Miraculous 4th Season Concludes With The Heroes’ Most Daunting Challenge Yet
It’s not likely a cartoon comes around and has the ability to send an entire fandom into an emotional whirlwind, especially a cartoon with such cringe-worthy dialogue and a plot that relies on coincidence and the blindness of other characters-and yet Miraculous has done it again.
Following the story of two teenage superheroes who’ve yet to realize their love for each other due to their tight restrictions on secret identities, Miraculous entwines love and crime-fighting like never before in their latest season.
*spoilers below*
After Marinette Dupen-Cheng who doubles as Paris’s quick-thinking, agile superhero Ladybug, becomes the new guardian of the Miraculous, she takes on yet another responsibility all the while trying to balance keeping Paris’s villains at bay, and of course, being a normal teenager.
Meanwhile, her love interest Adrien Agreste who’s secretly Ladybug’s faithful companion Chat Noir is battling more than ever withstanding up to his father Gabriel who unbeknownst to him is actually ShadowMoth the villain plaguing Paris with his manipulative and ever-growing powers.
Season 4 gave fans the long-awaited conflict between the two main heroes as Ladybug continues building her superhero team from her newly acquired Miraculous, leaving her loyal partner out of many plans and attacks.
Of course, since Chat Noir has an undying love and admiration for Ladybug, he grows emotionally distant and fans see Adrien/Chat Noir in turmoil for really the first time in the series.
If that wasn’t enough to deal with, the heroes now have to be wary of the new girl Lila whose deceitful personality and hatred of Ladybug puts her in direct contact with ShadowMoth, helping him carry out his devious plans.
This season had a lot of stakes that only kept growing with each passing episode. The episode “Rocketear” saw Nino putting the pieces together and finding out the identity of Rena Rogue another one of Ladybug’s superheroes who’s actually Marinette’s best friend and Nino’s girlfriend Alya.
Additionally, in the episode “Wishmaker” fan-favorite character Luka was able to discover the identities of both Ladybug and Chat Noir using his “second chance” time manipulation powers. A revelation that he is shocked by but ultimately keeps to himself.
The growing distrust between Ladybug and Chat Noir is of course the integral conflict of this season and comes to a head in many episodes with Ladybug soon realizing that she’s left her partner out of one too many conversations, ultimately leading to her demise.
This season saw more characters receiving development as well as their own miraculous powers such as Rose who’s discovered to have an illness that the show handles surprisingly well.
This season also introduced Zoe Lee, Chloe’s half-sister who takes on the position of the holder of the bee miraculous which naturally infuriates Chloe and sends her right back to working with ShadowMoth.
If the new superheroes weren’t exciting enough, we also got to see former herpes take on new identities such as in the episode “Kuro Neko” when Adrien uses the cat miraculous to formulate a new identity, Catwalker when he thinks that Ladybug no longer wants Chat Noir around.
Of course, Chat Noir returns and joins Ladybug’s side after the polarizing season finale in which Adrien’s twin cousin Felix finds out the true identity of his uncle Gabriel and tricks Ladybug, retrieving every single Miraculous for ShadowMoth.
With Ladybug in this dire situation seemingly having nothing left, fans are devastated and stoked for next season which might even finally reveal the identities of our main superhero duo, which in the past has only complicated things.
Of course, because Ladybug and Chat Noir don’t know each other’s identities much of the story and tension of the show is contingent upon that fact. Nonetheless, fans are ready for the highly anticipated identity reveal and for the final battle between the heroes that started it all and ShadowMoth.
There is no current release date for the fifth season but creator Thomas Astruc has already assured fans on Twitter that ZAG cartoon is working tirelessly to bring fans a new, and exciting season.
Overall season 4 had some really shocking moments but also forgotten plot points that hopefully will be explored in the next season. One thing is for sure, the stakes have never been higher for our heroes and they’ll have to trust each other more than ever to save Paris and even the world from the colossal threat.