What I find interesting about Adrien's new room is not only how empty it is (duh), but that we know thanks to episode 5, Werepapas, that Adrien's old room very much is still there and fully furnished:
And mind you, its even more colorful of a kid's dream bedroom as before. On its own, there is nothing here that visually implies that the problem is that Adrien wasn't allowed to express himself in his room whatsoever. Even if there were limitations, he clearly got to break free from the colorless museum that was the Agreste Mansion.
So clearly, that's not the main problem at hand.
And this comes with interesting implications, especially because Werepapas also confirms to us that the Agreste Mansion having a new design is not just a thing we are supposed to accept as it is now because of the new story arc and art style (the way we are most likely supposed to not question why Marinette's home looks different). The flashback explicitly shows the Mansion in its old design while in the present time it's in the new design (I don't have ideal images to show that off right now, sorry):
So the Mansion having been renovated happened for real in the story. It's diegetic.
BUT, we already saw that Gabriel's office hasn't been changed, same as Emilie's old room:
These are all information we got thanks to "Werepapas" and it puts the ending of "Climatiqueen" into perspective when Adrien avoids going home and instead starts running away because that's what feels right to him in that moment:
It all amounts to what I can't imagine as anything else but immense pressure to deal with your grief while also getting no fraction of closure with eveything awful that happened to you in that home because that very home was your prison and now.. changed... but not entirely because all the main rooms that caused you so much pain are still there, but it's muddy because you don't know how to feel about anything, especially because they are now all that's left feeling FAMILIAR in your home, so no shit you're drawn to them:
I gotta be honest. The way the Mansion is being shown as this mixture of completely new and everything painful still being there as mementos already hurts me as a viewer. I can't imagine what Adrien must be feeling.
And that manifests best in his rooms. Cause, yeah, it's not just A room Adrien can't decide on, he has TWO rooms because he's that conflicted:
Clearly part of him WANTS to start anew and forget the pain of his old room by moving into a new one, but at the same time, Adrien's old room is still THERE. Untouched. He can go back there anytime and how often or little as he likes.
Adrien's new room isn't furnished yet and of course the first instinct is to say "well, Adrien is a blank slate right now, he has to figure out what he even wants!" and that's not wrong,
But I do wanna raise the question of if Adrien truly WANTS to leave his old room or if he isn't just forced to live in a home right now where it's impossible for him to get closure with the past and move on from his pain to make something better out of it, so he tries to avoid everything as much as possible while also CHANGING as little as possible.
He wants a new room but can't bring himself to even relocate his bed because that would mean he officially moved out of his old room. And that would be yet another big change on top of everything else already.
Or does he even want a whole new room in first place or is his home just such a merciless mixture of unfamiliar new and painful old memories that he can't turn his old room into something new the way he would rather prefer?
Because he wants SOMETHING new, thats clear. But his home changed so much too after everything he already lost that he's not ready to change his old room as well, so he tries to preserve it cause that's all he can do to hold onto some of the past to retain some familiarity he can hold onto, even if it means he can't actually LIVE in the room he wants right now?
Or does he genuinely not want to ever go back into his old room, but he isn't allowed to make peace with the past and that keeps him from dissembling his old room because then it would truly feel like he lost pretty much his entire childhood home on top of everything else in such a short span of time?
Don't get me wrong, I totally agree with people's instinct being "Adrien's room is empty because she doesn't now yet what he wants". But the way Adrien literally runs away from his home at the end of episode 1 because it feels natural to him to avoid going inside is a bit more than just "Adrien doesn't know what he wants".
That house is a mixture of unfamiliar shiny new and painful memories attached to everything old that remained, and no one gives him the information he needs to deal with ANY of that because it would make THEM uncomfortable to face his feelings and that's deemed more important apparently.
I sure as fuck would be running too
