Miraculous Ladybug / Tropes N to Z

This page covers tropes in Miraculous Ladybug.

Tropes A to D | Tropes E to M | Tropes N To Z

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N-O

• Near-Villain Victory: "Ephemeral." Hoo boy, "Ephemeral." Hawk Moth learns Cat Noir's identity, akumatizes him into the titular villain, gets both the cat and ladybug miraculouses and actually makes his wish. The good guys are only able to prevail by crossing the Godzilla Threshold and having Sass use his Second Chance without a holder, breaking the timeline.
• Next Tier Power-Up: After Marinette becomes the Guardian, her yo-yo allows her to access the Miraculous contained in her Miracle Box from anywhere. She also pushes the limits of her Miraculous' power and gains the ability to create magic charms to protect people from being re-akumatized. Inspired by her breakthrough, Hawk Moth comes up with the ability to create Megakumas that can break through the charms' protection.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • In "Copycat", Cat Noir (jealous of the sculptor Théo's interest in Ladybug) taunts him by implying he and Ladybug are secretly an item, thus creating Copycat.
  • In "The Gamer", Marinette crushes Max in a video game match so she can pair up with Adrien, despite knowing the guy specifically trained for the tournament while she was simply entering on a whim, allowing him to be akumatized.

  • Ladybug's, or more specifically Marinette's, dismissive treatment of Chloé. In "Antibug", Ladybug got Chloé akumatized by ignoring her genuinely useful advice while dealing with Vanisher. Even before this, Cat Noir calls her out on her bad attitude, refusing to give their signature fist bump. Then her continued mistrust of Chloé as an ally and brushing her off throughout season 3 leads to Chloé denouncing the hero and relapses from the good person she was becoming.
  • In "Volpina" and "Chameleon", two of the biggest examples so far. Ladybug's act of calling out Lila as a liar, and continuing it as Marinette, resulted in her having a very dangerous enemy who directly allies herself with Hawk Moth after deducing his identity.
  • In "Queen Wasp" is another such example. Gabriel nearly gives up being Hawk Moth after his most powerful villain so far was beaten. But Chloé, who had just gotten the Bee Miraculous, shows that she only wants to be a hero because she's so angry, giving him new hope that he might just create a villain powerful enough finally win. It didn't work, but it did give Gabriel the drive to keep striving in hopes of reviving his wife.

• No Flow in CGI:
  • Marinette's pigtails are short and a single object with a few strands sticking out. Chloé's hair is tied back. As a civilian Alya's hair barely passes her shoulders. Lila's hair is long but tied at the very end to keep it as a single object. Although Juleka's hair is long and untied, it acts as a single sheet. Since the hair is animated with a physics engine, very sudden movements can cause clipping (notable with Ladybug and Volpina's bangs), or give a wig-like air, and Marinette's pigtails and Lila's sidetails react badly to touching their shoulders or the ground.
  • In regards to clothing, none of the major characters wear skirts or dresses. The few characters who do are either background characters with minimal movement, characters who don't physically engage in a fight, or have their skirts designed so that they're bell-shaped and don't touch their legs (such as Reflekta or the Puppeteer).
    • Kagami is the exception as she was as much as a main character for several seasons and her default clothes are a shirt with a tie and a blazer paired with a "Scottish" pleated skirt much straighter and closer to her legs than for the other skirt/dress wearers. She does plenty of intense kendo training/fighting with her mother Tomoe and also has some other short action scenes in this civilian outfit. The blazer practically never moves while her skirt may as well register as a magic one, in spite of Kagami already being a Proper Tights With Skirt girl.
  • Consequently and conveniently, almost all of the Miraculous costumes are body-encompassing skintight, with No Cape! and usually without fancy accessories/decorations save for tails and animal ears, hence being much less tricky to animate. Mayura and some of the US supes stand out in this aspect, with Mayura's outfit being particularly ornate and the Captain Marvel's Expy having a cape.
  • However, Marinette and Adrien's jackets still flow appropriately, notably in Marinette's transformation sequence.
• Non Conformist Dyed Hair : May overlap with Creator Thumbprint. Apparently, Skunk Stripes are very fashionable in the Miraculous reality, and very feminine too. Characters as different as Juleka, Fei from the Shanghai tv-special, Zoé, Shadybug or Nathalie of all people, sport one or several of them.
  • Zoé's is used as proof of her quick Character Development. She begins her introductory episode with her hair integrally blonde to hint she's a blood relative of Chloé and at her lack of assertiveness. By the end of that same episode, the closing splash image shows Zoé has dyed pink one of her lock of hair. It's to show that she decided to follow her own path rather than following Chloé's wicked classist view about life and how to relate to others.
  • Nathalie stands out as being the only adult character to have a lock of her hair dyed (dark pink/ fuchsia). This may be a reminder of her past uncommon Adventurer Archeologist life. It laters acts as a Health Meter as it progressively turns completely grey (while the rest of her hair stays jet-black) to show Nathalie's constant weakening and degrading health after she overused the damaged Peacock Miraculous.
  • Claw Noir has all of his hair dyed up into an unusual tint of green to emphasize his aggressive and self-destructive tendencies.
  • Mylène beats them all with her pearled-multicolored-dreadlocks. Interestingly, in spite of this showy hairdo and her willingness to engage into public protests, Mylène struggles with strong self-confidence and self-worth issues, at least at the beginning of the series.
• Noodle Incident: When Plagg used his Cataclysm powers directly, he made Atlantis sink, tilted the Tower of Pisa and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
• No Ontological Inertia:
  • Any damage that happens to Paris gets quickly undone with Ladybug's World-Healing Wave. Justified, as it's an explicit power of hers based around the Power of Creation.
  • Destroying the akumatized villain's weapon causes them to de-akumize back to the human they were originally, usually with no memory of what happened if they were forcefully akumized.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Despite Cat's skintight outfit and his physical strength, everyone sees him as more of a Casanova Wannabe and Pungeon Master.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: Ladybug and Cat Noir canonically have invulnerability, as may the akumatised victims, but normal civilians also survive falls and sudden stops without a problem. Notably, Chloé is thrown off the Eiffel Tower in "Stoneheart: Origins Pt. 2.", and Ladybug catching her in her arms before hitting the ground apparently keeps Chloé from injury.
• Numbered Sequel: Starting from the third season, sometimes previously akumatized villains make a return, with their episodes being named this way. Downplayed with "Gamer 2.0" where although his design is the same, his powers are slightly different this time and the "2.0" is part of his name, and averted with "Reflekdoll" where the title character is actually a sentimonster and Reflekta herself is defeated fairly early.
• Oblivious to Her Own Description: Marinette can't see herself in Adrien's love poem (which is actually written about her but not to her) without some convincing from Tikki.
• Oblivious to Love: Both of our heroes have this up to eleven.
  • Adrien to Marinette's crush, even when she stutters in front of him. He's oblivious to Lila as well but appears aware of Chloé's non-platonic affections for him.
  • Ladybug to Cat Noir's crush, despite (or because of) his constant flirting. She also had no idea about Nathanael's and Nino's respective crushes on her despite the latter's Marinette-ing right in front of her.
• Official Couple: A lot of the characters get together throughout the series.
  • Ivan and Mylène
  • Nino and Alya
  • Kim and Ondine
  • Juleka and Rose
  • Marc and Nathaniel
  • Félix and Kagami
  • Halfway through the fifth season Marinette and Adrien become one through their civilian identities.
• Officially Shortened Title: The show's full title, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, is rarely used for marketing, if ever. Much more often, the show is advertized as Miraculous Ladybug, and sometimes as just Miraculous.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Marinette, Adrien, and Alya when The Puppeteer compels Alya to turn into Lady WiFi on the train.
• Once per Episode: Numerous, and sometimes more than once. Opening shot of Eiffel Tower, bad guy's butterfly scene, Marinette's transformation, Cat Noir's transformation (occasionally skipped), Ladybug confused by the lucky item, magical reset, Hawk Moth vows revenge with a pun.
  • In season two, every time Master Fu asks Marinette to choose an ally she can trust to temporarily receive the power of a Miraculous, the exact same two scenes play with the box of Miraculous and Ladybug's speech about the Miraculous she is lending away. In Alya's case, having been Rena Rouge twice, giving her the speech for the second time onscreen is unnecessary since she already knows the conditions attached.
• One Degree of Separation: Thanks to the Economy Cast. Nearly every character, akumatized or not, is related to someone Marinette or Adrien know. The zookeeper Kim annoys is Alya's father, the historian in the Louvre is their classmate Alix's brother, every teenaged akuma victim attends their school, et cetera.
• One Myth to Explain Them All: The Origins Issue implies that Heracles and Joan of Arc were wielders of the Black Cat and Ladybug Miraculous, respectively. It has been revealed that other holders of the Ladybug Miraculous include Hippolyta and Mudekudeku, an OmuHimba girl.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • There are two Vincents in this show. Oddly enough, they're both photographers. There are also two Xaviers (Ramier and the real name of XY). And there're also two Andrés, who are Chloé's father and the ice cream man.
  • Tom Dupain was actually named after series director Thomas Astruc. The latter makes his in-series debut in "Animaestro".
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: In the English dub, Jagged Stone's British accent slips a few times, such as when he says "Fang" or when he drops T's from words like "water". His actor also noticeably slows his speech down to try and avoid this for lines that are harder to say with a fake English accent.
• Opposites Attract: Ladybug: A symbol for good luck. Black Cat: A symbol for bad luck. Do the math. Played with, due to the dual Loves My Alter Ego situation.
• Origins Episode: Episodes 25 and 26 reveal how Marinette and Adrien received their Miraculouses and became Ladybug and Cat Noir.
• Out-of-Genre Experience:
  • "Horrificator" is something of a horror movie as the Dwindling Party of classmates attempts to hide from the monster in the school. Lampshaded by Nino.
  • "The Gamer" turns into a hybrid video game/giant mecha battle near the end, complete with Calling Your Attacks and shout-outs to Street Fighter.
  • "Zombizou" is, as the name suggests, a zombie movie. The akuma's ability spreads by kissing, with lipstick marks standing in for "zombie bites." Chloé is rendered helpless by a twisted ankle, a character escapes only to reveal that they were unknowingly turned, and there's a Dwindling Party once again.

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• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • Marinette's disguise is basically a small mask over her eyes; the transformation doesn't even change her hairstyle! Even so, many people mistake other characters as Ladybug when dressed in the costume. This is most blatant when Lady WiFi reveals that Chloé dresses as Ladybug in private and thus believes that Chloé is the real thing. So far Jagged Stone seems to be the only person who notices that Chloé's hair is different when in costume. When Chloé showcases her Ladybug outfit, it even includes a replica wig that's, of course, identical to Marinette's hair.
  • By contrast, Adrien's Cat Noir disguise gives him a likewise small mask, but also significantly changes his hairstyle and transforms his eyes into green cat ones (sclera included), making it much harder for someone to guess his true identity. When Adrien wears the Ladybug Miraculous and costume, however, his eyes are a very normal shape and still neither Marinette nor any onlookers notice the distinct similarities he has to a world-famous model. Adrien has also twice been selected to play screen adaptations of Cat Noir - once for his looks in a music video and once for his voice in an animated film.
  • To further compound how little effort they put into maintaining their secret identities, neither one ever bothers to actually get somewhere private before transforming: usually they just duck behind something that only blocks line of sight in one direction (like ducking into a subway station) something that doesn't even fully block line of sight (like behind a park bench), or just ducking around a corner in a hallway that ought to have security cameras.
  • It becomes kind of hilarious when each of them have to, on multiple occasions, vocally imitate their alter-ego (in or out of transformation) and no one ever seems to notice either that their voice is different or that their alter-egos sound identical.
  • After Ikari Gozen returns to being Ms. Tsurugi (causing her to forget Ryuko's alter ego), Ryuko assures Ms. Tsurugi that her daughter is safe. Ms. Tsurugi is blind, so she can't even see Ryuko's costume, yet still shows no sign of realizing that the person speaking to her is Kagami.
  • Finally justified in “Miraculous New York”, where Uncanny Valley explains that they have a magical aura which scrambles their appearances and voices to other humans. Judging by "Pretension", this applies to all the senses.
• Parasol of Pain: "Stormy Weather" features the titular villain, "Stormy Weather" ("Climatika" in the French version), wielding a parasol with which she can control the weather. Bunnyx' Miraculous weapon is also a parasol and being unbreakable, can definitely bring the pain.
• Parasol of Prettiness: Aurore Beauréal carries one in "Stormy Weather". Becomes a Parasol of Pain when she gets akumatized.
• Perfection Is Static: This trope plays a role in the character arcs of Adrien and Kagami. Their respective parents raised both to be perfect models and athletes with good looks and comprehensive educations. As the series goes on, both of them struggle with how this striving for "perfection" has left them ill-prepared to navigate setbacks in their lives, like relationships (and the attending break-ups) and the growing realization that they both desperately need to get some distance from their respective Abusive Parents.
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: Hawk Moth's supervillain-creating butterflies "akuma"s are named after a kind of evil Japanese spirit. "Akumatization" and "akumatized" follow for referring to villains possessed by them. Hawk Moth referring to the action of possessing someone as "evilise" (and Ladybug calling the purification of the butterflies "de-evilise"), however...that's just made up.
• Pet the Dog: In potentially the only good parenting decision he's ever made, when Gabriel senses Adrien's negative emotions in "Glaciator 2" and realizes he's primed to make a very powerful akumatised villain, he instead calls off his plan and attempts to talk to Adrien to get to the bottom of what's bothering him. He's greatly out of his depths and gives up almost immediately, but it's one of the only signs that he does actually care.
• Picture Day: The subject of "Reflekta". Juleka is uncomfortable about having her picture taken and Chloé ruins it, causing Juleka to become akumatized.
• Planetary Relocation: In "Stormy Weather 2", the eponymous Akumatization uses her Weather Manipulation powers to create a super large volcano in Paris that works as a jet engine to push Earth further away from the sun, with the ultimate goal of freezing all life on the planet.
• Plot Armor:
  • Both of the title characters have this to some extent, because they hold the two Miraculous that Hawk Moth must not claim. If they fail, there's no more show. Fans had theorized that the Miraculous protected them from akumatization, but the show gradually proved that's not the case.
  • In particular, Ladybug is only defeated in very rare and specific circumstances. As her Miraculous enables the World-Healing Wave that undoes disasters from grim to absurd, she has to beat the odds in the end. She is also yet to be fully akumatized as either Ladybug or Marinette; virtually every other named character has been akumatized, most more than once, and the four other main heroes have even had separate akumatizations in costume. In several episodes, Marinette is under heavier distress than other characters—sometimes directly from her superhero responsibilities, which should be especially potent akuma fodder—and Hawk Moth conveniently fails to notice and evilizes someone else.
• Plot Hole:
  • Ladybug always throws her Lucky Charm Object in the air, even when it's nowhere near her.
  • Cat Noir occasionally has to run before he times out, even if he doesn't use Cataclysm during this transformation. ("The Pharaoh", "Darkblade") Although this is only if that's the only way to drain Cat Noir's power to that point and not just the most expedient one.
  • In the third issue of the Miraculous Adventures comics, while Adrien transforms back into his swim trunks without a problem, Marinette ends up completely naked despite wearing a shirt and shorts before turning into Ladybug.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Chloé, when she says Marinette's uncle should just make sushi "like everyone else". As Adrien points out, sushi is Japanese whereas Marinette's uncle is Chinese.
• Power at a Price: Combining the Cat's ring and the Ladybug's earrings give the power to reshape reality or grant any one wish. But that wish requires destorying the current world to create a new one to replace it, so the heroes are of course not going to allow anyone to do that..
• Precision-Guided Boomerang: Cat Noir sometimes uses his staff in baton form as a thrown weapon, and it usually ricochets back into his hand. It can even split in half mid-air and boomerang back. Might be another magical property of it rather than just Improbable Aiming Skills, though.
• Pungeon Master: Cat Noir is fond of making cat-related puns. Hawk Moth occasionally drops a few puns as well. Like father, like son.
• Punny Name:
  • The musician Jagged Stone and his assistant Penny Rolling. Put their names together and you get The Rolling Stones!
  • Aurore Beauréal, one of the girls from "Stormy Weather", whose name is a reference to the Aurora Borealis/Northern Lights.
  • A lot of the characters have such a name, although the pun usually works only in French. For instance Juleka Coufaine, Anarka Coufaine and Luka Coufaine all contain the word acouphène^note tinnitus, Sabrina Raincomprix sounds like "Sabri n'a rien compris"^note Sabri did not understand anything, Claudie Kanté sounds like "claudiquante"^note walking with a limp, etc...
  • A lot of names appearing briefly in the background, for instance on movie posters or TV screens, are also Punny Names that only work in French. For instance, the name of a TV reporter being Clara Contar, which contains the word "Racontard"^note gossip.

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• Random Effect Spell: Ladybug's "Lucky Charm" spell creates an item tailor-made to resolve a crisis, but Ladybug has no idea what the item will be in advance, so she has to figure out how to apply it.
• Recorded Audio Alibi: Adrien Agreste sometimes plays recordings of classical piano music to make it seem like he's practicing the piano, thus allowing him to sneak out as Cat Noir.
• Recurring Extra: Théo, the sculptor who was turned into Copycat, is seen doing different jobs in later episodes: mover, flyer-passer-outer, boom operator. He also appears in the boy's bathroom in "Animan", leading some to speculate he might be a senior in Marinette and Adrien's school. Although, considering their school is explicitly a French collège (the oldest students would be 15), it may just be the Economy Cast.
• Red/Green Contrast: Ladybug and Cat Noir are partnered heroes that share this color scheme. Ladybug's outfit is predominantly red, tempered with black spots. In contrast, Cat Noir's design is predominantly black, tempered with various accents of green (mainly his green eyes and the paw-print symbol on his ring when active).
• Red Is Heroic: Ladybug's costume is naturally red with black spots, to imitate the look of a ladybug. The ladybug Miraculous wielder is generally considered to be the leader of the Miraculous wielders.
• "Rediscovering Roots" Trip: The special Shanghai, The Legend of Ladydragon reveals Marinette's parents have been saving money since she was born to take a family trip to China whenever she's ready to connect with her heritage, and they're moved almost to tears when she tells them she wants to do so. But it's subverted; Marinette only wants to go to China to continue stalking Adrien, who's in Shanghai for business.
• Redundant Romance Attempt:
  • This is the basis of the infamous love square. Marinette tries to get Adrien's attention by planning dramatic love confessions but is so self-conscious (and traumatized from a previous crush) that she can only stammer in Adrien's presence. Unbeknownst to her, Adrien is attracted to Ladybug, her superhero persona, because of her braveness despite fear and her capacity to inspire an entire city. Because of this, Ladybug rejects Cat Noir's constant advances and grand declarations of love without realizing that Adrien is Cat Noir.
  • {Subverted}} with Adrien and Kagami. Kagami's attraction to Adrien is initially born from their similar backgrounds—neglected rich kids with next to no freedom— and his polite, subdued personality. In other words, she's crushing on Adrien the model, not Adrien, the goofy, pun-loving boy. The moment he starts relaxing around her and trying to show her his true personality, she gets weirded out. It doesn't help that he's being a lackluster lover, so she breaks up with him.
• Refusal of the Call: In the Origins Episode, Marinette doesn't think she's cut out to be a superhero and takes off her magic earrings. She gets better, of course.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Applies to a number of villains: So far there are Dark Cupid, Sapotis, Syren, Anansi (who's here a Dumb Muscle instead of Trickster God-ly) and Mayura.
• Reset-Button Suicide Mission: In "Gamer 2.0," in order to decide which of them gets to fight the final boss, the titular villain forces Ladybug and Cat Noir to fight each other, with the winner earning the right to face him on the battlefield. Cat Noir, unwilling to fight Ladybug, and trusting that her World-Healing Wave will bring him back once she beats the villain, walks backwards and falls off of the stage, vanishing once he touches the ground.
• Revenge: The most common akuma motivation is wanting to get revenge on someone who's wronged them.
• Rich Bitch: Wealthy characters tends to be jerkasses such as Alpha Bitches Chloé and her mother, Well-Intentional Extremist Félix and his supportive mother. Or even by the book villains like Gabriel Agreste. If not, they have at least a stern facade like Kagami and her controlling mother. Lila may or may not count despite making claims.
• The Rich Have White Stuff: The Agreste family's mansion is almost entirely monochrome inside and out. The most splashes of colors are found in Adrien's bedroom, but even that is mostly from the paraphernalia.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Both Ladybug's and Cat Noir's Fairy Companions, which allow the two to transform, are drawn with big heads, wide eyes, and small bodies.
• Rock is Authentic, Pop is Shallow: The show pits eccentric, flamboyant rock star Jagged Stone against obnoxious, manufactured pop/EDM musician XY. In "Guitar Villain", Jagged's management tries to get him to change his sound to better stand against XY; Jagged later comes to the conclusion that it's all right that he lags behind XY in sales as long as he gets to make the music he loves. However, the show doesn't portray pop music as bad — the main issues with XY are his manufactured sound and jerkass attitude; when unrelated sweet pop star Clara Nightingale rolls into Paris in season 2, she is portrayed positively.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: The official music video for the theme song has the live-action singers interact with Ladybug and Cat Noir.
• Role Swap AU: Besides the many fanfics exploring permutations of this trope, Miraculous World: Paris - Tales of Shadybug and Claw Noir movie presents an alternate reality where behind the scenes villain known as The Supreme has laid claim to most of the Miraculous, giving out Ladybug and Cat to his versions of Marinette and Adrien to use for evil. They are opposed by Gabriel, using his Butterfly Miraculous as a hero. He attempts to get into contact with the canon universe, but ends up with all three of them transported there, and after clearing up the confusion he teams up with the heroes to fight their counterparts. At the movie's conclusion, Shadybug and Claw Noir redeem themselves and turn to heroism, leaving Gabriel as the only Role Swap in their AU as they intend to keep fighting The Supreme.
• Romantic Rain: Twice, in "Stoneheart" and "Mr Pigeon 72". In the first episode, it's raining at the moment when Marinette falls in love with Adrien. In the second, she realize she still loves him. In fact, he may start to fall for her as well.
• Roof Hopping: Ladybug's and Cat Noir's preferred method of getting around Paris, though Ladybug supplements the parkour with Building Swing and Cat Noir with pole vaulting thanks to his Telescoping Staff.
• Rooftop Confrontation: Quite a few battles take place over the rooftops of Paris.
• Rube Goldberg Device: Most of Ladybug's Luck Charm moves involve assembling objects in odd ways to bounce off each other to trap or defeat the villain.
• Rule of Seven: Seven main miraculous, each bestowing a different power.
• Running Gag:
  • Marinette giving Adrien gifts or letters but forgetting to sign them. She manages to sign his birthday gift, but the note is thrown out by Nathalie. She's already dropped the Valentine's Day letter into the mailbox by the time Alya asks if she's signed it, which she hasn't. Although, in the Christmas episode, she finally remembers to sign her gift and Adrien actually receives it knowing she is the sender.
  • Plagg's constant request for Camembert cheese, which is his favorite food, and especially Adrien's hatred of it, is also often played for laughs.
  • Starting in Season 2, there are a ton of references to Marinette getting a pet hamster, usually in relation to romantic interests. In the same vein, she (and anyone else who mentions the hamster) is always cut off before its name can be revealed. Aside from that one time she declared it would be named Loneliness after she pretended to be very upset after Cat Noir said he wasn't in love with her.
  • Imitation Ladybugs — Antibug, Nightmare Ladybug, Sentimonster Ladybug, Wax Statue Ladybug — always get a comically oversized weapon of one kind or another for their Lucky Charm.
  • The Adrien fragrance advertisements that first appear in Season 2 get used for more sight gags. Their sheer prevalence around Paris is practically a joke in of itself. It evolves into Adrien just being on advertisements all over Paris repeatedly.
  • While the first instance of it happened in Season 2, Seasons 4 and 5 often have Marinette forgetting to get dressed and going out in her pajamas. Sometimes without even transforming into Ladybug first.

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• Sacred First Kiss: Apparently, the two leads thinks this. Marinette once nearly kissed Adrien, thinking he was his own wax statue. And she states afterwards it would've been one very silly first kiss. Granted, she already kissed him as Cat Noir, but in order to cure him from a Hate Plague. She was horrified to discover (on a photo), in Oblivio, that they kissed again while they had amnesia. Cat noir himself knows they kissed twice, but can't remember both times and wish there would be a proper time to do so. That's why, as Adrien, he backs up and states that he thought it "would be different" (i.e. with Ladybug instead), when Kagami tries to kiss him. Finally, two episodes later, it's like the universe itself prevents the leads to kiss their respectives Romantic False Lead as they get interrupted by emergencies each time, then break up with them. Seems like the first time is meant to be with each other, for the love square.
• Sailor Earth: Just create a new akuma or miraculous wielder and your OC is good to go.
• Samaritan Relationship Starter: Marinette starts off thinking Adrien is one of Chloé's cronies, but her crush on him begins after he apologized for their earlier misunderstanding and he gives her his umbrella to use after seeing that she didn't have one.
• Save Scumming: Once activated, Viperon's Second Chance ability allows him to redo the same five-minute period as many times as he needs to. At one point, he uses it to guess the combination to a safe, simply trying all the possible four-digit combinations in order.
• Save the Jerk: Chloé Bourgeois is an Alpha Bitch and a Spoiled Brat who's Kick the Dog behavior has caused so much grief that half the time she is responsible for or is the target of vitriol of an Akumatized Villain. Her favorite target is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, unaware that she is the superhero Ladybug. While Chloé tests her patience, not once does Ladybug ever consider to ignore Chloé when she is in danger, even when Marinette might be angry with her.
• Say Your Prayers: Chloé starts praying as Stoneheart hurls her off of the Eiffel Tower, promising to be nice to everyone. Ladybug catches her, and she says she didn't mean it, leaving Ladybug confused as to what she meant.
• Second Super-Identity:
  • Realizing that Ladybug and Cat Noir are close to discovering his civilian identity, Hawk Moth akumatizes himself into The Collector as a False Flag Operation to ward off suspicion.
  • In "Kwamibuster", Marinette "accidentally" outs herself as Multimouse in front of Cat Noir to keep him from suspecting she is Ladybug.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • Each Miraculous wielder's kwami obviously knows who they are, being the ones who give them their powers. Master Fu, as The Chooser of the One, also knows who all of the Miraculous wielders are with the exception of Hawk Moth. Ladybug also knows who everyone is except Cat Noir and Hawk Moth due to being the one who loans out the Miraculous.
  • In "The Collector", it's revealed that Nathalie knows who Hawk Moth is.
  • In "Dark Owl", Plagg and Tikki discover the secret identities of Ladybug and Cat Noir at the same time. Neither of them reveal this information to their partner.
  • In "Catalyst", Rena Rouge and Carapace learn each other's identities (although Alya had suspected Nino was Carapace from the very beginning).
  • At the end of "Gang of Secrets" Marinette finally tells Alya she's Ladybug.
  • In "Wishmaker", Luka, through time-traveling with the Snake Miraculous, accidentally discovers both Marinette and Adrien's secret identities, but doesn't tell them or anyone else. Until he is forced to leave Paris after Monarch sensed the truth from him.
  • "Rocketear" ends with Alya telling Nino that she's the new permanent holder of the Fox Miraculous. It's currently unknown if Marinette knows she did this.
• Secret Test of Character: To test if Marinette and Adrien will make suitable candidates for their eventual Miraculouses, Master Fu sees if they will assist someone in jeopardy. Marinette is tested by seeing if she will pull him out of the path of oncoming traffic. Adrien's test is far less dangerous; he simply has to help the Master stand up after falling down. However, by doing so Adrien sacrificed his chance to enter the school and forfeited something important to him, just to help an old man he doesn't know.
  • When Clara fails to find a suitable performer to play Ladybug for her music video, she walks out to the line of those waiting to be chosen as extras and pretends to fall down to see who will break from the line to help her up. Marinette happens to be the only one who comes to her aid.
• Shared Universe: The show shares the same universe as with other shows in the Zag Heroes such as Zak Storm, Ghost Force and Pixie Girl. Also a crossover called Ladybug in New York that crosses over with Pixie Girl and Ghost Force.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • For Marinette/Adrien: Alya, Marinette's parents, Tikki, occasionally Plagg, and eventually most of Marinette's classmates.
    Plagg: First day of school and we already have two lovebirds.
  • For Ladybug/Cat Noir: Plagg, Alya (You can see she has arranged her action figures of the pair holding hands in "The Dark Owl"), Master Fu (who observes in "Stoneheart (Origins – Part 2)" that the pair were "made for each other"), and most of Paris. They're even voted "Best Couple" despite not actually being a couple.
  • Marinette for Ivan/Mylène in the "Origins" episode and later Alya/Nino in "Animan" after Nino claims to have a crush on Alya (above Alya's protests).
  • André Glacier, the Sweethearts Ice Cream Man, tends to fall into this for any ship he comes across, either explicitly (happily greeting established couples Ivan/Myéne and Ayla/Nino) or implictly (via his ice cream flavor combos which supposedly recongize true love).
• Ship Tease: Has its own page.
• Shockwave Clap: Pharaoh can clap his hands and send out powerful shockwaves.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: The Darker and Edgier 5th season sees the more bumbling and comedic Jagged Stone, Bob Roth and Mr. Ramier be taken Out of Focus, with the former being Put on a Bus in his first appearance in the season, and when he returns, he’s a more serious and action-oriented character.
• Short Teens, Tall Adults: With a few rare exceptions (like Marinette's mother, who's quite petite, or Ivan, who's a massive teenager), the adults are at least one head taller than most of the teenage characters. An official height chart lists the girls and Sabine at 4'3" to 4'6" while Adrien and Nino are 4'11" and 4'10", respectively. For comparison, Tom is just shy of 5'9" (slightly above average in real life, but a head taller than most other characters) while Gabriel is 7'2" (gargantuan by any metric).
• Shout-Out: Has its own page.
• Sick Episode: Tikki is ill during "Princess Fragrance".
• Significant Double Casting: In most languages, Gabriel Agreste and Hawk Moth are voiced by the same guy. That's not a coincidence.
• Silver Spoon Troublemaker:
  • Chloé Bourgeois, the daughter of the Mayor of Paris and the Alpha Bitch of Marinette's class, has made it her mission in life to bully and annoy everybody else and uses the aforementioned connection to either get resources (ex. try to bribe all of her classmates into voting for her being class president by offering them tickets to a Jagged Stone concert) or force the principal to back off from applying any punishment.
  • Lila Rossi is a downplayed example. She is the daughter of an Italian ambassador and is a Consummate Liar who has become an agent of Hawk Moth and loves getting Marinette/Ladybug into trouble. The fact that makes her a downplayed example is that all of the advantages that she says she has as a daughter of a diplomat (like going to other countries for vacation) have been shown to just be more of her lies.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Marinette for Adrien and Cat Noir for Ladybug, which makes a rare case of the characters being in a love quadrangle with themselves. Even more remarkable on Adrien's side as he has hundred of fangirls but is indifferent to anybody other than Ladybug (thus, Marinette).
  • This gets briefly explored during "Frozer," when Adrien decides to try dating Kagami, which pushes Marinette to ask Luka out. Both return to their original targets by the end of the episode.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Prevalent.
  • Marinette starts off disliking Adrien in "Origins" but falls for him once he shows her how kind he is despite his loneliness.
  • Rose has a Celeb Crush on Prince Ali, mostly for the fact that he does volunteer work with children's charities and clearly has a heart of gold.
  • Even Ivan, who's burly and scary at first glance, wins Mylène's affections when she sees his gentler side.
• Sixth Ranger: Rena Rouge, Carapace and Queen Bee.
  • Hawk Moth gains Mayura as an ally after "Heroes Day, Part 2"
• Sixth Ranger Traitor:
  • Queen Bee reverts their loyalty to Hawk Moth after feeling betrayed by Ladybug.
  • Flairmidable, aka Félix deals the most devestating blow by stealing Ladybug's yo-yo and allowing Hawk Moth to steal every miraculous in the Miracle Box at once.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • When Marinette's uncle is turned into an akuma during a cooking competition, Plagg is only concerned that Adrien didn't sneak him any Camembert.
  • Likewise, a tied-up Chloé, about to be boiled in a swimming pool of soup, complains that the soup's steam is making her hair greasy. Lampshaded by the akuma Kung Food, who tells her that greasy hair is the least of her worries.
  • This is a common complaint of Chloé's, that despite whatever is happening to her, she only cares that she's personally inconvenienced somehow.
• Slapstick Knows no Gender: Downplayed. While Ladybug doesn't receive Amusing Injuries as much as Cat Noir, she still does nonetheless.
• Slasher Smile: Hawk Moth does a particularly chilling one during his transformation.
• Sleazy Politician: Mayor Bourgeois. He regularly abuses his power, including in one episode firing a police officer because said officer refused to arrest a teenage girl on charges the mayor had just made up on the spot. The episode "Darkblade" makes it clear that he has won four consecutive elections by bribing key voters and paying reporters to smear his opponents' reputations. His daughter Chloé Bourgeois also counts, as a sleazy class representative, first blackmailing the other students to keep them from running against her, then when Marinette runs anyway, Chloé tries to bribe the students with Jagged Stone concert tickets, and then tries to steal Marinette's diary in order to smear her reputation.
• The Slow Path: Stranded 5000 years in the past, Bunnyx (Alix) must sleep inside a stone column until her younger self meets her in the present with the Rabbit Miraculous to replace her damaged one so she can regain her time travel powers and go back to the future.
• Snooty Sports: Adrien and Kagami both come from rich backgrounds and do fencing.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: A gender-flipped version; because Adrien is a good-looking model, while a teenager, he seems to attract a lot of girls that fall into the Alpha Bitch or Jerkass territory. Chloé makes it a point to hit on him while Lila violates his personal space.
• Sore Loser: The direct cause of three akuma (Stormy Weather^note Aurore's bitterness and anger at losing the weather girl competition to Mireille, Darkblade^note D'argencourt is angry about losing the elections to Mayor Bourgeois, and The Gamer^note Max's resentment at Marinette being chosen for a video game competition that he spent a year training for instead of him, although he gets points for trying to be a Graceful Loser) and a contributing factor in others.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: As the episodes progress, Ladybug and Cat Noir find themselves facing more difficult akuma. Justified, as the Origins episodes reveal that Hawk Moth acquired his Miraculous right before they did and is likewise new to using it.
  • Hawk Moth creates two consecutive ones in "Antibug" Sabrina and Chloé and in "The Puppeteer" the titular akuma who is a child comes very close to stealing the Miraculous. Finally, in "Volpina" Ladybug nearly surrenders her Miraculous twice when the akuma creates illusions of causing a building to collapse and threatening to drop Adrien off the Eiffel Tower.
  • Come season 2 the akumas have become increasingly difficult to the point that Ladybug and Cat Noir come much closer to losing than they did in season 1. Special mention goes to Dark Owl, Sapotis and Syren: Dark Owl took one of the Ladybug earrings by force and Sapotis and Syren required a new superhero and a power-up, respectively. Furthermore, the akumas of season 2 are shown to be far more willing to kill: Riposte slashed open a sarcophagus thinking Adrien was inside and Prime Queen threatens to crush Chloé on the Metro and drown Alya in the Seine.
  • Season 3 arguably has the most powerful villain in the show: Desperada. A shootin-tootin' villain with the power to turn anyone she shoots into stickers with her trumpets. She is the closest villain to have ever won, and basically did. In this episode, Adrien fails to stop Desperada from capturing Ladybug in every timeline. Viperion's plan involved both Cat Noir and Ladybug getting shot, and while it was a Batman Gambit, Desparada still managed to capture them. Basically, it weren't for Viperion, both Ladybug and Cat Noir would have lost.
• Spider-Man Send-Up: Marinette holds many similarities to Peter Parker, both in and out of costume. She struggles to balance her hero work with her personal life, only continuing it out of a sense of moral duty, with a blond crush (Adrien/Gwen), a blonde bully (Chloé/Flash), a high-class villain that is the head of the various villains in the series (Hawk Moth/Kingpin) and a villain who happens to be the father of someone close to her (Gabriel Agreste, father of Adrien/Norman Osborne, father of Peter's friend Harry). As Ladybug, she is an Animal-Themed Superbeing with blue and red being predominant in her color scheme, she has enhanced flexibility, transports herself via Building Swing, and possesses an enhanced sense of intuition when using the item her lucky-charm deposits.
  • Cat Noir bears more than a passing resemblance to Black Cat, given his powers of probability, his black catsuit, his flirtatious relationship with the Spider-Man Expy and the fact that his hero name is the literal French translation of "Black Cat"!
  • Marc Anciel's akumatized form Reverser bears a passing resemblance to the Green Goblin.
• Spin to Deflect Stuff:
  • Cat Noir's weapon of choice is a retractable staff, so of course he does a lot of spinning with it to deflect attacks coming from the Villain of the Week.
  • Ladybug also does it by spinning her magic yo-yo; however in this case it doesn't so much deflect than create an impenetrable shield that disintegrates what's thrown at it. She uses it once to protect herself and Cat Noir from a blown-away bus; this doesn't stop it, but they end up safely inside through a perfectly round hole on its side.
  • Queen Bee can deflect projectiles much like Ladybug can with her spinning top.
• Spoiled Sweet: Adrien, Prince Ali and Zoé all qualify, sometimes in sharp contrast with their families.
• Spoiler Opening:
  • Almost all of Season One's akuma victims appear in the opening theme song. The exceptions are Otis, Wang Cheng, and Lila.
  • Nooroo and Wayzz appear briefly in the opening theme long before they appear on the show. Both are major spoilers to boot.
  • The opening also spoils the fact that Hawk Moth's powers come from the Butterfly Miraculous.
  • Season 2's opener reveals the outline of all 7 Miraculous users as of the first episode, even if we've only seen 3 transformed up to that point.
• Spot the Impostor: Happens frequently.
  • Among akumas: Reflekta's entire schtick is changing people into her image. Copycat is a perfect double of Cat Noir. The Sapotis simply duplicate themselves, but since only the original(s) have the akuma, they still have to weed out the duplicates.
  • Chloé in particular is very good at passing herself off as Ladybug, simply by wearing the suit and Domino Mask, despite having a (slightly) different body type, voice, personality and hairstyle^note Jagged Stone does notice the latter, but it doesn't even raise his suspicion. He simply asks if she changed it. Interestingly enough, the one time she does wear the wig that comes with the costume, thus most closely resembling Ladybug, is the one time she's instantly recognized as herself^note when she auditions for Clara Nightingale's Ladybug-and-Cat-Noir-inspired music video.
• Stalker Shrine:
  • The walls of Marinette's room is plastered with photos and ads of Adrien.
  • An unconventional kind is the Agreste home. It is so loaded with the image of Gabriel's beloved wife, Emilie, that the house she lived in could be considered a shrine to her.
• Stalker with a Crush: Marinette's crush has led to her stealing Adrien's phone to erase an embarrassing voicemail she left him, she has pictures of him all over the walls in her room, and even knows his entire schedule somehow. This is Played for Laughs for the most part. Justified in that whenever Marinette tries to talk to Adrien (especially in early episodes), she gets so tongue-tied it's a wonder she can still form coherent words, much less intelligible speech. Marinette also seems to be at least partially aware of her stalkerish tendencies, especially when the idea of how it might look to Adrien comes up.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: As several episodes have shown, if Marinette and Adrien got together and discovered each other's secret identities, Hawk Moth will find out about them and win.
• Stealth Pun: The Pig Miraculous is a pearl bracelet.
• Stepford Smiler: Adrien about his home life, given his only parent is either always working or ignoring him. He's warm and friendly to most of his classmates, and energetic as Cat Noir, but when alone the demeanor drops and he's much sadder.
• Stock Footage:
  • The animation of the evil butterflies exiting Hawk Moth's tower; Ladybug and Cat Noir's transformation sequences, as well as activating their special powers. When Ladybug captures and purifies the akuma, the footage is reused. For releasing the butterfly and initiating her World-Healing Wave, the same animation is used although in different locations. Both transformation sequences do have alternate versions where the character is more solemn and sad. There is also a version of Cat Noir's Cataclysm after his belt has been removed and one for Marinette transforming into Ladybug while wearing her nightclothes.
  • When Ladybug or Cat Noir power up using elemental based powers, there's first a scene of their kwami changing into the new element-based form, then a new transformation sequence that changes the costume into one revolving around said theme.
    • During "Syren", Tikki turns into "Aqua Tikki" and Ladybug's costume had a scale pattern and flippers on her feet. Cat Noir has similar flippers, but Plagg's transformation isn't seen.
    • During "Frozer", Tikki turns into "StalacTikki" and Plagg became "PlagGlacier". Both Ladybug and Cat Noir have ice skates on their feet, but Ladybug's costume is tinted white with snowflake patterns and an ice tiara.
• Story-Breaker Power:
  • Ladybug's World-Healing Wave could easily become this if used to its full potential. Since it can canonically reverse any damage dealt by Ladybug, Cat Noir, or the akumas, up to and including death, it would logically allow the heroes to simply Shoot the Hostage, and then bring that hostage Back from the Dead after defeating the villain. It does have limits, though, as it can't reverse anything done by events completely unrelated to use of the Miraculous, and it can only be used once by sacrificing a Lucky Charm object, which is itself a limited use power. As such, Ladybug is careful about when she uses the Miraculous Ladybugs.
  • On the same note, Cat Noir's Cataclysm is a No Saving Throw One-Hit Kill. If used against any enemy other than the akumas, it would be an absurdly easy road to victory. Although, it turns out that it won't necessarily kill someone instantly, especially someone empowered by at least one Miraculous of their own, as Monarch gets off with only a permanently, heavily bruised arm when he sacrifices it to Cat Noir's Cataclysm to escape the heroes in 'Destruction.' But the damage is done with Cat Noir somewhat traumatized from Monarch literally forcing his hand to use it on him, with Monarch himself slowly dying as a result.
  • The Rabbit Miraculous with its power of time travel also easily counts. Ladybug and Bunnix are responsible enough to only use its power when absolutely necessary. Gabriel abuses that power as Monarch and had one chance to prevent his wife's coma that would've rendered the entire show's plotline meaningless had he not been too fixated on defeating Ladybug and Cat Noir instead. Naturally, Ladybug is able to retrieve the Rabbit Miraculous from Monarch soon after.
  • Second Chance, the Snake Miraculous' special ability, which provides its user with unlimited mulligans provided they aren't divested of the bracelet before it goes off, although it has to be manually set in advance and only has a single memory point that can be used at any one time. Some very one-sided battles are turned around by clever (and sometimes very liberal) use of this ability. Lampshaded by Ladybug in the Season 3 finale, when she surveys the mind-controlled Miraculous holders and identifies Viperion as by far the most dangerous. Despite Monarch seeing its usage against his enemies, the injury he subtained from Cat Noir's Cataclysm prevents him from capitalizing it on a regular basis since it can not reverse any damage on the holder and only shortens his lifespan further.

• Strange Minds Think Alike: When Marinette and Adrien get cast as Ladybug and Cat Noir in a music video, they both freak out over the potential of being recognized once they put on the costumes. Tikki and Plagg blow off their concerns and instead focus on the quality of the costumes themselves, particularly the material they're made of.
• Strictly Formula: Mainly during the earlier seasons. Marinette struggles with a personal issue, someone gets offended and becomes akumatized, Marinette and Adrien transform and fight the villain, Ladybug uses her Lucky Charm to defeat them and everything goes back to normal. The epilogue has Marinette resolving her personal issue from the beginning.
• Superpower Lottery: The powers people obtain after being possessed by the akuma range everywhere from Time Travel, Weather Manipulation, even channelling the Egyptian Gods... to controlling pigeons and magic bubbles.
• Super-Reflexes: Both Cat Noir and Ladybug get superhuman reflexes and agility from their transformations. During any fight, they keep moving all the time and are extremely hard to hit.
• Superhero Prevalence Stages: Paris moves very quickly into the middle stage after Ladybug and Cat Noir debut: there is no typical discord between them and the public if a villain isn't outright causing it, they are both beloved by the city, and their numberes expand starting in season 2. The world at large varies: New York City is the superhero capital of the world and well into the late stage.

T-U

• Taking the Bullet:
  • Happens (so far) twice with Cat Noir. Granted, he actually takes curses (from Timebreaker and Dark Cupid) meant for Ladybug, but still....
  • Played with in "Reflekta": Cat Noir takes a curse for Ladybug again, but because he is already affected by it himself, he suffers no additional ill effects, which he immediately points out.
  • In "Heroes' Day, Part 2", Rena Rouge jumps in the path of Dark Cupid's arrow going for Carapace, whose shield had been knocked away and was engaged with an enemy.
• Theme Naming: A very subtle example: all of the Kwamis which have so far been named contain a double letter somewhere in their name (Tikki, Plagg, Nooroo, Wayzz, Trixx, Pollen, and Duusu).
• Theme Twin Naming:
  • Alya's younger twin sisters are named Etta and Ella, which are phonetically similar and fit within their Family Theme Naming of jazz singers.
  • Adrien's mother Emilie has a twin sister named Amelie.
• This Is My Human: The kwamis are unfathomably old beings with immense magical powers, but they can get possessive over the human who holds their Miraculous — provided they like said human.
  • In "Desperada", Plagg begins sulking when Adrien decides to temporarily wield the Snake Miraculous, partly because it's a harebrained scheme to woo Ladybug and partly because he doesn't like the idea of his human partner ditching him for another kwami. He's overjoyed when Adrien returns the Snake Miraculous and admits to acting like a fool.
  • In "Truth", Daizzi takes a shine to Alya and expresses the wish to have her as his new holder. Trix immediately vetoes it and smugly informs Daizzi that Alya, being the superheroine Rena Rouge and Trixx's holder, is "already taken".
  • Nooroo, on the other hand, can barely hide his disappointment when he sees Gabriel/Hawk Moth reclaiming the Butterfly Miraculous (long story) in "The Collector" and "Queen Wasp".
• This Is No Time for Knitting: Pretty much every time Ladybug uses Lucky Charm, Cat Noir makes a comment about the seeming uselessness of the object she gets, though usually he isn't serious.
• Time Travel Episode: "Timebreaker", where Alix-as-Timebreaker wants to go back in time to fix the watch her classmates broke by accident. She accomplishes this by outright killing people to steal their "minutes".
• Time-Traveling Jerkass: Timetagger is a time-traveling delinquent-themed supervillain who uses his magical graffiti to send people to different time periods and arrives from the future to take Cat Noir's and Ladybug's miraculouses.
• Token Rich Student: Downplayed. Both Chloé, who is the daughter of the Mayor who owns a hotel, and Adrien, son of a fashion tycoon, fit while we are not given any indication that any other of the kids are that well off. However, only Chloé ever uses her family's wealth in any appreciable method.
• Too Dumb to Live: Anyone who lives in Paris knows that making someone angry has a chance to lead to them turning into a vengeful Villain-Possessed Bystander. Despite this, however, several characters such as Alec, Bob, and especially Chloé repeatedly go out of their way to be unnecessarily cruel to people even after being tormented by akumatizations they caused, which usually leads to more villains going after them.
• Took a Level in Badass: Any civilian that falls under the thrall of an akuma becomes strong enough to take on Ladybug and Cat Noir.
• Totally Radical: Only really apparent with Alya and Nino/Bubbler (but not Lady Wifi). While Nino/Bubbler always speak this way, Alya only affects it when giving compliments. This verbal tic is how Alya knew Nino was Carapace before Ladybug was forced to reveal it.
• Toxic Phlebotinum: While using one or two Miraculous at once is harmless, stacking too many of them can drive the user insane. Master Fu remarks at the end of "Kwamibuster" that nobody has ever wielded as many Miraculous simultaneously as Marinette does during the events of the episode (she uses the Ladybug, Cat, Mouse, and Fox all at once).
• Trademark Favorite Food: Plagg is a huge fan of Camembert (though he loves fancy cheese in general). Tikki seems to like all sweets, but is partial to macarons. These are the foods that contain the special compounds to grant the kwamis extra powers.
• Transformation Sequence:
  • Both Marinette and Cat Noir get one, with surprisingly little fanservice for either of them. Thankfully, they only last fifteen seconds. However, this means that sometimes a character will transform twice in an episode. During the later seasons we're shown that the in universe transformation only takes a couple of seconds, as the sequence is largely phased out.
  • It takes roughly a season and a half, but Hawk Moth gets his own transformation sequence in "Gorizilla".
  • Every additional superhero gets their own transformation sequence. Many have only been seen once or twice, however.
• Transformation Trinket: The various Miraculouses, each with an accompanying fairy and specific power:
  • Ladybug's earrings and Tikki, which grant the power of creation.
  • Cat Noir's ring and Plagg, which grant the power of destruction.
  • Hawk Moth's moth brooch and Nooroo, which grants the power of transmission.
  • Master Fu and Carapace's bracelet and Wayzz, which grants the power of protection.
  • Rena Rouge's necklace and Trixx, which grant the power of illusion.
  • Queen Bee and later Vesperia's haircomb and Pollen, which grants the power of subjection.
  • Mayura's peacock brooch, which summons a beast from the target to protect them.
  • As well as literally a dozen more in the lower levels of the Miracle Box alone. Not to mention an unspecified number of more Miraculouses in other countries, and even non-Miraculous transformation trinkets.
• Trivial Tragedy: When the supervillain Chameleon steals Nino's cap, he is utterly devastated and goes in mourning until he gets it back.
• True Love's Kiss:
  • How Ladybug cures Cat Noir from Hate Plague on the Valentine's Day Episode. She remembered in her literature class about fairy tales. However, as far as Ladybug knows, she is not in love with Cat Noir and is still unaware of the latter's feelings towards her at this point. So, how did such an idea ever reach her mind if it should not have worked? It's because they're technically — albeit unaware of it — in love.
  • How Mylène distracts Ivan turned into Stoneheart in the second half of the Origins Episode.
• Two-Person Love Triangle:
  • Or what the fandom has dubbed the "Miraculous Love Square." Marinette/Ladybug adores Adrien, but doesn't really care for Cat Noir that way. Adrien/Cat Noir is in love with Ladybug but only considers Marinette a talented classmate/friend. Neither has any idea of the other's identity.
  • Season 5 flips the players around: Marinette decides that being in love with Adrien is too dangerous, since her crush on him led to Monarch claiming fifteen Miraculous for himself, but then she finds herself falling for Cat Noir. Adrien, similarly, decides to give up on his feelings for Ladybug as per her request and finds himself falling for Marinette instead. This season also puts the Love Square under a microscope and shows how it is causing both Adrien and Marinette emotional stress.
• Umbrella of Togetherness: In "Stoneheart," the second part of the Origins 2-parter, we learn that this is how Marinette fell in love with Adrien. After he'd failed to make a good first impression on her, he offered her his umbrella when she was caught without one in the rain. Unfortunately for Marinette, however, he's already in love with her superhero identity.
  • In season 4, this exact scene is recreated in "Mr Pigeon 72", except this time, it's Marinette who offers this same umbrella. It happens after Marinette's newfound duties as a guardian estranged her from Adrien for a moment, and emphasizes the fact that Marinette accepts her love for him once again. Furthermore, it seems to indicate the moment when Adrien starts to fall for Marinette.
  • According to Alya's instagram, they also shared such a moment as Cat noir and Ladybug during a rainy patrol◊.
• The Unfavorite:
  • Downplayed but evident between Alix and her older brother Jalil. Their father shows obvious disappointment in Jalil's theories in "The Pharaoh," whereas in "Timebreaker," he shows mild exasperation at Alix for dressing inappropriately for a fancy restaurant but then quickly warms up to her. Not to mention, he has a treasured family heirloom that passes down on a child's fifteenth birthday but completely skips over Jalil in favor of Alix, and considering the pocket watch is a disguised Miraculous that also presents as an antique capable of displaying futuristic holograms, it's unlikely he had something equally as valuable/cherished to pass on to Jalil.
  • Audrey Bougeois doesn't care too much for either of her daughters, but she at least relates better to Alpha Bitch Chloé than White Sheep Zoé. She's willing to bring Chloé to New York or stay in Paris with her in order to spend more time together, whereas she has no issue with leaving Zoé in a boarding school. André, on the other hand, relates much better to his stepdaughter and quickly forms a genuine bond with her, whereas his relationship with his biological daughter Chloé is more strained.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Chloé after Ladybug saves her in "Kung Food", she complains that Ladybug took her time to mount a rescue. Ladybug promptly drops her with a sarcastic "whoops".
• Unknowingly Possessing Stolen Goods: In the special Miraculous World: Shanghai - The Legend of Lady Dragon, Marinette assumes this of a pawn shop owner who has come into possession of her stolen Miraculous and kidnapped Tiki. She does not realize that this man knowingly accepted the stolen goods from the thief.
• Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Happens EVERY episode, in a way. Marinette is in love with Adrien. Cat Noir is in love with Ladybug. Adrien seems unaware of Marinette's crush on him. Ladybug is kind of annoyed with Cat's constant flirting. Oh, Marinette IS Ladybug and Adrien IS Cat Noir.
  • Shows up properly in season 5. Marinette has come to view her love for Adrien as unsustainable (mostly due to blaming it for distracting her from Félix's deception in "Strikeback"), and she's also realized how sincere, loyal, and all around desirable Cat Noir can be. Meanwhile, Adrien has finally internalized that Ladybug views him as nothing more than a partner and that a relationship there simply isn't happening, which allows him to start to recognize latent feelings he'd ignored for Marinette, who is always there to make him laugh or offer support and encourages him to stand up to his father.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The two alternate timelines in which everything goes to crap are both a result of Adrien blowing his cover in front of his father. Episodes like "Cat Blanc" and "Ephemeral" show just how close the heroes are to the edge of disaster by operating (unknowingly) right under Gabriel's nose.
• Urban Fantasy: The show takes place in the present day, that being about 2015, give or take a couple of years (as 2015 is the year the show first started airing), with the main cast being in middle school and Marinette & Kagami mentioning that their Chinese Zodiac signs are snake and dragon respectively, which would place their birth years as 2001 and 2000. And of course, the show is about superheroes who use cosmic magic to fight supervillains and monsters.

V-Z

• Valentine's Day Episode: "Dark Cupid", featuring Valentine shenanigans between Marinette and Adrien, Kim attempting to confess to Chloé, and a holiday-themed villain!
• Villain-Possessed Bystander: This is Hawk Moth's whole strategy. He will send an Akuma to any person that recently got disappointed and is holding a grudge (justified or not) so he can offer them a "chance for revenge" in exchange of them helping him to take the miraculous of Ladybug and Cat Noir.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: Beyond going on patrols, the heroes have yet to take any sort of initiative in fighting Hawk Moth beyond following a lead that they quickly got tricked into believing was a red herring. Instead they typically wait until he creates a new supervillain and deal with the aftermath. Granted Hawk Moth himself rarely shows his face and the akumas can't be traced back to him, making him difficult to track down.
• Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: Both Marinette and Adrien have to balance attending middle school and saving Paris. In "Simon Says" and "Princess Fragrance" it's shown that both of them frequently end up late or cutting class altogether.
• Walk the Plank: In "Guitar Villain", the eponymous villain attempts to make an annoying pop star walk the plank... off the top of the Eiffel Tower!
• Weak Boss, Strong Underlings:
  • From an aesthetic point of view, the Big Bad Hawk Moth's character design looks very unthreatening compared to that of the colorful, wacky akumatized villains he creates. He wears a dark purple two-piece suit and a gray Luchador mask while his underlings range from giant robots to dark knights and everything in between. In terms of the logic of the plot, that Hawk Moth needs to create them in the first place drives the point home. The Butterfly Miraculous, which he uses, is a support type and not truly suited for direct combat. The only reason why he is able to overpower Ladybug and Cat Noir is that he is an adult and far more ruthless than them. Several of his own minions could take him in a fight; a few of them can even overwhelm the aforementioned heroes, prompting them to rely more on cunning and less on raw power.
  • The Peacock Miraculous fulfills a supporting role as well (creating minions to aid in battle), but this trope is accentuated by the fact it is damaged, which aggrieved its user with a debilitating, gradual illness. Again, The Dragon Mayura being an adult is the only reason she's not entirely helpless. Fortunately for her, her control over her sentimonsters is more complete than Hawk Moth's over his akumas because she amokizes objects, not people.
  • Big Good Master Wang Fu cannot take the physical toll of using a Miraculous due to his old age (he's well over 100 years). This forces him to give the Miraculous jewels to Recruit Teenagers with Attitude, so they can go and fight the evil Miraculous user Hawk Moth for him. The younger heroes are inexperienced, though, so Master Fu remains the Guardian of the Miraculous and the titular character's mentor.
• Weapon Specialization:
  • Ladybug Miraculous: Killer Yo-Yo.
  • Cat Miraculous: Telescoping Staff.
  • Butterfly Miraculous: Sword Cane.
  • Fox Miraculous: Flute.
  • Turtle Miraculous: Shield.
  • Bee Miraculous: Trompo.
  • Peacock Miraculous: Combat Hand Fan.
  • Rabbit Miraculous: Umbrella. Also functions as a Shield when opened.
  • Horse Miraculous: Horseshoes, which are used as throwing projectiles.
  • Snake Miraculous: Harp.
  • Monkey Miraculous: Jingu Bang^note The kind of staff wielded by Sun Wukong.
  • Mouse Miraculous: Jump rope.
  • Dragon Miraculous: Sword.
  • Pig Miraaculous: Tambourine.
  • Eagle Miraculous: Unknown.
  • Dog Miraculous: Ball.
• Wham Line:
  Timetagger: I said I was sent by the Hawk Moth of the future, but I never said the Hawk Moth of the future was you. [The end of the episode implies that Lila becomes Hawk Moth in the future.]
  
  Alya: Marinette, I'm your very best friend.
  Marinette: And I... am Ladybug [Episode: Gang of Secrets]
• Wham Shot: In "The Collector", the first episode of Season 2, Hawk Moth sends out his akuma like usual... and then tells it to stop before it leaves the window, because he's going to akumatize himself. Then he transforms back into his civilian identity: Gabriel Agreste.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Sentimonsters are introduced as creatures created by the Peacock Miraculous that are either destroyed by the heroes or disspelled by the Peacock holder once they're no longer needed. Usually, neither the heroes nor the villains have any problem with this, but there are some exceptions:
  • In "Ladybug", Mayura creates a copy of Ladybug who sides with the heroes once they get hold of her amok, only for Mayura to recall it and erase her from existence moments later. Cat Noir and the real Ladybug are saddened by this despite not having much remorse from destroying the less human-looking Sentimonsters.
  • On the other hand, Mayura and Shadow Moth don't seem to have any problem with recalling the amoks of any Sentimonsters they make that look human, often because they're copies of existing characters.
  • This becomes even more apparent in Seasons 4 and 5. Since the heroes can't locate Strike Back's amok, they end up sending it and its copies into the sun instead. This upsets Félix, who was given the Dog Miraculous by Ladybug after mistaking him for Adrien, and while he was already planning to betray her and let Gabriel have most of the Miraculous in exchange for the Peacock, this likely removed any doubt about whether he should go through with it or not. It's strongly implied that Félix is a Sentimonster himself, and later episodes have him view them as more than just tools even if they don't look human. Eventually in season 5, It's confirmed that not only is Félix in fact a sentimonster, but that Adrien is one as well. In addition, it's strongly hinted that Kagami is also a sentimonster.
• What You Are in the Dark: After expressing interest (and being rebuffed) throughout the episode "Lady Wifi", Cat Noir has the opportunity to find out Ladybug's real identity without her knowing. He grapples with the idea for a few tense seconds but ultimately chooses not to look, even closing the door she'd unintentionally left ajar. Plagg is openly shocked at the decision.
• Wise Serpent: The Snake Miraculous embodies the virtue of intuition and grants the power of Second Chance, which allows the user to rewind a short amount of time endlessly. For that reason, its users must be not only intuitive but also cunning and resourceful to spot the best moment to activate Second Chance and figure out how to solve whatever situation they need. This is noted with the fact that both Wise Beyond His Years Luka and Marinette, who has Awesomeness by Analysis, can use it efficiently while Adrien, who has a penchant for Leeroy Jenkins, cannot. Additionally, the Miraculous jewel is an Ouroboros, a symbol of self-reflection, and its tool/weapon is a lyre, an instrument often associated with wisdom and moderation. Finally, Sass, the snake-like Kwami empowering the Miraculous, is mature and responsible compared to most Kwamis.
• The Worf Effect: In "Kung Food", it's shown how dangerous the title villain is when he and his minions nearly manage to defeat Cat Noir multiple times.
• World-Healing Wave: Ladybug can use her summoned Lucky Charm item to cast a spell to undo most of the damage caused by fighting the Monster of the Week. This even retroactively repairs things that led to the creation of the Akuma, and at one point resolved a temporal paradox. It also fixes any damage caused by the heroes themselves while fighting the villain. She usually uses it after beating the akuma, though there are instances where she casts it first due to losing her yo-yo and needing it back to finish the job.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: In "Ladybug and Cat Noir (Origins – Part 1)", it's revealed that possessing the powers of Tikki (Creation) and Plagg (Destruction) at once would grant their user godlike power.
• You ALL Look Familiar: The show uses Palette Swaps of the same background character models to populate scenes.
• Your Mime Makes It Real: The Enemy Mime can mime whatever he wants into existence, from a sword to a car, including a bazooka. Only one item can be created at a time.

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