History Videogame / Deponia

* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler:Captain Seagull, a.k.a. Rufus' father]], is unceremoniously shot dead by Argus in a YouHaveFailedMe moment. Rufus sees the whole thing; if he noticed, he gave no indication afterwards that he cared. He returns in ''Goodbye Deponia'' with an eyepatch and a peg leg. Rufus still doesn't care for him.

** In ''Goodbye Deponia'' June at one point wears [[BellyDancer a very skimpy outfit while dancing provocatively]], but as she's being humiliatingly forced to play the monkey for an organ grinder in order to earn a crank to get back to her boyfriend who, unbeknownst to her, is currently being consumed by some sort of PuppeteerParasite, [[FanDisservice it's hard to be titillated by the situation.]]

** In the first game, he's responding to criticism of his [[GuysAreSlobs uncleanly living habits]] and [[MenCantKeepHouse unwillingness to do chores]]. However, the story does not end up with AnAesop supporting his defense.

** This is also [[spoiler:the writer's intended [[AnAesop Aesop]] for the series, in that Rufus doesn't reach Elysium because he was never ''meant'' to.]] [[BrokenBase Many fans weren't exactly pleased about this,]] especially with the [[YankTheDogsChain contrived and mean-spirited way]] it was handled.

** LivingMacGuffin: Goal, as a result of her memory cartridge storing those codes.

* AbusiveParents: In the first game, Rufus' father is a DisappearedDad who used to be mayor and apparently quite the clever GadgeteerGenius not unlike Rufus. He shows up in Chaos in Deponia, and one of the first things he does is tell Rufus he's adopted, try to steal his girlfriend, and in the endgame [[spoiler: demands an apology from his son for being the way he (Rufus) is at gunpoint and winds up SHOOTING him lethally. It's a good thing Rufus had a clone standing next to him otherwise that would have been the end]]

** [[spoiler: Future Goal has shades of this in ''Deponia Doomsday''.]]

* AmbiguousEnding: The ending of ''Goodbye Deponia'' leaves some big questions unanswered, which is a somewhat odd choice given the overall whimsical tone of the series. [[spoiler: [[BolivianArmyEnding Did Rufus really die?]] [[NeverFoundTheBody What happened to Argus?]] What will happen to Elysium now that the Council of Elders know that Deponia is inhabited and have ordered the suspension of the Utopia mission?]] WordOfGod has confirmed that this was a deliberate choice, as the developers wanted [[spoiler: the fate of Deponia and its inhabitants to be left up to the imagination of the players, to the point where they have suggested that it's possible that [[DisneyDeath Rufus survived his fall]] (though many fans chose to [[KilledOffForReal assume the worst.]]) The series' fourth entry, ''Doomsday Deponia'', initially looked like it had provided a retroactive subversion, as an older, grizzled Rufus was shown in the previews and the game's prologue, indicating that he did survive the fall... but THAT game's ending turns it into a double subversion, as the old Rufus turned out to be from an alternate future that Rufus and Goal deliberately prevent. We did get confirmation that Elysium fell without being able to use Deponia, leading to both worlds suffering from the crash. Goal was one of the few survivors, and ''Deponia Doomsday'' ends with her exploring the ruins of the planet, moving on without Rufus]].

* ArtificialHuman: The Organon, who were created to be disposable workers and soldiers in the service of Elysium. To better fulfill their role, they were engineered to have little respect for life. Understandably, this also makes them particularly brutal enforcers as far as the Deponians are concerned. [[spoiler: Argus, Cletus, and even Rufus himself happen to be the only remaining prototypes for the rest of them.]]

** Rufus himself sports a toned-down version, a kind of Chin Scruff of ComedicSociopathy. [[spoiler: This is likely because he is a prototype clone from the same template as the one used for the Organon.]] [[spoiler: Upgraded to a full BeardOfSorrow in ''Deponia Doomsday'''s prologue due to Goal's death in an attempt to avert his HeroicSacrifice in ''Goodbye Deponia''.]]

** Second game: [[spoiler: Rufus and Goal are together at last, but Deponia is still in danger, and Rufus is no closer to Elysium]].
** [[RuleOfThree Third game]]: [[spoiler: The Organon have been stopped, Deponia will not be destroyed and Goal is safe in Elysium, but Rufus [[AmbiguousEnding may have had]] to give up his life to protect Goal.]]
** [[TrilogyCreep Fourth game]]: [[spoiler: Goal is convinced by Time-Traveller!Rufus to stop trying to rescue Original!Rufus in order to prevent a time loop and TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, with [[HeroicSacrifice both Rufuses dying in the process]]; Elysium eventually crashes, Goal lets go of the past and [[RidingIntoTheSunset walks towards a new life on Deponia]]. But a version of Goal and Rufus are trapped in the era of dinosaurs and decide to make the most of their time together.]]

** You also don't get a choice about [[spoiler: reversing the betrayal and then stranding yourself on Deponia in the process.]]

** ''Goodbye Deponia'' provides several examples in the third act, such as [[BlackComedy breaking the sewer monster's diet]] and [[DudeNotFunny wrecking Goon and June's happiness]], all of them required to proceed. However, the crowning example of this in the entire series is its ending: [[spoiler: you can't choose any other way out of the final debacle except performing a HeroicSacrifice, made even more frustrating by a mild PlotHole.]]

* ChekhovsGun: Hermes' explanation that clones' hair changes color when they grow up is and important plot point in the context of the scene, but comes up again later [[spoiler: when the baby Goal Rufus has been trying to rescue turns out to be Donna]].
* ChromaticArrangement: The three original Organon clones {[[spoiler: Rufus, Cletus and Argus]]) had red, blue and green hair respectively, although it darkened when they grew older.

* CutAndPasteEnvironments: The tutorial room from the second game is an exact copy of the tutorial from the first game (with the tutorial-giver characters switched) despite being ostensibly different places. ''Immediately'' [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] and PlayedForLaughs. By the repeat of it in the third game, it is considered a RunningGag. [[spoiler: When Rufus ends up in it later in the game during his DarkestHour and cannot escape getting killed in it ''over and over again'', he considers himself to be in ''hell''.]]

* DidNotGetTheGirl: [[spoiler: In the first game, Rufus obtains the codes and saves Deponia for the time being, but has lost the trust of Goal, which makes her return to Elysium with Cletus. In ''Goodbye Deponia'', Rufus must make a HeroicSacrifice to save Goal, having her escape to Elysium with Cletus, who has taken Rufus's identity. Whether Goal fully knows if the Rufus she is with is really Cletus or not is left to the players speculation.]] [[spoiler:The fourth game makes matters more complicated: Goal is revealed to know the truth, the original Rufus cannot be saved no matter how hard she tries and she eventually finds the courage to let him go and mourn him, but a second Rufus and Goal from an AlternateTimeline end up being stuck together in the Deponian age of the dinosaurs.]]

* DisappearedDad: Rufus' father attempted to escape Deponia when Rufus was only eight. Considering that he was mayor at the time, the townsfolk on the whole weren't very pleased about it. He reappears in the second game [[spoiler:as a minor villain]], and is unceremoniously shot by game's end. By that point, their relations have soured to such an extent that Rufus ''doesn't even comment on it''. In the third game, he managed to survive and [[spoiler: become the leader of the Resistance, only to die while trying to murder Rufus for being a screwup. Rufus again doesn't give it much thought.]]

* [[spoiler: DownerEnding: The endings for the first three games can be either this or just bittersweet, depending on who you ask. [[ShootTheShaggyDog The ending of the fourth game, though...]]]]

* EarthShatteringKaboom: The Organon's plans for Deponia. The second game reveals that the purpose of this destruction [[spoiler: is to create a blast large enough to propel Elysium to another, more habitable planet. It's finally averted in the third game, leaving the Elysians stuck trying to work out an alternative]]. You [[ApocalypseWow get to see]] what it would look like in ''Deponia Doomsday''.
* EarWorm: In the "knocking" puzzle in ''Chaos'', Rufus must remember a secret code knock, but he keeps getting distracted by the catchy music that plays in the marketplace, making him forget the knock. [[spoiler: [[BreakingTheFourthWall To solve this puzzle, you go into the game's settings and turn the background music off.]]]]

* EsotericHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Elysium falls, (a) Rufus dies, and mankind as a whole is once again trapped in the junkyard wasteland it created. On the other hand, Goal has learned both the value of never giving up and knowing when to let go, and humanity will eventually get its act together to create a brand new spaceship that will actually succeed in reaching Utopia, whereupon they will be greeted warmly by its inhabitants.]]

* FailedASpotCheck: Even though Rufus and Cletus look virtually identical, there is one glaringly obvious difference that everyone fails to notice: Cletus has a full goatee, while Rufus just has some scruffy chin hair. Also, Rufus, Cletus, [[spoiler: and Argus]] frequently fail to [[OohMeAccentsSlipping use the correct accent]] while impersonating each other, but nobody ever notices this.

** In the second and third games, [[spoiler: whenever Rufus talks to the fortune teller about his future, the fortune teller explains that he sees nothing but darkness. He also foresaw the world ending, so the player likely assumed that the more dire of his predictions were simply for dramatic flavour, but it turns out [[CassandraTruth his predictions on Rufus were a bit more accurate...]]]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* HourglassPlot: It's said that through the course of the adventure, Rufus doesn't change. In fact none of the three people (Rufus, Cletus and Argus) in the ultimate climax ever veered from their original character. However, ultimately [[spoiler: Rufus sacrifices himself, so that Goal may live, and as a side-effect Cletus as well, taking out Argus with him. In the final cutscene Cletus has to pretend to be Rufus, and the more he tries to come up with a "zany scheme" to the elders of Elyssium the more his voice slowly changes into Rufus'.]]

* IdenticalStranger: Rufus and Cletus look remarkably similar. [[spoiler: [[RuleOfThree And as the third game shows, so does Organon Bailiff Argus]]. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by all of them being variants of the same genotype of ArtificialHuman.]]
* IHaveNoSon: Invoked repeatedly by Captain Seagull on [[spoiler: Rufus]]. Specifically, he claims that [[spoiler:Rufus]] is no relation, just a [[DoorstopBaby trash baby]] he found and reluctantly took in. [[spoiler:This is later revealed to be true: Rufus, Cletus, and Argus are all clones.]]

** Rufus' father, [[spoiler: Captain Seagull]], abandoned Rufus at a theme park when he was only eight. He has all of Rufus' flaws (minus the childishness), and no redeeming virtues. During the second game he also [[spoiler:tries to steal Goal.]] Taking his claim of [[spoiler:not being Rufus' biological father]] into account means that it was entirely his influence which made Rufus what he is. In ''Goodbye Deponia'', [[spoiler:he tries to kill Rufus just because he wants an apology, and succeeds in shooting him after bringing up his wife's death.]]

* KarmaHoudini: Inverted. [[spoiler: After all Rufus goes through in the series, culminating in him saving Deponia at the last possible moment, it's [[DudeWheresMyReward hard not to think]] that he [[ThrowTheDogABone deserves his life's dream]] of making it to Elysium. The game's writers [[KilledOffForReal apparently disagree]].]]
** Arguably Cletus, who is nothing but a smug asshole throughout the series who even considers [[spoiler: the possibility of destroying Deponia to save Elysium even though he knows it's habited]]. Even with all the lying and deceit he promotes throughout the games, he [[spoiler: let's Rufus sacrifice himself because Cletus doesn't want to do it himself, gets to go back to Elysium safely with Goal, gets to assume Rufus's identity and takes even all the fame a glory that was meant to go to the real Rufus for himself.]]
* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler: Captain Seagull, a.k.a. Rufus' father]], is unceremoniously shot dead by Argus in a YouHaveFailedMe moment. Rufus sees the whole thing; if he noticed, he gave no indication afterwards that he cared. He returns in ''Goodbye Deponia'' with an eyepatch and a peg leg. Rufus still doesn't care for him.

* LaResistance: The second game features a very ineffectual one that does little more than sit around munching snacks and talking about their oppression, doing little if any actual resisting. Then Rufus become their spiritual leader, at which point they TakeALevelInBadass, going from the aforementioned to [[spoiler: raising an armed rebellion and storming the Organon blast tower at the climax.]]

* {{Leitmotif}}: The Organon Hymn, [[spoiler: which turns out to be the main theme you've been hearing for the entire series.]]

* LiteralMetaphor: Towards the end of ''Doomsday'', [[spoiler: the Utopians send one Rufus back while telling the other and Goal that they're about to be "iced". They assume he's using a euphemism for killing them. [[HumanPopsicle They are wrong.]]]]

* MesACrowd: Late in ''Goodbye Deponia'', [[spoiler: Rufus clones himself into three since he doesn't have enough time to save the day and Goal on his own.]]

** ''Welcome to Deponia'': Goal's sad pleas to Rufus (middle) and [[spoiler: his lies being revealed twice (final).]]
** ''Chaos in Deponia'': [[spoiler: Lady Goal's [[FaceHeelTurn reveal and betrayal]] (middle) and Goal letting Rufus fall (final).]]
** ''Goodbye Deponia'': [[spoiler: Goal's [[DisneyDeath death]] and the Hell section (middle) and Rufus sacrificing himself and letting the bad guys win so Goal can be safe (final).]]

** In ''Goodbye Deponia'', Rufus is subjected to one of these when his usual method of solving problems (basically just winging it and ignoring the consequences) comes back to bite him in a big way. [[spoiler: Trapped inside a machine meant to torture other people, he is led over to Goal with Argus intending to extract the Ascension Codes out of her. Rufus attempts to operate the machine, only to have it go out of control and [[GoneHorriblyWrong inject Goal with a fatal overdose of sedative.]] Rufus wails the trope line while the machine he's in is tossed overboard.]] Also serves as an intro to the game's DarkestHour.

* OnceAnEpisode: Each game starts with Rufus carrying out a poorly planned attempt to reach Elysium, which backfires horribly and gets Goal in trouble. Usually Rufus will try to projectile himself to Elysium in some kind of makeshift contraption, only to crash into a vehicle on its way to Elysium instead, but he averts this in the third game [[spoiler: only for it to come back and kick off the climax.]] The fourth game revives the tradition, though [[spoiler:this only comes into play in the first chapter, as in the prologue, Rufus sees a vision of [[BadFuture his future self]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom blowing Deponia up]] in front of the wreck of Elysium.]]

--> Regarding [[spoiler: Goal's death, and the loss of the as-]]
--> [[spoiler: scension codes]], [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness I'll desist from my usual bon mots]] [[labelnote:*]]A "bon mot" is a witty remark.[[/labelnote]]

--> And as he [[spoiler: fell from the skies, his life flashed before his eyes]]

** In the second game, it's that [[spoiler: Elysium is a starship that wasn't designed to stay in the sky forever, and that Deponia is meant to be blown up to generate enough force to propel Elysium to Utopia, a much more habitable planet.]]

*** [[spoiler: Argus is also identical to Rufus and Cletus.]]
*** [[spoiler: The Organon are a clone race, and Rufus, Cletus, and Argus are the three surviving genetic prototypes.]]
*** [[spoiler: Goal is Ulysses' daughter, and his entire motivation is to get her safely to Utopia.]]
*** [[spoiler: Much of the resentment between Rufus and Seagull comes from Rufus being at fault for the death of Rufus's adoptive mother.]]

*** [[spoiler: Utopia is not only habitable, but ''inhabited'' by [[FunnyAnimal anthropomorphic elephants]]. Two time-traveling natives of the planet, arriving from the future where Deponians and Utopians made first contact to see the past for themselves, end up accidentally upsetting the timeline and serve as {{Outside Context Problem}}s of the story in their attempts to restore the original course of events.]]

* ScrewDestiny: Lots of people tell Rufus that he'll never get off Deponia - being stuck there is a part of who he is. Rufus begs to differ. [[spoiler: He succeeds, twice, but refuses to follow through on screwing destiny because the cost to his humanity would be too high.]]

* ShaggyFrogStory: The entire first game is being told by the singing narrator to explain why he shouldn't have to do chores. [[spoiler: In the end, even he admits he has no idea how it does that and claims the real moral is "the Chorus Guys rule".]]

*** There are a notable few to [[VideoGame/EdnaAndHarveyTheBreakout Edna and Harvey]] including hearing the narrator's voice during the second game and [[spoiler: the gondolier's death and resulting skeleton]] are very similar to deaths in Harvey's New Eyes.

** [[RichBitch Lady Goal]]: [[IceQueen Arrogant, aloof]], and utterly disgusted with the filth and low class of Deponia. Lady Goal seems to be the most intelligent and reasonable, but that doesn't mean she'll be sympathetic. [[spoiler: She's the one who remembers the Ascension Codes to reach Elysium, and she also betrays Rufus and her other parts to run off with Cletus.]]

* TheStoryThatNeverWas: ''Deponia Doomsday'' has a tangled story with time travel, time resetting and time loops that ultimately ends with [[spoiler: Rufus convincing everybody that the tragic end of the previous game is the best option.]]

** To wit, [[spoiler: after pulling off a successful caper and getting a golden opportunity to reach Elysium and save Deponia with no further conflict, an innocent mistake by Rufus right before they rest for the night ultimately escalates in such a way as to get Goal captured. During the interrogation, Argus reveals himself to also be identical to Rufus and Cletus and details his plan to overthrow Ulysses and have the Organon take over Elysium, offering Goal a chance to elope with him instead of Rufus, who is secretly trapped in an interrogation torture bot and hearing everything. Rufus attempts to escape the bot and subdue Argus but accidentally presses a button that injects Goal with a lethal overdose of sedatives. As she succumbs, the bot is thrown overboard with Rufus still stuck inside. After a particularly solemn chapter intro which shows Rufus banging on the sides of the bot and wailing all the way down, he lands in what seems to be Hell, but turns out to be a cloning facility. Here he finds Goal's body and meets Hermes, the remorseful mastermind behind the plan to destroy Deponia and the creator of the Organon, who turn out to be a clone race. Hermes reveals himself to be Rufus' true "father" and that Rufus, Cletus, and Argus are all genetic prototypes for the Organon, before sacrificing himself to give Rufus one last chance to bring Goal back to life and find another means to save both Elysium and Deponia.]] [[CerebusSyndrome The entire chapter is presented dead-seriously compared to the whole trilogy up to that point, and even once levity returns afterwards, there is a permanent shift to a darker tone for the rest of the story.]]

--> [[spoiler: Let go]]

** In the penultimate act of ''Goodbye Deponia'', [[spoiler:most, if not all, of the Porto Fisco survivors are stuffed into the tank and shot at the highboat bound for Elysium.]] Some are missing: [[spoiler:Janosch, Cowboy Dodo, Cyndi, Hotti, and Cutis, who are presumably still locked inside the Organon headquarters and won't be rescued since no one knows they're there.]] There's also [[spoiler: Donna, who disappears once Seagull shoots Rufus.]] It's also not revealed what becomes of [[spoiler: Argus, and the 11,000-strong Organon army that's still aboard the highboat even if he died.]]

* YankTheDogsChain: [[spoiler: One final betrayal by Argus results in Rufus falling to his apparent death before ever reaching Elysium, even though he was finally close enough to even see the airlocks. Cletus ends up taking his place and no one aside from possibly Goal knows that Rufus himself never made it.]]

** This is also [[spoiler: the writer's intended [[AnAesop Aesop]] for the series, in that Rufus doesn't reach Elysium because he was never ''meant'' to.]] [[BrokenBase Many fans weren't exactly pleased about this,]] especially with the [[YankTheDogsChain contrived and mean-spirited way]] it was handled.
** The fourth game implements time travel into the series with the possibly of changing the past and fixing wrongs [[spoiler: only to subvert that possibility and solidify this point further.]]

* CloningBlues: Deponia houses a cloning facility, helmed by a mysterious man called Hermes. [[spoiler: Rufus, Cletus and Argus are all clone templates, and all of the Organons are similarly doppelgangers. Hermes is an umpteenth version of himself and looks more like a grim reaper than a human being, showing that it's not a foolproof way of living forever]].

** In ''Chaos on Deponia'' there are also Shout-Outs to ''Franchise/StarWars'' (as detailed under IHaveNoSon) and ''Film/TheFly''.

* ButHeSoundsHandsome: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''Goodbye Deponia.'' [[spoiler:In the end, Rufus talks about how selfish and unchanging he is... to "prove" that it's Cletus sacrificing his life for Goal and Deponia.]]

-->"One is flapping its beak all the time and the other one's nodding continuously. They should get married."

* EldritchAbomination: The dreaded [=McThulhu=] rests beneath the Chez Schlumpi restaurant in ''Chaos on Deponia''. The sole worker/cultist in the restaurant's takeout window refers to it as "the manager" and to customers ordering food as "sacrifices."
* EnemyMine: Cletus helps the rebellion in ''Goodbye Deponia,'' [[spoiler:Subverted when he double crosses them. Later played straight, when Rufus, Cletus and Argus join forces to stop the detonation of Deponia.]]

--->"Hey, I didn't make the rules. I just bent them a little."

* LostInTranslation: {{Lampshaded}} in the third game when, midway through the HellHotel chapter, Rufus abruptly addresses the audience and says, "There was a really funny joke here in the original German version of the game, but it got lost in translation." He's not lying either; there was a joke there in the German version regarding the BedsheetGhost, but it relied on some clever wordplay between the German words "spannbettlaken" (fitted sheet) and "spanner" (peeping tom) that was all but impossible to translate while still retaining the humour.

* SequelHook: For the first game, things like what happened to Rufus's father, [[spoiler:why Cletus is a dead ringer for him, and why the Organon want to blow up Deponia]] are never elaborated on fully, and right before the credits, "The End?.." appears.

* ShaggyFrogStory: The entire first game is being told by the singing narrator to explain why he shouldn't have to do chores. [[spoiler: In the end, even he admits he has no idea how it does that and claims the real moral is "the Chorus Guys rule."]]

** ''Goodbye Deponia'' has a fairly in-depth one in the Sewer Bar. The tavern's three customers are a hairy desperado, an heir to a peach-farming company, and a [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros red-clad, mustachioed plumber]] drinking away his sorrows because "his deceased brother tried to smash a brick wall with his head after eating some mysterious mushrooms." After drinking the brew's swill, the desperado turns into a full-on ape, the plumber insists he's grown bigger and stronger (though Rufus thinks it's just because he's standing on the table), and the peach-farming heir turns into a heir''ess'', whom both the other occupants take a shine to. The whole thing ends with [[VideoGame/DonkeyKong the ape hurling barrels at the plumber, who dodges them by jumping, while the buxom blonde trembles in the corner.]]

* SmugSnake: Captain Seagull, and ''how.'' Arguably, Cletus as well.

** At one point in ''Goodbye Deponia'', Rufus is groping around in the dark and finds something "dry, long, and thin" which he jokingly identifies as "...the plot of [[VideoGame/SecretFiles "Secret Files: Tunguska"]]! Or a low-hanging branch. Either one."

* TerriblePickUpLines: Rufus tries a classic.. [[LiteralMetaphor too bad that she really did fall from the sky]]:

** ''Goodbye Deponia'' has a fairly in-depth one in the Sewer Bar. The tavern's three customers are a hairy desperado, an heir to a peach-farming company, and a [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros red-clad, mustachioed plumber]] drinking away his sorrows because "his deceased brother tried to smash a brick wall with his head after eating some mysterious mushrooms." After drinking the brew's swill, the desperado turns into a full-on ape, the plumber insists he's grown bigger and stronger (though Rufus thinks it's just because he's standing on the table), and the peach-farming heir turns into a heir''ess'', whom both the other occupants take a shine to. The whole thing ends with [[VideoGame/DonkeyKong the ape hurling barrels at the plumber, who dodges them by jumping, while the buxom blonde trembles in the corner.]]

* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: Goal is in no way exempt from being sucked into the tornado of AmusingInjuries that is usually brought on by Rufus. Heck, the entire second game is centered around her being so injured by a series of accidents that her brain splits into three pieces. And even on top of that, part of the last leg of the game is an extended sequence involving tricking her naive personality into getting struck by lightning - you can even talk about it with one of her other personalities (who is resigned and very reluctant) for extra dickery. [[LampshadeHanging The various resigned/frustrated reactions]] her personalities have about this are all golden.
** Come to think of it, neither is Toni, Donna, or any other female that has the misfortune of coming across [[PersonOfMassDestruction Rufus]].

* NippleAndDimed: At one point in Goodbye Deponia, Rufus ends up helping a lady called June get a job as [[ItMakesSenseInContext an organ grinder's monkey]]. It's basically Disney's Aladdin's Abu's jacket and fez. Without wearing a bra or shirt underneath, and yet her [[OnlyOneFemaleMold curvy figure with ample bosom] doesn't slip out of the open miniature jacket.

* FutureSpandex: Goal wears a set of these, immediately distinguishing her from the Deponians who where more diverse clothing. Cletus in turn wears a similar outfit, but it flares a bit more around the legs, arms, and especially the neck. This turns out to be common Elysian attire.

* AbusiveParents: In the first game, Rufus' father is a DisappearedDad who used to be mayor and apparently quite the clever GadgeteerGenius not unlike Rufus. He shows up in Chaos in Deponia, and one of the first things he does is tell Rufus he's adopted, try to steal his girlfriend, and in the endgame [[spoiler: demands an apology from his son for being the way he (Rufus) is and winds up SHOOTING him lethally. It's a good thing Rufus had a clone standing next to him otherwise that would have been the end]]

* AffectionateParody: The games have some elements of this towards the Adventure Game genre, especially with Rufus, who's basically an UpToEleven version of an average adventure game protagonist's personality.

* ComedicSociopathy: Rufus suffers from a fairly acute case, in line with the series's UpToEleven approach to some adventure game cliches. [[spoiler:As it turns out, he is literally programmed to do so, being one of the prototype clones of [[HenchmenRace the Organon]] engineered to have no regard for life.]]

** Going [[UpToEleven beyond that]], Rufus's dad makes a device that can manipulate the planet's ''magnetosphere''. What does he and his successor, Mayor Lotek, do with said device? [[spoiler:Use it as a sleeping aid.]] What does Rufus do with it? [[spoiler:Mess up the postal system.]]

* TheNoseless: Some women are drawn without noses. There doesn't appear to be any reason why some women have noses and others don't. During some cutscenes, Goal's nostrils just ''appear'' when she needs them, and disappear when she's done.