Miraculous Watch-through 2: "The Bubbler" and "The Pharaoh"

It's time once again for me to look back at Season One of Miraculous Ladybug and see what I make of it. Now that I've established the general format, I intend to write a little less for each episode – just a couple of paragraphs for each one. That means I'll have space to talk about two eps per post, so off we go! As before, I'm using the episode order from the UK S1 DVD.

S1E02: The Bubbler

"Hey, we'll be fine if we can land in that pond, right? Right?"

This episode brings us several firsts. We have our first school scenes, though they're largely external. We see the Agrestes' mansion for the first time and start to get a sense of Gabriel's less than touchy-feely approach to his son. We meet Chloé and her own obsession with Adrien, as well as her manipulative control of Sabrina. We also see for the first – but not the last – time, a grim-faced transformation sequence, with Marinette unhappy after her parents have been bubbled. Oh, and Hawk Moth's "It won't be long before Ladybug and Cat Noir show up to meet their doom" line gets the first of its multiple S1 outings here.

Adrien himself shows quite some immaturity even for a (just) 14-year-old, starting with insulting Plagg's birthday gift to him (yes, it's Camembert, but it's still a wrapped gift) and continuing with attending the Bubbler's party instead of doing his actual job as a superhero. Marinette does something similar, and Tikki is quite right in telling her off for not using her powers for (to borrow a phrase from the show's future) the greater good. The Bubbler's rather absurd appearance aside, this is a solid episode with several interesting touches and our first good look at Nino – oh, and Hawk Moth's first use of the word "evilise"!

Quote: Ladybug: "They [adults] care for their kids! They love them." Cat Noir: "Most adults do, anyhow." Ouch.

S1E03: The Pharaoh

That symbol between Tikki and Ladybug means "baguette" in Ancient Egyptian

This is where we get our first significant bit of lore! In the course of the episode, we discover that Marinette is "the chosen one", that there have been Ladybugs for millennia and that Tikki has watched over them "since the very beginning". What's even more interesting, in the light of later Gabriel-related show revelations we didn't know about at this point, is that she was intervening to prevent the pharaoh magically bringing his wife Nefertiti back to life! The name of Nefertiti's husband is Tutankhamen in English, but the more historically accurate Akhenaten in French. A particularly annoying change by the English dub team...

...as is the whole "tenth-grade" thing, which makes Marinette appear too old. In the original French, Marinette is in the troisième, which fits better with her being 14 during S2. Anyway, I can't help feeling Jalil Kubdel's ideas about that sceptre will have relevance later in the series, but for now The Pharaoh is the most dangerous akumatised villain so far, thanks to his ability to call on ancient gods' powers. He comes quite close to getting rid of Alya, Ladybug and Cat Noir ("Enjoy your coffin!") at various points. Alya is glorious in this ep, such as with her annoyance at not being considered prime sacrifice material. The best episode of the first three? I'd say so.

Quote: Alya: "Hi, everyone! Alya here, liveblogging from the shoulder of the terrifying villain! Huge scoop to come; stay tuned!" Like I said, glorious.

Next time, I'll be talking about "Lady Wifi" and "Timebreaker".