Adrien Argeste

**Adrien Agreste** is one of the main protagonists of *Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir*. He is a student in Miss Bustier's class at Collège Françoise Dupont in Paris, France. He is also a fashion model for his father's brand. With the Cat Miraculous, when it is inhabited by Plagg, Adrien transforms into the superhero **Cat Noir** ("**Chat Noir**" in the French version), gaining the power of bad luck and destruction.

## Appearance

### Physical appearance

Adrien is about half a head taller than Marinette. He has brushed-back blond hair and light green eyes. His skin tone is fair with a rosy tint, especially on his cheeks, nose, and the tips of his ears.

### Civilian Attire

He wears a white button-down shirt with an upturned collar and sleeves rolled up above his elbow, which he keeps unbuttoned. Underneath, he wears a black shirt with five horizontal stripes around the chest which are colored, from top to bottom, yellow, olive green, bright green, dark green, and periwinkle. He wears blue jeans and orange sneakers with white laces and a logo of a black butterfly in a circle on the sides. On the ring finger of his right hand, he wears the ring of the Black Cat, which is silver when he hasn't transformed.

### As Cat Noir

Cat Noir wears a textured black skin-tight catsuit with metal details. He wears matching gloves that have claws on the fingertips and boots with a hidden wedge, silver toes, and paw-shaped treads. He has a golden bell on his neck, connected to a zipper on the front of his costume, and a long belt that wraps around his waist and hangs out from the back like a tail. He wears black cat ears and a black mask around his eyes. His eyes become cat-like with green sclerae, dark green irises, and oblong pupils. His hair becomes longer and untamed, covering his normal ears. His ring turns black and gains a bright green paw print on its face.

## Personality

Adrien is charismatic, but shy, a bit reserved, and slightly innocent — partially due to his unfamiliarity to much of the world beyond his father's reach.[11] While liking to have fun, he is more serious, obedient, somewhat insecure, and less lively due to his strict upbringing. Wanting to change, make friends, and experience new things is one of his main motives to complement himself, but it's a bit of a struggle for Adrien and it worries him every now and then. He usually thinks reasonably and will express annoyance and frustration when someone is being difficult or something is going wrong. If something makes him sad, he tries to downplay his feelings on it, like his relationship with his father, but he will act on impulse if he is emotional enough, like lying to Théo Barbot out of jealousy about his relationship with Ladybug and going out into to the night while unhappy on Christmas in "A Christmas Special".
Though not very openly emotional or affectionate to most people, Adrien is friendly, empathetic, and encouraging to others in hard times. He also has an easier time letting his feelings show to those who he's close to.
As Cat Noir, Adrien has the freedom to act however he wants outside of his normal life, letting his wilder side come out, and becoming cocky and outgoing.[12] More optimistic and open, he says whatever comes to his mind, and makes plenty of typically cat-related jokes and puns. In his attempts to get Ladybug's attention, along with other people, he brags and boasts about himself in a comedic way.[13] Much of Cat Noir's exaggerated personality, especially his flirting with Ladybug, stems from entertainment such as anime, television, and movies due to his lack of experience with people his age beyond Chloé.[12] His change to his superhero status doesn't diminish his kindness and concern for others though, among a lot of his other personality traits like reasonable character and deep loyalty. While more prone to goofing off, Cat Noir gets serious when needed, like when fighting an akumatized villain. It is rare for him to reveal his vulnerable side, but it does come through at times, like as when he quietly commented that not all parents are loving in "The Bubbler" and tried in vain to tell Ladybug about his love for her before their transformations wore off in "Dark Cupid". Determined to help others and save the day, Cat Noir really cherishes being uninhibited by his civilian life as a superhero.

On certain occasions as Cat Noir, Adrien can be hasty sometimes thinking before he leaps when rushing to face Stormy Weather without a plan.

## Abilities

### As a civilian

In addition to being a fashion model and homeschooled, Adrien takes basketball, fencing, piano, and Chinese lessons.[14] Thus, he is able to speak Chinese fluently and is able to communicate with Wang Cheng. He is also quite good at video games, being able to beat Max in *Ultimate Mecha Strike III* and achieve one of the top scores in the entire school.

Adrien is able to fight on equal grounds with his akumatized fencing teacher and fend off his knights effortlessly, showing great skill for offensive and defensive movements. Other than fencing, he also does karate, as revealed in "Simon Says", which enables him to fight in hand-to-hand combat as well.

### As Cat Noir

Cat Noir has enhanced skills such as speed, agility, strength, and near-invulnerability.[15] Like a cat, he also has enhanced senses such as hearing, smell, and night vision, and he has super stealth.[16] Cat Noir uses his staff efficiently, wielding it as a sword, throwing it with great precision and having it be deflected back to him, being able to spin it at high speeds to form a shield, and taking advantage of its duplication and length-changing features. To travel long distances, he uses his staff and its variety in length to vault over obstacles.

His special power, Cataclysm, allows him to negatively effect anything that he touches with his ring hand. While it is usually used to destroy objects, it can be used for a variety of different effects, like causing a bus' controls to go haywire or creating a platform in a structure. However, using Cataclysm drains his Miraculous' power, causing him to revert back to Adrien typically five minutes afterwards, so he has to use it wisely.

## TMNT X Pokemon

He and Marinette have been captured by the Krang until being saved by April and her friends. He's good friends with Ritsu because of their careers as being famous. He even joins him in some of his concerts just to have fun with it. He also respects Amane and is one of his dancers in his dance group.

## Trivia

* The character of Adrien was created around 2012.[18]
* The French name "Adrien" comes from the Roman cognomen "Hadrianus," which means "from Hadria." In the days of the Roman Empire, Hadria was a town in northern Italy and the namesake of the Adriatic Sea. The Adriatic Sea is known for the dark-colored sand on its beaches, and for this reason, the name is also commonly translated as "dark one."
	+ His last name, "Agreste," means "rural" in French. It is also the French name for the grayling butterfly.
	+ Jokingly, Thomas Astruc said that his middle name is "Perfection."[19]
* The name "Chat Noir" is French for "Black Cat." Some sources have called him "Black Cat" instead of Chat Noir or Cat Noir.[20]
	+ In the Korean and Hebrew versions, Adrien's superhero name is "Black Cat."
	+ In the Russian version, Adrien's superhero name is "Super Cat."
* The earliest known appearance of Cat Noir was on the fake cover of Issue #12 of *The Mini Menace Ladybug*.
* Fans originally called him Félix, after a famous cartoon cat. For some time, this name appeared on the original French version of Zagtoon's official website,[21] but later disappeared with newer, equally reliable sources calling him "Adrien."
	+ It was later revealed that the Ladybug PV version had in fact been called "Félix," and Félix and Adrien are not the same character. Adrien was made around 2012 to replace Félix.[22]

* Adrien's appearance changed immensely from Félix's design (seen in the Ladybug PV) to his own design. Félix's design included more formal clothing with black and gray colors, desaturated green eyes, and a tidier hairstyle. As Cat Noir, Félix wears higher boots and doesn't have a staff for a weapon.
	+ Their personalities are also different. Félix is less social, not openly friendly, and not kind to Marinette.
	+ Unlike Félix, Adrien's ring can come off anytime. This is seen in "Lady Wifi" when he, as Cat Noir, gets locked into a freezer and the impact causes his ring to fall off his finger, which makes him revert back to normal.
* Because Félix was Cat Noir in the Ladybug PV, Adrien was never seen in 2D form until the *Miraculous: Tales from Paris* webisodes. He will be seen again in 2D in the Miraculous Ladybug OVA, as Adrien is confirmed to still be Cat Noir instead of Félix.[23]
* Cat Noir's legacy is as old as ancient China, as revealed in "Volpina".
* His responsibilities as a superhero not only include fighting akumatized villains, but also patrolling among many other things.[24]
* He is allergic to feathers, as revealed in "Mr. Pigeon".
* In the French version of "Copycat", Cat Noir calls Ladybug "Buginette" (in French, adding "-nette" to the end of a word is a way of showing affection). In the English version, he calls her "Bugaboo."
* Adrien watches anime.[25]
* According to Gabriel Agreste's voice actor, Adrien is not allowed to play *Pokémon Go*.[26]
* Adrien doesn't appear to have as many issues juggling his normal life with his superhero work as Marinette does. However, he does struggle on occasion, as seen in "Princess Fragrance" when he misses his chemistry class.
* He is responsible for Théo being akumatized.
* He mentions in "The Pharaoh", "Lady Wifi", and "Ladybug as seen by Adrien" that he suspects he might know Ladybug in normal life without knowing it.
* As he says in "Dark Cupid", he hates signing autographs.
* According to Thomas Astruc in a joking matter, Cat Noir's suit is made of "boyfriend material".[27]
	+ The suit is not made of leather but it is the closest material.[28]
	+ The ears are made of the same material as the rest of the suit.[29]
	+ The bell functions as a zipper and was added "because it looks cute."[30]
* Cat Noir's cat ears and tail are clearly fake. However, they respond to his mood and enhanced senses.
	+ In "Dark Cupid", when Cat Noir isn't able to confess to Ladybug because their transformations are about to run out, his ears move down.
	+ In "Animan", his cat ears move when he hears Animan coming.

* According to Gabriel, he's a lot like his mother, physically and in terms of personality.
* He's been turned evil numerous of times so far, having fallen under the influence of Dark Cupid's hate arrows, ending up under the control of the Puppeteer, and being affected by Princess Fragrance's perfume.