I am not a toy!
"Robostus. I am Hawk Moth. Humans don't believe you're a living being, so I'm giving you the power to bring all machines to life to help you seek revenge!"
—Hawk Moth
Ladybug and Cat Noir have to stop an akumatized robot.
Tropes:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Max's Robot Buddy Markov has enough emotion to be vulnerable to Hawk Moth's akuma, resulting in this trope when he's corrupted.
- Androids Are People, Too: Markov is enough of a person that he can be Akumatized.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Robostus is asked if Max would want him to be a supervillain, it gives him pause as he tries to reconcile his behavior with his friendship with Max. Cat Noir attacking distracts him from the moral dilemma.
- Balancing Death's Books: Discussed. Master Fu mentions that if Robostus got his wish to become human, then another human will lose their humanity—possibly lethally.
- Batman Gambit: Marinette pulls one on Ms. Mendeliev. After being denied permission to go to the principal's office to get Markov back for Max, she continues mentioning Markov until Ms. Mendeliev gets irritated and sends her to the principal's office.
- Become a Real Boy: Robostus planned to use Miraculous to turn himself into a human.
- Call-Back: We learned in "Simon Says" that Gabriel has a Crazy-Prepared home-defense system. A similar system is also installed in his hideout as Hawk Moth, which Robostus hacks into.
- Chekhov's Gun: Max removes a virus from the school computer early in the episode. When his bag spills open during the fight in the stadium, Ladybug sees the flash drive containing the virus and uses it to disable Robostus.
- Combining Mecha: Robostus' Humongous Mecha is composed of several smaller vehicles.
- Constantly Curious: Markov is programmed to ask questions about anything unfamiliar, and does so repeatedly throughout the episode, even after being akumatized. Robostus being the first akuma to ask why Hawk Moth wants the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous leads to the reveal of their wish-granting powers.
- Continuity Nod:
- Among the civilians Ladybug and Cat Noir save from the robots are Chloé's butler, Alya's mother, and Xavier Ramier.
- Marinette's status as the class representative is also acknowledged.
- Deadline News: A news report on the "robot uprising" is interrupted by a stage light coming to life.
- Do Androids Dream?: A few characters doubt that Markov feels real emotions, but they get ultimately proven wrong when he's akumatized.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: Ladybug's Lucky Charm generates a harp. After Robostus has been driven from his Humongous Mecha, she throws the harp at him while Cat Noir throws his staff in the same direction. Robostus dodges, but the two objects collide and the harp strings tangle up his propeller, allowing Ladybug to catch him.
- Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: Robostus fits Max with a helmet after bringing him into the mech.
- Follow the Chaos: Ladybug and CN find Robostus by following cracks in pavement left by his jumps.
- Foreshadowing: Mr. Damocles mentions that he's working on the computer program.
- Heroic Bystander: Max saves both Ladybug and Cat Noir when they're both captured and Robostus is about to take their jewelry.
- Hidden Depths: Mr. Damocles turns out to be good with computers. While he isn't able to remove the computer virus, he is able to reboot the computer from a crashed state. It's also mentioned that he's building his own program.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: This isn't the first time one of Hawk Moth's akumas has acted uppity, but Robostus is the first Akuma to outright turn against him, getting away with it because he hacked Hawk Moth's security system and left the supervillain too focused on dodging missiles to recall the akuma.
- Humongous Mecha: Robostus combines cars and construction equipment into a giant mech.
- Hypocritical Humor: Marinette and Tikki hear Max talking to Markov in his backpack... and immediately whisper to each other how weird the idea of him keeping his friend in his bag is.
- Irony: Markov/Robostus, an artificial intelligence, is the first to ask what the Miraculouses are and what happens if you use them for yourself instead of giving them to Hawk Moth. Considering human flaw, you’d think that at least one of the human villains would’ve thought to do this before Markov/Robostus did. Then again, it wouldn't have made any difference as Hawk Moth can control his akumas whenever they start giving him a bad time; Robostus could both rebel and get away with it since he could attack Hawk Moth from a distance.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite being rude to him at the beginning of episode, Miss Mendeliev tries to protect Max from Robostus' attack.
- Just a Kid: Max's first attempt to get rid of the school computer's virus is dismissed by the teachers because he is only a kid.
- Just a Machine: And the teachers simply refuse to acknowledge that Markov has emotions or intelligence of any sort. Markov is almost able to get Mr. Damocles to talk about his love of computers when Mr. Damocles stops and berates himself for "talking to a toy". This treatment is what gets Markov akumatized (which, in turn, proves that Markov is more than "just a machine".)
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: While Ladybug and Cat Noir are busy fighting Robostus, Hawk Moth defends himself from his security defense when Robostus hacks into it.
- The Reveal: While having the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses will allow you to alter reality, there’s a catch: the universe will correct the change so to maintain balance.
- Save the Villain: An accidental version; since Hawk Moth gets betrayed and attacked by Robostus, he actually depends on Ladybug and Cat Noir defeating the akuma to save him along with everyone else in Paris.
- Sword Cane: Hawk Moth has a sword in his cane as an emergency weapon.
- Turned Against Their Masters: Robostus turns the defenses in Hawk Moth's lair against him. He's too busy dodging missiles to do anything to stop Robostus.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Neither Miss Mendeliev nor Mr. Damocles have much patience for Max and Markov despite them saving the whole school database.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Max creates a fully functional and sentient A.I. yet the principal and science teacher (after the initial shock) dismiss it as a toy.
- [Verb] This!: Cat Noir pulls one in this episode.Cat Noir: Analyze this!
