Hawk Moth

"This is just the beginning, Ladybug. You and Cat Noir may have won this battle, but I will win the war. I will get your Miraculouses. I will get the absolute power! And then my secret dream will come true!"

- Hawk Moth. "Fly away, my little akuma, and evilize him/her."

- Hawk Moth's typical quote.

Hawk Moth (Le Papillon in the French version, which translates to "The Butterfly") is the main antagonist of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir who wants Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses and powers for himself, although his motivation why has yet to be revealed. He creates and leads the akumas; white butterflies corrupted with evil who can transform normal people into supervillains under Hawk Moth's control.

He is voiced by Antoine Tone in the original French version and Keith Silverstein in the English dub (who also voiced Captain Gantu in the Stitch! anime).

History
In Ladybug and Cat Noir (Origins - Part 1), a man listens as his newly acquired Miraculous, Nooroo, explains the story of the Miraculouses and how they have granted people superpowers and created have created superheros for centuries, stating that the Cat and Ladybug Miraculouses are the most powerful of all and whoever wields both will have ultimate power. However, the man states that he wants to have the ultimate power and, against Nooroo's wishes, decides to use the Moth Miraculous' power to create superheros to create supervillains in order to lure out the users of the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses. The man then forces Nooroo into his brooch and takes the identity of Hawk Moth. Because of his Miraculous Wayzz sensing Nooroo's negative energy and being too old to complete the job himself, Master Fu decides to choose new heroes to wield the Miraculouses and fight Hawk Moth, eventually settling on Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrian Agreste.

Meanwhile, Hawk Moth finds the perfect subject to test his new powers on; Ivan Bruel, a student angry after being mocked by Lê Chiến Kim over not having the courage to tell Mylène Haprèle about how he feels about her. Hawk Moth then sends an Akuma to attach itself to the note Kim gave Ivan, and offers to give him the power to take revenge on the ones who hurt him, which he eagerly accepts, turning himself into the first Akumatized villain; Stoneheart. After Ivan is defeated and returned to normal by the newly created Ladybug and Cat Noir, Hawk Moth is last seen laughing evilly, as they didn't capture his Akuma, causing it to multiply and create dozens of dormant Stonehearts.

In Stoneheart (Origins - Part 2), Hawk Moth attempts to Akumatize Ivan again after he is bullied by Chloé Bourgeois (ironically about his Akumatization), however, he fails after Marinette comforts him and inspires him to write a song to tell Mylène about how he feels. After this fails, Hawk Moth succeeds in giving Ivan his powers back, and, with the army of Stonehearts at his command, Hawk Moth tells Stoneheart to both take revenge and to get the Miraculouses of Ladybug and Cat Noir. Later, Hawk Moth uses his Akumas to create a giant hologram of himself over the city, revealing himself as the mastermind behind Stoneheart's rampage and orders Ladybug and Cat Noir to surrender their Miraculouses to him, however, Ladybug destroys the hologram instead. After Stoneheart is defeated, Hawk Moth swears vengeance on Ladybug and Cat Noir and vows to steal their Miraculouses in order to complete his secret goal.

For the rest of the season, Hawk Moth would continually turn people with negative emotions into supervillains in order to help complete his goals, but would always fail in the end.

Appearance
Hawk Moth is tall with blue eyes. He wears a dark purple dress shirt with a black vest, a light pink butterfly-shaped bow with a purple button in the center, and black dress pants. Over his head, he wears a gray mask. He also has the Moth Miraculous brooch pinned to his chest.

Whenever he is controlling someone with an Akuma, a bright pink butterfly-shaped outline appears above his face and around his eyes.

Personality
Hawk Moth is cold, cunning, and determined. His greatest desire is to claim the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous for himself to obtain absolute power, and nothing will stand in his way. His Akumatized villains are his most powerful known weapon. He chooses his victims carefully and cleverly, giving them ideas if they're struggling to think up ones. He is a great deceiver, persuading people that he cares about their problems and gives them powers, when in fact, he does it because of his ulterior motive to use them to get the Miraculous for him. If things aren't going his way, he easily loses his patience, threatening harm to Ladybug, Cat Noir, and even the villains he creates. After defeat, Hawk Moth vows revenge and, while stopping for a while afterwards, doesn't wait too long to try again with his akumas.

Powers and Abilities

 * Akumatization: As stated before, Hawk Moth has the ability to turn a citizen with potent negative emotions into a supervillain through the use of his Akumas. The powers Hawk Moth give always directly of metaphorically relate to the reason behind their distress (ex: Lê Chiến Kim was rejected by the girl he liked and was turned into a literal Anti Cupid, Chloé Bourgeois pretended Sabrina Rainconprix was invisible, causing her to gain the powers of invisibility, etc). It is currently unknown weather Hawk Moth determines what power they receive or if their powers depend on why they are distressed (meaning that a completely different person could receive the same powers as another if their circumstances are virtually the same).
 * Negative Emotion Sensing: Hawk Moth can scan Paris in search of people who are perfect for his Akumatization.
 * Telepathy: Using the powers granted to him by his Miraculous, Hawk Moth can communicate with the people he Akumatizes, forming a moth shaped emblem around the faces of himself and his minion, which is how he instructs them to help him complete his goal.
 * Mind Control: For short periods of time, Hawk Moth can directly control the people he Akumatizes, although he only does this when they are completely disobeying him.
 * Other Possible Abilities: While not confirmed, it is likely that, like other Miraculous users, Hawk Moth receives heightened physical capabilities, such as increased strength and durability.

Weaknesses

 * Miraculous: Although it provides all of his powers, Hawk Moth's Miraculous is also his greatest weakness; if the brooch containing it were to be removed, Hawk Moth would be rendered completely powerless and could be easily defeated. It can also be assumed that, much like Ladybug and Cat Nor, Hawk Moth can only use his powers for a limited time before the Miraculous needs to come out and refuel itself, although this has yet to be shown.
 * Minions: While a great help towards his goals, Hawk Moth's minions will often directly disobey his orders in order to pursue their own goals, often preventing the Miraculouses from being taken (as is the case with Timebreaker and Reflekta) or even trying to outright kill Ladybug and Cat Noir without taking their Miraculouses (as was the case with Bubbler).
 * Akumatization Limitations: For unknown reasons, Hawk Moth can only create one villain a day, although he has occasionally created two. This is seen as incredibly strange, as there is no logical reason why Hawk Moth wouldn't create dozens of villains a day. A possible explanation for this is that he has a limited amount of dark energy to use to create Akumas. Another explanation is that he can create more than one villain a day, but can only do so if they will end up having very simplistic powers, rather than the complex abilities he normally gives to his minions (ex: In Princess Fragrance, Hawk Moth created both Magician of Misfortune, who's only power was to make objects disappear, and later the titular Princess Fragrance, who had the more complex abilities he usually gives out.) It is also possible that Hawk Moth only Akumatizes people who he knows will help in his goals and will receive powers that would help fight Ladybug and Cat Noir.

Season 1

 * The Bubbler/Nino Lahiffe: Able to fly short distances and create indestructible (except by Cataclysm) bubbles with varying effects.
 * Mr. Pigeon/Xavier Ramier: Can control/communicate with pigeons.
 * Stormy Weather/Aurore Beauréal: Can fly and control the weather.
 * Timebreaker/Alix Kubdel: Can steal energy from people (wiping them from existence) and time travel when given enough energy.
 * Copycat/Théo Barbot: Can turn himself into an exact replica of Cat Noir.
 * The Pharaoh/Jalil Kubdel: Can summon the powers of various Egyptian Gods
 * Lady WiFi/Alya Césaire: Can use her phone for various attacks (hover boarding, freezing, locking people to surfaces) and transport herself through phones.
 * The Evillustrator/Nathaniel Kyrtzberg: Can bring his drawings to life.
 * Rogercop/Roger Rainconprix: Can shoot unbreakable laser handcuffs.
 * Dark Cupid/Lê Chiến Kim: Can fly and shoot arrows that replace love and affection with hatred.
 * Horrificator/Mylène Haprèle: Can shoot sticky purple goo and grows bigger by absorbing fear.
 * Darkblade/Armand D'Argencourt: Can stun people and "knight" them, turning them into loyal knights.
 * The Mime/Fred Haprèle: Can pantomime objects into existence.
 * Magician of Misfortune/Jean Duparc: Can make objects magically disappear.
 * Princess Fragrance/Rose Laviliant: Can spray different fragrances with different effects.
 * Stoneheart/Ivan Bruel: Has super strength and grows when struck.
 * Animan/Otis Césaire: Can shape-shift into various animals, including extinct ones.
 * Simon Says/Simon Grimault: Can throw cards that force others to do what he says.
 * Pixelator/Vincent Aza: Can transport people into an infinite white void by taking their picture, or pixelate/remove a part of their body if he catches only one part.
 * Guitar Villain/Jagged Stone: Can shoot different beams by playing different chords.
 * Kung Food/Wang Chen: Can mind control people who drink his soup and summon food weapons.
 * Gamer/Max Kanté: Controls a giant robot that turns people into "Experience Points" in order to upgrade it. Can also summon another robot if the first is destroyed.
 * Reflekta/Juleka Couffaine: Can turn people into copies of herself, and by extension, can remove their powers.
 * The Puppeteer/Manon Chamack: Can control a person if she has a puppet of them.
 * Vanisher/Sabrina Rainconprix: Can turn invisible.
 * Antibug/Chloé Bourgeois: Has the same powers as Ladybug, but summons more offensive objects with 'Anti-Charm' (swords, weapons instead of random objects)
 * Volpina/Lila Rossi: Can create realistic, intangible illusions.
 * Santa Claws/Santa Claus: Gives out presents containing spiders, bats and cockroaches.

Trivia

 * Hawk Moth is named after the Sphingidae; a family of moths that are generally referred to as "Hawk Moths" because of their swift flight patterns.
 * Hawk Moth also surrounding himself him darkness may also be a reference to these moths, as most types are nocturnal.
 * The most popular theory surrounding Hawk Moth is that his secret identity is Gabriel Agreste; Cat Noir's father. They are the same height, possess the same eye color, they both possess the same silver ring on their middle finger on the left hand, Hawk Moth keeps a photo of Mrs. Agreste in his Miraculous and they are both voiced by the same English, French, Korean, and Spanish voice actors. In addition to this, in the episode Volpina, it is shown that Mr. Agreste owns a book containing documents about every known Miraculous, which, if he is Hawk Moth, is likely how he discovered his Miraculous in the first place.
 * Another theory suggests that his secret identity is Mr. Kubdel, the father of Alix and Jalil, although this is unlikely, as he and Hawk Moth were in two different places during The Pharaoh.
 * It has been confirmed that Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrian Agreste (Ladybug and Cat Noir's civilian identities) would be extremely hard for Hawk Moth to corrupt, as Marinette always has an extremely positive attitude and Adrian is too used to being disappointed and upset for anything to truly aggravate him.
 * However, it is possible that Hawk Moth could corrupt them in Season 2, as an episode focused purely on their Miraculouses (Tikki and Plagg) is planned.
 * As confirmed by the show-runners, in Season 2 and 3, a new villain called The Peacock will take over as the main antagonist and demote Hawk Moth to secondary antagonist due to her being so evil that she, quote on quote, "makes Hawk Moth look like a baby in comparison".
 * In Ladybug and Cat Noir (Origins - Part 1), Master Fu states that he made one mistake in giving others Miraculouses and won't repeat it. It is unknown whether the "mistake" Fu is referring to is giving either Hawk Moth or The Peacock their Miraculouses, as he once owned both Miraculouses (as shown by the Peacock and Moth symbols inside of his chest).
 * Despite being the main villain of the series, Hawk Moth makes very little appearances in the Miraculous Secrets webisodes and makes no appearances in the Tales From Paris spin-off.
 * In Season 2, Hawk Moth's backstory and how he discovered Nooroo shall be expanded on.
 * Hawk Moth's true motivation for wanting the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses has yet to be revealed, and there have been many speculations as to why he wants them. The most obvious reason why Hawk Moth would desire such power would be to simply increase his own power and turn himself invincible, as he stated in both The Evillustrator and Rogercop that he wants to take over the world. Another theory suggests that he wants to use the power to revive Mrs. Agreste, assuming that she is deceased, which supports the theory that Hawk Moth is Gabriel Agreste.
 * As stated by Wilfried Pain, when asked on Twitter if Hawk Moth is a metaphor for human ambivalence, he responded, "Yes, you can say that. But his true nature and purpose will change your point of view." This may suggest that Hawk Moth's real motivations aren't out of a desire for power, but rather a more just cause, possibly supporting the theory that he wants to revive Mrs. Agreste.
 * Hawk Moth has named every villain that he has Akumatized.
 * It is unconfirmed as to whether Hawk Moth shall appear in the special episodes entitled The Chinese Legend and Ladybug in New York, as they take place outside of Paris. In the case of Ladybug in New York, since the special will be a crossover between Pixie Girl and Ghostforce, the episode will likely feature Ladybug and Cat Noir fighting the villains from those series' instead of Hawk Moth.
 * Hawk Moth is similar to the following villains;
 * The Sorcerer: Both Hawk Moth and The Sorcerer were normal people who became corrupted by the powers given to them by mystical objects (Moth Miraculous for Hawk Moth and Chaos Pearls for The Sorcerer), becoming supervillains with the ability to corrupt people with negative emotions and turn them into minions using evil energy (Akumas for Hawk Moth, Stank for The Sorcerer). However, while Hawk Moth's goals still remain ambiguous, The Sorcerer made it clear that he wanted to dominate the world (although, as mentioned earlier, Hawk Moth has said that he wanted to do the same thing). On top of this, while The Sorcerer directly controls his victims and forces them to be monsters, Hawk Moth is forced to strike an alliance with anyone he Akumatizes and gives them free will over their actions.
 * Rita Repulsa: Both Hawk Moth and Rita Repulsa summon a villain a day to fight their arch-enemies and never fight the heroes directly, only watching and instructing the villains from their evil lairs. It is also frequently questioned by fans and critics alike why Rita and Hawk Moth don't create several monsters/villains a day (although there are many possible explanations as to why Hawk Moth can't, while Rita is shown to have the power to do so).
 * As revealed by Thomas Astruc, Hawk Moth may receive a new helper for his evil plans in Season 2.
 * It can be assumed that Hawk Moth's helper will be Lila Rossi, as, unlike other characters, she never gave up her grudge against Ladybug after she was Akumatized.