But I think this is oversimplifying something that can be interpreted in several ways. To begin, can I just say that, according to IMDB, the french voice actor of Hawk Moth (Antoine Tomé) does not in fact also play Gabriel Agreste. I could not find who actually plays his voice, but it would be listed in Tome’s filmography if it were him, and it isn’t. Keith Silverstein, point of fact, also plays Prince Ali from episode 4 “Princess Fragrance” and he certainly isn’t Hawk Moth. Another very important fact to consider is that, though they may share an eye color, their chin and jaw structures are very different. Hawk Moth’s is more square, with a rounder face, while Gabriel has a prominent chin and longer face.
Now, when it comes to the “Simon Says” episode, I have no disputes about the idea that Gabriel does actually figure out that Adrian is Chat Noir. The way he looks at Adrian's Miraculous both as Adrian and Chat Noir leaves little doubt that he knows something. But it doesn’t prove that Gabriel is Hawk Moth, it only proves that he knows something about Miraculous. Granted, this early in the show, with the viewers basically blind to the history of Miraculous users, it is pretty easy to assume Gabriel is Hawk Moth because who else would know anything about them? By episode 10, we don’t even know who gave the Miraculous to Adrian and Marinette in the first place.
Later in the series, however, some other things pop up that lead me to believe that something else is going on with Gabriel and the Miraculous. In episode 26 “Volpina,” Adrian accidentally sees Gabriel lock and hide a safe behind the giant painting of Adrian’s mother. When he and Plagg investigate, there are some items in the safe: a book about Tibet, a pamphlet from a hotel in Tibet, a photo of Adrian’s mother, a peacock pin, and the book containing the history of Miraculous users written in code. The episode actually focuses on the book, which Marinette and Tikki end up with. But the general contents of the safe are stunningly useful for analysis.
First, the peacock pin is a Miraculous. If you compare how it looks to the Miraculous in the southern most section of the box during the opening theme, they are identical.
In episode 22 “Ladybug and Cat Noir: Origins,” when The Great Guardian gets into the box to retrieve the ladybug and Chat Noir Miraculous, the peacock Miraculous is missing. So where is it? In Gabriel Agreste’s safe. What’s more, the artists have made it a point to set that Miraculous in close proximity to a headshot of Adrian’s mother. Now, Gabriel has plenty of photos and paintings of his wife throughout the house. This is not a coincidence. Of all the things to keep in a safe, why would he actually have that in there unless the book, and the pin were acquired from Mrs. Agreste and the artists are trying to tell us that.
(As a side note, it’s interesting that a book on Tibet, and a pamphlet to a Tibetan hotel are also associated with the other items in this safe. Tibet is the most cliche of all possible sources of mystical power. Someone at some point took a trip there, and the writers/artists seem to want us to think that it is connected to the Miraculous.)
In the origins episode, The Great Guardian (the short, aged, Asian gentleman in the red shirt) says he has only made one mistake in giving out Miraculous. We can safely assume he means Hawk Moth, since these powers appear to be meant for superheroes, and Hawk Moth’s Kwami (Nooroo) complains in that same episode about how his power is being used. Now, Hawk Moth looks to be between 30 and 50 years old, and we know for sure that Mrs. Agreste died some time in the last couple of years, though how hasn’t been confirmed. So I propose that Mrs. Agreste and Hawk Moth both were given Miraculous at roughly the same time, and fighting Hawk Moth is what got her killed. Gabriel was simply in on it, and was able to recognize that Adrian’s ring was also a Miraculous when it matched Chat Noir’s ring.
This could also explains why Hawk Moth would have a locket with Mrs. Agreste’s picture. If they at some point fought together as a duo like Ladybug and Chat Noir, they may have been very close. She marrying Gabriel may have been the thing that pushed Hawk Moth to the dark side.
Okay, Okay, I hear you. You’re saying somewhere out there that this theory doesn’t really disprove that Gabriel is Hawk Moth. He’s a very stern and secretive man--It could still be him.
I am going to have to disagree.
He may be stern, and absentee, even secretive at times, but could he really kill his own wife? Her death is a source of pain for him, and seems to be the reason for his absence in Adrian’s life. He looks so much like her, after all. If he were really Hawk Moth, had really killed his own wife, and had figured out that Adrian is Chat Noir, why hasn’t he already take the Miraculous from Adrian? And if Hawk Moth already had the peacock Miraculous, why isn’t he using its power to obtain Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculous? I doubt he’s collecting them just to lock them away in a safe.
I actually am under the impression that we have not met Hawk Moth’s alter ego yet. Or else he is so obsessed that he has no alter ego. Honestly, there isn’t enough about Hawk Moth to really figure out who he is. His character is fairly one-dimensional at this point. Evil and Butterfly-themed, and a mistake. That’s it. We don’t even know why he’s collecting Miraculous other than the obvious, one-dimensional villain answer: to gain absolute power.
(All episode numbers are based on the order given by Netflix.)
