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"We'll find a miracle that works for us - and if we can't find one, we'll make one."
-Ryuunosuke

Tropes from the third canon round of Dangan Roleplay.

This round provides examples of:

  • Academy of Evil: The hotel murderschool is actually intended to be an SHSL Despair training ground.
  • Accomplice by Inaction: Tsukiyama asks Monobear to clarify whether someone in this position would be executed too and if the students have duty to rescue. The answer leads him to act as his own case's accomplice, setting Meridiana up to take the fall.
  • Accuse the Witness: Case 4's witness was concussed and had suffered memory gaps and bouts of being Not Himself. Even he admitted that it looked bad for him. He was innocent.
  • Aesop Amnesia: Dave and Haruka both learn from experience not to touch the mapo tofu, only to goad each other on into an eating contest of the spicy torture device the very same day.
  • Air Vent Escape: Interrupted and foiled by the junk Monobears in the ventilation system.
  • Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Silver and Allie engage in embarrassing wasted rambling while Dave and Meridiana get more and more red-faced at their friends calling them attractive.
  • The Alleged Computer: One of Wario's regains is a clunker of a laptop with simple games and little battery life.
  • All for Nothing: The first motive was to prevent "future events" that, unbeknownst to the amnesiac students, had already happened.
  • All Work vs. All Play: Ryoji and Silver have this dynamic and yet still manage to be great friends.
  • Anchored Ship: Tsukiyama rebuffs Ryuunosuke in Week 4, reasoning that considering a relationship in a murder game is a terrible idea. He changes his mind in the sixth trial, and they're engaged within the week.
  • …And That Little Girl Was Me: Tsukiyama and Duster have a tense conversation in the final log where the "hypothetical stories" they share to explain their worldviews and actions are clearly things they've actually seen.
  • Armor-Piercing Response: In the third trial, the culprit's angry Motive Rant is cut short when Tsukiyama tells him that it's clear that Sola-Ui is dead and Kayneth can't change that.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Tsukiyama's portion of the Case 6 confessions: admitting to several disturbing crimes followed by saying that his Big, Screwed-Up Family means he's ridiculously inbred. Naturally, Ryuunosuke is only taken aback by the one that doesn't involve anyone's horrible death.
  • Artificial Stupidity: Haruka and Futo decide to test the Siren Monobears' facial recognition by planting a cardboard Kirei in front of their post.
  • Ate It All: Silver doesn't know the meaning of "these are for everyone." He has to be stopped from hoarding the remaining food during the illness/starvation motive.
  • Bad News in a Good Way: The canon example is parodied in narration after the starvation motive.
    The food is back! :(
    That means somebody's probably dead! :D
  • Betty and Veronica: In the irresponsible teenage bar party, Meridiana insists that she isn't just the pretty (boring) one and Allie isn't just the fun (interesting) one. It seems to be a worry of hers that they might become this, even if Dave's already dating Meridiana and he and Allie are Like Brother and Sister.
  • Big Creepy-Crawlies: Dave likes to compare the Junk Monobears to these.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: We have at least three (surprisingly not belonging to the Fate characters), plus various other characters with abusive or absent caregivers.
  • Birthday Episode: Allie's party.
  • Bizarrchitecture: A mild example. Hotel Monobear looks normal at first, but doesn't seem possible when you examine the layout. This gets a Hand Wave near the end with the involvement of an SHSL Architect.
  • Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: Silver's favourite Tamato berry juice ("Oh, so it's foreign!") is described as melting off taste buds. Mapo tofu makes a reappearance, too.
  • Blood Bath: A student bathing in blood is key to Case 5.
  • Blood Is the New Black: Tsukiyama in Trial 5 after Dave gets him to remove his jacket, revealing the blood all over his clothes. There's a milder, accidental example in case 2, where Haruka trips on the stairs and gets the victim's blood on her jacket; she's dragged to the trial that way and can only wash it afterwards.
  • Blood-Splattered Warrior: Tsukiyama, with the bloody clothes hidden under a coat, in the fifth trial.
  • Body in a Breadbox: This round is big on it, like Round 1's trend towards knives and Round 2's poisoning.
  • Bonding over Missing Parents: Allie and Dave, sometimes with Silver early on. Actually, a lot of people.
  • Book on the Head: Meridiana demonstrates this perfectly after Haruka tries it for fun and fails.
  • Borrowed Catchphrase: In the ending, a few euphoric students borrow "greatest cool."
  • Boy Meets Ghoul: Both Tsukiyama/Ryuunosuke (literally) and Dave/Meridiana (she's a zombie).
  • Brain Bleach: The collective reaction to the "exhibitionist killer" theory in the fourth trial. Later, Kirei's reaction to Monaka's Precocious Crush.
  • Breakfast Club: The students slowly bond over how much of a mess their lives have been.
  • Breakup Make Up Scenario: Ryuunosuke and Tsukiyama after Case 4, where the former's Lack of Empathy gets him into trouble. Also technically the other survivors with Tsukiyama after his betrayal, since they didn't get to execute him and still have to live with him.
  • Bridal Carry: After they're both dead, Silver picks up the habit of carrying Meridiana around.
  • Broken Hero: Almost all the player characters, in the end.
  • BSoD Song: Late in the game, a few lost, sad characters keep playing songs their classmates used to like on the piano and karaoke machine.
  • Bucket Booby-Trap: When Haruka and Tsukiyama are calling Monobear to the conference room, the former tries to "lure" the bear with promises that she didn't set up any of these. However, there actually aren't any.
  • Butt-Dialing Mordor: When the party comes upon a computer receiving a call and connects to the outside, Tsukiyama's first thought is that they may have inadvertently called "1-800-DESPAIR."
  • Call-Back: The final week and final investigation/trial are full of these, including the party that acts as a mirror to the peace week party, Suspiciously Apropos Music (particularly Frank Sinatra), and "either way, I win" traps alluded to with the phrase, "Have you stopped cheating on your taxes?"
  • The Call Knows Where You Live: With the Mastermind's (dubious) statement that she hadn't yet sent her assassins after the students' loved ones, it's implied that she was going to do it the second that anyone refused her offer to join SHSL Despair.
  • Cardboard Pal: 101 of them.
  • Catapult Nightmare: Meridiana at one of the teenage sleepovers, after remembering that her mother was shot.
  • The Centerpiece Spectacular: The highlight of the second act that sticks in everybody's mind is Case 5, half for the gore and half for the drama and twists.
  • Central Theme: Real family is made, not born, and trust is hard, but secrets can kill.
    • The driving questions are related: Should you open your heart again to the people who hurt you or cut them off and warn others away from them? Should you do one for some people and the other for others? Does revenge ever do anything, and for that matter, does forgiveness?
  • Cerebus Callback: Many of the examples listed under Call-Back. For example, a party meant to declare that no one will die being echoed with a party meant to declare that no one else will die.
  • Chairman of the Brawl: Duster smashes everything with a chair when he hallucinates his father in the tea room. Of course, it's not a real fight, since the other "participant" is an illusion.
  • Class Trip: The excuse as to why they're in a hotel this time around. That and Monobear was bored.
  • Closest Thing We Got: Medical care in the hotel generally comes down to bandages, painkillers, and hoping to live until someone might eventually come rescue them. The rescue party does bring a healer, which is good for Ryuunosuke and Allie; others who'd been frequenting the first aid room were already healed by being brought back to life.
  • Comfort Food: At the case four afterparty, Silver makes a peace offering of a mayo-covered omelette to Haruka. She's touched that he remembers how she eats them.
  • Commonality Connection: The entire class regularly bonds about how messed up they are.
  • Consuming Passion: Discussed in the "morgue date," where Tsukiyama tells Ryuunosuke which body parts he'd want to eat off of everyone and why. He gets really into some of them.
  • Convenience Store Gift Shopping: When Allie has her birthday in the hotel, her friends can really only offer her machine prizes.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: Ryuunosuke dreads Tsukiyama making him sit through horror movies as revenge for making him watch something he hated.
  • Cruel Mercy: The reason the students have to kill Meridiana is that sparing her would be this, considering her Survivor's Guilt over everyone who's already been murdered to keep her alive. Those who would be willing to die for her (or simply to serve justice on Tsukiyama) consider it a Sadistic Choice.
  • Cry Laughing: Dave breaking down after the first trial as he explains his feelings of guilt to Kureha.
  • Cryptically Unhelpful Answer: Monobear's "I love despair" Motive Rant sure sounded like this to Dave, who just wanted to know if the Mastermind was his dead brother revived. Not that Dave doesn't constantly do this himself.
  • Curse Cut Short: "Son of a—!" when Ryuunosuke falls down the stairs.
  • Cute Is Evil: Monaka and Kyuubey sure are. Averted with Madoka, though, and the students often call one another cute, with Ryouji saying it most often.
  • Dance of Romance: Dave and Meridiana's Relationship Upgrade at the dance party in Week 4, Tsukiyama and Ryuunosuke on their third date, and a few more, including another Arts & Lovecrafts dance, in the final week's dance party.
  • Dark Reprise: "My Way", sung by Harvey at the karaoke party, is played again slowly in the piano bar by Tsukiyama a few weeks after Harvey's died. Later, checking to see if Harvey's ghost is real, Haruka decides to play the dirty music he'd hidden to see if he'd turn it off... thus making an emotionally charged dark reprise out of Thong Song.
  • Declaration of Protection: Ryuunosuke gives one towards Tsukiyama, warning everyone off of taking revenge for Case 5.
    "There's no one here who could take him. And if anyone tries... I'll take his place. I won't let anything happen to him."
  • Dead Serious: While normally the first victim would be this, many characters saw either the first culprit or the second victim this way instead.
    Silver: This one isn't the fat jackass. This guy cared about us.
  • Death Is the Only Option: Silver decides this in week seven. His plan works, but his distraught friends don't exactly agree with it.
  • Defiant to the End: Maya survives Kayneth's first attempt on her life and dies following him and trying to expose him.
  • Delinquents: In the final trial, because the students are rebelling against a school that was supposed to turn them into Super High School Level Despair agents, class-ditching heroine Haruka asks her classmates, "Does this make you all delinquents like me?" From then on, the Round 3 class has been colloquially referred to as the Despair Delinquents to contrast with their seniors Hope's Army.
  • Denied Food as Punishment: Or perhaps, as incentive. Week 5's Motive involves this and some drugged gummy bears.
  • Didn't See That Coming: An example or two on the heroes' side.
    • The elevator password was guessed in advance OOC, but the characters had no way of knowing that the name "Junko" had any real significance.
    • The Future Foundation is aware of the hotel early on, but can't find it, because the introduction of Puella Magi powers into SHSL Despair's repertoire is a complete surprise to them.
  • Did You Just Have Sex?: Tsukiyama (who's trying not to look as embarrassed as he is) and Ryuunosuke (who's just entertained) seem to get this at the start of every other trial when everyone's asking for alibis. At the last one, the answer's yes.
  • Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: The younger end of the Love Dodecahedron goes for the polyamory ending thanks to Ryouji, who's actually the apocalypse given form.
  • Dissimile: From Isabelle's cooking lessons: "...So it's kinda like scrambled eggs, only without mashing it up and with fish and the freezer and the microwave and putting the seasoning on beforehand and probably no mayo on it, which isn't like scrambled eggs at all, is it?"
    • Also, when Ryuunosuke drags Tsukiyama into trying to get Kayneth's attention from beyond the grave, the narration goes thus:
    "(...)like a pair of kids staying up all night to see if they can catch sight of Santa, only instead of reindeer, it's a wheelchair, and instead of presents, it's impotent rage."
  • Distaff Counterpart: The actual teenagers are grouped up thus.
  • Distant Duet: Any time that a ghost is playing with the karaoke machine, the musical instruments, or the turntables and one of the living tries to play back.
  • Double Meaning: In week seven, Dave and Tsukiyama awkwardly meet in the ballroom, only to hear a message directed to them. The unmanned turntables start repeating "Mary, Mary" — that is, Meri-Meri — and "it's not over." Dave takes the message one way, Tsukiyama quite another.
  • Duet Bonding: Dave and Kureha do this in week three at the karaoke machine, setting up for the Meaningful Echo of the same song in Monaka's execution. Haruka and Kureha do it in the same week, too, and much later, it's the setting for one of Arts and Lovecrafts's dates.
  • Dying Clue: The victim of case 5 left a broken bottle of Chianti at the scene of the attack to warn that the class was dealing with a Villain with Good Publicity and, more to the point, a cannibal.
  • Dying Curse: Meridiana faces down Tsukiyama, who had manipulated her to her inevitable execution, and spits one in her last act of standing up for herself.
    "I hope you burn in hell where you belong."
  • Dysfunction Junction: The characters discover that they all come from lonely, painful backgrounds where most of them were abused and/or neglected. This is a plot point and is actually why they're here.
  • Egopolis: There are even more Monobears all over everything than in the previous rounds!
  • The Elevator from Ipanema: Tsukiyama gets bored in the elevator and hums the music to himself thrice.
  • Enforced Cold War: Everybody knew the risks of taking revenge on Tsukiyama for Wash and Meridiana, so even those who wanted to didn't try. Then they all decide that they need to trust one another to live.
  • Entertainingly Wrong: The Wet Stain Theory in the fourth trial, among others.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: This hotel might be a murder school, but at least it's wheelchair-accessible! This, however, is because it has to be.
  • Everyone Can See It: Tsukiyama tells Dave this re: Dave's crush on Meridiana. It's also true of Ryuunosuke's feelings for Tsukiyama himself.
  • Everyone Is Bi: Ryuunosuke, Tsukiyama, Silver, Ryouji, Futo, Haruka (whose own canon is this trope too), Rufioh (from a binormative alien society at that), possibly Duster, Dave, Wash, Tucker, Isabelle, Allie, Maya...
  • Everything's Better with Sparkles: Ryuunosuke orders a glitter cannon on the shopping channel and glitters up the pool.
  • Fake Food: Silver's stash turns into this during the starvation motive.
  • Family of Choice: Found family is a major recurring theme this time, especially since many characters don't have families or at least don't have good ones.
  • Finger in the Mail: One of Kayneth's regains is Sola's disembodied hand.
  • Flexing Those Non-Biceps: Noodly Dave does this jokingly at the gym.
  • Flower Motifs: Both Meridiana and Tsukiyama understand and communicate in floriography, teaching bits to the others as well.
  • Flowers of Romance: Dave associates flowers, chrysanthemums especially, with his girlfriend Meridiana. He dries and presses all of her flowers after she dies.
  • Food Fight: Haruka announces one after the first meeting as "it's better than murder" and the food in the hotel is kind of bad.
  • Foreshadowing: Extremely heavy as always, even when it's completely innocuous.
    • Go reread the third trial and you'll see two blatant ones:
      • Monobear's erratic behaviour. He's watching the trial instead of commentating because he's there to film and observe, his movements are jerky because Monaka and Henri are fighting for control, and he freezes and slumps over after saying "I forgot how much fun this game was" and acts normally from then on because that line prompted the Future Foundation to pull Henri off the case.
      • Watch who asks Monobear about the rules regarding accomplices. Then look at what he does with that information two weeks later.
    • Another unintentional one happens directly after the fourth trial, when Dave tells Silver about the heat death of the universe. He's also there to hear it when it figures into the Dragon with an Agenda's Motive Rant.
    • Isabelle predicts Week 5's starvation motive way back in Week 1.
    • In week three, Dave tells Meridiana that his world has ways to raise the dead. She's immediately shocked, horrified even, and asks hesitantly if they Came Back Wrong. You know, like she did.
  • Forged Message: Two appear. There's a fake suicide note in Case 3 and Monaka's fake message from Silver to draw out Allie so she can frame her for Case 6.
  • Four Is Death: There are four labelled floors in the elevator, though they're unlocked one by one. Tsukiyama notes the comparison to Dave, who's unfamiliar with the idea of four being unlucky.
  • Friendly Target: The pattern of "Haruka's close CR murders Dave's close CR" has been noted both in- and out-of-game. It keeps throughout the entire game, if you count Tsukiyama as having technically murdered both Wash and Meridiana and Silver as having murdered himself.
  • Fun with Flushing: The third culprit tries to flush some evidence and plugs the toilet.
  • Goodies in the Toilets: One of the Case 3 evidence bullets is found in a toilet.
  • Gym Class Rope Climb: The gym has a climbing wall. Some of the characters train on it often and the rope is used in the Case 3 murders.
  • Head-Tiltingly Kinky: Kirei just facepalms, apparently envisioning it this way, when Ryuunosuke confirms that he let Tsukiyama take a bite out of his shoulder.
  • Hell Hotel: The new setting is a hotel.
  • Hellish Copter: Averted, though the rescue party's reaction to Jimmy's piloting indicates that they probably nearly did crash more than once.
  • Heroic Safe Mode: A common theme is putting feelings aside to power through until they're not in mortal danger. As Allie explains, "You can be not-okay later."
  • Heroic Vow: Haruka promises to keep Dave's hope after his Despair Event Horizon, which quickly becomes a promise to be everyone's hope.
  • Hilarity Sues: Harvey, not wanting to upset Isabelle, suggests that they sue Monobear instead of trying to take violent revenge.
  • Human Pet: Kayneth sees Tsukiyama's learning to care about the class but still backstabbing two of them to live from an understandably cynical view, comparing it to keeping the students as pets. A theory is also thrown around that the mastermind wanted Isabelle (who, while a dog, has human intelligence) for a pet. Finally, Tsukiyama presents Ryuunosuke as his "new pet" to his family to hide that they're actually married.
  • I Love You, Vampire Son: While it's left ambiguous (and later post-game gatherings suggest that they didn't go for it after all), Ryuunosuke says he wishes he were a ghoul, and, well, Tsukiyama knows a guy...
  • Implausible Deniability: Kayneth's convoluted excuse for all the evidence pointing to him in the third trial. No one buys it, though Haruka concocts a crack theory that assumes it's all true.
  • Informed Ability: Many of the students are prevented from using their talents via nerfing or other methods. Tropes Are Not Bad, as this is addressed and some characters suspect that it's intentional so as to encourage despair. (The SHSL Magus was Brought Down to Normal, the SHSL Epicure is being starved unless he can kill, the SHSL Knight tries to protect his friends and fails, etc.)
  • I Never: The cast starts a few games of it for fun at parties. One instance becomes an Ironic Echo in case 5.
  • Insatiable Newlyweds: Insatiable recently-engaged, anyway, although it's subverted. Everyone (except innocent Isabelle) assumes that Tsukiyama and Ryuunosuke, when they went to get rid of Kyuubey, were off doing... something else. (They get that assumption a lot, actually...)
  • In-Universe Catharsis: The students have a lot of examples of this, like Tsukiyama nearly destroying the gym's punching bag when he blames himself for Silver's death, Kayneth leading everyone in folding and destroying paper Monobears, and any time Futo actually gets to burn something.
  • In Vino Veritas: There are a few instances of characters (both of age and not) coming up with profound insights (or just really stupid things spoken overly honestly) while drunk once the bar opens up.
    Haruka, thoroughly wasted: ...Dumb bear. Wanted us to despair. We actually turned out better than we came in.
  • Ironic Echo: During Tsukiyama's despair-induced breakdown in the final trial, he throws back a line from a Week 6 conversation that, at the time had just been silly: "Have you stopped cheating on your taxes?"
  • Kill the Poor: There's clearly some classism in Kayneth's decision to sacrifice his classmates' lives and try to graduate, especially when he starts to ask what makes their lives so worth living.
  • Lady and Knight: Meridiana and Dave start to develop this kind of relationship, despite Dave admitting he's not the classic knight she'd be thinking of.
  • "Leave Your Quest" Test: In the Graduation Exam, after the group determines that they might have been tempted before to join SHSL Despair but wouldn't now, a new temptation appears: the prospect of contracting with Kyuubey to save their friends but not defeat despair or come out all right themselves.
  • Loads and Loads of Rules: One of the early escape plans involved trying to bait Monobear into overloading himself with arbitrary rule additions, including a Dress Code.
  • Lost My Appetite: A lot after disturbing executions, but averted with Ryuunosuke. The cannibalism case made him really hungry.
  • Love Epiphany: Allie figures out that Ryuunosuke is in love with Tsukiyama before he does and helpfully clues him in.
  • Love Dodecahedron: Truth or Dare in the first week was a mass of crushes and awkwardness. Given that couples in DRRP are usually doomed, it doesn't bode well...
  • Love Confession: Week 4 has two. One is reciprocated (and half the game cheered, spectating); the other is rejected as one party is entirely too Genre Savvy to date someone in murder school, though that doesn't last and they end up together in the end.
  • Make a Wish: The last temptation of the survivors when confronted with Kyuubey. They decide that the risk isn't worth it and they'll get their happy ending without any soul-trading.
  • Mandatory Unretirement: Schuldig and Kirei left the Future Foundation after Round 2, but were called in to help recover the new class with their unique abilities and history.
  • Meaningful Rename: Dave brings up the custom in his canon for toy/pet/mascot characters to receive new names (and often new genders) with a new owner. When he and Haruka fix up John's bunny, he does just that, rechristening Liv Tyler "Bun Hutchinson."
    • Ryuunosuke also considers taking Tsukiyama's family name to be this.
  • Meat Versus Veggies: There's brief early tension when Futo wants to eat a ton of meat, having been denied it when her enemies were in power, and Isabelle, who lives in a Veganopia (averting Carnivore Confusion) and was cooking for everyone, is grossed out and confused by the "red bleeding stuff".
  • Moral Myopia: Harvey accuses most of the survivors of this, asserting that they accepted liars, traitors, and murderers back into the fold because they didn't harm them personally. Dave and Silver outright admit that that's true for them.
  • Morton's Fork: The students realize (and react accordingly) that they can't do the just thing in Case 5. Voting for Tsukiyama would have killed the responsible party and spared the innocent pawn, yes, but everyone else would have died too, so Meridiana had to go.
  • Mundane Object Amazement: Duster and Ulysses have never seen toothpaste before, the former being from a village without modern technology and the latter from the distant future. Isabelle finally explains what it is after Duster squeezes some onto a desk to investigate.
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg: In Silver's suicide letter.
    I want all of you to live. Yes, even Futo.
  • Near-Death Experience: Silver a week before he actually dies, when he runs into Tsukiyama at the wrong time.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: While Monaka's Despair Gambit almost works, all her captives go from feeling alone in the world to having friends they care about thanks to the game, and thus they unite against her. Likewise, Kyuubey figures that, unlike its canonmates, the offworlders it encounters are too desperate and despondent to care about the ultimate fate of a magical girl. This works fine for Monaka, but causes the students to back away from its deal and spurs them not to give in.
  • Nobody Poops: Played with. Not only are there a bunch of personal bathrooms and public washrooms alike in Hotel Monobear, the fact that somebody cannot use them (revealing that Kyuubey is The Needless) is actual evidence!
  • No More Lies: The Truth-Telling Session in the sixth trial and its aftermath mean no one is hiding their secrets and the worst parts of themselves anymore.
  • Non-Nude Bathing: Dave showers in his pajamas after his girlfriend is executed, showing how badly it messed him up.
  • Not a Date: Arts & Lovecrafts go on three in Week 7, including a lively conversation in the morgue.
  • Not Even Human: Meridiana believes that this, well, dehumanizes both Tsukiyama and herself. Tsukiyama tries to drag Ryouji into it, too.
  • Nothing Personal: Tsukiyama picked his victims for practical reasons and says as much, particularly in the letters to the dead. They, understandably, do take it personally and want nothing more to do with him.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: A variant in that the protagonist tells this to the villain, as they were both isolated, abused, and sought to hurt fellow victims because they thought they were carving out a place in the world that they didn't have. The conclusion is "because you're like us, you didn't have to do this." The Mastermind even gives the "I'm not like you" reply!
  • Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Silver's death letters. He didn't mean to cast blame on Tsukiyama, outright saying that he wanted to protect him from being convicted should Silver die, but Tsukiyama is horrified reading his letter anyway.
  • Off the Chart: By saving not only their dead classmates but even the dead DR1 characters, the players managed to unlock an ending that hadn't even been planned for, and a new category past Golden Ending, called "Platinum Ending," had to be invented.
  • Operation: [Blank]: Haruka's weird escape plans in the first few weeks. Some are overly descriptive names, others just things like "Operation Grand-Theft-Pencil."
  • Overly Narrow Superlative: The "best non-murder party ever" after the peace week.
  • Pair the Smart Ones: Rich, intellectual student Tsukiyama and fountain-of-investigation-knowledge Ryuunosuke. Subverted, though: Ryuunosuke isn't as book-smart as he acts and his knowledge is both very specific and comes not from being a med student (as he claimed) but from being a serial killer.
  • The Patient Has Left the Building: When he's supposed to be laid up with broken ribs and the others are taking shifts watching him, Silver wakes up on Haruka's watch, gets an explanation he isn't satisfied with, and promptly forces himself up and out the door to go see Tsukiyama. Haruka follows, knowing she'd be a hypocrite if she stopped him (and probably couldn't manage it) but not wanting to leave him alone. The ensuing, very awkward three-way conversation sets the stage for interactions between any of the three for the rest of the game.
  • The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The password to the secret door in the gym is SALMON.
  • Piss-Take Rap: Dave and Tucker have a vulgar rap battle making fun of Monobear. It's never shown, but involves rhyming "tentacle" and "ursine xenosplooge receptacle". Later, Kayneth tries to rap.
  • Please, Don't Leave Me: Tsukiyama says this when he and Ryuunosuke reconcile after the final trial, and Ryuunosuke doesn't say it verbatim, but from how he's talking, he conveys the same thing.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Dave blames himself after the first murder for not telling the culprit that he and his friends were Dead All Along. He'd wanted to shelter Rufioh from the knowledge of the future, but not knowing made him susceptible to the motive.
  • Pre-Climax Climax: Ryuunosuke and Tsukiyama spend the night before the final investigation wisely.
  • Reckless Gun Usage: Harvey is appalled that Monaka left his gun loaded and with the safety off, even if it was in a display case.
  • Recovery Sequence: Shown in real time instead of a montage, of course, but Silver's mending process over Week 7 before he dies anyway notes his progress every time we see him. The repair of Liv/Hutch would also be this, but most of it takes place offscreen.
  • Red Is Heroic: Coincidentally, this round's Decoy Protagonist is associated with red and the protagonist herself with pink.
  • Relationship Upgrade: Tucker/Washington after the second motive, Dave/Meridiana at the Week 4 party, and Ryuunosuke/Tsukiyama at the end of the sixth trial.
  • Relax-o-Vision: We interrupt Ryuunosuke gleefully describing to Tsukiyama all the mutilation of human remains he's been dreaming of doing with tea and kittens.
  • The Renfield: One crack theory (posited by, who else, Futo and Haruka) suggests that a vampire is among the students and one of them is secretly sustaining them with their own blood. Ryuunosuke, who's starting to look suspicious, takes great offence to this. While he did let Tsukiyama take a bite out of him, Ryuunosuke didn't actually commit the murder they're trying to solve, and there's no vampire, either.
  • Restored My Faith in Humanity: The class was chosen because their loneliness and hard lives could have or already had moved them to hate people. However, their bonds with one another and many of their regained memories caused most of them to believe that people aren't so bad after all, and even those who still decided to hate most people didn't go off and join SHSL Despair.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Ryuunosuke warns the others against this at Tsukiyama's Case 5 reveal. Haruka attempts it twice: once when Tsukiyama has to stop her from flinging a chair at Monobear because attacking the Headmaster is punishable by death, and once at the instance above, where Futo has to tackle her and hold her down to keep Haruka from trying to throw the podium.
  • Revenge by Proxy: The Kill List cards have the students' loved ones on them, aiming to be this should the students reject despair. However, the Future Foundation tracks down the kids first, so the only dead loved ones are those Doomed by Canon like Caster and Sola-Ui.
  • Rewatch Bonus: It's officially unintentional, but Wash trying to get Ryuunosuke to exercise has a painful one over three weeks in advance.
    "Oh, come on! Leg day never killed anyone."
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: After Monobear tells them a bit about Kirei, Haruka and Tsukiyama both conclude that someone who didn't graduate but on whom the mastermind still fixated must have escaped (which is not the case) and thus that the last game failed and its survivors got out (which is true).
  • Robot Buddy: At first, it looks like the Dancing Siren Monobear might become this for Isabelle and the rest of the class by extension, but it's deactivated soon after. However, its parts are used to repair Liv Tyler, rechristened Bun Hutchinson, who is a truer example for the team.
  • Rotating Protagonist: By the end, multiple characters and sometimes even the entire survivor pool were still being declared this round's protagonist. Sometimes there are even distinctions: Dave is "the hero we need", Haruka "the hero we deserve", and Ryuunosuke "the hero absolutely nobody asked for".
    • At one point during case 6, it came up that "together, the eight of them form one fully functioning protagonist," and that really is the best way to put it. Post-game consensus puts Haruka in the protag pants with Dave as either a sidekick or getting equal billing, which would add to the pile of coincidental similarities with Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, but the survivor pool is still in practice largely a balanced team.
  • Say My Name: "DAVE!" when Meridiana pulls a Rescue Reversal and dies getting Dave out of the way of the fridge meant for her.
    • "Kurehan! Kurehan!" when Kureha is dragged off to be executed.
  • Scary Stinging Swarm: The last renewable regain to unlock is Isabelle's, and it's... capsules of swarming attack bees. Everyone tries to either avoid them or just stash them in Tsukiyama's closet.
  • Secretly Dying: The real motive in Case 5 for both its mastermind and its technical perpetrator.
  • Security Cling: During the fifth trial, Ryuunosuke rushes to Tsukiyama and grabs his hand tightly in fear that he'll be convicted.
  • Sexy Shirt Switch: After Ryuunosuke and Tsukiyama had spent at least a day out of commission in the same room (to the point that everyone was theorizing that one of them had killed the other), Ryuunosuke walks out like nothing's happened, re-energized and wearing Tsukiyama's shirt. They didn't actually do anything... but they did before the final investigation, when they walk out of the same room in the morning wearing each other's pants.
  • Shower of Angst: Dave after his Despair Event Horizon in case 5. He's so out of it that he showers with his clothes on before remembering that you're not supposed to do that.
  • Shrine to the Fallen: The memorial Maya sets up in the restaurant.
  • Shut Up, Kirk!: To the "Not So Different" Remark. "Monaka has always been different." The act of reaching out still gets to her, though, and her Soul Gem finally darkens in true despair.
  • Slap-Slap-Kiss: Tucker and Wash are beating each other up on the mats and then start kissing instead.
  • Sliding Scale of Unavoidable vs. Unforgivable: A major part of this round's driving questions. Different characters interpret one another's actions at different points on the scale. The events of 3-5, as well as the mastermind's behaviour in light of her Freudian Excuse, are the biggest points of contention.
  • Sole Entertainment Option: The Monomovies for the first two weeks. Averted when later floors unlock with a plethora of stuff to do.
  • Tarot Troubles: Meridiana does some readings for the students. Her readings for Dave in particular are scarily accurate, as is her reading for Kayneth — though the fact that it doesn't turn out quite as happily as she thought is his own fault.
    • Who gets the Death card pulled? Wario, the first victim. Even if it doesn't mean actual death in Tarot, it's still a pretty amazing coincidence.
  • Teach Me How To Fight: Wash's motivation for holding knife-throwing lessons. He gets called on this when it's brought up that his fellow students might be more likely to turn this new skill on each other than on the Mastermind.
  • They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason: Much of the cast starts out believing this. In the end, it's what gets most of them killed, and the survivors are the ones who learn to open up to one another about their pain.
  • Truth-Telling Session: The students' rebellion in the sixth trial. Monobear threatens to expose everyone's secrets in hopes of breaking their unity, so the students decide to tell them all themselves.
  • Understatement: Tsukiyama says he's "always been considered a troublemaker back home."
  • Undignified Death: Kayneth in Case 3 is executed screaming and freaking out while being dragged along, probably specifically because he wanted to look dignified instead.
  • Urban Legend: A few are tossed around when examining the hotel. For example, when Allie says she's been checking the mirrors for anything strange, Haruka brings up "that story about hidden cameras behind washroom mirrors that everyone spreads in chain emails."
  • Visual Pun: The fifth execution has Meridiana crushed by a falling fridge, referencing how she and nearly every other woman in the mangaka's works gets Stuffed in the Fridge in canon.
  • Welcome Back, Traitor: Over the course of Week 7, Tsukiyama, after killing two people but emerging "innocent" according to the rules, is slowly accepted back by the people he betrayed. This is both because the other surviving students know they all need to trust in one another to escape and because they're all so badly traumatized and messed-up that some of them start to think it's more okay than it is. Those who were dead by that time, however, by and large still want him (and Ryuunosuke, who sided with him in the trial) gone and fear for their forgiving friends.
  • What Beautiful Eyes!: Silver gets a little entranced by Tsukiyama's eyes when his kagune activates. Even if Tsukiyama is currently breaking Silver's ribs.
  • Who Murdered the Asshole: The first victim is the least popular guy in the hotel and the constant recipient of comments along the lines of "if someone does get murdered, I hope it's you".
  • Why Don't You Marry It?: As Dave drools over Tucker's alien sword, the investigation narration describes it as "the sword (he'd) dump (Meridiana) for."
  • You Are Not Alone: Pulled on Ryuunosuke, of all people: when his secret's starting to be revealed, everyone else shouts their own secrets in solidarity with him. Including ghost tags.
  • You Do NOT Want To Know: Quickly becomes the stock response for anyone who might otherwise be told about Homestuck.
    Dave: Man. Nobody ever wants to hear my stories.
  • Your Days Are Numbered: Tsukiyama divulges to a few students that he has an illness that will kill him if he remains trapped and untreated, which isn't the whole truth, but ensures that they'll want to protect him instead of get rid of him.
  • Your Favourite: When Silver gives Haruka eggs with mayo on top to reconcile with her.
  • Zero-Effort Boss: Silver tried to be this by evading the cameras and leaving an unquestionable suicide note so no one would even have to go to trial. However, Monaka couldn't abide that and threw together a Frame-Up.

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