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Adrien knows Marinette's identity...

Hey guys, I believe that Adrien Agreste knows Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Ladybug. I have evidence that I have gathered and analysed. Believe what you want. I'm happy to hear rebuttals, but after all is said and done, I really think you will believe me.

Okay, so it started in Troublemaker. That was when Adrien first suspected that Marinette could be Ladybug. So, at the beginning of the episode, Adrien sees all the pictures in Marinette’s room and assumes that she has a crush on him. As Chat Noir, he goes into Mari's room, and LB is being very weird and telling him, 'They can take the tour later'. LB gets defensive, and Chat Noir is like, “Wow, lots of pictures,” blah blah blah. Later, when Trouble maker steals one of Ladybug's earrings, half of her face is exposed, and that’s when Chat can see half of her face right.

Chat Noir landed by the window.

This is where Marinette was - and the window is over to the back right.

She is detransforming away from Chat Noir, but then she turns around and grabs her earring, now facing him, to put it back in.

She is side-eyeing so hard lmao maybe looking at Chat Noir?

If Chat Noir was looking, he had a clear shot of seeing her side profile, though not completely clear because her hand was slightly in the way. However, he can see her eyes, nose, and mouth, which can't be completely covered by the quantum masking at that point.

Chat Noir then walks up to her, and says, "That was a close call,"

This can be interpreted in two ways, "I almost found out who you were" or "Hawkmoth almost got your earrings."

I think Marinette interpreted it as the second one because when he says, "Certainly not how I dreamed we'd share our secret identities."

This is her reaction:

Then Chat says, "Oh no, not like that" which doesn't seem very reassuring, but it convinces Marinette that he doesn't know her identity yet, because this is how she reacts:

Notice how awkward Chat Noir looks? He doesn't look very reassuring. To me, the vibe of this scene is just strange, but it makes sense if that small glimpse of Ladybug's face made Chat Noir begin to wonder if she really could be Marinette. When you see a small glimpse of someone you think you recognise, you wonder if it is actually them or someone who just looks similar, and your brain is tricking you; most of the time, you do a double take and realise it is just someone who looks similar, Chat didn't get the opportunity to double take, so he was left wondering.

However, I think he tests his curiosity in the next scene...

In the locker room.

When Mari arrives, and Adrien scares her, he is smug, smirking, etc. It makes sense because he thinks she likes him, but Adrien has never acted like that before. It was almost like he was acting as he does as Chat Noir, and who is the one person who knows how he acts as Chat Noir? Ladybug...

He's very overconfident when usually he is just 'smiles' and 'kind gestures,' and he is getting in her personal space, smirking at her, and downright being flirtatious.

Ok, I want to point out that he looks at her side profile, which you should remember for later because, in the upcoming episodes, he does it a lot. Which may be him trying to see Ladybug in her or the glimpses of Ladybug he thought he saw. Anyway, what really gets me is what he says next. I try so hard to understand what it could mean, if anything but the only conclusion I can come to is that what he says, is him trying to test Marinette.

"...and photographs of me everywhere, even in the most unlikely places.” 

Then Marinette giggled and went, “Yeah, who would have a photograph of you under a bed.” 

And he’s just like “Right.” 

First of all, Chat Noir is the only one who saw the photo under the bed “in the most unlikely places.” It’s almost like he’s alluding to his secret identity to see how she reacts. If she was LB, she would know Chat saw where they were, right? Like he’s almost admitting it?????

Anyway, I think Marinette was a little dense with that scene, but I think if anything it's proof that Adrien really thinks Marinette could be Ladybug.

I don't think he is 100% sure at this point, but I really think he is considering it.

Moving on, when Adrien walks out of the locker room, he is looking back at her:

Then in the end card:

HE IS LOOKING AT LADYBUG!!!!!

They could have chosen any scene, any picture of Adrien, but they chose the one where he is looking back at her, almost analytically if you will, and have Ladybug follow his line of sight. I'm sorry, but with this many clues, there's no way that I'm just reading into it. Even if I'm wrong in the end, I'm literally right.

The evidence does not stop here.

Multimouse. Now, many people believe that this is what really got Adrien to stop believing or kill the idea that Marinette could be Ladybug.

I'm sorry, but no, you are wrong.

Okay, so we know the jist. Plagg and Tikki get caught (almost) by Miss Mendeleev, and she is on the reality TV show. Adrien and Marinette recognise the drawings for their kwamis and realise they must have done something, and this is probably bad. so Marinette leaves, and Adrien sees Marinette leaving and is like, 'huh?'

Surprised Adrien fr.

ANYWAYS the next scene is dumb, like hella dumb, cause Adrien sees Marinette on the phone, walking through the locker room, and is deep in thought and Plagg interrupts and then he's like...

"What if Marinette were Ladybug?"

The way this is worded makes it seem like this isn't the first time Adrien has considered this... Hmm. Hence Troublemaker.

Plagg goes “Marinetteee? Nahhh!”

First of all, great job Plagg you’re an actor. Lmao, not very convincing.

“Besides, you shouldn’t be trying to find out more. If you discovered ladybugs' true identity, you’d have to give your miraculous back! So, if I were you, I’d act like nothing's going on! That’s what I always do when there’s a problem, and it’s always worked out just fine for me." 

Okay, so first of all, Plagg, really? He is essentially saying, like ok, you found out, but just pretend you don’t know anything so you can keep your miraculous.

If Adrien was using his logical brain, which I think he was because he agreed with plagg, he would have thought the same. If it were anyone else, Plagg probably wouldn't have said that because there would be no risk of him losing his miraculous unless he was guessing right.

And Adrien goes, “Maybe I should listen to you this time.” 

But of course, as the curious kitty he is, he still asks LB when he is there. 

“This kwami Buster villain, she’s from Francois Dupont High School, right?" 

(Note this part for later)

Ladybug shuts him down, saying, “Remember the rules chat noir… blah blah” 

Okay, can I point out the fact that if Chat Noir thinks Marinette is Ladybug, when she detransforms cause of kwamibuster and shouts 'No, don't look over here', don't you think he would be hearing Marinette's voice at that point because she is already on his mind, so wouldn't that be proof enough for him, anyways, continuing on...

Later on, they both lose their miraculous and Adrien is in the banana suit. The next thing he sees is a bunch of kwami's charging toward him, and one stops in front of him, with multimouse on its back.

Conveniently, it is the original multimouse without an extra miraculous.

Marinette says, “Pssst chat noir is that you?” 

And he goes, “Ladybug just when I think I finally know you, you manage to surprise me again.” 

And she says, “That’s very sweet of you, but I’m not ladybug,” and points to her earrings, “I’m Multimouse ladybug sent me to fetch your miraculous, to defeat kwamibuster.” 

Adrien ends up giving Multimouse his ring. I truly think this is because he still believes that Ladybug/Multimouse is the same person, aka Marinette. (I don't think he would have given the ring so easily if not, because look how he reacted with Alya as Ladybug in season 5; he is trusting but only toward Ladybug.)

I believe this because this is his face when Ladybug drops down in front of him beside Multimouse.

Agree to disagree, but he definitely thought that Multimouse was Ladybug.

So, he must believe that Ladybug is still Marinette, and Multimouse has to be someone else.

Furthermore, this is his face when Multimouse ends up being Marinette:

Literally flabbergasted.

Ok. So, I have a few points to cover here. I really think this would have left him very confused.

I think Adrien is a trusting person; he likes to see the best in people. Multimouse told him that she wasn't Ladybug, yet he was shocked when he realised that she wasn't. If I may, this is what I think could have gone through Chat Noir's head:

First, if Ladybug was detransformed, she'd go to the guardian for help to get a miraculous. Now, she couldn't transform into Ladybug, so logically, she would use another miraculous for herself because disguising herself and finding a random civilian for help would be a lot of effort (especially when transformed like, come on). So he probably didn't understand why Multimouse wanted to cover up the fact she was Ladybug, but as Adrien does, he likes giving the benefit of the doubt.

Second, in the illusion, there were no kwami's. There's no way there was enough time for all the kwami's to return to Master Fu between being realised and Chat entering the scene; logically, they would stay with Ladybug. Chat literally saw them earlier; Multimouse was being carried by them. I'm sure he thought a lot about this because Marinette not being Ladybug would be hard for him to accept, so I do think he would have picked up on this eventually.

Third, he didn't go in for a pound when he always does. It may just be the scapegoat for the poor writing because obviously if he went in for a pound it, the illusion would fall away, but he didn't. The only times prior where he didn't go in for a pound it was to take Kagami away when he was falling for her and to hug Ladybug, so the fact he didn't is strange, almost like he knew...

ALSO, Ladybug never convinced him that she doesn't go to Francois Dupont High School, only that Marinette isn't Ladybug, which I'm pretty sure she did the opposite of. It's almost ironic, if you ask me, that as soon as Chat Noir has the slightest suspicion that Marinette is Ladybug, bam, she somehow proves there's no way she ever could be. The thing is, Marinette didn't know Chat Noir was suspicious of her, so why did she need to pull a 180 on him?

Also, if Marinette 'isn't Ladybug', then how would you explain why she left early to go to the toilet? It was suspicious; it literally made Adrien think that she was Ladybug. If I were in the situation, I would think, okay, perhaps Marinette is friends with Ladybug; it would make sense because Ladybug trusted her with a miraculous when she was detransformed - but that doesn't explain away why Marinette would detransform in front of her and Chat Noir, if they were close friends than she would know not to do that, so something obviously doesn't add up.

Can I also point out the fact that Marinette, after she took of the necklace said “I’m so clumsy”

What was the first thing that LB ever said to chat noir? 

“I’m mar-a mar-a madly clumsy, I am so clumsy…” 

I really think Adrien figured this out because of how he acts in the next few episodes...

(Side note: I just wanted to point out that Marinette is so silly because she convinces herself that Chat Noir doesn't go to her school cause he refers to it as an elementary school when earlier he literally said,' Francois Dupont High School')

Anyways, Adrien was super convinced that Marinette was Ladybug, so much so to the point where this stunt didn't actually convince him she wasn't. How do I know, you may ask? Well, I will get to that, but first, we have an obstacle.

Puppeteer is in between Kwamibuster and the episode with my final proof.

So, how is it that we had to watch that disastrous episode and all the events in it if Adrien knew? Well, let's break it down.

Okay, so throughout the episode Adrien is trying to find a way to cheer Marinette up because he thinks she doesn't like him at all.

Adrien leaves it to the last minute before he jumps back and says, 'Eternity sounds like a long time,' it makes it sound like he is rejecting her right, but we later find out that this is supposedly when Adrien first started having feelings for Marinette because he enjoyed their 'kiss/almost kiss' so I think he was just freaking out because he's always thought that Marinette only sees him as a friend. He's never been reciprocated by Ladybug, so he doesn't know what it feels like to actually be flirted with by the girl he loves BAHAHA anyways this is my take on this.

Then what of the scene in the car? You may ask, well, look at it like this. This is how Adrien is looking at Marinette:

PLEASE

"The girl that I'm in love with doesn't like them either."

I know he is referring to them as two different people, but he's supposed to because Plagg told him to; he has to.

Ok, the evidence you've all been waiting for is plain as day. Chat Blanc.

When Marinette leaves the gift as Ladybug and Adrien sees, his first conclusion is that she is Ladybug. The evidence is right in his face, and because of the hearts, he realises that she loves him. Earlier, when the evidence was in his face, it was questionable, right? He wasn't 100% sure, but that little push of him catching Ladybug leaving a gift from Marinette made him sure.

The fact that she was multimouse didn't saude his made-up mind. he could have easily said, "No, Ladybug must be dropping off a gift for Marinette; she was multimouse."

She never convinced him when she made the illusion.

Obviously, it never happened. Adrien never made the conclusion because Marinette erased the timeline, but that means he's still sitting on the fence, waiting for that last little push for him to finally be able to confess he knows her identity. Do you notice the number of times that Adrien tries to get a reveal in seasons 1-3, then suddenly, in seasons 4 and 5, he stops? Yeah, he is upset they can't 'share' identities, but he never pushes. In season 4, he finally starts showing stronger feelings toward Marinette up to the point he starts to pursue her in season 5.

Do you remember in 'lies' when Adrien longingly looks at the lucky charm bracelet because Kagami thinks he loves Marinette now, not her, and she dumps him? Why does he look at the bracelet like that if it is Ladybug he loves. BECAUSE HE KNOWS THEY'RE THE SAME PERSON!!

In dearest family, when ladybug says the akumatised object is at home and he’s like ??? And she says I mean at their home.  

Ephemeral. Well, looking at that scene, he wasn’t even surprised to see Ladybug change into Marinette, he was just blushing and shocked that she was actually revealing, and yeah, he says, “I just found out that one of my best friends is also the girl I love and admire the most” 

Can we keep in mind that Adrien admitted that he started liking Marinette at the statue scene (He says this in season 5), right - so how is he calling her his best friend when he knew all along he liked her a little more than friends yk, because I think this could be interpreted in two ways Ladybug is his best friend, but so is Marinette, Ladybug is the girl he loves, but so is Marinette. So I think he is just saying that because he’s finally able to combine his best friend and someone he loves as one person… 

OK, now on to season 5. 

Adrien realised his feelings for Marinette, and he said it changed when she kissed him as a statue so how could Adrien know that she is Ladybug if he only started liking Marinette at that point when he’s loved Ladybug all along. 

Well, I think Adrien just decides to separate the two of them (Marinette and Ladybug) for secret identities. As mentioned before, I believe he knew she was Ladybug but was still sitting on the fence and choosing not to believe it.

I will admit there are some things that Chat noir says to Ladybug that don’t make 100% sense right. Chat said that Ladybug helped him realise his true feelings for Marinette. 

First of all, did he not tell Marinette that he realised his feelings for her when they were in the Graven Wax Museum, and she kissed him, and he liked it. He is either contradicting himself or he is not telling the full story. 

If you think about it, if Adrien knows that Ladybug is Marinette, it was easy for him to just be in love with Ladybug because it was safe when he believed that Marinette loved Luka and not him you know, but toward the end of season four (Which is very fast paced) he starts getting closer to Marinette right, and ‘realises’ his feelings because she’s always been there for him. But Adrien knew his feelings for her all along, and it just took him a little push for him to finally confess it to Marinette and start pursuing her, that push was Marinette repeatedly showing him that she was there for him, so I think a part of him began to believe that Marinette did love him, so he decided he would try to be with her. 

I know it may sound a bit far fetched, but there are some things that happen that just can’t be ignored. 

Adrien was desperately in love with Ladybug like hopelessly, and he just gives it up, to me it felt weird like he suddenly switched. With Marinette, she always loved Adrien even when she was pursuing Chat Noir, she was pushing Adrien away because she didn’t want to confront the reality that he liked her back, because she was scared. So yes, she does pursue Chat Noir for a short while, and personally I think it’s obvious that she loves him too, and has all along but we’re not getting into that. Anyway, Adrien is in full denial about his feelings toward Ladybug and I’m sorry the sudden switch just feels completely odd, like what the hell????

You know that part (I forgot the episode) I believe it is one of the last 5 of season 5 where Plagg says “Marinette is the most amazing girl in the world,” well, that is exactly what Adrien used to say about Ladybug… 

The switch up is just crazy to me, and the only way it makes sense in my head is if Adrien knows that he’s not ‘switching up’ he’s just pursuing the other side of Ladybug. 

SO there is three times I want to point out where I think it’s obvious that he knows. 

The first is when Nino tells Marinette about him and Alya being Rena Rouge and Carapace and confesses he told Adrien, and Adrien is like ‘innocent smile, wide eyes’ and looks at Marinette. Marinette is mad and is like “ADRIEN KNOWS? ALYA DID YOU KNOW ADRIEN KNOWS?” 

Im sorry but that scene is just so like Adrien looking at his lady, like whoops sorry my lady didn’t mean to find out, I feel like if Marinette was just a civilian she wouldn’t have been mad like that right, so how come Adrien wasn’t confused by her reaction??? She was annoyed, and yeah Adrien was shocked too when he found out but he had the reason that it was because he was doubting Ladybug’s character, but adrien doesn’t know any reason why Marinette would be mad by this, its just so like coded that adrien knows and he realises oh shit marinates not gonna like this YOU KNOW !/!?!?!? 

Anyways the second point is that in the finale when Adrien is about to tell Marinette his identity, he says ‘Time to drop the masks’ MASKS not Mask!!!! Like I was like why did they choose to say masks and not just mask???? It doesn’t make sense yk…. 

Ok and also Adrien’s nightmare, it was him as Anti-Chat or whatever, and he was holding Ladybug, and she was a statue, I was watching it and I was wondering where is Marinette in his nightmare, huh, why is she not there? The girl who he is supposed to love more than anything isn’t there… little does he know, she is there, in his arms, or perhaps he does know, he knows that he killed Ladybug/Marinette. That’s why he stepped back from Marinette’s balcony and couldn’t tell her. He couldn’t drop the ‘masks’ yet. 

Anyways, this is my theory. Feel free to comment what you think.