I Can't Speak On This Confidently, As We Haven't Seen The Episode "Gabriel" Yet, But I Think Adrien's

I can't speak on this confidently, as we haven't seen the episode "Gabriel" yet, but I think Adrien's growing resentment towards Ladybug is meant to parallel Gabriel's pipeline into becoming Hawkmoth.

I have also come to the conclusion that Adrien's whole character arc is revolved around the duality of the power of destruction, which I get is obvious, but hear me out. While destruction can cause chaos and harm to others, it also plays a necessary part in tearing down oppressive forces.

Let's talk about this scene.

What this scene has communicated to us is, despite the two of them having seemingly opposite personalities, Adrien is indeed Gabriel's son. What I mean by this is that the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree; both have a tendency to get caught up on their projected fantasies involving the people they love.

The position Gabriel is in right now, being Hawkmoth and all, is a direct result of him being unable to process his grief. Much like Adrien and his fantasy of Ladybug, Gabriel clings onto the fantasy of a "better world" with Emilie to cope with his grief and reconcile his guilt. Consequently, Gabriel has now become Paris' biggest threat and he's dealing out collateral damage onto his family (i.e. Adrien and Nathalie).

Adrien is at risk of falling down the same path; Adrien's grief has led to him becoming emotionally dependent on his romantic fantasy involving Ladybug. Even after everything he went through in this episode, this poor boy is still clinging to this damn fantasy for dear life.

Right now, even after everything that happened in Glaciator 2.0, Adrien is still stuck on this cycle of hoping Ladybug will one day fall for him, Ladybug rejecting him and inevitably breaking his heart, him getting depressed and lashing out because of it, him and ladybug reconciling, and then Adrien slipping back into the fantasy again to rinse and repeat.

In order for Adrien to truly develop as a character, he needs to break the cycle. He needs to break the cycle of damage his father is doing to the environment (as demonstrated in Mega Leech), he needs to break the cycle of complacency in his life, and he needs to break the cycle of enabling his father's actions. In order to do that, he needs to stand up to his father and get him to break the same cycle within himself.

If Adrien can't break the cycle, he's going to succumb to it and end up just like his father... or worse.

if you want your female characters to both have agency in the story and be complex human individuals then sometimes bad things have to be their fault

And people say she didn't get character development!

Chat Noir uses humour (flirting, puns: ie: ladynoir banter) to deflect from talking about sacrificing himself and i have a feeling that's only going to progress during the rest of the season.

since he does it in Guiltrip (EP 11) as well after his suicide attempt.

which, yes, was a suicide attempt.

It was already established for them that the bubbles could be destroyed with their weapons far before he got touched by any of them, so why on earth would he active his cataclysm to use on one bubble. all that'd do is set off his detransformation timer and they already knew the bubbles were regenerating through the walls. it'd just be frankly dumb of him to active his power to destroy even a handful of the bubbles.

but this is about the moment in Lies not Guiltrip skfndmsk

it averts the conversation and it's easier for him to put on his clown mask and make her laugh than talk about his frankly suicidal tendencies.

(It was just earlier this day the Truth confession happened, he knows she appreciates his humor and clowning around.)

he did it in Lies after sacrificing himself. She's distraught afterwards, and before anyone's like well the suit protects them he wasn't that hurt y'all are just overreacting,, it doesn't protect them against just plain fucking gravity ????. He scaled up this building

and then went up farther on his baton before free falling down. the moment he passed through the dome he was paralyzed like the others, meaning that there was literally nothing, not even his hands, to catch him.

He either died on impact or he was stuck lying there in excruciating pain from the broken bones he'd have from hitting the ground at that speed.

and she's rightfully upset, she's scared and distraught and mad.

and he makes a flirty comment and diverts the conversation like he always does.

and what's she going to do? yell at him? tell him not to divert the conversation? and then what? they both know there isn't anything they can do to prevent this from happening and they both know it'll happen in the future. Where it be intentional or not, Chat's the more expendable one, he doesn't have the cure. Sometimes it's either him or Ladybug, and they both know he'll never let it be Ladybug.

He's putting her first emotionally, he doesn't want to cause her more stress than she's already under, and telling her idk how much pain he was in while stuck there paralyzed isn't gonna help. arguing with her about this, something they both know can't change, is just going to make things tense and uncomfortable.

He doesn't want to argue with her during the rare moments they have together.

He's said it before, and I think this episode made it clear with the BTS moments of his daily life as Adrien, the time he's got with her is the most fun he has outside of school. The only fun he has outside of school/schoolmates.

And he barely sees her anymore, she regularly misses their scheduled patrols and while he doesn't blame her for it, he's understanding of her role as the guardian and the stress that's come with it. But that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, it doesn't mean it isn't a harsh reminder of a constant thing he deals with, being alone. It doesn't mean that it doesn't suck that the one positive thing he'd been getting through the day for, through the interviews, photoshoots and everything, and she didn't show up.

and she's visibly struggling emotionally throughout the first three episodes, he knows that and tries to be there for her, but doesn't want their time together to be wasted talking about him and this issue. He doesn't want to be another thing that's stressing her out, beyond the inevitable sacrifice that they both know sometimes is unavoidable. (Gamer 2.0, Timebreaker, Dark Cupid, esc.)

And I don't take her smiling as a "aw the writers are dumb and gross men and don't know how to write characters and here's my two cents on the ooc dynamic i've talked myself into believing is canon"

I take it as her accepting that there isn't anything they can do rn, and at least he's okay. He's joking and flirting and he's alive. That's good enough right now.

I REALLY want ephemeral to be Chat noir's 'Chat Blanc'. Where he gets the trauma on an identity reveal and has to find a way to deal with things. And he remembers that Shadowmoth is his father, and he has to DEAL with that.

I'm sorry, what would the obvious reasons be?

Predictions: Ladybug is tasked with finding out who Chat Noir is, which is why Adrien reveals his identity. Ladybug won’t react very well, bumbling crush and all, which Chat also won’t interpret very well for obvious reasons. Adrien, now feeling isolated, will come across his dad’s shenanigans and not have as much mental resolve to fight off being akumatized, like he did in Chat Blanc.