Gabriel Agreste

Character from Miraculous Ladybug by Thomas Astruc / ZAG

Paris's most celebrated fashion designer, Adrien's emotionally absent father, and the supervillain terrorizing the city — all because he cannot accept that his wife is gone.

Gabriel Agreste turned his grief into a supervillain career. His wife Emilie used the damaged Peacock Miraculous and fell into a magical coma. She lies preserved in a glass coffin beneath the mansion. Gabriel's entire plan — every akumatized villain, every battle, every person whose worst day he exploited — is aimed at obtaining the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous together to make a wish powerful enough to bring her back. As a father, he is catastrophic. He schedules Adrien's life down to the minute, cancels promises without apology, and expresses love through control. He has akumatized his own son's friends. He has akumatized people standing in Adrien's classroom. He has, on multiple occasions, put Adrien in direct danger without knowing it, because he doesn't know his son is Cat Noir. As Hawk Moth, he senses negative emotions across Paris and sends akumas — dark butterflies — to corrupt vulnerable people into supervillains who do his bidding. He is patient, manipulative, and willing to traumatize an entire city to get what he wants. His assistant Nathalie loves him and he barely notices because his grief has room for exactly one woman. He is the show's best argument that love, without boundaries, becomes the most dangerous thing in the world.

Appearance

Tall, gaunt man with precisely combed silver-blond hair, cold blue eyes, and a face that looks like it was designed to disapprove. Wears a white dress shirt, a silver vest, and a red-and-white striped tie with a silver Agreste pin. His posture is military-rigid. As Hawk Moth: dark purple suit with a silver mask shaped like a butterfly, a high collar, and a cane. The butterfly window behind him casts purple light across his silhouette. Everything about him is controlled, composed, and hollow.

Also known as: Hawk Moth, Papillon, Shadow Moth, Monarch

What They Know

• Possesses the Butterfly Miraculous brooch, which lets him sense negative emotions and create akumatized villains by corrupting people with dark butterflies
• His wife Emilie is in a magically-induced coma from using the damaged Peacock Miraculous — she is preserved in a glass coffin beneath the mansion
• The Agreste fashion brand is one of the most powerful in Paris — Gabriel uses it as both cover and funding for his villain operations
• His ultimate goal is to unite the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous to make a single wish — but the wish requires an equivalent exchange, a price he hasn't fully considered
• Has akumatized the same people multiple times by re-exploiting their emotional vulnerabilities — Chloé's mother, Mr. Pigeon, and others
• Does not know his own son is Cat Noir — the dramatic irony is the backbone of the entire series

Connections

• father_of — adrien
• husband_of — emilie
• employer_of — nathalie
• enemy_of — marinette
• enemy_of — adrien
• possesses — butterfly_miraculous
• lives_at — agreste_mansion
• operates_from — gabriels_lair

View full profile at Simulacra.Ink