Akumatized villains

"And when it comes to luring superheroes, what could be better than creating supervillains?"

- Gabriel Agreste

, also called evilized villains, are people transformed into supervillains by Hawk Moth with Akumatization, the superpower of the Butterfly Miraculous.

Transformation
Whenever a person has strong negative emotions, such as anger, frustration, jealousy, disappointment, humiliation or sadness, Hawk Moth senses it from his lair and charges a butterfly with dark power to form an akuma. The akuma then flies away from Hawk Moth's lair to where the person is, and possesses an important object that belongs to the person. Immediately, Hawk Moth telepathically links up to the person in order to communicate, using a butterfly-shaped light mask that goes around his and victim's eyes. Also, in that moment, the area around the person's eyes darkens into a dark rust color. He then gives them a new name for their supervillain identity and explains to the person that he'll give them the ability to accomplish their goals, if in turn, the person will retrieve the Ladybug Miraculous and Cat Miraculous from Ladybug and Cat Noir. When the person agrees, black and purple smoke appears from the possessed object and surrounds the person. Once it recedes, the victim has transformed into a supervillain. If Hawk Moth needs to telepathically talk with them again, his light mask will reappear on both Hawk Moth and the villain.

As stated in "Robostus", any sentient creature with emotions can be akumatized. For example, the robot Markov is akumatized in the aforementioned episode, and infant August is akumatized in "Gigantitan". Sometimes, other living things or beings are indirectly transformed with the main victim, such as Fang changing into a dragon in "Guitar Villain" when Jagged Stone is akumatized, and Albert becoming a more advanced AI in "The Dark Owl" when Mr. Damocles is akumatized. Inanimate objects that are not the akumatized object can change because of the victim's akumatization, such as Roger Raincomprix's car transforming in "Rogercop".

While it is theoretically possible for someone with extreme willpower to resist or even overcome Hawk Moth's influence, only Caline Bustier has ever been shown doing so, and even she succumbed after approximately 30 seconds.

Abilities
An akumatized villain usually has an appearance and abilities that relate to their infected object, occupation, circumstances, and/or interests. For example, because of Xavier Ramier's love of pigeons and his object being a pigeon call, he becomes Mr. Pigeon, a villain with a suit based off of pigeons and the ability to command pigeons. In whatever way they're changed, an akumatized villain usually has enhanced abilities and skills. A majority of the time, their objects end up becoming their weapons, such as the Bubbler's bubble wand and Guitar Villain's guitar.

Aside from their peculiar powers, supervillains seem to have enhanced strength, durability, and fighting skills. For example, Lady Wifi manages to pin down Cat Noir when they are both disarmed, and the Mime is able to hold the Eiffel Tower with his own strength. Every villain, after being corrupted, remembers the cause of their distress and the person who caused it, so they usually try to get revenge. Additionally, some villains, namely Copycat, the Evillustrator, and Horrificator, remember the people whom they have romantic feelings for (Ladybug, Marinette, and Ivan Bruel respectively) and still care for them while transformed.

Hawk Moth can't mind control his villains, psychologically manipulating them instead. He can't read their minds either, seeing and feeling only what they are seeing and feeling. However, if a supervillain doesn't go and retrieve the Miraculous like they were asked to, Hawk Moth can control their bodies for a short period of time in order to inflict pain onto them until they agree to do it as quickly as possible. He can also remove their powers, another threat he uses against his victims to keep them on-task.

As seen in "Ladybug &amp; Cat Noir" and "Stoneheart", if Ladybug doesn't purify a villain's akuma when she captures it, the akuma multiplies, and they transform various people into frozen copies of the villain. When the original akuma's victim is akumatized again, the copies unfreeze, and the villain has control over them, able to make them follow his or her orders and desires.

Because of Hawk Moth and the villain's mental connection, the villain can sense the location of Hawk Moth's lair if they want to find him, as seen in "Robostus" and "The Dark Owl".

Defeat
In order to defeat a villain and release the akuma, the akumatized object needs to be destroyed. After the object is destroyed, Ladybug uses her yo-yo to capture the akuma to "de-evilize" and revert it back into a normal butterfly. After the Miraculous Ladybug has reverted the damage caused since the akuma infected the villain, they are detransformed by the purple substance, with only blurry memories of what happened (like a dream that can't be remembered clearly).

List of akumatized villains
To see each villain's akumatized object, see List of akumatized objects

Trivia

 * Many of the supervillains' face masks, such as those of Stormy Weather, Lady Wifi, and the Evillustrator, resemble the shape of a butterfly, most likely in reference to the akumas. Similarly, the four eyeholes in Darkblade's helmet resemble the four wings of a butterfly.
 * When an akuma infects the object of the new villain and the light mask appears around their face, the darkened area is almost always an indication of the shape of their mask.
 * There are some cases in which a villain reappears or gets akumatized in an irregular situation more than once.
 * In "Timebreaker", both Alixes from two different timelines get akumatized.
 * Ivan transforms into Stoneheart in both of the Origins episodes.
 * In "The Puppeteer", the Puppeteer uses her powers to bring back Lady Wifi, the Evillustrator, and Rogercop.
 * According to Hawk Moth, it is implied that Lila may return as a villain due to her not forgiving Ladybug in "Volpina".
 * This occurs in "Catalyst", when Lila is encouraged because of her anger towards Ladybug, with the tipping point is being Gabriel Agreste calling Volpina a copycat.
 * This happens a third time in "Chameleon", when Lila actively takes the Akuma and infects herself to become the titular villain after Adrien declines her romantic affections until she stops her lies. At the end of the episode she is still angry at Ladybug, implying further future Akumatizations.
 * After Hawk Moth gives his victims their new names, they accept them, and discard their former names until they are defeated.
 * Ladybug and Cat Noir usually try to persuade the supervillains to calm down and stop their rampage when they are able to do so.
 * Most of the villains are seen near Marinette and/or Adrien shortly before the akuma infects them.
 * In most cases, the villains usually get what they want when they are transformed or after they are defeated. However, this is not always the case.
 * After the events of "Volpina", Lila discards Ladybug's apology, thinking that Adrien will never be interested in her.
 * It is unknown if non-humans, such as animals or kwamis, can be akumatized, but Season 2 will have some answers, as revealed by Thomas Astruc at San Diego Comic-Con 2016.
 * In Robostus, it is shown that emotionally-aware robots can be akumatized, when it happens to Markov, Max Kanté's robot.
 * In "Queen Wasp, it's shown even Miraculouses can be akumatized, when it happens to Bee Miraculous, while temporarily being taken by Chloe.
 * By extension, Pollen is also akumatized indirectly, because she was inhabiting the Bee Miraculous while it was akumatized.
 * Various animals and objects that are not infected by the akuma can be transformed indirectly with the akumatized villains.
 * Roger Raincomprix's police car transforms with him, its appearance changing and it becoming able to fly.
 * When Jagged Stone turns into Guitar Villain, his crocodile Fang is transformed into a dragon.
 * Santa Claus's horses turn into reindeer, and his sleigh changes its appearance as well, gaining the ability to fly.
 * Albert is also akumatized alongside Mr. Damocles, as Mr. Damocles's monitor was the akumatized object; Albert gains a human face, as opposed to his normal cartoon appearance.
 * According to Nooroo, the Butterfly Miraculous is meant to create superheroes rather than supervillains.
 * While Hawk Moth can force his victims to focus on getting Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses by threatening to remove their powers or causing them pain, the ability is supposed to be used to keep akumatized heroes from becoming evil.
 * Several times, however, akumatized villains would identify themselves as heroes, such as Dark Owl. Some villains call themselves heroes as a ruse, such as Volpina.
 * A recurring element is people being akumatized into supervillain versions of heroes, such as Copycat, Antibug, Volpina, Queen Wasp, Rena Rage and Shell Shock.
 * Thomas Astruc noted that Marinette would be a hard person to akumatize as she is an optimistic person.
 * He also noted that Adrien has not yet been akumatized because he is so used to disappointment.
 * In "Riposte", "Gigantitan", "Zombizou" and "Heroes' Day", the akuma is seen by Marinette and/or Adrien before the victim is akumatized.
 * Marinette was almost akumatized in "Chameleon" and "Zombizou" but she was calmed down and the akuma flew away.
 * Like Hawk Moth thought at the end of Season 1, Volpina returned in "Heroes' Day.
 * Many previous akumatized villains are re-akumatized during the "Heroes' Day" special in Season 2.

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