Despite Alya's protests, Marinette decides to pursue her new love for Cat Noir by going on a romantic night out with him. But their fun is spoiled after encountering a Ladynoir fan who reveals some unsettling revelations about their love lives.
Tropes:
- Acting Unnatural: When Marinette and Cat Noir first lock eyes, they both freak out. They then awkwardly act like they didn't notice each other, before unconvincingly pretending to see the other person for the first time.
- An Aesop: Even if you think someone would be better off with someone other than whom they like, and even if it doesn’t work out for them, that person’s feelings are their own to decide and you have no right to try and force them to feel affection for someone else. Instead, just allow them to be happy with whom they do love.
- Better as Friends: Cat Noir admits to Ladybug that even though he still cares about her a great deal, his feelings for her have changed, and asks if the two of them can still remain friends. Ladybug agrees with a smile and their traditional fistbump.
- Bookends: In "Glaciator", Cat Noir told Marinette that he’s in love with Ladybug. Now, Marinette tells Cat Noir that she was in love with Adrien.
- Break the Cutie: When Cat Noir tells Marinette that he can't be with her, she breaks down over the fact that something always gets in the way of her love, and she can never seem to just be happy. It's so bad that she almost gets Akumatized.
- Call-Back: Monarch finds out that Cat Noir has feelings for Marinette and plans to find a way to exploit his enemy's weakness. The only thing that stops it from becoming "Cat Blanc" all over again is that he doesn't know that Cat Noir is actually Adrien.
- Celeb Crush: Deconstructed. Cat Noir feels that he can't date Marinette without taking advantage of her because he sees her attraction to him as this (unaware that she's actually his close friend and equal partner as Ladybug.)
- Crazy-Prepared: Played for Laughs. Ladybug has a table with a romantic dessert set up for her and Cat Noir to share after a battle. It's hidden behind a random chimney, so she must have somehow known that they would end up on that specific roof.
- Double-Meaning Title: The power of the day is "Elation" as Monarch gifts the living ice cream man the Tiger Miraculous, which allows him to throw great blasts of energy at his enemies. In regards to its literal definition, both Marinette and Cat Noir find exhilarating happiness with each other during their night out.
- Evil Is Petty: Glaciator wants to kill Marinette for "stealing" Cat Noir from Ladybug.
- Fairytale Motifs: Marinette/Ladybug (i.e. the Princess) has fallen under the villain's spell, and Cat Noir/Adrien (i.e. the Prince) saves her with a kiss.
- First Kiss: The two main characters finally kiss with full knowledge and intent. It's not to break a curse, they don't lose their memories, and it doesn't happen in an alternate timeline or magical dream. Surprisingly, their first kiss is when they are Marinette and Cat Noir. However, it is no Relationship Upgrade because Cat Noir realizes that it would be wrongfully taking advantage of his circumstance to be in a romance with someone who does not know who he is, but he knows who she is.
- Foreshadowing: How could Monarch have known where Ladybug and Cat Noir were hiding to alert Glaciator? Unless he knew somehow beforehand.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Although Marinette forgave Alya for revealing to Nino her identity as Rena Furtive behind her back, she continues to be angry about it.
- Gratuitous French: In the English dub, when Marinette repeats to herself Cat Noir's name, one time she pronounces it in French as "Chat Noir".
- Having a Blast: Glaciator's ice cream projectiles imbued with the power of the Tiger Miraculous allow him to wreak serious havoc. He completely levels Marinette's home and the surrounding area.
- Heroic Bystander: While decked out in kitchen ware, Alya stands up to Glaciator. He easily blasts her aside, but she distracts him from taking Cat Noir's Miraculous long enough for Ladybug to arrive.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Glaciator is defeated when heroes melt his body using the fires he started with his Clout-infused blasts.
- I Am Not Him: Alya tells Marinette that dating Cat Noir isn't a good idea because they'll probably end up telling each other their secret identities. Marinette snaps back that just because Alya couldn't keep a secret from her boyfriend doesn't mean that Marinette can't.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Ladybug impales Glaciator with a large umbrella she got as her lucky charm. She uses it to pull him to a fire to melt him.
- Internal Reveal:
- Adrien finds out that Marinette used to have feelings for him.
- Monarch finds out that Cat Noir loves Marinette, and he makes plans to exploit this weakness.
- Irony: Marinette's decision not to pursue Adrien in favor of Cat Noir ultimately results in him rejecting her. After hearing that she doesn't love Adrien, he feels that it's wrong to date her as Cat Noir.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Cat Noir offers to surrender his Miraculous to Glaciator as a distraction. He then stalls by pretending it's stuck, giving Ladybug enough time to sneak up behind Glaciator.
- Kill It with Fire: Ladybug and Cat Noir drag Glaciator over a piece of burning wreckage, melting his ice cream body.
- The Killjoy: It's André insisting on who Marinette and Cat Noir are "supposed" to be with that knocks the two of them out of their honeymoon phase.
- Jerkass Realization: Alya eventually realizes she was wrong to tell Marinette whom she should and should not love.
- Logical Weakness: A Kaiju-sized villain like Glaciator is unable to secure Cat Noir's ring, especially with his limbs having no fingers. He has to stick his human hand out to steal it, buying enough time for Alya to intervene.
- Loony Fan: It's revealed that Cat Noir has his own horde of selfie-seeking fans, which he manages to ditch by slipping away and detransforming. Adrien is then spotted in the Dupain-Cheng bakery by one of his loony fans, who posts a selfie of them online, leading to another horde of selfie-seekers, which he ditches by transforming back into Cat Noir and taking to the rooftops.
- Love Hurts: Marinette is heartbroken when Cat Noir rejects her because he can never tell her who he is behind his mask, feeling that it would be wrong of him to start a relationship with her under these circumstances. Likewise, Cat Noir is heartbroken when he finds out that Marinette used to have a major crush on his civilian self but has moved on from it, thinking that he's lost his chance with her.
- Near-Villain Victory: Monarch comes extremely close to Akumatizing Marinette when she's heartbroken over Cat Noir rejecting her. She was about to hand over her earrings when Cat Noir kisses her to snap her out of it.
- Oblivious to Love: Exaggerated at the beginning. Ladybug prepares a romantic dessert for Cat Noir, says that she's happy to spend just one extra minute with him, kisses him on the cheeks three times (she tries to give him even more), and asks if he has a girlfriend. He thinks this is some kind of test.
- The Power of Love: ...saved all of Paris. Marinette has given in to akumatization, is seconds away from revealing her secret identity to Monarch and handing him the Ladybug Miraculous, and is ignoring Cat Noir's frantic pleas to reject the akuma. Seeing no other way to save her, Cat Noir asks her to kiss him, which makes her drop the akumatized rose and break free. Monarch even namedrops this trope after Marinette's akumatization failed. Unfortunately, this also leads to Monarch discovering that one of his hated foes has a weakness he can exploit.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: While Adrien is heartbroken over not being able to be with Marinette as Cat Noir, Plagg suggests that she might come to love him again as Adrien.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After Alya tries one too many times to try and force Marinette to go and be with Adrien while ignoring her friend saying she’s over him now and disregards her new feeling for Cat Noir as her “lying to herself”, Marinette absolutely tears into her over her rabid Shipper on Deck tendencies with her and Adrien as well as her believing she somehow knew Marinette’s emotions and heart better than Marinette herself and therefore had a right to decide whom her friend should be with in the end while ignoring Marinette’s objections. This, combined with seeing Glaciator attacking Ladybug and Cat Noir for the exact same reason, causes her to realize just how pushy she’s been about the Adrien situation and back off.
- Shipper on Deck: Deconstructed. Throughout the episode, both Alya and André attempt to dissuade Marinette and Cat Noir from being a couple because they're supposed to be in love with someone else (Marinette with Adrien, Cat Noir with Ladybug). This eventually leads to both Marinette almost being Akumatized over being told she can't love the person she does and André being Akumatized over his disappointment that his dream couples seem to be falling apart. By the end of the episode, Alya and André realize their mistakes and conclude that Marinette and Cat Noir should decide for themselves whom they want to be with.
- True Love's Kiss: Cat Noir saves Marinette from being akumatized by kissing her, though he immediately clarifies he was only trying to protect her.
- The Unmasking: Marinette is nearly Akumatized into Unmasker, a villain that apparently would have had the power to forcefully cause this trope.
- Vocal Evolution: Unlike his last two appearances, Evil Sounds Deep is in effect for Glaciator. The result sounds like an Italian accented Mandilok.
- Wham Episode: Adrien finally learns that Marinette was in love with him. Meaning he now knows that Marinette had fallen in love with both his civilian side and his superhero side. He's just under the belief that Marinette is unfortunately not in love with his civilian side anymore (and she's probably not even sure about this either).
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Discussed. Cat Noir says that it'd be wrong of him to act on his feelings for Marinette because he can never reveal his true identity to her, and because her love for him will always be influenced by his status as a superhero and one of Paris' protectors. Marinette asks whether the fact that she reciprocates his feelings makes a difference, to which he replies that she's free to love whomever she wants, even if that someone is a superhero, but it would still be wrong of him to return her affection. If it were his civilian identity, on the other hand...
