Miraculous Ladybug Season Protection Episode 16
The episode shares its title with the Turtle Miraculous concept.
The concept of protection can be seen in people protecting something/someone:
Gabriel tried to protect the deal he made with Tomoe by trying to separate Adrien and Marinette so he could be with Kagami instead.
Nathalie is able to protect Adrien’s freedom to love whoever he wants by telling him that he can love whoever he wants and not let anyone tell him otherwise.
Motivated by Lila’s lies and manipulation, Kagami, as Riposte Prime, tries to protect Adrien from Marinette by enclosing her with a barrier.
Similar to “Backwarder” and “The Puppeteer 2”, Adrien used the same defensive move to protect Marinette from Riposte Prime.
Adrien’s bodyguard stood guard over Adrien and Marinette as they sneaked into the backyard to have a picnic, then went on the defensive when Riposte Prime attacked them.
This episode along with “Miraculer” reveals a new fact about the Shell-ter:
It seems that if the user (regardless of being a minor or not) activates the Shell-ter more than once, they will only be able to materialize and hold one barrier at a time.
However, it could be that it was an adult ability, since Sabrina in “Miraculer” could only use Shell-ter like this, while under the effects of Akumatization and even Carapace or Jade Turtle could create more shields, they were also not needed compared to Miraculer . and Monarch only needed one.
This episode and previous ones also show how protection was used from an emotional perspective, albeit a dark side:
As Kagami, due to the pressure her mother put on her to be perfect, she built protective walls around her true feelings, holding them back until she could no longer cause the protective walls to crumble.
Lila uses lies and manipulation as protection to cover up who she really is.
Gabriel tries to protect Adrien from the truth because he’s afraid of losing him, but he didn’t realize that he’ll end up losing Adrien no matter what, like in “Timebreaker”, “Miraculous Shanghai”, “Miraculer” and more.
When Marinette as Ladybug built protective walls between her and Cat Noir due to the intense pressure of being a guardian, Hawk Moth relentlessly hunted and wanted to protect him from akumatization, failing to protect everyone else by losing the Miraculouses in “Strikeback”.
This is the seventh time Kagami has akumatized after “Riposte”, “Catalyst”, “Mayura”, “Oni-Chan”, “Lies”, and “Perfection”. This time, however, he akumatizes into Riposte Prime, a new variation of Riposte.
This is the third time Kagami’s akumatization has been caused by Lila’s manipulations since “Oni-Chan” and “Perfection” (even the fourth if we count Kagami’s first scarlet akumatization in “Day of Heroes” caused by Volpina’s illusion).
This is the fourth episode where the magic spell is destroyed after “Dearest Family”, “Penalteam” and “Elation”.
Nathaniel and Marc’s plan includes references to “Mr. Pigeon 72″ and “Gabriel Agreste”.
At the end of their comic, Marinette and Adrien are shown with two sons and a daughter. It is possible that they are Louis, Emma and Hugo from “Stormy Weather”.
Both Gabriel and Tomoe learn that their respective children are no longer together and that Adrien is in love with Marinette and Kagami helps them be together. This makes Gabriel determined (and pressured by Tomoe) to separate Adrien from Marinette and let him be Kagami’s friend again.
Ironically, Gabriel is unaware that he is partially responsible for his son’s crush on Marinette. Despite Adrien developing feelings for her in “The Puppeteer 2”, it wasn’t until he followed her advice in “Risk” and was able to tell his father no that he began to see Marinette with new eyes in “Multiplication”. I don’t want to be a model anymore, which made him realize how special she is and how she changed his life for the better. The only reason Marinette gave Adrien this advice was because they were both under the influence of Risk’s power, leading him to take out his frustrations on her.
He had unknowingly done so long before his son and Marinette’s feelings had gotten this far. Because of him and Emilia before the series, they used the Peacock Miraculous recklessly, leading to her sleeping and his father locking him up, but they kept him from making Adrien feel unloved. Which pushed his son’s desire to leave and have friends. And he began his dark as Hawk Moth back in “Origins” and set the stage for the release of the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses, unaware that he was partially responsible for ending up with the heroes who lead them developing feelings for to each other.
Like Adrien and Marinette, Gabriel and Emilie are revealed to come from different walks of life.
Trivia
- Since Emilie comes from the English noble family of Graham de Vanily, Gabriel originally belonged to a lower social class. This is further supported by what Audrey Bourgeois said in “Queen Wasp” about her being the reason he became a famous fashion designer.
- Adrien prepares a picnic for Marinette in Agreste’s backyard, which is exactly what Gabriel did to his love Emilie as seen in “Evolution”.
- It is implied that Lila knows that Gabriel is the Monarch and is actively helping him gain victims. She tells Gabriel that Kagami’s emotional instability regarding her conflicted feelings towards Adrien and Marinette would be a perfect target for the Monarch once she gave her a little push, perhaps her way of manipulating Gabriel into akumatizing Kagami.
- There were hints in previous episodes that suggested Lila knew about Gabriel’s identity as the holder of the Butterfly Miraculous:
- In “Ladybug”, Lila gives a mischievous smile, indicating that she understood Gabriel’s true intention to discredit his Marinette in front of everyone.
- In “Strikeback”, Lila is seen smiling when she notices that Nathalie is coughing while on the phone, possibly knowing that she is talking to Gabriel about his latest plan.
- This is later confirmed in the post-end card scene “Emotion”.
- This is the second time Lila has tried to turn Kagami against Marinette, the first time being in “Perfection”. This time, she tries to convince Kagami that Marinette is a liar and a manipulator, pretending to be clumsy and awkward to gain the sympathy of her friends so they can do what she wants.
- Both of Lily’s attempts to break Marinette and Kagami’s friendship resulted in him being akumatized, the latter being done on purpose.
- Ironically, the way Lila described Marinette to Kagami is exactly how she (Lila) is because she is the one who lies and manipulates others to get what she wants while pretending to be nice.
- This is the sixth time Monarch’s reason to akumatize someone isn’t for the main purpose of getting Ladybug and Cat Noir’s Miraculous or with that in mind, like Kagami’s akumatization into Riposte Prime.
