The second tale of the "Law and Chaos" story arc.
Since the GUAL's secret has been leaked to the Pantheon, The Magistrate Judges and their allies act and move to make the GUAL a better organization and put YHVH on trial. However, mysterious forces have other plans to slow them down. Who are the obstacles and what are they trying to accomplish? Lastly, the story is narrated by Lemony Snicket.
This story can be found here
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Reformation of Law provides examples of:
- Big Bad Ensemble: The Magistrates are planning to send YHVH on trial for his actions against the asylum. There's Apollyon, who sabotages theirs plans to start a war.
- Bittersweet Ending: A slightly subtle example. The Magistrates and their allies may have reformed the GUAL, with Eiki Shiki resigning and Lamington & Vetinari made leaders of the new division, and YHVH no longer an active force, but The Divine Powers have kidnapped Mithra in secret and Senator Armstrong bails Apollyon out of her prison cell.
- Continuity Nod: Spider-Man tells Nozdormu that Absol was temporarily lent to him by Clank.
- Darker and Edgier: Excluding the fight to stop Groudon and Kyogre, Diamond Adventure: The Dark Mystery was light-hearted in comparison to this story, where a riot was instigated by a soldier, provoking the reformers to fight YHVH and his loyalists, and numerous secrets are revealed.
- Despair Event Horizon: After the house of Sports was set on fire by the Man with a Beard but no hair and the Woman with Hair but No Beard, Eiki Shiki couldn't take the leadership of the Magistrates any longer and decides to step down from it.
- The Dreaded: Lemony Snicket has this reaction to the man with a beard but no hair and the woman with hair but no beard in his narration. He outright says that he would rather fight Homura (Who has been stonewalling Snicket's research into the Great Upheaval tale and could easily curb-stomp Snicket) than describe their past misdeeds.
- Enemy Mine: The Administrators and The Divine Powers make a deal to stop YHVH from causing too much damage to the pantheon.
- Frame-Up: Apollyon has Aiden Pearce hack an MEC from Advent. While she doesn't care which side wins, it was enough to start a fight amongst the GUAL members.
- Hannibal Lecture: Apollyon gives out one to the heroes, thinking that they're no different from the wolves they're trying to stop. This briefly works on Judge Dredd.Apollyon: You think I care who wins? Even if your allies have defeated the angels, tell me this: Are your methods of handling this this problem any different from the wolves who would kill anyone who become a threat to them? That you’re suddenly heroes? Give me a break.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Ishmael is told to return to his temple, grumbling that he hasn't had it built yet. This is a nod to how his profile got delayed owing to two issues (Lack of time and one of his interactions involving a still in-progress profile).
- Lemony Narrator: The Trope Namer himself narrates the tale, and acts accordingly to his home series.
- Noodle Incident: Snicket mentions trying to research the events of the Friendship Asylum and the Great Upheaval in his Recap. We aren't told how his research proceeded, if it did, but his attempts ended after being sent a flood of letters telling him to stop in the case of the former, and being shot at by Homura in the case of the latter.
- Outside-Context Problem: There are two of them:
- Apollyon was just a sociopathic normal human deity. With a group of normal human soldiers, she managed to Infiltrate a part of the GUAL and force a hacker to hijack the programming of an ADVENT mech to launch missiles just to instigate a war and provoke the Reformers into fighting YHVH and his loyalists.
- The Man with a Beard but no hair and the Woman with Hair but No Beard were not a duo the Magistrates and their allies had counted on, but it's downplayed when Lamington realizes they're just normal humans and quickly concocts a plan with Harry Potter to thwart them before more damage could be done. That being said however, both the man and woman were able to get Count Olaf to retrieve their resources for future use, ensuring that their threat will continue.
- Pragmatic Villainy: The Man with a Beard but no hair and the Woman with Hair but No Beard try to stop the Magistrate's plans not because they genuinely support YHVH, but so that they can more easily commit crimes against the pantheon, which matches how the two had infiltrated the high court in their home series.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lucifer points out that YHVH's prideful actions has led to a handful of his supporters and even his top servant Satan to turn against him, leading him to his trial.
- Recap Episode: A good chunk of the prologue is spent recapping the basic gist of the events of the Friendship Asylum, Great Upheaval, and Diamond Adventure. The recap concept itself is given a partial Take That! by Snicket, who explains it as Necessarily Evil for viewers who aren't caught up yet.
- The Reveal: Two of them.
- Purgatorium was a front for a YHVH Space to conceal with His servants guarding it.
- The Lucifer that appeared in the Great Upheaval was a scapegoat imposter made by YHVH to frame the real Lucifer and conquer the GUAC in secret, even going as far as to transform into Louisa. This caused the real Lucifer to destroy his knockoff and accept his role of duty as the villain. Fortunately for Lucifer, things ended up very differently than he expected.
- Sequel Hook:
- Senator Steven Armstrong tells Apollyon that Lucifer was impressed with her actions to frame the GUAL And offers her to join the group. Apollyon declines, but Armstrong bails her out of prison anyway.
- The man with a beard but no hair and woman with hair but no beard assign Count Olaf to retrieve their V.F.D. resources and plans in the event that they fail to stop the reform. They do.
- No Face and The Emotions are kidnapped by the Divine Powers, prompting Leonard McCoy to order a search for them.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: While the quote in the Hannibal Lecture trope above said by Apollyon affected Dredd the most, Jakuzure gives a fitting comeback that slightly enraged Apollyon.
- Unwitting Pawn: The Divine Powers (particularly Maitreya) use Asura in their plan to not only transport him to YHVH Space to fight Satan, but capture his daughter in secret as well.
- Villainous Underdog: As a far cry from the other stories, this conflict was sparked by a normal, albeit sociopathic, female soldier. She's weaker than any of the major characters, but her actions provoked the Magistrates into fighting the rest of the GUAL. There's also two more normal folks (The man with a beard but no hair and the woman with hair but no beard), who make things more complicated.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Snicket states that, aside from Purgatorium being destroyed, Thor gets a Pokemon (Ampharos) and is mentoring an orange-haired energetic girl (implied to be Nora Valkyrie); Cobalion parts ways with Captain America; Mega Man X befriends Deoxys; the Norse deities, the Imperium, and the God Saints gain respect for one another; Stark does his usual activities; Dr. Doom visits Dr. Strange; The House of Emotion are on High Alert after No Face and the Emotions were kidnapped, and the GUAC have a victory party over YHVH's solitary confinement.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: The Man with a beard but no hair and the Woman with hair but no beard do this. Realizing that they stand no chance in a direct fight against the Reformers, they detour to Count Olaf to ensure that he can at least salvage their plans in the event that they fail.
