#ml monarch

spoilers below, analysis and released images from TFOU and gloob below as of 4:00 pm EST july 9. a discussion of things seen so far for secret protocol and beyond

Great glorious day, how long have we waited! I made a point of dropping in for the .to broadcast to be among the first to see it!

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Luka wasn’t just Marinette’s secret-keeper—he was Adrien’s as well.

Marinette isn’t tortured just by the Big Secret; she also feels guilty about Luka. Not only did she break his heart, but she feels responsible for him carrying the burden of both hers and Chat Noir’s secret identities, and for having to leave his family. She has absolutely no one she can talk to anymore. Alya got so freaked out by the Big Secret she demanded a memory wipe (see “Revelator”). And as for Luka, he’s got a whole new life on the other side of the Atlantic. So now she’s talking to everyone in the form of Freudian slips that thankfully no one seems to register.

If Adrien suspects Plagg isn’t telling him everything he remembers, he doesn’t pursue it. He’s used to Plagg not giving him straight answers.

We’ve missed a few episodes, so we don’t know how exactly the first statue of Gabriel Agreste (presumably the one we saw dedicated in the season 5 finale) was destroyed.

Adrien’s dilemma matches the disconnect felt by so many abused and neglected children: natural inborn filial attachment mixed with confusion and pain, clinging to moments of kindness that ultimately cannot obscure the prevailing theme of manipulation and cruelty. It’s even worse when that parent is a public figure who only reveals their true self to the people closest to them… the people least in a position to fight back.

Who exactly was that sitting in the occasional chair in the corner, watching Marinette console Adrien? Could it be our least favorite disguise artist?

Nathalie may be Marinette’s new secret-keeper, but she is no confidant, at least not here. She treats Marinette like a fellow conspirator in a crime drama, subtly threatening her not to squeal to anyone because they’re both “in too deep”. Her reasoning makes sense, which Marinette ultimately understands and concedes. Furthermore, her emotion obviously comes from a place of fear mixed with love. But her demeanor leaves much to be desired.

At first, I got excited that Luka found someone new after all… and I was immediately let down. But Irupé genuinely seems to care for Luka… maybe she’d like to be more than just Luka’s beard?

The real tragedy of what Monarch did, and what Chrysalis is now doing, is that it makes feeling or expressing an emotion a risk. Talk too much about your feelings, or even experience them too deeply, and you could become a monster that attacks everyone and everything you love, all while being exploited by an evil entity that wants to use your pain as a weapon. Luka realizes his lingering desire for Marinette could not only ruin her chance for happiness with Adrien. Indirectly, it could destroy the world. The only way to protect his friends, his family, and his city was to leave them all behind. And it’s obvious that lying hasn’t gotten any easier for Luka; it goes against his nature.

The full-body shots of Luka allow us to appreciate his physique in full. He still has those thin fingers and long limbs, befitting the holder of the Snake, and a lean core peeking out from beneath the shirt.

The Ladybug-Snake fusion looks fierce, with echoes of Marinette’s Shadyverse civilian look. Too bad we’re seeing it only briefly, and under such dire circumstances.

Luka and Marinette both already understood that the Snake Miraculous let the user hit “rewind” and tape over a conversation. That was the original game plan for providing Su-Han with Chat Noir’s civilian identity, only Marinette changed things up at the last minute. Now they’re using it to speak, then erase, truths they can’t share.

Luka’s reaction wasn’t any more encouraging than that of Alya. Just what was Luka planning to do with the Ladybug Miraculous? Was he planning to hunt down Chrysalis himself, or reveal the Big Secret? Either way, Marinette didn’t like what Luka had planned, and now that’s one less safe person on an already short list.

Once again, Adrien accidentally triggers Theo’s akumatization. Perhaps Theo Barbot’s outrage is just as much about his idol being slandered as it is his pride being hurt. His statue of Gabriel Agreste, built to the dimensions in the model, would rival the Eiffel Tower in height, making him world-famous.

Chrysalis, ever the ham, mimics the poses of various famous sculptures as she brainwashes Theo to her cause. “The Thinker” and Michelangelo’s “David” are the first and most obvious. Can you name the others?

“You’re… you’re no one’s father!”

Past episode callbacks: Chat Noir cataclysming Mister Agreste’s arm is almost exactly what happened in Season 5’s “Destruction”, and the scenes where Ladybug decapitates and wire-cuts Mister Agreste are callbacks to other episodes where Marinette fought statues of heroes and public figures (“The Puppeteer 2” in Season 3 and “Determination” in Season 5).

At first, Marinette calls up three Lucky Charms that won’t help, or at least she can’t figure out what to do with them. She’s not thinking straight after her trip to Brazil. But as often happens, a Lucky Charm that seemed useless at first ends up being the silver bullet.

Adrien defeats Mister Agreste not as Chat Noir, but as himself, with the truth as his only weapon. He finally gets to blow the whistle on his publicly sainted father while confronting the hurt and anger he’s held inside. The collapse of that statue didn’t hit the ground as hard as that dropped bullhorn. But for all the catharsis it offered, it still didn’t resolve Adrien’s greatest question: how a person so outwardly noble could be so terrible to his own child.

“Sometimes it’s better to put ideals rather than people on a pedestal, because you never truly know someone.”

One of the most compelling aspects of Ladybug and Chat Noir’s relationship is that they support each other as superheroes and friends, despite not knowing each other’s true identity.

Theres a whole brand of conspiracy theories regarding him and Felix, whos publically his identical twin clone cousin due to nobility fame-related reasons.

One branch of the theory has people think that when Felix went missing, it was because Adrien Agreste had stolen all the miraculouses for Monarch, and got replaced by Felix Graham De Vanily-Fathom as a secret spy by the government, whos actually secretly controlling Ladybug and the Heroes from behind the scenes, so they can control the public by making them reliant on her.

Some others think Ladybug, or a secret society affiliated with her as their puppet king, are orchestrating for a full government takeover once they raise public faith in her and use her image to gain approval, and slowly but surely plan for a full coup d'état to overthrow everyone in power and control everyone using the power of the Rooster Miraculous, whos power they aren't really sure of, but they're working on that at the moment! Or the Butterfly Miraculous, taken from Monarch whos either secretly good, or yet another puppet generating fake conflict for the heroes to defeat.

Another branch of Graham De Vanily Imposter theory goes that Felix Graham De Vanily-Fathom, whose affiliated with Monarch, whos either affiliated with the government, secret society planning to take over the world, the English Monarchy looking to take over France, the Graham De Vanily family looking to expand their influence and gain international fame, Fathom Enterprises, a notorious arms dealing company looking to incite conflict in Europe, or perhaps all of the above!

He was secretly sent to replace his cousin, famous teen model Adrien Agreste, right before the events of the notorious attack by the sentimonster Strikeback, on a mission to empower Monarch and gift him all the Miraculouses, and when his mission abruptly failed due to him being unable to retrieve the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, his ever so secret boss ordered his henchmen to either displace or... dispose of Felix's cousin, the very same Adrien Agreste previously mentioned.

Even the eyebrows are the same!

It’s actually quite remarkable that the show manages to let Adrien/ Chat Noir and Gabriel/ Hawkmoth (as civilians or whatever miraculous forms) have such individual designs - not even resembling each other too much at all - and yet through the facial expressions, the way they talk and their body language they naturally share one can still consistently recognize them - at least on some subconscious level - as father and son.

Come to think of it. This entire scene of Monarque being fake-kind to Chloé to use her was in general top notch in this regard:

I mean, YEAH. This is absolutely Adrien’s / Chat Noir’s evil and manipulative father.

And the only way to show and convey kindness/ politness this man would acknowledge to be “worthy” of himself to use in a situation like this is either the way his own “perfect” son behaves, or at the very least Gabriel knows exactly what type of kind and polite behavior HE is demanding from Adrien.

I dont have a gif of Adrien moving in the subtle ways like Gabriel copies in the upper one but it’s definitely closer to Adrien’s body language than Gabriel’s own (though by instinct it 300% reminds me of CatWalker

but maybe that's influenced by Monarque being a miraculous identity and so was CatWalker who - as we know - is the perfect [and desperate and completely submissive] prince Adrien was raised to be so my point still stands).

And the second gif is 100% the move we long know from Adrien and also one we know comes from the way Gabriel teached Adrien to express himself for formal politness towards a woman: