The Windchasers and Red Lotus Uprising travel across a sea of sparking blue sand. And in the span of three days, a sea of nightmares will emerge.
This arc contains examples of:
- Accentuate the Negative: UnCerise does this to Professor Cerise, Ash and Goh, pointing out that despite all their talking about caring for Chloe, their inactions prove them otherwise. Justified because he's the creation of Sara, the girl who likes to put Chloe down by any means necessary. Unfortunately the fact that he did this while possessing the real Cerise has utterly broken him to the point that hearing his own wife saying she'll never forgive him (UnCerise) is enough for him to shiver in fear and proclaim that he was the monster all along.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Specter notes that he has to remember Chloe's remark of Sara being called "Princess Dumbass becoming more of an arrogant blowhrd".
- Adaptation Expansion:
- In Blossoming Trail, there's no backstory involving the Cloak of Marchosias and Wepwawet. Here, it's revealed that Wepwawet himself created the cloak in an attempt to mix the magic of Demon and Gods together. Speaking of which, while demons played a minor part in Chloe's story, it's revealed that they exist as denizens on the Train.
- Sara's homelife was mentioned in passing. Part 1 reveals just how strained Sara's relationship with her mother is. Moreover, while Blossoming Trail reveals that she only bullied Chloe out of jealousy and to escape the pain of losing her father, here it's revealed that she was hoping that she could force Chloe to give her and the classmates a Pokémon like they always wanted in a bid to have people loving her and a chance to finally escape her homelife.
- The aftermath of Cutie's time with the Apex was shown in Knight of the Orange Lily while the arc shows just how she got her limbs torned apart.
- In Journeys, we only see Chloe give Goh his homework once. In the story, it shows that Chloe is basically the only person who willingly does this.
- All for Nothing:
- Sara bullied Chloe both out of jealousy and perhaps getting a Pokémon out of her and lassoed all of her classmates into joining her. She ends up with nothing: her classmates hate her, all of them are expelled, the Internet is chewing her out, they're all banned from getting a licence for another five years, and Yeardley's little sister reveals that all Sara had to do was just go to Professor Cerise himself.
- Amelia was already accepting that she wasted thirty years of her life trying to recreate her past with Alrich, but it turns out she would've never had to have done this if she clarified Gremory's fortunre for her. Specifically, Gremory said "this train won't give you what you want" to which Amelia went in denial to prove that it could. If she prodded Gremory more, she would've said, "The Infinity Train won't give you heart's desires, but a train within one of the cars would". Amelia is furious to find out Gremory kept this secret from her.
- All Myths Are True: Demons and Gods exist on the Train, with Lexi speculating that passengers from previous civilizations must've been inspired to create the myths based off of what they've seen.
- Ambiguous Situation: Queen Cutie's friend Rose as invoked by the authors. What happened to her, whether she's a denizen or passenger, anything about her is up to the reader. All that is known is that Cutie will never see her again.
- Anger Born of Worry: When Chloe's classmates state how their parents are pissed off for everything that they did, Amelia brings up the possibility that the parents are angry, but more out of worry and fear for their children being deluded by a bully to the point that they ruined their educations and whether or not this situation could've been avoided if their parents paid more attention to the red flags.
- Armor-Piercing Question:
- Patricia reveals that her wheelchair-bound grandfather gave her one of these that made her realize what a monster she was becoming.
Patricia: "Your friend wants you to crush the weak and helpless, right? Like that little boy? And his sister? Am I...am I next?"- When Sara claims that bullying Chloe was justified because she didn't like them, Patricia then asks if it was more that Chloe specifically hated Sara than the entire class.
- Part 2 has Grace be asked these repeatedly by her own reflection and Queen Cutie, asking what lows she would do to continue being the best and how many people she's bothered to actually cared about.
- Sara boasts to Amelia that she's not going to get "addicted" to the Unown cause she has everything she ever wanted. Amelia simply asks her, "Do you really?"
- Specter asks Chloe if she's going to get hung up and angry over a schoolyard bully hounding over her for the rest of her life.
- In Sara's third wish — which has Chloe giving them what they deserve; a beatdown — Chloe asks Goh why he cares for her now since he can barely look her away and is obsessed with Mew. Goh then asks why she ever cared about what their class ever said. This is enough to make Chloe realize she could've trusted him with her problems.
- After the Unown are gone, Chloe's classmates apologize and admit that they should've paid more attention as to who they were bullying. Chloe then brings up:Chloe: And would it have mattered if I wasn't the daughter of a Pokémon Professor?
(The classmates look at her in realization that, no, it wouldn't)
- Ascended Extra:
- In Knight of the Orange Lily, Lotus was a kore that was constantly mentioned but never seen. She's revealed to be the storyteller from the Night Garden Car.
- Marianna Diktaylis's neglect was mentioned in narration but here she is shown berating Sara for her foolishness and bull-headed decisions to bully Chloe that lead to twenty students getting expelled.
- Seto Kaiba only gets referenced a few times in the entire trilogy; he makes his full appearance in Part 4.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Under the effects of Sobble's Emotion Bomb, Ash and Goh deliver this in order to get Sara off their tail.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: When Gremory sees that Yuri's persona is named after Ibn Battuta she is quite shocked before squeeing that she loved him because of his enthusiasm and desires to go on "side trips".
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Sara's wishes in Part 5 always end badly for her part.
- Her first wish was that she gets to be Chloe Cerise. While she gets the loving family, she has to watch as Chloe is now Chloe Sycamore and is the adopted daughter of Professor Sycamore and an assistant in Mega Evolution along with having Specter as her "brother" and a loyal Houndoom. Moreover, the narration notes that Sara always wanted Chloe to be a follower but Sara is annoyed with Chloe getting close and talking about Pokémon...which is also what Sara was forcing Chloe to get into.
- Her second wish is to have all the opportunities Chloe got. So when given a chance to go explore somewhere by Chloe, she refuses. Cue the next day revealing that Chloe invited their entire class to Pallet Town and Professor Oak's lab.
- Finally, her third wish is that Chloe gives her and her classmates "what they deserve". Chloe gives them what they deserver...beating Sara with a chair as revenge for all of the bullying she put on them before making Patricia bleed and choking Yeardley to death because they deserve to feel the pain they gave Chloe, cementing Chloe's promise that she'd kill them "all kinds of dead".
- Because You Can Cope: Deconstructed. Sara reasons that she gets away with bullying Chloe cause she doesn't retaliate. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that Chloe gets away from the trauma 100% free.The barista: Just like your [Sara's] mother couldn’t cope with your father’s passing or Chloe couldn't cope with the bullying at school, what you put on Professor Cerise is something that an adult cannot shake off so easily. He’s not a doll who doesn't feel pain if you pull their arm off or unscrew their head. He feels, he shows concern and fears, he has a family to take care of and a weight he will carry for the rest of his life. If the positions were reversed and you had your father a broken mess, what would you do? How would you feel?”
- Big "NO!": Vaillant screams this when Chloe decides to write yet another story involving demons.
- Bittersweet Ending: Act 1 ends on this note
- Bitter: Grace and Simon are now going off to the Fog Car on their own volition (unaware that the Apex are also there with Ryu from Elipzo supervising it), Augustine has to restart his journey from scratch, Professor Cerise is on the Train with his wife and son having to hold the fort, and Vermillion City will need lots of healing to be done after the Unown incident. There's also a warning for Easter that the Numinae that saved them might be in danger too. And this is still with the Cage of Flauros on the horizon and what happened to Hazel and Tuba.
- Sweet: The Cyan Desert Story Festival is beginning, Augustine is ready to start becoming a hero and the heroic groups can take a break after the Unown incident's troubles.
- Bring It: Chloe screams this at Sara during their fight:Chloe: Get angry! I Triple Houndoom Dare You! GET ALL NICE AND SALTY FOR ME!!!!
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Broken Aesop:- A slight one regarding Sara. The final part of the arc has people telling her that if she just spoke up about her problems, people would've listened and helped her. Thing is, later down the line, it's shown that the adults didn't really do anything to stop the bullying before. So basically, it's like telling Sara she should've told someone about her problems, while the adults around her made it very clear they were pretty much useless in that regard. A few might've helped her, but most probably wouldn't. Or, as Gloria proved, she could've just recorded evidence to prove that something was going on.
- Another one involving Parker; he snaps at the adults for not doing more and listening to him because he's a kid. Thing is, he's currently in a wheelchair, his response was made after Renji showed concern for him, and they're facing off against monsters none of them are familiar with or even know how to handle. So basically, Parker's trying to say they should listen to the wheelchair-bound child who thinks it's a good idea to approach these shadow monsters they've never faced before.
- Bullying the Disabled: Discussed. Due to the confession video pointing out how Sara would bully those that are "abnormal", it strongly implies that she has no qualms about bullying Franklin, who has Asperger's. Additionally Patricia is horrified when her grandfather (who's in a wheelchair) questions if he's going to be next on the list.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Grace completely forgot how she sent the Mirror Police to kill MT and can only answer a "Somewhat" to the events with her trying to coerce Jesse to the dark side. The flashback to how Cutie was torn apart has the Apex not care about what happened to her friend Rose.
- Bystander Syndrome: To quote UnCerise, Ash, Goh and Professor Cerise, "Say so much but do so very little", because they could've done more to help Chloe when it was obvious that she had troubles, but didn't give her the time of day or considered how much she was suffering since they all were focused on Pokemon.
- By the Power of Grayskull!: Easter suggests to Specter that they use a phrase to help the two to fuse into Harmonious Storm, and goes with "Iungo" (Latin for "Unite").
- Call-Forward: Aerostar proves he's from the future by warning Tony about an incident with Jerry and his sister, Sherry. This is a reference to the two-part Series Finale of The Amazing Spiez!, "Operation: Scary Jerry".
- Cannot Spit It Out: It's clear as day that Sara wants to escape her mother, but it's so difficult to make her confess to her horrible home life even when everyone is being firm but willing to understand her point of view. The more people try to be sympathetic to her, the more she shuts them out. It takes three wish scenarios and the Barista giving her sage advice before she finally lets it all out.
- Cat Fight: Sara and Chloe get into one in Part 5 and it is not pretty as it is very violent.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- In Part 1, Parker placed a softball in his pocket before going to visit Ash at Pallet Town. He remembers this in Part 2 and hurls it towards Sara, prompting Yamper to catch it, tackling her and giving him a distraction to grab the Unown Box to ask for a wish.
- In Part 2, Professor Cerise called Marianna in regards to her daughter but nothing comes up of it until Part 3, when Marianna marches towards the Cerise Institute (with Cerise even staring at his contacts list to note that Marianna presumably hung up during the chaos).
- In Part 5, Specter warns Sara to not kill Chloe because the security cameras are still running and thus caught her in the act of committing manslaughter. Later, Gloria uses a wish from the Unown to spread the security footage of Marianna berating her daughter and slapping Talia across all of Vermillion City, which is more than enough proof to put the drunken bitch in jail for good.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- Chloe references how she played chess with Seto Kaiba in Part 1. Come the end of Part 4, and Kaiba appears in the Chess Car...and is about to meet up with Alister.
- Earlier in that same part, she references how she wanted to make a story involving the Ars Goetia demons Paimon and Gremory. Guess who's taking part as part of the judges of the festival?
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot:
- Sara bullied Chloe so that she'd eventually break down and give Sara and the classmates a Pokémon. Yeardley's little sister points out that it's stupid to do so because only a Professor — like Chloe's father — can give you a Pokémon, not Chloe, and all she had to do was go to the Institute and request for one. Unfortunately, instead of realizing the folly of her plan, and how much trouble she put herself and her classmates into, Sara doubles down on blaming Chloe and her family. Even when it's spelled out to her by practically everyone in the Cerise Institute that she didn't have to go through violent means to get her heart's desire but she refuses to admit that she messed up. And then, the proverbial middle finger comes to her through Gloria's wish — just show video evidence of Marianna being such a drunken abusive bitch and you can lock her up in the slammer faster than you can say "I choose you!"
- When it's learned that her mother is abusing her, everyone calmly tells her that she could've asked someone and they would've been able to help her. Or she could've gone Gloria's route through the Unown — have evidence of her mom actually attacking her and spread it online..
- When Chloe in Sara's wish fantasy snaps at Goh about how he didn't care about her until then, and Goh asks her why she cared what her classmates asked, that's the point that Chloe realizes that if she had actually opened up to Goh instead of shoving him aside, she wouldn't have had to be bullied for so long.
- Amelia learns from Gremory years ago that the Train would not give her what she wanted...but if she went and elaborated more, Gremory would've said that a train within one of the cars could've let her live her life with Alrick. In other words, if she did some traveling to find a certain car and not try to create one of her own none of her actions as the Conductor would've happened.
- Death by Despair: Patricia is afraid that her grandfather will die from this because of how he learned that she was fine with bullying the weak, and wondering if he's next on her list because he's in a wheelchair.
- Designated Girl Fight: In Part 5, Sara and Chloe beat the living shit out of each other instead of Chloe going after UnCerise. Justified because Chloe will not fight her father and the time he gets involved had him wipe the floor with her, not to mention that Sara is the reason Chloe's life has been a living hell.
- Didn't See That Coming: Sara is surprised when Chloe accepts how she has many similarities with her mother (ignorant of Sara and the world, obsessed with her stories and characters, and can be annoying)
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- Cutie is afraid that Grace will kill her because she gave her a plate of cookies that she doesn't like. To be fair, Cutie had gone through a traumatizing incident with the Apex once before and Grace has done raids just cause she's bored (like the Lucky Cat Car raid was all because she "wanted a corndog" or going to the Unfinished Car just for lulz).
- Sara, as a whole, does this. She'll crush Parker's leg with a paint can just because he tried to stand up to her. She turned all of the classmates around Chloe because she didn't like Chloe's status as a Professor's daughter. And she'll ruin Chloe's life and that of her entire family because she can't stand Chloe being happy.
- Does Not Like Spam: Grace states in her tea party with Queen Cutie that she's not a fan of peanut butter. Unfortunately Cutie becomes terrified about having offended the Apex leader, pulling away a plate of peanut butter cookies, and is afraid that she'll go on a rampage, given that Grace has unleashed Apex raids just for the sheer fun of it and had torn Cutie apart the last time they met.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap:
- Flauros could step into stop the Cage of Flauros from being enacted...if the car that was doing the ritual wasn't the one that hosted Silent Hill. Anubis notes that the place doesn't want demonkind setting foot there.
- Parker obtained some powers from the Unown from grabbing the box and that he was able to create a construct in UnChloe. Unfortunately, he learns the hard way that he can't instantly undo everything with a snap of his fingers.
- Dramatically Missing the Point:
- When Patricia points out how close she was to becoming a bully to her grandfather, Sara dismisses the concerns since they weren't going to target him.
- Amelia tries to give Sara sage advice that the Unown will never give her want she want — her father and loving mother. Unfortunately, Sara doesn't get the point and forces UnCerise to fuse with Professor Cerise and is ready to reprogram her mother to be who she was prior to her original dad dying.
- Dramatic Drop: Parker drops his plastic milk cup when he sees the nurse who gave him his breakfast is Chloe.
- The Dreaded Pretend Tea-Party: Downplayed since it's not pretend, but it is dreadful on Cutie's side because her guest is Grace Monroe. And then Simon nearly kills her...
- Exact Words:
- Parker wished for his sister to protect them. Since "them" was such a broad concept, UnChloe decides to take it to also protect and help out the real Chloe who is on the Train.
- Sara sarcastically asks Specter if Chloe has become popular. Specter says that she hasn't. She's become revered as a heroine figure and Demon Lord of the Vermillion.
- Sara's third wish asks her wishing that she and her classmates got what they deserve. So they do get what they deserve; to be in fear of Chloe when she goes on a rampage and a massive beatdown for all the shit they gave her.
- Gremory once gave Amelia a prediction that this Train would not give her what she wanted. What she tried to say that using the Infinity Train as a whole wouldn't give her Alrick back. Instead a train within one of the cars could've let her stay with Alrick.
- Faint in Shock: Yuri faints when he learns that the gods exist on the Train. Anubis snarks that he was expecting Yuri to do it earlier when he arrived.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Chloe is the Fire with her cloak and Houndoom, Amelia is the Ice with her Ice wand and Specter/Easter provide lightning due to Easter being a walking power source.
- Foreshadowing:
- Aerostar tells Tony that Chloe will have more worries in the future. Sure enough, Sara got her hands on the Unown and all hell just got loose.
- When Sara reveals how horrible her mother is, everyone asks why not call anyone, like the police. She says that no one would believe her if she did show them. At the end of Part 5, Gloria makes a wish for the Unown to share security footage of Marianna's abusive behavior and Officer Jenny appears with a pair of handcups.
- Four Is Death: After three of Sara's wishes goes completely wrong, she wishes that she just dies because she can't decide to fix herself. UnSycamore is about to give her exactly what she wants only for the barista to stop him because seeing a scenario would lead to her death.
- Freudian Slip: Hoppy accidentally calls Alex "Lee" (Hop's nickname for Leon).
- Fusion Dance:
- Sara has UnCerise fuse with Professor Cerise to make the perfect version of her father.
- Easter discusses this with Specter and that they need to learn how to fuse so they can become Harmonious Storm.
- God's Hands Are Tied: Why isn't Flauros going to stop Walter from enacting that cage? Anubis explains that the darkness in the Fog Car does not want demonic forces to interfere. That's also another reason why gods themselves won't take a step there either.
- The Glomp:
- Ash's Muk, as per canon, tackles Parker, Yamper and Gloria in one of his hugs.
- Easter does this in Part 3 — having been separated from Specter when Asher teleports him to the Cyan Desert Car — and crying about why Specter left them. They later start cuddling every Pokémon they see at the end of Part 5.
- Ash's Dragonite gives Chloe a hug once the entire Unown incident is over.
- Good Wears White: UnChloe wears a pure white outfitnote and she is Parker's perception of Chloe being a paragon of virtue off to stop Sara and the Unown.
- Hannibal Lecture: UnCerise likes to talk about how Professor Cerise, Goh and Ash "say so much yet do so very little" by pointing out different areas of how their ignorance of Chloe's problems hurt her even though they claim that they care for her. It takes a while, but they quickly jump out of the despair to tell him to shut up.
- Hates Their Parent:
- Subverted; Chloe admits that after everything, she doesn't hate her father as she hates how she never really opened up to him about her problems.
- Sara really hates her mother, given their arguments and her screaming "NEVER!" at the prospect of her mother picking her up. Given that she's been quite abusive, she has every right to hate Marianna.
- Also subverted with their classmates. While they did decide to not tell their parents about their actions of bullying even after a suspension — and said adults barely gave a Raticate's ass about this — once it settles in how much damage is done, they're afraid of their parents being mad for ruining their lives. Amelia points out that their parents do have a right to be angry for everything that they did, but that doesn't mean that they hate them.
- Hero of Another Story: Aerostar has had his own adventures as a wrestler, and apparently got entangled with Elipzo once. He's so dangerous that even the Figure is wary of learning he's on the Train.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Invoked in Part 4. Sobble has unleashed his Emotion Bomb to make everyone in the Cerise Park sobbing wrecks and Goh decides to "search" for him to get away from Sara and UnCerise. In truth, Sobble is invisible and resting on Ikuo's shoulder.
- Hope Spot:
- Everything was going fine for Chloe as she and her family have made amends and could move forward. If only Sara just accepted that she couldn't get a Pokémon...
- Parker uses a softball to throw at Sara — and having Yamper fetch it — to give him a chance to reach towards the Unown Box...but his wish doesn't work and instead he gets rewarded with a broken leg. It's later subverted; turns out his wish took a bit longer to manifest.
- Goh is hoping that his family knows that he's been kidnapped and Sara starts imitating his voice, particularly when Sara shows disgust at "star-shaped carrots" (which Goh likes). But his mother is completely oblivious to the warning. Thankfully, Tomie swoops in and realizes someting is off.
- Part 4 has Goh given a break to call Gloria about what's going on. Next chapter has him being thrown back in chains.
- I Hate Past Me: Chloe reads through her texts towards Goh back when she was in the Canals of Fondue Car and grimaces at how she was so spiteful towards him.
- I'll Kill You!:
- When Sara can't even get a hit on Chloe, despite powered by the Unown, she's stuck screaming this in anger.
- Chloe in one of Sara's wish fantasies promises to "kill her classmates all kinds of dead" for not stopping their bullying on her. The longer the wish goes on, the more it's clear she's not kidding.
- Imposter Forgot One Detail: Sara tried to imitate Goh in order to make his parents and grandmother not realize something was wrong. This works to a tee...except she states that Goh doesn't like stew with star-shaped carrots. While Kurune immediately ignores the red flags, Tomie, who knows her grandson's eating habits, tells Molly in Part 4 that she knew something was off while handing her a lunch that includes stew with star carrots.
- Innocently Insensitive: The cause of Augustine's number rising and his problem is because everyone accidentally are pushing him to not be a hero like he wants to be. Chloe compares this to how her classmates pushed her to not pursue her loves and to stick to the status quo.
- Insane Troll Logic:
- Simon tries to kill Mirror Grace to save Grace, even though he just swapped places with Mirror Simon five seconds ago.
- Sara thrives on this trope, due to Parental Neglect and going to the realization that everything she did to Chloe has made her lose everything that she built with her lies and false promises.
- Irony:
- Sara brushes off the suggestion to just tell the police that her mother was being abusive. She should've taken it because Officer Jenny gets her handcuffs after Gloria wished for the video evidence of Marianna being an asshole was spread throughout the city.
- She's also an excellent judge of character to everyone...but she fails at passing off as "No-Show" Goh.
- Jerkass Realization:
- Patricia realizes that she was so close to being a monster when her grandfather questions if he's next on her list.
- Chloe (in Sara's third wish) gets a moment like this when her snapping at Goh and his reponse to her — "Why did you ever care about what our classmates ever said?" — makes her realize that she shoved him aside, and demonized him as someone who wouldn't care about her, for nothing.
- After her classmates admit they should've realized who they were bullying, Chloe makes a remark that it wouldn't have mattered if she wasn't a Professor's daughter. This makes them realized that Sara could've pointed to any target and they would've gleefully ruined their lives for the hell of it.
- Literal Metaphor: Two in part 5.
- In one of Sara's wish fantasies, Chloe asks her to take a seat. She then clarifies to take a seat by throwing a chair at her face and to swiftly pummel her with it.
- Parker, having gotten annoyed and stressed over the situation with his family and once again dismissed as just a child, screams that the adults around him are afraid of their own shadows before reiterating that the monsters that are attacking them are their actual shadows.
- LOL, 69: Todd's number is 69 and a few older Apex members chuckle at this.
- Mama Bear:
- According to Gard, Talia is one of these. She even tells Chloe that "Moms are tough" and threatens to tear UnCerise apart if he dares to hurt Chloe.
- Also, Mrs. Borage, whom Patricia mentions has been furiously telling everyone off for how they may as well have gone after her son — who has Asperger's — just for unknowingly saying the wrong thing.
- Tomie is a downplayed version as she has the drive to protect her grandson, but just doesn't know what to do. Thankfully UnChloe and Parker come to her aid.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!":
- The Cerise Institute and everyone involved in Cerise's conference has this look when the Unown box activates and it's Sara who has control over them.
- Played for Laughs; when Chloe states that Augustine is going to do a performance for the story festival and has numerous ideas, the Windchasers and Red Lotus Uprising start panicking.
- Motive Decay: A case can be made for Sara. In the original story, the reason she bullied Chloe was out of jealousy and to cope with the pain of her father's death. Here, she wanted to break Chloe down just to force her give her and their classmates their own Pokemon, presumably to give her an excuse to finally escape her mother. It's later revealed that it's actually everything: coping with the pain of her father's death, jealousy that Chloe got a Pokémon and hoping to obtain a Pokémon that could be used as a status symbol that she was a grown up.
- Mundane Solution: Sara's attempts to hurt her mother only made her worse. Gloria does something simpler and more damning — just wish the Unown to spread the footage of Marianna being a massive bitch throughout all of Vermillion City.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Patricia tearfully admits to Sara that she was this close to being a bully to her wheelchair-bound grandfather, and though he loves her dearly, he won't even speak to her now. The rest of her fellow classmates are also in this state when Chloe calls them.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: In Sara's third wish ("Chloe gives me and my classmates what they deserve"), Chloe decides that the group deserves to be killed "all kinds of dead" for everything they did to her. Thus she starts pummeling Sara with a chair then she smacks it at Patricia's face strong enough to break her glasses and make her bleed, before finally choking Yeardley and slamming his face into the window strong enough to crack it. It's only Goh's intervention that helps Chloe calm down from her murderous rampage that prevents the other 17+ students from being targeted.
- Noodle Incident:
- The Cage of Flauros is apparently named after an incident when Flauros got drunk and trapped lesser demons who were getting angry at his "drunken debauchery".
- When Parker talks about all the fun saw in Professor Oak's lab, Victor states that Gloria had to use Tauros-fighting skills after being trampled by Ash's thirty Tauros.
- Talia apparently watched Black Mirror before. In particular, she watched the "White Beartic" episode and heavily regrets it.
- Noodle Implements: Gard states that Talia can be quite terrifying with just a pen.
- Note to Self: Victor types a reminder on how Talia will kick Renji's butt for letting Chloe play No More Heroes (a game that is way above her age rating).
- Not So Similar: Sara tries to state that Ash and Goh aren't so different from her — they are in pursuit of a goal but keep wanting more and more and more but aren't satisfied with what they have. Cerise points out that it's quite normal for trainers to want different goals and at least Ash and Goh honestly worked for it, compared to how Sara steals from others.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
- Harmonious Storm and UnCerise start going into what is essentially a No Holds Barred wrestling match in a giant arena created by Mr. Mime's Barriers as they start cursing and pummeling each other to death. After Sara wakes up from her nightmares, we see that the latter has a broken nose and a black eye, and the former has their suit torn up and can mutter "Worth It".
- The heroic groups go off against Gremory with a paragraph dedicated to all the crazy attacks that the readers never get to see. ranging from Yuri's sword unleashing numerous light beams to Atticus riding Garchomp into battle.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Asher's reaction when he learns that Chloe obtained a relic that lets her summon demons whenever she wants.
- Avery loses his cool when Lotus brings up a denizen named Kyler.
- Yuri immediately states how James Sunderland did a good thing in fighting the monsters. Then Chloe quotes Vincent Smiths's "They looked like monsters to you?" line before Yuri realizes the implications...
- Once Done, Never Forgotten:
- At this point, Grace is very annoyed that the major thing everyone remembers is how she murdered Utahoshi and not the fact she is the feared leader of the Apex.
- Sara never forgave Chloe for the beatdown with the paint can. Chloe questions if Sara is still going to hang that over her head as this wouldn't have happened if Sara didn't pour paint on her, attacked her brother and mocked how her father didn't care for her. Even Marianna gets angry at Chloe's attack.
- Likewise in Sara's third wish, Chloe hasn't forgotten how Goh "abandoned" her to her classmates to be bullied by them while he kept searching for Mew. One Armor-Piercing Response later, though, and she soon realizes the situation wasn't as black and white as she thought.
- Once More, with Clarity: Part 4 has Augustine seeing scenes near the end of the stories from the original Blossomverse trilogy before it segues into him actively murdering those involved. However, upon a reviewing of those scenes, it's revealed that it's not Augustine, but rather a person named Austen Plane.
- Perspective Flip: In Part 3, we see the events of Chloe at school getting Goh's homework ready for when he arrives after the encounter with Lugia in Journeys episode 2, showing how Goh disregards how much Chloe does for him and that her classmates bully her on how "No-Show" Goh could give a fig about her and Miss April was oblivious to the teasing.
- Plot Parallel:
- When Chloe discusses how she feels that Marchosias and Wepwawet are a good fit for one another, she notes that it's not too different from her and Goh. Like Marchosias, Chloe felt hopeless but they also have an inner spark ready to let loose. And Wepwawet is like Goh, who is enthusiastic and wants to help Marchosias out via different possibilities on her life.
- Sara's inabiility to talk about the pains in her life is similar to what Chloe has gone through throughout most of Act 1. The main difference is that when Goh chewed Chloe out, she listened all the way to the end before finally airing out her pain and promising to be better. When Amelia tries to help Sara move on, Sara shuts the door and refuses to listen. And while Gloria compared Chloe to an abuse victim, Sara is an abuse victim.
- Specter brings up Sara's loneliness to the The Blue Angel story, the only difference is that no one is willing to see Sara as a friend or lost soul who is in need of help because of how cold and abusive she was.
- Rage Breaking Point: Renji (understandably) trying to tell Parker (in a wheelchair and cast) that it's dangerous to be outside causes Parker to lose it as he's so tired of never being seen or noticed and having to watch idiot adults run around like headless chickens afraid of their own shadows and questioning why they never learn things sooner when they could've if they listened to a child for once.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Chloe breaks Sara's ego by stating how she is a spoiled brat who will never face Chloe as she is because she's a cowardly child through the use of Travis's speech to FU in No More Heroes III (Which Chloe is a fan of)
- Parker tears into at least two dozen adults because he is sick and tired of never being noticed or considered important because he's a kid and state that if things go to hell and they ask why they weren't told sooner, it's because the Adults Are Useless and could've gotten their answers if they listened to a child asking for help.
- Rejected Apology: Professor Cerise refuses to accept Sara's apologies because she doesn't accept that she's done wrong and how much damage she has caused to his family, her classmates, their families and her school.
- Related in the Adaptation: In Egyptian mythology, there was no relationship between Anubis and Wepwawet. In this story, Anubis states that they're brothers.
- The Reveal:
- The softball camp permission slip that Cerise refused to sign. When he finally sees why Chloe wanted to go — to get a break from the relentless bullying by Sara, who said that him not signing it was proof that he never loved her — he is completely ashamed of himself.
- The Cloak of Marchosias and Wepwawet is an artifact created by Wepwawet himself in an attempt to fuse Demon and God magic together, meaning that the voice talking to Chloe in previous cars is Wepwawet himself. On a smaller note, it turns out demons and gods are actually denizens on the Train and are classified as the Goetias (demons) and the Numinae (Gods).
- The storyteller from the Night Garden Car is a kore named Lotus.
- Mirror Grace reveals the story as to how Mirror Gloria got killed off by the Mirror Police.
- Augustine's change of attitude at Part 3 and the one who sealed away his insanity? Part 4 reveals that it was Asher's mentor/Auric from Rey Mysterio vs the Cosmos. It also reveals just how Augustine arrived at the climatic fight from Seeker of Crocus.
- The name of the Figure of Elipzo is called Austin Plane.
- Rule of Symbolism: The use of No More Heroes through the use of Chloe (as Travis Touchdown) and Sara Diktayls (as Bad Girl/FU) can be seen throughout Chloe's initial behavior. Like how NMH is part of the "Kill the Past" series, Chloe wants nothing more than to kill the girl who ruined everything she had when she was going to get home and made her life a living hell, so stuck with vengeance that she broke Augustine. However, she later learns that going that path brings nothing but pain and decides to comfort her past through a different way: moving on from the bullies who hurt her and acting in self-defense when Sara tries to kill her, even accepting that she did plenty wrong and telling Sara to kill her to get it over with. Sara, in contrast, wants to stay in the past as a spoiled child who had a loving dad and ruled like a princess and ends up destroying her future opportunities for one petty act of spite instead of trying to make amends for what she did. In short: Chloe killed her past through kindness and empathy, Sara destroyed her future with destruction and vengeance.
- Running Gag: Specter is constantly compared to Chloe's OC.Specter: I swear if someone calls me that maligned term one more time!
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- All of Chloe's former classmates want nothing to do with Sara once they realized how she caused them to lose everything they held dear and that they were close to becoming bullies who would hurt their loved ones for a Pokémon. When Sara tries to "invite" them to her castle, everyone collectively mutes her.
- Sara herself decides to run away from home, but not before going to the Cerise Institute for a Pokémon.
- Secret Test of Character: UnSycamore gives Sara three wish scenarios that give her the life she desires. Unfortunately, her mistakes and attitude prevent her from actually reaping the benefits.
- Shout-Out: Two to The Fairly Oddparents
- When Rimuru gives Asher a purple book, Yuri asks if the title is Da Rules.
- When Parker learns he has wish powers, he questions why he just can't wish things normal like the boy with the pink hat.
- Simultaneous Arcs: Augustine gets transplanted to the Infinity Train of the main Blossomverse trilogy during the Darkest Day arc of Voyage of Wisteria and helps Oleana figure out what she can do admist everything she can't.(Spoilers)
- Something We Forgot: As the Unown fade away and things go back to normal, Victor notes that there's something missing. Cue Marianna with a hangover.
- Spanner in the Works:
- Parker making his wish on the Unown brings the creation of UnChloe who is going to help bring everyone together to stop Sara. He also is the one who helps the parents of Class 5-E learn to face their own shadows and learn how their children are feeling guilty over their mistakes.
- Tomie is able to pick up on "Goh's" dislike of star-shaped carrots and aids Molly by giving Goh a homemade lunch and a note stating that help is on the way.
- Sobble uses his invisibility to get the keys to the Cerise Park to help Kurune, Ikuo and Molly get inside.
- Spit Take: Parker is drinking milk from a breakfast tray given to him by Nurse Chloe...and then he spits the milk out when he realizes his nurse is Chloe, who he last talked to in a video conference.
- Stating the Simple Solution:
- When Sara states that the only reason she bullied Chloe was to make her give everyone Pokémon, Yeardley's little sister just asks why Sara didn't just go to her father because you can get a Pokémon from a Professor, not Chloe.
- When the Apex kids can't figure out which backpack in the Backpack Car has the key to leave the car, Ryu asks if they tried unzipping them.
- When Chloe's classmates are paralyzed and afraid of what the future holds for all of them, they're asked if they were ever told by their parents about their fears. The students are afraid of approaching them, knowing that it was all their fault for what had happened.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Goh, Talia and Chloe's classmates think the same of Specter — he looks like Chloe's OC. Albeit this one is justified because they all have seen images of what said OC looks like.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Sara's attempts to punish her daughter do nothing except make things worse. It's Gloria's wish to show off the recordings of Marianna being an abusive drunken bitch that actually proves that she's a horrible person.
- When Sara and Chloe fight with their baseball bats, Chloe is the one who gets the upper edge against her opponent. This is because Chloe has spent the past two months in a death world, honing her skills while Sara has done nothing but gripe and moan and leave physical labor to her lackeys.
- Tempting Fate:
- Anubis wonders what type of trouble a ten-year-old girl can do. The final scene of Part 1 shows Sara Diktaylis and she's heading off to the Cerise Institute. While Goh, Parker, Victor and Gloria are picking up the Unown Box...
- Specter states that neither Sara nor UnCerise frighten him. Then the latter makes him witness his worst fear...being attacked by Pyramid Head.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Goh never thought twice about Chloe getting his homework and tells Sara point blank that he never thanked her because "It's just homework".
- Villain Has a Point: UnCerise may be a dark counterpart that basically is Sara's mouthpiece on how much she wants to make Chloe's life a living hell, but he makes a succint point on how Cerise, Ash and Goh really treated Chloe before the Train got her.UnCerise: You say so much, yet do so very little.
- Villainous Breakdown: Most of Part 5 is dedicated to seeing Sara's palace and mental state crumbling down. Gloria summons her own construct to reduce damage, Parker saves Chloe's classmates and their parents, she can't land a fight on Chloe in their fight and every single wish she makes backfire because of her stubborness and selfishness. At the end of it all, she would rather die than admit that she has a problem to work with. It takes the intervention of the barista to stop her.
- Wham Episode:
- As a whole, the arc has a huge reveal that changes the scope of the types of denizens that the Train can create. That of gods and demons.
- Part 2 has the Unown unleashed by Sara, signaling that this reiteration of the Cyan Desert Car is not going to end well. Even the ending notes lampshade how bad it is.
Spinner: :-) We're doomed.- Part 4 completely changes the status quo: Augustine learns the name of the head of Elipzo, gets sent onto the train during the Darkest Day of Voyage of Wisteria, Chloe learns to move on with her classmates, Tony gets a warning from someone — presumably Rey Mysterio — about a burning spear, and it ends with Seto Kaiba encountering Alister, who is presumably "aligned" and ready to make his move.
- Wham Line:
- Lotus gets into Avery's skin with five words: "Kyler is on the move".
- Lotus's book has this line, shedding more light on Kyler.
I’ll stop you, Avery! I’ll end Elipzo, save the Train, and save Little Crow for what your leader did to him!- Patricia notes that her grandfather is horrified at what she did under Sara's thumb. But the readers don't realize how serious it is until she notes:
Patricia: I could say nothing as he silently pushed his wheelchair back to the living room.- Chloe is not in a good mood when Gloria calls her and even states it as much. The person who called her replies,
??? I'm not Gloria, me.- After everything with the Unown is finished, Augustine delivers a bombshell.
Augustine: We’re…canceling our plans to stop the Cage of Flauros and the Apex. - Wham Shot:
- Lotus's book showed an image of Avery and another figure with a comedy theater mask on the table — a mask similar to the one Indigo wears.
- As Victor and Gloria bring Parker to the hospital alongside Molly, no one notices a third shadow between Victor and Gloria.
- The end of Part 2 reveals a figure that looks like Professor Cerise created by Sara.
- After the Wham Line of someone calling Chloe, we get an image of someone who is wearing a white-colored version of Chloe's outfit with her braid.
- The final scene of Part 6 reveals a man with a white jacket with paint splotches and a vest on top of that that's red, blue, pink, and, yellow...just like Kaito Goshikida who was previously in Rey Mysterio versus the Cosmos.
- Who Is Driving?: As everyone reassures Chloe she can start again with her family and Goh, Yuri realizes that no one is driving their raft and it's about to crash into an oasis.
