Gamer

"The Gamer" is the twelfth episode of the first season of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug &amp; Cat Noir. It will premiere on February 27, 2016.

Synopsis
When Max loses a challenge at a video game tournament, he gets akumatized into the Gamer and unleashes a giant robot on Paris.

Plot
Click here to see spoilers for an unaired episode plot.

The episode begins with Marinette writing in her diary, discussing how Cat Noir almost discovered her identity in an attack earlier that day. Tikki stops her, reminding her about a presentation she has to do with Alya. Marinette grabs her phone, puts her diary away, and leaves her room, heading to the school.

She enters the school's courtyard, hearing a noise coming from the school's library. Marinette goes to investigate, finding Juleka, Alix, Myl ène, Alya, Miss Bustier, Mr. Damocles, Rose, Kim, Nino, Nathanaël, and Ivan  watching Max and Adrien play the game Ultimate Mecha Strike III. Adrien's character is NAD03, and Max's is MX-01. Since Marinette has no clue as to why they're playing a video game, Rose cuts in and explains it to her: there's a video game competition between schools. Kim says that the qualifying round happening in the library is to determine who is to be partnered with Max since Max has been practicing for months.

NAD03 defeats MX-01, making Adrien the number one player in the school and Max's partner. Everyone cheers, except for Max. Instead of brooding for long, Max congratulates Adrien and looks forward to their partnership. Marinette thinks for a moment, realizing that whoever beats Max's score will become Adrien's partner. Alya pulls Marinette to the side, telling her not to try to beat Max and not to flirt with Adrien. Marinette ignores her, asking Mr. Damocles if she can participate. Mr. Damocles mentions that the library is closing in five minutes, but Marinette persists, sitting on a chair in front of the screen.

Adrien gives her his controller, which she promptly puts up against her face before lowering it hastily. Kim doesn't believe that Marinette can beat Max, but Alya responds that she's motivated to beat Adrien's high score. Max tries to explain the rules of the game, but Marinette cuts him off, explaining the rest of the rules. They shake hands after a brief flashback to Marinette destroying her father in the game while at their house. Chloé and Sabrina stand on the second story of the library, watching and wondering how someone could spend so long looking at a screen. They then pick up their phones and scroll through social media.

Alya records the match. Marinette defeats Max and becomes the 1st place winner. Max becomes unhappy because it was his dream to play the competition and he lost to a girl. Max walks off, needing to be alone. Mr. Damocles congratulates Adrien and Marinette on being the team to go up against the competing schools. Adrien says that he will come over to see her level after school. She is fazed by what he says and totally disregards Alya's warning.

Max on the other hand is angry over losing to Marinette. Hawk Moth senses this anger and sends an akuma out.The butterfly landing on his glasses, Hawk Moth greets Max as "the Gamer," promising to help Max win the tournament so long as Max help him in return. Max immediately agrees, transforming into the Gamer, surrounded by the walls of his real-life MX-01 mecha.

On their way home, Tikki asks Marinette why she wanted to participate in the tournament, pointing out that there are other ways to gain Adrien's attention. Marinette cedes that she was wrong, but at least Adrien's going over to her house. She then pauses and freaks out, realizing that Adrien will be in her room, her room full of pictures of him. She rushes home and realizes she has time before he gets there. Immediately as she says this, the doorbell downstairs has Marinette and Tikki rushing to get rid of the pictures.

Adrien stands at the foot of the stairs, speaking with Marinette's parents. He explains that he and Marinette are going to be participating in Ultimate Mecha Strike III tournament. Tom mentions that she trained with the best, but Sabine mentions that Marinette has never discussed an interest in the tournament. She then says that Marinette talks about Adrien quite often. Adrien is surprised by that tidbit, but doesn't linger on it as Marinette steps out of her room to lead him upstairs. Both Tom and Sabine sigh contentedly as they watch them.

When Marinette and Adrien first sit down at Marinette's computer, they both end up reaching for the same controller.

When they first get upstairs they both end up reaching for the same controller and pulling back when their hands touched. It happens again making it awkward in the room. Adrien finally grabs one and Marinette the other. They start playing in silence for a while taking short looks at each other occasionally taking short glances at each other.

After just a few minutes of playing her dad brings croissants. Adrien ready to eat one, can't get a word out when Marinette quickly shoos him away claiming they needed to practice for the competition.They continue playing her parents both poke there heads up and she turns giving them a stern look turning around right when Adrien turns to see whats going on. A second Later her dad comes back offering cookies. Marinette shoos him away. They take a break and Adrien starts claiming she is way better than him.

Marinette tells him she has a secret. She shows him a bracelet, calling it her lucky charm, to his surprise. He takes it and just then her parents offer quiche Adrien tells Marinette it is okay to take a little break. They travel to the park. When they get there Marinette suggests they go back when done eating. Adrien says he'll try out the bracelet. Before they get a chance to leave the Gamer shows up and tries to come after her. Adrien knocks her out the way and they continue running. They are split by a bench and run there separate ways.

Adrien, knowing he is the one not being chased, goes and turns into Cat Noir to go rescue Marinette. He makes it right before she is hit and saves her. When he disappears she turns into Ladybug after being reminded by Tikki. She gets there just in time to stop him from shooting Cat. They run him to the Parc des Princes. Cat Noir and Ladybug obtain a robot have a fight. With neither side winning, Ladybug uses Lucky Charm and gets a spray paint can. She sprays Gamer's window with paint, leading him to peak outside. She snatches his glasses and breaks them. She catches the akuma, changing it back into an average butterfly, and she uses the Miraculous Ladybug to turn everything back to normal.

At the competition, Marinette decides to give her controller to Max, considering the fact that she only wanted in for the time with Adrien. Adrien then gives his controller to Marinette, explaining that she is much better than him. In the end card, it shows they win the game.

Major characters

 * Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug
 * Adrien Agreste/Cat Noir
 * Hawk Moth
 * Plagg
 * Tikki
 * Akuma
 * Max/The Gamer

Minor characters

 * Juleka
 * Alix Kubdel
 * Mylène Haprèle
 * Alya Césaire
 * Miss Bustier
 * Mr. Damocles
 * Rose
 * Kim
 * Nino
 * Nathanaël
 * Ivan


 * Tom Dupain
 * Chloé Bourgeois
 * Sabrina
 * Sabine Cheng
 * Master Fu
 * Civilians

Trivia

 * This entire episode is a reference to the production staff's favorite robot shows. Shows and other references are as follows:
 * Street Fighter
 * Star Wars, with game character R2D3 resembling R2D2
 * Gurren Lagann
 * Pacific Rim
 * Futurama, with game character WI2NY resembling Bender
 * The Iron Giant, with game character IRON resembling the titular character
 * This episode was the 15th to air in France.
 * Marinette's diary box from "Darkblade" reappears in this episode.
 * The shot of her writing in her diary from Miraculous Secrets also appears.
 * Master Fu makes his first appearance--as a cameo--standing in the background behind Marinette and Adrien while they're eating pie in the park.
 * Morade Rahni did the storyboards for this episode. The storyboards can be viewed here: Part 1, Part 2.
 * Towards the end of the storyboard, when Adrien gives up his place in the tournament to Marinette, he tries to give her bracelet back to her, but she's dragged away by Nino before she's able to grab it. Adrien is seen pocketing the lucky charm.
 * In an advertisement for the Video Games Competition, it is revealed that it takes place between the 18th and the 21st of May.
 * The dates May 5th and May 18th are respectively visible in "Copycat" and "Mr. Pigeon"; thus, assuming it is the same year, these three episodes are set around the same month.
 * The move that Cat Noir shouts while in the catbug is both a pun and a reference to a move made by Ryu in the Street Fighter Alpha 3 video game. In French, the word is "Matouken" with "Matou" meaning "tomcat," and "Hadouken" being Ryu's move.

Errors

 * In the flashback to Marinette and Tom playing the game, R2D3's color scheme is changed from black and pink to black and purple.
 * When Marinette and Max are having their match in the game, Max's character name is wrong. It should be MX-01, but instead it's 2TO.
 * In the scene when Tom offers the croissants, Marinette's pictures of Adrien are still on her wall. When Adrien looks around during the scene with the cookies, though, the pictures are gone again.
 * When the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses are displayed on the Gamer's screen, the ring is in its de-transformed form (silver) instead of being black with a green pawprint.