History Webcomic / PaperTrail

* GenderneutralWriting: Kris is non-binary and goes by they/them pronouns.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Sitting in the Hot Seat in the church's Dark World forces Susie to spill the beans on her diet — her established unabashed consumption of chalk and other strange objects is reminiscent of pica, but the real kicker is when she reveals [[ObsessedWithFood that she always feels like she's starving and very often compelled to eat anything and everything around her]]; the inability to feel full being similar to the conditions experienced by those with Prader-Willi syndrome. [[spoiler:Subverted as it was revealed that she couldn't get the food she needed, namely meat, due to her poverty, which is the true cause of her persistent hunger.]]

** The Knight's job to [[spoiler:free the humans]] seem to parallel that to [[spoiler:Dr. W. D. Gaster]] in ''Undertale'', or in ''Webcomic/DogsOfFuturePast'' at least]].
* PowerupFullColorChange: [[spoiler:Ralsei and the other princes]]' FusionDance causes them to assume a form much like the one Asriel has in the first phase of his ''Undertale'' boss fight, their clothes becoming iridescent and shifting between their respective colors.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: A pretty interesting example. Kris's eyes are red and when you actually see them, it's a clear sign that shit's about to go down. Not because of Kris themselves, but because if ''anything'' gets TheStoic Kris to react in a way that you see their eyes, it's probably bad news.

** [[spoiler:Noble is the blue to Naughty's red. Noble is polite, soft-spoken and CannotTellALie, Naughty is loud, rude and a CompulsiveLiar. Also a partially literal example. Noble's portrait is blue, while Naughty's is red.]]

* StrawNihilist: [[spoiler:Seam]] seems to have given up on life in general when the Fun Gang finds him. Seams’s convinced that nothing anyone does will change anything, since they're all influenced by outside forces and have no real control over their lives anyway. Seam seems to snap out of it a bit after the fight, however, remarking that even though it might soon be TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt for all of them, "when people care, unexpected things happen."

** Happens again on page 66, when the Fun Gang returns to the Card Kingdom to greet the restored inhabitants. All the subjects are back, and Noelle has made it so other Lightners can enter the unused classroom and play with the Darkners again. Everything seems good for the time being… [[spoiler:…until Kris realizes that [[MonsterClown Jevil]] is missing from their inventory.]]

* BlindingBangs: Kris and Susie both have them. It's less frequent with Susie, but returns whenever she slips back into her old, rowdy bully-persona.

* WhamShot: On Page 63, the last of Asriel's journal entries reveals that [[spoiler:he found out what happened 66 years ago...and whatever it was, it was such an AwfulTruth that Asriel came to ''hate'' his parents, the town, etc. so much that he left for the college that was furthest away from home]].
** Another one happens when The Knight unmasks himself. [[spoiler: By all accounts he looks like a completely normal man... Aside from the telltale scars above one eye and below the other revealing that he's the ''Deltarune'' universe's version Gaster.]]

* StrawNihilist: [[spoiler:Seam]] seems to have given up on life in general when the Fun Gang finds him. He's convinced that nothing he or they will do will change anything, since they're all influenced by outside forces and have no real control over their lives anyway. He seems to snap out of it a bit after the fight, however, remarking that even though it might soon be TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt for all of them, "when people care, unexpected things happen."

* AFateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:The humans who lost to the monsters in the altercation of Hometown]] were banished into [[spoiler:an underground-bunker]] and basically left to rot. With no sunlight, dwindling rations and no hope of being freed any time soon, they consider their situation this.

[[caption-width-right:350:''Whelp… looks like these kids are back at it [[VideoGame/{{Deltarune}} again]]!'']]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tumblr_ca0c9bccaf0b2cec48a3d865a9cfefc8_4e834506_540.jpg]]

** When the SOUL [[spoiler:releases Kris in the end]], is it because they realized they were making Kris miserable and weren't actually helping with saving the world? Or did they, thanks to their omnipotence as a player, manage to observe the Knight's exposition to the Ralsei's and [[spoiler:realize that their very presence was needed to complete his plan?]] WordOfGod claims that it was both. [[spoiler:The SOUL realized it was causing more harm than good, and disconnected to defy Gaster’s plans.]]