#ml illusion

[fortuna-et-cataclysmos]

Season 5 and the symbolism of pancakes

Guys, I swear I have a life outside of speculating the meaning behind pancakes in Miraculous...

But seriously, they're important. They symbolise the future (as made explicit in Pretention).

[Small note: they look like pancakes, they're called "pancakes" in the French dub, I don't know if they taste like pancakes, but I do know that they are not "French toasts" as the English dub claims. So I'll stick to "pancakes"]

Illusion

So we are introduced to the pancakes in Illusion, where for the first time Adrien sees his father in the kitchen, preparing breakfast.

Seems benign enough. Gabriel is even considered enough to ask Adrien how he likes his pancakes. He likes them "well-toasted."

Illusion is an episode where Gabriel fakes having changed, and him giving Adrien a choice is in line what that change. Of course, he still manipulates him into making him think that he has the freedom to not be the face of the Alliance, by basically threatening to withhold his newly expressed fatherly love if Adrien refuses to agree with him (more on that in this post). Pancakes are just a device for Gabriel to add to his illusion of good parent, and the illusion that Adrien has a choice.

Passion

Adrien and Gabriel are in the kitchen. Adrien is looking at his extremely decorated pancakes.

As we learn from Nathalie a second later, he likes his pancakes plain. She tells him to not eat them "to please his father", while Gabriel seemingly naively points out that if Adrien didn't want bananas, he could have told him.

Sure he could tell him, except that the last time Adrien asked for something from Gabriel -to not be the face of Alliance-, he emotionally manipulated him to withdraw his request, and even made him wear the said Alliance.

The bananas and the fancy toppings are basically a metaphor for the fancy model life Gabriel wants to give Adrien, while Adrien really doesn't want any of it. And just as many people like toppings on their pancakes, they also would like to have a life of fame, hence think Adrien is lucky (as seen in the S4 Finale). Meanwhile, Adrien doesn't want any of it, he likes his pancakes and and his life plain and simple, "au naturel".

Nonetheless, Adrien still continues eating his father's pancakes, saying that he doesn't mind, that he likes them.

Pretension

This is where the pancake business gets serious.

First, we learn that indeed, Gabriel's pancakes taste bad. Plagg cheers for being saved from eating another serving of Gabriel's pancakes. This is bordering to over analysis but, given that Plagg couldn't eat them while Gabriel is in the kitchen, I assume that's Adrien's opinion which he must have confessed to Plagg at a more appropriate time. And still, Adrien keeps eating his father's pancakes.

Later in the episode, the pancake/future metaphor is expressed very clearly by Gabriel. He tells Marinette that she can have her pancake and life however she wants it, but the one thing she can't do is to share it with Adrien.

He says very clearly:

You think that you have a choice, but all you have is the illusion of a choice. And I decide which choices you get.

And where do we get this exact claim in practice? In the episode Illusion, where Gabriel manipulates Adrien into thinking that he has a say over his future, while Gabriel is the one making all the choices that matter.

And he gives two "choices" to Marinette:

To eat the pancake, receive Gabriel's backing and be a famous designer

To refuse the pancake and have nothing

Once more, the way he frames it, Gabriel gives the illusion that Marinette has a choice, while neither of the two choices includes being with Adrien. So he basically leaves her with no choice but to break up with him.

Now comes the breaking point. Marinette fully understands that the pancakes are a metaphor for her and Adrien's future, and she continues the same metaphor to get her message across to Gabriel (talk about power move).

First, she refuses to eat them. She has "lost her appetite."

This refusal is in contrast with Adrien who kept eating them even though he didn't like them. Unlike him, Marinette "doesn't even need to try them to know that they are bad."

Normally, this is to be understood as her making the choice no 2: refuse the pancake and have nothing.

As such, she is escorted out the kitchen. The scene composition clearly shows that she is stuck between Gabriel on the one side, and the Gorilla on the other.

Because, she refused the pancake. Per Gabriel's rules, she is supposed to have nothing.

But Marinette defies that. Not only she runs upstairs to hug and tell Adrien that she'll never abandon him, but she also gets back downstairs without needing to be restrained by the Gorilla, hence protecting her composture.

Look at how she goes down the stairs, having not only the physical but also the moral high-ground:

She looks so intimidating that in the next frame, even the Gorilla steps aside to let her pass. Both Gorilla and Gabriel are surprised by her move, if you zoom in you can see it in their faces. Gabriel did not expect her to do something outside the two "choices" he had given her.

And then comes the death blow, where Marinette tells Gabriel:

You know what's your pancakes problem? They have too much flour and not enough butter. You use an outdated recipe, no one likes them like that anymore.

Yup. She calls Gabriel's entire fashion, but also life practices, outdated with one simple metaphor. My girl slays.

At the end of Pretention, during dinner (no pancakes here sorry), we see that a parallelling breakthrough happens in Adrien's front.

Gabriel tells Adrien that he can spend as much as time as he wants with Marinette, for he will be in London next year. Again, Gabriel is creating the illusion that he is free to date Marinette, except that, as Adrien now realises, he is not. Adrien gets visibly furious at his father for the first time.

He does quickly calm down, but what is his reaction? He says that he has "lost his appetite," just like Marinette did. The boy who kept eating badly made pancakes with the toppings he didn't like finally refuses to eat the illusions his father is feeding him.

This, coupled with Adrien's terror at going to his room at the beginning of the episode, leaving Marinette alone despite himself, become a turning point for him: he finally acknowledges that he isn't free, and that his father keeps forcing his decisions onto him. Maybe also getting one step closer to discovering/accepting that he is a sentibeing.

All this story, told through pancakes.

#miraculous ladybug #ml spoilers #ml season 5 #ml illusion #ml passion #ml pretension #from fortuna #ml analysis #sentimonster theory #sentimonster adrien #sentibeing #sentiadrien #adrien agreste #gabriel agreste's a+ parenting #adrinette

[mari-monsta]

COMRAD MAYONNAISE?????? THEY REALLY DID ADRIEN LIKE THAT HUH DJWBWBDISJBWB

#ml spoilers #ml season 5 #ml illusion

[yeet-noir]

Nino purposely making a plan to have everybody including Adrien dump food on Gabriel

#miraculous ladybug #ml #nino lahiffe #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #marinette dupain cheng #gabriel agreste #ml illusion #ml illusion spoilers #ml spoilers #mine #nino is a legend

[flightfoot]

I love how Nino just snatches Adrien when Lila sees them and runs off with him XD

By the time the girls start reacting Nino’s already gotten up and pulled Adrien nearly out of frame!

#Miraculous ladybug #ml spoilers #ml illusion #nino lahiffe #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #alya cesaire

[hufflepotato-18]

your honor, they share one brain cell and no one is currently using it.

#miraculous ladybug #ml season 5 #ml illusion #ml spoilers #mlb #nino lahiffe #alya cesaire #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #THIS SCENE HAD ME

[monochromatic-ahhhh]

HE'S SO FUNNY LOOK AT HIM

#whAT A LOSER AHUHJEBFH /J #ml spoilers #ml illusion #ml season 5 #miraculous ladybug #monochatterbox

[sunsketch]

Hey look a new love square just dropped!

...

*INTERNAL SCREAMING*

#thought maybe a new guide would be good to keep track of what the heck is going on ljikjhkjghkkgfccfvg #ml elation #ml destruction #miraculous exaltation #ml spoilers #ml season 5 #ml exaltation #ml illusion #ml s5 spoilers #ladynoir #ladrien #marichat #adrienette #ml jubilation #ml passion #ml love square #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #miraculous ladybug #miraculous season 5

[gale-gentlepenguin]

#miraculous ladybug #ml #ml spoilers #nino lahiffe #ml s*** post #ml illusion

[familyagrestefanblog]

You know what’s wholesome?

This moment in “Illusion”. where Marinette worries that Adrien wanting to spend more time with her will lead to her loosing her Miraculous because she may end up not paying attention or making dumb calls in battle, is later payed off in “Passion” where exactly THAT happens. Just that Adrien as Chat Noir brought her into safety and only took her Miraculous with Plagg’s help and for the purpose of a good plan.

Something he is immediately letting her know and explains it to her in detail:

#Ladynoir #ml illusion #ml passion #ml season 5 #ml #miraculous #Lady noire #Mister Bug #Misternoire

[eliesaidwhat]

the groups official mayo man

#miraculous ladybug #artists on tumblr #ml illusion #miraculous spoilers #miraculous season 5 #ml season 5 spoilers #adrien agreste #ml ot4 #adrien is on board with this actually

[shortmexicangirl]

“im carapace and alya is rena rouge”

#nino my dude you are literally talking to ladybug and chat noir #miraculous ladybug #ml spoilers #ml illusion #ml season 5 #miraculous #my memes

[fortuna-et-cataclysmos]

Never has Gabriel's manipulation of Adrien has been so open and clear.

He has suddenly turned so good that even Adrien is surprised: imagine being baffled to hear that your father is in the kitchen.

Gabriel is effectively weaponising his care for Adrien to manipulate him. He tells him to call him: dad, instead of father. Which is like, parenting 101, right? And just as Adrien is so benevolently opening up to him and accepting that his father has changed for the better, he literally pulls him out of school, realising Adrien's worst nightmare, to the point of making his friends get worried that Adrien will get akumatised. Oh and let's not forget how Gabriel immediately takes back the sliver of normalcy he had accorded to Adrien by asking him to call him "father" again.

And Adrien's fear when they try to get Gabriel akumatised? He keeps repeating how his father will be angry, enraged even (his words, not mine!). His hesitation when he drops the pasta on Gabriel's chest, the way he panics thereafter and apologises multiple times?

The fact that Gabriel has no hesitation playing with his son's emotions is sickening. He fakes having a psychotic episode (honestly, that studio has been trashed so much at this point) knowing that Adrien will witness him. No child should witness their parent losing control as such, lashing out physically, to begin with. But Gabriel effectively plans for Adrien to see him as such.

And the guilt-tripping. Oh no, look at that, I got akumatised because I was trying to be a better father and I failed dramatics, effectively shifting the blame of his akumatisation to Adrien. The way he responds when Adrien rightfully voices his discomfort of being the face of a wide-used AI helper; "say the word and things can go back to the way they were before." He says it in a sweet way, but in the context of his abrupt change, how could Adrien perceive it as anything but a threat that if he doesn't obey to his father's wishes, he will stop getting his love and care?

Conditional love at its best. Gabriel very openly displays in this episode that he will love, care, protect Adrien only as long as he obeys to him unconditionally.

To finish with Plagg's comment on Adrien AI in the Alliance: "since your father made a virtual model of you and Lila, you are virtual puppets."

Gabriel doesn't want a son. He wants a puppet.

#miraculous ladybug #ml spoilers #ml season 5 #ml illusion #from fortuna #ml analysis

[iwasbored777]

Gabriel and Tomoe in the end of every episode:

#They really look like Mean Girls phone call scene #It's so funny #miraculous ladybug #Gabriel Agreste #tomoe tsurugi #ml illusion #Ml meme #Ikarimoth

[yeet-noir]

Gabriel waiting for the next child in line to throw food on him

#miraculous ladybug #ml #gabriel agreste #marinette dupain cheng #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #adrien agreste #ml illusion spoilers #ml illusion #ml spoilers #mine

[wield-the-mighty-pen]

What does it say about Gabriel’s parenting that this is Adrien’s reaction to being allowed to make a choice?

#this episode made me hate gabriel even more #the subtle manipulations tactics #the unstable emotional environment he provides for Adrien #him using adrien as a pawn in his evil plans #😡😡😡😡 #he was just the worst this episode #another fine example of #gabriel agrestes a+ parenting #ml illusion #ml spoilers #adrien agreste #gabriel agreste #mlb #miraculous #ml #miraculous ladybug #ml season 5

[coffeebanana]

My favourite part about the food throwing scene is how Marinette is the only one who even tries to make it seem credible. Like...she's definitely sus, but at least she's known to be clumsy and she plays that up for effect.

Then Adrien, the boy we know can act, waltzes in and puts no effort into making it seem believable. Finally Alya doesn't even bother denying what she's there to do...and everyone in the room just lets her.

#and you can't tell me nobody noticed nino filming outside #when i tell you i was cackling at this scene i mean it #miraculous ladybug #ml s5 #ml spoilers #ml illusion