Fern

Let’s start with Marinette/Colette and Ladybug/Lady Beetle (also if you saw my previous post, I did change Marinette’s name again)

The most obvious change is her color palette, being mostly yellow compared to her canon pink, and this was done to separate Colette from Lady Beetle, as her arc revolves around accepting and connecting with her hero persona over the course of the story and getting used to being both Colette AND Lady Beetle

Additionally her eyes were changed to push her look into being closer to her moms as well as give the stark difference between her natural color versus Lady Beetle’s bright blue. Her hair is still in pigtails, though it’s longer, reaching her mid back now, this is another difference between identities as Lady Beetle has shoulder length hair. Her earrings also have the Chinese kanji for “Fortune”

Lady Beetle pulls a lot of inspiration from Asian Lady Beetles (which is also where her name comes from), as those beetles have a lot of black and white as opposed to the more typical red. I also wanted to avoided such a basic color scheme, which is why I opted to make the red more of a bright pop of color rather than the main color, with black and white being the primary colors on her suit.

Now to Adrien and Chat Noir/Shadow Noire

This design is very simple and that’s the point, this is very put together, basic, monotone, and that’s because this is Michael Capello, not Adrien, this is Gabriel’s version of his son, and the only things Adrien are allowed for himself is his hair and his mosaic locket that has a picture of his mother in it (which isn’t pictured because I didn’t want to)

Shadow Noire is very different to Chat Noir as I went very punk for his look, and while it wasn’t intentional it also looks a lot like KISS which I imagine he’d love. The other important things to note are his different Miraculous, now resembling his locket necklace as camouflaged and the choker while activated, this is because all Miraculous will change to reflect their user, both with its camouflage and activated mode (similar to Miss Hound’s new camouflage mode) and Adrien still feels trapped, which is reflected in his choker despite how free he feels as Shadow Noire.

I’ll start with Adrien since he’s been changed the least overall:

Adrien is a character I have very little problems with and even the ones I do have are mostly just nitpicks, however the main change is of course, his last name from Agreste to Capello

I’ve never been a huge fan of his name relating to butterflies because despite being a nice nod to Gabriel being Hawk Moth, why are they named after a butterfly? Yes, we learn Gabriel chose it but why would someone so clever (prior to the writers butchering him) choose something so obvious? Especially since at this point he likely would’ve already come into contact with the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous

So his name is Capello now, which comes from “cape” or “cloak” which is a reference to Gabriel being a fashion designer but also him being reclusive, this also referencing Adrien’s double life both as a superhero but also trying to be a regular teenager

Adrien’s full name is Adrien Michael Felix Capello, his second name coming from his father Gabriel Michael Capello and his third name coming from his uncle Felix Graham, which his first name being “his”

Throughout the story Adrien is going to find himself as Adrien while Michael is his model persona and Felix is the “perfect” son persona

The minor change from Chat Noire to Shadow Noire is the two points on his mask to represent fangs (though Shadow has actual fangs as well) as well as his more yellowish hair as opposed to the darker hair of Adrien

Next is Marinette who I changed quite a bit:

I really wanted to separate my version to the canon one so her name is now Mélody, both because of the nickname Luka gives her in canon but also because of her ability to weave through situations like music on air, allowing her to easily go through situations with little to no issues

Her last name Dufour comes from the French words for oven and four, the name is a pretty typical one for bakers, so it felt fitting

As for her design, which is the most obviously different in with the headshot, I wanted to make Marinette and Lady Beetle distinctly different but still feel like they’re two sides of the same coin

Mélody’s hair is black and her eyes are brown to make her look a bit closer to her parents (granted her hair is black in canon but I wanted it to actually LOOK black here), this also makes her standout less, making her rise to fame as a fashion designer but also her role as a superhero even more shocking to those on the outside

While I didn’t mind getting rid of her pigtails, I decided to instead make them two longer ponytails instead, as well as adjusting her bangs and giving her freckles!