Gabriel Agreste (born Gabi Grassette) was the main antagonist of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, serving as the main antagonist of the first five seasons. He was also one of the two main antagonists (alongside Techno-Pirate) of Miraculous World: New York - United Heroez, the central antagonist of Miraculous World: Shanghai - The Legend of Ladydragon, and the secondary antagonist of Miraculous World: Paris - Tales of Shadybug & Claw Noir.
He was a famous fashion designer across Paris and the world who created and owned the fashion brand Gabriel. He was also the widower of the late Emilie Agreste and the father of Adrien Agreste, who quit modeling for him in Season 5.[36]
With the Butterfly Miraculous, when inhabited by Nooroo, Gabriel transformed into Hawk Moth (Le Papillon in the French version, which translates to "The Butterfly"), a butterfly-themed supervillain who was the main villain of the first three seasons. He wanted Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses for himself in order to obtain the Ultimate Miraculous Absolute Power and reshape reality to bring back his wife after she used the damaged Peacock Miraculous. To achieve his goal, he used the Butterfly Miraculous' power: Akumatization. This allowed him to create and control akumas, regular butterflies, imbued with the power of the Butterfly Miraculous that can transform normal people with negative emotions into akumatized supervillains.[37][38]
In "The Collector", in order to avoid the suspicion of being Hawk Moth because of him owning the Grimoire, he akumatized himself into the Collector, a supervillain who had the power to imprison any person or object within his magical notebook as his weapon. In "Gabriel Agreste", his sentimonster in the episode of the same name used a tablet as a weapon.
In "Catalyst", which is part of the Heroes' Day special, Hawk Moth was enhanced by the titular akumatized supervillain into Scarlet Moth as part of his plan to get the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses.
In "Truth" and throughout season 4, Gabriel unified the Butterfly Miraculous with the Peacock Miraculous after fixing it to become Shadow Moth (Papillombre in the French version, which is a portmaneau of "papillon" and "ombre", that latter of which translates to shadow.) to be a stronger opponent for his nemeses.
In "Dearest Family", facing the obstacle that Ladybug's Magical Charms represent to prevent his plans, Shadow Moth was able to create an improved version of his akumas, called megakumas, that are able to break through the defenses of the Magical Charms and destroy them. During his successful experiment, Gabriel briefly reakumatized himself into the Collector.
In "Ephemeral", Shadow Moth acquired the Cat Miraculous from Adrien and unified it with his other Miraculouses to become Shadow Noir (Chatpillon in the French version, which is a portmaneau of "chat", which translates to cat, and "papillon".) [39]. He was also able to get the Ladybug Miraculous from Marinette and achieve his long goal to make his wish come true. Fortunately, after Sass rewound time, Shadow Noir was erased from the reality.
In "Shadow Moth's Final Attack", Shadow Moth amokized himself to create Strikeback. After a bargain with his nephew Félix, who was able to steal Ladybug's yo-yo as Flairmidable, Gabriel renounced the Peacock Miraculous, trading it for all the Miraculous in the Chinese Miracle Box, the ring Félix had previously stolen from him, and the Dog Miraculous. Later, he unified the Butterfly Miraculous with the Fox and Turtle Miraculouses to become Monarch and boast his victory over Ladybug to all of Paris.[40]
In "Evolution", Monarch used the Rabbit Miraculous to go to the past to discover Ladybug and Cat Noir's secret identities and to prevent his wife's coma. Later, he unified them with the Turtle, Fox, Bee, Dragon and Dog Miraculouses to prevent Ladybug and Cat Noir from stopping him. He ended up losing the Rabbit Miraculous in the end, and Nathalie decided to stop helping Gabriel after he chose to go after Ladybug and Cat Noir instead of saving her and Emilie.
In "Multiplication", he began working with Tomoe Tsurugi to create the Alliance rings. To test their ability to receive Miraculous superpowers, he akumatized Tomoe and transferred her the power of the Mouse Miraculous. Upon her defeat, the Miraculous superpower disappeared and the kwami returned to her cage in Monarch's lair, removing the need to give and take the Miraculouses as Ladybug once did.
In "Destruction", while trying to discover the address of Ladybug's alter ego, Monarch got caught by Ladybug and Cat Noir and left completely subjugated by them. In a desperate move, Monarch forced Cat Noir to use his Cataclysm on the former's left forearm, using the shock of his enemies to unify the Butterfly and Horse Miraculouses to escape them. Later on, in order to prevent himself from falling in any more traps set by Ladybug and Cat Noir and risk losing any more Miraculouses, all while still making use of their powers, Gabriel melted all the Miraculous in his possession with the exception of the Butterfly and reforged them into rings, all while adopting a brand-new form as Monarch.
In "Deflagration", after finding out the identities of Scarabella and Kitty Noire, Gabriel was able to come up with a plan where he was able to get the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses from Alya and Zoé respectively. When he tried to unify the two Miraculous with the Butterfly Miraculous, Plagg used his Cataclysm on his Miraculous, destroying it. However, after Marinette disguised as Ladybug told him the Miraculous Ladybug was the only thing capable of bringing Plagg and the Cat Miraculous back, he unified the Butterfly Miraculous with the Ladybug Miraculous, becoming Monarch Bug[41]. He tried to use Miraculous Monarch Bug to fix everything, but was duped by Marinette's fake Lucky Charm and ended up losing both the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses because of this.
In the events of "Multiplication" through "Intuition", Gabriel, unbeknownst to others, was using Second Chance to rewind to the time when his akumatized villains were about to be defeated, thus giving them one more chance. However, this only accelerated the effect of the Cataclysm and made him even weaker, at the risk of his life. In his last attempt, he used this power again to sabotage the test on Tsurugi Industries's space jet, to separate Ladybug and Cat Noir, furthermore, he used the powers of Migration, Passion, Illusion, Protection and Action as part of the plan. But as Ladybug and Cat Noir are always unpredictable in battle, he abused the use of Second Chance, and became even weaker. With that, Gabriel no longer uses the Snake Miraculous.
In "Representation", after Adrien disobeyed him and ran away from London to be with Marinette again, Gabriel akumatized himself into Nightormentor, a supervillain who could shoot magic dust from his blowpipe which made his victims mentally experience their worst nightmare. Additionally, he granted himself the superpower of the Horse Miraculous, Voyage.
In "The Final Day", Gabriel reakumatized himself into Nightormentor, and, with the essences of the Miraculouses of the Mouse, the Rooster and the Horse, he spread the nightmare dust across the world. Later, Gabriel transferred the powers of the Miraculouses to people via the Alliance rings and they transformed into Miraculized, a group of people chasing after Ladybug and Cat Noir, after they had "kidnapped" his son Adrien Agreste (who is actually Cat Noir) and Kagami Tsurugi. At the end, he lost the Butterfly Miraculous, acquired the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses and brought his assistant Nathalie back to life; resulting in the universe being re-created and Gabriel sacrificing his life and joining his wife Emilie in the afterlife.
