Adrien didn’t need to swap places with Felix to stay in Paris. Hell, it likely would’ve turned out better if he had just sat it out on the train.
Adrien not swapping out with Felix means Ladybug sees he’s affected by Risk when she sees him at the train station, and therefore likely doesn’t opt to recruit him for the Dog miraculous.
Ihighly doubt (after what he pulled in “Felix”) that she would trust Felix with it knowing it was him, even if he’s unaffected by Risk. So she’d probably just take a risk and unify the Dog miraculous along with the Ladybug, Horse, and Rabbit (if she still assumes time travel is necessary due to the lucky charm) to retrieve the akuma object. Unifying miraculous doesn’t seem to be a real problem considering that she was using 3 at once in the finale. Unless they wanna tell me that 4 miraculous combined is where it starts really taking a toll on the user.
Chat Noir was completely unneeded and unnecessary in the fight. Risk required the Dog, Horse, and Rabbit (and in reality only maybe needed the Horse to transport to the zoo if going without it would take too long). Strike Back’s defeat only truly required the Turtle and Horse (and maybe the Rooster, but even then cloning the sunglasses could’ve been replaced by a conveniently placed sunglasses stand). Chat didn’t need to be there.
Once Strike Back & Risk were defeated, Gabriel threw a tantrum and instructed Nathalie to come back to Paris and bring Adrien home since the plan failed (so was there any real point to the perfume ad plan?)
Adrien would’ve gotten to stay in Paris no matter what.
Alternatively: If she DID still go through with trusting Adrien even if he was compromised by Risk, he could just help with the dog [he should be able to manage since his only job would be 1.) Hit the doll with the ball, 2.) “Fetch”], and then Gabriel still loses while Marinette keeps all the miraculous.
Adrien didn’t need to swap places with Felix to stay in Paris. Hell, it likely would’ve turned out better if he had just sat it out on the train.
Adrien not swapping out with Felix means Ladybug sees he’s affected by Risk when she sees him at the train station, and therefore likely doesn’t opt to recruit him for the Dog miraculous.
Ihighly doubt (after what he pulled in “Felix”) that she would trust Felix with it knowing it was him, even if he’s unaffected by Risk. So she’d probably just take a risk and unify the Dog miraculous along with the Ladybug, Horse, and Rabbit (if she still assumes time travel is necessary due to the lucky charm) to retrieve the akuma object. Unifying miraculous doesn’t seem to be a real problem considering that she was using 3 at once in the finale. Unless they wanna tell me that 4 miraculous combined is where it starts really taking a toll on the user.
Chat Noir was completely unneeded and unnecessary in the fight. Risk required the Dog, Horse, and Rabbit (and in reality only maybe needed the Horse to transport to the zoo if going without it would take too long). Strike Back’s defeat only truly required the Turtle and Horse (and maybe the Rooster, but even then cloning the sunglasses could’ve been replaced by a conveniently placed sunglasses stand). Chat didn’t need to be there.
Once Strike Back & Risk were defeated, Gabriel threw a tantrum and instructed Nathalie to come back to Paris and bring Adrien home since the plan failed (so was there any real point to the perfume ad plan?)
Adrien would’ve gotten to stay in Paris no matter what.
If a character or idea would’ve been helpful to Marinette or made her life easier, it’ll be used to benefit Adrien in some way. (Or if it’s something that negatively affected Marinette, it’ll positively affect Adrien.)
- Kaalki would’ve enabled Marinette to escape off the train and back to Paris in “Hack-San” and thus no replacement Ladybug would be necessary and thus there would be no Adrichat shilling scene where she promises to never abandon him. (Also could’ve avoided Scarabella being nearly cataclysmed or Marinette could’ve showed up with the Horse to catch him in the act of doing so).
Meanwhile Kaalki and the use of voyage is immediately remembered in “Strike Back” to retrieve and recruit “Adrien” for the fight, and Maribug was going to use it to bring him back to Paris before Strike Back showed up anyways.
- Completely changing the name and look for a hero to pretend they’re a different person entirely/that they got replaced would’ve been SO helpful for literally ANY of the compromised temp heroes to avoid being targeted (Optygami), especially Alya (especially since she still chose to go by Rena and got only a recolor for a design change) and maybe with their safety insured Marinette would’ve potentially let them keep their miraculous instead (which would lessen the blow of the finale).
The idea however IS used for Adrien in “Kuro Neko”, but instead of doing so to deceive Shadow Moth, he’s deceiving Ladybug to keep the miraculous even after he impulsively quit.
- Risk’s powers affecting Marinette leads to her ‘making a mistake’ (that she would’ve had to be psychic to avoid) which ends up with Gabriel getting ALL the other miraculous.
Risk’s powers affecting Adrien got him to vent to Marinette about his feelings and got him to go along with the plan to switch places with Felix, keeping him in Paris completely (the trip gets cancelled anyways after Strike Back is defeated, and since Chat Noir was not neededin the fight, Adrien would’ve gotten to stay in Paris regardless even if he sat out the fight on the train).
- Su-Han and Alya’s absence in “Kuro Neko” prevent Marinette from having someone that could find a replacement for the cat instead, or at the very least call out Plagg’s blatant lies (Su-Han in particular would have), instead of having her stress out over it and be manipulated.
On the flip side, their absence means there’s nobody to find a replacement or call out Plagg’s lies, meaning there’s no one to stop Plagg’s plan to give the ring back to Adrien (since Tikki just goes along with it), meaning Adrien gets the ring back, no issue.
- Marinette is lamenting her breakup with Luka in “Gang of Secrets”, is at an emotional rock bottom, her upset is directly tied to her duties as Ladybug/Guardian and her identity. She can’t ask anyone for help without compromising herself, she directly asks for help and receives nothing from Tikki/the Kwami. Her friends then barge into her room and mess with her things, giving her no room to breathe or process.
Adrien is at an emotional low in “Glaciator 2” after a firm rejection from Ladybug, but his problems are about his heartbreak, it isn’t a problem completely hinged on his identity and it’s something that could be talked about without compromising himself/his identity as Chat. Kagami offers him help directly without him even asking for it, and unlike Marinette who’s despair was made worse by her friends trying to pry and force her to talk with little regard to her feelings, Adrien is instantly comforted by Marinette attempting to give him a gift and Gabriel calling off the akuma and bringing him home with an offer to talk about it, no invasive attempts to get him to talk are made and his feelings aren’t disregarded.
- Luka finding out Marinette’s identity in Truth would’ve not only given her a more reliable confidant than Alya, but Lukanette’s relationship would’ve stayed intact and thereby avoided a lot of the things that went wrong for Marinette throughout the season. (Truth could’ve been avoided altogether, GOS wouldn’t have happened, Sentibubbler wouldn’t have happened, etc). See this post for a full breakdown: here.
Luka finding out Adrien’s identity (along with Marinette’s) makes it so not only can Luka be used to support the square (as well as a writing excuse to keep him away since his presence would break the paper thin plots the writers present us with), but him finding out the way he did and not telling Marinette about it ONLY serves to protect Adrien (if Luka was made to divulge how he found out their identities, Chat would be painted in a bad light to Maribug, Luka keeping quiet effectively shields Adrien from consequences).
- Speaking of Luka, him specifically being in the finale would’ve probably saved the miraculous from getting taken, as well as minimizing any collateral damage from Strike Back. There’s little-to-no chance SB could absorb his Second Chance ability (especially since doing so seems to require direct contact going by the other times it absorbed any abilities) so he could reverse damage as well as be able to warn the other heroes about Strike Back. Then he would’ve immediately caught onto the fact that Flairmidable was an imposter, with how Maribug was fawning over him Luka would likely put two and two together and realize she thinks it’s Adrien when he knows it can’t be. He’d have to come clean to her about his knowledge of their identities, but that would enable them to put a stop to Felix before he pulled what he did with the Dog miraculous. Meaning Gabriel doesn’t get all the miraculous.
Luka not being present in the finale makes the fight more dire, more collateral damage happens, and with no one to call out Felix, Felix runs off, hands Gabriel all the miraculous, and gives Adrien exactly what he wants: Ladybug having him and only him to rely on, with no backup. No more having to “feel replaced” and no more sharing her with the others. He is made her “most important partner” by being made her ONLY OPTION.
This is alljustfrom season 4, and even then I’m sure there’s ones I’ve forgotten.
I just discovered something. Apparently, Barkk is the Kwami of adorationaccording to Thomas Astruc. The only weakness of Félix is his adoration for his mother. God, Félix adores his mother so much! He would literally go to the end of the world for her. Félix stole Gabe’s ring for her because he knew how much the ring meant to her. The love and adoration Félix feels towards his mother just makes my heart flutter!
I also believe Félix has some adoration for his family as well, including Emilie and Adrien. Which is shown in the way he smiles at the portrait of Emilie. Or how he used tough love on Adrien by telling him to stand up against his father. Even warning him that there’s a dark side to Gabe, which shows to me he cares for Adrien. I believe he was genuinely trying to help Adrien in the s4 finale. Yes, I do believe that he’s not only doing this for Adrien, but partly so he could snoop around the Agreste mansion freely for evidence to expose Gabe.
Félix promised to Adrien he’s going to stand up against Gabe, so Adrien wouldn’t have to go on this trip. And what did Félix do? He literally took a stand against Gabe in Adrien’s place as promised, by telling him (as Adrien) he didn’t want to go to this trip. Also he could’ve just have told he was not Adrien, left with the so called miraculous of the butterfly and peacock and go back to London, and let Adrien go to this trip himself. But he didn’t… He went on this trip for Adrien while there’s no need for him to do this. Félix promised to Adrien he’s going to let him stay in Paris, and he kept that promise! When Félix promise you something, he’s not going to break it.
I don’t think Félix wants the miraculous of the peacock and butterfly for himself. I think he just wants it so he can expose Gabe. Remember, Félix said in “Gabriel Agreste” he has no interest to team up with Shadow Moth, nor wants his powers. It seems he genuinely wants to defeat him.
This all shows to me that he’s is trustworthy, loyal, selfless, and capable of adoration. Which are all the qualities of a dog!
Félix only adores and is loyal, trustworthy and selfless to the right people. People who he feels like deserves it in his mind. People such as Gabe and Chloé don’t deserve this, and he knows that. Such kind of people, he’s not going to let them walk over him. They’re not worthy in his eyes! And when you deserves it, Félix would selflessly do anything for you. When he does something, it’s not for his own personal gain.
I’m not really sure, but this is how I see Félix. My analysis on him could totally be wrong. If that’s the case, I will feel like such a fool. But I guess we’ll have to wait for the episode Strike back and see.
But this is why Barkk, the kwami of adoration fits Félix perfectly. This is why I feel Félix is worthy of the dog miraculous. Not only that, but it also fits with Adrien having the cat miraculous. They’re opposites and it shows their connection as twins, and it’s just so darn cute!
I genuinely hope Ladybug knows she’s giving the dog miraculous to Félix. I want Félix to get a miraculous as himself, and not as Adrien.
Edit: Usually dogs are used to track something down because of their high intelligence and great sense of smell. Like police dogs! in western culture, dogs are usually related to solving mysteries. And what is Félix currently doing? That’s right! Also, the power of fetch really fits Félix personality wise.
Edit 2: Dogs are also very playful! Félix loves to playfully mock Adrien and to mess around with people. He also loves to get himself into mischief like dogs do.
Edit 3: I imagine Félix as some kind of stray dog who does whatever he pleases. You can’t bark at him, he’s the one who barks at you.
I am gonna be a music junkie for a moment and say that the instrumental towards the end of Strike Back sounds incomplete.
What do I mean by this?
In music scales, there is a “home” or complete note that your song should always go back to in order to have the song be “completed”, which is usually the “Do” in the Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do scale. For example, if your song is in C-major, your “home” note you should end your song on is C (or any chord where C is prominent). In a minor scale, it would be “La” (or in the A-minor analogy, it would be A or any chord where A is prominent). If it doesn’t end at the “home” note, then it means the song will feel “incomplete” and if a musician makes that choice, then it might mean that they want to convey suspense or something along those lines.
So what does that have to do with the final scene of the season finale?
Well, the finale did not end on a good note, with all of the Miraculouses in the hands of Gabriel. But, Chat Noir is still there and the people of Paris are cheering them on (though they only chant “Ladybug” like what about Chat?). I don’t know how to describe the final scene, but it seems…somewhat hopeful? They are determined to get the Miraculous back one by one, which sets the stage for season 5.
In other words, there is still more to the story. And the instrumental in the final scene ending on an incomplete note (to me, it sounds like E, which is a half step below F, or the “Ti” in F-major).
This is a sign that we have yet to see the final outcome and it is not over!
Though we all know that already so carry on with your day
Shadowmoth:People of Paris! Ladybug promised to protect you? Well she lied to you! She was defeated! I took all the Miraculous and now I am more powerful than ever! From now on I will attack you relentlessly! I will be everywhere, reading your thoughts, occupying your dreams, using your worst fears! All the damage I can cause, I’m going to cause… Unless you give me LadyBug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous
Ladybug:I lost everything!!!
Chat Noir:You didn’t lose me…
Ladybug:Why don’t you give up on me?! I’ve lost all the Miraculous, I’m the worst Guardian ever! I wanted to control everything, I didn’t listen to you, I kept you at a distance… Every time you offer me a helping hand, I never took it…I really made a mess of everything!
Chat Noir:My Lady… We’re gonna get them back, one by one, until the very last, and we’ll make sure this never happen again
Ladybug:You… And me?
Chat Noir: You, the greatest superheroe that ever was… Them, the people of Paris… And me, your loyal partner…
Apparently, Félix is going betray Ladybug. But what interest me the most is that he says “I’m sorry”, when he is about to betray her. And just look at his face! It’s seems like Félix didn’t want to betray Ladybug? But what is his motivation? Why did he do it, when he clearly doesn’t want to?
Edit: In the picture, nobody is around Félix when he is apologizing. Nobody seems to notice him. There is no need for him to act like Adrien here, because nobody is around him or even noticing him. So his apology does seems sincere I think?
