Round 5 of We Could Be started on August 20th, 2023.
This round's unique theme involves all participants having been part of a previous murdergame roleplay, either as a participant or NPC. It opens with everyone waking up on an island, with a tablet informing them they are all about to be part of a brand-new game show.
Round 5 of We Could Be provides examples of:
- Aerosol Flamethrower: While Dark Dream has her axe, Anna Fugo builds one of these as a makeshift weapon. It's described as janky and extremely unsafe.
- Alternate Self: Thanks to the popularity of some canons in the murdergame scene, some of the characters know or know of alternate versions of the ones they're in the game with, or alternate versions of one another's close friends. Cases currently known to the characters are:
- Akane and Brain knew a version of Moriarty different from the one in this round.
- Both the Ars Arcana cast and Akane+Brian knew a version of Hubert von Vestra.
- Anna Fugo knew of the Somnus from her game's backstory round and mistook this one for the same.
- Moriarty knew a version of Wheatley as a participant instead of an NPC in his game.
- Franciscus, Yoosung, and Penny each had a version of Osomatsu Matsuno in their games.
- Similarly, Dark Dream and the Airlocked cast dealt with versions of Manaka Sajyou.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- The host introduction starts with a bear-eared figure using Monobear's Catchphrase, only to throw off the ears and reveal themselves as Chris McLean instead.
- Week 1's Friday opens with the characters smelling burning meat at the chef shack, which turns out to be actual cooking courtesy of their new cook NPC, Wheatley.
- Arc Welding: The Golden Ending log reveals that the version of Lala from round 3 is from the same universe where Airlocked was set and is friends with the Airlocked version of Ruu.
- Belated Happy Ending: For We Could Be Round Two and Lockdown, both of which ended with all/some of the cast stuck in a simulation due to the former's Bittersweet Ending and the latter being Cut Short. At golden end, the devices used to revive people backstage are repurposed to print them proper bodies, and they end up in the Airlocked universe, which had already established resources for murdergame survivors and legal personhood for AI beings to allow them to thrive.
- Bilingual Backfire: Anna Fugo rolls her eyes at Brain and mutters her frustration in German, only for him and multiple others to start speaking German at her in turn.
- Book Ends: The first and last logs have shoutouts to Dangan Roleplay Round 1, the beginning of the mass-ex subgenre of murdergame.
- Breaking Old Trends: Instead of waking up in their assigned huts as is genre tradition, everyone wakes up on the beach covered in sand.
- Call-Back: The Week 2 and 3 challenges are both based on ones from Round 1, which the characters from that round lampshade.
- Clothing-Concealed Injury: Pretty common in this game, leading to many a strip search in the courtroom. Dark Dream, whose kids-only previous game had none of this otherwise common murdergame trope, thinks everyone else on the island has completely lost it.
- Confession Cam: The Total Drama Island Confessional Outhouse makes an appearance and is fully utilized over the course of the game.
- Cooking Duel: A literal one makes up the second challenge. Some characters prove to be better chefs than others.
- Deal with the Devil: Barry, Nina, and Brain all attempt to make one with the Director to spare their loved ones at separate points. The first two fail to meet the terms of their contracts, and Brain is outright refused due to previously insulting the Director's cake recipe.
- Dramatic Irony: During the hostage motive, Franciscus and Yoosung both discuss how good Osomatsu is at surviving murdergames, not knowing that the version of him in Airlocked Round Four died in a trial (to say nothing of the torturous death an unrepresented game put the man through).
- "Eureka!" Moment: In the second trial, Dark Dream asking Shin if he has a copy makes Franciscus remember what Lucrezia said in the first trial about him having the power to create a clone of himself.
- Family of Choice: Several members of the cast become surrogate family to each other over the course of the game:
- Moriarty refers to Akane and Barry as his children and later Nina.
- Anna of Cleves and Nina call each other sisters.
- Yl'lb calls Brain his son. This occurs right before his execution, tragically.
- Experienced Protagonist: Almost every character has participated in a murdergame before or been part of running one.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: The final investigation includes both a copy of Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc and a note that they don't want to infringe on and offend Junko because they don't trust she's actually dead. No note that the existence of the first item means she would be fictional is included on the second, indicating that the interaction of multiple worlds means "not real" is at best
relative. The appearance of Veronica in the golden end log, and therefore Dangan Roleplay, confirms this. - Giant Food: All the fruit in the garden is gigantic, apparently due to some kind of special formula they're watered with. As Somnus finds out, said formula also works on human flesh.
- Gratuitous German: Both Annas use it on occasion. There's a gag or two in which they can't completely understand one another's German because they're centuries apart.
- Has a Type: A Running Gag has the Airlocked cast reacting to Akane saying something unsettling while looking cute and harmless, immediately thinking of Yuuri, and deciding that Junpei's type is extremely obvious.
- I Have Your Wife: Week 3's motive for Team Orange is the classic hostage motive.
- Immoral Reality Show: Chris claims that the entire game is one because death drives his ratings up. Who it's being broadcast to and how it's allowed are a mystery until we find that Chris is being scammed and the show doesn't exist.
- Intoxication Ensues: Aziraphale tries to refuse a round of useless regains, only to be guilted by a sad look from the regain clown and partake in some sopor pie while having no idea it will get him high.
- I Was Told There Would Be Cake: Frequent reference is made to cake as reward (though the Director's recipe is... questionable) and the first arrivals in deadland are given a consolation cake. Which just sits there for weeks after without anyone cleaning it up.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Week 5's motive threatens the Blue (Orange) team with this.
- Loophole Abuse: Naturally, the characters try to push the boundaries of the rules on occasion.
- For the Week 3 challenge, Franciscus has Gerard fly him across the obstacle course, while Nina transforms into a shark and swims after falling in the water, and several people are simply thrown across by Deathsaurus.
- Even after swapping rooms is forbidden by the rules, Subete and Hikage continue to spend the nights together because they aren't actually swapping with everyone, simply moving an extra person into one room.
- Mistaken for Romance: Twisted; a running gag has Anna of Cleves constantly assume that any characters with bitter tension in their relationship are exes.
- Musical Episode: Anna (of Cleves) comes courtesy of a musical via a musical murdergame and gradually infects the others with her singing.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: The Airlocked cast tends to do this with Nina, always mentioning her last when discussing the people who were in their game.
- Obvious Rule Patch: After Yl'lb swaps huts with Brain for a night to get away from his Arch-Enemy Nina, Chris outlaws room-swapping because (he claims) his audience doesn't want the characters to get along, they want drama.
- Oh, Crap, There Are Fanfics of Us!: Some of the characters find a forum run and populated by the facility's turrets that, among other things, discusses fanfic and other fanworks created for the show.
- Once an Episode: Culprits trying to kill/attack Chris before being executed.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted, with there being two Annas, one from Unknown Seas and one from It's Curtains. They're even both German and wear red and black.
- Orange/Blue Contrast: The theme colors of the two teams.
- A Rare Sentence: In Trial 2, we have Franciscus exclaim "Dark Dream! You're a genius!" after one of her comments gives him a "Eureka!" Moment. Similarly to the incident with Jar Jar, there are no other results for this line on Google.
- Relative Error:
- Barry thinks that Moriarty is Akane's real father instead of a Parental Substitute towards her.
- Upon getting the hostage motive photos for Week 3, Dandy assumes that Gluttony is Lust's son.
- Running Gag:
- Various contestants throwing things at Chris, most notably Deathsaurus throwing other contestants.
- As mentioned under Has a Type, the Airlocked cast noting similarities between Akane and Yuuri.
- Dark Dream always investigating the Chef's Shack first for no reason other than because "it's a tradition."
- Anna of Cleves assuming anyone with a visibly fraught relationship must be ex-partners.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: Lucrezia unleashes one of these in the first trial in her attempt to both kill Chris and escape her punishment as the first killer.
- Seen It All: Some of the characters react to the various challenges/motives this way.
- Shout-Out: There are plenty in the setting to other murdergames. Overlaps with Continuity Nod for other We Could Be rounds and Company Cross References for games modded by any members of the WCB mod team.
- Buddybot Memorial Liberry: Named for Hodgepodge from the We Could Be mock week, the misspelling taken from R4.
- Miracle Souvenirs: Both We Could Be R1 and Ars Arcana also heavily incorporated Fantasy Costco from The Adventure Zone.
- Garden of Eatin': The giant fruit is confirmed to evoke Pac-Man and thus We Could Be R2.
- Hyperion Petting Zoo: Imported from We Could Be R3.
- Monoscreen Sinema: The name is taken from We Could Be R4's Sinema Cins, and the Monomovies come from Dangan Roleplay R3.
- Hot Springs Episode Onsen: The other confirmed reference to We Could Be R4, named for an anime trope thanks to the "subs versus dubs" theme of that round.
- Earthbucks: In reference to Spacebucks from Airlocked.
- Connor Project Memorial Music Shop: The reference to It's Curtains R2 is called out by Anna in-game.
- Handsome Jack Sailor’s Gym: Unknown Seas R2, due to Jack's face everywhere, the ocean theme, and the Taylor Swift music blasting. The In Memoriam Bar and Grille also seems to be in reference to that round's Jimmy Buffet restaurant and the Oceanic Castaways aquarium to Round 1's (especially after also having a case where a victim is fed to the sharks), but this wasn't included in the mod clarification on all the references.
- Muzeum Proziencey: Antumbra, which had a similar but correctly spelled location; the Muzeum's location description also includes a place from the Antumbra mastermind's world.
- Museum of the Society for Curiosities and Peculiarities: The Foundation, complete with Fun with Acronyms with "SCP," which the first round's title also used.
- Rat Race Arcade: The Pac-Man machine is a deliberate callout to We Could Be R2 and, in story, targets Barry because he lived in one.
- There Are No Therapists: There aren't any on the island, but on the other hand Franciscus and Nina both discuss having therapists back home.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The golden end log acts as this for some characters from older murdergame rounds, showing how they've been doing after the end of their games.
- Who Murdered the Asshole: Somnus didn't get along with many people, so while his Ars Arcana castmates genuinely mourn him and Akane is horribly upset that anyone died at all, others, especially the Airlocked cast, are uncaring or even smug upon finding him as the first victim.
- Who's on First?: As part of the first challenge, the contestants are permitted to name their teams, previously identified only by color. They name the blue team "Team Orange" and the orange team "Team Blue."
- You Wanna Get Sued?: Chris regularly worries about offending or infringing on the copyrights of major corporations on the air. This also comes back in the final investigation with regard to infringing too much on other murdergames.
