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Well, this was one of the easiest picks in all of Miraculous: Contingency. The Phantom of the Opera by Nightwish. It’s a cover of an Andrew Lloyd Webber song, loathe as I am to give him any credit for anything, but Nightwish actually made the song tolerable.
The Phantom
The Phantom of the Opera is very well known. There have been film versions, a lamentable musical, affectionate parodies, and at least one heavy metal song that isn’t a cover of something from the musical. But the first thing about it that I’m aware of is the French novel by Gaston Leroux. I bought myself a copy before I did the second draft of this episode, because I was interested in seeing where it all came from. It’s actually a really good book, and much less pro-stalker than the stupid musical.
There’s a Discworld book called “Maskerade” which is a loving parody of both Phantom and all the accoutrements of opera in general. That was my first exposure to the story, and I included a brief reference to something which I’ve only ever seen in this parody – delicate flowers that glow in the darkness.
Fantôme
This is the Akuma I hated most while I was writing it. This is too close to real world monsters. So I decided to make it perfectly clear that no-one is on board with Reuben’s attitude. Ladybug, probably for the first time, shows no sympathy to Papillon’s victim, because she’s been fully informed. Even Gabriel and Nathalie had a low opinion of his intentions (but not low enough to stop him).
It made for a scary monster, especially when I modelled the lair on the sub-levels of the Palais Garnier.
In this story, we are just lucky that Danyll is a confident woman, who also happens to be strong enough to punch his lights out if needs be.
The Secret Is Out
This was always the moment where Ladybug finally finds out about Tangle and Korvid’s real identities. The way she learns was more or less the same between the first and second draft, but there was a lot more to go on in the second. Finding out Maria because Chloé slipped up works perfectly, and then Marinette accidentally catching Kagami out was a new addition.
In the first draft, Maria and Riggly manage to transform without Alya or Ondine noticing. In this one, I realised it made much more sense for Alya just to admit she knows. I don’t really go back to the fact that Ondine would be able to work it out, but we can assume that people had a conversation with her about it.
I suppose the big question about the Rogues has been ‘will Ladybug continue to allow them their freedom once she knows the truth’ and now we have the answer. If Marinette had found out earlier, definitely if she’d found out before The Revelation, I don’t think she would have been as lenient as she is here. Now, though, she’s got five allies already Perma-Kwamid, so adding these two to the official roster was an easy step.
The other secret being out is Alix and Aodh’s relationship, which is another bit of fun. As Alix said when this first came to light, she’s a bit aromantic, so the fact that she’s not massively public about their relationship makes sense.
Chloé
It’s the next step, having got comfortable with the picnic, now she’s been invited to a girls-and-enbies-night. Originally I had Marinette’s neuroses at the beginning be a lot more prominent. Here she’s able to get past it pretty quickly, with Kagami and Tikki’s help. There’s still a degree of nervousness between the two of them – both can remember when something like this would have been unthinkable (and also they had a dramatic reminder, just a month ago) so actually going through with it was difficult for both of them. Which is why the day started with a mall trip, to ease them both into it. We also get the payoff of Adrien’s prank from the last episode, when Chloé finally finds out about Marinette and Kagami.
Chloé’s situation in the shopping centre was interesting as well. In the first draft, Maria and Chloé hadn’t been together quite so long as they have in the corrected timeline, so the idea that this was the first time they’d had an awkward conversation about money was less of a stretch. Here, we just have to assume that somehow Maria has managed to divert the conversations until now. It’s always difficult to write my characters having arguments (which is why they tend to make up pretty quickly) but that fits with most of Miraculous.
Even so, thanks to Mylène’s intervention, things went pretty well during this. Chloé didn’t really understand what the problem was, but she recognised that there was one and adjusted her behaviour accordingly.
Marc
So, in the first draft I didn’t have Marc join the party. However I decided to when I was still writing the second draft somewhere in Season 2. The creators of the show have said that Marc is non-binary, although they haven’t risked openly stating it in the show. I wanted to have that be acknowledged, so I decided to have them come out around here and, this group of friends being who they are, they’re perfectly accepted and invited to an inaugural girls-and-enbies-night.
In the show, Marc hasn’t specified any pronouns which are correct, so when referring to that Marc, he/him is still correct. For Marc in Miraculous: Contingency they/them is correct. It shouldn’t really be a surprise that I’m supportive of non-binary people, Riggly has been using they/them pronouns since episode 2.
Which comes to another point. A lot of the really good stuff in Miraculous: Contingency has happened by a happy coincidence, and I only worked out how good the combination was after the fact. This time I deliberately chose to make this party a girls-and-enbies-night and specifically determined that there would only be girls and enbies there – including the Kwamis present: Tikki, Calla, and Riggly.
Mylène
Mylène got a bit of a short straw in Miraculous: Contingency. There wasn’t much for her to do, or Ivan for that matter. I wanted to show her in a new light in this episode – we can see that she still struggles with her fear and anxiety, but she’s also more capable of pushing it down when necessary. I decided when I started writing the story that I’d only use the Miraculous who’d made an appearance by the time the timelines split, so we won’t see Polymouse in this phase of Miraculous: Contingency, but I have a feeling Mylène wouldn’t be so reluctant in this timeline.
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