So I was sitting here thinking about how stupid overpowered it’d be if the power of the rooster miraculous was giving himself any superpower he wants, no strings attached. I thought about how bs that is from a writing perspective, and how the other crazily OP miraculous have serious limitations and downsides, and figured that I just… don’t believe it? And then I was like, omg what if that’s the point?
Okay, so I went into this knowing that if something is “sublime”, it’s impressive, and sublimation in chemistry refers to matter going from a solid state straight to gaseous form. For example, dry ice goes straight from a solid to a vapor without melting into a liquid first. I decided to look up a dictionary definition just in case I’m missing something, and one definition for “sublime” caught my eye:
impressing the mind with a sense of grandeur or power; inspiring awe, veneration, etc.:
Namely impressing the mind with a sense of power.
And then I thought about Marc’s lesson of the day: to be more confident in his abilities. Ladybug tells him that he’s too hard on himself and that he’s more talented than he gives himself credit for. After this, he names his hero form Coq Courage or Rooster Bold. What does confidence have to do with the power of choosing whatever power you want?
What if his real power is that he can do anything his opponent believes he can do?
That would give the miraculous its much needed nerf and make the power a lot more interesting. When Rooster gave himself the power to score every time he shoots, Penalty believed him, and he scored a ton of goals using magic.
If my idea is true, there would be a gamble between that outcome and the other outcome. He could’ve told her that he has the power to choose any power he wants, and that he chooses soccer powers, but Penalty could’ve told him he’s full of bs. No way there’s a zodiac miraculous with unlimited power that’s only being used for the first time today by some noob. Alternatively, if he hadn’t already been scoring goals on his own, maybe she wouldn’t have believed he could be good at soccer. Now, he’d either have to twist out of it by convincing her, retransform and choose a more believable power, or be powerless.
If I’m on the right track, then maybe the show isn’t telling us the whole truth so that it could be a twist later or something. The more the miraculous is successfully used, the stronger reputation it builds, so it’s easier to keep up the act. But if its true rules become common knowledge, sublimation becomes practically useless. Ideally, it can create a solid superpower, but that can easily be vaporized.
That’s why confidence is key. The holder would need to bluff about how powerful they really are in order to make that power real.
My theory version of this power, whether it’s true or not, is still busted, but at least it has a dangerous risk behind it, like the rabbit for example. Plus, it forces the holder to hold themselves back so they don’t claim to be able to do something unbelievably strong. If used well, it holds immense power, but if the holder makes mistakes, they can be in serious trouble, especially if they fail to cover it up, in which case the power has the potential to become permanently useless.
Some people are expecting commentary from me, but I’ve been super busy lately. When I’m like this, I like to only talk about things I haven’t seen other people saying.
So I liked Kuro Neko a lot. It was very solid imo and I appreciate the alternation between episodes where a ton of action happens (Ephemeral, Penalteam) vs episodes where the two dorks just kinda talk to each other and not much happens heroes-vs-villains-wise (Glaciator 2.0, Kuro Neko). Commentary speed run: Adrien pajamas hell yeah finally, wtf Nathalie out of bed? Good for her but ouch those braces. Rhythm (is that her real name?) was super cute and wholesome as a “villain”, and I love the senti. Lastly, Plagg is awesome at drawing?
But here’s what I wanted to talk the most about.
CT’s favorite thing: new heroes
The almost-last batch of my blorbos have arrived so clearly I stared at screenshots of all of them for 48 hours and noticed some stuff. I would like to point out that these 48 hours also let me go through what I call The Five Stages of New Hero Grief aka getting over the instant repulsion people feel upon seeing their designs for the first time and learning to love and accept them.
Between his ram-like original concept and the antelope-like final Caprikid, I don’t think Nathaniel actually knows what a goat is? My manga rec for him is one of those baby picture books about different types of animals. Now that I’ve gotten used to him, I actually like his suit. It reminds me of Mitsuru Kirijo from Persona 3. I feel like I’d like him waaaay more if his hair was different, though. It throws me off that it’s so similar to its usual style, even if it’s a little different, so any sort of more noticeable change would’ve made him look more natural. Idk why his paintbrush would have golden metal if everything on him is silver, but oh well.
Sabrina looks just about how I expected her to. I totally called it that she would have a hat. I’ll talk about her design more when I get to that image of her standing upright ‘cause this angle sucks, but I think the marble-designed ball on her chest could be her tool. If her power has to do with tracking, maybe she’ll be useful in tracking down the original, non-clone Penalty who has the actual akumatized object on her.
Minotaurox my beloved. Everyone’s saying that they see his suit as black, but I see it as navy blue? It’s a kinda desaturated color compared to most of the other suits, but he’s still all blue? (Trust me, I have perfect color vision). I like the way his mask is, it’s new and interesting. I also love the big cargo pockets. Practical. I think the puffy part around his shoulders is supposed to be like an ox yoke. His boots kinda confuse me ‘cause cloved hooves like that could never work irl but I guess it’s just part of the magic. I feel like his normal hair works well with his design because his suit is pretty reminiscent of Ivan’s usual clothes with the cargo pockets, boots, dark colors, and not a lot of details or flashiness. That’s why Nathaniel’s bothers me a little, since his clothes, on the other hand, looks so different from his usual self.
Marc looks fantastic. Glad to finally see an HD image because now we can see the gold trim which is awesome. I like his little scarf, I love his tail, and somewhat unpopular opinion but I love his hair. I’m mixed on the shoes. They make sense, and I always prefer designs being heavily influenced by the animal traits over “this looks good”, so I can’t complain, but how is he gonna kick a soccer ball without wrecking it? I guess it’s a magic ball idk. Super important detail that I haven’t seen anyone talk about: is it just me, or does he have earrings in his left (our right) ear? If you zoom in, it looks like he does. Bunnyx twins? In the picture below, I noticed that his feathers aren’t flat to his chest like I previously thought.
There are four heroes whose animals have hooves, yet zero of them have hoof prints on the bottom of their shoes. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
What I want everyone to look at is the glimpse we have of Ivan’s back. I think his tool’s on there, but what is it? It’s pretty big. Big hammer? Musical instrument? Idk
One thing I do appreciate is that they didn’t go pussy mode with the horns. If the character designers were cowards, they could’ve easily given us Minotaurox and Caprikid with tiny stubs, but they did not, and for that I am grateful.
First glimpse of Marc’s tool. They changed it from a fountain pen type thing to a quill, but they way he’s holding it makes it look kinda like a combat knife lol. Like in Hack-San, when most of the kids got brainwashed by Robustus, Marc is one again standing in the middle and a bit in front of all the other side characters, and he’s the one speaking for them. This is some consistent new development since it happened twice, and it makes me wonder how important he’s going to become because he was so irrelevant in previous seasons, but he’s changed a lot in s4. I think he’s probably the “beloved character with a big role coming up, like more than this character has ever spoken before” that Ezra Weisz talked about once in a tik tok.
Sabrina looks way cuter in this image than in the trailer imo. Her suit is similar to her normal clothes in that 70s-like aesthetic. Another important thing that nobody’s talking about: is it just me or does she have glasses in this shot? Zoom in on her mask. It looks like she has frameless oval glasses, but I can’t tell if they’re there or not in the trailer shot. If I’m seeing what I think I’m seeing, I like them a lot. They’re cute, and it’s nice to see a girl with glasses not lose them for “aesthetic reasons”. The white part on her chest/belly is a heart aww. Her boots look like those tall schoolgirl type socks, and that plus the shorts, beret, and glasses has a huge vintage prep vibe.
I bet Ladybug is drawing out a game plan in this scene, but everyone’s expressions are so funny. Every single character could be a different reaction meme.
Last thing: I’m trying to imagine how Ladybug is going to give out all of these miraculous. We know the class starts all together, so it’d be tough to separate them all to individually give them miraculous in different locations later. On top of that, there are four more heroes in three other locations, and they’re probably all supposed to be in class right now. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t explain how they get busted out of class, but in Kuro Neko we see how collecting the miraculous from even four temp heroes is stressful and time consuming for Ladybug. Maybe this is the episode where she’ll start considering making more people/all of them permanent at some point, and maybe even considering that everyone knowing each other’s identities would make things way easier.
That’s all for now. I have no time, but I’m sooo tempted to draw the four of them in fashion inspired by their hero forms waking down the street “late with iced coffee”. I can see the designs in my head already. I hope to see fan art of all four of them, and I really hope the show will develop all of them at least a little this episode.
Usually these types of spoilers have no meat to talk about, but a couple things caught my eye in the latest Penalteam one.
1) Didier Roustan is a guest star in this episode. This isn’t surprising to me because Astruc said there’d be a football/soccer episode with a special guest and he posted a cropped image of cartoon Didier’s concept art. French sports fans quickly figured out it was him from his style. Plus, he’s been in the special guest section of the s4 end credits this whole time along with Franck Dubosc, Philippe Candeloro, and Veronique Berecz.
2) I noticed something odd about the people present in this scene
Since Ms. Bustier is here, it seems like the soccer game is a class field trip, but some people are missing. I bet Lila’s just skipping as usual, but Kim, Max, and Nath aren’t here either. This wouldn’t be the first time Nath disappears when physical activity is involved, but according to Winny, he’s supposed to get a miraculous this episode, and you’d think a competitive, athletic game with a famous sports journalist is something Kim would never miss. I wonder where they and Max went. I’m guessing there will be an explanation because-
3) the number of people present is very convenient. A typical soccer team is comprised of nine people, and there are eighteen people in the collage part of the intro, perfect to play a full game. Subtracting Marinette and Adrien, there are nine kids on the field in the spoiler. There are also seven kids not present. If Shadowmoth’s villain(s) transform/mind-control etc everyone here except Mari and Adrien, who get away as usual, then there will be a perfect nine-on-nine game.
I predict that Chloe, Sabrina, Alya, Nino, Mylene, Juleka, Rose, Alix, and Ivan will be Penalteam. Ladybug and Chat Noir need an opposing team, so they’ll recruit Pegasus, King Monkey, Vesperia, Viperion, and Ryuko, but they’re short two players. This is where Ladybug gives Rooster Bold and Caprikid miraculous for the first time as Winny spoiled. That’s why Kim, Max, and Nath are conveniently elsewhere when the conflict goes down.
“But what about Minotaurox and Traquemoiselle?” I know right? I think Ivan will get his miraculous in Risk and Sabrina in Strike Back. I’m a bit nervous for their screen time, but I can see the ox miraculous helping Ladybug defeat some difficult villains like that big robot dude and the dog helping her physically locate the elusive Shadowmoth (spoilers indicate he’s hiding in the Louvre?). Ivan is part of the team in Strike Back, and we haven’t heard much about Sabrina, but her hero name implies a superpower like “detection”.
4) what’s going on with the villain? Usually, in a guest episode, the guest star is the akuma, but not always. Veronique Berecz was just herself in The Puppeteer 2.0 while Manon was the villain. We know Chloe will be akumatized into Penalty, but that’s all we’ve seen of the villain. SM can only send one akuma at a time, but it can influence more than one person.
I’m thinking, since Penalty’s akumatized object is a whistle, her power will be controlling people by blowing into it, which is how she influences the rest of the team. It would be kind of like Darkblade and his knights. It’s possible that Didier will also be a villain, but I don’t know. Since he’s a journalist/commentator, I can see him narrating what’s happening in the fight and even helping Ladybug out that way, but maybe he plays a minor role as himself only outside of the fight like Veronique.
5) I don’t expect massive plot progression from this episode because there’s a guest star and two new heroes, and it’s The Soccer Episode, but I feel like there just miiight be some Chloe stuff. I mean, other than for comic relief, why put such an episode as the 24th? Usually the 24th episode is relevant in some way.
In the past, Chloe has been akumatized into powerful villains over serious things, but in season four she gets two new forms that are both silly and caused by random tantrums. I think that her anger over stupid stuff is indicative of some deeper negative emotions. In Queen Banana, she was akumatized over the movie group ignoring her instead of indulging her controlling ideas, but on a deeper level, she was jealous of the positive attention Zoe was getting. How easily the kids at school started liking her and showering her with stuff like lead roles in a film. This was also the episode where she “broke up” with Adrien at the end, but Zoe said she’d always love her.
I think we might see something similar in Penalteam. Chloe will be akumatized over something dumb and bratty like nobody wanting to play with her, her team having terrible chemistry and sucking while Marinette’s team thrives under her leadership, her getting second choice because of Marinette’s good luck and getting stuck with the less athletic kids, etc. But I think underneath it all, she’ll really be upset because she will once again feel left out. All her classmates are friends who can work well together, but nobody wants her there to spoil the fun, much less boss them around.
Maybe I’m being too ambitious here, but I think this might be the episode where she loses, or at least starts to lose, Sabrina. She lost Adrien in QB, and Sabrina’s all she really has left except Zoe whose attention she rejects. Since Sabrina will be receiving a miraculous, Ladybug needs a reason to trust her. She needs to think for herself and be ready to serve the greater good, not Chloe, and I don’t see how she can naturally have that change during an action-packed finale. Maybe Chloe will finally get to Sabrina and she’ll realize this is it. Maybe she’ll have time to sit on it, and only make her decision later. But it’d make sense if Chloe’s repeated poor actions cause her to lose another person, especially the one who’s the closest to her and who gives her the most power.
Without Sabrina, Chloe is kinda screwed. Sabrina carries her stuff, does her homework, organizes everything, plays all her games, backs her up, and most importantly, lets her feel powerful. If not for her, Chloe would just be some jerk that no one wants to be around who happens to have enough money and connections to have her way, but Sabrina is the one who hypes her up into the Queen B she is. If she turned her back on her, she’d lose confidence. That’s something that would truly make this episode 24 special, a development in Sabrina, and Chloe finally reaching that point where she has no one there for her except her detested half-sister, which finally creates the potential for actual development and learning a permanent lesson rather than putting on a good face to get Ladybug’s approval on occasion.
6) last thing, my guesses always change for these, and they’re usually impossible to guess, but I never stop making theories lmao. Now that we know what the tools are for the rooster and goat miraculous (pen and paintbrush respectively), my guess for the powers changes to “inspiration” and “passion”. That’s it, final answer. If I change my mind again, or if one of my old guesses was right, pretend this never happened, but I feel like we’ve gotten a lot of info/spoilers about them versus the other new heroes, so it’s nice to be able to have guesses actually based on something.
As is typical ct-multifandom fashion, I’ll close out this post with a prediction that has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of the post or anything I discussed. Derailment time! I predict that the new character from the future, who I think will show up in the finale, probably Strike Back, is going to be future Max/Pegasus. Why? ‘Cause it makes sense to me and I want to see him. He’s one of Bunnyx’s closest friends, his miraculous would be one of the ones that’d get the biggest power boost from an adult user, and the two of them are probably a yin-yang pair (ask me about those btw). Also his name miiiight’ve been mentioned in a comedically bleeped-out spoiler Lindalee Rose interview about the s4 finale, saying “beep” is gonna be there to mess up SM’s plan, but maybe it was “Plagg” or someone else. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. Manifesting future Max. But seriously, ask me about yin-yang pairs.
Final update to my theory until we get like,,, actual Penalteam teasers.
I was a little right and a little wrong. I was right about Marc having the rooster miraculous, but I was wrong about the names, and I imagine rooster!Marc and goat!Nath are the “correct” distribution of miraculouses.
What does that mean about the intro? Neither Coq Courage nor Caprikid match the silhouettes of the goat and rooster even closely.
My final theory is that there will be another Aspic/Viperion situation where Ladybug initially chooses the “wrong” holders for each miraculous, much like most of the fandom apparently. She’ll start with rooster!Nath and Goat!Marc, then realize they’d work better the other way around and switch them.
I hope that would imply some character development or at least in-universe character analysis from Ladybug as she realizes she misinterpreted them.
Tangentially related, but was the most impactful, iconic, plot-relevant episode of ml ever, Party Crasher, foreshadowing Penalteam a whole season ahead of time? Or am I reaching
Lastly, remember when Gloob literally said that Marc was gonna get the rooster and Nath the goat back in like April or something in a miraculous holders “theory” video and most of us didn’t believe them? What a troll.
So… trailer. I have tons of thoughts but rn I will only be talking about the ones that I don’t expect other people to talk about.
First: in the scene with Catwalker blasting off, we see a little kid wearing a black cat costume reuniting with a black cat. Could this be the villain behind Kuro Neko? It reminded me a lot of the frog kid from that other spoiler.
Could they be related in some way? Are they in an under-10 biker gang? Are they the lost boys from Peter Pan? I just find it odd that there are two new, small furry children getting involved in some allegedly serious episodes.
Next: NEW HEROES! Yay! My favorite thing!
I must say, whatever hairstyle or lack thereof I was expecting Minotaurox to have, I wasn’t expecting him to just be straight up Ivan. Usually the more minor characters have different looks that are good disguises while the more major character look similar to their normal selves, but Ivan is Ivan. Love to seem him doe. Ivan stans, our time is near.
Also. That’s Marc. Like three days ago I reblogged this post @theultracharmingladynoire started about the Gloob Alerta Miraculous from whenever ago that had him in it, and I recommend you guys read it, but
TL;DR although this is literally undeniably Marc, Nathaniel also uses the rooster miraculous at some point and someone (Marc) uses the goat miraculous.
Casual reminder that it’s confirmed that all four remaining superheroes will show up in the last four episodes of season four. Now to continue,
(Click on that silhouette image I’m too lazy to crop it) Rooster!Marc looks completely different from who I can only assume to be Rooster!Nath. The former has a skintight red/brown chest, a green coat tail like Rena, black skintight pants, and gold boots. The rooster from leaked concept art has a white chest, orange pants, and white boots. This concept art lines up with the rooster in the intro who has a fluffy chest and pants, which resembles the blurry shapes in the concept drawing.
The way this connects to my theory is that it confirms that the two roosters are two different superheroes, not one pretending to be the other. But why? Why did the miraculous change holders? Maybe Nathaniel broke some rules and got benched, or maybe Shadowmoth got to him first for whatever reason? Does he know/learn something he’s not supposed to? Idk. But I’d love to hear any ideas as to why this happens. I also wonder if it’s before or after when Marc uses the goat miraculous.
The last thing I’ll say is I actually kinda liked Pegasus/a horse user throwing the starman looking guy into the sun. We already knew they can do that, so it’d be weird if they didn’t. Coming up with stupidly convoluted solutions to problems that could be solved by exercising their OP powers gets a little bs-like after a while. I’m hoping to see future Pegasus eventually if not soon, but seeing a horse portal implies that there are other heroes besides the team we saw in the stuff pushed by Gloob. Since it’s the finale, you’d expect everyone to be there, so maybe they have different teams dealing with different threats at the same time, or there are just many different things happening at different times.
Edit:*squints*
1. When will there be time for Ivan and Sabrina? I mean I wouldn’t be surprised if Sabrina only gets her miraculous in the finale, but Ivan already has one by Strike Back. I hope we’ll get some kind of character development for those four ‘cause wtf. I mean, there could still be someone in Kuro Neko… but. Hrm.
2. Idk if this is confirmation that Rooster!Marc is the one named Coq Courage or if Winny is trying to be vague, but like, there’s no way they went through a late redesign or something. Will Penalteam have an Aspic situation where Ladybug figures she gave them miraculous that don’t fit them at first and then swaps them? The intro implies that when they do their transformations, it’s the opposite combination from what we see here.
I wanted to make a compilation of all theories that I have for the remaining episodes of the season but I am lazy so just spitballing now.
I think Coq Courage is actually Marc, and not Nathaniel. Which also kind of makes sense (At least for me lol). The miraculous of the rooster is actually a Thumb Ring, and I really can’t see Nathaniel wearing it?? However with Marc, it goes really well with his character design as well.
Also,
The hair is BLACK at the roots??
But that’s not just the thing. Marc is a shy kid, just like Juleka. And Roosters are LOUD. And his superhero name also quite emphasises on the “courage” aspect. Maybe the miraculous will help himgain confidence and speak out? Thoughts and more thoughts
Yeah. I a gree. If you look closely at his face you can notice that Coq Courage has an upturned nose, just Like Marc’s. And Nath has deeper set eyes.
1. EXCELLENT addition
2. His hair is red bc he loves his boyfriend <3
man smart ppl here well ima go back to the not smart ppl cave where i am the population see ya
Wait a damn minute ‘cause you guys are right, but I’m also right and that doesn’t check out. I went and collected hella screenshots to compare some stuff to try and comprehend what’s happening rn.
I saw @festering-bacteria ‘s post about this and they pointed out the difference in skin color between them, and how Gloob’s screenshot matches Nathaniel more closely. I agree with them, and I messaged them about some other stuff that I will support with the hella screenshots right now.
Okay, first of all these are their silhouettes in the intro. (I made the image weird and combined to meet the image limit without cutting the post). When I made my theory post about Coq Courage, I pointed out how suspicious it is that every visible silhouette, even Traquemoiselle’s, is centered around the character’s head (and torso, if it fits) except for his. His is centered around his torso and legs. I said they probably cropped his pose oddly to deliberately hide something. When Gloob released the Strike Back spoiler, I thought maybe they cut off his head because they thought we’d have a collective aneurism upon seeing his hairstyle and deemed it a spoiler. I’m still not 100% sure why they did that, but I’ll get back to it in a minute.
I messaged festering-bacteria that my strongest evidence of which one’s which are their body types. Marc has more of an upside down triangle body type whereas Nath is more rectangular. I think Marc’s body type fits the only image of a goat user we have while Nathaniel’s doesn’t.
On the other hand, we have three rooster user images: the silhouette in the intro, Gloob’s Alerta Miraculous, and the concept art Lindalee Rose posted a video of that one time.
It’s pretty incomprehensible in my opinion, but based on the typical concept art format, the leftmost rendition is his final canon design while the other two are old and discarded. I think he more closely resembles Nath, even if just by the pose.
Here are more images from the actual 3D show (sorry for the crusty quality, I pulled them off YouTube for the sake of convenience).
The top two show them with their legs bent in a similar way to the rooster hero in the intro. As you can see, Marc’s calf is lower than Nath’s and more… spread out? I guess? Marc’s leg also becomes thinner above the knee while Nath’s gets wider.
Last thing for this train of thought: the shapes of the kwamis’ eyes typically resemble the eyes of their holders, and they all have some sort of resemblance to their holders regardless. Plus, the color schemes of the kwamis match their color schemes/their akuma’s. Here are Nath and Marc’s official renders compared to Orikko and Ziggy.
Definitely think they match in this combination.
THAT BEING SAID
I cannot deny that the miraculous alert screenshot literally matches Marc’s profile from Gabriel Agreste almost exactly. So wtf is going on?
My best guess is that at some point between Kuro Neko and Strike Back, Ladybug gives the rooster miraculous to Nath and the goat miraculous to Marc, and at some point they swap. Why? Idk. But I feel like the evidence that Nath is intended to be the default rooster holder while Marc is the default goat holder is too strong. Based on the intro, when they do their initial transformation sequences in whichever episode they first appear in, that is the combination they’re in, but something may have caused them to trade.
Back to the ml alert, the rooster holder’s body is cut off by Minotaurox’s arm, so we can’t see if the suit matches the other two rooster images we’ve seen. If I’m on the right track, it’s possible that:
this swap is part of Ladybug’s big plan, but Rooster!Nath and Rooster!Marc are considered two different superheroes
this swap is part of Ladybug’s big plan, but Rooster!Marc is pretending to be Rooster!Nath to trick someone
the swap is something Nath and Marc did without Ladybug’s knowledge for whatever reason, and she’s being tricked as well
I also noticed that the rooster and goat suits in the intro look pretty similar with the fuzzy chests, and it seems like they just wanted to match with each other. The rooster suit is also really loose compared to the usual skintight suits. At first, this design choice reminded me of a post I saw about how Nath is heavily trans-coded which was really interesting. I can go find it if someone’s curious.
At the same time, this design choice, whether on a Watsonian or Doylian scale, would make it easier for them to swap miraculous without the differences in their body types being obvious. Both of them having something covering their shoulders and chest makes them look more similar, and the rooster hero having his thighs covered by those loose pants has the same effect. Also, if they have the hairstyles I think they have, that’d also help because despite having different head shapes, their hair would draw attention away from that while being super different from both of their normal hairstyles.
This whole thing is just conjecture, though. What I’m sure of is that you guys are right about the profiles, and I believe I’m right about the default rooster!Nath and goat!Marc.
As far as what the miraculous actually stand for, we can only guess. I would say that both Nath and Marc are shy and quiet, and could use some courage, and I wouldn’t say that the rooster miraculous matches Marc’s aesthetic better than Nath. The undisguised version? Sure. But the disguised version that is similar between Marinette and Chloe? I think that looks completely natural on Nath. On the other hand, I think symmetrical hair clips look much more natural on Marc, who has symmetrical hair, than Nath who has asymmetrical hair that would only look natural in its current position with one hair clip.
Sorry for writing an entire essay, but this set off my conspiracy brain. I’m very curious what you guys think.
I’ve seen a few people mention this connection and I believe it’s correct: Coq Courage is based around the symbol of the rooster in Japanese mythology. It’s believed that a rooster awoke the sun goddess, Amaterasu, and pulled her from her cave. Because of this, roosters symbolize courage.
For that reason, I’ve theorized in the past that the power of the rooster is illumination since roosters “bring” the sun, so the ability might be controlling light in some way, which connects to his akuma, but it’s possible that it’s something to do with courage because of his name. What synonyms for courage end in “ion”? Uh… let me use Thesaurus.com here… “determination” or “resolution”? I wouldn’t call these exact synonyms but they could be candidates too.
(The screenshot of the intro is taken from Alfrely on YouTube’s s4 opening analysis video where they stitched the frames together since you can’t see much of him at once)
When I first saw him I was confused about his pose. It looked he was whip nae-naeing or something. After an embarrassingly long time I figured out he’s probably striking a kung fu style pose. (I flipped the second image for the sake of matching more closely). Shaolin monk robes, which are often orange, could be an inspiration for his costume, although his “pants” rise higher, going all the way above the knee. Either way, this design represents chicken legs so they might’ve taken some liberties to convey that.
I think the most popular theory for his tool is some variation of archery equipment, which would be sick, so I kinda hope that’s right, but it’s not really in line with what we’ve seen from the rest of the heroes so far. Support I’ve heard for that theory is that the miraculous is a thumb ring and thumb rings can be used in archery, and while we’ve never seen the ring in its true form, we’ve seen Marinette and Chloe’s disguised forms, and it’s not that type of ring. It’s just ornamental. That being said, the shape to the left of his torso that you’d think is his arm looks very inorganic/straight-edged and it dips in at the top, so it might actually be a quiver. Or it could be a different tool. Or he might have some sort of armor on his arm(s). Once again, there’s no predicting tools for sure. Sometimes they’re straightforward, but most of the time they’re supremely random. I do like the idea of long-distance though, because most of the current heroes are close-quarters, and as an akuma he uses a lot of projectiles while standing in one place.
Back to the illumination thing. Here’s some random bs I can connect back to that which may be foreshadowing or it may be me making stuff up. In Horrificator, Nathaniel is holding up a light reflector on set. It’s super minor but I thought it was interesting since he usually hangs in the back doing his own thing when the whole group does something together. The logo on his shirt is a reference to a real band called Magma, and this is kind of a stretch, but he gets explosively angry something something bright scarlet hair something somethingfiresomething light. Also look at angey Orikko hehe cute.
The biggest source of evidence would be his akuma. As Evillustrator, his biggest weakness was darkness because he needed a light source to use his powers. All the other classmate akumas/heroes so far have displayed their respective hero themes as akumas in some way, even if it was by subverting or twisting it, so I think this is a fair connection to make.
This concludes my analysis. Let me know who I should do next!
Edit: stuff worth mentioning that I only thought of afterwards. 1) I remembered @zivazivc ‘s theory for the tool being badminton equipment. I like that one because it would fit with the theme of toys, it’s random but there’s a connection, and it’s long-distance like I said above. 2) I think it’s very interesting that his silhouette is cut off the way it is. Everyone else except Ryuko, who is totally covered, has their head showing in their section. Even Traquemoiselle, who is almost completely covered, has an ear and some hair. But with Coq Courage they only show his torso/leg. Maybe they weren’t finished modeling him before the intro deadline, or maybe they’re deliberately hiding something.
Edit 2: okay it’s been months since I posted this but I saw someone suggest that his tool could be a kite and I actually really like that. It’s unique, fits under “toys”, and it feels appropriate. I recall Astruc saying that none of the miraculous grant the power of true flight, which only power ups can give, but a kite could represent the gliding type of “flight” chickens are capable of the way the Spider-Man-like yo-yo and top represent the way ladybugs and bees can fly. It’d also tie back to Reverser when Nath built a kite strong enough to support Chat in the air out of a bunch of random crap on a brief elevator ride. Seriously, why does no one ever talk about that?
Also, completely unrelated, but I always see people drawing the rooster miraculous looking similar to Marinette’s disguise mode since we’ve only ever seen her and Chloe’s, but I’d like to remind everyone that Mari’s camo tends to be very minimalistic. Hers has one chain between two simple rings with little hearts on them, but Chloe’s has two chains in a triangle, and the rings have one small honeycomb (top) and one big one (bottom). I think the real deal probably looks more similar to Chloe’s, especially since it needs to have five sections that flash when the holder has to de-transform, which I predict would be on the panel(s).
I don’t know for how long this had been known for the fandom, but i just learned this week that Marc’s superhero name will be Coq Courage. English is not my first language, so i may be wrong on this one, but, ummm… If his superhero name is said too fast, won’t it sound as if they were saying…
