You know the good part of when your old dream isn't what you thought it would be? You get to go find a new dream.
"Wishmaker, I am Shadow Moth! The world didn't let you realize your childhood dreams? From now on, any person you touch will have no choice but to become who they dreamed of being when they were a child! And when you attack Ladybug and Cat Noir, their masks will fall as their childhood dreams betray them!"
— Shadow Moth
It is the Paris Career Fair, and everyone is thinking about their futures. While the majority know what they want to do, Adrien and Marinette are unsure of the path they want to take. Alec, in the middle of doing his latest show on bad careers, ends up breaking down after meeting André and Luka, who both explain their passions are not the same as their jobs, and a wig designer, which makes him recall his own childhood. This makes him ripe for akumatization into Wishmaker, a villain with the power to make childhood dreams come to life.
Tropes:
- An Aesop:
- It's never too late to live your childhood dream. Even if what you wanted to be as a kid is technically impossible (like being Santa Claus or a crocodile), you can still find meaning and fulfillment in other ways (like being a toymaker, or having a pet crocodile).
- If you didn't have a childhood dream, or don't remember having one, it's okay. It's never too late to figure out what you want to do with your life.
- Art Shift: The flashbacks people experience are all watercolor stills.
- Audience Surrogate: Luka definitely becomes this when he discovers the true identities of Ladybug and Cat Noir. With this already being and probably becoming a status of his character going forward.
- Badass Bystander: The guy who is turned into a dino plushie is the one who subdues Wishmaker.
- Bear Hug: The guy who is turned into a giant dino plushie picks up Wishmaker in a giant hug, restraining him so Ladybug can steal his baton.
- Break Them by Talking: Wishmaker talks Cat Noir into allowing himself to be hit, so he can remember what his childhood wish is.
- The Chain of Harm: It's revealed that Alec was bullied for being himself when he was a kid, so he grew up mocking other people the way he had been mocked. It takes Ladybug, Cat Noir, and Viperion helping him see that it's not too late to do what he wanted all along: to help make people happy.
- Character Development:
- This episode sees Alec going from mocking people's dreams to making a TV show called "Live Your Childhood Dream" to support people.
- It also gives Luka a sense of clarity, because he finally understands why he and Marinette were never able to be together as a couple and the secrets she was hiding from him.
- This episode really divulges how much Gabriel's parenting has affected Adrien, because he is unable to think for himself and understand what he wants to do with his life because the former decides everything for him.
- Collateral Damage: Viperion deflects one of Wishmaker's blasts with his lyre, but the deflected blast ends up hitting Ladybug, causing her to transform into her childhood dream and exposing her identity, forcing Viperion to reset time. This is repeated in the third loop, only this time he's warned Ladybug so she can put someone else in the path of the shot as part of her plan.
- Continuity Nod:
- Adrien remarks how much Ladybug has called other Miraculous users to help her, which shows that his doubts about his role as her partner are still there and piling up, with him displaying fear and resignation that he'll eventually no longer be needed.
- The "Robo Tech Ultimate Destructor" seen in "Christmaster" returns.
- Marinette's ice cream contains three flavors: strawberry and cherry (pink and red) "for the indecisive lady", and pistachio and pecan (green and black) "for the clear-sighted young man". No, not Luka —his ice cream scoop is teal. And it's not Adrien either; his is just pistachio. André is talking about Cat Noir, whom he saw hanging out with Marinette in "Glaciator 2".
- Dark and Troubled Past: When Alec was young, he had a large afro but was bullied for it. As a result, he shaved his hair and became a No Sympathy TV host to inflict that mockery on others.
- A Day in the Limelight: Luka is the main focus of this episode in terms of what he discovers whilst fighting Wishmaker. Other side characters, like André and Alec get quite a bit of attention in terms of their pasts and dreams. Additionally, while Marinette has a bit of trouble figuring out what she wants to do, a much larger spotlight is put on Adrien and his desire to get out of his father's shadow.
- Didn't See That Coming: Viperion tells Cat Noir to duck on his second attempt with Second Chance so he can keep Ladybug safe. However, since he wasn't around for Cat Noir and Wishmaker's conversation, it didn't occur to him that Cat Noir would let himself get hit, so Viperion has to reset the timeline to fix that.
- Didn't Think This Through: Ladybug sensibly recruits Viperion because the risk of their identities being exposed by Wishmaker is too great to leave to chance. Only after the battle is over does she realize that Luka, by necessity, would learn her identity if the situation forced him to reset, and she knows from his behavior that he did so at least once. Luka does learn her identity, but allows her to think he didn't, knowing she would overthink and worry if he did tell her.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Wishmaker is defeated by deflecting one of his attacks into a specific person with a childhood dream that turns him into a gigantic stuffed toy that hugs people. Ladybug then has him hug Wishmaker, who is powerless to stop someone already under the influence of his power.
- Internal Reveal: Luka learns that Marinette and Adrien are Ladybug and Cat Noir. Both are reset through Second Chance and he doesn't tell either of them that he knows.
- Irony: Ladybug recruits Viperion as 'insurance' against Wishmaker, so that her identity and Cat Noir's remain a secret. It ends up revealing their identities to Luka, although he keeps it to himself.
- Living Out a Childhood Dream: Wishmaker's magic results in everyone becoming what they wanted to be when they were kids, ranging from normal careers to the pretty outlandish, such as becoming a crocodile.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Downplayed, but Marinette was initially quite confident in what she wanted to do with her life. Then various kwamis show up, assuming they know exactly what her "career" should be. This paralyzes Marinette with too many choices.
- While defending Cat Noir, Viperion deflects one of Wishmaker's projectiles, which ends up hitting Ladybug, revealing her true identity to him and to Shadow Moth. Thankfully, Viperion immediately resets the timeline so at least Shadow Moth forgets about it.
- Having learned from his mistake, Viperion sticks with Ladybug and doesn't go to help Cat Noir, instead yelling at him to duck. Unfortunately, Wishmaker's taunts have demoralized Cat to the point that he doesn't defend himself against the villain, which exposes his secret identity. Viperion resets once again.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Fire Captain Hessenpy's childhood dream is to become a firefighter and a cowboy at the same time.
- No Infantile Amnesia: Played with. Adrien can't clearly recall his childhood dreams, which convinces him to allow himself to be subjected to Wishmaker's power for a glimpse of it. Doing so flashes him back to when he was an infant, and all he knows of his dream is that he wants to be what his parents want him to be, which doesn't affect him beyond reverting him to normal.
- Oh, Crap!: After reclaiming the Snake Miraculous, Ladybug is about to depart when she realizes that tasking Luka with guarding their secret identities means there's a good chance he now knows who she is, since he clearly reset at least once during the battle. Luka tells a half truth to not worry her. He lies that he didn't discover who they are, but he's telling the truth that her and Cat Noir's secrets are safe.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Adrien spends most of the episode in a depressed state because he has no idea what he wants to do when he grows older and is terrified that if he doesn't make this choice for himself then his father will make it for him, as Gabriel has always done up to this point. Marinette is unnerved to see Adrien so sad, and Luka tries his best to cheer him up.
- Cat Noir is off his game while battling Wishmaker, who has the power to make people live out their greatest childhood wish, because he doesn't remember having any wishes as a child. Wishmaker's taunts eventually get to him, leading him to lower his guard at a critical moment. He also doesn't crack a single remark, pun or joke during the fight despite all the weird and zany things occurring around him to have a go at. Making this a whole lot more serious.
- Luka normally values honesty above all else, even at the risk of losing his crush or his Miraculous. However, learning that his crush Marinette is Ladybug and her love Adrien is Cat Noir is so earth-shattering to him that he outright lies to Ladybug that he didn't discover either of their secret identities. How this will affect his relationship with them going forward (both as a civilian and fellow superhero) has yet to be seen.
- Properly Paranoid: Ladybug knows that neither she or Cat Noir can risk being hit by Wishmaker, as his power would take away their disguises, and recruits Viperion to make sure any mistakes are rectified. Sure enough, both get exposed and Viperion has to reset to fix things.
- Reset Button: Ladybug and Cat Noir agree that they're in dire need of Viperion's power of Second Chance because their secret identities will be blown if Wishmaker hits them.
- Rule of Three: The heroes defeat Wishmaker on the third try. The first time, Viperion deflects a projectile away from Cat Noir and into Ladybug, forcing him to reset to preserve her secret identity. The second time, he instead tells Cat Noir to duck and tries to help Ladybug, but Cat Noir doesn't do it because Wishmaker successfully talks him into letting himself be hit, requiring another reset. The third time, Viperion repeats his first action but warns Ladybug about the coming projectile, so she can have it hit her intended target as part of her plan to win, which succeeds.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Luka sees both Ladybug and Cat Noir being hit with Wishmaker's attacks and uses Second Chance to prevent Shadow Moth from knowing. After transforming back, he claims that neither were hit so Marinette doesn't have to worry about someone else knowing their secret identities.
- Shipper on Deck: Luka encourages Marinette to talk to Adrien when they see him at the fair. He doubles down on the shipping when he finds out that Marinette is Ladybug and Adrien is Cat Noir, which clues him in on the duo's love square shenanigans.
- Ship Tease:
- Cat Noir pulls Ladybug away from one of Wishmaker's projectiles and into his arms; Ladybug places both her hands on his shoulders. The two of them stay like this for a while, seemingly without realizing how close they are.
- Ladybug returns the favor and pulls Cat Noir away from Wishmaker's projectiles by wrapping him up in her yoyo and pulling him in her arms. She then forgets to untangle him, meaning that she ends up carrying him around for a while.
- Shout-Out:
- Mr. Banana's dream is to turn into a cucumber.
- Alec's new TV personality at the end is reminiscent of RuPaul, including the wig. He even uses a similar line to his catchphrase. note
- The dino plushie the man with the red beret turns into resembles Barney the Dinosaur.
- Sissy Villain: As Wishmaker, Alec wears a sparkly costume with platform shoes and heavy make-up. Alec also inverts this since he becomes more flamboyant after he decides to change his life.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: For the first half of the episode, Alec mocks the impracticality of various people's career choices (André's ice-cream stand, Luka's custom string instruments, Jean's wigs), only for his attempts at "owning" them fall flat when they effortlessly defend their passions. Having crushed his own passions in exchange for making hollow reality TV, Shadow Moth akumatizing him after realizing this.
- This Cannot Be!: Shadow Moth is speechless when he realizes his own son is Cat Noir, in contrast to the same reveal in "Cat Blanc" last season. Although, this can be justified as in the latter, he probably had a lot more time to process the reveal.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Wishmaker is one of the few Akuma victims who doesn't want revenge on anyone, or even have remotely malicious intentions. The only problem is really that he’s using his powers on people against their will, and the dreams are hopelessly immature and outdated.
- Wham Episode: Luka learns the secret identities of Ladybug and Cat Noir. He doesn't tell anybody, not even them.
- Wham Shot: Ladybug and Cat Noir getting hit by Wishmaker's power, revealing their identities. While Viperion is able to undo it with his powers, he still retains knowledge of their secrets.
