As a Role Swap AU where Tom Dupain-Cheng winds up in a position mirroring Gabriel's due to Hawkmoth winning and rewriting reality to suit his whims... there's plenty of tears to be shed in the Dad Villain AU.
- The central premise: not only did Gabriel get his way, he used his reality-rewriting Wish to punish Ladybug for the "grave and terrible crime" of not letting him terrorize Paris unchallenged. The bastard is so petty that he specifically Wished for the magical backlash from Emelie using the Peacock Pin would be redirected toward Ladybug and her loved ones. It doesn't matter to him that he won. It doesn't matter to him that reality will be rewritten so that Ladybug effectively never existed. All he cares about is making her suffer because he can.
- As a direct result of this? Sabine Dupain-Cheng is dead. Ripped away from everyone who loved her by a 'mysterious disease' caused by Emelie Agreste repeatedly using the Peacock Pin's powers despite it being clearly broken. Marinette lost her mother, Tom lost his wife, they were left to deal with the medical debts from all the specialists they sought out who weren't able to truly help them at all... all because of one man's selfishness.
- His wish also involved him being the only "person" to remember the old reality. However, he doesn't consider Kwami or sentimonsters to be "people", meaning they remember it as well. Which basically means that he doesn't consider his own son to be human.
- As a direct result of this? Sabine Dupain-Cheng is dead. Ripped away from everyone who loved her by a 'mysterious disease' caused by Emelie Agreste repeatedly using the Peacock Pin's powers despite it being clearly broken. Marinette lost her mother, Tom lost his wife, they were left to deal with the medical debts from all the specialists they sought out who weren't able to truly help them at all... all because of one man's selfishness.
- One Flashback shows what happened when Adrien got sick for the first time
. Emelie proved completely unable to handle it — not because she was actually worried about their son, but because his illness defied her ideas of how he should be "perfect". Despite Gabriel trying to explain to her that this was a sign of Adrien becoming a "real" child, she transformed into Mayura and ordered him to stop coughing.- The same flashback also reveals that the Gabriel native to this reality tried to reason with Emelie. But that incarnation of Gabriel Agreste ultimately suffered a Grand Theft Me when the Gabriel who made the Wish overwrote him. Meaning that Adrien lost the closest thing he had to a truly caring parent.
- Despite reality being reset, Chloé still convinced Kim to take advantage of Marinette's crush on him to play an exceptionally cruel prank. What makes it worse here is the timing: he just happened to stage said prank on the same day that Sabine had a particularly severe attack and wound up hospitalized. So an already horrible day at school became much worse as she had to face her mother's mortality.
- Tom's own father, Rolland, attempted to take advantage of Sabine being hospitalized and his son turning to him for help with the bakery by pulling a hostile takeover. Tom was barely out the door before he started berating his granddaughter, trying to force her to bake his way and follow his recipes. And when he didn't get what he wanted, he ultimately storms out of the bakery, slamming the door while leaving Marinette quietly stifling her tears as she continues the work alone.
- Rolland also dismisses the idea that Sabine is actually in dire straits, accusing her of faking its severity. Yet he also tells Marinette that "You don't know when your mother's coming back, if she ever is!" In essence, he implies that Sabine would abandon her daughter, while Sabine is slowly sucumbing to an illness he refuses to acknowledge is real. Talk about Kick the Dog...
- When Adrien confides in his mother about the strange dreams he's been having about a world where she was gone, her attempt to "comfort" him is entirely self-centered and self-serving. You can even see the point where his heart breaks, along with his regard for his mother.Adrien: You were gone, and dad was really mean and offstandish... it's weird because, in my dream, I made all these friends, and like... it felt really real. I feel like I had those friends, and I had people to talk to... They... they really helped me feel less alone.
Emelie: (petting his hair) Oh, Adrien... What an awful nightmare, no wonder you've been so out of sorts! At least you woke up, right?
Adrien: Yeah, I — uh, what?
Emelie: I'm sure you only felt lonely in that dream because I wasn't in it, Adrien. I'm your mother, if I wasn't here, of course you'd need a lot of friends to make up for it! Luckily I'm here to stay! I can't imagine what you'd do without me.
(Adrien stares at her in confused, Stunned Silence) - A Flashback to shortly after Nooroo's arrival at the bakery shows just how Tom's motivations differ from Gabriel: that he's not just trying to avenge his wife, but protect his daughter. Nooroo wakes up Tom and alerts him that he's slept in, and he rushes out to discover Marinette's already hard at work:Marinette: (battered, bruised, burned and blurry-eyed, yet beaming) It's okay papa! I got up early and opened the bakery today! I couldn't make the little danishes the way mama does, but the macarons sold really well! I also made sure the autopay on the electrical bill went through!
I also called back the physician Gina had us visit back in Italy and arranged a payment system, so we shouldn't gain too much interest if we pay it back before next quarter. OH, and I did manage to put a few bread rolls in the fridge to rise, so those need to be taken out and baked before we try to make any more cheesecake, because I'm really bad at water baths and I'll need the whole station for it in case I mess up.
I noticed you smelled kind of like wine this morning so I also put on a pot of coffee for you because I know it's been, um, it's been hard, and I looked it up and some people on a forum said that coffee can sometimes help with hangovers but I don't really know because you've never really drank that much in front of me before, so once you have breakfast you should be able to get back on track because I'm not as good as mom was at baking quickly but I followed all her recipes to the letter so they're still totally sellable, and every little bit helps, so just go ahead and have breakfast! You can leave the rest to me, papa!
Tom: (embracing her) Enough, enough... you don't have to keep cooking, Marinette. You can be sad, too.
Marinette: I can't... stop. We have bills to pay, and, and as long — as long as I'm cooking mom's recipes, she's still here. As long as I can smell her bread baking, she's still here. I can't let her leave... I'm not ready to let her go, papa... - Marinette's introduction to Nooroo:Tom: Do you remember, when you were very small, you wanted to be a 'knitting faerie' when you grew up? This is Nooroo, Marinette. He's not a knitting faerie, but I'm sure he has other talents he can show you, if you're nice.
Marinette: H... hello mister Noo-Roo... c-can you grant wishes?
Tom: He can't, but he has some friends that can. We'll be looking for them together sometimes. I hope you don't mind another roommate, little flower. - This scene has Adrien notice that Marinette's counting while watching him eat the sandwich she made for him. Upon being asked about this, she gets Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises before excusing herself. Tom then quietly takes Adrien aside to explain her reasoning:Tom: ...usually at this point I would escort people out, but she seems to like you, so I'll let you in on a secret. When Sabine was sick, Marinette would count the number of bites her mother would take out of her food, and match it. It was a sort of game she played to make sure her sickly mother finished her meals. In spite of everything, sometimes she still counts when people are eating. I don't tell most people this, but you seem to know what it's like to have strange behavior after losing someone close to you. What will you do now, Adrien?
(Cut to Marinette resting her head on a countertop, butterflies flitting around her. The butterflies are soon replaced by Adrien draping himself over her in a hug.) - One short scene has Marinette recounting to Adrien how her mother passed away:Marinette: well... it happened all at once, y'know? The doctors said that it could've been, like, a latent condition or something, that was triggered by some-thing or some-issue... a fancy way of saying they didn't know what was wrong. and... well. The doctors weren't cheap, and with mom suddenly fainting or getting these really bad seizures, she couldn't bake anymore... so I decided to start helping out. it kills me a little bit inside to think her last memories of dad and I are of the two of us pulling an all-nighter. I wish her last memory of us had been profound. I don't even remember what the last words I ever said to her were...
(Adrien embraces her tightly from behind, keeping his arms wrapped around her neck as she joins him in shedding a few tears)- As the note beneath that particular scene points out, Adrien fully understands what Marinette has been going through, as he experienced it himself in the original timeline, but has no way of explaining that to her.
- One of Emelie's casual activations of the Peacock Pin causes Marinette to collapse right in front of Adrien. Not only is this traumatic enough for both in its own right, it triggers another Flashback to the original timeline...Adrien: M-Marinette, what's wrong?!
Marinette: I, I don... I dunno, I, I... A-Adrien, c-cuh-can you c-call my p-papa — p-please...
Emelie: (in a ghostly image rising beside her) A-Adrien, c-cuh-can you c-call your p-papa — p-please...
Adrien: (with Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises) M-Mister Dupain-Cheng! There's an emergency! Please, come quick! Someone- L-Ladybug, h-help... T-Tom, Tom please, Marinette is hurt! - Adrien goes through the emotional ringer at the charity ball. Not only does he learn that his father was Hawkmoth, Gabriel openly brags about how he Wished for "anyone Ladybug loved" to suffer the backlash from Emelie using the Peacock Pin. This results in Adrien himself suffering the backlash from Emelie transforming into Mayura, struggling to breathe as he tries to process the news:Adrien: (thinking) Dad is Hawkmoth. My Dad is Hawkmoth. Hawkmoth is my dad. My dad, my dad, my dad — Dad, Hawkmoth, they, he — he's been killing Ladybug's loved ones? Mom's been — they made me — Making me killed Ladybug's family? But who could Ladybug be, in this timeline? Someone who's been losing everyone, I know Ladybug, she'd still be trying her best, no matter what, so who could she—
Marinette: Adrien please, you have to stay awake, okay? I have, I have mom's old medicine in the bakery still, it'll help, it'll help it has to help, please just hold on okay? I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere!
(she shields him from some pieces of rubble)
Marinette: Those crazy people are going to bring the whole building down! I've got to get you out of here—
Adrien: (weakly, with tears leaking from reddened eyes he can barely keep open) I'm so stupid... I'm sorry my lady...
Marinette: Adrien?
Adrien: I'm sorry, I'm so sorry — I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry...
Marinette: ...why are you apologizing?
Adrien: because I'm stupid, and I'm so sad, and I'm so happy too, but I'm mostly stupid. I'm sorry, Marinette. It's all my family's fault. It's my fault, too. I can't explain it, because there's too much to say, and I can't breathe real well right now, but I'm so happy that I'm the one fainting and not you. I'm glad it was you from the very start.
Marinette: ...
Adrien: You don't have to understand. And I don't think you should. My family has put you through enough as is. You need to run away, okay? You need to run away and go get help. I'll be... I'll be fine, okay?
Marinette: (still shielding him with her body, pushing up off the floor as white wings frame her eyes and Viceroy akumatizes her) I don't need to understand everything to save you!
