| “ | This is just the beginning, Ladybug. You and Cat Noir may have won this battle, but I will win the war. I will get your Miraculouses. I will get the absolute power! And then my secret dream will come true! | „ |
| ~ Hawk Moth. |
| “ | Fly away, my little akuma, and evilize him/her. | „ |
| ~ Hawk Moth's typical quote. |
Hawk Moth (Le Papillon in the French version, which translates to "The Butterfly") is the main antagonist of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir who wants Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses and powers for himself, although his motivation why has yet to be revealed. He creates and leads the akumas; white butterflies corrupted with evil who can transform normal people into supervillains under Hawk Moth's control.
Appearance
Hawk Moth is tall with blue eyes. He wears a dark purple dress shirt with a black vest, a light pink butterfly-shaped bow with a purple button in the center, and black dress pants. Over his head, he wears a gray mask. He also has the Moth Miraculous brooch pinned to his chest.
Whenever he is controlling someone with an Akuma, a bright pink butterfly-shaped outline appears above his face and around his eyes.
Personality
Hawk Moth is cold, cunning, and determined. His greatest desire is to claim the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous for himself to obtain absolute power, and nothing will stand in his way. His Akumatized villains are his most powerful known weapon. He chooses his victims carefully and cleverly, giving them ideas if they're struggling to think up ones. He is a great deceiver, persuading people that he cares about their problems and gives them powers, when in fact, he does it because of his ulterior motive to use them to get the Miraculous for him. If things aren't going his way, he easily loses his patience, threatening harm to Ladybug, Cat Noir, and even the villains he creates. After defeat, Hawk Moth vows revenge and, while stopping for a while afterwards, doesn't wait too long to try again with his akumas.
Powers and Abilities
- Akumatization: As stated before, Hawk Moth has the ability to turn a citizen with potent negative emotions into a supervillain through the use of his Akumas. The powers Hawk Moth give always directly of metaphorically relate to the reason behind their distress (ex: Lê Chiến Kim was rejected by the girl he liked and was turned into a literal Anti Cupid and Chloé Bourgeois pretended Sabrina Rainconprix was invisible, causing her to gain the powers of invisibility, etc) and it is currently unknown weather Hawk Moth determines what power they receive.
- Negative Emotion Sensing: Hawk Moth can scan Paris in search of people who are perfect for his Akumatization.
- Telepathy: Using the powers granted to him by his Miraculous, Hawk Moth can communicate with the people he Akumatizes, forming a moth shaped emblem around the faces of himself and his minion, which is how he instructs them to help him complete his goal.
- Mind Control: For short periods of time, Hawk Moth can directly control the people he Akumatizes, although he only does this when they are completely disobeying him.
- Other Possible Abilities: While not confirmed, it is likely that, like other Miraculous users, Hawk Moth receives heightened physical capabilities, such as increased strength and durability.
Weaknesses
- Miraculous: Although it provides all of his powers, Hawk Moth's Miraculous is also his greatest weakness; if the brooch containing it were to be removed, Hawk Moth would be rendered completely powerless and could be easily defeated. It can also be assumed that, much like Ladybug and Cat Nor, Hawk Moth can only use his powers for a limited time before the Miraculous needs to come out and refuel itself, although this has yet to be shown.
- Minions: While a great help towards his goals, Hawk Moth's minions will often directly disobey his orders in order to pursue their own goals, often preventing the Miraculouses from being taken (as is the case with Timebreaker and Reflekta) or even trying to outright kill Ladybug and Cat Noir without taking their Miraculouses (as was the case with Bubbler).
- Akumatization Limitations: For unknown reasons, Hawk Moth can only create one villain a day, although he has occasionally created two, which is strange, as there is no logical reason why he wouldn't create dozens of villains a day. A possible explanation for this is that he has a limited amount of dark energy to use to create Akumas or that he can create more than one villain a day, but can only do so if they will end up having very simplistic powers, rather than the complex abilities he normally gives to his minions.
Akumatized Victims
Season 1
- The Bubbler/Nino Lahiffe: Able to fly short distances and create indestructible bubbles with varying effects.
- Mr. Pigeon/Xavier Ramier: Can control/communicate with pigeons.
- Stormy Weather/Aurore Beauréal: Can fly and control the weather.
- Timebreaker/Alix Kubdel: Can steal energy from people (wiping them from existence) and time travel when given enough energy.
- Copycat/Théo Barbot: Can turn himself into an exact replica of Cat Noir.
- The Pharaoh/Jalil Kubdel: Can summon the powers of various Egyptian Gods
- Lady WiFi/Alya Césaire: Can use her phone for various attacks and transport herself through phones.
- The Evillustrator/Nathaniel Kyrtzberg: Can bring his drawings to life.
- Rogercop/Roger Rainconprix: Can shoot unbreakable laser handcuffs.
- Dark Cupid/Lê Chiến Kim: Can fly and shoot arrows that replace love and affection with hatred.
- Horrificator/Mylène Haprèle: Can shoot sticky purple goo and grows bigger by absorbing fear.
- Darkblade/Armand D'Argencourt: Can stun people and "knight" them, turning them into loyal knights.
- The Mime/Fred Haprèle: Can pantomime objects into existence.
- Magician of Misfortune/Jean Duparc: Can make objects magically disappear.
- Princess Fragrance/Rose Laviliant: Can spray different fragrances with different effects.
- Stoneheart/Ivan Bruel: Has super strength and grows when struck.
- Animan/Otis Césaire: Can shape-shift into various animals, including extinct ones.
- Simon Says/Simon Grimault: Can throw cards that force others to do what he says.
- Pixelator/Vincent Aza: Can transport people into an infinite white void by taking their picture.
- Guitar Villain/Jagged Stone: Can shoot different beams by playing different chords.
- Kung Food/Wang Chen: Can mind control people who drink his soup and summon food weapons.
- Gamer/Max Kanté: Controls a giant robot that turns people into "Experience Points" in order to upgrade it. Can also summon another robot if the first is destroyed.
- Reflekta/Juleka Couffaine: Can turn people into copies of herself, and by extension, can remove their powers.
- The Puppeteer/Manon Chamack: Can control a person if she has a puppet of them.
- Vanisher/Sabrina Rainconprix: Can turn invisible.
- Antibug/Chloé Bourgeois: Has the same powers as Ladybug
- Volpina/Lila Rossi: Can create realistic illusions.
- Santa Claws/Santa Clause: Gives out presents containing spiders, bats and cockroaches.
Gallery
The Moth Miraculous that imbues Hawk Moth with all of his powers.
A photograph of Mrs. Agreste kept in the Moth Miraculous under Hawk Moth's ownership.
Hawk Moth, unmasked and in silhouette.
Hawk Moth ready to create a supervillain.
Hawk Moth turning a butterfly into an akuma.
Hawk Moth communicating with those under his influence.
Hawk Moth telepathically communicating with Dark Cupid.
An illusion of Hawk Moth made by Volpina to distract Ladybug and Cat Noir.
Trivia
- The most popular theory surrounding Hawk Moth is that his secret identity is in fact Gabriel Agreste, Cat Noir's father. They are the same height, possess the same eye color, they both possess the same silver ring on their middle finger on the left hand, Hawk Moth keeps a photo of Mrs. Agreste in his Miraculous and they are both voiced by the same English, French, Korean, and Spanish voice actors. In addition to this, in the episode Volpina, it is shown that Mr. Agreste owns a book containing documents about every known Miraculous, which, if he is Hawk Moth, is likely how he discovered his Miraculous in the first place.
- Another theory suggests that his secret identity is Mr. Kubdel, the father of Alix and Jalil, although this is unlikely, as he and Hawk Moth were in two different places in The Pharaoh.
- It has been confirmed that Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrian 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 Adrian is too used to being disappointed and upset for anything to truly aggravate him.
- However, it is possible that Hawk Moth could corrupt them in Season 2, as an episode focused purely on their Miraculouses (Tikki and Plagg) is planned.
- As confirmed by the show-runners, in Season 2 and 3, a new villain called The Peacock will take over as the main antagonist and demote Hawk Moth to secondary antagonist due to her being so evil that she, quote on quote "makes Hawk Moth look like a baby in comparison".