Hawk Moth (Le Papillon in the French version, which translates to "The Butterfly") is the main antagonist of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. With the Moth Miraculous, when inhabited by Nooroo, the unknown person transforms into Hawk Moth. He wants Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses for himself in order to obtain absolute power, and he creates and controls the akumas, evil creatures who transform normal people into supervillains.[2][3]
While Hawk Moth's civilian form is unknown, his silhouette is seen in "Ladybug & Cat Noir (Origins - Part 1)". He has a silver ring on his middle left hand, and he wears pants, shoes with laces, and a long-sleeved shirt with a folded collar.
As Hawk Moth
Hawk Moth wears a dark purple dress shirt with a black butterfly-shaped lapel, the Moth 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. Whenever he is controlling someone with an akuma, a bright pink butterfly-shaped outline appears above his face and around his eyes. He also has a dark indigo cane.
Hawk Moth vowing to defeat Ladybug and Cat Noir as the window closes.
Hawk Moth is cold, cunning, and determined. His goal is to claim the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous to gain their absolute power that he needs to achieve his dearest, secret wish, not caring if he causes people harm in the process. His akumatized villains are his most powerful known weapon, and he chooses his victims carefully and cleverly, usually people who are emotionally at their weakest, giving them ideas if they're struggling to think up of one. He is a great deceiver, persuading people that he cares about their problems and gives them powers to help them solve them, when in fact, he does it because he wants them to take the Miraculouses for him. If things aren't going his way, he easily loses his patience, threatening harm to Ladybug, Cat Noir, and even to the villains he creates. After a villain's defeat, Hawk Moth determinedly vows revenge and, while stopping for a while afterwards, doesn't wait too long to try again with his akumas.
Abilities
As Hawk Moth
Hawk Moth corrupting a butterfly to create an akuma.
Hawk Moth can energize butterflies with dark energy, which transforms them into akumas. He sends them out to possess an object of a vulnerable person, and then after they agree to serve him, he transforms them into supervillains, corrupting their personalities and granting them a wide variety of superpowers and abilities. He can also telepathically communicate with his creations, and when he does so, a pink butterfly-shaped frame appears in front of his and the villains' faces. He is able to feel negative emotions like an empath, and he can precisely pinpoint the person's name and the reason why they're upset.
Hawk Moth briefly controlling the Evillustrator's hand.
These powers do have their limitations, 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 supervillains that he creates — while corrupted — do still have a will of their own and can either disobey or carry out his orders incompetently. For a brief amount of time, however, he can control the villain's body, preventing them from doing anything.
When an akuma is not cleansed by Ladybug, it will multiply and turn other people into frozen copies of the original akumatized villain. Hawk Moth can trap the original akuma in a glass dome at the top of his cane, and he can 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. Hawk Moth can also control many akumas to form a swarm that makes a large version of his head, which he can speak through. However, once the original akuma is de-evilized, its copies vanish, reverting the duplicates of the villain back to normal.
It is currently unknown if he has any physical capabilities of his own.
Hawk Moth wants nothing more than to defeat Ladybug, take her Miraculous, and make her suffer once he wins. While he despises both Ladybug and Cat Noir and wants both of their Miraculous, he seems to blame her more for their successes and feel more aggression towards her. The reason is unknown, but it is most likely because she is the one who captures the akumas he creates and turns them back to normal.
The only purpose Hawk Moth creates akumatized villains is because he needs them to retrieve Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses from them. He pretends to be a caring friend, promising to assist them with their dark desires by giving them powers, just as long as they return the favor with the Miraculouses. He often stays involved with what they're doing, and he'll give advice or plans to them in some situations.
However, if an akumatized villain doesn't follow through with obtaining the Miraculouses, Hawk Moth gets furious. He becomes frustrated when the Bubbler kicks a bubble that holds Ladybug and Cat Noir into the sky without getting their Miraculouses, and when the Evillustrator avoids his responsibility to prepare for a date with Marinette, he temporarily controls his body to urge him to hurry up. Hawk Moth even threatens to remove Dark Cupid's powers in the episode of the same name if he doesn't bring him Ladybug's Miraculous.
With Manon/The Puppeteer, however, he shows some more kindness, even sometimes praising her. He also showed more kindness than usual to Stormy Weather.
Hawk Moth coldly bosses Nooroo around, disregarding Nooroo's pleas for him not to use the Moth Miraculous for evil purposes and demanding his obedience.
History
Click here to view the history of Gabriel Agreste.
Hawk Moth is also called Butterfly in other early sources.[3]
In the Castilian Spanish version, Hawk Moth's name is "Lepidóptero", which comes from the scientific order called Lepidoptera; that contains all butterflies and moths.File:Vlcsnap-error134.png
Hawk Moth's appearance in the Ladybug PV.
Hawk Moth's appearance is much different than his appearance in the Ladybug PV. In the PV, he doesn't wear a mask, has white hair and silver eyes, and wears a white dress suit with a pale tan vest and bow.
His real identity is currently unknown.
After sending an akuma, he rotates his staff with his left hand, which possibly indicates he's left-handed.
Both the butterfly and the moth symbolize change or personal evolution. This is likely in connection with his ability to corrupt and transform others into his henchmen.
It's unknown what Hawk Moth's intentions are for getting Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses, other than for more power. However, in "The Evillustrator" and "Rogercop", he says that he is planning to rule the world.
Wilfried Pain, when asked on Twitter if Hawk Moth is a metaphor for human ambivalence, responded, "Yes, you can say that. But his true nature and purpose will change your point of view."[5]
Hawk Moth usually reveals his name to his victims when he corrupts them. However, he never gives his name to the Evillustrator or Darkblade.
As seen in episodes like "Darkblade", "Antibug", and "Princess Fragrance", Hawk Moth has the time and ability to akumatize more than one person a day, even though it is not more than one person each time.
He sometimes uses puns, like telling the akuma in "The Evillustrator" to "draw [Nathaniel] into our evil web."
Hawk Moth is one of the tallest characters in the series.[6]
Hawk Moth and Gabriel Agreste share the same voice actor in many different dubbings of the show.
Versions in which they share a voice actor include the English, French, Korean, Castillian Spanish, and Latin American Spanish versions of the show.[7]
However, this fact is not consistent across all language dubs. Versions in which they have different voice actors include the Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Hebrew, and Hungarian dubs.[8][9][10][11]
Hawk Moth keeps a picture of Mrs. Agreste inside the Moth Miraculous, hinting that he may have had some sort of relationship with her.
Wilfried Pain has confirmed that Hawk Moth also has an origin story.[12]
Thomas Astruc additionally confirmed that Season 2 will explain how Hawk Moth found the Moth Miraculous.[13]
According to the Miraculous Ladybug San Diego Comic-Con 2016 panel and Los Angeles Comic Con 2016 panel, Hawk Moth will team up with another recurring villain in Season 3, doubling him as a threat.[14][15]
Also, in the former panel, it was revealed that Hawk Moth might be scared of someone for once.
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