her for intruding on his personal space, which is only cemented after he learns she stole his father's book from him, used it to try and trick him into thinking she's a superhero, and then threw the book away. He's among the few who refuse to forgive her even after she apologizes, which also causes her to give up on her romantic interest in him. He does eventually forgive her when he sees how she's changed for the better and (as Chat Noir) is the one to hand out a Miraculous to her.
    • Marinette proclaimed that Lila was worse than Chloé in canon. Here, even after (or perhaps due to) seeing Lila outed as a liar by Scarlet Lady, she reaches out to her and eventually becomes her friend.
    • In canon, Lila was a False Friend to everyone in the class who didn't know her true nature until she finally became a Liar Revealed in season 5, after which she stopped attending Collège Françoise Dupont. Here, she genuinely befriends them (with the exception of Chloé) after her Heel–Face Turn, though some take longer than others.
    • Similar to Adrien, even after most of the class welcomes Lila back, Alya still bears a grudge against her due to having posted Lila's lies on her blog. It's not until "Intermission 2" that she finally starts burying the hatchet and asks Lila for an interview about why she hates Scarlet Lady, and Alya letting go of her grudge is cemented at the end of "Prime Queen" when she and Lila bond over how Scarlet Lady was willing to leave them in danger. Word of God even confirms that Lila helped Alya compile her list of the Ladybug heroine's various faults.
    • Much like the rest of the class, Lila hates Chloé, and since they lack a common enemy here, it's unlikely they'll ever form their canon alliance.
    • Alix, Lila, and Sabrina end up forming their own Girl Posse after the latter two's Heel Face Turns.
  • In this AU, Kagami and Ondine are close friends, enough so that the latter reveals her romantic interest in Kim to Kagami, who in turn thinks about maiming Kim if he breaks Ondine's heart. In canon, they are not shown to be even acquainted.
  • Downplayed for Adrien and Luka, whose friendship is slightly more strained due to them both being aware the other also has a crush on Marinette.
  • Downplayed in "Sandboy," in which the unnamed akumatization victim is shown to have been one of the patients at the children's hospital that Rose and Prince Ali were helping out at, with his pillow being a gift from them after he was discharged. In canon, the three never appeared onscreen together since Sandboy's civilian identity is not in any other episodes.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the canon "Captain Hardrock," all the people who are chained together for "mutiny" just roll into the hold like logs. Here, we see reactions of embarrassment and concern since each pair is at least a potential love interest. The author notes: "The Ship is a shipper."
• Adaptational Attractiveness:
  • Downplayed with Vanisher, who in canon was basically just Sabrina turned invisible. In the header for her episode, she is given a beautiful white dress. In the comic itself, she also has a different design.
  • When Guitar Villain and Captain Hardrock reappear in "Crocoduel", instead of looking exactly the same as they did before like in canon, they instead have slightly different outfits and colour schemes that match the record that the akuma went into.
  • Most of the temporary heroes who use the same Miraculous as in canon have extra features in their costumes so that they're more than just skin-tight suits and often have different patterns or hairstyles. The most drastic change would be Pigella, who in canon had pigtails and a tutu; here, she has just one ponytail and wears a dress inspired by retro sci-fi.
  • While Queen Wasp was just a recolour of Queen Bee in canon, here, she has Giant Poofy Sleeves, a furry collar, a cape that resembles wings, hair that looks more like a stinger, and a crown-shaped ring around her ponytail.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Due to Scarlet Lady being an incompetent Load (and that's when she isn't The Millstone), Chat Noir is forced to pick up the slack way more often. As a result, he is demonstrably more competent and professional than he is in canon, to the point that he is able to defeat akumas completely on his own, especially early in his career before Marigold showed up.
  • Vanisher is far more powerful than in her original appearance, complete with having new powers.
  • Aside from paralyzing her victims, Queen Wasp is also able to Mind Control them, much like Miracle Queen (who was basically an upgraded version of Queen Wasp).
• Adaptational Comic Relief: Many characters become this due to the story being set in a World of Snark:
  • Adrien's bad experiences with Scarlet Lady quickly turn him into a Deadpan Snarker prone to Comical Overreacting.
  • Similar to Adrien, Tikki is much snarkier than she is the show due to constantly having to put up with Chloé. She even takes it upon herself to punish her selfish holder by being The Gadfly and relishes in any misfortune Chloé encounters, quickly showing she's Not So Above It All. Lastly, as a Running Gag, she'll often burst into Inelegant Blubbering whenever she learns Marinette has partnered with another Kwami.
  • Gabriel becomes a Butt-Monkey due to his inability to control his now rebellious son. He's also shown to be much more exasperated by his akumas' incompetency and Skewed Priorities, occasionally even responding with a You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me! reaction.
  • Nathalie gets quite a few comical moments at Gabriel's expense due to being his Hypercompetent Sidekick and Servile Snarker. Additionally, her Subordinate Excuse from canon is replaced with a Cargo Ship between her and her tablet.
  • Whereas her canon self was portrayed as a Manipulative Bitch, Lila is much less competent in this story and never treated as a serious threat, with her getting outed as a liar soon after she starts school at Collège Françoise Dupont and subsequently enduring a Humiliation Conga. Soon afterwards, she makes a Heel–Face Turn and switches from lies to Brutal Honesty and becomes quite snarky about her undisguised hatred of Scarlet Lady.
  • Unlike in canon, Luka's calm and collected demeanor is only a façade. He's just as awkward as Marinette on the inside.
  • Kagami has quite a few Not So Above It All moments, even starting a contest with Adrien over which of them can be a bigger delinquent child.
• Adaptational Context Change: Quite a few of the events from canon still happen, but within a different context. This is usually the circumstances leading to one's akumatization, but other events happen differently as well:
  • There are many times where Marinette still uses the Lucky Charm in the same manner that Ladybug did in the show because she is present at the akuma fight, the difference being that Scarlet Lady was the one who called it and couldn't work out how to use it on her own. She still often does this after becoming Marigold.
  • Alya still gets punished in "Lady Wifi" for spying on someone's locker after being caught by Chloé, but here, it was instead Marinette's locker she was looking in because she suspected her best friend of being Scarlet Lady. Also, it turns out Marinette had a replica of the Ladybug yo-yo not because she liked to dress up like Chloé did in canon, but because she was making costumes for the kids that she babysits.
  • While the show portrayed Marinette invoking Everyone Is a Suspect in "Rogercop" as a kneejerk accusation against her entire class that was no better than what Chloé did to her, Marinette doesn't get called out for it in the webcomic, which instead treats it as a fair observation. Likewise, Tom still tells his daughter to let the adults deal with the situation; however, rather than showing he's a Reasonable Authority Figure, it's instead used to highlight his hypocrisy as neither he nor the other adults actually do anything to help resolve things.
  • Since the events of "Syren" precede those of "Dark Cupid" and Kim doesn't have a crush on Chloé, his Valentine's Day gift is for Ondine instead. When Chloé walks past and sees the gift, she thinks it's for her, leading to her "rejecting" Kim in front of Ondine. Ondine sees this and runs off in tears due to misunderstanding the situation, triggering Kim's akumatization.
  • In "Desperada", rather than try to impress the Ladybug hero when given the Snake Miraculous, only to fail to save her multiple times, Adrien decides to purposefully mess it up so that Marigold and Scarlet Lady are unlikely to offer him a Miraculous again, which will allow him to protect his identity as Chat Noir. Additionally, Aspik finds himself enjoying the sight of Scarlet Lady getting zapped and decides use Second Chance so he can repeatedly mess with her, with one of those times having him reveal his identity to her just to see her reaction; in canon, he revealed his identity to Ladybug as part of a love confession.
  • In "Zombizou," when Mme. Bustier tells Marinette that she should forgive Chloé for sabotaging her gift, Marinette, rather than accepting it, gets angry at Bustier and gives her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech that grants her enough In-Universe Catharsis to avoid the akuma. Meanwhile, instead of trying to protect Marinette from the butterfly, Bustier is upset enough at being called out on her ineffective teaching methods that the akuma goes to her instead. This also results in Zombizou targeting Marinette rather than Chloé and the class all trying to protect their friend.
    • Additionally, Sabrina is still the first victim, but this time it's from one of Zombizou's kisses reaching her as she tries to escape rather than Chloé using her as a Human Shield.
    • Instead of getting infected from holding the zombies off at the Eiffel Tower, Chat Noir gets infected when Scarlet Lady attempts to push Marinette into the zombies and he gets distracted while protecting her.
  • Marc still writes The Diary of Ladybug, but instead of it being an alternate universe where Evillustrator kept his powers and became a hero, it's one where Marigold is the Ladybug heroine while Scarlet Lady is a villain and Chloé is her sidekick Antibug. This, in addition to Nathaniel and Marc having already met, prevents Nathaniel from thinking he was being tricked, and he instead easily figures out who wrote it. It's Chloé who causes Marc's akumatization after she finds out about the story and Nathaniel's art that was based on it, and she's the one who tears Marc's notebook.
  • "Party Crasher" has the whole of the girl squad find out that the boys made up excuses so they could hang out with Adrien. This is mostly due to Lila and Sabrina, who instantly figure it out, being among the group. Because of this, instead of making her own excuse to see what the boys are up to and wanting the chance to see Adrien herself, Marinette is sent by the girls to infiltrate the party and guilt-trip the boys into leaving or admitting that they ditched the class's original plans. Additionally, Luka joined the party of his own accord in canon, but here, the girls decide to send him in with Marinette to help her, passing her off as his bandmate from school. Luka also volunteers to help because he thinks the result will be hilarious.
• Adaptational Dumbass:
  • Without Marinette, the team of the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous users don't do nearly as well with the Lucky Charm clues as their canon counterparts do, to the point that multiple akumas are taken out by means of using the Lucky Charm as a ballistic or bludgeoning weapon, regardless of what they were supposed to do with it. The first case was Bubbler, but it's become a staple of akuma-fighting since then, to the point that Marinette eventually dubs it "the Chat Noir method." After Marigold joins the team, this becomes less common, but they still occasionally resort to it.
  • In "The Pharaoh," Jalil makes the same statements about Egyptology as he did in canon. However, whereas those statements went unchallenged and were thus implied to be correct in the show, here, Alix immediately points out how they're all demonstrably inaccurate and reveals getting his facts wrong is a habit of her Know-Nothing Know-It-All brother's.
  • Roger isn't as knowledgeable about the law as he appears. In "Rogercop," he falls for Mayor André's Bavarian Fire Drill when the latter temporarily "fires" him and doesn't learn until long afterwards that the mayor doesn't actually have the authority to do that; canon gives no hints that this is the case. There's also the fact that in the comic's version of "Captain Hardrock," Roger confronts Anarka about a noise complaint before they've played a single note based solely on the word of Chloé.
  • The webcomic makes it clear that D'Argencourt lacks common sense in regard to his views about his ancestor, The Black Knight, failing to comprehend that he was overthrown for a very good reason (namely being a tyrant). Moreover, "Riposte" has him call Adrien and Kagami's bout "real fencing" like he did in canon, though the comic does this to emphasize his oversight in not halting the bout when Kagami had blatantly broken the rules by making physical contact with an opponent, even when Marinette tries to tell him that.
  • Similar to the above, Kagami's actions in "Riposte" are largely the same as they were in canon, but the poor judgement behind them is highlighted here:
    • When told that she has to defeat one of D'Argencourt's students for a spot on the team, Kagami immediately insists on challenging the best member. The entire team Sweat Drops that she doesn't have to, and the author even mentions how Kagami is just making things harder for herself; she goes through with it anyway.
    • Marc, who is also watching tryouts, points out how Kagami gave up the only impartial judge she had by suggesting that she and Adrien disconnect themselves from the machines for "more freedom."
    • Here, Kagami's apparent knowledge of fencing rules leaves much to be desired: she deliberately shoves Adrien off the mat in their bout, which Marinette immediately identifies as an illegal corps-a-corps violation.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • In canon, Ella and Etta Césaire don't debut until "Santa Claws." In Scarlet Lady, they appear in the finale of "Lady Wifi."
  • In canon, Marianne Lenore doesn't debut until the middle of season 3. In Scarlet Lady, they appear in season 1, during the finale of "Mr. Pigeon."
  • In canon, Marinette's Cat-Miraculous form didn't appear until "Reflekdoll." In Scarlet Lady, the character debuts (ironically enough) in "Reflekta."
  • In canon, Luka Couffaine doesn't appear before season 2. In Scarlet Lady, the character debuts in a bonus panel at the end of "Reflekta."
  • Ondine doesn't appear before season 2 in canon. In the comic, she comes to cheer on Kim's race with Alix in "Timebreaker" and also helps with Marinette's birthday party in "La Befana." Additionally, her akuma episode, "Syren," happens before Kim's akuma episode, "Dark Cupid."
  • Marc Anciel makes a first appearance in "Riposte" rather than in "Reverser," having been permitted to watch the fencing tryouts to help with their writing. Marc will be using gender neutral pronouns in this AU, identifying as nonbinary or genderfluid.
  • Marinette ends up becoming a temporary holder of the Mouse Miraculous in "Puppeteer."
  • Max gets the Horse Miraculous and becomes Pegasus in "Robostus"; in canon, he didn't until "Startrain," which will not be included in the comic.
  • Rose becomes Pigella in "Sandboy," which she didn't until the fourth season in canon.
  • Nathaniel becomes Caprikid in "Reverser" rather than in "Penalteam" like in canon.
  • Similar to Nathaniel, Ivan becomes Minotaurox in "Party Crasher" rather than "Penalteam."
  • Zoé Lee makes a cameo at the end of "Frightningale" before being properly introduced in "Malediktator" (which also takes place before "Style Queen"), having been brought along to Paris by Audrey. In canon, she didn't appear until she came to Paris of her own accord in "Sole Crusher."
• Adaptational Explanation:
  • The absence of Aurore merchandise in "Stormy Weather" here despite the Weather Girl contest having just ended is due to the balloon seller being instructed to only make merchandise for Mireille due to Alec Cataldi purposely rigging the contest.
  • Max missing his glasses in one scene in "The Bubbler" is explained as being due to his mother getting bubbled while cleaning them.
  • An animation error resulted in Juleka wearing white in the original "Rogercop." Here, Juleka purposely got dressed up because it was Career Day.
  • It's revealed that Anarka decided not to attend Parent's Career Day after hearing a cop would be there. There's no explanation for why so many other parents also weren't there, though.
  • When Jagged asks Penny why he's signing autographs at Chloé's campaign launch in "Darkblade," she reminds him that he owed Bob Roth a favor after the latter's car was ruined by Fang. Though Jagged's disgruntled, he still thinks it was Worth It.
  • The class states that they only attended Chloé's campaign launch for the free stuff she was giving away and had no intention of actually voting for her.
  • In "The Gamer," Marinette and Alya are confirmed to have learned about the video game tournament at the same time, hence why Alya didn't reschedule their study session. Additionally, Nino's dismally low score is here due to him only participating in the tournament to boost numbers.
  • When Marinette asks Evillustrator why she's only now hearing about his birthday party despite them being friends and classmates, he informs her that he doesn't tell most people about his birthday due to not wanting all the attention, which also explains why he and Marinette are the only guests.
  • It was never explained why Ladybug decided to make a deal with Pixelator in the show to free half his captives in exchange for taking him to Jagged Stone. When Marigold makes the same deal here, she justifies it by reasoning that Chat Noir got hit as a civilian and that she might be able to free him through the deal.
  • In "Silencer," Adrien says he can't participate in Bob Roth's contest with Kitty Section because of a contract with his father, giving an explanation for why he was Out of Focus in the episode that canon didn't.
  • Jagged's real reason for firing Vivica here was to create an excuse to hire Luka as his guitarist and play music with his kids.
  • Here, the reason why so many of Adrien's classmates entered the Friendship Day contest in "Ikari Gozen" was to prevent a Loony Fan or creepy old person from winning and meeting Adrien.
  • In canon, Tomoe Tsurugi's motives for preventing Kagami from having friends aren't explored. Here, it's revealed that her own friends abandoned her after she was blinded, and she believes that any friends Kagami makes will do the same.
  • The heroes not using the Space powerups in "Crocoduel" is given the explanation of them having forgotten to bring the potions with them.
  • "Zombizou" gives us an explanation for why Nathaniel suddenly disappears when the class is running away—he went to warn the art club, only for Zombizou to follow him there.
  • In "Frightingale", the readers learn the mayor's reasoning behind how he reacted to his daughter threatening to call her mother: he believes Audrey would get mad at him for letting Chloé interrupt her day, which will just lead to Chloé spiraling.
  • Like in the show, Clara Nightingale got to shoot her music video anyway despite the mayor earlier telling her she couldn't due to not having filled out one of the necessary permits. The comic, though, shows that this was because the mayor had actually lied to the singer and that she really did have all the needed paperwork.
• Adaptational Gender Identity: Marc Anciel is portrayed as nonbinary and uses gender-neutral pronouns. In the show proper, Marc is a somewhat androgynous-looking boy and is referred to with masculine pronouns.
• Adaptational Hairstyle Change:
  • The hairstyles of Scarlet Lady and Marigold change depending on how they were wearing their hair in their civilian identities when they transformed. In canon, all Miraculous Holders had the same hairstyle every time they transformed regardless of how they were wearing it as civilians.
  • Pigella has only one ponytail, as opposed to her two from canon.
  • Caprikid has shorter bangs than his civilian identity, showing off more of his face, while his show counterpart had the exact same hairstyle while transformed.
  • An unintentional example happens with Lila due to her introduction in the comic and subsequent redemption arc happening long before it was revealed in Season 5 of the show that her hair was actually a wig, with her having much shorter hair underneath. Here, Lila's hair is real, though in "Catalyst" she reveals that she's going to cut and donate it as a result of a lost bet.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Downplayed for Hawkmoth. As stated in Even Evil Has Standards, while he still akumatizes his victims, he frequently expresses concern over their Skewed Priorities and Disproportionate Retribution and sometimes even seems to genuinely sympathize with them when they're upset for a justified reason.
  • Also downplayed for Stormy Weather. She initially gets akumatized for the same Sore Loser reaction she had in canon, but her actions become slightly more justified when it's revealed that the contest was rigged against her.
  • After learning that her suspicions about Marinette being Scarlet Lady really were false, Lady Wifi decides to steal the earring to give to Marinette, proclaiming that her friend would make the perfect hero.
  • Downplayed again with Lila. Though she's still the same person she was in canon to begin with, her grudge against the Ladybug hero is far less petty than it was in canon thanks to Scarlet Lady's Nominal Hero status. She soon drops her Consummate Liar persona in favor of Brutal Honesty. Played a bit straighter when she proves herself enough for Chat Noir to let her use a Miraculous.
  • In canon "Captain Hardrock," Anarka's music is loud enough to shake the entire street, making Roger's decision to ticket her somewhere between "defensible" and "justified." In this story, the noise complaint comes before she's played a single note due to Chloé spitefully filing a false claim, making her come off as much more sympathetic in this version.
  • Downplayed with Chloé in "Queen Wasp": unlike in canon, she doesn't intentionally create danger and almost cause a train accident just to give herself a chance to show off.
• Adaptational Intelligence:
  • The comic's version of "Lady Wifi" makes it explicitly clear that Plagg knows that Alya's hunch about Scarlet Lady's secret identity is wrong because the person she suspects was a hostage in the Stoneheart incident and thus has a solid alibi. He only teases Adrien about the prospect of Alya's theory being correct to mess with his holder. Canon gave no indication of this.
  • In "Mr. Pigeon," Sabrina tries (in vain) to point out to Chloé that instead of going after the design Marinette plans to enter into the contest, it'd be easier to just pick up and use one of the many sketches Marinette had balled up and discarded.
  • Nathaniel is immediately cleared as a suspect in "Rogercop" after his sketch of the bracelet is noticed, with him pointing out that he never left his seat.
  • In "Rogercop," the police refuse to submit to Rogercop's authority when Mayor Bourgeois surrenders his power to him since they can all clearly tell he is an akuma. The tags note that the author normally tries to avoid this trope but considers the canon police to have been holding way too big of an Idiot Ball to just let it slide.
    Tags: #this is my rare rule break when it came to not going out of my way to make characters smarter than canon if I can't excuse it #but this was seriously stupid for these grown adults to turn on the Heroes of Paris that protect them from an emotional terrorist #on the orders of that very terrorist's minion!
  • As he is fleeing from Reflekta, Chat Noir gets the idea to detransform and remove the ring while hidden in a locker. He's immediately zapped by the akuma, but the ring is already safe with Plagg, who then lends it to Marinette. Adrien's subsequent reactions also imply he planned on using the ring to transform over his Reflekta form.
  • Instead of approaching Timebreaker out of concern (only to get her energy drained), Rose runs away from the akuma.
  • Marinette is more knowledgeable of the rules of fencing in "Riposte" here. She instantly recognizes Kagami's corps-a-corps violation against Adrien, correctly declares that the bout should be halted as a result, and later points out that Adrien leaving the mat is typically a penalty.
  • In "Animan," the heroes completely forgo their canon plan of luring him into Marinette's home as a tiny animal and trapping him in a box and instead go straight for trapping him in the bus. He still breaks out, but they quickly defeat him.
  • In "Puppeteer," the heroes prevent the titular akuma from claiming any advantages by leaving the hero whose doll was captured (Marigold in this version) detransformed so they can't be used against the other heroes. Also, they make a point of hiding the doll Puppeteer didn't get instead of bringing it with them to the fight with her. This, along with other changes, turns the final confrontation into a Curb-Stomp Battle in the heroes' favor rather than the Near-Villain Victory it was in canon. The latter point even gets lampshaded in the tags.
    Tags: #never quite got why ladybug brought the chat noir doll to the fight like just hide it? ^note Though it was actually the Ladybug doll that got brought along in the original episode
  • Marinette doesn't have as many Love Makes You Stupid moments as in canon about Adrien:
    • When she is tasked with finding Jagged Stone some Eiffel Tower shades, she doesn't try offering him some cheap tourist sunglasses in order to get back to the hotel (and Adrien) quickly; she instead goes straight home to make the rock star a "tacky" pair herself, to the great delight of Pollen. She is rewarded when Jagged and Penny make a big fuss over her for her amazing handiwork and let her post a selfie with Jagged to her social media account.
    • She immediately recommends Luka as Jagged new guitarist in "Desperada" (though it probably also helped that Jagged was practically offering the job to Luka directly with how specific his suggestions were).
  • When offered the Snake Miraculous, Adrien realizes immediately that he won't be able to maintain two secret identities. Thus, he decides repeatedly mess up as Aspik on purpose (while also getting back at Scarlet Lady by shoving her into Desperada's line of attack) to create an excuse for why he shouldn't be called on again.
  • It turns out that Luka and Juleka already know that Jagged Stone is their father, with the tags in "Desperada" explaining that they figured it out after learning that Anarka stopped playing music with Jagged around the time she was pregnant.
  • Zigzagged for Mme. Bustier. Canonically, she was oblivious about Sabrina being Chloé's Homework Slave since grade school despite apparently having had the two as her students the entire time and Chloé having even openly bragged about her plagiarism. When she did find out, though, she at least had enough sense to tell Sabrina to never do it again. Here, Mme. Bustier is aware of Chloé's plagiarism and has known for years but still chose not to do anything. In fact, Word of God hints that Mme. Bustier outright encouraged Sabrina to do Chloé's homework for her, insisting that it'll help Chloé learn the material.
  #'if sabrina shows chloe how to do it then she'll know exactly what to do!' #'the perfect little educational role model!' ~bustier probably
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Chloé gets hit with this by virtue of appearing in multiple episodes she was absent from in canon and being her usual Alpha Bitch self in all of them. Additionally, she gets more Kick the Dog moments in episodes that she did canonically appear in (dropping Alix's watch deliberately instead of accidentally in "Timebreaker," for example).
  • Gabriel is given this treatment as well:
    • Gabriel changing his mind to allow Adrien to attend the concert on the Liberty seemed to be a genuine Pet the Dog moment in the show. Here, he only did it to hide the fact that he's forgotten how to play piano due to not having done so in ten years.
    • He shows far less concern about putting Adrien in danger than he does in canon. Whereas he was horrified in canon "Gorizilla" when Adrien starts freefalling towards the ground, in the comic version, he only expresses disappointment that his hunch about Chat Noir's secret identity was wrong and tells Gorizilla to let Marigold save Adrien because he "Can't make ads with a pancake son." Likewise, when Style Queen turns Adrien into a statue, Hawkmoth just grumbles that Nathalie will definitely hit him for that, and after the akuma is defeated, Gabriel is more upset that the months he spent creating Style Queen was All for Nothing than he is relieved that Adrien is now safe.
  • Alec Cataldi intentionally mocks Aurore about losing the weather girl contest after rigging it against her in the first place.
  • Like in canon "Rogercop," Mayor Bourgeois fires Roger for refusing to break the law to satisfy Chloé's latest whim. However, because it's later confirmed that the mayor doesn't actually have the jurisdiction to do this, André comes off as a bigger Sleazy Politician than in the show due to not only abusing his mayoral position, but also power he doesn't even have. Additionally, while canon apparently had André try to make amends with Roger by giving him his job back and promoting him, he almost certainly lacks the authority to do this as well in the comic, meaning what was originally a heartwarming moment is now just the mayor distracting Roger with a Motivational Lie and an Empty Promise.
  • D'Argencourt's Moral Myopia is highlighted regarding his ancestor, the Black Knight. As mentioned in Historical Hero Upgrade, D'Argencourt considers his ancestor a noble, heroic figure even while describing him as a man who "ruled Paris with an iron fist" and laments that he was toppled by a commoner whom D'Argencourt accuses of buying the loyalty of Paris's lower classes. Adrien mentally lampshades that D'Argencourt's account just makes it sound like the Black Knight was a tyrant who was deservedly overthrown by someone who gave money to the poor. In addition, D'Argencourt comes off as more of a Know-Nothing Know-It-All in "Riposte": despite priding himself as a fencing master, he fails to recognize an illegal corps-a-corps Kagami commits (among other violations) against Adrien that even Marinette (who was new to the sport) notices, instead praising the bout as "real fencing" and ignoring Marinette both times she tries to bring the rule breakages to his attention.
  • Played With regarding Max in "The Gamer." His nasty and entitled behavior is emphasized more, with his condescending attitude towards his classmates highlighted. Additionally, while canon was ambiguous over whether he was just a Sore Loser about not getting to go to the tournament or if he was specifically upset over losing to Marinette, the comic makes it very clear he only blames Marinette, even as other characters point out that he lost to two people, not just her. However, after Gamer's defeat, he has a Jerkass Realization about his poor sportsmanship and apologizes to Marinette, which he didn't do in canon.
  • Downplayed with Alim Kubdel, who all but outright confirms (via some Suspiciously Specific Denial) that the "youngest child inherits the watch" rule was, in this universe, made up to keep the watch away from Jalil—which is harsh but somewhat understandable, given that it's Jalil.
  • "Timebreaker" has Nadja show up early to the bakery without notice and demand she be given her cake twenty minutes before the scheduled time. When Tom points out how early she is, she simply replies, "Yeah, and?" Sabine later also reveals Nadja knew that the bakery was closed for a personal day, implying Tom and Sabine were already doing Nadja a favor by having a cake ready for her that day, making her come off as an Ungrateful Bitch.
  • Downplayed with Adrien following the events of "Volpina." He's among the few in the class who don't quickly forgive Lila after she's outed as a liar despite also seeing her get thrown into a fountain by Scarlet Lady, whereas in canon, he felt Ladybug just calling Lila out was too harsh. To be fair, though, here, he knows that Lila stole his father's book from him and then learns soon afterwards that she threw it away as well rather than try to return it.
  • Roger gets hit by this in "Captain Hardrock." Thanks to Chloé, he arrives at the houseboat before the concert starts, tells them he received a noise complaint, refuses to listen when Anarka tries to explain that they haven't even played a single note, gets upset by Anarka calling him a "bootlicker," and hits her with a list of Felony Misdemeanors and tickets.
    Roger: No authorization to dock here, no concert! And the mess! And the decorations! A ticket for your attitude, for provocation, for my sea-sickness, and 'cuz I can!
    Anarka: You bilge rat scum!
    Roger: And one for name-calling!
  • Penny physically kicks Vincent out of the hotel instead of just dragging him out. Later, when passing out concert tickets to the class, she also emphasizes how Chloé won't be getting one rather than just silently skipping over her.
  • Jagged Stone in "Guitar Villain," before he is akumatized, assaults XY with his tablet. In canon, he just threw it to Fang.
  • Downplayed for André the ice cream man, who appears to have more old-fashioned views about love and is less open-minded than his canon portrayal. He doesn't (or won't) recognize that Juleka and Rose are a couple, had a nervous breakdown when Alix revealed she's aromantic, and seems to neither support nor understand the idea of polyamory. In the show, while he's shown remarking that Marinette and Kagami as a pairing would be "unusual" through the description of their ice cream flavor, he was still fine with making it for them if they wanted it, and a flashback also shows him making ice cream for what appears to be a gay couple.
  • In canon, Anarka was rather justified in her resentment of Jagged Stone for walking out on her and their children because he was afraid of fatherhood. Here, the reveal that she purposely kept her pregnancy secret from Jagged and then prevented him from seeing Luka and Juleka makes her much less sympathetic. This ends up getting subverted in what turns out to be an example for a different character: Bob Roth. In canon, he had no involvement in Jagged and Anarka's breakup; here, he deliberately forged notes to the duo claiming that Anarka wanted nothing to do with Jagged (without mentioning her pregnancy) and that Jagged wanted nothing to do with Anarka (meaning she didn't deliberately hide her pregnancy and only prevented him from seeing the kids because she thought Jagged wanted nothing to do with them).
• Adaptational Karma:
  • Chloé gets hit with this in spades, facing more consequences for her actions than in canon. They range from short-term (being forced to apologize for falsely accusing Marinette of theft in "Rogercop") to long-term (Sabrina and Adrien becoming more disillusioned with her, to the point that they end their friendships with her).
  • Gabriel Agreste also gets hit with this due to Adrien being much more rebellious than in canon and frequently threatening to cause bad PR for his father (sometimes even following through on his threats) by dyeing his hair neon colors, ruining his diet, exposing Gabriel's bad parenting to the world, wearing tacky clothes in public, etc. if Gabriel tries to cut him off from his friends.
  • A positive example of this occurs in "Lady Wifi," in which the titular akuma's antics lead to Marlena Césaire learning about Principal Damocles administering Disproportionate Retribution against her daughter without even notifying her or Otis. The school subsequently rescinds Alya's suspension when Marlena calls to complain.
  • Downplayed in "Rogercop." Here, when Tom tells Marinette to let the adults handle things, she gives him a disgusted look and calls him out on it with a succinct "Seriously?" as she gestures to how none of the adults present (Tom included) are actually doing anything to help resolve the situation.
  • Nadja in "Timebreaker" gets called out on demanding that she be given her cake ahead of the scheduled time just because she arrived early (and without even calling ahead). She apparently won't be getting favors from Tom and Sabine for a while.
  • In "Volpina," Adrien angrily calls Lila out for stealing from him, lying to him, and then throwing Gabriel's book in the garbage, none of which he ever even found out about in canon. Additionally, Scarlet Lady soon outs Lila as a liar in front of most of the class by throwing her into a fountain in the middle of winter, which also leads to Lila catching a cold.
  • Played with in "Riposte." Here, it's explicitly noted that Kagami broke the rules in her bout with Adrien and prevented a fair call by suggesting they be disconnected from the machines. Word of God also confirms that Adrien was the winner, whereas it was more ambiguous in canon. All this makes the final ruling against Kagami seem much more deserved.
  • Otis is sent home early in "Animan" due to his akumatization.
  • Downplayed in "Silencer." In addition to being tricked into making an Engineered Public Confession and having to offer Kitty Section a record deal to make up for it, Bob Roth also has to deal with a seething Jagged Stone, who is not happy that Bob threatened Marinette (Jagged's favorite designer) and Kitty Section (which has Jagged's two children among its members). Jagged later quits Bob's record company after realizing the latter sabotaged the former's relationship with Anarka, thus costing Bob a major source of revenue.
  • In "Party Crasher," the girls find out about the boys ditching their plans so they can hang out with Adrien, and Marinette, rather than infiltrate the party just to see Adrien, is specifically sent inside by the other girls to call them out on it. In the end, the girls make the boys do the tree-planting that they were meant to be doing in the first place in order to make it up to them.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: The episode order is different from canon, which means that some of the villains appear later than others. For example, there are villains from the show's first season that don't appear until after "The Collector," the first episode of the show's second season. An interesting example is "Dark Cupid" which, while still taking place on Valentine's Day, happens after "Syren." "Style Queen" also takes place after "Malediktator" rather than the other way round like in the show.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • While canon has Lady Wifi trying to prove Chloé to be Ladybug as a sense of a disgruntled fan, this Lady Wifi doesn't have a problem with Marinette as Scarlet Lady and is much more cheerful with less words about "exposing" the real Scarlet Lady.
  • The class doesn't come off as being sellouts in "Darkblade." In canon, they seemed to genuinely be swayed by Chloé's bribes to vote for her, the class bully, over their friend Marinette. Here, it's made clear that they were always going to vote for Marinette and only attended Chloé's campaign launch for the free giveaways.
  • Various changes result in Nathaniel not picking up the Jerkass Ball against Marc in "Reverser"; instead, Chloé is the one who destroys Marc's journal and triggers their akumatization.
• Adaptational Romance Downgrade: Kim initially had a crush on Chloé in the show. It's completely absent in the comic, in which he hates her as much as the rest of the class does.
• Adaptational Sexuality:
  • Marinette is hinted to be bi, having the exact same reaction to Kagami unmasking herself as Adrien has.
  • Kagami in canon is a rival for Adrien's love. In this, it's hinted she's a lesbian, considering her reaction to Marigold in "Riposte," as well as "Intermission 2" and "Ikari Gozen." "Frozer" confirms that she's only interested in girls.
  • Aurore is either lesbian or bisexual. While she's part of Adrien's fan club like in canon, she's also completely smitten over by Kagami as shown in "Despair Bear." She might be only lesbian though, considering her reaction to Adrien is far more controlled and less...lovestruck than that of the other fan club members.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • The comic starts out with one, with Chloé acquiring the Ladybug Miraculous instead of the Bee one she used in canon.
  • Vanisher's powerset is highly overhauled. Aside from having a different design from canon, she can not only turn invisible but turn other people invisible too (as well as inaudible), which she does to Chloé. She can also merge in and out of reflective surfaces, effectively teleporting from one surface to another. This is how she comes into the classroom to mock Chloé. She can go back and forth between the real world and a parallel dimension where her victims can see the real world but not interact with it.
  • Marinette is given the Bee Miraculous, instead of the Ladybug, although Master Fu meant to give her the latter before Chloé stole it.
  • Nino, in canon, is the turtle-themed hero Carapace; in the comic, he is given the Fox Miraculous and becomes Foxtrot.
  • The reverse happens with Alya, who is in canon the fox-themed heroine Rena Rouge but in the comic receives the Turtle Miraculous and becomes Koki Marina.
  • In canon, Mylène becomes the mouse-themed hero Polymouse while in the comic, she is instead given the Dog Miraculous and becomes Ultimutt.
  • Sabrina canonically became the dog-themed hero Miss Hound while Lila only got akumatized as Volpina before stealing the Butterfly Miraculous. Here, Sabrina gets the Mouse Miraculous while Lila is given the Rooster Miraculous.
  • In this universe, Queen Wasp has the ability to both paralyze and Mind Control her victims.
• Adaptational Sympathy:
  • Chat Noir is hit with this in spades due to having to pick up the slack for his incompetent Nominal Hero of a partner while the latter takes all the credit.
  • Here, Aurore is akumatized after Alec Cataldi intentionally mocks her about losing the Weather Girl contest. Moreover, it's later revealed that Alec rigged the contest against her.
  • Alya was at least suspended for the punishable offense of snooping through Chloé's locker in canon "Lady Wifi." Here, she instead looked inside Marinette's locker after the two of them had already exchanged locker combinations, so she implicitly did have permission. Moreover, she's hit with a suspension without Marinette even being informed due to Chloé being angry Alya for merely suspecting that Marinette is Scarlet Lady, giving Alya a more sympathetic reason for her akumatization. The fact that she learns her lesson at the end and apologizes for not just asking Marinette also helps.
  • Multiple instances of this in "Rogercop":
    • Unlike the show, in which Sabrina completely ignores her "best friend" Chloé getting Sabrina's father Roger fired over a petty slight, the comic has Sabrina spiraling into a Heroic BSoD over the betrayal. Even when Roger reassures his daughter at the end that he got his job back with a promotion, Sabrina has difficulty forgiving Chloé for what she did.
    • Marinette invoking Everyone Is a Suspect in the canon episode was viewed as being no better than Chloé's baseless accusations. Here, it's presented as a fair observation of how the lack of evidence means everybody is a potential suspect. Granted, Marinette does phrase it differently, even if her point is the same. The webcomic also portrays her as a victim of both Chloé's biases and the inaction of the adults, which leads to Marinette becoming one of Rogercop's hostages after her own father failed to notice Chloé dragging her to the akuma. Lastly, Marinette is horrified when she sees Chloé's seeming Disney Villain Death and cries her eyes out over it.
    • Inverted for Mme. Bustier, Marlena, and Tom, with the comic highlighting how they aren't really trying to figure out a reasonable solution to the whole ordeal. Tom in particular gets this since he personally tells Marinette to let the adults handle everything despite their blatant inaction. He later also rather hypocritically scolds Alya for not stopping Chloé from dragging Marinette off to the akuma when he himself failed to act (and didn't even seem to notice his daughter was missing at first).
  • Inverted for D'Argencourt in "Darkblade." He still laments how his ancestor, The Black Knight, was overthrown after a rival bribed the populace, but here, it's portrayed as a case of Moral Myopia. Adrien even privately snarks that D'Argencourt's ancestor probably had it coming if he "ruled with an iron fist" (D'Argencourt's exact words) and all it took for the public to turn against him was someone giving money to the poor.
  • Played straight for Marinette while inverted for Max in "Gamer." In canon, the former was called out for being selfish due to only competing in the tournament to spend time with Adrien and stealing Max's spot in the tournament without considering his feelings and how much he wanted to compete, with Max's akumatization blamed entirely on her. Here, Max is instead portrayed as a Sore Loser who failed to qualify for the tournament fair and square and solely blames Marinette for it despite losing to two people (and likely cheating by using coded combos). Even the villains point this out to him, and he apologizes after having a Jerkass Realization.
  • Inverted for Timebreaker. In canon, it was rather ambiguous whether Timebreaker or Ladybug caused Chloé to drop the watch in the second timeline, making the akuma seem somewhat justified in blaming the heroine. Here, it's clear that Chloé dropped the watch due to Timebreaker startling her, and even the akuma herself seems to realize this. Thus, her decision to blame Chat Noir makes her much less sympathetic.
  • A possible minor example for Simon Says: it's implied here that Gabriel purposely caused his akumatization by setting him up for a fall in the gameshow.
  • While Lila was introduced as the same Manipulative Bitch she was in canon, her akumatization and hatred of the Ladybug heroine is completely justified here since Scarlet Lady responds to Lila's Celebrity Lie by throwing her into a fountain, which the class witnesses and Lila later catches a cold from. As Volpina, she is also shocked that Scarlet Lady doesn't care about civilians getting hurt, and she completes her Heel–Face Turn at the end of "La Befana," attending Marinette's birthday party, apologizing to the class for lying, and switching to Brutal Honesty instead.
  • Zigzagged for Kagami in "Riposte." On one hand, Kagami seems to have brought everything upon herself, with Marc noting that she gave up an impartial judge by suggesting that she and Adrien be disconnected from the machines. Marinette also points out that Kagami broke the rules by shoving Adrien off the mat and that the bout should've stopped then and there. On the other hand, the final call against her is even more blatantly biased than it was in canon.
  • In canon "Captain Hardrock," Anarka get akumatized after arguing with Roger over his justified decision to ticket her when her music shakes the entire street. In this story, the noise complaint comes before she's played a single note, with Roger even refusing to listen when she tries to explain herself.
  • Downplayed for XY. He's still the same Jerkass he was in canon, but it's easy to feel sorry 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 Abhorrent Admirer also helps.
  • Jagged has a more understandable reason for firing Vivica here: he wanted to hire Luka as his guitarist and play music with his kids, and he only used Vivica eating his cereal and drinking Fang's milk as an excuse.
  • Tomoe has a Freudian Excuse for not wanting her daughter to have any friends beyond simply being strict: her own friends abandoned her after she went blind.
  • "Crocoduel" reveals that instead of just walking out on his kids like in canon, Jagged has always wanted to be part of Luka and Juleka's lives and that Anarka purposely prevented it and also hid her pregnancy from him due to Bob Roth here forging a "Dear John" Letter claiming Jagged wanted nothing to do with Anarka and their children.
  • Inverted for Nadja, who is portrayed as an Immoral Journalist in "Prime Queen" when she starts asking Chat Noir and Marigold invasive questions about their supposed love lives and uses out-of-context photos to bolster her claims. All the heroes call her out on this (yes, even Scarlet, though she admittedly was only upset the interview wasn't about her), and nobody seems to sympathize with the reporter when she heroes walk out on the interview, nor when Nadja gets akumatized and becomes hellbent on getting her "scoop" about Chat Noir and Marigold 's relationship. In fact, at the end of the episode, Alya and Lila are more incredulous that Nadja was given a new show immediately after her old one got cancelled.
  • Also inverted for Mme. Bustier, who is portrayed as a Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher and Chloé's biggest enabler instead of the universally beloved Cool Teacher she is in canon. In "Zombizou," Marinette gives her a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech when her teacher tries to convince her to forgive Chloé for ruining her gift, and after the titular akuma is defeated, Marigold tells Mme. Bustier how misguided the latter's belief that negative emotions must be avoided is. Afterwards, most of the class is revealed to consider Mme. Bustier a prime example of how Adults Are Useless, with it also being revealed that the teacher knew about Sabrina doing Chloé's schoolwork for years yet refused to act on it.
  • While it's given the Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse treatment, it's pointed out that Chloé actually has a reason for acting how she does — her mother is so neglectful of her that Chloé's taken to copying her nasty attitude to try and win her love, and none of the influential adults in her life do anything to stop her bullying, instead outright enabling it by giving in to her demands (Mayor Bourgeois) or telling her victims to Turn the Other Cheek (Bustier). Compare this to canon, which briefly toyed with the idea of Chloé having a Freudian Excuse before ditching it entirely in favor of a "no one influenced her, she was just born evil" narrative.
• Adaptational Villainy
  • Gamer takes a disturbing amount of glee in annihilating helpless civilians.
    Gamer: Nothing says "Best Gamer Ever" like gaining EXP from NPCs with no defensive capabilities!
  • As the story progresses, Chloé degenerates from self-serving to flat-out evil far faster than she did in canon; in "The Gamer," she deliberately draws Marinette into the line of fire of an akuma to get her out of the way so she can have Adrien to herself while in "Reflekta" she explicitly hopes that her cruelty to Juleka gets her akumatized so that she can show off.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • Marinette is an ordinary student since she never got the Ladybug Miraculous in this timeline, though it's downplayed because she's still a Badass Normal who helps against the akumas. She is eventually given the Bee Miraculous to make up for Scarlet Lady and becomes the beloved and noble Marigold.
  • Chloé/Scarlet Lady is far less competent than canon Ladybug or even Queen Bee because she doesn't bother to actually train or do any fighting, instead just using Lucky Charm and Miraculous Cure as needed. This is because she didn't have a superhero to look up to previously like how Chloé in canon initially looked up to Ladybug.
  • Heavily downplayed with Adrien/Chat Noir, who is shown in "Evillustrator" to be extremely claustrophobic and can't focus properly when the villain traps him and Marinette in a glass box, even when she tells him how they can escape.
  • The webcomic gives Puppeteer a weakness that she didn't explicitly have in the show: even if she has a hero's doll, as long as the hero remains untransformed, Puppeteer cannot force a transformation or use her Mind Control powers if neither she nor Hawkmoth know the hero's civilian identity.
  • Downplayed for Mme. Bustier, who also let Chloé's bullying go largely unpunished in the show. However, she at least showed somewhat of a backbone in season 5 when she learned Chloé had been making Sabrina do all her schoolwork for years, telling Sabrina to never do it again and Chloé that she'll have to make up all the assignments that she never actually did. The webcomic instead has it so that Bustier found out about Chloé's plagiarism years ago but refused to step in (and may have even encouraged Sabrina to be Chloé's Homework Slave).
  • Alix isn't given the Rabbit Miraculous (or any other since they are taken up by other characters) because (with the exception of "Timebreaker") the author does not want to include time travel in the comic. This is eventually zig-zagged when adult Bunnix makes a surprise appearance in "Intermission 3"; Caprikid figures that she most likely got her Miraculous in the future, but Word of God says that this is the canon version of her watching the comic's events, leaving it uncertain as to whether Alix will ever receive the Rabbit Miraculous in the Scarlet Lady timeline or not.
  • Marc is in a similar situation to Alix because their Miraculous from canon is taken up by Lila instead.
• Adapted Out: The AU's changes have (or will, by Word of God) resulted in several heroes and villains not appearing.
  • For the villains, akumas from filler episodes (like Santa Claws and Gigantitan) will not be adapted, and some villains don't appear because their plots simply wouldn't work. However, Gigantitan does appear as one of the red akumas in "Catalyst".
    • Since Chloé is the Ladybug heroine here, she has no reason to become Antibug—that episode instead focuses on a revamped Vanisher.
    • Dark Owl was defeated because Chat Noir and Ladybug trusted each other; Chat has an antagonistic relationship with Scarlet Lady here, so neither of them would trust the other with anything.
    • Timetagger and Chat Blanc won't appear because the author dislikes including time travel (Timebreaker gets a pass because she doesn't go that far back). However, Chat Blanc does appear in an illusion in "Catalyst" as part of Hawkmoth's plan to destroy Paris' hope.
    • Only a few of the villains from season 3 appear: Silencer, Ikari Gozen, Desperada, and Party Crasher. From season 4, "Crocoduel" was adapted, but it features two previous villains (albeit with redesigns).
    • Even though Zoé eventually appears, she doesn't get akumatized into Sole Crusher, and in fact becomes the only character aside from Chloé, Adrien, and Marinette to recieve a Miraculous without having been akumatized prior. However, she does get affected by a red akuma as Vesperia on Heroes Day.
  • On the heroes' side, Bunnix doesn't appear because of the aforementioned ban on time travel (though the canon Bunnix makes a cameo in "Intermission 3" when she decides to visit the Scarlet Lady universe) and Mister Bug doesn't appear because Adrien wouldn't want to give the earrings back. Also, many canon heroes don't appear due to certain Miraculous having different owners:
    • Alya and Nino have their Miraculous swapped from canon, meaning that Carapace and Rena Rouge don't appear.
    • Polymouse and Miss Hound also don't appear because Sabrina and Mylène also have their Miraculous swapped from canon.
    • Similarly, Rooster Bold doesn't appear because Lila is given the Rooster Miraculous instead due to her Adaptational Heroism.
  • Nino's crush on Marinette is nowhere to be found in "Animan" outside of a brief prank he pulled on Adrien at the start of the episode. Instead, he uses the zoo trip to hook up Marinette with Adrien.
  • Several reveals about Gabriel and other rich peers from later seasons don't seem canon in this AU due to Zoe scripting her version of the series well before they happened. These inculde the "Rich Person Cult" that is shown, and that Adrien, Felix, and Kagami are sentimonsters made with the Peacock miraculous to be perfect children. As of the currently released comic episodes, it seems likely that they're all normal human children. Additionally, there's no particular indication that Tomoe owns a company is making the tech brought up in the show such as the AI companions.

• Adults Are Useless:
  • Zigzagged in "Lady Wifi." On one hand, Principal Damocles is easily cowed by Chloé, who threatens to call her father, into suspending Alya for a full week simply for looking inside Marinette's locker (which Marinette had already given her the combination to), all without even getting Marinette herself involved. On the other hand, when Alya's mother learns about the Disproportionate Retribution against her daughter, she becomes enraged that neither she nor her husband had been contacted before it was handed down and calls the school to complain, leading to the punishment being lifted.
  • During "Rogercop," Tom chides his daughter to let the adults handle the problem... and then proceeds to do absolutely nothing about it, with the other adults also proving completely unhelpful. This is Lampshaded by Marinette giving him a disbelieving, disgusted look and later by Alya blowing off his later attempt to call her out on her own inaction.
  • Mayor André lets Marinette take charge of the defense efforts against Darkblade, too terrified to act himself.
  • Zigzagged with Sabine between "Darkblade" and "The Gamer." In the former, she lets Sabrina up into Marinette's room, giving her the chance to steal Marinette's diary. However, when Chloé attempts to con her way into the bakery in the latter episode, Sabine is having none of it, recognizing her as her daughter's long-time bully. It's also implied that she learned from the last incident and is keen to avoid any repeats.
  • "La Befana" opens with Chloé crying to Mme. Bustier about how the other students are excluding her from a party and their teacher promptly scolding them, ordering them to invite her. This is despite the fact that they're discussing Marinette's birthday party, which isn't being held at school.
  • In "Evillustrator," Mlle. Mendeleiev puts Marinette in the same group for the physics report as Chloé and Sabrina and apparently doesn't even realize due to her Selective Obliviousness that Marinette is Chloé's favorite bullying victim while Sabrina is Chloé's lackey.
  • "Zombizou" repeatedly brings up how Mme. Bustier is this:
    • When Chloé vandalizes Marinette's gift for Mme. Bustier, the teacher's reaction is to say that she'll treasure it as the work of both Marinette and Chloé and then ask Marinette to forgive the unrepentant Chloé. Marinette gives her a scathing What the Hell, Hero? in response.
    • Juleka later notes that Mme. Bustier didn't do anything to prevent the class's picture from being taken despite knowing that Juleka was in the bathroom at the time.
    • Mme. Bustier found out about Sabrina being Chloé's Homework Slave years ago, yet refused to step in. In fact, Word of God strongly indicates Bustier even encouraged Sabrina to do Chloé's homework for her.
      #'if sabrina shows chloe how to do it then she'll know exactly what to do!' #'the perfect little educational role model!' ~bustier probably
  • In "Reverser," after Chloé makes a huge scene in front of the art club before storming off, the art teacher chides Alix for not giving Chloé a chance to share her project. Alix retorts that Chloé is a known bully, Spoiled Brat, and thief who would've tried hijacking the whole club. Subverted during the denouncement when the art teacher informs Chloé that she's been banned for destroying Marc's journal.
  • The girls initially think adults will be able to stop the party at Agreste Manor in "Party Crasher"; instead, the adults just join in on the fun. The girls eventually decide to ask for Luka's help, and the captions quips that the girls should know by now they can't rely on adults in the comic's universe.
• An Aesop:
  • "Troublemaker" ends with Marinette learning the lesson that she shouldn't overextend herself. She tells her parents that she needs notice before being asked to babysit or help out at the bakery due to how busy she is nowadays due to Jagged Stone's promotion and her duties as both class president and Marigold.
  • Max gets a lesson about sportsmanship and sexism after having a Jerkass Realization at the end of "The Gamer" when Scarlet thanks him for only going after Marinette as an akuma while ignoring Adrien, who also beat Max in the tryouts. The next day, he apologize to Marinette for how he unfairly blamed her and wishes her luck in the tournament.
  • After Zombizou is defeated, the heroes tell Mme. Bustier that having negative feelings is perfectly normal and nothing to feel ashamed about; it's how you handle them that matters. Unfortunately, Caline doesn't quite get this as she goes right back to coddling Chloé and brushing off the rest of the class's dislike of their bully.
• Affectionate Parody: For the most part, the story follows the events in canon to a T while also poking fun at certain aspects of the show and calling out some of the characters' less than stellar decisions.
• Alas, Poor Villain: A minor example in "Rogercop"; after she watches Chloé tumble out of Rogercop's flying car (not knowing she transformed into Scarlet Lady), it's clear in her next appearance that Marinette was crying over her supposed death.
• All for Nothing:
  • Played for Laughs in "Ikari Gozen." Marinette, Kagami, and their friends join the scavenger hunt to lessen the chances of Adrien having to spend the day with a Loony Fan or a creepy older person. Not only does the rejection of Chloé's application imply that they screen for such fans, at the end, Freddie reveals the game has an age limit, meaning there wasn't any need to worry about an older person winning either.
  • Similarly, in "The Mime," Marinette's catastrophizes over accidentally deleting Alya's video, only to learn Alya's phone makes automatic cloud backups of her videos.
  • Gabriel implies he spent months coming up with and planning for Style Queen. Marigold effortlessly solos her in a few minutes.
  • Chloé finally decides to sacrifice her big juicy secret about being Scarlet Lady in "Queen Wasp" and transforms in public to impress her mother... who is completely indifferent to the reveal and still more interested in Marinette's potential as a designer. Moreover, because she made a very public announcement about leaving Paris just a short while ago, not only does the city now hate her for almost abandoning them, it's all but stated that this move will cost Chloé the Ladybug Miraculous.
• Always Save the Girl: Adrien wastes no time trying to save Marinette in both of his identities during "The Gamer," much to Chloé's ire, as she is trying to use the akuma to kill Marinette.
• And I Must Scream: Vanisher's new powers in this comic include making people not only unable to be seen or heard by anyone, but also unable to interact with anything unless she herself allows it. Chloé is the only person she uses it on, though.
• The Annotated Edition: In this case, it's an annotated cartoon panel. In "Vanisher," Marinette gives out bee-themed ornaments as gifts to the girls in her class. There is a second image with pictures of faces pointing to each ornament, showing who got what.
• Answer Cut:
  • In "Captain Hardrock," Officer Raincomprix is asked who made the noise complaint. The next panel shows Chloé exclaiming, "Yoo-hoo!"
  • In "Silencer," Bob Roth asks where Scarlet Lady is; the next panel shows she's snuggling a tied up and very annoyed XY.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Played for Laughs in "Stormy Weather" when Marinette recognizes the akumatized Aurore and asks why she's at the park. The titular akuma responds by saying she's now Stormy Weather... followed by a beat as she wonders why she came to the park:
    Aurore: Wait, why did I come here? It's just balloons.
  • Adrien asks about having a party in "The Bubbler":
    Adrien: Did Father say anything about having a party?
    Nathalie: He... doesn't think it's a good idea.
    Adrien: But... why?
    Nathalie: BECAUSE-!
    [beat]
    Adrien: You got nuthing.
  • Marinette comes up with one when Alya phones her to say Chloé is using Jagged Stone to buy votes.
    Marinette: Wait, what are you doing over there already?
    Alya: Um...
  • Sabrina gives Chloé a good one in "Reflekta" about the latter's photo with Adrien. Subverted in that Chloé is so delusional, she completely ignores it.
    Chloé: I won't let her ruin my picture with Adrien!
    Sabrina: The one where he pushes you off of him?
  • Adrien manages to cover up the fact that he'd taken the Grimoire to Master Fu with one. Gabriel is caught so off guard he drops the issue immediately and does not question Adrien's claim that he had the book all along.
    Gabriel: Why did you not say so before?
    Adrien: Would you have listened?
  • Adrien gets another one, once again to his father, at the end of Gorizilla. After learning that Adrien went to a showing of his mother's movie, Gabriel tries to tell Adrien that he needs to trust him, only to be met with:
    Adrien: But you've never given me a reason to?
  • Chloé tells Tikki at the end of "Sandboy" that she doesn't want Hawkmoth to be found because then she wouldn't get to be a hero anymore. Tikki is very unimpressed.
    Tikki: [while giving a looming Death Glare] Chloé. Are you refusing this god's right to stop a great evil for the sake of your ego?
    Chloé: Um...
  • Sabrina uses this in "Frightingale" to destroy the mayor's attempt to cancel Clara's video shoot.
    Sabrina: M. Mayor, if a signature is all you need, you know fax machines exist for just this purpose, yes?
    Mayor Bourgeois: Uh, the office is closed on weekends!
    Sabrina: Oh? Then how did your office notice the absence of a single permit? You didn't tirelessly look for an excuse to shut down an approved and publicly marketed filmshoot, did you?
    Mayor Bourgeois: N-no, of course not!
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • In "Horrificator," while everyone else gives valid reasons as to why Chloé shouldn't take the lead role in the movie (she deliberately scared Mylène off so she could have the part), Adrien adds that she can't even remember the characters' names.
  • Inverted near the end of "Darkblade" when Chloé protests that her classmates didn't vote for her despite accepting her CDs. Kim and Max compare them to campaign buttons while Rose snaps about how she abandoned them the moment Darkblade showed up.
• Artifact Title: Chloe loses her rings midway through "Queen Wasp" and never gets them back, meaning there's no more Scarlet Lady, making the title this trope from that point onwards.
• Artistic License – Child Labor Laws: The reveal that Théo Barbot attends Collège Françoise Dupont (at a French collège, the oldest students would be 15) while having around five jobs implies this. With a few exceptions for modeling and the entertainment industry, youths under 16 can only do "light work" during the holidays in France. Théo's case may be partially explained by exceptions that would allow them to work under an apprenticeship or for a family business (Nino mentions that Théo's parents own a studio). It's also possible that Théo was held back a year and is thus older than 15, meaning fewer restrictions apply. Alternatively, Artistic License – Education is in play, with French collèges catering to ages outside 11 to 15 in this universe.
• Artistic License – History: Lampshaded in "The Pharaoh" when Jalil introduces his theories regarding the scroll, only for Alix to snark about how inaccurate his claims are.
  Jalil: Papa, look, this is Akhenaten and Nefertiti. She died before him—
  Alix: She literally didn't.
  Jalil: —and Ra made her his goddess.
  Alix: He literally wouldn't.
  Jalil: Akhenaten offered up a new wife to Ra so his would be brought back to life.
  Alix: Dude, Egyptians would be super not into that.
  Jalil: This scroll details that very ritual - and only I have deciphered the hieroglyphics!
  Alix: Lieeeeees!
  Jalil: WOULD YOU STOP THAT?!
  Alix: PEDDLE YOUR BAD FANFIC SOMEWHERE ELSE!
• Artistic License – Law Enforcement: "Rogercop" has Mayor Bourgeois fire Officer Raincomprix for refusing to break the law at Chloé and the mayor's demands, only for the mayor to hire Roger back at the end of the episode and promote him to Brigadier General, which isn't a real police rank in France. It's possible the author meant to use Brigadier (the rank Roger was promoted to in the show), a French Municipal Police rank that used to be given after four years of service as a Gardien-bridagier (the lowest Municipal Police rank), though it was discontinued as an official rank in March 2017 (before the webcomic episode's release) and amended to a title instead. Moreover, Gardien-bridagiers are usually eligible for promotion to Brigadier-chef principal after a few years of service in their rank. Roger Raincomprix has been a police officer for fifteen years already, so he would've long already attained the title/rank of Brigadier and had likely already been promoted above it, meaning Brigadier would more likely be a demotion. Additionally, while the Municipal Police is under the direct authority of the mayor, it's extremely unlikely that the mayor would have the power to unilaterally dismiss an officer from the force without just cause or give promotions (which normally involves a lengthy process of registering on an annual promotion table that will be reviewed by a committee). Lastly, at the time the webcomic episode came out, Paris didn't even have a Municipal Police, with the Paris Police Prefecture instead being a detachment of National Police that reports directly to the Ministry of the Interior and which the Mayor of Paris has no power over. Of course, "Captain Hardrock" eventually reveals that André Bourgeois was pulling a Bavarian Fire Drill and never actually had the authority to fire Roger in the first place, meaning he was likely lying about Roger's promotion as well.
• Artistic License – Politics:
  • Mayor Bourgeois attempts to illegally confiscate Nino's phone in "Rogercop," only for Nino to shout that his parents won't vote for André once they hear how the incumbent mayor tried to steal from their son, and the other adults seemingly hint that they won't be voting for André, either. In Real Life, Parisians don't vote for their mayor directly, and the Council of Paris instead elects the Mayor of Paris from among its members. On the other hand, every member of the Council of Paris is still elected by their arrondissement (administrative district), on whose Council they also sit. It's not confirmed whether all the adults live in the same arrondissement as André Bourgeois, though, and canonically, Marinette's family lives in the fictional 21st arrondissement of Paris (there are only twenty Parisian arrondissements in real life).
  • Likewise, D'Argencourt is stated in "Darkblade" to have been André Bourgeois's unsuccessful rival in the mayoral elections, but there's no mention of the former being elected to the Council of Paris or serving on an arrondissement council. In fact, D'Argencourt continuing to work as a teacher at Collège Françoise Dupont seems to outright refute that.
• Artistic License – Sports: While the author does portray fencing more accurately in "Riposte" than the show did, she openly admits she wasn't particularly thorough in her research, which led to various fencing rules still being broken in Adrien and Kagami's bout. To be fair, D'Argencourt seemed to have forgotten about the rules due to being too excited by the match being "real fencing," and everyone else who did recognize the various rule breakages likely realized it was futile trying to bring them up, given D'Argencourt ignored Marinette both times she tried to tell him. Adrien is also implied to have been focused more on looking good in front of Marinette during the bout and later seemed to feel Kagami deserved to join the team regardless of the rule breakages.
  • Downplayed when Marinette declares that Kagami shoving Adrien off the mat is a corps à corps, which is actually a general term for any bodily contact in fencing. A more accurate term would be jostling, though Marinette is nevertheless correct that the bout should've been halted then and there.
  • Aside from the corps à corps, nobody points out Kagami's other illegal moves, such as turning her back to her opponent and, if we assume the fight followed canon, crossing her feet twice (though Adrien committed many of the same offenses in the canon episode).
  • In fencing, a bout ends when one of the fencers retreats off the mat, yet Adrien and Kagami continued theirs all the way to the library, apparently without anyone attempting to get them to stop. However, Marinette later correctly points out that Adrien should've been penalized for stepping off his end of the fencing piste, though nobody really listens to her.
  • When D'Argencourt asks who won, he only cares about who struck first, even though in sabre fencing, it's possible to get the point without touching first if you have priority (in the canon episode, this was actually mentioned at the end of Adrien's bout with Marinette, though not for his bout with Kagami). Likewise, Adrien doesn't mention priority when he later insists that he thinks Kagami touched first and thus won their bout.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Alix didn't appear at all in "The Pharaoh" in the show; in SL canon, however, she has a far larger part, acting as the catalyst for Marinette and Alya to come to the museum and snarking at all the chaos that happens as a result.
  • Marc has an Adaptational Early Appearance in "Riposte" where they watch the fencing tryouts for writing references (Chloé also watches because Adrien is there).
  • In canon, Lila completely disappeared between "Volpina" and the season 2 finale. Here, however, she shows up again in the very next episode ("The Collector") and returns to school, becoming a recurring character.
• Attack Backfire: A corrupted Marigold in "Dark Cupid" strike at Chat Noir with her top, only to miss and ruin Chloé's framed poster of Adrien instead. To Marigold's frustration, Chat Noir is very happy that the poster was destroyed since he found it quite disturbing that Chloé had it.
• Attention Whore: One of Chloé's motivations to play the hero is the idea of having all of Paris' attention. Unfortunately for her, it's also one of her Fatal Flaws.
• Author Avatar: The artist makes a cameo appearance at the start of "Princess Fragrance" as Zoe Rapporte, the Enchanted Florist.

B

• Backhanded Compliment:
  • Hilariously inverted in "Dark Cupid" when many victims of the akuma's Hate Plague make insults that sound more like disguised compliments:
    • Rose declares that she's sickened by how tall and gorgeous Juleka is. Juleka wonders if she's supposed to feel offended.
    • Similarly, the corrupted Marigold isn't exactly good with the insults:
    Marigold: Ugh, your kindness and friendliness is insufferable.
    Chat Noir: Wow, you're really bad at being mean. Thank you?
    Marigold: Shut up!
  • Lila claims to love Mme. Bustier's "morning compliment time" because it allows her to dish these to Chloé.
• Badass Boast: "Frightningale" has one from Lila, newly empowered by the Rooster Miraculous.
  Fenice: Call me Fenice, while you still can.
• Badass Normal:
  • Marinette might not have a Miraculous in this timeline, but she is still capable of ruining Hawkmoth's day when she gets dragged into akuma fights. "Timebreaker" reveals that Sabine has forced her to take martial arts training because of her tendency to get caught up in Hawkmoth's plots, which she uses to good effect against the titular villain.
  • Nathalie demonstrates this in "Simon Says," much like how she was shown to be a skilled fighter in canon.
  • Following the lead of Nathalie and Marinette, Nino also gets an Improvised Weapon and plays a part in distracting Simon Says.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Predicting that the Bee Miraculous will draw attention, especially from Alya, Marinette spends an entire night creating several Bee-themed resin accessories to share with the girls of her class. That way, nobody suspects the Bee Miraculous to be out in the open.
  • After being denied permission from Mlle. Mendeleiev to go to the principal's office to get Markov, Marinette suggests that her teacher might be jealous of the robot, hoping that Mlle. Mendeleiev will send her to the principal's office as "punishment"; it works like a charm.
  • Zoé tricks Audrey into accepting Chloé's gift by implying Audrey isn't into new things. The critic is enraged by this since she prides herself as being the discoverer of new things and thus demands Chloé hand over the present to her.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Mayor André seems to have a habit of tricking people into thinking he has more power than he actually does so he can better cater to his daughter's demands.
  • He temporarily "fires" Roger in "Rogercop" despite it being outside the mayor's jurisdiction; Roger doesn't find out the truth until they and Sabrina look into things much later.
  • "Frightningale" sees the mayor claim that Clara Nightingale is missing a permit in an attempt to shut down her music video shoot. It would've worked if Sabrina hadn't seen through the lie by noticing how strange it is that the mayor's office just noticed this despite being closed.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Chloé asks the Bubbler to play a slow song, hoping to cozy up to Adrien. The akuma complies, but Adrien ends up slow dancing with Marinette instead.
  • As her isolation in "Vanisher" wears upon her, Chloé cries out, "Please... someone... pay attention to me!" Vanisher is standing right behind her as she says this and decides to move on to the next stage of her plan by threatening Chloé directly.
  • Played for Laughs in "Pixelator" when Adrien begs Alya to switch jobs with him so he won't have to work the front desk alongside Chloé. Alya quickly turns his offer down and bluntly states she wouldn't even think about taking his job... only to quickly learn she'll be sorting through the trash.
  • A couple examples in "Guitar Villain":
    • 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.
  • Played for Laughs in "Despair Bear" when Alya snarks about Nino not complimenting her like Adrien did Marinette, only to be embarrassed by his Comical Overreaction.
  • Chloé throws a snit fit in "Malediktator" because her father isn't an Ultimate Authority Mayor who's able to enforce his will upon others, mainly because she sees him as nothing more than a vehicle for enforcing her will. As Malediktator, André gains precisely the sort of power she desired him to hold... except he uses it to enforce HIS will, not hers, and that includes intending to force her to do as he desires.
• Being Evil Sucks: "Syren" features Adrien and Master Fu discussing how unhappy Scarlet Lady is over being out of the loop about certain secrets; they quickly agree they have No Sympathy for her, with Fu even scoffing, "Well, sucks for her." The author compares this with what Chat Noir seemed to think in canon "Or how certain people THINK canon Syren went LOL."
• Beleaguered Assistant:
  • Tikki and, to a lesser extent, Sabrina play this role to Chloé, constantly snarking at her vanity, selfishness, and stupidity. Sabrina stops being this after breaking off her friendship with Chloé, though she's still quick to mock her former friend when given the chance.
  • Nathalie has her moments where she acknowledges the stress of working for a Control Freak fashion magnate-cum-supervillain, such as when she quietly prays not to get akumatized for not having a gift for Adrien ready in "The Bubbler" or mouths off at Gabriel when he attacks her in "The Collector."
• Believing Their Own Lies:
  • Chloé suffers quite a bit from this, naturally:
    • She thinks she was meant to be the Ladybug Miraculous holder, that she's doing a magnificent job as a heroine, and that Adrien loves her. In truth, she stole the Ladybug earrings from the intended person (Marinette), she rarely (if ever) actually does anything beyond using Miraculous Ladybug to repair the damage caused, and Adrien increasingly see her as an annoyance and Abhorrent Admirer.
    • In "Despair Bear," after crying over Adrien declaring they weren't friends anymore, she thinks that throwing a party will prove she is nice and get her back into Adrien's good graces. Unlike in canon, Butler Jean doesn't really encourage this belief, saying only, "Uh, sure," with a Sweat Drop speech balloon, though Chloé later yells that she's had enough of his stupid party after hitting her Rage Breaking Point. Moreover, by the end of the chapter, she's wholly convinced herself that Adrien was the one who overreacted by ending their friendship and that she and Adrien are still friends because she forgives him for being dramatic.
    • Chloé tries to trick Adrien's fan club into thinking she's his Valentine by forging his signature on a perfume ad poster of him. They immediately recognize the forgery and call her out on her lie, and the poster is next shown to have had the bottom portion, presumably including the signature, torn off. Nevertheless, Chloé seems to have genuinely started believing the poster was autographed by Adrien, continuing to describe it as such to Chat Noir and Marigold when they are standing right in front of it and can clearly see there's no signature. She even has the ripped poster put in a 24-carat gold frame and cries over it when it gets destroyed.
  • Despite no longer respecting Scarlet Lady as a Worthy Opponent after witnessing her bossy attitude and Skewed Priorities in "Simon Says," Gabriel continues to deny her incompetence due to not wanting to admit to losing to an Idiot Hero.
• Beneath the Mask: At the end of "Captain Hardrock," Gabriel responds to Adrien's request to play a duet with him by immediately allowing him to attend his friends' concert. His inner thoughts reveal he hasn't played in a decade and is afraid of embarrassing himself.
• Berserk Button:
  • For Chloé, it's anyone ignoring her, badmouthing her, or getting in the way of her "romance" with Adrien. She's also infuriated by the mere idea of someone else being the Ladybug hero instead of her.
  • For Adrien, it's hurting Marinette—to the point that he almost transformed out in the open when the Bubbler sent her to space. Even Hawkmoth knows better than to tell his akumas to go after her (at least, not before they deal with Chat), and in "Troublemaker," he almost considers akumatizing her but quickly switches to Penny, feeling relieved that he has an alternative that won't instantly enrage Chat Noir.
  • Jalil really dislikes being corrected on all his wild claims about Egyptian mythology and history.
  • Alya warns that her father Otis "gets so weird" when people engage him in front of the animals. This may be especially true of the new panther since he "switched zoos with it."
• Big Bad Ensemble: Hawkmoth is out for Scarlet Lady and Chat Noir's Miraculous, but Chloé is responsible for many of the akumas (which she is aware of and uses to her advantage) and has no qualms abusing her Miraculous to sabotage anyone in her way despite being one of the "heroes."
• Big Entrance: Alix shows up for her big race in "Timebreaker" via shoving Chloé out of the way, all the while sassing her for making fun of the others when she wasn't even invited.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • During the battle with Stoneheart, Marinette arrives just in time to get Alya out of the way of a flying soccer net.
  • Chat Noir catches Marinette when she's hurled by Stoneheart from the Eiffel Tower.
  • Rose performs a Diving Save on Sabrina in "Reflekta."
  • Marinette, while wielding the Cat Miraculous as Maotif, saves Scarlet Lady from Reflekta.
  • Marigold makes her debut by striking Vanisher before the akuma can attack Chat Noir.
  • The members of Kitty Section and their friends work together to beach Captain Hardrock's pirate ship by using Chat Noir's baton to push and control the steering.
  • The heroes arrive just in time to prevent Syren from turning Kim into a merman.
  • Anarka and Luka arrive with the Liberty in "Syren" to rescue the classmates who are stranded on the roof of the theater (who might have drowned had the water had continued to rise).
  • Nathaniel manages to save Scarlet Lady, Chat Noir, and Marigold from drowning in "Reverser" when he pulls them out of the water by Scarlet Lady's yo-yo string.
  • Marigold uses Bee Balm to undo Style Queen's transformations and turn Adrien and Chloé back into humans. The Bee heroine then quickly carries Adrien to safety when Style Queen attacks in retaliation.
• Big Damn Kiss:
  • Chat Noir kissing Marigold in "Dark Cupid" looks like one, but it doesn't really count since Marigold doesn't remember it. However, Kim kissing Ondine soon after does count.
  • "Style Queen" has one between Adrien and Marinette (as Marigold) after they reveal that they've worked out each other's identities.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Word of God is that this is why Roger believes Chloé's claims in "Captain Hardrock": he has a very simplistic sense of justice that he takes to the point of self-destruction.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Whenever one of her schemes is exposed, Chloé tries to foist the blame off on Sabrina by insisting it was her idea. Nobody ever falls for it.
  • "The Gamer" sees Chloé attempt to bluff her way into the bakery by claiming they have a project together. Sabine doesn't buy it. Later in the episode, Scarlet responds to Chat's "Scar, what the hell?!" by claiming she just wanted to meet up with her sidekick in order to deal with the akuma, when in reality she was deliberately leading Gamer right to them in hopes that he'd zap Marinette.
  • In "Kung Food," Adrien arrives sweating and panting at Marinette's place and offers to use his Mandarin skills to help her, saying he was in the neighborhood when he got a call from Alya about Marinette's situation. However, an arrow pointing at him indicates he "ran right over."
  • Chloé claims she quit the jury for World's Greatest Chef to try and save face. Adrien swiftly tells her that he knows she was Caught on Tape sabotaging Wang Cheng's soup.
  • Chloé's account of what happened in the final confrontation with Evillustrator is completely fabricated, claiming that "Scarlet Lady handled it perfectly while Chat Noir wrecked my room!"
  • Near the end of "Vanisher," Marinette manages to avoid people suspecting her identity from seeing her wearing the Bee Miraculous by creating other bee-themed accessories and claiming that she was inspired by Marigold to make them. Meanwhile, when Nino points out that Adrien's ring looks like Chat Noir's, the latter says that he's had it for years (even though it's only been several months), with a narration box in the corner of the panel saying, "Just lies."
  • Upon arriving late to class due to an akuma fight, Marinette claims she had to take her dog to the vet after he ate all her socks. Mlle. Mendeleiev doesn't fall for it, and Chloé mocks her for how silly her excuse sounds.
  • In "Princess Fragrance," Chloé says that Kagami stole her "important bug plushie" but Marigold doesn't buy it. (It was actually Tikki.)
• The Blind Leading the Blind: Alix tries to avert this throughout "The Pharaoh" by repeatedly refuting her brother's wild claims. The narrative commentary under Part 5 notes that, "Alix had to shut Jalil up before he messed everyone up on tomorrow's test."
• Blood from the Mouth: Every time someone tries to say a too big of a lie (like Marinette claiming she and Chat Noir are Just Friends), you can be freaking sure it'll make them puke blood. It happens so often it's a Running Gag.
• Book Ends: The banner for "Origins Part 1" shows Chloé as Scarlet Lady winking at the camera, marking the beginning of her career as the titular "heroine". The banner for "Queen Wasp" shows her in the same pose — except this time her outfit is patterned after the titular akuma, marking the end of her time as Scarlet Lady.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • When Marinette isn't around to come up with a plan on how to use the Lucky Charm (which is often a Rube-Goldberg solution), the two heroes typically defeat the akuma by just throwing the Lucky Charm at the akuma's head or hitting the akuma with it.
  • At the end of "Vanisher," when Nino notes the resemblance Adrien's ring bears to Chat Noir's, Adrien tells a rather simple and straightforward lie that he's had it for years. In contrast, Marinette comes up with a rather elaborate trick to ward off suspicion about her new bee-themed hair clip by making several similar bee-themed trinkets that she shares with the girls in her class.
  • In a strange reversal, Adrien takes the more complicated approach to making sure he's never called on again as Aspik, giving a Deliberate Under-Performance and "messing up" repeatedly over several loops. Marinette, on the other hand, ensures her stint as Multimouse in "Puppeteer" is a one-time thing by "accidentally" removing the Mouse Miraculous and thus detransforming into her civilian identity in public before witnesses.
  • Alya tracks Hawkmoth by calculating the time between the triggering effect and akumatization for Hawkmoth's victims and using triangulation based on it. She tells Marinette at the end of "Party Crasher" that it's led her to Gabriel Agreste.
• Bound and Gagged: Marinette gets hit with a variation this in "Copycat." The titular villain first chains her up but doesn't gag her until after he realizes she posted his hideout's location on social media.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Upon first seeing Plagg, Marinette panics and screams, "Tiny cat! Mouse! Tiny cat-mouse!"
• Breaking Old Trends: As shown by the season 5 index, the first four seasons of Scarlet Lady have ten episodes each (intermissions not included) while the final season has thirteen.
• Bribe Backfire: Chloé attempts to buy her classmates' votes in the class representative race by offering them free CDs, throwing a fancy campaign launch, and hiring Jagged Stone to sign autographs at said launch. The class shows up and happily accepts the free giveaways while still fully intent on voting for Marinette, meaning Chloé wasted all her money for nothing in return. Moreover, she later makes an Accidental Public Confession when she complains about this in front of the teacher, causing her to be questioned about trying to bribe her classmates.
• Brick Joke:
  • After Gabriel rejects Nino's request to throw a birthday party for Adrien in "The Bubbler" while insulting his son's friend, Adrien bluntly declares that he's dyeing his hair green. He follows through the next day, with his hair highlighted via a Splash of Color.
  • In his Establishing Character Moment, Rogercop sentences Mlle. Mendeleiev to clean the sidewalks. When Chat Noir fights him, the akuma tosses Chat Noir into a dumpster—the same one that Mlle. Mendeleiev is throwing what she's cleaning off the sidewalks inside.
  • When her boss attacks her as the Collector, Nathalie declares that "I'm going to hit you when you lose." She keeps her promise, giving him a nice smack on the back of the head as the heroes leave.
  • In "Kung Food," Hawkmoth tells the villain to get his slaves to attack Chat Noir first rather than Marinette since "attacking the girl never ends well." A few pages later, when Alec attacks Marinette first and makes Chat angry, Hawkmoth responds, "Dammit, what did I tell you?"
  • Lila asks in "Intermission" how much older Luka is than Juleka, to which Luka states, "Older." She continues her quest to find out just how much older in "Crocoduel" by asking Luka how old he's turning, though he simply replies, "One year older than last year," much to her frustration. She then surmises that he and Juleka must be twins since they have the same birthday, only for Luka to Troll her by pointing out they may have just been born on the same day years apart. Lila finally deduces the two are twins near the end of the episode because they're both Jagged's kids and congratulates herself for it, though Luka silently notes that she still hasn't figured out their actual ages.
  • Wayhem proclaims he'll save Adrien when the latter gets kidnapped in "Gorizilla" by the titular akuma. He does in fact help save Adrien from Gorizilla by returning Marigold's trompo to them so they can defeat the akuma.
  • Plagg leaves a sock puppet in his place prior to sneaking out of the manor in "Sandboy" to trick Adrien. Upon the Kwami's return, Adrien cries, "Oh thank God you're not a sock anymore, Plagg!"; he thought Plagg had been transformed as part of the nightmare.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • It's a work in progress throughout "Copycat." At first, Théo blames his heartbreak over Scarlet Lady's rejection of him on Chat Noir; the more he sees her in action, though, the more that pedestal gets chipped away. He's completely disillusioned with her by the end.
  • Prior to "Simon Says," Gabriel/Hawkmoth was under the opinion that Scarlet Lady hanging back was to protect her earrings and views her as a Worthy Opponent. However, in that episode, he sees her up close for the first time... and is not impressed by her shallow, vain, bossy personality or her trying to butter him up to get close to his son.
  • The first real cracks in Alya's admiration of Scarlet Lady come when she witnesses her dumping Lila into a fountain. While she reluctantly accepts Scarlet's excuse of ensuring that villains don't fall for Lila's claims and target her, it's clear that she's still shaken by the incident.
  • More cracks are formed for more people in "Despair Bear" when Scarlet Lady proudly proclaims that she's best friends with Chloé. Not only that, but everyone is able to watch as her incompetence leads to her getting possessed by Despair Bear and leaving her "sidekicks" to do most of the work.
  • Alya's fully breaks in "Anansi" when she becomes Koki Marina and gets the same treatment as Chat Noir and Marigold.
  • It's implied most of Paris has this view of Scarlet Lady after she makes an Accidental Public Confession in "Prime Queen" that she doesn't care who gets killed by an akuma due to her ability to bring people back with the Miraculous Cure, forgetting that the entire fight was being broadcast live.
  • By the time "Frightingale" rolls around, few people have any respect left for Scarlet Lady; everyone agrees with Clara that Scarlet doesn't belong in a "Heroes of Paris"-themed music video, and someone in the crowd outright says the Ladybug heroine sucks.
  • At the end of "Malediktator," Alya publishes an exposé on Scarlet Lady, ensuring everyone learns what the Ladybug heroine's been up to.
  • If anyone was still holding onto it, "Queen Wasp" finishes it off when Chloé transforms into Scarlet Lady in public, which, combined with Chloé's very public announcement about leaving Paris in "Malediktator" causes everyone to realize she was ready to abandon them all to Hawkmoth's mercy.
• Bruce Wayne Held Hostage:
  • In "Kung Food," as in canon, Chloé gets captured by the akuma's minions. Tikki was left behind in her purse and flies to her, thinking, "I hope Chloé doesn't anger the akuma and get killed before I get there." It gets even worse when she is tied up and dangled over boiling soup, and Tikki can't untie her without letting her drop. It takes a rescue by Chat Noir before she can hide and transform.
  • Chloé is effectively kidnapped in the eyes of the world in "Vanisher": while still physically free, she is invisible, inaudible, and intangible to everyone, including Tikki.
  • Both Chloé and Adrien get trapped in a void by Pixelator, leaving only Marigold free to save them.
  • In "Ikari Gozen," the titular villain accidentally imprisons Chloé instead of Kagami, meaning that she can't transform to escape without giving away her identity.
  • Chloé ends up in this situation again when she gets turned into a statue by Frightningale after failing to dance, sing, or rhyme. Bee Balm ends up freeing her shortly afterwards.
  • Not only does Adrien still get turned into a statue by Style Queen, but so does Chloé just moments later, with her role from the canon episode being taken up by Zoé instead. Once again, Marigold uses Bee Balm to free them.
• Bully Brutality: Chloé doesn't usually get physically violent with her bullying targets in her civilian form, but she definitely has no problem attacking them when she is Scarlet Lady (exhibit A: Lila Rossi). She also loves to enrage them as Chloé in order to cause their akumatization so she can justify hurting them (and get additional bullying ammo after they are deakumatized), and in "The Gamer," she even demonstrates that when it comes to getting rid of obstacles to Adrien's affections, she is not above attempted murder.
• …But He Sounds Handsome:
  • Naturally, Chloé is usually quick to praise herself no matter what form she's in: in civilian mode, she praises Scarlet Lady for being Paris's "best" hero, and in hero mode, she claims that Chloé is her best friend.
  • Adrien isn't above praising his own alter ego either, though it usually comes in response to Chloé going on and on about Scarlet Lady.
  • Marinette tells Chat Noir to give her alterego Marigold a chance when he initially expresses reservations about his new partner.
• Butt-Monkey: Nino is both physically and verbally harassed in "Horrificator" and has trouble commanding his classmates. For the most part, he deserves it due to his Acquired Situational Narcissism.

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