Gabriel Agreste/Hawk Moth

Gabriel Agreste (aka Hawk Moth) is the main antagonist of the Miraculous franchise. He serves as the main antagonist of the popular French-Japanese-Korean-Italian superhero cartoon series Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir and the central villain of the special episode ''Miraculous: New York - United HeroeZ''. In "The Collector", in order to avoid the suspicion of being Hawk Moth, he akumatizes himself into the Collector, a supervillain who has the power to imprison any person or object within his magical notebook. In "Catalyst", which is part of the Heroes' Day special, he becomes Scarlet Moth with the enhancement given to him by the titular villain. In "Mayura", he is amokized by Mayura and his emotions form a Moth-themed sentimonster to help him escape the French Miraculous superhero team. In "Miracle Queen", he is amokized again by Mayura and his emotions recreated the Moth-themed sentimonster to help him destroy Jade Turtle's Shell-ter. In "Truth", Gabriel fused the Butterfly Miraculous with the Peacock and became a supervillain known as Shadow Moth (Papillombre in the French version). In "Optigami", as part of the plan to reveal the true identities of Ladybug and Cat Noir, Shadow Moth amokized himself and his excitement formed the sentimonster that looks like the TV host Alec Cataldi, called Senti Alec. He also amokized himself again to let his ambition form a sentimonster that looks like Nino Lahiffe, called Senti Nino. In "Sentibubbler", as a plan to force Alya Césaire to betray Ladybug, Shadow Moth amokized himself and his confidence formed a sentimonster that looks like Nino's akumatized version The Bubbler, called Sentibubbler. In "Shadow Moth's Final Attack", Shadow Moth amokizes himself to create Strikeback. After a bargain with Félix, who is able to steal Ladybug’s yo-yo, Gabriel renounces the Peacock Miraculous, trading it for all the Miraculous in the Chinese Miracle Box, the ring his nephew had previously stolen from him, and the Dog Miraculous. Later, he fuses Hawk Moth's Miraculous with some Miraculous he recently stole to become Monarch throughtout Season 5 and uses the Fox and Turtle Miraculouses to inform all of Paris about his victory over Ladybug. In "Evolution", Monarch uses the Rabbit Miraculous to go to the past to discover Ladybug and Cat Noir's secret identities and to prevent his wife's coma. Later, he fuses them with the Turtle, the Fox, the Bee, the Dragon and the Dog Miraculouses to prevent Ladybug and Cat Noir from stopping him. In "Multiplication'', he now works with Tomoe Tsurugi and Lila Rossi to create the Alliance rings, but he wants to use an example, so he give the Mouse Miraculous though the ring to see if it works. In "Destruction", while trying to discover Ladybug's address, Gabriel, as Monarch, unifies the Butterfly and Horse Miraculous. After being caught by Ladybug and Cat Noir and left completely subjugated by them, Monarch, in a desperate move, forces Cat Noir to use his Cataclysm on the former's left forearm to be able to escape. Later on, in order to prevent himself from falling in any more traps set by Ladybug and risk losing any more Miraculous, all while keeping using their powers, Gabriel melts all the Miraculous in his possession (with the exception of the Butterfly one) and reforged them into rings, all while adopting a brand-new form as Monarch. In "Illusion", Gabriel, as Monarch, decides to use Mirage to create an illusion of himself getting akumatized into the Collector after Adrien and his friends delibrately try and get him akumatized in order to figure out how Monarch gives his akumatized villains the powers of the Miraculous.

Appearance[]

Physical appearance[]

Gabriel is a very tall man, whose skin tone is fair with a rosy tint. He has light blue eyes, and combed-back light blond hair.

Civilian attire[]

He wears black-framed silver glasses. He has a white dress shirt underneath a silver vest with red buttons and a cream-colored dress jacket, along with a red-and-white striped tie. He also wears red dress pants and white shoes with red laces. On the middle finger of his left hand, he has a silver band ring.

As Hawk Moth[]

Hawk Moth wears a dark purple dress shirt with a black butterfly-shaped lapel, the Butterfly Miraculous brooch on the center of the collar, and black dress pants. Over the majority of his face and neck, he wears a silver mask. He also has a dark indigo cane as his tool. Whenever he is controlling someone with an akuma, a bright purple butterfly-shaped outline appears on his face and around his eyes.

As the Collector[]

Main article: The Collector (Character)

The Collector's skin is pale purple. His hair sticks up in a point and is white with black vertical stripes, however, along with the back of his head and his neck is black. He wears a black dress suit with a white lapel, stiff shoulders, and black and red downward-bent stripes on the front. Each lower sleeve has a white stripe, and the Collector's hands have white gloves. Also, he wears black dress pants. His high heel boots are connected to his body suit, and they are black with black and white striped heels.

As Scarlet Moth[]

Main article: Scarlet Moth

Scarlet Moth’s outfit is the same as Hawk Moth's except it is colored burgundy-red due to the enhancement from Catalyst. His mask, cane, and the Butterfly Miraculous are also colored the same red. His cane allows him to create more than one akuma, giving him an advantage.

As Shadow Moth[]

Main article: Shadow Moth

Shadow Moth's suit is the same as Hawk Moth's, except he now owns a moderate blue-violet tailcoat with the tail possessing a number of rounded points with moderate blue, dark-purple-centered spots, resembling a peacock's tail feathers. The lapel of that tailcoat makes a large collar that's wider at the back, and he wears a peacock-feather-like cocktail mask which is a same color as his tailcoat and tear-shaped with a darker purple mark in the center and a brilliant crimson translucent eyehole over his right eye. In his Shadow Moth form, the Peacock Miraculous is being placed below where the Butterfly Miraculous brooch is.

Personality[]

Gabriel comes off as a cold, harsh, and very strict man. He is very protective of his son Adrien, having kept him home for most of his life, although having a possessive and distant relationship with him. He makes executive decisions about how to keep his son safe without considering how he may feel, such as when he unjustly deems Nino Lahiffe a bad influence for Adrien and forbids him from coming to his home ever again. Gabriel misses his wife greatly and sometimes has to be reminded not to forget that his son is also grieving making him oblivious to the feelings of others. According to Adrien in "Adrien's Double Life", ever since the disappearance of his wife, he is a changed man. He also strongly dislikes taking orders from anyone, even if they are from people who are trying to help and protect him, such as Ladybug and Cat Noir. Despite this, Gabriel can be respectful and kind at times, especially when needing to act professionally.

As Hawk Moth, he is cold and determined. After a villain's defeat, he determinedly vows revenge and, while stopping for a while afterward, doesn't wait too long to try again with his akumas. His goal is to claim the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses to gain their absolute power necessary to achieve his dearest secret wish, not caring if he causes people harm in the process. He is aware of the equivalent exchange drawback of making a wish with the Miraculouses, every wish having a reaction to maintain balance in the universe, but it doesn't appear to bother him.

He is also very stubborn as he refuses to listen to Nooroo about how he is using the Butterfly Miraculous, showing that he isn't remorseful about all the damage and chaos he is caused in Paris and also very desperate to save his wife. It was said consumption of sadness, despair and desperation that it twisted his heart so much that in an alternate future of "Cat Blanc", it led to his own demise. However, as the battle goes on to save her he is wracked with guilt and worry for Nathalie as she used the damaged Peacock Miraculous before it was fixed in "Nathalie as seen by Gabriel". He says that he doing all this destruction so Adrien could be happy however, Gabriel appears to be deluding himself using his family's love as the reason to cover up the guilt and anger he feels towards the damaged the Peacock Miraculous and the mistakes of the past causing their misfortune as mentioned in "Nathalie as seen by Gabriel". Another point of him being deluded is when he claimed that the outside world was dangerous but there were times when Gabriel proved by using the Miraculous irresponsibly he actually made himself a danger to his own son.

Hawk Moth's akumatized villains are his most powerful known weapon, so he chooses his victims carefully, usually people who are emotionally at their weakest. He is a skilled liar and manipulator, persuading people that he cares about their problems and giving them powers to help solve them, when in reality, he does it because he wants them to retrieve the Miraculouses for him. He gives them ideas if they are struggling to think one up. However, if things aren't going his way, Hawk Moth easily loses his patience, threatening harm to Ladybug, Cat Noir, and even to the villains he creates. He also has a bit of a habit of celebrating too soon when the heroes get weaken by his many akumatized villains, thinking it will get him closer to the heroes' Miraculouses. He sometimes uses puns, such as telling the akuma in "The Evillustrator" to "draw [Nathaniel] into our evil web".

Despite these traits, Hawk Moth can be merciful with those he cares about, such as when he orders the supervillain to drop Ladybug in order to save Adrien who is falling off the building. He is obsessed with finding a way to save his wife, but is willing to give up his evil ways to protect Adrien from being caught in the crossfire or being targeted by the villains he creates. This situation, along with his frustration that even Audrey Bourgeois, who he believed was his greatest masterpiece, made him temporary renounce his role as a villain. However, he decided to continue to be Hawk Moth after Queen Bee appeared, viewing the opportunity to akumatize a Miraculous holder as too good to pass up.

Though his goal is specifically getting Ladybug and Cat Noir’s Miraculouses, when Gabriel tells Nooroo that he is going to kidnap the kwami friends of the latter so he can have unlimited powers at his disposal, it is implied that he has become power-hungry due to being Hawk Moth for a long time and has gotten addicted to yearning power to the extreme degree that he will grasp every opportunity to seize the power in order to have easier access on stealing the Ladybug Miraculous and Cat Miraculous.

Despite his strategic brilliance Gabriel seems to overlook easier solutions when fixing a problem such as when Emilie got put into a coma as a result of overusing the damaged Peacock Miraculous. He needed a cure which he thought could be done by using the Ultimate Power when really all he needed was help from a guardian upon realizing there was one. Also meaning he was quick to use force to get what he wants as well as impatient leading him to doubt the use of other options.

Like Ladybug, Gabriel too as come under the stress of the living a double life not finding it easy to be himself and his alter ego mentioned in "Nathalie as seen by Gabriel".

As The Collector, being a voluntary akumatized villain, his personality doesn't change much. He is obsessed with collecting everything he likes to replace the Miraculous spellbook but is still determined to take Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses. He also knows that he must protect his secret identity, telling the heroes that he would give their Miraculouses to Hawk Moth in order to throw them off his trail.

Abilities[]

As a civilian[]

Gabriel is an expert at designing fashions for clothes, accessories, and jewelry. According to Audrey Bourgeois, the harshet fashion critic, he didn't see other talents as great as his until she met Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Additionally, owning the Gabriel brand, Gabriel is well-versed at running a business, including solving problems by phone concerning design issues and presenting himself professionally when around others.

Gabriel has good hindsight and suspicions about things, revealing he had suspected that there are more Miraculouses in the city and a guardian after Rena Rouge's appearance. In "Syren", he reveals that he'd suspected that Miraculouses had hidden powers after seeing Ladybug and Cat Noir in their aqua forms. He also believed that Adrien could be Cat Noir until he indirectly tricked him that he wasn't. According to Miraculous Secrets, he caused chaos on Paris in the first place not only to find superheroes, but a guardian in the city to decipher the spellbook.

He later noticed Ladybug's disappearances in the middle of battles to bring allies, suspecting that she went to the Guardian of the Miraculouses.

Despite being often outsmarted by Ladybug, Gabriel proved to be a brilliant strategist and tactician. Not being deceived by Ladybug like his villains, he has proven himself to be cautious and careful like the superheroine herself. In order to avoid the suspicion of being Hawk Moth, he akumatizes himself. He showed that he is willing to use dirty or unfair tactics such as using sheer numbers to wear the superheroes down and resorting to surprise attacks as seen in “Heroes’ Day”. He noticed that both Lila and Chloé had great potential and unfinished business with Ladybug, planning to use this to his advantage not only to akumatize them (especially the latter as she had a Miraculous), but also form alliances with them.

Since Nathalie stole Fu's tablet with the deciphered spellbook pages, Gabriel has knowledge about the process to repair Miraculouses, several spells such as the incantation needed for the wish-granting power of the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses, and the recipes for the potions which grant more powers to the holders. However just like, Master Fu and Marinette, since former master was only able to partially decode the Miraculous spellbook it's likely his understanding is limited as well.

Gabriel has many talents which his son later learnt: He is very skilled at fencing, knows how to play the piano and perform a duo, and is able to speak Japanese fluently. Furthermore, Gabriel is able to grow and harvest butterflies.

As Hawk Moth[]

Hawk Moth has enhanced skills such as speed, agility, strength and near-invulnerability. Despite the fact that he doesn't often fight directly, Hawk Moth is a capable sword fighter, being able to defend himself and destroy miniature missiles from his own lair's defense protocol with his swordstick. His prowess is enough to overpower younger combatants like Ladybug and Cat Noir.

Even without being transformed, Hawk Moth's Miraculous allows him to feel emotions, whether positive or negative, like an empath, so he can precisely pinpoint the person's name and the reason why they have negative emotions.

Hawk Moth can control many akumas to form a swarm that makes a large version of his head, which he can speak through which is shown in "Stoneheart".

Hawk Moth's main superpower is akumatization, charging butterflies with dark energy which transforms them into akumas and then sending them out to possess an object of a vulnerable person. He can also keep his butterflies in his cane if he needs to use an akuma in another location other than his lair. If his targets agree to serve him, he transforms them into supervillains by corrupting their personalities and granting them a wide variety of superpowers or special abilities. He can also telepathically communicate with his so-called "winners". A pink butterfly-shaped outline appears in front of his and the villains' faces when he does so. However, he is only able to create one villain at a time over the course of an indeterminate amount of time, he needs to convince his victims to accept the powers that he grants, and the akumatized that he creates do still have a will of their own and can either disobey him or carry out his orders incompetently. Still, if a supervillain doesn't go and retrieve the Miraculous like they were asked to, Hawk Moth can control their bodies for a brief amount of time in order to inflict pain onto them until they agree to do it as quickly as possible. He is also capable of purifying an akuma himself.

When an akuma isn't purified by Ladybug, it will multiply and turn other people into frozen copies of the original akumatized villain. Hawk Moth can recall and trap the original akuma in the top of his cane in order to release it again when the victim gets sad or angry once more. This turns the victim into the same akumatized villain, but it also unfreezes the copies of them, which the original villain can command and control. However, once the original akuma is de-evilized, its copies vanish, reverting the duplicates of the villain back to normal.

Akumatization: He can create akumas.
Telepathy - he speaks to his akumatized victims.

As The Collector[]

The Collector is able to trap objects and people in the form of drawings inside his notebook. He throws the notebook like a boomerang, and while the notebook can go very far distances, once it captures something or someone by hitting them, it returns to him wherever he is. This is intensified as he can summon it. He can also utilize the notebook as a shield against projectiles, opening the book, either holding it sturdily or waving it around, so it traps the object being thrown towards him. Anything it passes through is trapped no matter how big it is. However, there is a limit to how much can be absorbed, as shown when Ladybug used a makeshift conveyor belt to launch a barrage of Adrien's CDs at him and he used his book to absorb them. When he then tried to absorb Ladybug, he found that the book's pages were all full and could not absorb anything more.

Additionally, The Collector is quick and agile, easily flipping, jumping, and dodging attacks.

Boomerang throw: He threw his book around like a boomerang and never missed.
Telekinesis: He also has the ability to telekinetically recall his book.
Combat: He engaged Ladybug and Cat Noir with a great deal of skill.

As Scarlet Moth[]

Scarlet Moth has the same abilities as Hawk Moth, but he is stronger as he can create as many akumatized villains as he desires. This is caused by his cane getting affected by Catalyst's enhancement. He can use his cane to summon more scarlet akumas to make the heroes feel intimidated and outnumbered. Instead of creating normal akumas, he creates scarlet akumas, which are dark crimson red, just like the akumatized.

Unlike with normal akumatized villains, Scarlet Moth can akumatize his victims without having to ask for their permission and the created villains are bound to obey him, showing that the will that they still had in a normal akumatization is now diminished. He used Dark Cupid to create the negative emotions he needed so he could akumatize more villains.

As Shadow Moth[]

As Shadow Moth, he possesses the abilities of both the Butterfly and the Peacock Miraculouses, having the ability to create akumatized champions along with sentimonsters as their allies. He also possesses both the cane and the hand-fan as a weapon, using the feathers of the latter to create his amoks. After either the akuma or the amok make contact, the fusion of the light mask of both akumatization and amokization appears on them.

Trivia[]

He was Linda Ryan/The Shredderette's second-in-command of The Foot Empire in The Irelanders' Adventures Series. However, in Connor Lacey's Ultra Adventures Series, he overthrew Linda and became the Foot Empire's new leader with Mayura and half of Linda's Foot Empire and formed the Legion of Hawk Moth to ensure Linda Ryan and her evil forces will win against Connor Lacey and Pals for reviving Sean and his kids once more and kill Connor without him exposing his identity.
He will appear in Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug, Cat Noir and Captain Scarlet. Although the Mysterons do not come into play until the fourth season, it has been implied prior that he has been frequently meeting with Captain Black.
He is the partner of Ryan Repulsa.
He will appear in Pooh's Adventures of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir.
He will face Tino Tonitini, Ash Ketchum, Littlefoot, Bloom, SpongeBob, and their friends in Tino's Adventures of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir.
He will face Connor and Pals in Connor Lacey's Adventures of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir.
He will face Ryan, Meg and Friends in Ryan's and Crash's Adventures of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir.
He will face the Irelanders in The Irelanders' Adventures of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir.
He will become Emerl's Enemy in Team Robot in Pokemon (2019).
He will face Sonic, Red and their friends in Sonic and Red's Adventures of The Lion Guard.
He will be one of the secondary antagonists of Tabby's Adventure Series, being Xenwo's best friend, and one of Tabby The Fox's main enemies despite him having to team up with him sometimes such as in Tabby Discovers Elena and the Secret of A valor after King Hurricane goes against his orders, and rather follows Xenwo's orders instead.
Hawk Moth is called "Butterfly" in other early sources.
As seen in episodes like "Darkblade", "Antibug", and "Princess Fragrance", Hawk Moth has the time to akumatize more than one person a day, even though it is not more than one person each time.
The design of Hawk Moth's mask is a reference to the supervillain Fantômas from the 1964 French film with the same name.
As revealed in "The Dark Owl", Hawk Moth's intentions for getting Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses is to change a past event.
- In "Zombizou" he mentions that his cherished wish is linked to love.
- In "Queen Wasp" and "Catalyst", it is hinted that Gabriel's intentions for getting the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses are linked to a promise with Emilie.
- In "Party Crasher", Gabriel mentions that the past event seems to be a mistake he and Emilie made.
Hawk Moth is named after the Sphingidae; a family of moths that are generally referred to as "hawk moths" because of their swift flight patterns.
In some dubs, Gabriel and Hawk Moth have different voice actors. Examples are the Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Hungarian (only Season 1), and Dutch dubs.
Gabriel has a secret safe behind the painting of Emilie Agreste in his atelier. It contains the Peacock Miraculous, a picture of Emilie Agreste, tickets for Tibet, and a book about the Miraculouses.
- In "Volpina", Adrien takes the Miraculous book, unbeknownst to Gabriel, and the book eventually ends up in Marinette's hands. Once he discovers that it is missing in "The Collector", he, despite having the book's pages saved digitally, becomes very angry and punishes Adrien, most likely due to the book making him the primary suspect for being Hawk Moth.
- The painting of Emilie Agreste also conceals another secret — access to the entrance to Hawk Moth's lair. The passage opens when certain spots of the painting are pressed.
After sending an akuma, he rotates his staff with his left hand, which possibly indicates Gabriel is left-handed.
In "Volpina", Adrien confuses a previous owner of the Butterfly Miraculous for Hawk Moth upon seeing his picture in the Miraculous Spellbook.
Gabriel's phone number as listed in Adrien's phone contacts is [[1]].
Gabriel is one of the tallest characters in the series.
- Strangely, Hawk Moth is depicted taller than Gabriel, while in reality they are the same height.
It has been confirmed that both Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste (Ladybug and Cat Noir's civilian identities) would be extremely hard for Hawk Moth to corrupt, as Marinette always has an extremely positive attitude and Adrien is too used to being disappointed and upset for anything to truly aggravate him.
- Despite this, he still came very close to Akumatizing Marinette on several different occasions.
  - In "Zombizou", Miss Bustier cheered Marinette up, resulting in her anger fading.
  - In "Chameleon", when Marinette was stricken with fear upon seeing the akuma, Tikki encouraged her to think positive, resulting in her fear fading.
  - In "Ladybug", Scarlet Moth manages to infect Marinette's pouch, and she was nearly akumatized into Princess Justice as a result. However, Nathalie's condition from usage of the damaged Peacock Miraculous manages to interrupted the process, making it narrowly avoid completion.
  - In "Cat Blanc", Cat Noir destroyed the akuma with his Cataclysm before it could akumatize Marinette in an alternate timeline where Adrien discovered Ladybug's secret identity.
Hawk Moth's power is similar to Whampire. However, Whampire's corrupturas were used to make evil armies by his species and used by Whampire to make allies, Hawk Moth's akumas were meant to make superheroes and used to make supervillians.
Hawk Moth usually reveals his name to his victims when he corrupts them. However, he never gave out his name to the Evillustrator or Darkblade.
It is unconfirmed as to whether Hawk Moth shall appear in the special episodes "Miraculous New York" or "The Chinese Legend", as they both take place outside of Paris.
The episode "Catalyst" marks the first time Hawk Moth appears outside of his lair, and the next episode, "Mayura" marks the first time he directly fights Ladybug and Cat Noir. "Mayura" also confirms that Hawk Moth can stay transformed even after using his power.
After sending an akuma, he rotates his staff with his left hand, which possibly indicates he's left-handed.
As revealed in "Timetagger", sometime in the future, the role of Hawk Moth will be assumed by someone other than Gabriel, with his successor continuing to be an enemy to the current - but older - Ladybug and Cat Noir. There is almost no confirmed information on this individual; it is also not known how or why Gabriel relinquishes the identity.
In "The Evillustrator", Chloé bribes Sabrina by using a beret that Gabriel designed.
Despite being the main villain of the series, Hawk Moth makes very few physical appearances in the Miraculous Secrets webisodes and makes no appearances in the Tales From Paris spin-off.
- However, as opposed to this, the Miraculous Secrets episode "Gabriel" centers entirely around him, as it features him talking to Emilie inside his repository and promising to take care of Adrien and one day get his hands on the Miraculouses to undo their past mistake (which, as he confirms, was using the damaged Peacock Miraculous).
- Additionally, despite his presence throughout the series, he is rarely ever fought by the heroes directly, only ever being confronted by Ladybug and Cat Noir in "Stoneheart" "Mayura", "Ladybug" and "Miracle Queen".
Gabriel and Hawk Moth have the same voice actors in many dubs.
Gabriel admires Marinette's talent, as shown in "Queen Wasp".
Hawk Moth is named after the Sphingidae; a family of moths that are generally referred to as "hawk moths" because of their swift flight patterns.
- Hawk Moth surrounding himself with darkness may also be a reference to thse moths, as most types are nocturnal.
He is voiced by Keith Silverstein, who shares the voices of Zhongli from Genshin Impact, Jetfire (WfCT),