| “ | You think it'd be any different from how it is now?! Guess what? I don't have your nice little life! In the world I'm from, there are no awesome girlfriends to inspire me everyday, no amazing BFF, let alone a calm and gentle mom, or a boyfriend Who doesn't think I'm a total loser! [...] Are you kidding?! I'm the opposite of you! All I've got is pain and suffering, from that horrible Chloé Bourgeois, who made me suffer my entire life! Until the Supreme entrusted me with the Miraculous! Now, no one will hurt me anymore! WE HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON! | ” |
—Shadybug to Ladyfly, "Miraculous Paris" | ||
Marinette Dupain-Cheng is one of the two titular main antagonists (alongside Adrien Agreste) of Miraculous World: Paris - Tales of Shadybug and Claw Noir. She is the counterpart of Marinette Dupain-Cheng from the Re-Verse. When Tikki inhabited the Ladybug Miraculous, she transformed into Shadybug, a ladybug-themed supervillain with the power of Creation.
In "Miraculous Paris", after Betterfly crossed the multiverse to get help from Ladybug and Cat Noir (the heroic versions of the villains), she followed him along with Claw Noir to steal the Butterfly Miraculous. After realizing the power that her Miraculous and Claw Noir's possess together, she betrayed him to get his Miraculous and try to summon Gimmi so they could allow her to switch lives with her counterpart, failing only because of the seal placed on Tikki and Plagg of her universe. In order to both retrieve the Butterfly Miraculous and have her wish granted, she allied herself with Monarch.
After her counterpart was able to inspire her to get the life she wanted to have, Shadybug gave up on her evil purpose, using her Miraculous Shadybug to repair everything and, in this way, get a new costume. Now allying herself with Betterfly and having joined his Resistance, she adopted the name Ladybug, becoming a superhero.
Appearance[]
Physical appearance[]
Marinette maintains a striking resemblance to her counterpart from the Quantic Universe. However, subtle differences set her apart. Her signature hairstyle still features two pigtails, yet now adorned with bangs that sweep across her left eye with a pink streak. Additionally, she also wears dark purple eyeshadow and painted black nails. Before harnessing the healing powers of the Miraculous Shadybug, Marinette bore visible signs of strain from her Miraculous use. Notably, dark veins marred her skin, a consequence of overexertion, with the veins extending upward, particularly prominent on her face following her unsuccessful attempt to summon Gimmi. Prior to healing herself with her Miraculous Shadybug, Marinette also had black veins on her skin from overuse of her Miraculous, with the veins crawling up her face after her failed attempt to summon Gimmi.
Civilian attire[]
Compared to her counterpart, Marinette embraces a gothic aesthetic, characterized by her attire. She sports a white shirt beneath a sleek dark gray jacket, paired with edgy dark pink trousers featuring stylish rips above the knees and along the legs. Completing her ensemble are striking black high-top boots with grey soles, adding to her distinct style. Additionally, she wears dark fingerless lace gloves extending halfway up her forearms. Furthermore, she wears a black ascot adorned with intricate grey ornaments, completing her unique and striking appearance.
As Shadybug[]
As Shadybug, her attire featured a contrasting combination of red with black dots and black with red dots. The front and back of her waist displayed a vivid red with black spots, while the rest of her costume, including her arms, shoulders, legs, back, and sides of her torso, showcased a sleek black speckled with red dots. Her footwear included red platform soles reminiscent of Queen Bee's style. Her mask was integrated into her jumpsuit via a black turtleneck, concealing her eyes with a design akin to Ladybug's face mask, characterized by a symmetrical arrangement of red and black spots. Her hair was styled into twin buns similar to Multimouse's, accented with strands of red ribbons that resembled a ladybug's antennas or wings in motion. Additionally, a bold red streak adorned her bangs, while strands of red hair framed her face. Her eyes assumed a fiery red hue, and she wore dark mauve lipstick.
As Ladybug[]
As Ladybug, she dons a jumpsuit reminiscent of her counterpart's attire, with some notable differences. While the majority of the black fades, portions of it remain prominent on her sides, upper arms, and legs. The jumpsuit features an extended turtleneck, retaining her pendant as a distinctive accessory. Her hair reverts to her usual civilian style, marked by a shift in her bang color from pink to red. Additionally, her eyes transition back to their original blue color.
- For more of Marinette's outfits and designs, see Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Re-Verse/Designs.
Personality[]
Marinette's personality was shaped by the harsh environment of her alternate universe and the painful experiences she has endured. On the surface, she seems ruthless and aggressive, driven by deep-seated anger and a sense of hopelessness. Her readiness to use violence and intimidation, especially in her dealings with Betterfly and Claw Noir, reveals a hardened exterior and a survival mechanism adapted to her brutal world, where helping others is a crime. Unlike her Quantic Universe counterpart, Marinette was not able to make any friends. Because of that, she didn't have the support she needed to stand up against Chloé Bourgeois, whose heavy bullying caused her to become depressed, cynical, and unable to find any joy.
Her loneliness and sadness made her an easy target for the Supreme, who persuaded her to work for him as the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous. As Shadybug, she unleashed her frustrations mercilessly on her enemies, using her powers for evil without regard for the consequences, even when it meant overriding the security measures designed to protect her. Her cleverness and strategic mind, not unlike that of Ladybug, were evident in her use of the Lucky Charm to create weapons and tools to defeat her foes, though Claw Noir's impulsiveness often undermined her plans.
After realizing no wish could save her from her affliction nor grant her a better life, Marinette bursts into tears.
Before her final battle with Ladybug, Shadybug's true complexity is revealed. Reading her doppelgänger's diary exposed her rare vulnerable side and a naïve envy of her counterpart's better life, leading to jealousy and shock when she discovered the Ultimate Miraculous Absolute Power and realized the Supreme had hidden this from her. This spurred her desire to switch lives. Her reaction to Sabine Cheng's affection, so different from the lack of support and love from her own mother, deepened her insecurities and highlighted her inner turmoil. When talking to Sabine, she remarked that the sewing machine was broken while looking at herself in the mirror, implying that this was how she saw herself. Shadybug was also surprised to hear Sabine, thinking she was talking to her daughter, say "I love you," which led her to reluctantly reply, "I love you too." This suggests that her own mother in her universe never showed her any affection or support, further fueling her insecurities.
During her final fight against Ladybug, Shadybug laid bare all the anger she had harbored throughout her life, hinting at years of resentment and bitterness. However, Ladybug succeeded in persuading Shadybug that she, too, could change her life by embracing self-love and allowing friendship to enter. This inspired Shadybug to stop her assault and abandon her quest to retrieve the Butterfly Miraculous. Instead, she employed her Miraculous Shadybug to restore everything. This act of heroism transformed her, both inside and out, as her costume changed to reflect her newfound resolve. Choosing to become a superhero, she allied with Betterfly and took on the name Ladybug, honoring the hero who showed her a better path.
Abilities[]
As Shadybug[]
As an alternate version Ladybug, Shadybug exhibited most of the same abilities as her heroic counterpart. Like Ladybug, she exhibited massively enhanced strength, speed and agility, to the point where she and Claw Noir proved superior during their two clashes against their heroic counterparts, though this could could be attribute to their unrestricted powers and their more aggressive nature. Despite her physical superiority however, Shadybug seemed less intelligent than her counterpart, as she was overall much more aggressive and wasn't able to realize Ladybug intentionally exposed herself.
Much like Ladybug, Shadybug also possessed the ability to summon Lucky Charms. Due to removed restrictions on her Miraculous however, Shadybug could summon as many as she liked, and unlike her counterpart, was able to use them to summon the exact items that she liked, generally being used to summon weapons or objects with the goal to cause harm. Shadybug could only summon one Lucky Charm at a time, but was able to disperse the object in order to create a new one, which she used to great effect.
However, Shadybug's power came at a price. As a result of the safety restrictions being removed on her Miraculous (due to her using the Miraculous for evil), she suffered side effects as a result from using her Miraculous (shown as a series of black lines across her neck and face), alongside her partner Claw Noir. According to Shadybug, the effects were gradual, though Marinette attempting to summon Gimmi ended up accelerating the process, resulting in the affliction spreading to her face. It's unknown how the affliction affected Shadybug physically or what happened if it was complete, though according to her the use of their Miraculous Powers "will slowly destroy them". The affliction seemed to affect the user physically however, as both her and Claw Noir were able to feel the affliction when it was removed. Overall, the effects are similar to the effects caused by wearing a broken Miraculous.
After her counterpart convinced her to use her powers for good and become a hero, Shadybug used the Miraculous Shadybug to restore the damage from their battle, resulting in the removal of the affliction infecting her and Claw Noir. Since she now uses her powers for good, it's unknown if she still possesses the ability to summon multiple Lucky Charms.
Relationships[]
Adrien Agreste/Claw Noir/Paw Noir[]
Shadybug often argued with Claw Noir.
Despite being partnered, Shadybug initially didn't get along with Claw Noir, often insulting him for destroying everything. However, the two worked together to retrieve the Butterfly Miraculous from Betterfly.
When the heroes were escaping, Shadybug happily ditched her partner to chase after them, however after they got away from her, Shadybug became angry when Claw Noir let her hit the ground and tried to steal her Miraculous, which led to an argument between them, attracting Monarch's attention who tried to akumatize them, which made Shadybug use Claw Noir as a human shield against the Megakuma (which they mistook for a Kamiko), and she blamed him for making her angry and enabling Betterfly to detect their emotions, to which Claw Noir angrily yelled at her to stop being angry, which Shadybug reluctantly did before going to Marinette's room.
Shadybug shocked to discover Claw Noir is Adrien Agreste.
Marinette never met Adrien personally, only knowing him for his father's brand, thus considering him to be a self-absorbed person and became disgusted when seeing her good counterpart's crush and pictures of main Adrien. However when learning of the Ultimate Miraculous Power, Shadybug quickly handcuffed Claw Noir and stole his Miraculous, revealing his identity as Adrien Agreste, much to her shock, and she confirmed it after wiping some makeup from his face revealing black veins for his overuse of the Miraculous.
Marinette asked Adrien if he knew her after seeing him blushing at her.
When detransforming back into Marinette, she noticed alternate Adrien smiling and blushing at her and asked him if he knew her, to which he only awkwardly shrugged. But Marinette dismissed it to try to make a wish to a better life, only to fail, to Adrien's concern. And when looking at him, she softened her tone to main Sabine, before retransforming, releasing him and throwing his Miraculous back at him, and she rebuffed his attempt to comfort her after she realized no wish could save them from their affliction.
However, after reforming, Shadybug performed a Miraculous Shadybug which healed her and Claw Noir's afflictions and he later flirtingly complimented her new look and she encouraged him he could change his as well, becoming Paw Noir, and the two joined Betterfly's team to oppose the Supreme, and she held Paw Noir's hand when returning back to their universe.
Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Ladybug/Ladyfly[]
Shadybug first met her good counterpart when the latter defended Betterfly from her and Claw Noir in the main universe, which surprised Shadybug and then attacked her with her Lucky Charm weapons while ignoring her when telling the rogue holders that the Miraculouses aren't meant to be used for evil.
After the heroes escaped, Shadybug went to Marinette's room to find clues, where she found about her being in love with Adrien, much to her disgust.
Shadybug smiles when reading her counterpart's diary and learns of her happy life.
While searching the room, Shadybug finds Marinette's diary and discovered her identity as Ladybug and then became surprised and touched when seeing her have everything to be happy unlike her, like good friends and a loving mom. When she learned about the Ultimate Miraculous Power, Shadybug decided to steal Claw Noir's Miraculous and tried to use it and hers to summon Gimmi and wish to switch lives with her good counterpart, only to fail by the Supreme's blocking seal on the kwamis, much to Shadybug's heartbreak, which soon attracted Monarch's attention, who convinced her and Claw Noir to team up with him to defeat her good counterparts to heal themselves.
After reforming, Shadybug hugged her counterpart.
When confronting Ladyfly, Shadybug vented out her frustrations about her life, which made the former to realize she saw her private diary and that they're the same person and detransforming, main Marinette encouraged her counterpart that she could have a better life if she wanted to, which convinced Shadybug to stop her pursuit of the Butterfly Miraculous and used the Miraculous Ladybug to restore everything to normal, healing Claw Noir and herself and getting a new costume, much to Shadybug's joy who embraced Marinette.
After she and Claw Noir reformed, Shadybug decided to rename herself Ladybug in honor of her counterpart, who hugged her and did a "pound it" before returning to her universe with Claw Noir and Betterfly.
Cat Noir[]
As the good counterpart of her partner, Cat Noir was an enemy of Shadybug, especially after he saved Betterfly from her and Claw Noir. When fighting him, she was gladly willing to shoot him with one of her Lucky Charm weapons, only for him to be saved by Betterfly kamikotizing him into Celesticat, to which Shadybug wrapped her yo-yo to his tail belt to prevent him, Ladybug and Betterfly from escaping, only to be stopped by Ladybug.
While in Marinette's bedroom, Shadybug was disgusted to see how her good counterpart considered him her partner, unlike she with Claw Noir.
After failing to summon Gimmi, Shadybug willingly joined forces with Monarch to get Cat Noir's Miraculous, only to be convinced by Marinette to reform.
After learning Claw Noir's identity as Adrien Agreste, it's unknown if she also realized Cat Noir's identity as main universe Adrien as well.
Betterfly[]
Shadybug fought against Betterfly with her Lucky Charm weapons.
Marinette never met Gabriel personally, but knows about him from his brand. Unknown to her, Gabriel has a superhero identity as Betterfly, who defected from the Supreme, stealing two Miraculouses, and thus was Shadybug's enemy.
Shadybug (alongside Claw Noir) hunted Betterfly relentlessly to get the Butterfly Miraculous back from him, which lead her to chase him to the main universe and after tracking him down with one of her Lucky Charm objects and the three fought, and when Shadybug tried to take his Miraculous, Betterfly pleaded with them to join the Resistance and that the Supreme was manipulating them, which Shadybug briefly considered before trying to retrieve the Butterfly Miraculous, only to be stopped by Ladybug and Cat Noir.
After the three heroes escaped, Shadybug noticed a "kamiko" (which was actually an Akuma sent by Monarch) and when Claw Noir destroys it, Shadybug reluctantly calmed down to prevent Betterfly from detecting her emotions.
When meeting Betterfly's bad counterpart Monarch, Shadybug teamed up with the latter to get the former's Miraculous, only to fail by Alya's spying on them.
Shadybug (now Ladybug) joined Betterfly's team.
When Shadybug decided to reform, she joined Betterfly's Resistance, who welcomed her warmly and encouraged them when Shadybug (now calling herself Ladybug) worried about the Supreme's reaction to their defection, before returning to their universe.
Monarch[]
When she was angrily arguing with Claw Noir, her negative emotions were detected by Betterfly's evil counterpart Monarch, who tried to akumatize her and her partner, whom confused the megakuma with a Kamiko sent by Betterfly and after using Claw Noir as a shield to destroy the megakuma, the two villains calmed down to prevent having their emotions detected.
After Shadybug became heartbroken and despaired for failing to wish a better life and it also accelerated her affliction, she and Claw Noir were approached by Monarch, who arrived there by Voyage and Shadybug quickly tried to attack him with her Lucky Charm sword, only to have her attack repelled by Monarch's Resistance, who offered an alliance to get both Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses to have their wishes granted, to which Shadybug agreed to.
After luring Ladyfly, Cat Noir and Ubiquity by using giant illusions of the rogue holders, after Shadybug noticed that Alya has been Kamikotized, Monarch reassured her he could undo it and sent her to take care of Ladyfly as part of their plan, which failed due to unknown to the villains, they were secretly recorded by Alya, who warned the heroes.
After reforming, alternate Ladybug worried that Monarch used the Rooster Miraculous to get the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses from other universes and after her good counterpart managed to stop him, Alternate Ladybug agreed with Betterfly in reassuring her she'll succeed in defeating the villain.
Tikki[]
Tikki is alternate Marinette's kwami but unlike their main counterparts they don't have a loving friendship. And yet, despite not showing kindness to her kwami through their powers and connection. Alternate Marinette received her kwami's help in turning her life for the better.
The Supreme[]
Marinette (alongside Adrien) became scared when seeing the Supreme blocked Plagg and Tikki from granting her wish.
It's known that the Supreme took advantage of alternate Marinette's anger and sadness from being alone and bullied by Chloé Bourgeois to recruit her to his side promising that no one would hurt her again and she agreed, which led the Supreme to entrust her with the Ladybug Miraculous thus becoming a supervillain and relentlessly chasing Betterfly to retrieve his Miraculous and be spared by the Supreme
However, unknown to Marinette, the Supreme neglected to tell her that using her powers for evil would slowly destroy her. That is the reason for the black veins that appeared on her neck.
While fighting Betterfly, she briefly considered his pleas that the Supreme was manipulating her but kept trying to steal his Miraculous.
In Marinette's room, Shadybug was shocked to learn that the Supreme hid from her and Claw Noir the Ultimate Miraculous Absolute Power, and immediately tried to use it to switch lives with her good counterpart, only to find to her shock and horror that the Supreme blocked their kwamis to prevent anyone else than him from changing reality, which resulted in the wish failing and her affliction worsening and soon Shadybug broke down in tears realizing the Supreme tricked her and she and Claw Noir would be soon destroyed.
After reforming and healing herself and Claw Noir with her Miraculous Shadybug, she decided to become a superhero and despite her worries about the Supreme's reaction to her and Claw Noir's defection, she willingly joined Betterfly's team to defeat the Supreme and free their universe.
Sabine Cheng[]
Marinette sadly tells Sabine from this universe that she loves her too.
It's not much known about Marinette's relationship with her mother, but it's implied she never showed any affection or support to her daughter, as Marinette while reading her good counterpart's diary, was moved to see she had a good relationship with Main Sabine and later after failing to make her wish, alternate Marinette rudely yelled at main Sabine to leave her alone but then softened, apologized and pretending to be her counterpart, said "her" sewing machine was slightly damaged, to which Sabine (thinking she was talking to her daughter) reassured her that broken things could always be fixed and told her she loved her, to which a surprised Marinette sadly replied she loved her too.
Chloé Bourgeois (re-verse)[]
Not unlike her heroic counterpart, she has gotten pain and suffering from Chloé Bourgeois in her universe, who made Marinette suffer throughout her entire life. She also said that she accepted the miraculous from the Supreme so no one could hurt her anymore. It is unknown if she ever used her powers (as Shadybug) to get revenge on Chloé for all the pain and suffering she put her though.
Alya Césaire/Ubiquity (re-verse)[]
Unlike their main counterparts she and Alya aren't friends. And as Shadybug, Alya as a part of Betterfly's resistance was an enemy of hers as well.
When Betterfly kamikotized Alya into Ubiquity to cross over the Quantic Universe, Shadybug threatened, Alya's boyfriend Nino to force her to reopen her portal for her and Claw Noir to pursue Betterfly.
In the Quantic Universe, Shadybug learned that her good counterpart is best friends with main Alya, much to her surprise.
After reforming, Shadybug joined Betterfly's resistance and it's possible that she and Alya are on better terms.
Sightings[]
Episodes[]
Other[]
Trivia[]
- In the original French dub, her supervillain name is Toxinelle, which is the combination of the words toxique ("toxic" or "poisonous") and coccinelle ("ladybug"), with her name literally meaning "toxic ladybug".
- Being her a villainous counterpart of Marinette/Ladybug, Shadybug is the first known holder of the Ladybug Miraculous to be a supervillain, following Gabriel Agreste who had used it to become Monarch Bug for a brief moment and to summon Gimmi in "Re-creation".
- The style of this version of Marinette in her civilian form matches the one of Juleka Couffaine from the main universe, with both having a gothic appearance (including using a dark eye shadow, black nail polish, fingerless lace gloves and rips on her pants), but also possessing bangs that cover part of the left side of her face, including her eye.
- Her counterpart has a mother that is the opposite of the main where she's calm and gentle. This could mean that the family dynamics of the Re-Verse Agreste and Dupain-Cheng families are inverted.
- When Shadybug tells Ladyfly that she doesn't have a boyfriend who think she's a loser, it's possible that she might've dated Kim in her world before he traumatized her love life.
- In Adrien's case, it is shown that they are not dating seen in his amazed reaction to discovering that he was Claw Noir. However, she most likely knew him because his father still has an image of fame in this universe, but it is not known if they knew each other at school.
- It's possible that this "boyfriend" could also be Luka, but considering that Juleka and Marinette probably don't know each other since she had no friends and Juleka may not have repeated a year in this universe, it's very likely that this isn't the case.
- Shadybug is considered the villainous representation of Marinette in the Quantic Universe, serving as what would happened if she didn't stand up to Chloé Bourgeois in "Derision" and prior to origins, then Marinette would have become rageful and bitter.
- After redeeming herself, she starts wearing her hair in pigtails as Ladybug, probably in honor of the Ladybug in the original universe. This is similar to how the latter started wearing them in honor of Socqueline.
Gallery
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References[]