Episode 6 - Rubber Robber

Picking a song for this villain was easy, even if I’m not a big fan of the song: Jump by Van Halen. She bounces all over the place, so she might as well jump!

Chloé and Max

As I mentioned in the commentary to The Maelstrom: Part 2, this was a spur of the moment decision which gave me a whole sub-plot to work with. Originally this episode came right after Renégadaire, and before Chamela, but when I moved it so much later in the season I needed a reason for Chloé and Max to have put off talking to each other before now. It was actually quite easy – neither of them knows how to approach the other.

The idea of everyone mistaking that they’re in a relationship feels like typical sitcom material. In the original draft, it was even more cringe-worthy, with all the friends actually setting up a meal in the park instead. Chloé in Miraculous: Contingency has thought a lot about herself, she’s been trying to grow the whole time and Ladybug’s trust in her helped kick that into overdrive. I think this version of Chloé actually works well being friends with Max, and they will be becoming much better friends over the rest of the story.

Max

Max was once described as ace by the series creators, I went a little further and made him Aro-Ace. I alluded to it in The Maelstrom: Part 2 when he rescues Aurore, but he comes out completely in this episode. It wasn’t a great way to have to reveal an integral part of himself; in the first draft people were very openly supportive. I still think Max’s friends would be very supportive, but he was obviously deeply hurt that he’d had to come out this way. When the sequence of the season got rearranged that was why this effectively became a two-parter (I didn’t want it to be, but Season 2, Part 2 is basically three double episodes back-to-back)

Rubber Robber

This is one of the goofier Akumas I’ve come up with for Miraculous: Contingency but it’s also got a bit of a dark undertone. The idea of using someone who’s already a criminal to make an Akuma happened in the New York special episode of the show, but I hadn’t watched that at the time of writing. Although Thérèse is explicitly a non-violent criminal, there’s still a slightly different mentality to the Akuma drawn from her background.

Her subsequent trial isn’t explicitly shown in the narrative, but it’s alluded to. I wanted to have more of it show up in Miraculous: Contingency, but there wasn’t enough space. I did eventually include it in a short episode for Season 3, and I might come back to it at a later date.