Experiencing loss is a part of life, but good things happen too. Expect the unexpected, and embrace it.
—Marinette, opening narration
Hawk Moth akumatizes Chloé into Miracle Queen to make her take control of all the Miraculous holders. Will Ladybug and Cat Noir be able to escape this fatal plan? And when all is said and done, what changes will all of Paris brace for?
Tropes:
- Amnesiac Lover: After losing his memories, Master Fu leaves Paris with his lover, Marianne. As far as he knows, he's never seen her before in his life, but nevertheless he still falls in love with her immediately and remarks that he feels like he's known her forever.
- Bad Boss: Played with. When Chloé begs Hawk Moth to do something to help her after everything is done, he simply says that she turned out to be an utter disappointment and flees with Mayura, leaving her at Ladybug's mercy. In contrast, he still rewarded Lila two episodes prior for the failed second Scarlet Moth plan; likely because the problem was on his end and not hers, whereas Chloé had every advantage and still failed because of her own foolishness.
- The Bad Guy Wins: At the end of the episode, Hawk Moth has claimed the secrets of the grimoire, repaired the Peacock Miraculous, damaged the heroes’ bonds (though he doesn’t know that), and removed Master Fu from the equation, leaving the inexperienced Ladybug as guardian.
- Bittersweet Ending: Although the stolen Miraculous aside from the Peacock and Butterfly are recovered, Hawk Moth walks off from this one with the secret identities of all of Ladybug and Cat Noir's allies save Bunnyx. Mayura also swipes Master Fu's tablet with the deciphered passages from the grimoire, allowing Hawk Moth to repair the Peacock Miraculous in addition to having access all the secrets the book contains. Chloé, who had been maturing thanks to her stint as a hero, has now regressed, bitterly cutting off all ties with Ladybug. Master Fu loses his memories and leaves Paris, but now he can be with Marianne.
- Book Ends:
- "Battle of the Miraculous" ends Chloé's career as Queen Bee the same way as "Queen's Battle" started it: with the Akumatization of Chloé and her parents.
- The season begins and ends with someone willingly taking an Akuma to gain their powers. In fact, Chloé jumps up trying to catch a second Akuma after her first was purified.
- Call-Back: Marinette presents Fu with a box of rainbow-colored macarons for his train trip. They resemble the box of power-up macarons that Marinette made in "Syren."
- Chekhov's Skill: Thanks to his time as Aspik in "Desperada", Cat Noir has plenty of experience using the snake miraculous.
- Continuity Nod:
- Ondine, who first appeared in "Syren" shows up again with Kim at the pool. Judging from their Almost Kiss, their relationship is really progressing.
- As shown in "Backwarder" the spare Akuma Hawk Moth keeps in his cane shows up to re-evilize Chloé.
- Max and his mom are shown an astronaut suit, harkening back to "Star Train".
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Cat Noir briefly objects to Ladybug combining her powers with the Dragon Miraculous, no doubt having been warned of the danger of using multiple Miraculous by Master Fu, but she points out they can't play it safe in this situation. As such, he has no problem doing the same with the Snake Miraculous later.
- Dead Man Writing: After he loses his memories, Master Fu gives Ladybug a key to a train station locker, in which he left a note for her in anticipation that this would happen eventually.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Master Fu renounces his Guardianship, it erases all of his memories of the Miraculouses and by extension the people he knew. Given his advanced age, it brings to mind age-based conditions like dementia.
- Doting Parent: Subverted. Chloé finds that it will be harder to get her way with her parents reconciled and doting on each other instead of letting her play them off against each other.
- Dramatic Irony: Played for Laughs when Miracle Queen derides Viperion as being completely useless when both the heroes and the audience know he's the most useful one there. She doesn't know what the Snake's power is, and naturally doesn't remember any of his resets, so as far as she's concerned, he just sat there and did nothing except get his ass kicked.
- Easily Forgiven: Downplayed Trope. While Ladybug does not forgive Chloé, the only thing Ladybug does to Chloé after her betrayal, leading to the other Miraculous holders having their identities exposed and almost handing a total victory to Hawk Moth, is to simply reclaim the Bee Miraculous and inform her that she will never use it again.
- End of an Era: Master Fu has officially retired as the Guardian of the Miraculous with Marinette taking his place. However, since most of the Miraculous holders' identities have been exposed, she will have to recruit new holders while taking care of protecting the Miraculouses herself alone.
- Evil Is Petty: Miracle Queen destroys Alya's glasses after learning she's one of the heroes. She also gloats over her brainwashed victims, especially Nino and Kagami and decides to make them her servants.
- Exact Words: Miracle Queen orders all the temporary Miraculous holders to her. Alix, despite knowing she will be Bunnyx in the future, evidently takes this command literally and does not come because she is not one yet.
- Fusion Dance:
- Ladybug combines her Miraculous with the Dragon's to become Dragon Bug. After taking back the Snake Miraculous, Cat Noir uses it to become Snake Noir.
- Averted with Queen Bee, who tries to do the same with multiple Miraculous, but she doesn't even know the kwamis' names and thus can't invoke their powers. Master Fu then gives Ladybug ownership of the Miracle Box, causing them all to be sealed away before Chloé can command them to tell her their names.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Chloé started the show as Marinette's petty rival, then she mellows a little (as much as she could be) in season 2 thanks to becoming a Miraculous holder, but unfortunate events in season 3 bring her back to square one, even worse than she was in season 1.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Luka and Kagami both protect Marinette and Adrien respectively from Miracle Queen's wasps and get stung themselves, leading them to be mind-controlled while the latter two have a chance to escape.
- Master Fu gives up his ownership of the Miracle Box to Marinette to make it impossible for Queen Bee or Hawk Moth to get to the kwamis. This results in him losing all of his memories tied to the Miraculouses, which he knew would happen.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- Miracle Queen's brainwashed heroes end up being her undoing. Dragon Bug and Cat Noir immediately target Viperion so Cat Noir can use Second Chance to their advantage, and King Monkey's Uproar disables Miracle Queen's power when they manipulate him into hitting her with it.
- Chloé joins Hawk Moth to keep being Queen Bee, but her betrayal means that she loses the position permanently.
- Hurl It into the Sun: The brainwashed Pegasus tries to drop Snake Noir into the sun using Voyage. Good thing he had Second Chance...
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Despite teaming up with Hawk Moth and intentionally revealing all of the heroes' (except for Cat, Ladybug, and Bunnyx) identities to him, Chloé gets away scot-free with Ladybug simply taking the Bee Miraculous away from her. However, Chloé does get some egg on her face in the end when she loudly insults the whole city before declaring she'll leave for New York with her mother to never have to answer to Ladybug again and get the last laugh, only to find out that thanks to her parents' renewed affection that's no longer an option and she's now stuck in a city that likely hates her even more. Also, she permanently loses the Queen Bee position.
- Logical Weakness: Inverted. Kwamis so far were easily used for evil against their will, but their powers still require a special phrase to activate them. Even in dubs where it's the same for every kwami (<Kwami's name>, transform me), you still need to know their names. Thus when Chloé seizes the Miracle Box, she can't force a single kwami to follow her orders.
- Mind-Control Eyes: Anyone affected by Miracle Queen's Miraculous control gets vivid yellow eyes.
- My God, What Have I Done?: No words, but the look on Ladybug's face after Chloé left her in a huff indicates that she regrets being indirectly responsible for the latter's Face–Heel Turn.
- Near-Villain Victory:
- If it weren't for Luka's and Kagami's sacrifices, Miracle Queen would have also brainwashed Marinette and Adrien and won without any resistance.
- In the actual battle, Dragon Bug actually is stung and controlled by Miracle Queen and nearly has her Miraculous captured and ID exposed until Snake Noir goes back and prevents it with Second Chance.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: The Dragon Miraculous' special power was previously established to be to transform its user into elements. In this episode, Dragon Bug combines the water power with her yo-yo to form a protective shield that selectively isolates the brainwashed heroes while repelling Miracle Queen. Every other instance of a person wielding two Miraculous shows no change in powers, just the ability to use both at once.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Master Fu formally relinquishes the Miracle Box to Ladybug as the new Guardian, which both erases his memories of being one and transforms the Miracle Box into a Ladybug themed container. All the current Miraculous holders that Marinette recruited have been unmasked, making them all potential targets for Hawk Moth. Chloé regresses from her previous Heel–Face Turn and leaves in a huff stating she's leaving Paris, only to find her parents more in love than they've ever been and wanting to stay. Nathalie manages to swipe Master Fu's tablet containing the translated passages of the Miraculous codex, which Gabriel is first shown using to restore the Peacock Miraculous meaning Mayura can show up more often at zero risk. On the civilian side both Marinette and Adrien, with some mild hesitation, have both decided for themselves to explore romantic opportunities with Luka and Kagami respectively.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Chloé is disgusted when she returns home and finds her parents more in love than they've ever been and kissing passionately. She shields her eyes from the horrific sight and orders them to start fighting and hating each other again.
- Pride: Miracle Queen's threat is greatly reduced by Chloé's overconfidence, meaning that she wastes the majority of the Miraculous she has. Hawk Moth is not pleased that she managed to lose all the Miraculouses he gave her in one fell swoop.
- Put on a Bus: Master Fu loses his memory and is put on a train with Marianne.
- Redemption Demotion: The reverse actually. Queen Bee turned out to be quite effective as a heroine in previous episodes. As Miracle Queen she and her army of brainwashed heroes are rather easily defeated and she was actually more of a threat in both previous Akuma forms as Antibug and Queen Wasp than she was here. She actually got worse after turning villain. It should be noted that she had 12 Miraculouses and almost everybody in Paris under her control and still decided to send only 4 heroes into battle.
- Revenge Before Reason: When Miracle Queen manages to break the water shield and get her wasps inside she immediately has them all target Dragon Bug who's the target of her ire rather than both, or concentrate on Snake Noir first who's currently in possession of the Snake Miraculous. While she manages to take Dragon Bug under her control he promptly uses Second Chance to go back and prevent the shield from collapsing in the first place. Although, revenge aside, the fact she doesn't actually know what the Snake Miraculous does might have played a part in her decision.
- Rule of Symbolism: It was done out of pure necessity, but: Ladybug and Cat Noir wear (in an amalgam form) the Miraculous of the dragon and the snake during the climax. Respectively, they both wear the Miraculous of the Romantic False Lead of their love interest. It's even more remarkable coming from Adrien, as he's doing well with the snake here, while previously, he was so bad at it, the Miraculous has to be given to Luka (his Unknown Rival). Shall we see here that the two main characters already have in them all the other need in a relationship, despite the fact it can't be revealed right now?
- Sacred First Kiss: The beginning reveals that Adrien withdrew when Kagami tried to kiss him. He states that he thought it "would be different" (i.e. with Ladybug instead) for his first time.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Subverted. After losing the Bee Miraculous for good, Chloé announces her intention to move to New York with her mother so as to never deal with Ladybug again. Unfortunately, Audrey's decision to stay in Paris means that option's out.
- Played straight with Hawk Moth fleeing with Mayura when it's clear that Chloé has become a disappointment to their scheme.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Master Fu giving up ownership of the Miracle Box to Ladybug causes the box and all the kwami nearby to be sealed into a Ladybug-themed ball.
- Serial Escalation: Averted. Miracle Queen's army is way smaller than Scarlet Moth's from the previous season finale. Even Ladybug and Cat Noir being all alone and forced to take on brainwashed Miraculous holders happened before. Instead, the conflict focuses on Master Fu's fate and on Chloé's Face–Heel Turn.
- Ship Tease: A massive one. By the end of the episode, many couples/almost couples/ships can be seen enjoying André's ice cream (sans Kim and Ondine, who were at the swimming pool):
- Nino and Alya
- Adrien and Kagami
- Ivan and Mylène
- Rose and Juleka
- Nathaniel and Marc
- Max and Alix, surprisingly
- Marinette and Luka
- Shoot the Mage First:
- When Ladybug and Cat Noir face the other Miraculous holders, they intentionally target Viperion first because of his Second Chance.
- Averted by Miracle Queen herself, when she gets a chance to sic her wasps on the heroes with the water dome down she targets Dragon Bug instead of Snake Noir. While ordinarily this would be a smart move since Ladybug can and has saved the day on her own before, in this case it simply lets him use Second Chance to go back and warn Dragon Bug what's coming.
- So Last Season: Played with because Miracle Queen's Wasps can do even more than Queen Wasp's (which could only paralyze, not control) and they are a threat to the heroes when they're out in the open. However, while avoiding Queen Wasp's bugs was something that kept them constantly on the run in that episode, in this episode Dragonbug simply tosses up a water barrier that makes them a non-issue for almost all of the fight, barring one point where King Monkey disrupts it and they manage to get in and sting her (Snake Noir undoes with his own new power).
- Stinger: A first for the show; a short scene of Gabriel successfully fixing the Peacock Miraculous plays right after the end card. And with both the powers of Akumatization and Amokization at his disposal, who knows what kind of malice this Big Bad can unleash!
- Take Up My Sword: Marinette formally assumes Master Fu's role as Guardian of the Miraculouses.
- Taking the Bullet: Luka and Kagami sacrifice themselves to prevent Marinette and Adrien from being hit by the brainwashing bees.
- Took a Level in Badass: Snake Noir is much more competent with Second Chance in this episode than he was in "Desperada" as Aspik. He only takes three tries to clobber the brainwashed heroes, retake their Miraculous and break Miracle Queen's akumatized item. Presumably, when his head is in the game and not focused on impressing Ladybug, he isn't as prone to foolish mistakes. Viperion, by contrast, is rather quickly defeated despite being far more competent in his last outing, presumably because his brainwashing has severely hampered his critical thinking.
- Unexpectedly Dark Episode: The Opening Narration emphasizes the two parts of the finale as episodes of loss. Indeed, the beloved Master Fu is punished with a mind wipe and must leave permanently, the PG version of being killed. Chloé loses her superhero status (and her way to redemption) permanently, and the last we see of Marinette and Adrien, they're resigned to renounce each other despite the fact that it is the series' core concept, and could have been avoided easily.
- The Unmasking:
- Miracle Queen orders all of the brainwashed temporary Miraculous holders to come to her location, revealing their identities to herself, Hawk Moth, and Mayura. While Nino and Kagami never get the chance to transform, process of elimination makes their identities pretty simple, plus Hawk Moth already knew Kagami's. Only Alix doesn't come, because she hadn't been officially recruited yet.
- Luka is unmasked when his Snake Miraculous is taken in battle. Both heroes already knew his identity, but now Ladybug knows that Cat Noir knows.
- Wham Episode: The duology results in several major shake-ups to the status quo.
- Hawk Moth learns the secret identities of all of the temporary superheroes, with the exception of Bunnyx.
- Chloé solidifies her Face–Heel Turn, loses the Queen Bee position permanently, and becomes Ladybug's enemy.
- Mayura steals Master Fu's tablet with the translated text of the grimoire, giving Hawk Moth access to all the knowledge in the book. This allows him to repair the Peacock Miraculous.
- Master Fu sacrifices his memories to prevent Hawk Moth from stealing the Miraculous, formally making Ladybug the new Guardian.
- What You Are in the Dark: During the fight, Snake Noir could have easily learned Dragon Bug's identity without her ever knowing if he had just delayed using Second Chance by even a second after she was stung and was about to have her Miraculouses removed, but he chooses not to. Good thing too, since we know how bad things would be if he ever did learn her identity.
