꠸ᦓꪑꪖ

There are many ways you could fix the Lila plot and I don't have a true favorite. Which one I'd pick really depends on things like the overall story I want to tell and how much time I have to dedicate to the lie plot. I'll give you three pitches to show the variety of options that are out there. Note that all of these require some level of serialization because of course they do! If your story doesn't allow for serialization, then don't include plots about large scale deception. Those need time to cook!

Option One: Alya Gets an Arc

Season one established Alya as someone who wanted to be a serious journalist, but wasn't there yet which made sense. She was more a hero fan turned journalist than a journalist who got into heroes. This fangirl background meant that she was quick to get caught up in the hype of a good story and slow to stop to think if the story made sense. That's why we have an episode where Alya thinks Chloe is Ladybug, leading to an embarrassingly bad investigation that gets Alya akumatized. This means that season one wasn't a good setup for Alya to become a hero, but it was a good setup for Alya to believe Lila if you tone Lila's lies down a bit which is what we're going to do in this pitch.

New girl Lila comes to town and Alya is immediately enchanted. Lila no longer claims to be Ladybug's bff, but she does start claiming that she's been caught up in akuma attacks left and right. Whenever this happens, she's happy to give Alya an interview. Alya is thrilled because she often struggles to get interviews after an attack and there are tons of attacks she misses that Lila is "luckily" able to catch.

None of Lila's lies are glaring, but there's enough there that Alya should be asking questions and she isn't. She's too caught up in the excitement of having a Jr. Reporter who cares about the blog as much as she does. Lila is also telling more mundane lies at school to make herself seem cool and well connected. Marinette has picked up on all of this and gotten herself on Lila's bad side. Marinette has also warned Alya that Lila is a liar, but Alya just thinks that Marinette is jealous of how cool Lila is because Marinette has no proof that Lila is lying and Alya is too new to reporting to really understand the nuances of questioning sources.

Then Sapotis happens. Alya gets to be a hero for a night and is so happy about it! The only downside is that she doesn't have any footage. There's not even footage online since the attack happened at night. She's lamenting about this at school when Lila speaks up and says that she saw the attack first hand! Alya is thrilled until Lila starts talking. The story she tells isn't remotely accurate to what actually happened.

Alya is shaken. She goes home and, for the first time, she starts actually researching Lila's statements by watching Lila's old interviews and comparing them to other accounts of the akuma attacks. Alya immediately finds discrepancies. By the end of the evening, she's realized that Marinette was right and Lila is a liar. Lila gets outed and the arc ends. Since Alya has done so much research to take Lila down, she ends up making a bunch of blog posts summarizing her findings for the attacks that Lila lied about as a way to replace Lila's lie-ridden interviews. The summaries end up being massively popular and Alya gets praised for how well researched her work was.

This experience changes Alya. She no longer wants to just throw random stories onto her blog. She wants to give accurate accounts of what happened. She also starts to question what should and shouldn't be shared. Finding out Ladybug's identity was always a big goal for Alya, but now she's realizing just how dangerous that would be. Her and Marinette get to have talks about all of this since the Lila fallout should matter to their friendship! Marinette is impressed by how professionally Alya handled the situation and even more impressed by how Alya handles herself now. There's no more talk of outing Ladybug. Instead, Alya is focused on the thing that's less fun, but that really matters: outing Hawkmoth the same way she outed Lila. It's this change that convinces Marinette that Alya should be more than a one-time hero leading Alya to get the fox for good as I think that should have been a thing in the show. No mass recruitment. Everyone has to earn their assignment or be nothing more than the occasional tag in.

Option Two: Alya Is Already Perfect

In this version of the plot, we remove every episode that made Alya a bad reporter. No more wanting to out Ladybug. No more thinking Chloe is Ladybug. No more posting about things Ladybug drops. Just good, solid reporting right from day one.

When Lila shows up and starts telling her lies - which will still be toned down - Alya immediately picks up on the fact that something seems off while Marinette is oblivious. As a good reporter, Alya doesn't share her suspicions because she has nothing to back them up. She keeps quiet and gathers information. Once she has enough proof, she outs Lila. Marinette is shocked, but grateful. She also realizes just how good of a reporter Alya is. This leads to Marinette giving Alya the fox miraculous because the team needs someone like this to help them take down Hawkmoth!

You're probably thinking that this pitch is less interesting than the first one so why would I ever pick this one? The answer is that it's a better fit for canon's episodic structure. You'd pick a season, introduce Lila, and then have this be a running thing in the background leading to a Lila takedown at the end of the season. Alya would only get a minute or two at the end of each - or at least most - episodes to move the plot forward. It lets you establish her skillset and gets you hyped for her to help take down Hawkmoth without it needing to eat up a ton of screen time. Maybe have the big, season finale drama be that Marinette is going to give Lila a miraculous and Alya outs Lila just in the nick of time, leading Alya to get the miraculous instead.

Option Three: Something to do with Whatever the Lila Plot is Supposed to Be

The biggest problem with fixing the Lila-the-liar plot is that most of the obvious fixes involve Lila being a less-than-stellar liar. While the lies canon had her tell back that up, the way canon plays the lies doesn't. Canon Lila is supposed to be a master manipulator whose lies are impossible to see through. I'd like to pitch ways to fix that, but canon makes it tricky because a proper fix requires understanding Lila's character and that's an impossible ask. We're almost to the end of season six and we still have no clue who she is or what her goals are. The only thing we know is that she's a master manipulator who is somehow connected to Tomoe. My best guess as to where that's going is that Tomoe sent Lila to Paris to get the miraculous, but that's just a guess. Still, it's the best I've got so let's just assume that's what happened to show why it's such an issue.

I've always liked the idea that Lila came to Paris on a mission, but I liked it as an alternative way to write canon. I never expected it to be canon. If this is where the story is going, then the first five seasons are an even bigger writing failure than I thought. The writers didn't just give Lila lies that felt too obvious. They had her lie in ways that completely undermined her supposed goal!

In the first five seasons, Lila is written like a compulsive liar who just wants attention. She's not written like someone who is lying to support a mission. For example, why would she lie about being Ladybug's best friend? What does that get her? Attention, Ladybug's ire, and nothing else so it's a terrible lie for a spy who wants to get close to Ladybug! Similarly, why would Lila tell Ladybug that they're enemies, instantly putting Ladybug on guard any time Lila is around? That's the last thing she should do if she wants to steal Ladybug's miraculous!

If Lila's goal is to get the miraculous and her lies are all supposed to support that goal, then I'd rewrite things so that Lila no longer cares about being loved by everyone. Instead, she just wants to get close to Alya because the Ladyblog has made Lila suspect that Ladybug and Alya have a special connection. Why else would Ladybug give Alya that special private interview from the end of The Mime? In this new version of canon, Lila barely ever lies because she's not a compulsive liar. She's a woman on a mission who only lies when the lies serve the mission.

Where the story goes from there depends on a ton of factors. I could see a version of the story where Alya and Marinette are oblivious that Lila is a liar until Lila pulls off some crazy move like stealing the fox. I could also see a version where Marinette and Alya are oblivious to the lies, but Marinette doesn't trust Lila because she's a stranger who is obsessed with Ladybug and it's natural that Ladybug would not be okay with that. Once Alya becomes a hero, Alya would share that fear and naturally grow apart from Lila without needing a Lila reveal.

First of all, Lila has referred to Kagami as her “sister” multiple times throughout Seasons 5 and 6, and she directly calls Tomoe her “mother” in Season 6. That strongly suggests that Lila is either part of the Tsurugi family or at least deeply connected to it.

Cerise: (suddenly appears, snapping Tomoe out of the flashback) Hello, mother. Forgive my intrusion, but I sensed your disappointment, so I thought I’d pay you a little visit. Nooroo, dark wings rise.

We also know that Tomoe, in her own words, has “been disappointed by men her entire life,” which implies she holds a deep resentment toward them for reasons we still don’t know.

Tomoe: I’ve been disappointed by men my entire life. I want Kagami to grow up to have a Prince Charming as perfect as she is: smart, strong, handsome, and obedient.

This is just a theory, but honestly, I think it lines up pretty well with what canon is trying to imply.

I think Lila is probably Tomoe’s first daughter, the child she had with the man who hurt her so badly that made her hate them all.

We don’t know exactly what that man did to her, but whatever happened may also explain why Tomoe doesn’t see Lila as a worthy successor to her empire.

That could be what eventually led Tomoe to use the Peacock Miraculous to create her “perfect” daughter, Kagami.

Also, the show has repeatedly reinforced the idea that Kagami is the “favorite daughter,” while Lila is treated as the rejected one.

In Emotion, Kagami openly tells Lila that she isn’t a diamond, she's just a rock.

Kagami: It's where the most powerful families introduce their greatest treasures, their heirs, and heiresses. Adrien, Chloe, me — our families see us as Diamonds.

Lila: And I wasn’t invited?

Kagami: Of course not. You’re not a precious stone, you’re just a stone.

Then, in Yaksi Gozen, Lila refers to herself as the “least preferred daughter.”

Chrysalis: Kagami was so perfect. It must be painful to watch your favorite daughter escape from your grasp... Luckily, I am here.

And in The Dirtyfiers, she tells Etta and Ella that she knows what it feels like to have a mother who doesn’t love you.

What we still don’t know are Lila’s true motivations. Maybe she wants Tomoe’s approval. Maybe she wants revenge against her. Or maybe she just wants whatever the writers decide to pull from their asses next.

Rooster Bold:

The Cast Combo AU would, in essence, greatly condense the existing cast of ML, because there are a lot of characters who are nothingburgers and space-fillers and sometimes it's nice to trim the fat. This is Batch 1, but I'll let you guys take some guessed on who got eaten and who got to be the eater for the Batch 2.

Beneath the cut is some character blurbs for Batch 1:

-I don't think retelling canon would be interesting. So I have a proposition: Instead of you playing as Marinette or Adrien, you become a Parisian! You can create a custom character and be the protagonist of the story. I think this would sell much more because, c’mon, we’ve all wanted to wield a Miraculous at least once.

-At the beginning of the game, you would only be able to choose around 5 Miraculouses. Traits could change depending on the Miraculous. The Turtle would be a tank, taking lots of damage but having a harder time with enemies, while the Cat would destroy enemies easily but have less damage resistance.

-The game would have a full campaign, but instead of repetitive akuma battles, the focus would be on recovering multiple different lost miraculouses, let’s say 8 or 9 of them. These Miraculouses would be held by different individuals across Paris. Some holders would be desperate people using the Miraculous out of necessity rather than malice, while others would be powerful and wealthy individuals unwilling to give up such power easily. Defeating or convincing one holder would provide clues leading to the next. You could also leave the butterfly holder as the final big bad boy.

-Lucky Charms and Cataclysms would not go from 1 to infinite uses, instead, you would gradually increase the number of uses you can store (1, 2, 3, etc.). Infinite uses would be a a post-game reward.

-At the end of the campaign, Bunnyx would come visit you and offer to let you travel and learn from other timelines, a.k.a, online mode! There would be special events for players, exclusive maps, etc.

-Pegasus would serve as a fast-travel function.

-You could unify 2 Miraculouses and use both their powers, but the damage you receive would be doubled.

-We could give animal traits to all the Miraculouses and make them passive abilities. The Cat’s night vision would allow him to see hidden enemies, and whatever animal characteristics you can think of for the other Miraculouses.

-We could add grimoire pages as a collectible item, at the end of the game you could have the full grimoire.

Also, even if this was literally the only thing he could do with an evil-detecting spell, it is STILL is a bad idea, because an evil miraculous user being able to overuse their powers is bad for them, but it is even worse for everyone else, and also, the side effects are easily countered by being aware of what is going on, and exercising self restraint. Remember, there is no fundamental difference between Shadybug using her power and Ladybug doing the same, the difference is HOW OFTEN they do it. And Shadybug and Claw Noir used their powers A LOT, at one point Claw Noir uses a cataclysm JUST so that he could leave Marinette's house in a more dramatic way. If you a wondering if Lila is going to run into any of these problems, the answer is "probably not", even if she has no idea this can even happen, simply due to the fact that she doesn't have any reason to use her powers much more often than Ladybug and Chat Noir did before they grew up, she uses it once an akuma fight to create the akuma, and maybe uses a couple of anti-kumas (antikumas?), but she isn't going to be using her powers much more than our heroes did.

Anyway, a mage who lived thousands of years ago being really stupid isn't really important, what is more important is the problems this creates lore wise. Remember, I haven't watched much of the show, so I could be missing something.

How does growing up emotionally speaking increase the amount of life-force in your BODY.

How come you need to feed your kwami after using their power once, if the time limit is there because of the drain on the life-force of the USER.

I would explain this as Tikki giving a simplified explanation due to time constraints, and growing up emotionally increases how EFFICIENTLY you can use life-energy (both your own and your kwami's). A grown adult also has more life energy, but that isn't the main reason they can use a miraculous so many times. Alternatively, a kwami is tired out by a single use of their powers, meaning that after using your power once, you are primarily drawing on your own energy, which adults can handle, but children can't.

* The fact that a mage created the miraculous is from the comics, everything else is from the special.

The best answer I can give you is that Miraculous' lore tends to be comically bad. The timer thing and the existence of evil modes are two of my personal pet peeves. They make no freaking sense!

Re the timer: why would the options be one or infinite? That's nonsense! It makes way more sense for it to be some sort of gradual thing where you get more uses over time. There should also be a cap as infinite uses destroys the tension. When magic powers are plot relevant and a major part of the story, it's almost always better to go a hard magic route verses a soft magic one.

Re the evil mode: what does it even mean to be evil? Who decides that? Tikki and Plagg? And why does being evil only doom children and teenagers? That's weird. It makes way more sense for the power to be neutral things that work the same way no matter who is wielding them especially since evil vs good is largely a matter of perspective.

On to your more specific questions:

How does growing up emotionally speaking increase the amount of life-force in your BODY.

I have no idea. I think everyone was confused when Ladybug and Chat Noir were suddenly adults at 14. It was very weird. Prior to that, the fandom assumed it would happen when they were in their late teens/early-20s. When I do the timers in my own stuff, I just make magic a force in the world and tie everything back to that. For the curious, this is the logic from my lore bible which was written post season three. Even then, I wasn't going to try to make canon's nonsense work:

A miraculous’ special power(s) can be used a maximum of five times per transformation (that’s five times in combination, not five times per power). The amount of uses will depend on the magical maturity of the Chosen. This number increases slowly from 1 to 5 over the course of magical ‘puberty’. There are extreme fringe cases where someone’s magic is unusually strong or weak, leading to a limit slightly smaller or greater than 5, but this is very rare.

Humans begin magical ‘puberty’ around the ages of 11 to 13 and they reach full maturity around 24 to 26. Humans cannot increase their magic by training, they can only hone it. You get what you get, no more, no less. If someone tries to use a miraculous before they’ve entered magical puberty, no transformation will occur as there’s no magic to draw on.

How come you need to feed your kwami after using their power once, if the time limit is there because of the drain on the life-force of the USER.

I once again have no idea how this makes any sense. I went with wildly different logic for my version of canon because - back then - I assumed the feeding thing would matter. I still prefer my version to whatever the life force logic is.

Kwamis can only fuel a transformation if their Chosen has magical energy available and if the Kwami has a tie to the mortal world inside of them (aka, food). To make the transformation happen, the Kwami uses the energy from the food to create a bond between Kwami and Chosen. The more magical energy a Chosen has, the stronger the bond, but using special powers weakens the bond. After the bond reaches a certain level of weakness, the bond dissolves and the Chosen is forced to detransform, thus the use limit. Because of this, a wielder can retransform during battle if they feed their kwami between transformations, but there can come a point when even food isn’t enough and the Chosen simply needs to rest. What that point is will vary based on a given Chosen’s magical reserves since every transformation and special power use drains a little bit of a Chosen’s personal magic energy. Most of the power comes from the Kwami, though.

Btw, every time the evil mode nonsense come up, I think of a running joke from Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse where Barbie's closet AI has an evil button for no apparent reason leading to moments like this:

The show establishes that adults can use their powers infinitely, but then, why doesn’t Hawkmoth create multiple akumas? The answer, according to the power system, is that a holder can only have their power activated once at a time. For example, Hawkmoth can only create one akuma at a time. In later seasons, when Ladybug calls for multiple Lucky Charms, the previous ones disappear.

I was going to look for examples of the show contradicting this rule, and I got the wonderful surprise that the newest episode already does! Zoé paralyzes three people at the same time, even though only one should be affected according to that rule.

I really don’t like this limitation, because its only purpose seems to be nerfing the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses, it doesn’t add anything interesting to the lore. Why would the mage design the Miraculouses so that only one power can be active per transformation?

As you said, I think this rule is only here because lucky charms, akumas, and sentimonsters are too powerful without limits and the writers wanted to give "adult" users infinite uses so they came up with the one-at-a-time rule even though it doesn't feel like a natural rule. It would make way more sense and feel more natural if the rule was a use limit plus everything active disappearing when the holder detrasformed. So lucky charms would stick around just like Chat Noir's destruction sticks around since it's not an active power - you just summon something and it's there just like Destruction vanishes something and it's then gone - but active powers like akumas, sentimonsters, the turtle's shield, and the bee's sting would all go away since they're not a one-and-done.

I'm not surprised that they've gone against this weird limit because most of the powers are more interesting if they have multiple concurrent uses. It's the same reason the writers came up with a bullshit "time is an illusion" excuse to let Adrien use the rabbit as much as he needed to even though he hadn't gotten the adult upgrade. If he had to retransform between every burrow, then Evolution would be an awkward episode so they fudged the rules to make it work. And sometimes you do have to do that even in more well-thought-out system! But Miraculous doesn't have a solid system and that wasn't a one-off, low-impact fudge. Major rules are constantly changing!

Why doesn't Gabe detransform? He is very in tune with Noroo's concept, if not the kwami themselves.

Also, even if this was literally the only thing he could do with an evil-detecting spell, it is STILL is a bad idea, because an evil miraculous user being able to overuse their powers is bad for them, but it is even worse for everyone else, and also, the side effects are easily countered by being aware of what is going on, and exercising self restraint. Remember, there is no fundamental difference between Shadybug using her power and Ladybug doing the same, the difference is HOW OFTEN they do it. And Shadybug and Claw Noir used their powers A LOT, at one point Claw Noir uses a cataclysm JUST so that he could leave Marinette's house in a more dramatic way. If you a wondering if Lila is going to run into any of these problems, the answer is "probably not", even if she has no idea this can even happen, simply due to the fact that she doesn't have any reason to use her powers much more often than Ladybug and Chat Noir did before they grew up, she uses it once an akuma fight to create the akuma, and maybe uses a couple of anti-kumas (antikumas?), but she isn't going to be using her powers much more than our heroes did.

Anyway, a mage who lived thousands of years ago being really stupid isn't really important, what is more important is the problems this creates lore wise. Remember, I haven't watched much of the show, so I could be missing something.

How does growing up emotionally speaking increase the amount of life-force in your BODY.

How come you need to feed your kwami after using their power once, if the time limit is there because of the drain on the life-force of the USER.

I would explain this as Tikki giving a simplified explanation due to time constraints, and growing up emotionally increases how EFFICIENTLY you can use life-energy (both your own and your kwami's). A grown adult also has more life energy, but that isn't the main reason they can use a miraculous so many times. Alternatively, a kwami is tired out by a single use of their powers, meaning that after using your power once, you are primarily drawing on your own energy, which adults can handle, but children can't.

* The fact that a mage created the miraculous is from the comics, everything else is from the special.

The best answer I can give you is that Miraculous' lore tends to be comically bad. The timer thing and the existence of evil modes are two of my personal pet peeves. They make no freaking sense!

Re the timer: why would the options be one or infinite? That's nonsense! It makes way more sense for it to be some sort of gradual thing where you get more uses over time. There should also be a cap as infinite uses destroys the tension. When magic powers are plot relevant and a major part of the story, it's almost always better to go a hard magic route verses a soft magic one.

Re the evil mode: what does it even mean to be evil? Who decides that? Tikki and Plagg? And why does being evil only doom children and teenagers? That's weird. It makes way more sense for the power to be neutral things that work the same way no matter who is wielding them especially since evil vs good is largely a matter of perspective.

On to your more specific questions:

How does growing up emotionally speaking increase the amount of life-force in your BODY.

I have no idea. I think everyone was confused when Ladybug and Chat Noir were suddenly adults at 14. It was very weird. Prior to that, the fandom assumed it would happen when they were in their late teens/early-20s. When I do the timers in my own stuff, I just make magic a force in the world and tie everything back to that. For the curious, this is the logic from my lore bible which was written post season three. Even then, I wasn't going to try to make canon's nonsense work:

A miraculous’ special power(s) can be used a maximum of five times per transformation (that’s five times in combination, not five times per power). The amount of uses will depend on the magical maturity of the Chosen. This number increases slowly from 1 to 5 over the course of magical ‘puberty’. There are extreme fringe cases where someone’s magic is unusually strong or weak, leading to a limit slightly smaller or greater than 5, but this is very rare.

Humans begin magical ‘puberty’ around the ages of 11 to 13 and they reach full maturity around 24 to 26. Humans cannot increase their magic by training, they can only hone it. You get what you get, no more, no less. If someone tries to use a miraculous before they’ve entered magical puberty, no transformation will occur as there’s no magic to draw on.

How come you need to feed your kwami after using their power once, if the time limit is there because of the drain on the life-force of the USER.

I once again have no idea how this makes any sense. I went with wildly different logic for my version of canon because - back then - I assumed the feeding thing would matter. I still prefer my version to whatever the life force logic is.

Kwamis can only fuel a transformation if their Chosen has magical energy available and if the Kwami has a tie to the mortal world inside of them (aka, food). To make the transformation happen, the Kwami uses the energy from the food to create a bond between Kwami and Chosen. The more magical energy a Chosen has, the stronger the bond, but using special powers weakens the bond. After the bond reaches a certain level of weakness, the bond dissolves and the Chosen is forced to detransform, thus the use limit. Because of this, a wielder can retransform during battle if they feed their kwami between transformations, but there can come a point when even food isn’t enough and the Chosen simply needs to rest. What that point is will vary based on a given Chosen’s magical reserves since every transformation and special power use drains a little bit of a Chosen’s personal magic energy. Most of the power comes from the Kwami, though.

Btw, every time the evil mode nonsense come up, I think of a running joke from Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse where Barbie's closet AI has an evil button for no apparent reason leading to moments like this:

The show establishes that adults can use their powers infinitely, but then, why doesn’t Hawkmoth create multiple akumas? The answer, according to the power system, is that a holder can only have their power activated once at a time. For example, Hawkmoth can only create one akuma at a time. In later seasons, when Ladybug calls for multiple Lucky Charms, the previous ones disappear.

I was going to look for examples of the show contradicting this rule, and I got the wonderful surprise that the newest episode already does! Zoé paralyzes three people at the same time, even though only one should be affected according to that rule.

I really don’t like this limitation, because its only purpose seems to be nerfing the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses, it doesn’t add anything interesting to the lore. Why would the mage design the Miraculouses so that only one power can be active per transformation?

Hello, beautiful people of Tumblr! Like many others, I’ve watched tons of Miraculous Ladybug rewrites, it’s our way of satisfying ourselves with the show we never truly got. However, I’ve noticed something you could call a recurring mistake when people try to “balance” Ladybug and Chat Noir's powers.

Ladybug’s Powers

At the beginning of the show, Ladybug possesses three main powers:

Lucky Charm: Summons a red-and-black object that helps her solve the problem at hand.

Purification: Cleanses the magic of the Butterfly Miraculous from the akuma.

Miraculous Ladybug: The Lucky Charm transforms into a swarm of ladybugs that restore the world to what the writers holders considers the status quo.

Chat Noir’s Power

On the other hand, Chat Noir has:

Cataclysm: His hand becomes imbued with destructive energy that disintegrates anything it touches.

So, why even activate the Black Cat Miraculous if Ladybug already has every ability necessary to counter an akuma? Many rewrites try to divide responsibilities, such as:

Chat destroys the akumatized object, and Ladybug purifies the akuma.

Ladybug purifies, and Chat restores the damage.

But these approaches overlook an important detail, why does Ladybug need to purify in the first place?

If the object containing the akuma is destroyed, the akuma splits into thousands of copies that infect nearby people, creating clones of the original villain, all loyal to the original if they’re re-akumatized.

Does anyone realize this mechanic was used only once in the entire series, and it makes the Butterfly Miraculous more absurdly overpowered than it already is? What would’ve happened if Timebreaker or Stormy Weather 2.0 akumas hadn’t been caught in time?

That “multiplying akuma” rule was never relevant again. It was just a one-time plot device to make Origins more dramatic, wasted time that could’ve been used to show why Master Fu chose Marinette and Adrien in the first place! Imagine if Part 1 of Origins showed Fu searching for suitable candidates: ten minutes focused on Marinette, ten on Adrien.

So let me give you a rewrite idea:

When the akuma reaches an object that an emotionally unstable person is touching, it fuses with it. To free that person, the object must be broken, destroying the akuma's magic along with it. This would nerf two overpowered Miraculouses:

Ladybug would drop from three powers to two.

The Butterfly would lose its absurd duplication mechanic.

Even then, Ladybug and Chat Noir remain unbalanced, she’s still the one fixing everything, while he’s left with a single ability.

There are countless ways to handle this, for example:

Make the restoration power a combined ability, activated through their Pound It!

Or give Chat an equivalent to the Miraculous Ladybug, such as a long-range Cataclysm. Remember Plagg’s Cataclysm in Style Queen? It wasn’t even that strong, especially considering Tikki once created a galette five times the size of Earth. So why not make “Miraculous Chat Noir” that powerful? Plagg is cosmic-level, he wiped out the dinosaurs, after all.

And optionaly, if you wanna keep the re-akumatization mechanic:

If an akuma is forcibly freed from its host’s object, it activates a defense mechanism, it’ll re-target the same person whenever they feel the emotion that caused their original akumatization.

Alternatively, if you’re revamping the Peacock Miraculous, breaking the object could trigger a defense mechanism that creates a sentimonster to fulfill the holder’s goal.

Emphasis on the defense mechanism, we have seen Hawkmoth de-akumatizing someone before but the akuma doesn't spread, so some lore is always apreciated.