Marcaniel

Marcaniel is the slash ship between Marc Anciel and Nathaniel Kurtzberg from the Miraculous Ladybug fandom.

Canon
After Marc's first appearance on the show, most of Nathaniel's appearances were with him working on comics or just hanging out together. The personalities of both are quite similar to each other, since they are both shy when talking to others and have strong passions in art⁚ Nathaniel the drawings and Marc the writing. Before meeting directly on "Reverser", Marc was shown to often look at Nathaniel's drawings for inspiration for his stories on his school website. From the way Marc acts with Nathaniel when he meets and talks about him, it can be inferred that he has feelings for him. This was later confirmed by Feri González, who runs the official Miraculous Ladybug Mexico Twitter account.

In the art room of the school, while he was drawing, it is revealed that Nathaniel needs a writer to write scripts for his illustrated comics, and Marc appears hidden behind the door and Marinette takes him to the room so that he meets everyone who they were there, including Nathaniel. Nathaniel welcomes Marc, but before he can continue speaking, Marc walks over to their desk and is delighted when he sees their drawings in person, beginning to flatter them.

Nathaniel thanks him for the compliments and Marc walks away embarrassed and was about to say something else, until Chloé interrupts. After Chloé and Sabrina leave the classroom, the art teacher tells Marc that Nathaniel needs a writer for his comics, but Marc doesn't believe he has it in him and runs out of the room. Once Marinette reads Marc's works, she suggests that he and Nathaniel work together on a comic book. In fear of Nathaniel's reaction to his story, Marc takes Marinette's advice of showing him the book without telling Nathaniel who wrote it. But because Marc had titled his story as the diary of Ladybug, which has the heroine having a crush on Nathaniel, he assumes that the book Marinette handed him was truly Ladybug's dairy. Once Nathaniel realizes that it wasn't so and begins to believe that Marc was playing a cruel joke on him with Marinette, he angrily denies Marc's offer of making a comic book together. Marc becomes so saddened that he is akumatized by Hawk Moth into Reverser.

As a Reverser, instead of seeking to physically harm Nathaniel out of the emotional pain caused by his rejection, his intent is to reverse Nathaniel into being willing to do a comic with him. Reverser shows a bit of obsession in finding Nathaniel, since he chose not to steal the Miraculouses from Ladybug and Cat Noir when they were defenseless and he flew all over Paris looking for him and demanding his location. Whereas when Nathaniel was talking to Alix at the museum, Alix talks to the about that he should reconcile with Marc, knowing that Marinette is not the type of person to embarrass others, to which Nathaniel thinks he judged them too quickly. Upon learning of Marc's akumatization, Nathaniel seems to feel guilty about it and Reserver demands that Ladybug and Cat Noir hand over Nathaniel to him, threatening to cover the city with trash.

When Marc is de-akumatized and Paris is no longer in danger, Marc and Nathaniel look a bit uncomfortable to see each other again due to what happened. However Ladybug approaches both of them and clarifies that it was all a misunderstanding and they can work together and be a team if they give themselves the opportunity, causing both of them to reconcile by holding hands while smiling at each other. The next day Nathaniel and Marc make a comic about Reverser joining the Heroes team and dedicate it to Marinette, gleefully joking that she would be a great hero "if she wasn't such a klutz." As they thank Marinette it can be seen that Nathaniel looks up at Marc sorta blushing. At the final of the episode, they became boyfriends

After that episode, they are frequently seen together in later episodes such as "Frozer" and "Mayura". Throughout the third season, the two continue to make comics together, which was seen in "Gamer 2.0," where Marc reminds Nathaniel of the deadline for their next comic. In the series it is shown that Marc also gets along with other classmates of Nathaniel, since it is seen that he is good friends with Marinette and when the boys have a party at Adrien's house in "Party Crasher", Marc and Nathaniel go to the party together and hug Ivan.

Equally in "Party Crasher", there is a quick shot of Marc, Nathaniel, Ivan and Adrien hugging with Marc and Nathaniel kissing Adrien's cheeks, which is composed to look a lot like the classic faces-vase image used to demonstrate figure-ground perception. Ivan and Adrien are the vase, Marc and Nathaniel are the faces. Taken at face value, this an Indirect Kiss between Marc and Nathaniel. While the season finale, Nathaniel and Marc are seen sitting next to each other, among the other couples, in "Miracle Queen".

In “Hack-San", Robustus mesmerizes the Parisian population to surrender their most precious objects to him in a digital landscape. Marc is entranced and sacrifices the comic he Nathaniel were writing, but Nathaniel is absorbed in the process. While it could be that Nathaniel holding the object is what led him to be absorbed, it can also imply that Nathaniel himself is the thing Marc treasures the most.

In "Gabriel Agreste" Nathaniel and Marc have a plan for Marinette to declare her feelings to Adrien. They set it up at school, where Adrien is free of his father's control. Alya says that she chose Marc and Nathaniel to help because "they are romantic comedy specialists". When Marc signals Nathaniel to present their story, he calls him 'Nath'. In the story, Marc and Nathaniel are Marinette's "fairy godmother", each week they'll devise a plan for the knight, Marinette, to finally kiss the princess, which is Adrien. In the picture of them being Marinette's "fairy godmother" (drawn by Nathaniel), the two are seen holding hands while giving Adrien love letter from Marinette. At the end of the episode, Marc puts his hand on Nathaniels sholder while happily calling him 'Nath' for the second time. Nathaniel announces he and Marc are making a new manga, "The adventures of Marino, the awkward server".

In the episode "Penalteam" we see Marc dragging Nathaniel to go play soccer with the rest of his classmates. Nathaniel doesn't want to go, complaining that he might hurt his hand, making it so he wouldn't be able to draw anymore but Marc tries to convince Nathaniel talking about how awesome soccer is. Nathaniel still isn't interested and says he'd rather be working on their comic. Marc is still trying to convince Nathaniel but Nathaniel tells Marc he should think of an excuse for him since he's a writer and Marc ends up doing so.

In "Representation", Marc and Nathaniel can be seen in the corner holding hands while facing each other until Marinette runs into the two of them.

Moments
Frightningale
 * The two are seen dancing together in a scene from Clara Nightingale's music video, with both of them wearing Ladybug masks.

Reverser
 * Marc blushes when Nathaniel offers him a hand to hold (shake).

Frozer
 * In a scene from the episode, when Adrien is looking at some couples at school, Nathaniel and Marc can be seen sitting on the stairs.

Mayura
 * During Marinette's class picnic at the end of the episode, Marc is sitting near Nathaniel and Ivan. Nathaniel can then be seen leaning on Marc's shoulders before the fire works.

Hack-San
 * Marc is working with Nathaniel at the park along other couples. In the same scene Juleka is playing guitar for Rose and Myléne is sharing an icecream with Ivan.

Representation
 * Marc and Nathaniel are holding hands face to face close to each other during the prom in Eiffel tower

Fanon
Soon after "Reverser" aired, the two were shipped by fans. Most looked to how the two worked with each other and hoped for more interactions in season 3. The two have had several on-screen interactions, which further fueled fans to ship them. It was also thought for a while that Nathaniel would obtain the Peacock (or Rooster) Miraculous while Marc would be intrusted with the Goat Miraculous, and that they would join the main superhero team and work together.

The theory of the two receiving their own Miraculouses has fans believing that they'll be given to them when Marc or Nathaniel have been re-akumatized or have been captured by one, and Ladybug asks one of them to help her and Cat Noir save the other by lending either one of the two a Miraculous. Since some of their friends, like Nino and Rose, were given their Miraculouses when Alya got captured by her akumatized sister while Juleka was re-akumatized and gets consumed by her entrusted sentimonster. That is why they believe that Nathaniel or Marc might become part of that pattern.

On AO3, Marcaniel is the most written ship for both Marc and Nathaniel. It is also the sixth most written ship in the Miraculous Ladybug tag. While on fanfiction.net it has 57 fanfics, with only 24 placed under paring in the Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir category. Marcaniel also has a loyal following on both Tumblr and DeviantArt, where some of its fanart refences them writing and drawing together, sharing a kiss and even has them as their akumatized selves; or their wearing clothes that references their villain forms.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Marc/Nathaniel tag on FanFiction.net
 * Marc/Nathaniel tag on FanFiction.net

FAN ART

TUMBLR

WIKIS
 * on the
 * on the
 * on the

Trivia

 * Feri González confirmed on Twitter that Marc identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ community and has a "fondness" for Nathaniel.
 * In webisode "Nathaniel & Marc", Marinette describes Marc being not so different from Nathaniel's former shy self; who enjoys writing in his book while Nathaniel draws in his own. Making them the perfect comic book making team.
 * Astruc confirmed that Marc and Nathaniel are officially in couple.