#ml posting

Gabriel? The guy who got his ass beaten by a couple of 14 years old for months? The guy who most frequent plans involved akumatizing a pigeon man or a baby? That guy?

I bring this up because

Until the beginning of S5 when he decided he'd rather chase superheroes than actually save his family, he was seen by the show at least, as redeemable. But the beginning of S5 was actually the continuation of the ending of S4. Ending that began with the akuma Risk, a child riding a frog bicycle and leaving frog marks on everyone.

Since S1 of Miraculous Ladybug, people in the fandom have been wondering about the Agrestes. Not just all the obvious things to worry about, but like-

In S1, Simon Says ep, we got a look at the Agreste mansion security, and it was... Strange. Sure, Gabriel Agreste is a paranoid man, and (S1 voice) if he's Hawkmoth then it makes a little more sense. But. Adrien hasn't been allowed to go to school, ever, and the reason Gabriel gave in Origins about why not? Security. Years and years of not Hawkmoth, but he's (S1 voice) (and also his mom maybe) still worried about it. So what got him/them so paranoid?

S2 made this worse. Yes, he's Hawkmoth, he has an evil lair that he access through a Tube, and he's got freaking missiles in the lair. This isn't even getting into his Basement. We also saw he had the Peacock miraculous. A lot of people who figured out Gabriel and Emilie had been using the Miraculous before, and wondered for what purpose (Senti Adrien theories wouldn't come until one of the last S3 episodes, Ladybug). And it was this big idea, back then, that they were threatened by... Something. Some manner of enemies, that could hurt them, and that they had been so careful with their son because they were scared of them.

Now, eventually, the fandom moved on from those theories, and eventually forgot them.

But not me.

Since 2015 I have had the deep, unwavering belief that there was a much bigger threat than Gabriel. That something terrible was going to come for our protagonists if Gabriel was ever defeated, or even if he won. That Hawkmoth existing put a limit to this secret evil, but if he was gone, or stopped being evil, then They (whoever this mysterious threat was) would come for our heroes.

And now it's 2025. And.

So to me?

Oh my god I just realized

Reality bring rewritten into a "happy ending"

Said "happy ending" has multiple red flags that the fandom ignores in favor of taking the show at face value

There's a "happy family" specifically that, despite being portrayed completely (and correctly!) horrifying an episode ago, are now being portrayed as the "perfect" end which means the entire fandom thinks the showrunner glorifies it

One of the main characters winds up with their agency, their story taken away from them

The season portraying lies and the horrific harm they can cause, how a story can be deformed into something it never was, the having the Main main character doing exactly that to the other main character

Also something something children born from wishes

I know now why everything felt so familiar