#grieving spouse

Maybe Amelie is an orphan, and with her sister “missing” the only thing she has to remember her family are those bands. Maybe she wants them back specifically because they’ll help her remember her sister. Maybe one ring used to be hers, and the other was Emilie’s, and Amelie is mad she had agreed to give hers up so Gabriel could use it for a wedding band. Maybe she’s always hated Gabriel and blames him for her sister’s disappearance, and wants the rings back because she feels he doesn’t deserve them. Maybe she’s feeling especially sentimental after her husband’s passing and wants to gift Félix key heirlooms from both sides of his family, and is mad she doesn’t really have anything from her side to hand down. Some families, like my husband’s, have more heirlooms than most descendants care to keep, and other families, such as mine, have only a small handful to pass down. So perhaps the Graham de Vanily family is the latter.

Also, when my grandfather passed away there was a MASSIVE battle between my mom’s side of the family and their step-mother/step-siblings because of of THEIR heirlooms - mostly their mother’s jewelry that my grandfather never passed out despite being a widower for decades - were being inherited by the step-siblings (who had no emotional attachment to those pieces; but they had financial value being things like pearls and diamonds). Maybe Amelie is just as concerned about a family heirloom going to Adrien, and then distancing further from the Graham de Vanily family from there. Kinda crappy since Adrien is part Graham de Vanily himself, but whatever. I understand family feuds.

So, maybe that’s all there is to the rings. Maybe the only reason Félix is so interested in them is because of how much his mother treasures them (he’s at least a good boy with regards to his apparent love for his mother and desire to make her happy), or maybe because of the story of how the Twin Rings “came to be” or how they started to be passed down; like all heirloom stories.

As for Gabriel’s obsession with the rings? THEY’RE HIS WEDDING BANDS!

They are his connection to his wife; a way to have her with him when she normally can’t. I hearken back to what I said before about my mother. If Gabriel has any positive traits, it is his undying love for his wife. He misses her. He grieves her. Please note the episode “Félix” and Gabriel’s reaction to Adrien DARING to suggest that Gabe “move on” and start dating Nathalie. This is a man insanely devoted to his wife (emphasis to the “insanely” part). He even told Amelie: “These rings are obviously very special to me.” That doesn’t have to be because they’re magical. It’s because they are his friggen wedding bands!

They are his way of letting the world know he’s still dedicated to his wife, and that there will be no other (his recent softness towards Nathalie notwithstanding). Those rings - at least him wearing one - is his way of showing that, despite being considered legally single, he never will be in his heart; he is firmly still married to the love of his life. The fact that Emelie still had hers on at first was his tether to her, but when the one ring was stolen, he’d prefer to have his connection to her than have her keep her connection to him. It wasn’t as important as HIM wearing a ring.

Could it be because there’s something magical going on and he literally needs the ring? Sure. I’m open for the writers to explore that. But I’m not a fan of so many people seemingly shrugging off the much more simple explanation of HE NEEDS THAT RING FOR HIS OWN GRIEVING. Something he’s clearly purposefully avoiding; stuck in Denial, convinced Emilie can come back to him with the Ladybug earrings and Cat ring.

Now, I have to admit I haven’t taken the time to go back and re-study the timing of Gabriel wearing the wedding band on his middle finger vs ring finger, but I think he switched back to his ring finger right about the time of “Queen Wasp” when his hope is restored and he felt he was closer than ever in getting Emilie back.

Perhaps he wore the wedding band on the ring finger for a while, but slowly moved it to the middle finger as a way of symbolizing that he was distancing himself from Emilie; realizing he’s a widower. But then his hope is restored, and back to the ring finger the band went.

I mean, in “Gorizilla” he is playing with his ring while talking to Adrien about keeping secrets. He could have simply been playing with the ring because they were about to watch Emilie in a movie, and it was a reflection back to his tie to his wife, but it could also be his guilt of hiding Emilie from their son (let alone Gabe being Hawky).

Perhaps as the Gabe/Nath relationship continues to develop we’ll see the ring return to his middle finger as he again starts distancing his heart from Emilie, and start to come to terms with the idea of being a widower. Maybe the ring will bounce around, not for lack of animation continuity, but because certain instances have Gabe be more sentimental than others. He’s thinking more of Emilie and how much he misses her? Ring on the ring finger. He’s becoming more emotionally connected and drawn to Nathalie? Time to distance himself from Emilie: ring on the middle finger. Etc.

It will definitely be interesting to see where the show goes with those twin rings, but I hope more and more people remember that GABE IS A GRIEVING WIDOWER, and MAYBE those rings simply have sentimental value.