Panthera Noire (left) and Ladybug (right)
The Adventures of Panthera Noire
is a Miraculous Ladybug Fanfic by Sorry Just Another Person, the same person who wrote There's More Magic Out There.
It is set in an Alternate Universe where Juleka receives the Cat Miraculous instead of Adrien, becoming Panthera Noire.
The Adventures of Panthera Noire provides examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion:
- The entire Pharaoh incident is given a bit more context: Jalil and Alix's mom is dead and Jalil was interested in such things in hopes that he might be able to bring her back to life.
- The perfume bottle that played a part in Rose's akumatization into Princess Fragrance was actually a gift from her late father when she was eight. It only makes Panthera more reluctant to break it to stop Princess Fragrance.
- Adaptational Heroism: Both Chloé and Lila are portrayed in a more sympathetic light than in canon, and both make efforts to better themselves.
- Adaptational Sexuality:
- Age Lift: Marinette, Juleka, and their classmates are all aged up from fourteen to sixteen in this fic because the author felt uncomfortable with the idea of fourteen-year-olds risking their lives fighting crime.
- Ascended Extra: Juleka, a minor character who was akumatized into Reflekta a few times and appears mostly as a supporting character, is now Ladybug's partner instead of Chat Noir.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Lila always had the habit of analyzing everything around her to better tailor her lies. While she doesn't pull her mass lies anymore she strongly suspects Gabriel of being Hawk Moth purely by the timing of his Akumatization and that he hasn't come out of his home since before Hawk Moth started Akumatizing people, and chapter 46 reveals that she has figured out Adam's grudge for Juleka (apparently nobody else has), Adrien's entire happy act, much of Marinette's (even suspecting she's Ladybug), and that there's far more to Juleka than it meets the eye.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: During Princess Prom, Juleka decides to change her normal hero outfit into a formal suit and tie to match the prom-like event.
- The Beard: Why Lila acted so flirty with Adrien. She (although she doesn't realize it until talking to Panthera) is aroace and wanted her mom off her back over her not having a boyfriend.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Also known as True Love's Kiss, Juleka kisses Rose during Princess Shining on stage to cure her form Prince Shining’s Sleeping Beauty-esque spell.
- Bloodier and Gorier: This fic really tones up the violence compared to canon. Throughout the fic, the heroes get bruised, bleed, and break bones while fighting Akumatized villains, though the injuries are undone by Ladybug's World-Healing Wave.
- Break Them by Talking: Adam does this to stop Juleka from pursuing Rose, highlighting her insecurities and doubt Rose even loves her back.
- Crazy-Prepared: When Princess Fragrance attacks Paris, Anarka gives Juleka a gas mask to keep herself safe from the villain's perfume.
- The Chosen One:
- This fic diverges from canon because Master Fu chose Juleka instead of Adrien to wield the Cat Miraculous.
- Panthera Noire chooses Chloé to wield the Bee Miraculous.
- Convenient Cranny: During Antibug, Panthera Noire hides behind a couple of cars when chased by Antibug, but at the last moment, hides in a conveniently placed manhole.
- Darker and Edgier: Juleka’s backstory is much darker than canon that being implied to be that her father tried to drown her
- Expecting Someone Taller: Adrien is shorter than Juleka expected.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Why does Adam hate Juleka so much? Because Adam is also in love with Rose and sees how close the two are. Him realizing that Rose likes Juleka back and not him is what turns him into an Akuma.
- Grew a Spine: Juleka starts out as a shy and insecure teenage girl like in canon. After spending time as Panthera Noire, she gets more confident in her civilian identity. By the events of the Shanghai special, Juleka has no problem getting into a violent fight with Fei in her civilian form and even gives Combat Compliments mid-battle.
- Has a Type: As Panthera jokes with Ladybug both have a thing for blondes.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Some of the stuff that happens to Chat Noir in canon also happens to Panthera Noire, like being brainwashed by Dark Cupid, The Puppeteer, and Princess Fragrance.
- In spite of Panthera and Ladybug not being remotely interested in each other, Theo's reasoning for Akumatization remains the same due to how Panthera worded her response to him.
- In spite of being appeased over seating issues, Audrey still becomes Style Queen.
- In spite of Panthera being available to help Ladybug fight Style Queen, Ladybug still decides to give somebody the Bee Miraculous.
- In spite of not being the one to find the Bee Miraculous after Ladybug loses it, Chloé still becomes Queen Bee. Panthera Noire found the Miraculous and chose Chloé to wield it.
- Insufferable Genius: Adam of the Drama Club acts as if he's the best actor in school and won't waste a chance to remind anyone of how good he is, something that actually caused an Akumatization. Turns out, his acting skills are just that good (and the guy who got Akumatized had tried to pick a fight over being supposedly a better actor when he was in fact the worst of the Drama Club).
- Jerkass Has a Point: As egotistical as he is when talking about his own acting skills, Adam makes a good point in deflating another student's argument that he's a better actor by citing his performance from last year led to the stage being set on fire.
- Large Ham: In-Universe example where Chloé decides to chew the scenery with the one line her character has in the play before she dies from childbirth.
- Lower-Deck Episode: This story's version of "Gorizilla" is mostly told from the perspective of one of Juleka's cats, Parrot, as he tries to deliver her lunch to her.
- Mask of Confidence: As Panthera, Juleka is almost unrecognizable, becoming a flirty, quick-witted sass master. Ironically, her mask actually makes her insecurities in her normal life worse as it leads her to believe that Rose is in love with Panthera and not the real her.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Panthera nearly says this verbatim when she realizes Hawkmoth temporarily lifted his control over Princess Fragrance, meaning Panthera hurt Rose in the process.
- My Instincts Are Showing: "Effects" is a chapter dedicated to showing Juleka displaying several cat-like traits as a result of being Panthera Noire. Several stray cats start to swarm around her, she lays in a cardboard box for fun, her hair stands up during a tense interview, she finds herself unable to resist the temptation of a laser pointer, and even played with some yarn after some encouragement from Rose.
- Oh, Crap!: Juleka's reaction when Rose is akumatized into Princess Fragrance.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: There's a number of good actors in Lila's play, both from the Drama Club and volunteers, but Adam is clearly the best, with only Adrien and Juleka when she's not in the throes of her stage fright being able to compete.
- Point of Divergence: Several events in canon play out differently as a result of Juleka being Ladybug's partner instead of Adrien.
- The original nail that results in Juleka being chosen is Adrien deciding not to help the fallen old man (Fu) in favor of escaping Natalie and the Gorilla to attend school.
- While she was akumatized in "Reflekta" because she was locked in the bathroom by Chloe, Juleka manages to escape while the photographer Vincent (not to be confused with the other Vincent) is akumatized into Picture Perfect.
- In canon, Chat Noir teased the possibility of starting a relationship with Ladybug during the interview with Nadja Chamack in "Prime Queen" while Ladybug vehemently denied Nadja’s accusations. Here, both Ladybug and Panthera are horrified by the invasion of their privacy, the latter having a panic attack in the process. The event also convinces Ladybug to only allow her and Panthera to be interviewed by Alya.
- "Copycat" happens when Chat Noir lies about being in a relationship with Ladybug to a sculptor who admires her. When Panthera hears the sculptor talk about how much he liked Ladybug, she is more disgusted to see this man who looks like he's in his twenties simping for a teenage girl. This is later subverted when the sculptor finds out how old Ladybug actually is and immediately apologizes to her.
- While Adrien had a more passive approach when dealing with Chloé's bad behavior, Panthera Noire becomes acquainted with her and helps motivate her to do better.
- After Volpina's defeat, Panthera stays to just talk to Lila. As a result, she discovers Lila's issues and manages to get her to accept herself for what she is and stop lying, preventing her canonical descent into villainy. Lila also starts suspecting Gabriel of being Hawk Moth.
- Reformed, but Not Tamed: Lila may not be a selfish liar anymore, and the chain of events that led to her descent into villainy was broken early, but she's still more than capable of lying and manipulating if she can find a good reason, such as helping Juleka with her stage fright or investigating Gabriel over her suspicions of him being Hawk Moth, maintains the habit of analyzing people around her that she used to use to better tailor her lies, and her more sarcastic and untamed side is more apparent.
- Romantic Rain: after Prince Shining, Juleka and Rose go outside to talk about their feelings and it starts to rain as they reveal their love for each other.
- Sacred First Kiss: After Ladybug is forced to kiss Panthera in order to break Dark Cupid's spell, neither of them takes it well afterwards.Ladybug: I’m sorry about kissing you it was the only way to break the spell!Panthera: You... What?Ladybug: [starting to blush] I.. I had to kiss you to break the spell. I remembered this thing in class, about how love conquered hate? So I had to...Panthera: Ladybug! You kissed me?!Ladybug: I'm sorry!Panthera: [grabs Ladybug by the shoulders, blushing vividly] YOU KISSED ME?!Ladybug: I'M SO SORRY OKAY?Panthera: [starts shaking Ladybug] PARTNER THAT WAS MY FIRST KISS! YOU STOLE IT FROM ME!Ladybug: IT WAS MINE TOO! I'M SORRY I'M SORRY![Both of their Miraculous start to beep]Panthera: W-We’ll talk about this later, Ladybug... you owe me so many pastries...
- Secret Secret-Keeper:
- In Chapter 14, Juleka figures out Marinette is Ladybug, but keeps it to herself.
- Anarka manages to figure out that her daughter is Panthera but keeps it to herself.
- Shipper on Deck: Anarka, Luka, and Lila for Juleka and Rose (though nobody knows of Lila).
- Stress Vomit: During the interview with Nadja Chamack, the stress of being asked if she and her partner are dating is enough for Panthera to run out and throw up in the bathroom. Ladybug uses her Lucky Charm to help her and ends up creating a pack of mints, making both of them laugh.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Panthera really likes the lemon cake from the Dupain-Cheng bakery.
