Félix: A Redemption He Didn’t Earn

If Chloé didn't reserved a redemption, and that's not the case, why him?

Writing about Chloé's denied redemption was as exhausting as childbirth. I hoped I wouldn't have to write such a long article again; this one, for obvious reasons, will be much shorter. The topic this time is Félix's undeserved redemption and how that hypocrite Astruc enjoys double standards. If you want to better understand what I mean, I recommend you read my two articles, "Redemption Denied: Chloé's true story," if you haven't already. I hope you enjoy this new article and wish you happy reading.

A few years ago, when season 3 of Miraculous was airing, Thomas Astruc responded in an absolutely rude way on Twitter (I've included some of his tweets in the two articles about Chloé) to some Chloé fans and dropped a bombshell that Chloé's redemption was only in the fans' imagination.
Faced with the incredulity and objections of fans, Astruc wrote this sentence sarcastically.

Thomas Astruc: She transformed in front of everybody, willingly damaged a train to play the savior, nearly killed all passengers, refused to give the miraculous back, get akumatized as a miraculous holder (double threat, nice gift to Hawk Moth) and paralyzed a whole city. But hey, good job QB!

I don't agree with the conclusion he reaches, but I have to admit that these objections aren't entirely wrong. In my opinion, it's nothing unforgivable, but it's true that Chloé made several mistakes. But then I watch the season 5 finale with Félix among the ranks of the Miraculous guardians, and I feel like swearing. Now we'll retrace Félix's story to help you better understand the situation.

Season 3 Félix

Félix first appears in season 3, in the episode that bears his name. Considering that the titles of almost all episodes (except the origins and season 5) bear the name of the akumatized or sentimonster in question, it could be deduced that the title of his debut episode was intended to be a clue to his sentibeing nature.

Félix was originally the prototype for Adrien back when Miraculous was just a project, originally in 2D, and Astruc was busy looking for someone willing to produce his cartoon. The original Félix was a gloomy and taciturn character who resented Marinette's attentions (perhaps the story would have been better with this darker character). Once the Miraculous project was approved, the co-protagonist—or so the writers would have us believe—changed his name to Adrien, taking on a brighter and more positive, albeit more naive, personality.

On Twitter, Thomas has always maintained a certain consistency for this character, if by consistency we mean bipolar disorder.

Thomas Astruc: Nobody was convinced by their dynamic as a couple of heroes. Me neither. So new personality, new backstory, new design, new name. Brand new character. And here’s Adrien, everyone’s cookie! Even though he wasn’t fit to be our hero, Félix’s still an interesting character. Given the opportunity, I’ll make him come back.

Faced with the public’s growing fascination with the proto-Adrien, Astruc began to show increasing annoyance at fans’ constant requests for the character’s revival.

Thomas Astruc: Adrien is more interesting storywise, while Félix was more an anime cliché. That’s why we discarded him. No matter what Félix’s lovers think, this character was a poor idea. He’s yours to fanfic with. I won’t waste my time on him.

Astruc criticizes Félix for being a Japanese anime cliché, but in my opinion, everything about Miraculous is a cliché of Japanese anime, Disney movies, and superhero comics (Ladybug and Cat Noir are literally Spider-Man and the Black Cat). So, in the end, what would have changed with just one more or one less cliché? Félix became increasingly popular in the fandom, for which the Bad Boy was more interesting than Voltaire's Candide, and so in 2019, Félix also appeared in the Miraculous universe.

In the debut episode, we see that Adrien is obsessed with his cousin, welcoming him with open arms, and certainly has fond memories of him. Félix, for his part, seems perpetually angry with the world and doesn't seem to reciprocate Adrien's affection at all. The huge difference in the two boys' attitudes makes us understand that Félix hasn't always been like this and that something must have happened in the meantime that changed him. That something seems to be the death of his father, which Adrien himself mentions and which seems to have occurred not long after Emilie's passing. Adrien, in fact, apologizes for not being present at Colt Fathom's funeral.

Adrien: (holding a basketball) Do you remember our shooting contests? (passes the ball to Félix, who, unenthusiastically, catches it with one hand and throws it into the hoop behind him.) I’m really sorry I didn’t come to your dad’s funeral. My father throught it would be too hard on me, considering… everything that’s happened this year. You’ve every right to be mad at me.

Félix is ​​cold; although he tries to maintain a friendly front with Adrien, he doesn't seem to be trying too hard, just the bare minimum. While Adrien is busy, Félix rummages through his things and, for no apparent reason, hides and crushes a piece of Plagg's cheese under Adrien's pillow.

Félix: Do you always do everything your father tells you to do?

It's clear that the writers already had some details about the sentibeings in mind. In hindsight, this question from Félix becomes a clear reference to Adrien as a sentibeing, seeing Gabriel controlling his son's will through his wedding ring.

From what was revealed to us in season 5, we know that at this point in the story, Félix must have experienced the first months of true freedom in his life with the death of his father and having inherited the ring that contained the amok, after years of abuse. One would therefore expect him to feel the utmost empathy towards Adrien, who may not have suffered the same level of abuse, but still lives under a bubble, constantly under his father's control. On the contrary, Félix seems to hate his cousin more than anything else, except perhaps his uncle Gabriel. In addition to the cheese prank, which was ultimately stupid and forgivable, Félix pretends to be Adrien by sending insulting text messages to his friends. When Adrien's friends were trying to console him because it was the anniversary of his mother's death, Félix goes to great lengths to turn Adrien against his friends, including trying to forcibly kiss Ladybug and placing the blame on Adrien. From his debut, Félix displays behaviors that make his future redemption seem absurd.

Considering that he and Amélie had come to Paris with the goal of recovering at least one of the Graham de Vanily family's two wedding rings, it becomes even stranger that Félix would go to all this trouble to ruin his cousin's life.

In season 5, an attempt will be made to explain his obsession with Adrien by the circumstances of his conception. Since Colt Fathom wanted a child out of envy of Gabriel and Emilie, it is suggested that Félix himself was conceived with the Peacock Miraculous, starting from that emotion. For this reason, Félix would be instinctively jealous of Adrien and the fact that he has friends. But one can be jealous without hating; in a competition, one can envy the one who came in first and simultaneously acknowledge their merit for the victory. Jealousy does not imply cruelty, active sabotage, or hatred. Félix, on the other hand, truly hates Adrien, despite the fact that his cousin is in a situation similar to the one he himself was in until a few months ago.

Félix even seems to despise Adrien precisely because he doesn't have full control over his own will. As if it were his own choice/weakness and not a magical control he can't do anything about, and which Adrien isn't even aware of.

Adrien: (angrily) That's not how I talk.
Félix: (rudely) You're right, you sound even more pathetic.
Félix: (Season 4 Risk) I know, and that's why the second I saw your face on TV this morning, I left London to get you out of this mess. Freedom is something you make Adrien. For starters, you gotta stop doing everything your father tells you to.

In this episode, Félix does another strange thing: he offers Hawk Moth his help in stealing the Miraculouses, right in front of the two heroes. He also explains that he wants to get his hands on a piece of jewelry.

Hawk Moth: (Directly through Lady Wifi) And what do you want?
Félix: I’m after a piece of jewelry, too. How about we make a little exchange?
Hawk Moth: (Directly through Reflekta) Get hold of the Miraculous first. (Directly through Princess Fragrance) We’ll discuss the rest later.
Félix: You’ve got yourself a deal. Now I think it’s high time Ladybug and Cat Noir were punished. (He holds out the tablet to Lady Wifi).

It's unclear whether he's referring to the wedding ring or the Peacock Miraculous. Let's take a step back and return to the question of wedding rings. We know from the Season 4 finale that Félix wanted to use at least one of the wedding rings as a bargaining chip with Hawk Moth to retrieve the Peacock Miraculous. His ultimate goal was to gain control of the Miraculous, which could generate sentimonsters, so that no human could ever abuse it again. Therefore, Félix knew that the two wedding rings contained Adrien's Amok; he wouldn't have considered it as a bargaining chip. This, however, leads us to wonder why he and Amélie decided to openly ask Gabriel to return the rings to their family.

Considering what we discover in Season 5, Amélie must also have been in on the secret surrounding the rings, and Gabriel must have known that Amélie knew. In light of this, Amélie's request for the two wedding rings as her family's historical treasures must have seemed more than suspicious to Gabriel, almost inexplicable. Gabriel was surely thinking at that moment: "Why is she asking me this? She knows exactly what's in the rings, why would she want them?"

But perhaps at the end of the episode, it's possible to sense that the plans for this storyline weren't yet completely clear in the writers' minds. From the final scene on the train, it seems that not only did Amélie know nothing of the true nature of the rings, but that Félix was somehow manipulating her and that he knew something her mother didn't. So for Amélie, the two wedding rings were just simple rings with purely sentimental value, while Félix knew, or at least suspected, that they contained Adrien's Amok. But how could Amélie know nothing, and why would Emilie hide the truth from her sister? In Répresentation, 5x24, it's clarified that the two women gave birth after a normal pregnancy, so Félix and Adrien were created with the Miraculous directly in their mother's womb. Are we really supposed to believe that she and Gabriel lent the Peacock Miraculous to Colt to create a child in Amélie's womb, leaving her completely in the dark? If that were the case, we would have to deduce that the only way Félix could have discovered certain family secrets is for his father to have confessed them to him, perhaps in one of his many angry moments.

But then, at this point in the story, Félix must already suspect that Gabriel is Hawk Moth and that he has the Peacock Miraculous. If that were the case, his offer to help him steal the heroes' Miraculouses in exchange for another jewel would be consistent with later seasons, because it would mean that he was already intending to exchange the two larger Miraculouses for the Peacock Miraculous.

Theories about Adrien sentibeing began to spread throughout the fandom in Season 4, and I can't shake the idea that those theories must have initially been spread by someone at Zag Animation, or someone who worked for one of the animation studios, or one of the many other related industries—in short, someone who already knew about future plots. Because the first few times we see Gabriel touch his ring, the gesture seems too casual to be immediately connected to Adrien's obedience. Adrien initially seems to react to his father's orders as usual, as any boy with a very authoritarian parent would. Furthermore, in the first seasons, I don't remember any scenes where Gabriel touched his ring to make Adrien obey in any situation. Adrien found the courage to rebel and run away from home, free from his father's control (once his father ordered him to go to his room, and he circumvented the order by saying that Adrien was grounded, but not Cat Noir). In Cat Blanc, for example, Gabriel didn't touch the ring to control Adrien; torn between love and family, he can't make up his mind and destroys everything.

Season 4 Gabriel Agreste

For many, season 4 was a disappointment, not only for its Flanderization of Chloé, but also because Astruc wanted to boast by openly declaring that every episode would have the same impact as Cat Blanc, pride always precedes a fall. At the time, this episode seemed like one of the few possible ones, but let's analyze together how consistent it was with the evolution of the series.

Félix returns, invited to Villa Agreste with his mother by Gabriel, intent on reclaiming his stolen wedding ring. Once again, Amélie seems unaware of any backstory and convinced that Félix had persuaded his uncle during their previous visit to give at least one of the two wedding rings. Gabriel strangely plays along and never tries to expose Amélie's lies.

Amélie: Gabriel! I’m so happy to be able to thank you in person for giving our family’s ring (kisses his cheeks) back to Félix.
Gabriel: It was the sensible thing to do, Amélie.

This time, Félix feels confident in Gabriel's secret identity, openly accusing him of being Shadow Moth. Félix is ​​taken aback when Gabriel tries to akumatize him while his uncle is standing in front of him, seemingly clearing the man of all suspicion.

But Félix isn't the only one confused; at that moment, many spectators are too. Earlier, during the conversation between Gabriel and Nathalie, it had been established that the designer couldn't simply akumatize Félix to get the ring back, otherwise he might have guessed who was behind the Shadow Moth mask. Gabriel wanted to hide his double identity from his nephew.

Nathalie: Akumatize him, then make him tell you where he’s put Emilie’s real ring and get it back.
Gabriel: If I do that, he’ll know that I’m Shadow Moth. (punches the table) Who else would want that ring?
Nathalie: You’re forgetting how immense your powers are now. You can be the Gabriel who creates negative emotions and the Shadow Moth who akumatizes them at the same time.
Gabriel: Brillant idea, Nathalie.


A few seconds later, however, after having created a sentimonster in his own image and likeness in order to divert any suspicion, he practically confesses to being in possession of the Peacock Miraculous, openly threatening Félix to make it disappear with a snap of his fingers. My personal impression is that here the writers wanted Gabriel to try to keep his identity a secret, but at the same time give us viewers clues about Félix's sentibeing nature, and by mixing the two, they made a ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous mistake.

Félix: I knew you were no ordinary uncle.
Gabriel: (preparing to snap his fingers) And now you know that I only need to snap my fingers to makes you disappear from here.

Gabriel should have threatened Félix as Shadow Moth, not through his clone. Instead of having his doppelganger say that line about snapping his fingers, he should have made the threat telepathically through the akuma.

Shadow Moth: (IMAGINARY DIALOGUE WRITTEN BY ME TO IMPROVE THE SCENE) Gabriel Agreste would be Shadow Moth? What nonsense, he doesn't have the right stuff, and he also lacks something else that I have. I know who you are, Félix, what you are: I could make you disappear with a snap of my fingers, unless you agree to bring me Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses, as you kindly offered to do last time.

And in case you're going to tell me that Gabriel is stupid and that he was intentionally making this mistake, then you also have to admit that at that precise moment, Nathalie, who was in his room sick from overusing the Peacock Miraculous, jumped up on the bed and shouted, "Sir, what are you saying? Don't threaten him with the sentimonster, or he'll get caught." (I'm obviously being sarcastic.)

Gabriel also immediately shows that he knows Félix's true objective, because after this episode, Gabriel will create fake Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses and put them in the safe behind Emilie's painting, assuming that Félix knows about the strongbox and will try to open it in the future.

Félix, for his part, hasn't yet tried to exchange his wedding ring for the Peacock Miraculous, and it's unclear why. He doesn't even mention wanting to get his hands on some random piece of jewelry this time around; he seems to just be trying to expose his uncle. Yet, in theory, from what we learned in season 5, getting hold of the Peacock Miraculous should be his sole purpose.

Season 4 Risk & Strikeback

Félix will return in the season finale (it took him a long time to put his plan into action), where the events that lead to his betrayal will happen thanks to a huge, gigantic stroke of luck. Risk will allow Ladybug to take risks and let her emotions rule. Ladybug gets on the train and finds Félix, thinking he was Adrien. Seeing that he doesn't have the frog mark, she decides to show him that her yo-yo is connected to the Miracle Box and that the Miraculouses can be obtained from there. Ladybug entrusts Félix with the dog's Miraculous, which he will use to help her win, but then makes a drastic decision, undeserving of forgiveness, an action so serious that everything Chloé did will seem foolishness in comparison (For the record, I'm not defending Chloé because I like to play devil's advocate, but to give viewers a 360-degree view and, above all, to help them understand how wrong it is to redeem Félix and not Chloé).

Félix returns to Gabriel, offering him all the Miraculouses in the Miracle Box, when it would have been enough to exchange the wedding ring for the Peacock Miraculous. Let's leave aside the fact that only in a few episodes does Gabriel remember that he can use amok and akuma together, whereas some akumatized people could win if they had the sentimonster as support.

Félix himself will admit that he no longer needs the ring once he'll have the Peacock Miraculous. So why bother stealing all of Ladybug's Miraculouses, stabbing her in the back like that when he already had the necessary bargaining chip? Why pay a million when you know the other person would settle for a thousand?

Flairmidable: Give me what I ask for and I’ll give something better in exchange.
Gabriel: Ladybug and Cat Noir’s Miraculous?
Flairmidable: No. All the other Miraculous. And this. (presents the Graham de Vanily ring that is in his possession.) I won’t be needing it anymore. As long as Ladybug hasn’t de-transformed. I only have to say one word and her yo-yo, the magic portal to the Miraculous, will be yours. Make up your mind, time is ticking. (spins the ball on his finger)

No previous episode has ever established that Gabriel would never accept the Peacock in exchange of only his wedding ring. Indeed, from his behavior so far, we were led to deduce that Gabriel placed enormous importance on the ring.

Another question: why didn't Félix simply reveal Shadow Moth's identity to Ladybug, helping him defeat him, and then perhaps escaping at the right moment with the only Miraculous he truly cared about?

Let's recap. At this point in the story, we've established that Félix has always treated Adrien with contempt, trying to harm him gratuitously or exploiting him for his own purposes, as when he takes his place in this episode. And that his target initially seemed to possess at least one of the two wedding rings because his mother had told him a story about them, a story that, however, must not have included any mention of the Miraculouses or the sentibeings. Since Amélie seems to be in the dark about everything, and Félix said he convinced his uncle to give him one of the two rings so he could give it to her.

Félix: But… you wanted it so much.
Amélie: Only to give it to you. You’ve always been so fascinated by them. How many times have you asked me to tell you the story of the Graham de Vanily twin rings, huh? (she kisses his forehead) I’m glad it’s back in the family where it truly belongs. (She winks at him and then rests her eyes. Félix smiles deviously out the window).

Why lie to her if she knew everything? And if Amélie had known that Adrien's amok was in the two rings, why would she want it? It's true that she'll later say she always wanted the ring so she could give it to him, but why would she want her son to possess what is essentially... Adrien's remote control? Let's not forget that when we see them together, Félix always seems to know better and be hiding something, while she appears like a naive, scatterbrained woman who's protecting him without realizing the true nature of things. We also see this at the beginning of season 5 when Ladybug and Cat Noir go looking for him in London.

Amélie: (putting her hand on Félix's head) Don't worry, my Félix. Mom is here to protect you from those superheroes who think you're a villain.

Félix's goal seems to have changed dramatically. First he showed interest in the wedding rings, then he tried to steal both of his uncle's Miraculouses. But if his ultimate goal was the peacock, why take the butterfly one as well? We might think he intended to completely disarm his uncle, and this would be consistent with the season 5 finale, where Félix asks Ladybug to neutralize Monarch, a threat to all sentibeings. If Félix had managed to steal the authentic Miraculouses instead of the fake ones, Gabriel wouldn't have had the chance to hunt him down.

But this raises another question: why steal ALL THE OTHER MIRACULOUSES and add them to the exchange? He tried to take the Butterfly Miraculous away from his uncle, when your only goal was the Peacock and the only reason I can think of was to disarm him and make sure he didn't get revenge. And now Félix adds more weapons to his arsenal, leaving him with the butterfly as well? It makes NO SENSE, and yet this move will be presented to the audience as a necessary evil, a bad thing Félix had to do for the good of all sentibeings.

A new concept is also introduced in the Season 4 finale: Félix cares about every sentimonsters. He demonstrates this when he apologizes to the Strike Backs for allowing Ladybug to send them into the sun, as he is engaged in a mission to retrieve the Peacock Miraculous for the greater good. This new concept clearly serves to further suggest to the viewer the truth about Félix's magical origins, but it is inconsistent with the treatment he has always reserved for his cousin. Even if we were to admit that Félix hates Adrien because of the envy with which Colt created him, this never causes his character to reflect on himself, on how much Colt's envy continues to hold sway over him despite his now possessing free will. The fact that a residual feeling from the man who mistreated him for much of his childhood drove him to try to hurt another sentibeing as innocent as he was, Félix should be filled with anger or at least have some sense of guilt.

Season 5 Emotion

Félix will abandon his contempt for Adrien off-stage and when we see him again in Emotion he has already completed his metamorphosis into a "paladin of the rights of sentibeings", declaring that his cousin is the last person he wants to hurt and that he cares very much about him.

Argos: Adrien is the last person I’d wanna hurt, Marinette. (opens a trash bin) I care about him, (puts Marinette inside) and he’s lucky to have you. (Marinette looks up at him, her eyes full of tears of rage.) Stay here and keep safe. (closes the lid)

Félix cares so much about him that in the same episode he continues to exploit him as an unwitting pawn in his own plans: once again taking his place without his consent and refusing to tell him the truth about his real nature.

Again in Emotion, his goal changes again, and now as Argos, he suddenly desires Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses to make a wish, presumably to free the sentimonsters from their bond with amoks so they can be free.

Which brings up the old question once again: why the hell would you give your uncle the ENTIRE CONTENTS OF THE MIRACLE BOX plus the wedding ring? He gave Gabriel immense power, which would have instantly allowed him to get his hands on both major Miraculouses if the writers hadn't heavily abused of plot armor, changed some rules of the magic system, and made Gabriel progressively more and more stupid. But Félix couldn't have known all this, so he gave his uncle a lot of power to take the two major Miraculouses, then waited almost the entire season before making his move and trying to take them himself. What if Gabriel had succeeded in the meantime?

Conclusions

Unfortunately, at this point in the story, the writers have decided that everyone, absolutely everyone, deserves redemption, except Chloé, and therefore Félix as well. So, out of nowhere, they decide to pair him with Kagami, who reciprocates without much thought, thus killing two birds with one stone: a treat for disappointed fans of the Adrien-Kagami duo and making Félix seem more like a good character.

EVERY ONE OF HIS WRONG DEEDS is not only FORGIVED, but FORGOTTEN. Besides never apologizing to Ladybug, he doesn't even bother to explain why he betrayed her in the season 4 finale. She and Chat Noir don't even seem interested in demanding any answers. When he finally deigns to say something to Marinette, again in Representation, 5x24, he does so in the vaguest possible way, without truly apologizing, and even creating a disposable sentimonster for the occasion, despite all respect for sentimonsters. We'll never even hear him apologize to Adrien for how he's treated him over the past three seasons, for how he initially tried to hurt him, and for how he's continually deceived and used him for his own purposes. But... that's okay: the guy who STABBED the protagonist in the BACK and gave immense power to the main villain is instantly forgiven! Now he's officially part of the group of heroes and even has a girlfriend.

Instead, what happens to the little girl raised by an inept, spineless father and a bitchy, poisonous, and absent mother? The girl who longed to fight alongside her heroine and tried everything to impress her? The girl the writers wanted to create like Azula but accidentally created a Zuko? From a simple, minor antagonist/plot device, she's evolved into a profound character, until she undergoes a process of Flanderization. Poor Chloé.

Let's recap everything I've written and you've read so far. In the six episodes we've analyzed, Félix has committed all sorts of misdeeds, deceived, betrayed, manipulated, and handed over almost all the Miraculouses to his uncle. In terms of evil, he clearly surpassed Chloé, rivaled only by Lila Rossi, and his sole motivation was REVENGE. Yet they decide to give him redemption in a single episode. As I've explained in the past, redeeming Félix too quickly was as grave a mistake as denying Chloé's redemption.

With Chloé, however, we analyzed a whopping 18 episodes in 33 pages. In season 1, she existed only as a plot device to cause akumatizations. But then in season 2, they gave her depth and substance: she saved Ladybug three times before becoming Queen Bee, she apologized four times to the superheroine and her teacher (and that hypocrite Astruc repeatedly said she never apologized), she rejected the devil's temptations four times in Miraculer, and she helped defeat the villains several times. And all this because, unlike Félix, her motivation was simple: seeking the love and approval her parents didn't give her, leaving an unfillable void in her heart that she tried to fill by seeking love and approval in Ladybug (remember, emptiness is scarier than darkness). Her own fall into darkness wasn't an active choice, but a reaction created by external circumstances. After all that work, after all those episodes written to create a slow but significant path to redemption, the writers backtracked and divided the fandom, just as many today are divided by the death of Charlie Kirk, poor boy.

The writers are like a mother who doesn't know how to do her job with her first daughter, and after abandoning her (Chloé), the mother remarries and, with a second family, finally manages to do her job well. How do you think the first daughter would react to seeing all this? She would have wanted that mother, and if that mother is now able to do her job as a parent with her new family, it means that mother was always capable of being a good mother, but it wasn't worth doing for her first daughter. (Any reference to The Good Place is purely coincidental.)

With that, I'll conclude this article. Let me know if you enjoyed it, because I value your opinions. If you'd like to support me, I invite you to donate some GP. That said, I'll see you in the next article. Thanks for reading to the end. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen.