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Gabriel Agreste is the former main antagonist of the animated series Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir. He is the boss of the Gabriel fashion line. He is the deceased father of Adrien Agreste and the former husband of Emilie Agreste. He is also Hawk Moth/Shadow Moth/Monarch, the former wielder of the Butterfly Miraculous (as Shadow Moth, he had the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses and as Monarch, he had the Butterfly and 15 other Miraculouses).
Personnalité (Personality)
Gabriel came off as a cold, harsh, and very strict man. He was extremely protective of his son Adrien, having kept him home for most of his life. He had a possessive and distant relationship with him. He made executive decisions about how to keep his son safe without considering how he may feel, such as unjustly deeming Nino a bad influence for Adrien and forbidding him from coming to his home ever again. Gabriel missed his wife greatly and sometimes had to be reminded that his son was also grieving as well, making him oblivious to the feelings of others. According to Adrien in "Adrien's Double Life", ever since the "disappearance" of his wife, Gabriel was a changed man; one that strongly disliked taking orders from anyone, even if they were from people who were trying to help and protect him, such as Ladybug and Cat Noir. Despite this, he could be respectful and kind at times, especially when needing to act professionally.
In his supervillain identities, he was cold and determined. After one of his akumatized supervillain's defeat, he determinedly vowed revenge and wasted little time waiting to try again. His goal was to claim the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses and to gain their absolute power necessary to achieve his secret wish, not caring if he caused people harm in the process, even to his own son. He was 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 did not appear to bother him, leading to him being very ignorant, cocky, and reckless about the magic he wielded or wished to obtain on several occasions. Meaning that he didn't always think things through, such as him being unaware of the after-effects of using such magic, not recalling his akuma back before he lost it in "Startrain" or when he praised Chloé for using the Miraculouses against Ladybug and Cat Noir, apparently unaware that she could have severely injured herself by doing so, painfully learning this himself the hard way in "Evolution".
Pourquoi Il Suce (Intentionnellement?) Miraculeusement (Why He [Intentionally?] Miraculously Sucks)
- When it comes to parenting, he was usually a strict parent who wants Adrien to be perfect at all times for no explained reason.
- He made Adrien learn fencing, piano, and Chinese and do modeling for his job (although he let Adrien quit).
- In "Captain Hardrock", when Adrien is playing the piano for him and misses one note, he forbids Adrien from seeing his friends even though he already promised he would.
- Sometimes he was neglectful towards Adrien. He never showed up to spend time with him.
- In "The Bubbler", he couldn't even make time for Adrien's birthday, and he made Nathalie buy him a gift. He also refused to let Adrien have a birthday party.
- He only noticed that Adrien snuck out twice.
- He kept Adrien homeschooled for years against his wishes. This might be the reason Adrien's worst nightmare is being trapped (mentioned in "Sandboy").
- Despite his goals of helping his family, he's willing to hurt his son.
- In "The Collector", he was going to hurt Adrien once he was willingly akumatized, meaning he did that by his conscience.
- In "Cat Blanc", he akumatized his son and manipulates Cat Noir by bringing up Emilie's death.
- He tried to akumatize him again in "Ephemeral" and ordered Adrien to obey him, sounding more like Adrien's a servant.
- He was mean to pretty much anyone, like when he didn't let Simon Grimault finish his hypnotism trick.
- He was the supervillain Hawk Moth, who turned people evil and practically brainwashed them into doing his bidding.
- He was obsessed with his dead wife, whom he wanted to revive using the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses.
- If you already thought this was pathetic, just wait until you find out he wanted to rewrite reality just to bring Emilie back and is completely insane
- For a serious villain, he did a lot of monologues and evil laughs.
- It's hard to take him seriously when he always loses.
- Hypocrisy: He doesn't let Adrien go out since it's too dangerous, but he doesn't have any problem with Riposte trying to kill him.
- He had no remorse for hurting others. This works since he's a villain, but he liked seeing people get hurt and encouraged his victims' violent behavior, making him unsympathetic.
- In fact, he doesn't have any problem with Nathalie using the Peacock Miraculous for the majority of season 3, even though she might die from it as Emilie did.
- His designs as Hawk Moth, Shadow Moth, and Monarch are ugly, which is ironic since he's a fashion designer.
- His writing is inconsistent. In the first season, he was never worried about Adrien's safety near akumatized villains and he planned on taking over the world when it's later revealed that his goal is to bring his wife back to life. In "Ikari Gozen", he wanted to have the Dragon Miraculous, too, even though it has nothing to do with his goal.
- He abused Nooroo by using his power for evil.
- Three words: He's an idiot.
- For some reason, he kept on doing the same thing over and over rather than trying things that could work (Catalyst, Optigami, Hack-San). If he wanted to keep on akumatizing people, he should at least bring back good villains, as he winded up akumatizing villains like Reflekta and Mr. Pigeon multiple times, but he won't bring back good villains like the Pharaoh or Kwamibuster.
- It's pathetic when Fei manages to steal the Ladybug Miraculous and his teenage nephew, Felix, manages to steal 15 Miraculouses when he was rarely been close to retrieve the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses.
- He underestimates the heroes often, even though they defeat him every time.
- He even managed to lose with the Rabbit Miraculous in "Evolution", which allowed him to travel through time.
- He could just akumatize himself with the power to time travel/recover people and avoid hurting anyone.
- In the season finale, when he does get killed by the wish of bringing back Nathalie, THE ENTIRETY OF PARIS (except Marinette, Su Han, Alya and possibly Felix and Kagami) WORSHIP HIM BY MAKING A STATUE! HE SHOULD BE EXPOSED NOT HONORED! (Although to be fair, the Parisians knew very little about Gabriel being Monarch or that he was the one who was behind the akumatizations.)
Qualités Miraculeuses (Miraculous Qualities)
- His voice actors, Keith Silverstein and Antoine Tome, do good jobs voicing him.
- He looks as good as Gabriel.
- He sometimes spends time with Adrien and was even willing to quit being Hawk Moth and spend time with him.
- He's a decent villain and can be taken seriously half of the time.
- The concept of Hawk Moth's powers and motive are interesting and could be done right.
- As mentioned in WH(I?)MS#9, his losses are justified since he has to lose or else the show ends.
- He does have funny moments at times, such as losing his patience and repeatedly telling Gigantitan to fight Ladybug and Cat Noir.
- To be fair, given that he was the main antagonist, he was most likely meant to be loathed.
- He does get comeuppance at times such as when Cat Noir cataclysms him and Nathalie scolding and cutting ties with him for pursuing Ladybug instead of using the Rabbit Miraculous to go back in time and save Emilie, in which Nathalie suggested to him.
- He finally realized that Emilie accepted her death in the season 5 finale (AKA the end of the Agreste Arc) and instead used the wish to revive Nathalie as well as sacrifice himself to reunite himself with Emilie in the afterlife, showing his good side.
- His Ladybug and Cat Noir: The Movie counterpart is at least better than his show counterpart, as when he finds out that Cat Noir is Adrien, he actually shows regret towards his actions and feels bad for what he did to Adrien and the rest of Paris, unlike in the show where he attempts to akumatize Adrien once he finds out he's Cat Noir.