#please don't post any overly negative stuff here this isn't intended to dunk on the finale

[trainsinanime]

I should be sleeping but I just figured out how they could have drastically improved the ending of season 5 with very little effort: What if the fight between Bug Noir and Hawkmoth had not taken place in the kitchen, but in Adrien's room?

Even assuming that the rest of the script stays the same, it would have given so many opportunities. Being in Adrien's space, but without him, would give all sorts of thematic implications and make us feel like his absence was a deliberate narrative choice. Destroying it over the course of their fight would be symbolically destroying his prison, and also showing how Gabriel destroys him, at the same time (bonus points for destroying the prison-bar-like windows).

Plus, you could have done so much with the lighting. The Kitchen fight just doesn't look all that good with its black and white tiles and bright white light. This is especially notable because the episode before, with the theatre production, was the prettiest ML episode ever thanks to all the creative lighting.

In Adrien's room, you have more light and shadow and colors anyway, but you could have really played with bathing the scene in an evening glow, in a thunderstorm, or turning it to night slowly. All the people fighting outside could also have seen the light effects coming from there, making the fight in the house much more connected to the outside.

I'm not saying that would have fixed all the issues I had with the finale, let alone all the issues people have had with the finale, but I think it would have been a much stronger move.