This is a mission for the Dark Owl!
"Dark Owl. I am Hawk Moth. From now on, you will have true superpowers and formidable weapons. Nothing and no one will be able to overpower you! And if you want to be the sole superhero of Paris, there's just one thing you need to do... defeat Ladybug and Cat Noir and bring me their Miraculous!"
— Hawk Moth
Mr. Damocles, the principal of Françoise Dupont, becomes the hero "The Owl", emulating the Batman parody, Knight Owl (who will later appear in person in the New York special). Problem is, Batman was in the prime of his health, had martial arts training, and a wide variety of crimefighting tools... which an out-of-shape, elderly school principal just can't match. And when the Owl fails miserably at being a superhero, Hawk Moth akumatizes him into Dark Owl, promising him the ability to deliver on his dreams... after he gives Hawk Moth the Miraculous, of course.
The Owl might have been a joke, but despite some silver-age campiness, Dark Owl is not. His gadgets actually work, he's a capable fighter, and worse, he's read all the superhero stories, and he knows how they go. With these advantages, he gives Ladybug and Cat Noir one of the hardest fights they've ever had.
Tropes:
- The Alleged Computer: Before being updated by akuma, Albert is this. His voice recognition program can't even recognize "Hoo Hoo".
- Artistic Licence – Physics: Dark Owl threatens to freeze the Eiffel Tower to "minus 700 degrees", shattering it. No matter what measuring system he's using, that's significantly below absolute zero, the coldest temperature possible. In Celsius, the one generally used in France, it's almost 3 times colder! To be fair he was likely bluffing but still, you'd expect him to give a bluff that wasn't scientifically incoherent.
- Big "NO!": Hawk Moth, when he realizes the "Miraculous" Dark Owl sent him are imitations.
- Batman Parody: Knight Owl, the in-universe comic hero Mr. Damocles patterns himself after. He's a superhero-themed after a nocturnal animal, fights with gadgets, has a smaller sidekick, and a butler for a partner. His logo is also used for scene transitions the same way as the 60s Adam West series. A Justice Comics issue featuring the character is seen at one point. As the Dark Owl, Damocles even gets his own Bat Signal.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Dark Owl's traps may be something out of a parody of the Adam West Batman, which was already a parody itself, but they were actually good and he's come closer to winning than the villains with more standard powers and tactics. By the end, he's pulling out one of her earrings, causing her to partially demorph.
- Bus Full of Innocents: Taken to parody levels with a bus full of innocent zoo animals suspended from the Eiffel Tower over a kitten. And he's rigged the tower to explode. Then subverted when it turns out to be an elaborate hologram.
- Calling Your Attacks: "Owl Talon! Hoomerang!"
- Cat Up a Tree: Mr. Damocles attempts to be heroic by rescuing a cat that's stuck in a tree. It's a testament to how incompetent he is that he fails to do even that.
- Chekhov's Gun: As part of their act for Mr. Damocles, Marinette makes some mock copies of the Ladybug and Cat Noir Miraculous for Alya to "steal". When Dark Owl has them trapped in a Drowning Pit and demands the Miraculous, she gives him the fakes so she and Adrien have enough time for their powers to recharge.
- Closet Geek: Mr. Damocles is revealed to be a big fan of superheroes, especially Knight Owl.
- Comm Links: Ladybug's yo-yo and Cat Noir's baton can dispense earpieces, allowing them to stay in touch while Cat Noir draws Dark Owl's attention.
- Creator Cameo: Albert's akumatized face is based on Jun Violet, co-director for this episode.
- Disaster Dominoes: How Ladybug in the end breaks Dark Owl's computer, defeating him.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: Dark Owl reveals himself to Paris this way.
- Don't Try This at Home: In-Universe example. Ladybug and Cat Noir advise people to not try to play superhero as they do, since they have superpowers to do the job and even they have trouble sometimes.
- Drowning Pit: Dark Owl lures Ladybug and Cat Noir into a shipping crate that he's rigged to drown them with whipped cream unless they hand over the Miraculous. He explains it uses whipped cream because it is too thick to breath in but it is too runny to swim or float in.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Nightingale can be seen briefly on Marinette's computer just before Darl Owl interrupts the transmission.
- Engineered Heroics: Ladybug and Cat Noir, with Alya's help, try to stage a villainous attack for Mr. Damocles to battle and defeat, so he'll accomplish his wish to be a real hero for once. A mishap with his Grappling-Hook Pistol instead turns him into Paris' resident Butt-Monkey, which makes him vulnerable to Hawk Moth.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Dark Owl still considers himself a hero, and as such mocks Ladybug and Cat Noir for believing he would actually hurt a bus full of animals or a kitten. Also, when he believes they've given him their Miraculous, he has no problem with stopping the trap, as a hero always keeps his word.
- Expy: In-Universe, The Owl is based on his favorite hero, Knight Owl. In reality, they're both Expies of Batman, of course.
- Face Palm: Ladybug and Cat Noir's reactions when the Owl declares he'll do better next time.
- Fakin Macguffin: Marinette made fake Miraculous for her ploy to make Mr. Damocles feel like a hero. Though that plan backfired dramatically and the fake Miraculous were never used for it, Ladybug still had them on hand when trying to get herself and Cat Noir out of Dark Owl's death trap. Dark Owl doesn't realize they're fake and deactivates the trap, giving plenty of time before Hawk Moth realizes the ruse for the heroes to recharge their powers.
- Foreshadowing:
- Dark Owl has suspended a bus filled with zoo animals (all sitting mostly calmly in their seats) suspended from the Eiffel Tower over an innocent kitten, and the whole tower is rigged with liquid nitrogen explosives that he'll set off if Ladybug and Cat Noir don't surrender their Miraculouses. If the whole thing sounds too ridiculous to be true, that's because it is. It's actually a hologram meant to trick Ladybug and Cat Noir into stealing the detonator, which he is using as a lure for his real trap.
- If you pay attention, when Marinette supposedly hands over the Miraculous to Dark Owl, they still are in their transformed mode, hinting that they are the fakes from earlier.
- Friendly Tickle Torture: After losing a video game to her, Alya tickles Marinette claiming that she cheated because she wasn't looking.
- Genre Savvy: One of the reasons Dark Owl is such a dangerous opponent is because Mr. Damocles is a savvy enough superhero fan to know how a superhero thinks, so he's a few steps ahead of Ladybug and Cat Noir for most of the episode. He's also the first villain that doesn't carry his akumatized object when battlingnote , so it's much harder to find and purify it; Ladybug only finds it thanks to her Lucky Charm producing a copy of the comic which clues her in.
- Hero Does Public Service: In the end, Mr. Damocles forgets about superheroics, being far more successful with several community projects and helping people on the street with small problems.
- I Gave My Word: As Dark Owl promised, he deactivated the Drowning Pit Death Trap when Ladybug and Cat Noir (apparently) gave him the Miraculouses.
- I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: Alya pretends to do this while contacting "The Owl" as a mock supervillain.
- Internal Reveal: Tikki and Plagg learn who the other's Miraculous holder is, but keep it secret from Marinette and Adrien, who close their eyes while de-transforming.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Whenever The Owl strikes his heroic pose, he always turns towards the camera.
- Lured into a Trap: As part of his Bus Full of Innocents trap, Dark Owl tosses his detonator on top of a shipping crate. When Ladybug and Cat Noir hop up to grab it, the roof hatch drops them inside and then seals, revealing his actual trap.
- Near-Villain Victory: Dark Owl gets closer to winning than almost every other villain, actually managing to take one of Ladybug's earrings just before she sets off a Rube Goldberg chain of events to get free of his grasp (and break the computer containing his akuma) and take it back.
- Never Say "Die": After Ladybug blots out the camera inside Dark Owl's drowning trap, he points out that if she and Cat Noir don't hand over their Miraculous willingly, he can just take them after the trap has "buried" them.
- Noble Demon: What with a drive to be a superheo, Dark Owl refuses to break a promise or harm innocents even after being turned evil.
- Obligatory Earpiece Touch: Cat Noir.
- Oh, Crap!: Tikki and Plagg when Marinette and Adrien detransform.
- Recycled Soundtrack: The Leitmotif for the Owl is a piece of BGM from Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes, sped up.
- Scare 'Em Straight: Cat Noir's initial plan to get Mr. Damocles to quit being The Owl, Ladybug shoots it down.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode has multiple Batman references, with Mr. Damocles basing his heroic identity on a Batman Parody.
- The original classic comic for The Owl features a human butler, while Mr. Damocles uses an A.I.. This is a reference to the Iron Man character, Jarvis, who went under a similar transition into the MCU.
- The scene where Mr. Damocles struggles to buckle the belt on his superhero costume is a clear reference to The Incredibles.
- Smoke Out: Mr. Damocles tries to invoke it as the Owl, using "Owl Mist" then attempting to disappear. It doesn't work.
- Super Zeroes: Mr. Damocles created his hero identity with toy weaponry and a Halloween disguise, plus being very out of shape himself. He ends up putting himself in so many embarrassing and dangerous situations that Ladybug and Cat Noir need to keep an eye on him at all times; they comment they had been doing this for several days already.
