Characters in Miraculous Ladybug: Hawk Moth

Gabriel Agreste / Gabi Grassette / Hawk Moth / Scarlet Moth / Shadow Moth / Shadow Noir / Monarch / Monarch Bug

Akumatized forms: The Collector, Nightormentor

"I decide what's best for my son."

^{Hawk Moth}

^{Scarlet Moth}

^{Shadow Moth}

^{Shadow Noir}

^{Monarch (pre rings)}

^{Monarch (post rings)}

^{Monarch Bug}

Both voiced by: Antoine Tomé (FR), Keith Silverstein (EN) ^{Foreign VAs}

Gabriel voiced by: Gadi Levi/גדי לוי (HEB), Gábor Albert (HUN), Jacek Król (P), Ricardo Schnetzer (BP)

Hawk Moth voiced by: Eren Mor (HEB), Zsolt Sarádi (HUN), Michał Konarski (P), Guilherme Briggs (BP)

The evil mastermind of the first five seasons, and the overall Arch-Enemy during that time of Ladybug and Cat Noir.

A masked man who seeks to steal the Miraculouses in order to combine them and gain ultimate power. He uses the Butterfly Miraculous to create akumas that corrupt civilians and transform them into superpowered beings under his control.

Unbeknownst to the heroes, his true identity is Gabriel Agreste, Adrien's distant father. He is a famous fashion designer, but is always too busy with his job or his supervillainy to spend any time with his son.

At the end of season 3/the start of season 4, Gabriel repairs the Peacock Miraculous, unifies it with the Butterfly and becomes Shadow Moth.

In season five, after gaining the power of all but three Miraculouses, he renames himself "Monarch" to suit his power boost.

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10-Minute Retirement: After Style Queen is defeated, he declares that no akuma victim could ever top someone as naturally malicious and vile as Audrey Bourgeois, and if she lost then there's no point in even trying anymore. He renounces Nooroo and puts away his Miraculous, but quickly dives right back into villainy when he gets the opportunity to akumatize a transformed Miraculous wielder (Chloé), which is just too tempting for him to pass up.
- This happens again in Season 5's Intuition. After realizing that Gabriel's constant use of Second Chance has caused his Cataclysm wound to spread even faster than it should have, Nathalie urges Gabriel to try giving up his war for the Miraculous and try figuring out a solution for Adrien when he dies. He tries by asking Adrien if there's anyone else he likes to spend time with aside from Nathalie and himself, but upon hearing about the Tsurugi Industries Space-Jet test later that day, he naturally decides to take advantage of it to obtain his enemies' jewels.
Absurdly Sharp Blade: His Sword Cane can slice clean through missiles. Since it's his Miraculous weapon, just like Ladybug's Killer Yo-Yo and Cat Noir's fighting staff, it can be assumed to be equally tough and sharp.
Abusive Parents:
- While not physically abusive to Adrien, Gabriel can be emotionally abusive, such as micromanaging Adrien's entire life in trying to protect him from an unknown danger. As Hawk Moth, he claims that everything he's doing is to make Adrien happy, presumably by bringing his mother back. However, this could just as easily be his excuse to bring Émilie back for himself. While he toes the line at actually allowing Adrien to come to physical harm, he has no compunctions about akumatizing his close associates and risking him potentially getting caught in the crossfire. In "Riposte", he actually goes as far as to akumatize someone with a grudge against Adrien specifically. However, when she threatens Adrien, he tells her immediately that she must acquire the Miraculous before she can seek revenge. In "Cat Blanc", he first makes a deliberate effort to destroy Adrien's relationship with Marinette so that he can akumatize her, then when that fails and Cat Noir blows his secret identity in the process, he reveals himself to his son and exploits his emotional turmoil to akumatize him instead.
- Season 5 really has him bring this to new heights. He plays the doting father role he previously never fulfilled, even making pancakes every morning, solely as a ploy to manipulate Adrien and make Nathalie happy. He’s willing to capitalize on Adrien’s heartbreak for the sake of akumatizing him, something he was previously unwilling to do. "Pretension" shows Gabriel making Adrien obey him subconsciously.
Adaptational Badass: Invoked in Volpina's debut; her illusory Hawk Moth uses a Shadow Walker-esque teleport to zip all over the city, looking untouchable by Ladybug and Cat Noir. The real Hawk Moth only has enhanced physical abilities like every Miraculous holder, and his power cannot be used on him directly.
Aesop Amnesia: In the first four seasons, every time Gabriel realizes that he needs to be more closer to Adrien and stop being so distant, this lesson never sticks. In Season 5, while he does make better efforts to be a better father to Adrien, it's less out of the goodness of his heart and more out of the desire to set him up with Kagami and to get Nathalie off his case for blowing the opportunity to save her and Émilie.
Alliterative Name: His birth name was Gabi Grassette.
Altar Diplomacy: Revealed in season 6, he agreed to an Arranged Marriage between Adrien and Kagami to secure Tomoe's aid during the fifth season.
Amazing Technicolor Population: As Monarch, he gains purple skin.
Amazon Chaser: Implied. When Cat Noir (Adrien) call his father out on his stubbornness in "Simon Says", Gabriel is taken aback before smiling at Cat Noir's temper and fondly saying he (Cat Noir) reminds him of someone else. After Cat Noir leaves to fight the titular akuma, Gabriel looks at the picture of his wife. The whole scene implies Émilie has a similar temper like Adrien's and was a reason why Gabriel loved her so dearly.
Animal Motifs: Lepidopterans.
- In addition to the details under Animal-Themed Superbeing, butterflies are usually a symbol of reflectance, change, resurrection. The third reflects his goal with the Miraculous, he is implied to be a negative example of the second (what little glimpses we saw of his backstory indicating he was a Former Teen Rebel who went from Rags to Riches to the Control Freak Abusive Parent in the present), and the first is especially ironic given the number of Ignored Epiphanies he's had. To say nothing of how prominent they are for his company's branding.
- Like moths are drawn to flame despite it burning them, his focus keeping his "light" (Émilie and Adrien) is what lead to him becoming a supervillain and a Control Freak of a parent, seeking to undo the formers illness and keep the latter as close to him as possible.
Animal-Themed Superbeing:
- Lepidopterans, like butterflies and moths, as his French name translates to "Butterfly" and his English name is "Hawk Moth", the common name for a family of moths known as "Sphingidae". His Miraculous and kwami are butterfly- and moth-themed in each respective dub. He corrupts butterflies to act as his akumas, regardless of dub.
- Once he gets his hand on almost all of the Miraculouses, he rebrands himself as "Monarch", which is a stealth pun of being a species of butterfly and a regal title.
Antagonist Abilities: His akumas can't be backtracked or traced, and he almost never takes part in fights himself. His akumas continue to function even if he's not transformed, making it even more difficult to determine if he's responsible for them. Finally, since he is an adult, he can stay transformed indefinitely even after using his power, i.e. creating an akuma. Therefore, he can continue to attack Ladybug and Cat Noir on an almost daily basis, secure in the knowledge that they have no way to ever bring the fight to him.
Anti-Education Mama: Gabriel is an interesting case. On the one hand, he has scheduled Adrien for tutoring in a wide variety of subjects ranging from Russian to fencing. On the other hand, none of these lessons are geared towards the usual aim of education — creating a functional, independent adult — but rather are just a way to keep Adrien occupied and isolated while occasionally imparting bits of information that he might need in his modeling career. Meanwhile, Gabriel is ardently against Adrien going to a regular school, only letting him attend junior high because the threat of pulling him out and further isolating him is one of the few levers he has with which to control his son.
Arc Villain: Due to the fact that Seasons 6-8 were announced instead of ending on Season 5, Gabriel becomes this in the first five seasons as Lila/Chrysalis becomes the next welder of the Butterfly Miraculous in the later seasons.
Arch-Enemy: Ladybug and Cat Noir are his biggest enemies, as he wishes to take their Miraculous in order to achieve his goal, and they often manage to foil his schemes.
Archnemesis Dad: He often targets the students in Marinette's class, meaning that he's knowingly victimizing the friends of his son Adrien.
- Over the course of Season Two, he begins to suspect Adrien is Cat Noir, though as of "Gorizilla" he's been thrown off the scent for the time being.
- However, when he finds out in the Bad Future of "Cat Blanc", he doesn't hesitate to manipulate his son's emotional turmoil to akumatize him, even physically assaulting Cat Noir just to twist the knife further.
- He does it once more in season 4's "Ephemeral". The only things preventing events from going completely haywire are the fact it is Adrien, not Cat Noir who gets akumatized, and Sass using his power without a bearer.
Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: His brand's logo is a butterfly, and there are subtle butterfly logos all over his mansion. Given that he only acquired the Moth Brooch just before the start of the show, these must have been in place well before he became Hawk Moth.
Awesome, but Impractical:
- His method of using the Butterfly Miraculous allows him to create powerful supervillains that serve him, but his perversion of its intended use limits the types of powers he can impart on his villains and makes them more unstable. It's shown his Good Counterpart Betterfly, who is using it the right way, has considerably more freedom with how he uses it and isn't hampered by many of the drawbacks Gabriel has to deal with.
- Using most of the Miraculouses at once to become Monarch does make him amazingly powerful... but stacking that many on top of each other causes immense strain to the point it actually begins to weaken and nearly kill him. It's understandable why he stops trying and just starts figuring out other ways of using them with his powers.
Bad Boss:
- Downplayed, but he dumps the responsibility of taking care of his son on Nathalie, and tends to be harsh toward the Placide I.T. (the Gorilla), even attempting to akumatize him twice (the second time succeeding).
- He enslaved the Butterfly kwami Nooroo despite Nooroo's warnings about the danger risked by using a kwami's powers for evil. Later extended this to Dusuu after repairing their Miraculous before trading it to Félix for most of the other Miraculouses, gaining fourteen additional kwamis.
- After gaining said 14 additional Kwamis, he becomes even worse, often yelling at them, saying explicitely they are his slaves, confining them in small transparent spheres, using them until they are exhausted and feeding them all with the same generic pet-food-looking meals, in spite of presumably knowing that giving its favourite food to each Kwami is probably more efficient.
- If people don't follow his orders, he's bound to threaten or try and take control of them until they do their job.
The Bad Guy Wins:
- He managed to get his hands on both the Miraculous of Cat Noir and Ladybug at least three times, to make his wish twice, only for each instance to be thwarted and/or Ret-Gone thanks to a Kwami using its power without a bearer.
- At the end of Season 3, he gets a major strategic victory: all of the temporary holders of Miraculous are identified, Chloé is no more an ally of Ladybug, and master Fu is removed from the picture with almost all of his memories erased, meaning the latter no longer can guide Ladybug. Nathalie also managed to steal Fu's tablet hosting the decoded version of the grimoire about the Miraculous. His sole setbacks are that Ladybug has become the Guardian of the Miraculous, and that he once again couldn't get the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous. Given the latter is standard, and Ladybug getting all the Kwamis makes finding them theorically easier, it's still a win for him.
- Season 4's finale sees his biggest victory: after wreaking havoc all over Paris thanks to three Giant Mook, he trades the Peacock Miraculous with Félix in exchange of an access to all the other ones, robbing them all, save for the Ladybug, Black Cat and Rabbit ones (though for the last it's a bit complex).
- Subverted at the end of Season 5. Even if he makes the wish, and on his own terms to boot, the outcome is very different of what he originally, or even simply minutes before, intended to do, and not evil. In lieu of healing/resurrecting Émilie, healing himself and having Adrien and Kagami becoming the two supreme fashion idols, at the cost of somebody's life, he ends up wishing for healing or resurrecting Nathalie at the cost of his own life, and departing Together in Death with Émilie. He dies at peace, acknowledging he was a horrible father but at least tried to be an acceptable one, making a plea for Marinette to not tell Adrien about his tenure as a villain. By extension, his public image remains unstained and fondly remembered of.
Bad People Abuse Animals: While Kwamis aren't animals per se, they look like the real deal and are Ridiculously Cute Critters to boot. Consequently, Gabriel's callous way of treating them gives definitely this vibe, with the undefinable food he gives them with a fingersnap, the way they are imprisoned in glass bubbles even goldfishes wouldn't accept, and the general feel of exploitation.
Bait the Dog: In season five, following his Cataclysm injury and learning that it is killing him, Gabriel seems to be trying be a better father to Adrien with the time he has left: making his son breakfast as they spend time together, having heart to heart talks, giving him relationship advice and letting Adrien call him "dad". But it turns out Nathalie was extorting Gabriel into doing most of this, still being the same emotionally abusive and controlling father he has been despite his affable demeanor. The fact Gabriel still places his self interests over Adrien's happiness and his son's gradual sadness over it just worsens things between them.
Bare-Fisted Monk: As shown in "Mayura", he is more successful in beating Ladybug and Cat Noir barehanded than with his cane.
Bastard Bastard: In "Werepapas" it's revealed that his parents aren't married (although they are a committed couple).
Batman Gambit: Gabriel has shown good hindsight, being aware that there is a Guardian of the Miraculous who can translate the Grimoire in his possession. He suspected as much in "Sapotis" when he noticed Ladybug's leaving in the middle of a difficult battle to bring allies. He attempts to locate the Guardian through out the third season, succeeding in the this season two-parter finale with his Akumatized Heart Hunter then Miracle Queen. The former caused enough chaos to force Ladybug to slip up and lead him to Master Fu. While Fu erased his memory to prevent it, Gabriel still acquired a means to translate the grimoire's text via Fu's tablet stolen by Mayura.
Became Their Own Antithesis: He used to believe, as Marinette does, that fashion was a way to reveal someone's inner self. A number of his older associates, like André Bourgeois and Harry Clown, credit his designs with giving them the confidence to pursue their careers. Somewhere along the way, he lost this belief and switched his focus towards less creative and more profitable products, like perfumes and disposable fans. This switch in perspective is perhaps best exemplified by his choice of collaborator — Tomoe Tsurugi, a blind futurist who despises art and nature.
- His wife's father was an elitist, emotionally abusive, Old Money, snob who wanted both his daughters to marry for money. Amélie did exactly that agreeing to an Arranged Marriage with Colt Fathom who was supposedly just like her father, while Émilie chose to Marry for Love and married the working class Gabi Grassette. However once Gabriel made it big as a fashion designer he took on almost all of Emil and Colt's negative traits.
Becoming the Mask:
- When he first terrorizes Paris with Stoneheart, he proclaims that he is only playing the part of supervillain so that he could get the power of the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous in order to revive Émilie. He starts out with using the same plot every time — akumatize someone, let them wreak havoc and try to have them take Ladybug and Cat Noir's miraculous — before he starts upping the ante with more convoluted (and dangerous) plans in an effort to overpower them. In Season 5, he has the opportunity to use the Rabbit Miraculous to prevent Émilie's coma from ever happening, but by then he has become so intent with winning against the heroes that he ends up blowing the chance in yet another attempt at taking the Ladybug and Black Cat ones.
- Throughout Season 5, Gabriel is forced into the role of playing a better father to Adrien, which he goes along with knowing that he won’t be there for his son for much longer. At the end of the season, he sacrifices his original wish after it's pointed out that neither Adrien nor Émilie would want it to happen, and even admits to Marinette that he was not a good parent, but there were times when he used to try.
Berserk Button:
- He tends to get very annoyed when his victims ignore his orders or jeopardize their mission (namely, when they make the Miraculous irretrievable).
- As Gabriel, anything that can remotely be construed as an insult towards his wife, including suggesting that he could ever love anyone else. In "Félix", he is in the middle of confessing to Adrien that he is Hawk Moth, when Adrien reveals that he already figured out his father's "big secret"... which is of course that he and Nathalie are in a romantic relationship. This makes Gabriel so angry he berates Adrien and storms off without finishing his confession. The saddest part is that Émilie herself would have certainly approved said relationship.
- In "Illusion", he's rendered furious to the point of almost throwing a pan he was cooking with when cooking oil from it gets on...his white apron. This is further contrasted with how he seemed to be legitimately trying to reconnect as a parent to his son, so he was definitely not in an irritable mood at the time, though he's not so irrational about this that he can't accept his clothes getting stained to help him perform a plan to get our heroes' Miraculous.
- Lila has exasperated him so much by the end of "Emotion" with her countless voicemails asking him for some justification for not being invited to the Diamonds' Ball that he punches his working graphics tablet hard after having callously fired the annoying little Entitled Bitch.
Big Bad: He's the evil mastermind behind all of Paris's supernatural problems for the first five seasons.
Big "NO!": Tends to yell "No!" whenever he comes particularly close to getting the Miraculouses, only for his efforts to be foiled at the very last second.
Big "YES!": He also usually says a big "Yes!" when he thinks he’s going to win.
Black Eyes of Crazy: To emphasize how far gone Gabriel is in his villany, when he rebrands as Monarch, his eyes turn black with ominously glowing blue eyes. As Monarch Bug, they even turn bright red.
Bond Villain Stupidity: Gets a case of this every single time Cat Noir falls prey to an Akumatized victim's attack and becomes Brainwashed and Crazy. It never once occurs to him to take the Cat Miraculous while he can. Rather, he has Cat Noir help take Ladybug's Miraculous. He also does this in "Copycat", where instead of having Copycat take the ring, he's perfectly fine with letting Ladybug do it, even though logically, she'd take the ring off and then try and smash it to get out the Akuma. The most likely justification is that when the Akumatized can take thralls of their own, Cat is generally the most powerful of said thralls, and the only one who could stand a chance against Ladybug.
Boyfriend-Blocking Dad:
- Zig-Zagged. Marinette and Adrien can never get together as long as Gabriel is controlling his son's life, "Cat Blanc" showing that he could exploit breaking Marinette's heart to akumatize her, and vice-versa. On the other hand, he and Tsurugi specifically want Kagami and Adrien to be a couple so the pair can carry on their legacies, so he doesn't interfere in that one.
- Downplayed in season 5, where Gabriel is at least willing to tolerate Marinette for a while since he's trying to be closer to his son and Nathalie encourages Adrien to see her. But Gabriel's patience wears thin when Marinette crashes an exclusive event just to talk to Adrien. After attempting to bribe Marinette into breaking things off with Adrien, Gabriel buckles down on setting his son up with Kagami and later decides to send him to London.
Brains and Brawn:
- In "Gabriel Agreste", Gabriel outright calls Nathalie the Brains to his Brawn. As Shadow Moth, he has the unified power of two Miraculouses, but since Nathalie fell ill after "Miracle Queen", he's been having limited success against Ladybug without Nathalie's planning and attention to detail.
- At the end of "Evolution", he distraughtly & quite panickly begs a furious Nathalie to come up with some plan, any plan for him, since he has just miserably lost the Rabbit Miraculous after losing his focus on his primary goal, failing to save both Émilie and Nathalie in the process.
Break the Haughty: After his The Bad Guy Wins in "The Collector," karma seems to be doubling down on him — in the form of giving him a tougher time with his Akumatized servants. The titular "Robostus" ends up invoking The Starscream and nearly killing him with his own defense system, and the titular "Gigantitan" is so frustrating to work with that Hawk Moth ends up looking like a borderline Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain.
Broken Pedestal:
- Zig-Zagged. Marinette looks up to him since he's a famous fashion designer and all, but she and many other people that know him personally are aware that he's an Ice King Control Freak.
- Played straight in "Pretension" when Marinette completely loses respect for Gabriel after he attempts to bribe her into breaking things off with Adrien and then threatens to ruin any chance she has of becoming a fashion designer when she turns him down.
- He also becomes this to his most loyal subordinate Nathalie in the 5th season premiere. She gives him the idea of using the Rabbit Miraculous to alter the past by giving his past self the means to repair the broken Peacock Miraculous (via instructions on an USB drive), saving both Émilie and Nathalie as a consequence. But when Nathalie finds out he wasted this now-or-never chance to save both her and his wife for another vain attempt to defeat Ladybug, she becomes so disgusted by his selfish obsession with Ladybug that she refuses to help him further. Her disgust towards him only worsens over the season despite his attempts to make amends with her. She comes back to the Agreste compound later, solely for Adrien's sake and with ulterior motives.
But Not Too Foreign: Implied. The last name "Agreste" indicates he may be of Italian descent (but it is also a French name. Subverted with the reveal that his real surname is Grassette, having changed it to sound more upper-class.
Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: His ultimate goal is to heal his seemingly dead wife and he is butterfly-themed. By season 5, the motif also applies to himself, since he's slowly dying from a Cataclysm he voluntarily put upon himself to escape Ladybug and Cat Noir.
Butt-Monkey: In season 2, Hawk Moth is having far more difficulty controlling the Akumatized. To wit, he ends up having to say "please" to Befana, has Robostus pull a Starscream on him and nearly kill him, is unable to wrangle Gigantitan with any degree of success, is unable to get Glaciator to attack Ladybug and Cat Noir (they're pretending to be a couple at the time), and initially has difficulty with the Sapotis, although he eventually gets them to focus.
- In Season 5's episode 3, "Destruction", he is tricked into going on a wild goose chase around Paris to find Ladybug that results in him nearly captured, but above all hit with a slowly progressing fatal wound.
Card-Carrying Villain: Deliberately creates supervillains, refers to his transformations as "evilizing" people, and freely admits his plots are evil. Subtle this one ain't.
Catchphrase:
- "Fly away, my little Akuma/Megakuma, and evilize him/her!"
- And when the Akuma finds its mark: "[Villain's name]. I am Hawk Moth/Shadow Moth/Monarch..."
- "NOOOOOOO!!"
- "YES!!"
- "MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"
- When threatening to de-power one of his minions, he usually ends his threat with "Or I’ll remove your powers!"
- Post-"Destruction", when he wants to use any of his captured Kwamis' power: "[Kwami's name(s)], your power(s) is/are now mine!"
Classy Cane: His weapon is a Sword Cane with a purple gem encrusted on its handle, symbolizing how he commands all the other villains in the show. A single Akuma is carried in a compartment in the handle, allowing him to akumatize someone even outside his lair.
Clone by Conversion: If his Akumas are released but not captured and cleansed, they will clone themselves and infect anyone they can, turning their victims into mindless copies of the villain they originally created. If the original victim can be turned again, all the clones are enslaved to their will.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: His first costume as Monarch doesn't change regardless of which Kwami he fuses together. Instead, the moth design on the front of his costume has various colored lights that appear in relation to which Kwami he is currently using.
Color Motifs:
- As Gabriel, white, being the colour of his initial suit, and his new clothes in Season 5 have nothing but white. Not to mention his lair being full of uncorrupted, white butterflies and his mansion being almost entirely white.
- As Hawk Moth, it's purple, being the colour of his suit, akuma's, and reflecting his status as a dangerous supervillain.
Conservative Dad, Liberal Mom: Gabriel is a profound elitist who goes to incredible lengths to keep Adrien from mingling with "common" teenagers, to the point that he even arranges a marriage for Adrien to the daughter of a wealthy and severely conservative business partner, despite Adrien and the daughter both being in their teens, in the hopes of deterring Adrien's interest in his working-class schoolmate Marinette. His late wife, Émilie, was far more laid-back, having grown up under a stifling noble family, and while her politics are never explored in detail, we do know that she married Gabriel despite his lower-class background and wished for Adrien to have a normal childhood.
The Consigliere: What Nathalie is to him. He has a soft spot for her, so she's the only person whose advice he listens to. This doesn't go to the length of making her a Morality Pet, though.
Control Freak:
- Gabriel micromanages all aspects of Adrien's life, directly and by proxy. "Representation" reveals that Adrien is a Sentimonster and Gabriel and Émilie's wedding rings are his son's amok, which is why Adrien has such trouble even disobeying Gabriel.
- This extends to his supervillainy. He desires to have every Miraculous under his control, not just those of Ladybug and Cat Noir, keeps any Kwami he gains control of under very strict rules with no wiggle room and harsh punishment for even the slightest disobedience, and even deliberately reconfigures the Miraculous so that only he can use them.
Cool Mask: As Hawk Moth, he wears a rather tight silver mask that conceals most of his face, save his eyes and mouth. When he's trying to communicate with his henchmen, a purple butterfly-shaped hologram appears in front of his eyes that matches the lines in his mask.
The Corrupter: Whenever he senses someone has powerful negative emotions, he sends out one of his Akumas. The Akuma amplifies those emotions and transforms the victim into an evil creature driven by that desire, who he then convinces to help him steal the Miraculous. He can do this to himself if he needs to, but retains his free will.
- Also done long term to Chloé and Lila, setting up the former to turn her from superheroine to villain and the latter to better use her on Heroes' Day and later as an accomplice. It worked all too well with Lila.
Crazy-Prepared:
- In "Simon Says," we learn that Gabriel has installed DEFCON-like security measures to protect his mansion in case of an attack.
- He owns the Miraculous spellbook, and has it hidden in a safe that no one should be able to access without the right code. However, in the event that does happen, he has scans of all the pages just in case.
- In the event someone starts to suspect his civilian identity of being Hawk Moth, he can akumatize himself to throw off suspicion. Even Master Fu buys it, since the wielder of the Butterfly Miraculous is immune to its power... which is why he temporarily renounced the Miraculous after creating the akuma to use on himself.
- His lair is kitted out with a defense system in the event that someone should break in... though, this ends up backfiring on him after Robostus takes control of it and turns it against him.
- He carries a spare akuma in his cane in case an opportunity for an akumatization presents itself while he's on the go.
- In "Party Crasher", it's implied that he has his own nuclear reactor powering his lair.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Deals one to Ladybug and Cat Noir in "Mayura" until Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Queen Bee step in and inverse the trend.
Dark Is Evil: He taints his butterflies with black and purple energy before sending them off to corrupt someone. His supervillain outfits are also usually black and dark purple/blue to match, especially his second Monarch outfit.
Death Equals Redemption: At the climax of "Re-creation", he uses his wish on the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous purely to undo the damage inflicted upon Nathalie by the Peacock Miraculous, while allowing himself to die in her place.
Depending on the Artist:
- Throughout the first four seasons, his hair often fluctuates between ash blonde and silver, depending on who is animating the episode. In Seasons 3 and 4, silver becomes the more dominant color. In-universe, it is likely due to the stress of his highly demanding job and his constant failure to obtain the Miraculous, as well as his despair and grief towards Émilie's coma. By Season 5, his hair has gone completely white, most likely because he knows, for all his talk of grandeur, he's a dead man walking.
- This also applies to his Akumatization sigil in Seasons 4 and 5, often fluctuating between pink and purple for the former, and lavender and pale blue for the latter.
Didn't Think This Through: A lot of his plans are examples of this.
- His plan in "Style Queen" was to deliberately provoke Audrey Burgeois as Gabriel so that she would be susceptible to akumatization. He didn't count on her going for Revenge by Proxy against Adrien when she couldn't get to him.
- Revealing his intentions with the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous to an akumatized Markov, who hijacks both the plan and Gabriel's security system. Gabriel learned from it and had Markov infected with a loyalty-inducing virus before akumatizing him again.
- In "Cat Blanc", he learned of his son's idenity as Cat Noir and took advantage of his emotional turmoil to akumatize him, removing the Cat Miraculous's limitations while forcing his son to obey his order and kill Ladybug. He never expected that his son would actually become so unstable that he would lead to his own Karmic Death.
- In "Miraculous New York", he attempts to start a global thermonuclear war, which probably wouldn't have exactly helped keep Adrien alive or his lair (containing, among other things, Émilie's stasis chamber) in one piece.
- In "Simpleman", he gives the eponymous Akuma the ability to reduce the intelligence of everyone in Paris, making them only think the simplest possible thoughts. However, this power is spread through a wave that affects all of Paris without discrimination, meaning that Shadow Moth himself is affected by it. While this still comes closer to success than most of his plans, one has to wonder what his next move would have been if he had actually gotten hold of the Miraculous. Could he even have thought of reviving Emile in his simplified state?
- In "Strike Back", a wary Gabriel is forced to trade the Peacock Miraculous to get his ring back from Félix. Come "Emotion", Gabriel got himself erased by a Sentimonster that Félix created.
Disappeared Dad: Downplayed. Gabriel is physically present in Adrien's life and even micromanages his son's life to make sure Adrien is safe, but he's too busy with his job to actually spend time with his son.
Disc-One Final Boss: He is the main villain for the first five seasons but in season five, he changes his ways and undoes his wish to save the lives of the people that had to not be around and by undoing his wish, he joins his wife. However, Lila gets her hands on the butterfly miraculous and takes over as Chrysalis, the main villain for the next seasons to come.
Disneyland Dad: He has Adrien's entire life planned out in a calculated desire to protect him from the world, even going so far as to try and keep him home-schooled in-spite of how lonely it makes him. Due to his job as fashion mogul and his excursions as Hawk Moth, Gabriel could not actually be there for him and instead compensates using his vast fortune to keep his son happy and complacent with any material thing he wants.
Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- Gabriel's utter inability to let his comatose wife go is reminiscent of how some families won't accept the death of one of their loved ones via brain death and keep them years in the hospital with only the medical machines maintaining them technically "alive", in the feeble or futile hope they'll wake up some day.
- In the fifth season, the injury Gabriel sustained from Cat Noir's Catacalysm is used as a stand-in for living with a terminal disease with draining the Kwamis of their energy being the treatment to lessen the pain and slow the spread of it across the body.
Doomed by Canon: While confirmed in "Timetagger", "Destruction" and "Passion" cement that succeed or fail, Gabriel will eventually come to no longer possess the Butterfly Miraculous... but someone will take his place.
The Empath: A villainous example. The Butterfly Brooch allows its holder to sense the emotions of those around them. Its intended use is to bolster positive emotions and create superheroes, but Hawk Moth uses it to prey on negative emotions present anywhere in the city, with at least enough clarity to know exactly what the incident was that inspired them. As "Partycrasher" shows, he's fully capable of sensing positive emotions as well, they're just useless to him most of the time.
Environmental Symbolism: His lair as Hawk Moth has its entrance hidden by a portrait of Émilie, his primary motivation for turning to supervillainy in the first place. In each episode, it's shrouded in darkness until he senses an opportunity to Akumatise someone, at which point the window opens up, reflecting how he sees this as the only path out of his despair at losing her.
Establishing Character Moment: In "The Bubbler", Gabriel's refusal to get Adrien a birthday present (laying such a responsibility on Nathalie and going as far to scold her for fogetting) and rude treatment of Nino for trying to get him to let Adrien have a birthday party definitely cement him as a neglectful, emotionally abusive parent who cares more about his son's obedience than happiness.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite being the Big Bad, Gabriel has his loved ones. His prime motivation for creating the akuma villains is to save his wife, Émilie, who has fallen into a coma and as time goes by is only falling deeper. In addition, Gabriel does legitimately love Adrien and claims that bringing Émilie back if for him. However, Gabriel has allowed his obsession with bringing Émilie back to interfere with his relationship with Adrien making him controlling and cold. Not including his family, Gabriel cares for his assistant Nathalie. Despite still allowing her to use the Peacock Miraculous, knowing the implications that come with using it, Gabriel detransforms even though he has recreated an army of akuma villains when Nathalie falls ill. Even after Nathalie turns against him, he still shows care for her, and in the finale sacrifices his life to save her.
Even Evil Has Standards: Generally zigzagged. The most consistent analysis of his behavior is that he does have a conscience, but he tends to ignore it if a big enough prize is dangled in front of him.
- Between brainwashing innocent people and not being the least bit choosy about victims, there aren't a lot of lines Hawk Moth hasn’t crossed already. However, when it comes down to the wire, there is one thing he will never do: let Adrien get hurt. That is, unless he finds out he's Cat Noir. Then that line goes right out the window, as "Cat Blanc" and "Ephemeral" show.
- In "Sandboy", he forbids Nooroo from communicating, striking the kwami mute. He quickly revokes this order, saying that he was joking and that even he's not that cruel.
- In "Queen Wasp", he's shown to be torn between his love for his wife and his son. Keep up with the akumas and the villains and risk Adrien getting hurt to save/revive Émilie or give it up for his safety but never get his wife back or save his son's mother.
- In "Mayura" he's aghast when he realises that Nathalie has taken up the Peacock Miraculous to aid him, since he knows the strain it will take on her body, and begs her not to use it. In season 3 he drops this moral scruple and against his better judgement, actively employs Mayura's aid despite the risks to her health, though he does at least make sure she rests before using it again, but in "Ladybug" the scruple returns when he sees how the Miraculous has affected Nathalie and takes it back for her own safety.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In "Protection", he assumes that Adrien only likes Marinette because her "mediocrity" allows him to shine with less effort, failing to see that Adrien loves Marinette for who she is. Also, in "Pretension", he accuses Marinette of only liking Adrien because she’s "under the spell of the world Gabriel has created", being starstruck by Adrien’s fame and good looks, but she likewise loves Adrien for who he is.
Evil Counterpart: He serves as this to Marinette. Both have insect-themed miraculouses, both have interest with a person with blonde hair, both care for Adrian, both have an interest in fashion. As similar as they are, they are different in some ways. Gabriel uses his miraculous to do bad deeds while Marinette continues using hers to do good. Gabriel’s wish requires taking involves taking lives of innocent people which ends up having him no be around, while Marinette choices to do the right steps in her life to accomplish her own goals in life. Hawk Moth does care for his son, Adrian, but doesn’t offer much freedom while Marinette considers everything Adrian wants and respects it.
- He is also this to his own son, Adrien. Both are famous people who appear calm, hiding their true selves within themselves. Both use a dark colored miraculouses to become super powered beings who behave different how they usually are in society. The difference is Adrian uses his Miraculous to do good while Gabrielle does bad deeds as Hawk Moth.
Evil Feels Good: While he starts out with sympathetic intentions (wanting to steal the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses so he can wish his wife back to life and then he can stop being a supervillain), this goal becomes more and more overshadowed by his desire for power and to collect all the Miraculouses as the series goes on, and he speaks of "evilizing" his minions with glee when sending his Akumas. In the Shanghai special, it's revealed he spent 15 years looking for the Progidous jewel prior to the series, so he may have been already power-hungry even prior to his wife's coma.
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: When Nooroo tries to go out for his birthday, he temporarily removes the poor kwami's mouth before playing it off as a "joke".
Evil Is Bigger: An official height chart gives Gabriel's height as 7'2"/220cm. The episode "Gabriel Agreste" reveals that the trope is invoked by Gabriel as part of his Miraculous transformation: when Shadow Moth and senti-Gabriel are standing face to face, Shadow Moth is a full head taller than his civilian self.
Evil Is Hammy: In costume, he embraces being a theatrical supervillain, a far cry from his civilian identity of the aloof, businesslike Gabriel Agreste. Made obvious by his transformation sequence when it occurs, which sees the cold and constantly-frowning Gabriel Agreste flash an evil smile.
Evil Is Not a Toy: Most of the time this is averted; while his akumatized minions can be unruly, they generally do as they're told because he can simply strip them of their powers or torture them into compliance. He typically runs into trouble whenever he akumatizes non-humans, such as the robotic Markov or the supernatural Mei Shi, who can resist his influence more easily and turn against him. He at least learns his lesson with Markov; when akumatizing him a second time, he infects him with a virus first and only agrees to remove it if Robustus actually follows his orders. The only time akumatizing a human blows up in his face is Cat Blanc, whose loyalties are so torn between Ladybug and Hawk Moth (who he had just learned is his father) that it triggers an Angst Nuke that obliterates all of Paris, Hawk Moth included.
Evil Laugh: He does one in most episodes. He goes for the classic "muhahaha".
Evil Only Has to Win Once: If he gets the Cat and Ladybug Miraculouses, it's game over, but he loses nothing but time when his akumatized villains are defeated, and so can afford to keep trying again and again.
Evil Sounds Deep: Has quite a low, intimidating tone. His voice is noticeably higher-pitched when untransformed, so either it's a side effect of his transformation or he invokes this trope deliberately, perhaps so that nobody recognizes his civilian voice. At the end of "Party Crasher", he speaks deeply while untransformed, so it seems he does invoke this trope deliberately. "Gabriel Agreste" has Gabriel deepen his villain voice further, possibly as an attempt to make a suspicious Félix second guess himself. On the other hand, in "Ephemeral," his voice automatically becomes deeper as soon as he transforms into Shadow Moth in front of Adrien seemingly without any conscious effort.
Evil Virtues:
- Creativity. While he tends to recycle the same Evil Plan — akumatize someone, let them cause havoc to attract the heroes, have the villain take their miraculous — he has proven to have a very firm understanding of his miraculous and has applied Loophole Abuses in order to maximize its effectiveness in a variety of clever ways, including akumatizing himself to throw off suspicion of his secret in "Collector" and creating an army of akumatized villains by creating a villain that makes himself more powerful in "Catalyst".
- Determination. His villainous champions have lost countless times and it only takes a major loss for him to lose his vigor, and even then it has been proven that it does not take much for him to reclaim his nerve.
- Love. His end-goal is to procure the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous to wish his ailing wife back to full health, and one of his redeeming qualities is how he cares for his son. The only reason why he is such a Control Freak over Adrien is because he is afraid for his wellbeing and only wishes to ensure a promising future, and even then he is willing to bend his rules if Adrien asks nicely enough.
- Loyalty. He is deeply offended by any suggestion that he's cheating on Émilie... whether the speaker meant to imply that or not.
- Resourcefulness. He will sometimes use his civilian identity — aware that everyone sees him as a Control Freak and a tight-ass — to create akumas out of other people's hatred of him or use his power and influence to sow enough discontent among as many people as he can, as was the case with Bubbler, Simon Says, Style Queen and Gorizilla.
- Valor. Even when the heroes undo his Super Mode as Scarlet Moth and breaks the spell he put onto his villain army, he still sticks by and fights Ladybug and Cat Noir two-on-one without his cane, proving that he was an Orcus on His Throne more out of being a Pragmatic Villain than a Dirty Coward. Even then he only flees after become grossly outnumbered when Rena Rouge, Carapace and Queen Bee join the fight and Mayura creates a sentimonster to be a distraction.
Excessive Mourning: He is built around this trope and it drives almost all of his actions and subsequently the first five seasons' Myth Arc. We learn early on Gabriel has become a total recluse who barely leaves his house or interacts with his son Adrien anymore after the mysterious disappearance and presumed death of his wife. That turns out to be just the tip of the iceberg: Gabriel is the Big Bad, and the reason he became a supervillain was all part of his plan to get her back. By any means necessary, and there's mounting evidence as seasons go on that he even sees his son's life as an acceptable collateral damage.
Expy: To Gendo Ikari: Both are emotionally distant Archnemesis Dads who are secretly Manipulative Bastard Supervillains with apocalyptic agendas because they are Yanderes who want to resurrect their dead wives. Their ultimate ends where they end up Together in Death with their wives and their fan reception are also very similar. Like Gendo, Gabriel also answers to a shadowy cabal that share his apocalyptic agenda but to realize their own reality.
False Flag Operation: Twice. First, by permitting Simon Says to target him despite the risks and then corrupting himself into the Collector to throw suspicion off of his civilian identity when he believed the heroes were getting too close to finding out who he was.
False Friend: To any villain he creates. Since he actually has no control over their actions, he has to pretend he is giving them their powers so they can accomplish their goals. In actuality, he is just using them to get his hands on Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses. Even after most people become aware he's up to no good and try in their first move to reject akumatization, he's manipulative and clever with words enough to keep playing this card.
Fantastic Terrorist: A magical supervillain who uses his powers to brainwash other people into supervillains to terrorize Paris so he can get Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous.
Fatal Flaw: Stubborness. Even Émilie acknowledged it in her recorded pre-mortem videos messages. In a way, he is a Deconstructed Character Archetype for The Determinator. His single-minded obsession with Ladybug often gets him into trouble as he will sacrifice pragmatism for a chance to take her Miraculous. This bites him in the ass severely in Season 5 premiere "Evolution" where despite having the chance to save his wife by going back in time and changing the past using the Bunny Miraculous (which in turn would save Nathalie as it would prevent her from using the broken Peacock Miraculous), he instead chooses to once again go after Ladybug and Cat Noir, leading to his defeat once again. Nathalie is so disgusted by his selfishness that she not only calls him out on it, but ultimately (temporarily) abandons him. More than once he just don't Know When to Fold Them.
- It is also reflected in some of his akumatizations going as far back to season 1. Several of the villains he creates backfire on him due to him ignoring the obvious flaws (like Reflekta making Cat Noir's Miraculous vanish after she zapped him, thinking akumatizing a baby would work in his favor, seeing no problems controlling a robot that can take over any technology, etc.) because he cares more about having a chance to win.
Faux Affably Evil: He'll may act like he's a friend to the villains he creates, but only as long as he's getting what he wants; the minute something goes wrong, out come the threats to remove their powers.
Fist Pump: A stand-by in Hawk Moth's hammy gesture repertoire is to dramatically clench his fist tightly for emphasis, usually as he monologues about how someone's negative emotions are very good prey for his akumas.
Fluffy the Terrible: In the French version, he's "Le Papillon", or the Butterfly. This is intentionally averted in the various dubs by the name change; the English dub in particular gives him the more intimidating name of Hawk Moth.
Foil:
- To his own son Adrien. Both are famous people who project a calm, professional image to conceal their true selves. Both are also the holders of a Miraculous that give them dark-themed alter-egos with more outgoing personalities. But while Cat Noir is a happy-go-lucky, Dark Is Not Evil hero who protects Paris, Hawk Moth is a sinister Light Is Not Good Large Ham villain who corrupts people with his powers.
- To Audrey Bourgeois. Both are major Jerkasses who work in the fashion industry and are terrible at parenting, and more generally neglectful towards their family. However, Gabriel manages to keep a civil facade most of the time , and above all, he commits evil acts because of the strength of his love for Émilie, not even being able to envision the idea of a Second Love without getting angry. He also micromanages his son's life through Nathalie and Adrien's bodyguard. Audrey, in contrast, cannot even bother to remember the names if her two daughters, cheating on her husband when she lived in New York, and is just a petty Jerk with a Heart of Jerk. Shadow Moth even lampshades it in "Optigami":
  Shadow Moth: Fly, my Akuma, and corrupt the even darker than mine heart of this woman!
Food as Characterization: Around Season 5, he starts to make pancakes for his son's breakfast, wanting to bond with him more since he's Secretly Dying. While Adrien is elated, later episodes establish that he rarely makes anything but pancakes, Nathalie's snark indicates they're not that good, and during his confrontation with Marinette, she derides them as being tasteless. All of the above reflects that even when he's trying to be "better", he has little idea of how to do so, doesn't even bother to try and adjust his approach, and falls back on the same old tactics when faced with any opposition.
Foreshadowing: In Season 1, despite his identity being unknown, there were many hints towards the fact that Gabriel was Hawk Moth. Among them:
- In The Bubbler, Gabriel is not seen among the adults captured by Bubbler's bubbles, despite the fact that Nathalie and Adrien's bodyguard are. Not to mention that Gabriel should've been the main target, considering how his stubborn and rude behavior towards Nino caused his Akumatization, and the Bubbler more likely than not would have swept the house.
- In Mr. Pigeon, during Marinette's Imagine Spot of the possibilities if her derby hat fails, she imagines Gabriel wearing a purple bow tie, similar to the brooch Hawk Moth has.
- In The Mime, not even a minute after Fred is Akumatized, Gabriel calls Nathalie to inform her that he won't be able to attend the play despite it being planned for him and Adrien. Nathalie visibly hesitates when she hopes Adrien will understand.^note
- In Simon Says, this episode has more than enough hints to feed a family of sharks.
  - When Simon announces that he'll be going after Gabriel, Hawk Moth notes that it's "risky, but it's given him an idea."
  - Later on, as Simon's hypnotized minions close in the Agreste mansion, Hawk Moth tries to discourage him from attacking Gabriel further, despite never showing concern for whom his victims target prior to this. During this scene, Hawk Moth is shown to walk ahead (the first time he's ever seen doing so, no less) as if he just returned from somewhere.
  - Gabriel shows some creepy interest in both heroes' Miraculouses.
  - Hawk Moth has much less screentime than usual, never contacting Simon during the fight at the studio or even throwing his last threat at the end of the episode, while Gabriel is, in turn, physically present during that same period.
  - And most blatant of them all, when Simon hypnotizes Gabriel, he literally says "You are a butterfly" (Hawk Moth's French name), and as he does so, his card with a butterfly picture lands on Gabriel's chest, mimicking Hawk Moth's brooch.
- In Ladybug & Cat Noir (Origins - Part 1), if having the same voice and picture of Émilie wasn't enough, the untransformed Hawk Moth's silhouette bares a striking resemblance to Gabriel's character model.
- In Volpina, while tearing through his room to find the Grimore, Adrien worries that his father's wrath will be a bigger monster than Hawk Moth. Oh, Adrien, you will not know the irony.
Four Eyes, Zero Soul: With his cold, unfriendly personality, it's obvious. Even more as the true identity of Hawk Moth.
Fusion Dance:
- This forms the crux of his ultimate goal: he wants to get the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses to fuse them together in order to get his wish granted.
- In season 4, he uses the repaired Peacock Miaculous in tandem with the Butterfly Miraculous, becoming Shadow Moth.
- In season 5, he redubs himself Monarch after gaining all but three of the Miraculous, complete with new costume. Unlike previous fusions, his costume doesn't change, instead lighting up to indicate which he has active. He quickly switches back to using just the Butterfly Miraculous to reduce the risk of losing them and instead transforms the other Miraculous into rings that retain their powers.

G-L

Gender-Blender Name: His birth name, Gabi, is noted as being feminine or gender neutral.
Godhood Seeker: He wants Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous because together they grant a single wish, with the sole limitation being its Equivalent Exchange nature. One can basically wish anything, though what Hawk Moth actually wants to wish becomes pretty clear pretty early on.
Good Powers, Bad People: When used for its intended purpose, Nooroo's power should be turning people into The Champion or, as shown in "Queen Wasp", giving other Miraculous Users a Super Mode. Hawk Moth instead uses it to corrupt people to suit his own ends. However, it's shown that using the power in this manner has several drawbacks. Hawk Moth needs strong negative emotions to corrupt others into accepting the powers he gives them and they can still reject his influence even in their altered state, the powers are limited to that emotional state (though there is some leeway for those akumatized in the past, as he can revive their past form for virtually any reason and even modify it), and his villains tend to be less rational because their negative emotions are amplified. This is contrasted with his Good Counterpart Betterfly, who is using his powers for good and thus has far greater freedom in how he applies them. He can give anyone powers as long as they consent, can give them specific powers without concern for their emotional state, can freely transfer powers between individuals, and those he empowers are actually sane. The few times Hawk Moth has had a consenting individual to empower, they tend to be among his stronger villains because his normal limitations are removed.
Hades Shaded: Not that he wasn't already evil, but he gains a noticeable tan as Scarlet Moth.
Happily Ever After: His idea of one involves Émilie brought back to life, the Cataclysm he forced Cat Noir to inflict on him repaired, and Kagami and Adrien becoming the eternal icons of the new world he wanted.
Happily Married: Implied. While not much is known about Gabriel's relationship with his missing wife, there are moments that show they had a loving marriage — he keeps many pictures of her in their home, and Adrien explains in the webisode, "Adrien's Double Life", that ever since Mrs. Agreste disappeared, Gabriel has been a "changed man".
Hard Work Hardly Works: His team worked for years to gain magical powers, and even then the Miraculouses they found did nothing but hurt them. His son was peacefully given one of the strongest Miraculouses in the world at the age of thirteen, probably because destiny found him far, far more worthy of it.
Hates Being Touched: He's aloof in general, but his sister-in-law Amélie specifically notes that he's "not the physical sort". He refuses to shake Félix's hand when first greeting him and is visibly uncomfortable when a passenger brushes past him on a train in "Backwarder". This doesn't seem to apply as much to his close loved ones, however, as he's given Adrien quite a few stiff hugs and is fairly physically affectionate with Nathalie.
Hates Defiance: Gabriel cannot stand when those underneath him - whether it's his assistant, his driver, or his son - disobeys him. This is on full display when he's Hawk Moth. A contributing factor to his Villainous Breakdown in season 5 is the fact that Adrien increasingly refuses to follow his orders and starts demanding to have his own life.
Hazy-Feel Turn: In the finale, he realizes how much harm he had done in pursuit of the woman he loved and chooses to sacrifice himself to heal Nathalie. But he still did it by stealing the Miraculouses from Marinette to grant the wish, so exactly where this puts him morally is very up for debate.
The Heavy: All the other villains? He creates and directs them in the first place.
Heel Realization: He finally realizes how horrible a parent he was to Adrien during the finale of Season 5, and opts to use the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous to save Nathalie's life at the cost of his own.
The Hermit: In season 1 and for much of season 2, he never leaves his house. It seems to stem as much from his grief over Émilie as it does from concealing his identity as Hawk Moth. His appearance during his Villainous BSoD at the show in "Queen Wasp" is stated to be his first public appearance since his wife disappeared. Even when he doesn't give up his villainy, it sticks; he is regularly seen making appearances and going outside as both a civilian and as a supervillain after that episode.
Hero of Another Story: For a given value of 'hero'. Apparently the story of how he met Émilie and Nathalie could fill its own comic book. Their journey to Tibet to find the Miraculous is similarly alluded to.
Hidden Depths:
- Beneath his cold, evil, and manipulative exterior, Gabriel is in fact a grieving, depressed, and heartbroken man who desperately wishes to be a happy family again with his wife and son. However, he struggles with an inability to move on from the past and to be be grateful for his only child Adrien, which has caused him to become dangerously obsessed with finding a way to bring his wife back at any cost.
- His array of Akuma's encompass a massive range of themes and motifs, ranging from multicultural/historical (e.g., Darkblade-medieval, Pharoah-ancient Egypt, La Befana-Italian folklore etc.), musical (e.g., Guitar Villain-Rock and Roll, Frightninggale-Pop, Party Crasher-Disco etc.), holiday (e.g., Dark Cupid-Valentines Day, Sandy Claws-Santa Clause etc.), and even elements of entertainment media (e.g., Horrificator-horror, The Gamer-video games, Weredad-Fairy Tales etc.), not to mention coming up with punny names for each of them.
Hidden Heart of Gold: Played with. His unfriendly and callous behavior is responsible for at least three akumatizations; his status as Hawk Moth heavily implies he acted in such a manner not out of malice, but to goad potential victims into being upset enough to be akumatized.
His Own Worst Enemy: He throws away the perfect opportunity to spare his wife from her fate and Nathalie from illness and disability in "Evolution" in favor of his compulsion to best Ladybug, demonstrating that it's ultimately his all-consuming obsession with victory that's preventing him from attaining happiness.
History Repeats: He is desperate to prevent any more of his loved ones from taking up a Miraculous and dying, but pretty much all of them have/will. His son has technically died several times in the line of duty.
Hoist by His Own Petard: In the Bad Future seen in "Cat Blanc", Gabriel's reaction to discovering that Adrien is Cat Noir is to borderline Mind Rape the poor boy in order to akumatize him. Cat Blanc's initial Freak Out ends up killing Gabriel, along with the rest of Paris (and possibly France).
Hypocrite:
- Gabriel is constantly stating how much he worries over Adrien's safety, but often ends up putting his son in direct danger as Hawk Moth, with "Gorizilla", "Riposte", and especially "Cat Blanc" being the most prominent examples.
- In "Ladybug", he questions why Cat Noir and Ladybug care so much about the destruction of Senti-Ladybug. At the same time, he cares deeply about his son Adrien, who was born through the magic of the Peacock Miraculous.
- In season 5, he takes issue with Marinette dating Adrien, believing she's not good enough for him as someone who is just the daughter of some local bakers. Gabriel comes from almost identical origins and similarly married someone who, by the standards he's setting now, was way out of his league.
Hypocritical Humor: Hawk Moth is a Manipulative Bastard who will say whatever he needs to get his More than Mind Control to work, regardless of what he personally believes. However, on occasion he makes some genuine hypocritical remarks to himself when nobody else can hear them.
- In "Sapotis", he mocks strict parents and declares that kids should be allowed to do whatever they want, whenever they want. Gabriel is an extremely strict parent who micromanages his son's life.
- In "Captain Hardrock", he expresses outrage at "the suppression of a soul demanding liberty and freedom". Again, Gabriel micromanages Adrien's life (barely even allowing him to leave the house), and is keeping Nooroo prisoner. Corrupting people into becoming your evil minions and using an Agony Beam when they disobey you isn't much in the way of "liberty and freedom" either.
Icy Blue Eyes: Gabriel's light blue eyes fit his cold, unfriendly bearing perfectly, and they can do one hell of a pitiless stare.
Ignored Epiphany:
- In "Stormy Weather 2", he begins to question whether he's risking too much in his quest, but quickly snuffs out the thought and doubles down on his actions.
- In the "Queen's Battle" trilogy, he's fully prepared to give up trying to steal the Miraculous and move on with his life after Style Queen is defeated. But once Chloé outs herself as the holder of the Bee Miraculous and becomes vulnerable to being akumatized, Gabriel just can't resist taking another shot at winning.
I Let Gwen Stacy Die: A Downplayed Villainous example. He gave Émilie the Peacock Miraculous that she implicitly used to create Adrien, and his guilt over her falling into a coma years later as a result caused his Start of Darkness.
Imagination-Based Superpower:
- Played with. Hawk Moth chooses the powers he gives to his akuma, but they only work if the victim has an emotional state compatible with the power. This is a fairly broad range, however, and he can give them pretty much any power he wants as long it fits thematically. "Risk" further demonstrates that he can think up a specific power before even finding a victim, then simply has to locate a valid target.
- Once he becomes Shadow Moth by joining the Peacock Miraculous with his own, his amoks can create anything he desires, including copies of people (and past villains) that he can control.
- Subverted when he gains access to the Rooster Miraculous and is dismayed to learn from Orikko that he can't simply give himself powers that mimic another Miraculous or compromise them (such as tracking their owners), the limitations of the power being so specific that he doesn't even bother trying at first. He is able to grant himself invisibility and flight later on, however, showing that more humble requests pan out fairly well.
Implied Death Threat: Subverted. In Season 4's Gabriel Agreste, Gabriel via a Sentimonster version of himself he created as a decoy, says to Félix he can destroy the latter's life "with a fingersnap". We learn much later it wasn't an implied threat at all, but a Not Hyperbole very explicit one, since Félix is in fact a Sentimonster himself and thus can be "puffed" out of existence by anyone wielding the Peacock Miraculous, who just happened to be Gabriel at the time, with a Badass Fingersnap.
Inconsistent Spelling: Downplayed. "Hawk Moth" is the official English spelling, but there are some who spell it as "Hawkmoth", one word, after an art book spelled it that way.
Ink-Suit Actor: Interestingly, his facial features as a civilian are similar to his English voice actor, Keith Silverstein, while his features as Hawk Moth bear resemblance to his French voice actor, Antoine Tomé.
Insecure Love Interest: There are hints that Gabriel, in spite of how successful and happy they were, never felt himself fully worthy of Émilie's love and maybe even felt guilt about everything she had to give up to be with him. In addition to all the times he laments and apologizes to her (in her sarcophagus) for not being able to bring her back, there is a sentence he says to Nathalie in Passion:
Gabriel: Émilie always deserved better than what she imagined for herself (...).
Ironic Name: Same as Adrien; a posh fashion designer and millionaire whose surname comes from a Latin word meaning, "rustic". Not so ironic, bordering on Foreshadowing, once it's revealed that Gabriel actually comes from a humble social social background.
Irony: In "Startrain", he's fully aware of the irony that, with the titular akuma outside of his range of control, he has to root for Ladybug so she can save Adrien.
It Runs in the Family: He has the same desperate, self-destructive love for Émilie as Adrien has for Ladybug, though Adrien at least learns to get over it.
It's All About Me: For all of his initial justifications and Freudian Excuse regarding trying to get his beloved family back, his actions (especially many of his later choices in later seasons) have heavy shades of this. Despite claiming to do what's best for his son, he mainly seems to fixate more on trying to dictate Adrien's actions in relation to his own desires. Despite having opportunities to actually revive Émilie without the risk of further terror and trauma for himself and Paris, he ultimately discards them for the sake of continuing down his original intent of stealing the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses, a decision that costs him the loyalty of Nathalie Sancoeur. Even his final action of sacrificing himself to resurrect Émilie and restore Nathalie's health is tinged with his desire for Adrien to remember him as a good parent, despite his multi-season negligence and Control Freak tendencies.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Debatable in Season Five. Gabriel repeatedly states that he wants to make Adrien happy, but Nathalie and Marinette/Bug Noire counter that he is putting his vision for Adrien's future above Adrien's own happiness, as shown primarily through his opposition to Adrien's actual relationship with Marinette in favor of the arranged one he and Tomoe want him to have with Kagami.
Jackass Genie: Zig-zagged — he offers people powers to solve their current problem in exchange for doing his evil bidding. He fulfills his end of the bargain without any intention to screw over his minion with Exact Words or the like. Then again, akumas are repeatedly shown to be a terrible solution to the problem the person is facing — and he omits that achieving his goal has the potential to destroy and recreate the entire universe, including his client.
Jerkass Has a Point: Gabriel tends to be a major jerk most of the time, but he can raise valid points every now and again.
- In "The Collector," not counting his ulterior motives and that pulling Adrien out of school was clearly overkill, Gabriel has a right to be upset about the book being lost. While he later apologizes for becoming so furious over it, Adrien admits that he shouldn't have taken it without his father's permission.
- In "Illusion," while Gabriel pulling Adrien out of school completely again was definitely overboard, it's pretty understandable for someone to quite outraged that their son and his friends are squishing plates of food onto their chest for some reason.
- In "Intuition," when Nathalie urges him to stop using Second Chance as it's causing his Cataclysm wound to accelerate, Gabriel sarcastically asks if she'll use it instead. As rude as it was, he isn't wrong that she's not in any position to use it either, considering her own ailments. He is also correct that giving an Akumatized villain the power of Second Chance would be a very bad idea.
- In "Pretension," Gabriel does describe the fashion industry at least somewhat accurately when he tries to blackmail Marinette. It doesn't work as a metaphor for human relations as he intended, but he's not a famous fashion designer for no reason.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he does tend to be a giant jerk, even to Adrien, to the point he doesn't allow him to do things most normal kids should be allowed to do, he still loves his son. Also, he is quite reasonable and fair most of the time. Though underneath that, he's actually...Hawk Moth.
Karmic Death:
- A Bad Future scenario has Gabriel instantly killed by an unstable Adrien/Cat Blanc after learning his identity as Cat Noir and psychologically torturing him to kill Ladybug.
- In "Gabriel Agreste", Shadow Moth threatens his nephew Félix through a sentimonster Gabriel that he can destroy him with only a snap of his fingers. In "Emotion", Félix creates a sentimonster that removes the real Gabriel from existence with only a snap of his fingers.
- The canon timeline has Gabriel dying a slow death after forcing Cat Noir to inflict his Cataclysm on him while still unaware of his identity and Ladybug's. He then dies as consequence of using the Miraculouses he sought for over the course of series to save Nathalie's life at the cost of his own, but accepts his fate if it meant saving his companion and reuniting with Émilie in death.
Knight of Cerebus: As Hawk Moth, Gabriel fits the tone of the show perfectly with his Card-Carrying Villain, Pungeon Master and Evil Is Hammy tendencies, but as soon as the Miraculous comes off, he becomes this.
Knight Templar Parent: Despite regular negligence of his son, Gabriel is actually this. In his introductory webisode, Adrien claims that, until recently, his father refused to let him attend public school because Adrien leaving the house worried him. It appears that, by keeping his son as busy and isolated as possible, Mr. Agreste hopes to prevent Adrien getting into an unspecific danger. The Christmas special pretty much confirms it. When he sees that Adrien is not in his room and the window is wide open, he frantically demands that Nathalie release a statement of his missing son and issue an immediate search party for him.
Kubrick Stare: Pulls one of these in his transformation sequence, complete with Slasher Smile.
Lantern Jaw of Justice: A villainous example. He has a big chin, but he’s the show’s main antagonist.
Large and in Charge: His official height is 220cm (~7'2.6"), giving him a towering physique to match his authoritarian personality.
Large Ham: Despite his dark and serious tone, his VA (in basically any version; take your pick) is clearly enjoying themself.
Late-Arrival Spoiler:
- The revelation that Gabriel is Hawk Moth is rather unceremoniously dropped at the beginning of season 2, having been heavily implied in season 1, and many of his appearances afterwards make direct reference to this fact.
- His death is spoilered in season 6 with Gabriel being a Posthumous Character and new Butterfly Miraculous holder being the Big Bad.
Legacy Character: In "Timetagger", it's revealed that the Butterfly Miraculous will end up in the hands of someone else after Gabriel loses it. That person is revealed in "Recreation" to be Lila.
Light Is Not Good: Stands in a room filled with white butterflies, right in the beam of a large, handsomely wrought window. To some degree justified, at least with the white butterflies: he's perverting his Kwami Nooroo's benevolent powers for evil. His true identity, Gabriel Agreste, also wears a white suit, with bright red pants and highlights. This trope applies in full force in Season 5 where he completely discards the red and highlights parts of his suit for an immaculate one. This happens not long after Nathalie has explicitely stated to his face he is now Beyond Redemption.
Logical Weakness: His Miraculous has the power to give other people superpowers. This means that most of his plans involve him having to put his faith in other people to do all of the dirty work, but this has a few inherent limitations that he is forced to put-up with. He also runs into weaknesses stemming from using his powers in a way they aren't intended to be.
- First, while his minions aren't necessarily in their right mind, they still possess free will of their own. They are capable of either ignoring him or misinterpreting his orders, often snatching defeat from the jaws of victory due to good old human fallibility. While threatening his villains with rescinding their powers or inflicting mild pain on them should they defy him works most of the time, there are times when this isn't enough. Robostus was able to keep him too busy fending off his own security system to stop him, Gigantitan was incapable of listening or focusing on the task at hand due to being a toddler, and the Gang of Secrets were so fixated on Marinette that they instantly abandoned a subdued Cat Noir to chase after an illusion of her while Gabriel ineffectually tried to get them to stop. Also, someone with a sufficiently powerful will can either overcome the akuma (Alya in "Gang of Secrets") or resist being akumatized altogether (Félix in "Gabriel Agreste").
- Second, the corrupting influence he has on his villains — often amplifying their darker impulses and silencing their civil conscience — tends to make them very easily distracted and prone to irrational behavior. Ladybug and Cat Noir have used this against them numerous times, often using whatever led to Hawk Moth akumatize them as a distraction right before defeating them.
- Third, the powers themselves sometimes have strange limitations resulting from being drawn from the person's desires of the moment and the object that gets akumatized. Simply being present for the events leading to the akuma has allowed Ladybug and Cat Noir to figure out many villains' weaknesses, and taking away the akumatized object often completely neutralizes the villain even before the akuma is purified. This stems directly from him using his power for evil, as it's the only way he can actually get akumatized villains outside of finding the rare people who actually willingly work for him.
- Fourth, he is limited to one instance of his power just like the other Miraculous holders, meaning he can only akumatize one person at a time, barring exceptional circumstances. While they are strong enough to require both Ladybug and Cat Noir working as a team, the longer they fight, the more Ladybug and Cat Noir's teamwork begins to overwhelm them. From the second season on, Ladybug also has the option of using other Miraculous to level the playing field.
- Fifth, as revealed in "Startrain", he has a limited range when communicating and controlling his akumatized minions, which is roughly the size of Paris. Should they escape that range (in the case of Startrain, the Earth's orbit), they are free to act without Hawk Moth looking over their shoulder, Hawk Moth powerless to do anything.
Loophole Abuse:
- Nooroo's power can't be used on the owner of the Miraculous, so when Gabriel has to get around people discovering his identity, he temporarily gives up being the holder of Nooroo to allow himself to be akumatized by an akuma he had previously created. By season 4, he's able to akumatize himself without giving up Nooroo, but he can't be akumatized and using his Miraculous transformation at the same time.
- Catalyst is an even better example. Normally the Butterfly Miraculous can only akumatize one person at a time. Through giving Nathalie the power to increase his own, he is able to break his one akuma limit and amass an army of villains.
- The normal rule is "one person, one akuma", but he can circumvent this in specific cases. The Punisher Trio and the Gang of Secrets consist of multiple former villains, reakumatized as a group with a single akuma because they shared a single source of emotional pain and an object of significance to all of them. Similarly, Sapotis and Oblivio are two individuals joined by a single akuma, the former creating identical, endlessly replicating copies while the latter are fused into a single being.
- He can create Akumas that can acquire minions, such as Belfana and Malediktator.
Love Makes You Evil: All of his supervillainy is to attempt to revive his comatose wife using Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses.
Loving Parent, Cruel Parent: Downplayed. Adrien's father Gabriel Agreste is incredibly strict and controlling while also neglecting his son, and at times his actions cross into emotional abuse. While there are hints that Adrien's mother Emily was equally controlling (since her wedding ring is as much capable of controlling Adrien as Gabriel's), she was also a loving parent who always listened to Adrien and used to spend a lot of time with him.

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Macabre Moth Motif: He has this in the English and Korean version thanks to Dub Name Change. Hawk Moth has a dark color scheme and corrupts the Pretty Butterflies for his own selfish agenda.
Macross Missile Massacre: Has missiles hidden in his evil lair, which nearly gets him killed when Robostus turns on him.
Mad Libs Catch Phrase:
- As Hawk Moth, he usually says "[Eloquent description of character and their Moment of Weakness]. What perfect prey for my akuma."
- From "Ephemeral" and Season 5, whenever he sees something doesn't like from Adrien (like questioning his order or doing something that he doesn't approve of), Gabriel will rub his ring and say "Adrien, I am your father. [Mention about the order to Adrien]". After that, Adrien will obey him without question. This is because Adrien is a sentimonster and the ring contains his amok.
Make a Wish: His goal upon obtaining Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses, merging the Kwamis to be granted a reality-altering wish that requires a sacrifice. He dies in order to have his wish granted.
Manipulative Bastard: While he doesn't show it very often outside of taking advantage of his victims' Moment of Weakness, his civilian identity will occasionally tweak a situation to make people vulnerable to his Akuma.
- In "The Collector", he Evilizes himself to throw off the heroes' suspicions.
- His treatment of Lila in season 3 definitely shows this side; Knowing how ruthless Lila is, he partners up with her as Gabriel allegedly to protect Adrien from bad influences, but in reality, he's merely enabling her so she'll make people vulnerable to his Akumas. Then he callously fires her for failing to keep Adrien from falling in love with Marinette.
- His master plan in the season 3 finale has him taking advantage of Chloé's entitlement complex to turn her against Ladybug.
Man of Wealth and Taste: Played with. As Gabriel, he is always impeccably and simply dressed with the standard vest, shirt, pants, as befitting to a no non-sense fashion designer. However, his various villainous outfits go from the simple yet a bit hammed up, to downright kitsch like the first Monarch costume. He even owns a Classy Cane.
Meaningful Name:
- In French, a species of butterfly known as the grayling is called "agreste".
- He is Hawk Moth, who is butterfly/moth-themed yet prefers minimalist/neutral colors.
- The first villainous alias by which he goes in the French dub, Papillon, means "butterfly".
- "Moth" translates as "papillon de nuit" ("night butterfly") in French language. This association with darkness ties in with his 2nd alias in the French dub as "Papillombre", a pormanteau of "Papillon" and "Ombre" ("shadow").
- As Monarch, he is named after the Monarch butterfly.
- Logically Averted with the "Hawk" part of his name, since this element is only in the English dub and totally absent in the original.
- Zig-Zagged with his first name. In The Bible, Gabriel is one of God's messenger angels, who is most famously known for delivering the news to Mary that she was to be the mother of Jesus Christ. This corresponds nicely with what he should be as the bearer of the Moth Brooch, which is used to make ordinary people into extraordinary heroes. But as Hawk Moth, he inverts his name's meaning by using Nooroo to create villains instead of heroes.
- As with most names ending in -el, "Gabriel" is a theophoric name (names specifically invoking and displaying the protection of a deity). The name "Gabriel" derives from Hebrew "Gavri'el", literally meaning "God is my strength". He's invoking the protection and strength of a Miraculous, specifically.
- 'Grassette' is 'Butterwort' in English, a carnivorous plant akin to the Venus fly trap. Perfectly fitting for an insect villain with an insect adversary.
Minored in Ass-Kicking: Despite the fact he usually sends minions to fight on his behalf, he's a capable combatant with a Sword Cane, able to fight both Cat Noir and Ladybug to a standstill.
Mission Control: He can see through his minions' eyes, and acts as their strategist and advisor from his lair. Depending on the minion in question, this is either a dangerously useful dynamic or a frustrating impediment.
Mook Maker: The essential nature of his Akumatize ability and greatest strength. More so because every person that becomes a minion of his has the potential to become a One-Man Army and Person of Mass Destruction with a Superpower Lottery in their own right, each under his control to an extent.
Morality Pet: He only cares for three people; Adrien, his wife, and Nathalie. Everyone else is either collateral or a tool for his Monster of the Week.
More than Mind Control:
- Hawk Moth's akuma can't forcibly akumatize people. There must be a minimum level of negative emotions and consent, though the former makes the latter easier to achieve. Once the target is hooked, he amplifies their negative emotions through talking and playing on their desires, be it revenge, anger, sadness, etc. Their goal doesn't even have to be selfish as shown in some episodes. For the Akumatization to go along, though, the victim has to willingly accept the power(s) proposed to them. If they don't, the process fails. As seen in the Miraculous World: Paris special, this is actually a requisite for the use of the Butterfly Miraculous, given his Good Counterpart Betterfly/Hespéria also has to ask if the recipient of his magic butterfly will accept the power offered. Betterfly has an easier time, however, as he doesn't need negative emotions to empower someone and only has to convince them that he wants to help.
- Averted with the second Akumatization of Markov, which is done through pirating the little robot and infecting him with a virus to prevent him from turning against Shadow Moth.
Motive Decay: Deconstructed. Gabriel lost to Ladybug so many times by the fifth season that the vendetta he developed towards her overshadows his initial goal of reviving Émilie. The result is that he loses Nathalie's loyalty when that vendetta caused him to brush away his only chance of changing past events to prevent Émilie's coma from ever occurring.
The Mourning After: Zig-Zagged. The loss of Emily is so devastating, and too fresh (it happened at most a year before "Origins"), for him to consider another life partner. He gets strongly angry at Adrien when the latter assumes he and Nathalie have become an item and Gabriel has set up a chat with him to make an annoucement to his son. However, the situation is complicated by the fact that Emily is not technically dead but only in a static coma, which was actually what Gabriel wanted to tell to Adrien. This makes it even more difficult for him to move on, since Emily is technically not gone forever.
Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: His akumas can empower anyone, even those wielding other Miraculous, but cannot be used to empower the Butterfly Miraculous itself. Gabriel can akumatize himself, but not when he's transformed.
My Beloved Smother: Gender Inverted and deconstructed. Gabriel is incredibly protective over Adrien, but it goes into Knight Templar Parent territory — Before allowing his son to attend public school, Gabriel kept Adrien homeschooled all of his life. Gabriel plans out every single detail of his son's life; Makes unfair decisions in regards to his son, the main example being unwilling to allow Adrien a birthday party or deciding that he and Nino couldn't be friends anymore. All of these over-the-top, even emotionally abusive actions, are done in the hope of keeping his son away from some unspecified danger. It is a combination of this suffocating-like over-protectiveness as well as Gabriel's emotional abuse, neglect, and busy work schedule, that strains his relationship with his only child.
Mysterious Parent: The fact that Gabriel is aware of what the Miraculouses are, secretly kept a book about them, and has the Peacock Miraculous implies that he is more connected to the supernatural happenings in Paris than he lets on. Adrien offhandedly mentions that even as Gabriel's own son, he doesn't know anything about him either. Once it turns out he's Hawk Moth, his connection to the akuma problems becomes pretty obvious — he's actively causing them. But this in turn raises new questions, as it also appears that he was aware of the Miraculous and had the book and the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses well before he actively started using them as Hawk Moth and it's even implied they had something to do with Émilie's current condition.
Mysterious Past: As of Season 5, the most we know about Gabriel's past before Émilie is that he was a rebellious teen who worked a friterie and made costumes for his friend, Harry Clown.
Mysterious Stranger: His non-transformed identity is a complete mystery to our heroes. The Season 2 premiere reveals that he's Gabriel Agreste, only a handful of people either know by that point or find out later as the series goes on.
Named After Somebody Famous: Named after Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, notable French fashion designer. (His full name also closely resembles that of Basque author Gabriel Aresti, but considering the absence of other parallels between them, it may be a coincidence.)
Near-Villain Victory: In several episodes he has very nearly managed to akumatize Marinette, which would pretty much be an Instant-Win Condition for him since she would happily hand the only Miraculous capable of purifying akumas over to him.
Necromantic: He wants to use the wish granted by combining the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous to revive his comatose wife.
Never My Fault: Especially by season 5, in which Gabriel has become so far-gone and so desperately obsessed with one-upping Ladybug that he refuses to blame himself for his inability to defeat her. This selfish lack of awareness and putting the obsession above preventing his wife's coma destroys Nathalie's respect for him.
Never Recycle Your Schemes:
- Averted. He tries the Scarlet Moth plan again in "Ladybug" and almost succeeded in akumatizing Marinette, if it weren't for Nathalie's abrupt health issues.
- More broadly speaking, he's willing to recreate past villains who have lost prior battles with the heroes, sometimes without even changing their powers. Mr. Pigeon has been used at least 72 times, and only once was shown being given any sort of power change.
Next Tier Power-Up:
- After Nathalie stole Fu's tablet with deciphered spellbook pages, Gabriel gained knowledge about fusion spells, recipes for the potions which grant more powers to the holders, the process to repair Miraculouses, and the incantation needed for the wish-granting power of Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses. However, just like Marinette, since Master Fu was only able to partially decode the Miraculous spellbook, it is likely Gabriel's understanding is limited as well.
- As of Season 4, he can unify the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous and transform into Shadow Moth.
- Starting from the Season 4 finale, he has access to virtually all the Miraculous, dubbing himself "Monarch" and utilizing all the powers himself. After a couple disastrous outings, he instead develops a method to transmit their powers to his akuma without having to give up the actual Miraculous, allowing him to give his akuma additional Miraculous powers on top of their usual Personality Powers.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!:
- His issues with Marinette in the second half of the fifth season stem from "Derision" when he attempted to akumatize her during an anxiety attack, her method to preventing it causes her to reach a psychological breakthrough that allows her to overcome her demons and have the courage to finally date Adrien.
- The events that led to his Heel Realization and demise started when he became Nightormentor and used his power on Adrien, who later sends Plagg to Paris where he loans the Cat Miraculous to Marinette to fight Monarch as Bug Noir. His act of firing Lila months prior led to her secretly acting against him and acquiring the Butterfly Miraculous after his death.
The Nicknamer: He gives the villain names to the citizens that are akumatized, and refers to them solely by these titles from the moment his akumas possess them.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: His global stern and uptight persona, tall and slim figure added with his job as a succesful fashion designer point out towards Karl Lagerfeld, of Chanel's fame. The similarities even get accentuated as time passes on in the show, Gabriel's hair turning snow white like old Lagerfeld's was. He only lacks the Sunglasses at Night. See also Named After Somebody Famous above.
Non-Action Big Bad:
- Hawk Moth's power is to give powers to others, whom he then controls, rather than gaining any powers of his own. As such, he waits in his dark room, sending out akuma to transform others so they'll do his work for him. "Robostus" shows he can defend himself with a Sword Cane in a pinch, but his performance suggests he lacks the stamina for a protracted battle.
- Averted hard in "Mayura" — despite losing both his cane and his Catalyst buffs, he manages to take down both Ladybug and Cat Noir with just his fists. Only a Big Damn Heroes moment from Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Queen Bee stopped him from achieving total victory.
- Played with at the beginning of season 5. After gaining almost all the Miraculous except for the ones from the main duo, he dubs himself Monarch and decides to use his new powers against the heroes directly. While initially unstoppable, stacking so many Miraculous weakens and almost kills him, leading to him losing the Rabbit and almost getting himself captured and losing all of them. After that near disaster, he goes back to fighting remotely with Akuma and uses the other Miraculous to augment the powers of his villains.
No Ontological Inertia: Averted. Gabriel's akuma continue to function when he's not transformed, and even when he deliberately renounces Nooroo's power and seals him in the moth brooch, they persist. The only way to stop them is to purify the akuma.
No Self-Buffs: In theory, but he's found some clever loopholes.
- He can empower others, but Nooroo's power doesn't work on whoever holds the Miraculous. When he needs to akumatize himself to throw off suspicion, he temporarily renounces his power so he'll be vulnerable to an akuma he created beforehand, fooling even Master Fu, who was aware of the immunity, but not the loophole. By "Dearest Family", his powers have evolved to the point he can akumatize himself without needing to renounce Nooroo. The only catch is that he can't be both transformed and akumatized.
- He can't buff himself in his villain persona, but he can give someone else the power to buff him. He creates Catalyst and gives her the power to amplify Miraculous powers, which she then uses on him to remove his limitation of only one akuma at a time, allowing him to amass an army of nearly every previously created supervillain.
No-Sell: He is decidedly unimpressed when Chloé introduces herself as the Mayor's daughter in "Mr. Pigeon", being both wealthy and famous enough that the clout of being the Mayor's daughter, even of such a famous city, is peanuts to him. (Since Chloé was Adrien's only friend for most of his life, it is somewhat surprising that Gabriel has to be introduced to her in the first place.)
Not So Above It All:
- Gabriel Agreste is a stern, no-nonsense man, but as Hawk Moth he's quite the Large Ham.
- He's already a Large Ham, but it's to the point that when La Befana asks him what the magic word is when he orders her to get the Miraculouses, he has a Beat before sheepishly saying "Please?"
- He can be seen singing "Merry Christmas To All" with everyone at the end of "Ladybug In Christmas".
- In Season 5, after learning the secret identities of Ladybug and Cat Noir’s replacements, he starts dancing to swing music in a sequence that’s just a few visuals short of a Villain Song.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He claims to care about his family and seek the Miraculouses to make a better life for them, but he has way too much fun with his evil actions and manipulations for this to be entirely true. Plus, it's highly doubtful that his wife would want to be awoken from her coma at the cost he's willing to pay.
Older Than They Look: Downplayed. Overuse of the Snake Miraculous in season 5 ends up making him age faster than the rest of world, since time rewinds for everyone but him. Combined with his slowly-spreading Cataclysm injury, attempts to use it to aid his villains end up worsening his injury significantly. It's not precisely clear how long he spends resetting, but it's implied to be on the order of months at least. It's not physically visible apart from the injury, though, presumably because he doesn't spend so long resetting as to physically age in a meaningful way.
Old Shame: One of his first work was to design Harry Clown's first scene costume (a French fry superhero!). It is something he'd prefer forget and indeed he only has scorn towards the comedian (though not showing it to his face). Harry begs to differ and years later asks him for assistance in producing a superhero film... in exchange for burning the evidence.
Omnicidal Maniac: Played with. Season 4 reveals the true cost of the wish he wants to make — the complete destruction of reality as we know it. That said, it also recreates the universe with the desired change.
Only One Plausible Suspect: The identity of Hawk Moth is supposed to be a mystery to the audience during the first season. The problem is that Gabriel Agreste is the only significant adult man with a similar frame in the show. They also have the same voice actor in most dubs, including in French and English. And that's before the show drops other "clues".
OOC Is Serious Business:
- Timetagger has him so shaken upon learning the future Hawk Moth is not him that he doesn't bother with his usual hammy We Will Meet Again speech after the Akuma's defeat, he just queitly detransforms and walks away. He has to be consoled by Nathalie after lamenting this means he will not succeed.
- In "Reunion", having hoped to retrieve the Rabbit Miraculous and redeem himself to Nathalie, he detransforms after being defeated instead of issuing a hammy revenge speech and makes his way to Nathalie's room so he can apologize to her.
- In "Deflagration", upon learning Scarabella and Kitty Noire's identities, Gabriel leaves his lair and suddenly starts a victory dance.
Opportunistic Bastard: Hawk Moth does not have any obvious day to day Evil Plan. While his overall goal is to acquire Ladybug and Cat Noir’s Miraculouses, even he doesn’t know how he will go about it each day. He Akumatizes whatever civilian he chances upon and from there mostly lets them decide how they will go about things and working it in his favor. The first time he orchestrated an elaborate Evil Plan is the "Heroes' Day" two-part special.
Orcus on His Throne: Spends most of the series standing in the dark room he is in, and sends his butterflies when he detects a suitable victim. Justified, as his primary super power is the ability to bestow powers onto others. He finally steps out of his lair in the Heroes' Day two-parter special, which nearly gets him caught. In season 5, Gabriel briefly tries getting off the throne when he has the power of all but three Miraculous, and it again leads to him being nearly defeated (twice!) amd critically injured, convincing him that attacking from a distance is a far safer strategy than a high-risk, high-reward personal action.
Parental Hypocrisy: In "Gorizilla", he gives Adrien a short speech about the need to be honest with each other. This apparently does not extend to telling his son that he's actually the supervillain who's been terrorizing Paris for presumably a year at the very least. Not to mention what really happened to Émilie. He does attempt to tell Adrien he's Hawk Moth in "Félix", but storms off without finishing after Adrien accidentally hits one of his Berserk Buttons.
Parental Neglect: While Gabriel's success ensures that Adrien is provided for financially, Gabriel himself is never around at home and only seems to contact his son through an iPad. Although judging from what Adrien means by Gabriel 'not being the same' since his mother disappeared, this might not have always been the case.
Parental Obliviousness: Justified. Like Tom and Sabine, Gabriel is unaware of his son being a superhero, unlike them, it's to be expected given how rarely he spends time with Adrien.
Parents as People: Gabriel does try to be a better parent to Adrien, but between his obsessive desire to bring back Émilie, his vendetta against Ladybug for thwarting him multiple times and having to manage his business relationships, he seldom has time for his son, even if he does arrange everything for him.
Perpetual Frowner: Gabriel is pretty much going to be frowning (and usually if anything, events may cause him to frown more). This contrasts with his Hawk Moth appearance, which is usually wearing a smug smile.
Personality Powers: As the series progresses, we see Gabriel as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who exhibits a distant personality with an authoritarian grip on every aspect of his life (from business to domestic life) who tends to take the good and wholesome things in his life — like his wife and son — and turn them into an obsession that he is perfectly willing to decimate all of Paris for — casualties be damned — if it means clinging to it. As Hawk Moth, he is able to empower, corrupt and manipulate anyone from the safety of his home, turning a tool that was meant to be used for good (the Butterfly Miraculous) into a weapon to fulfill his own selfish goals.
Pet the Dog:
- Sure, he corrupts little Manon into Puppeteer without hesitation; but during her villain run, he's nothing but polite to her the whole time. Of course, it's not too surprising that he knows the pragmatism in being gentle to make a child behave, considering his secret identity is a parent.
- Furthermore, in "Kung Food", before he sends his akuma after Wang Cheng, he remarks that a great artist was wronged, implying he is aware of and respects his abilities as a chef.
- In "The Pharaoh" he says that there is nothing wrong with wanting to live out a fantasy, which indicates he sympathizes with Jalil's idea of bringing Nefertiti back to life. Since he is Gabriel Agreste and his own goal is to revive his near-dead wife, this makes sense.
- In "Gorizilla", he can't bring himself to gamble Adrien's life on the possibility that he is Cat Noir and orders Gorizilla to release Ladybug so she can rescue him.
- Despite it certainly due to being her own choices and actions (that he advised against), Gabriel cares for Nathalie enough that he regards her having been rendered ill from using the broken Peacock Miraculous as his mistake in "Risk (Shadow Moth's Final Attack - Part 1)".
Phrase Catcher: Both inverted and played straight. One of his Catch Phrases is some variation of "...and all I ask in return is that you bring me Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous!" In later seasons, his recurring akuma victims already know the terms of his deal and tend to cut him off right before he tells them his terms, telling him some variation of "I know, you want Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous!" before accepting.
Please Wake Up: As the series goes on, it becomes more and more implied that Émilie is actually dead, not just comatose, and that Gabriel is simply in denial and believes there's still a chance to wake her when there isn't. The season 5 finale confirms this when he sacrifices himself and joins her in death.
Poke in the Third Eye: The episode "Gang of Secrets" revealed that his psychic connection to his victims can hurt him just as much as he can hurt them. When Lady Wifi renounces her power after a Rousing Speech from Ladybug, the psychic backlash actually manages to bring Gabriel to his knees.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Gabriel in Season 5 demonstrates an incredibly classist view of the world, disdaining Adrien's schoolmates and Marinette in particular for being of lower class and opposing Adrien's burgeoning romance with her due to this.
Powerful and Helpless: While Hawk Moth's powers are dangerous and versatile, he is only able to bestow such powers onto others and thus has to rely on others to do the work for him. Half the time he cannot even get his minions to cooperate, either carrying out his orders incompetently (like with Bubbler), completely ignoring him (like Gigantitan) or outright attacking him before he can incapacitate them (like with Robostus). It does not help that his corrupting influence makes them easily distracted and irrational. While he is capable of defending himself against things like his corrupted defense system or even Ladybug and Cat Noir when he absolutely has to, he typically prefers to hang back and let his akumas do the dirty work.
Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Before taking on Ladybug and Cat Noir bare-handed in "Mayura".
All right, kids. Watch what a man who's got nothing to lose can do!
Psychotic Smirk: He gives these often as Hawk Moth, which is a huge contrast to how calm he is as Gabriel Agreste. His transformation sequence also ends with him giving a wink and subtle smirk.
Pungeon Master: Occasionally indulges in puns, such as saying that he'll "draw [Nathaniel, an artist] into my evil plot". Which would certainly explain where Adrien got it from.
Purple Is Powerful: All his transformed suits have prominent purple coloration, and while the powers the butterfly Miraculous don't lend themselves well to direct combat, he frequently proves cunning and formiddable enough that his position as Big Bad is never in question.
Purple Is the New Black: His suit is predominantly purple with black highlights, and his akuma are imbued with (evil) purple energy. In season 5, his Monarch suit is nothing but shades of purple, with glimpses of silver.
Pyrrhic Victory: In the "Cat Blanc" alternate future, he succeeds in akumatizing Cat Noir, but the ensuing Angst Nuke destroys all of Paris, including himself.
Rags to Riches: It's insinuated his career came like this by Audrey Bourgeois, who claims Gabriel was a nobody before she discovered him. Of course, given Audrey's inflated sense of self, she may be giving herself more credit than she deserves. "Revelation" reveals that, prior to becoming famous, Gabriel's real name was Gabi Grassette, and he used to own and work in a small food stand called Friterie Grassette, so Audrey's belief that she had a hand in his success likely isn't unfounded.
Reality Warper: It is his goal to become one with the help of the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous. In "Ephemeral", he succeeds and starts the process of making his wish until Sass goes back in time.
Reasonable Authority Figure: During the episode "Mr. Pigeon", he acts as the judge for a derby designing contest. When confronted by two identical derbies (the original by Marinette and a copy made by Chloé) he calmly allows Marinette to present proof that her design is the original. He proclaims her the winner, praising her for her hard work and assuring her that Adrien will wear her derby during his next photo shoot.
Redemption Rejection: While he finds some measure of redemption through his wish-induced death in "Re-creation", this follows Marinette offering to help him find redemption in life. Gabriel responds by attacking her, forcibly taking the Miraculous and making his wish, purely on his terms.
Red Right Hand: In "Destruction", Cat Noir's Cataclysm hits Monarch's left arm while still in his suit. Since he escapes with Ladybug's Lucky Charm before she can enact her World-Healing Wave, she is unable to do undo it. This results in a permanent, hand-shaped bruise on his arm that he covers with his sleeve, which slowly climbs up his arm as time passes.
The Reveal: "The Collector" reveals that Gabriel Agreste is and always has been Hawk Moth...as obvious as it probably was to viewers.
Revenge Myopia: In the beginning, he starts his campaign of terror on Paris in order to bring the holders of the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous out of hiding, with many of his schemes either involving city-wide property damage, mind-controlling the citizenry, altering reality and nearly starting Nuclear War, all the while vowing revenge on the heroes for refusing to give into his demands and reversing the damage he causes. By Season 5, his obsession with the heroes had overshadowed his real mission (reviving Émilie from her coma).
Ring of Power:
- In season 5, he reforges the stolen Miraculouses into rings, with the exception of his own. In this state, he can use their powers without needing to transform or unify with them, simply absorbing the kwami into the ring and invoking their power. This allows him to use their powers even in his civilian guise, though he doesn't gain the benefits of a full transformation unless he transforms into Monarch. It also allows him to transmit their powers to his akuma through the Alliance Rings he designed.
- His wedding ring and Émilie's also count due to being Adrien's Amok, allowing him to influence his son.

S-Y

"The Reason You Suck" Speech: He is given several in Season 5
- In "Evolution", Nathalie chews him out for choosing his obsession with Ladybug and Cat Noir over saving her and Emilie, resulting in him losing the Time Miraculous and Nathalie refusing to help him any longer.
- In "Intuition", Nathalie calls him out for being reckless with the Snake Miraculous.
- In "Pretension", after giving one to Marinette about her relationship with Adrien (thinking she's not good enough to be with him) and her designs (calling them doll clothes) and trying to bribe/threaten her into breaking up with him, she gives one right back to him about his outdated beliefs.
- In "Representation", Adrien as Cat Noir calls him out for being a overly controlling father to his son instead of guiding him and allowing him to be free.
- In "Re-creation", Marinette as Bug Noire denounces him for using Émilie and especially Adrien as excuses to justify his horrible actions.
Sadist: To some degree, it's very clear in his tone of voice during episodes while monitoring the activity of the people he akumatizes and him taking obvious pleasure in watching his minions cause chaos around Paris that he actually seems to enjoy the destruction caused by the people he corrupts. He also doesn't seem to care about anyone affected by this and only about the end result.
Satanic Archetype: He corrupts people with his akumas in a way very similar to Demonic Possession. He tempts those he corrupts and grants them power based on emotions and desires so they can get him the Miraculous.
Second Episode Introduction: Gabriel's civilian personal is introduced in the second episode of the first season, "The Bubbler".
Secret-Keeper: As of "Miracle Queen", Hawk Moth is aware of the identities of all of the temporary heroes introduced up to Season 3 other than Bunnyx.
Secretly Dying: After getting hit by Cat Noir's Cataclysm, Gabriel is slowly dying as it spreads further into his body. If he revealed the wound, Ladybug and Cat Noir would instantly know he is Monarch, so Gabriel does everything to hide it, even making himself a new suit to conceal his wound better.
Self-Made Man: In "Style Queen" and "Revelation", it's revealed that he started out working in a "cramped studio" before Audrey Bourgeois made him a household name. Though it's possible that part of his family's fortune originated from his wife, by now he owns his own successful fashion empire under his name.
Shadow Archetype:
- He is essentially Marinette if she had gotten her dream of being a great and famous fashion designer, but had become fully consumed by her Control Freak tendencies and obsession for her blonde love interest in the process.
- His alternate universe counterpart in Miraculous Ladybug: Paris, Betterfly, is this to him. Betterfly is essentially what Gabriel could have been if he accepted Émilie's passing and used the Butterfly Miraculous to help others in his wife's memory rather than exploit them so he can revive her.
Shallow Cannot Comprehend True Love: He and Tomoe Tsurugi have secretly set their kids up in an Arranged Marriage, without the knowledge of their kids. However, Adrien throws a monkey wrench into their plan when he starts dating Marinette, the local baker’s daughter. Since Adrien is a rich and famous male model, Gabriel assumes that Marinette is only interested in him for his money, fame, and good looks. He also believes that Adrien is only dating Marinette because her "mediocrity" allows him to shine with less effort. He’s wrong. They just love each other for who they are.
Shipping Torpedo: Whenever Adrien hooks up with Marinette, threatening the latter. While he did so in "Cat Blanc" in Bad Future scenario to make her vulnerable to Akumatization, the fifth season has Gabriel deem Marinette a hinderance that would not take a hint that he wants her out of his son's life.
Sigil Spam: His butterfly symbol courtesy of the akumas and the glowing masks that appear on the faces of his super villains. It almost proves to be his undoing, but some diabolical skulduggery on his part causes the heroes to wave off the fact that his motif is very similar to the logo of one of the biggest fashion designer brands in Paris.
Significant Wardrobe Shift:
- In season 5, to hide injuries sustained after being hit by Cataclysm, he switches to an all-white outfit that includes gloves and a much higher neckline.
- Likewise, after a short stint wielding all the Miraculous himself as Monarch, he switches back to wielding the Butterfly Miraculous alone, but retains the primary design elements of his first Monarch outfit in a simplified form.
Single-Target Sexuality: Is greatly offended by the mere suggestion that he could ever love anyone other than Émilie.
Slasher Smile: During his transformation sequence, he sports an impressive one as soon as his mask is on.
Smug Snake: He's very confident in himself but repeatedly fails in his attempts to steal the heroes' artifacts, never bothers to change strategy and always ends up crying in frustration and his moments of cleverness are few and far between.
Social Climber: "Revelation" and later "Collusion" reveal he is this, falling into the "snob" type. Gabriel actually comes from a modest social background. He began his adult life working in a French fries shop of his ("Friterie Grassette"). As a young adult, his style of clothes and hairdo was more or less that of a punk, with the associated iconic hair crest. He knew André Bourgeois and Harry Clown well before their own successes and made Harry Clown's first French fry costume. His real name isn't even "Gabriel Agreste" but "Gabi Grassette". He had it changed to make himself sound more important, as well as more in line with Émilie's own name, since she came from a higher social status than himself. His surname, "Agreste" is a slightly altered anagram of "Grassette" (it lacks the repeated letters of the original name). This wasn't an artistic choice, since Gabriel has taken extra caution to keep his real name a complete secret. Unlike Harry Clown, who hasn't changed one iota since that time, or André who has come to deeply regret his abandoned dreams, Gabriel only has contempt for these years (as shown in "Psycomedian") and anything that could remind him of them. For example, he dismisses the obvious similarity between his love story with Émilie Graham de Vanilly and the one his son has with Marinette Dupain-Cheng. However, several characters know of this past, including his inner circle, and others (namely, Audrey Bourgeois and Tomoe Tsurugi) make cryptic comments about Gabriel "owing [them] everything".
Spell My Name with a "The": Only in the French version, where he's called "le Papillon" or "the Butterfly".
Start of Darkness: He learns Émilie is dying as consequence of her using the Peacock Miraculous and refuses to accept her impending death, causing him to shut down emotionally.
The Starscream: While a member of the Kingdom, Gabriel was acting on his own agenda to claim the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses, rather than the organization's. Tomoe was reluctant to accept his alliance with her for this very reason.
Sugar-and-Ice Personality: While Gabriel is a stoic and aloof man, he does beam with pride when he talks about Adrien to Ladybug. He can also be fairly reasonable.
Super-Empowering: His Miraculous grants the power to empower others. He infuses a butterfly with his power, creating an akuma which then infects someone experiencing strong negative emotion. The victim is granted Personality Powers, centered on an object involved in the incident. Though Hawk Moth uses this power for evil, its original intent is to create heroic champions. It's shown in the Miraculous World: Paris special that his Good Counterpart, Betterfly, has nearly-identical powers but far more freedom in how he applies them, since he's not limited by negative emotions. It's unclear if it's because Hawk Moth uses the Butterfly Miraculous for evil, thus triggering some inherent logical limitation, or simply because Hawk Moth is unable to think outside the sandbox. If nothing else, it does come with having to deal with his minions being insane.
Surrounded by Idiots: His minions often get distracted by their own interests, forget about getting the Miraculous and at worst even ignore his warnings when Ladybug is conning them.
Survivor's Guilt: Whatever it was that motivated Émilie to die using a broken Miraculous, Gabriel survived. He's thought of nothing else since.
Sword Cane: In "Robostus", his cane is revealed to hide a blade, which he uses to defend himself when Robostus turns on him.
Tantrum Throwing: Wrecks his own study in apparent rage over Adrien misplacing his antique book during the Season 2 premiere, so his Akumatization would look convincing.
Tareme Eyes: Inverted. His eyes as Gabriel are dropping, but in contrast with his son, it's more akin to Dull Eyes of Unhappiness. As Hawk Moth, he has pointy Tsurime Eyes that makes him more intimidating.
Telepathy: How he communicates with his victims.
Terrorists Without a Cause: His actual motive for trying to steal the Miraculous isn't explained for some time. It's eventually indicated he wants to use their combined power to rewrite reality, allowing him to heal his wife or prevent whatever happened to her in the first place.
This Cannot Be!: It never occurred to him that an Akumatized victim would be able to break free of his power if given the proper motivation. He also expresses total incredulity when Ladybug's Magical Charms prevent him from akumatizing Chloé in "Queen Banana" and when Mr. Damocles' Magical Charm purifies his Megakuma. He's also shocked to see Ladybug and Cat Noir get their adult powers in "Revolution".
Token Adult: From Season 4 onwards, he's the only adult to be a Miraculous Holder after Nathalie stops using the Peacock Miraculous.
Tragic Keepsake: Has a picture of Adrien's mother in a locket.
Tragic Villain: Downplayed - he legitimately just misses his departed wife. Unfortunately, for everyone else, he's willing to do whatever it takes for him to get the Miraculouses of the Ladybug and Cat to revive her, and him using it for that purpose would cause some other individual's death anyway, rather than moving on and perhaps caring for his son like a father should... but he definitely could stand to be a lot less extravagant in his supervillainy.
Transformation Trinket: His brooch is the Butterfly Miraculous.
Trapped in Villainy: By Season 5 he's finally starting to have at least a few second thoughts about his crusade. Unfortunately, while he could have backed out prior to Season 2's finale with only Émile (who was already for all intents and purposes dead) as his loss, by early Season 5, Nathalie is also now slowly dying due to the Peacock's use and Gabriel himself is slowly dying from his Cataclysm wound. Meaning he now HAS to keep going and win, or else he, Nathalie, and Émilie will die and Adrien will be left with no one. On the other hand, given how personally he's taking the fight against Ladybug at that point, he doesn't seem to mind that much.
Trophy Child: Adrien. In "Re-creation", Marinette/Bug Noire bluntly tells him that Adrien is nothing more than this to him; not even caring about his son as a person anymore and now just uses him as an excuse to justify his madness.
Undying Loyalty: Surprising both himself and the audience, he throws away a decent chance at victory to save Nathalie, as he feels for both her and Émilie.
Unreliable Narrator: In Season 5's "Illusion", during his seemingly newfound good parenting leaf, Gabriel offhandedly laments that he and Adrien were a lot closer before Émilie disappeared. However, in Season 6's "Werepapas", we seen in flashbacks to Adrien's childhood that this was far from the case, so Gabriel may have been projecting a brief period of happiness over the whole of that time to manipulate Adrien.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Subverted with Nino and Simon's akumatizations; they are initially presented as his aloof personality accidentally setting them off, but the revelation that he's actually Hawk Moth indicates that he was probably intentionally trying to cause that.
- Played straight in "Cat Blanc". Akumatizing Cat Noir results in the annihilation of Paris and all of its inhabitants, Hawk Moth included, by his supervillain alter-ego.
Villain Ball: Gabriel barely ever takes steps to make sure that the people working under him are focused on taking the Miraculous. He made subversions in "The Collector", Akumatizing himself in a planned-out scheme to free himself from suspicion and then "Gabriel Argeste" by deeping his villian form's voice in a failed attempt to fool Félix. But it was played straight in that Lila Rossi learned his secret and that Félix collaborated with Kagami to covertly expose his uncle's identity to Marinette.
Villain Forgot to Level Grind:
- A Justified example in the first three seasons. Even as the heroes gain both potions to use different forms depending on the situation, and the ability to use Unification with other Miraculous, Hawk Moth still sticks to his usual "Akumatize someone, control them from a distance, hope for the best" strategy. This is because the nature of his powers and limited resources mean he can't use the same methods as they do to enhance their powers, as those benefits don't extend to his minions and he only has one other Miraculous to fuse with, the Peacock Miraculous, which is too dangerous to use in its damaged state.
- He begins averting this by Season 4, fixing the Peacock Miraculous and using it to unify with the Butterfly Miraculous and become Shadow Moth, who can both akumatize people and send out Sentimonsters at the same time.
- Firmly averted in Season 5, where he now has every Miraculous except the Ladybug, Black Cat, and Peacock. He also had them melted down and reforged into rings that let him not only have up to five powers himself without suffering Phlebotinum Overdose, but also transfer their powers to his akumatized minions through their Alliance rings, making them much more of a threat. He can't create sentimonsters anymore, but that hardly matters compared to what he's gained in return.
Villain in a White Suit: Gabriel has always worn a certain amount of white in his civilian self. Colours tend to disappear gradually of his pattern until after the first three or four episodes of Season 5, after which he opts for a completely white suit from head to toe, with white shoes and assorted white gloves. It's both to hide the progression of Cat Noir's curse, and to hint that he has become totally malevolent.
Villain No Longer Idle: There are a few occasions where he'll personally act instead of merely trusting a minion.
- In the "Heroes Day" two-parter, he steps out of his lair for the first time after granting himself the power (through Catalyst) to create as many akumas as he wants. Even after losing his powerup, he still battles Ladybug and Cat Noir head-on, nearly winning before Ladybug's allies join the fight. He has to be bailed out with a timely assist from Mayura.
- In the season 3 finale, he and Mayura covertly track Ladybug to Master Fu and then ambush him, briefly gaining control of the Miracle Box and all the Miraculous therein. This ends up being foiled when Chloé, who he gives the box to, ultimately loses it.
- After gaining control of all but three of the Miraculous in Season 5, he uses all of them by himself. After two failed plans that nearly get him captured, he reverts back to his usual plans, but with the added ability to transmit Miraculous powers to his akumas. Even after this point, however, he is willing to engage in schemes directly if he feels he has an advantage. Most notably, when he discovers the identities of Scarabella and Kitty Noire in "Deflagration", he goes after them himself and comes very close to winning, only failing because he failed to anticipate Plagg destroying his own Miraculous to deny Monarch victory.
Villainous Breakdown: Gabriel had some over the course of the fifth season.
- The first one at the end of Evolution after he has lost the Rabbit Miraculous and wasted a one in a million chance of Émilie and Nathalie never falling ill. He completely panicks and calls Nathalie, hyperventilating and literally begging for some new ideas from her while denying any responsibility for his blunder. It Gets Worse after Nathalie throws a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech at him for his Motive Decay and deems him no more worthy of the help of anyone. All he can do is hold his head in his hands with a distorted face, finally screaming "LADYBUUUUUUG" at the top of his lungs with utter rage.
- Notably after being defeated by Bug Noir and forced to watch Émilie's video, causing him to break down in tears.
Villainous Legacy: After he is sent to the heavens by undoing his wish, his vow and actions do leave a mark on Marinette along with various characters in the show in the sixth season. Lila is planning to even use iwhat she found out as part of her plans against Ladybug.
Villain Override: Though he usually favors the carrot in getting those he transforms to do his bidding, he's threatened to remove their powers if they don't play along, and can cause them pain if they resist his demands.
Villain-Possessed Bystander: He can sense strong emotions and create "akumas", dark butterflies that seek out those consumed by negativity and transform them into supervillains with vast new powers and zero moral or emotional restraint. He promises his victims the chance to fulfil their desires, most often for revenge against whoever or whatever upset them, in return for retrieving the Miraculouses of Ladybug and Cat Noir. He is actually the holder of the Butterfly Miraculous, whose true purpose is to create heroes from ordinary people, but he twisted its power towards his evil ends.
Villain Song: Hawk Moth has his own theme song titled "Snapping My Fingers" that covers his motives. A clip-show style music video is posed on the the franchise' official YouTube channel. He even played the song in "Deflagration" to have something to dance to after learning the identities of Ladybug and Cat Noir's replacements.
- Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie has "Chaos Will Reign Today", which details his motives of accepting his role as a villain and unleash chaos on Paris if it means bringing back his beloved.
Villain Team-Up: In the fifth season, the details revealed in Season 6, a dying Gabriel forms an alliance with Tomoe by offering to restore her eyes with an Arranged Marriage between their children to win her over. But once their plan comes to fruitition with Ladybug cornered in the Agreste Estate, despite Tomoe advising him not take any risks, Gabriel bluntly tells her that he no longer needs her help.
Villain with Good Publicity: Downplayed. His activities as Hawk Moth are not revealed to the public after his death.
Wacky Parent, Serious Child: As revealed in Werepapas, his parents are laidback metal heads, whereas Gabriel paints himself as a serious businessman.
Walking Spoiler: It's nearly impossible to talk about Hawk Moth's motivations or Gabriel's characterization from Season 2 onwards without revealing they're one and the same.
Weak Boss, Strong Underlings: From an aesthetic point of view, the Big Bad Hawk Moth's character design looks very unthreatening compared to that of the colorful, wacky akumatized villains he creates. He wears a dark purple two-piece suit and a gray Luchador mask while his underlings range from giant robots to dark knights and everything in between. In terms of the logic of the plot, that Hawk Moth needs to create them in the first place drives the point home. The Butterfly Miraculous, which he uses, is a support type and not truly suited for direct combat. The only reason why he is able to overpower Ladybug and Cat Noir is that he is an adult and far more ruthless than them. Several of his own minions could take him in a fight; a few of them can even overwhelm the aforementioned heroes, prompting them to rely more on cunning and less on raw power.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Gabriel is utterly consumed by the grief of losing his wife and wishes to bring her back to make Adrien happy, so they can live as a family again. But his methods of achieving said goal are extremely destructive and heinous. This becomes subverted by "Evolution", where he has a golden opportunity to use the Rabbit Miraculous to prevent Émilie from falling into her coma without resorting to using Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous but willingly throws it away when Ladybug baits him, demonstrating that his power lust and revenge has eclipsed his original good intentions.
What You Are in the Dark: In "Evolution", Nathalie gives him an USB-flash-drive exposing the disastrous effects using the damaged Peacock Miraculous will have on Émilie. The Plan was to give it to his past self thanks to the Rabbit Miraculous, thus bypassing the need for the Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses. But just when he's about to leave the flash-drive, after some short internal conflict and hesitation, he willingly throws it away as Ladybug baits him in order for her to get back the Rabbit Miraculous, saying he will be back soon. Of course he never gets the opportunity to do so, has he loses the Rabbit Miraculous moments later. This demonstrates that his power lust, pride and thirst for revenge have eclipsed his original good intentions. Nathalie is NOT pleased with this and his lame attempt of putting the blame on Ladybug, harshly scolding him, recalling him that he could have saved not only Émilie, but also herself. This is the first crack into her Undying Loyalty towards him. Also a textbook example of Villain Ball as he could simply have done both.
When He Smiles: Gabriel always frowns as a civilian, and regularly sports a smug and sinister smile when he is Hawk Moth. However, he does show a genuine warm smile in the series, like on his previous family portrait, when he expresses concern over Nathalie and Adrien or when he appreciates someone like Marinette's talent on fashion designing.
When You Coming Home, Dad?: One of the biggest problems with his relationship with his son is that Gabriel is always busy with work (or supervillainy). This is on top of keeping Adrien locked into a busy schedule of modeling work and lessons. At the end of "Simon Says", Adrien passive-aggressively rips into his dad for his distance.
White Hair, Black Heart: By Season 5, where his character is at its absolute worst, his hair has gone from ash blonde to pure white.
Wicked Pretentious: Gabriel is a high-society fashion designer who lives in a mansion, but he's actually a destructive, hammy asshole who gives his akumatized minions gaudy outfits and nicknames.
Would Hurt a Child:
- A significant number of his akumatized victims are small children, and while the infant August's first akumatization was an accident, he goes along with it without the slightest hint of remorse.
- Hawk Moth akumatizes students of Collège Françoise Dupont, who are young teenagers by default, on a regular basis, if only, in the first seasons, for the sake of Pragmatic Villainy. The Agreste Big Fancy House is near of it after all, and thus his akumas can reach their target before they can cool down/recover from hurt. He never shows hesitation nor remorse. Once he has Kaalki's power, this is no more even justifiable this way.
- In "Mayura", he shows no objection to attacking Ladybug and Cat Noir personally, and his dialogue hints that he knows (or at least suspects) that they're young teenagers, which is later outright confirmed in "Timetagger".
- This even extends to his family. While he gives up each time he senses he's about to akumatize Adrien in the main timeline, in the Bad Future Alternate Continuity featured in Cat Blanc, he has no qualms doing it to Cat Noir immediately after he learns the latter is Adrien, viciously exploiting this knowledge to push his advantage. Later, in the main timeline, he even pulls up an explicit death threat (granted, not so evident at the time) towards Félix.
Xanatos Gambit: Akumatizing himself in "The Collector." The Collector gets Ladybug's and Cat Noir's Miraculouses? Obviously good. He fails? Because they're the same person, he still makes the good guys stop suspecting Gabriel as Hawk Moth.
Yandere: If becoming an Omnicidal Maniac Supervillain didn't give you a clue, perhaps the whole "talking to his halfway dead wife" hobby could clue you in.
Your Days Are Numbered: In Season 5, he makes Cat Noir hit him with Cataclysm to escape a trap set by Ladybug. Though being transformed protects him from immediate death, he takes Ladybug's Lucky Charm in his haste to escape, so she can't heal him. Starting from his wrist, the wound slowly creeps up his arm and will eventually kill him unless he can make a wish with the Ladybug and Cat Miraclouses to reverse the damage.

Miraculous Ladybug: Hawk Moth

8 Following

Gabriel Agreste / Gabi Grassette / Hawk Moth / Scarlet Moth / Shadow Moth / Shadow Noir / Monarch / Monarch Bug

Akumatized forms: The Collector, Nightormentor

Alternative Title(s): Hawk Moth

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Characters / Miraculous Ladybug: Hawk Moth 8 Following

Gabriel Agreste / Gabi Grassette / Hawk Moth / Scarlet Moth / Shadow Moth / Shadow Noir / Monarch / Monarch Bug

Akumatized forms: The Collector, Nightormentor

Alternative Title(s): Hawk Moth

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Miraculous Ladybug: Hawk Moth

8 Following