Fanfic / A Tale of Two Tricksters

Arc 2 Key cover art illustrated by skyeheaven1231

''Why have one champion when you can have them both? A bet between gods that decides humanity's fate. Yaldy knows that the outcome is certain, now with both tricksters under his grasp. Yet Humanity's sponsor is confident. The ‘god’ of the velvet room does not sway. It’s incomprehensible.
Everything is going according to plan.
Isn’t it?

— Excerpt from A Tale of Two Tricksters summary

A Tale of Two Tricksters is an Alternate Universe story of Persona 5 written by Zoe 2k8 following the concept of an "Accomplice AU" ala Persona 4 Golden, where Yaldabaoth interfered to have both Akechi and Ren be under his palm to suffer and the effects it causes.

The story can be found in AO3.

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A Tale of Two Tricksters contained the following tropes:

• Accomplice by Inaction:
  • The main beef Ann, Ryuji, and Morgana had is their belief that Ren was complicit to Shiho's suicide attempt and sexual assault under Kamoshida. They are proven wrong down the line, however.
  • Yusuke personally had doubts about Ren's "record", but he didn't have enough information to act on it beyond voicing his suspicion that Ren's situation is not as it seems. He ended up contributing to Ann, Ryuji, Morgana and Makoto constantly painting him the villain and giving Ren a lot of grief for not acting on his suspicion until its too late to undo most of the damage done.
• Acquainted in Real Life:
  • Futaba and Ren interacted first as online friends with neither aware that the other is the delinquent that her adoptive father is in charge of while Ren remains unaware that Futaba exist for several months. Futaba eventually reveals herself as Ren's online friend in Arc 2.
  • Futaba and Ren also interacted with Kasumi and Akechi online but except for Akechi and Ren, Futaba and Kasumi doesn't know who the others were until Futaba learned that one of her online friends was Ren himself.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
  • Ren goes through worse in his first semester in Shujin than what Canon! Ren went through. In canon, Ren at least had the thieves and found his own group of True Companions, but in this story, Ren is isolated in school with only Haru and Kasumi being the only students willing to interact with him, and the few friends he made are from outside, such as Akechi. The Phantom thieves constant distrust and painting him to be a villain and criminal over what happened to Shiho serve to only make him get an Adaptational Villainy.
  • Makoto is the one to be arrested and put under the brutal interrogation that Ren was canonically put through in November 20 in the game, since Ren decided to act out on his grudge and anger at Makoto for her actions in the first arc. Makoto only barely recovered from the event by the end of arc 2 to confront Akechi and Ren in Shido's palace.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Shido's Palace is much more dangerous in this fic. The guards use real bullets, there are darumas scattered around which disable Personas within their radius, and the Palace incrementally increases the amount of SP used to cast spells. Injuries received in Shido's Palace even if healed with a healing and/or revival spell will cause a recoil towards the affected Persona user when they return to the real world, which gets explicitly shown in Arc 3 with Akechi and Yusuke passing out right after they finished the infiltration route to Shido's palace and Ren having a seizure in the real world due to being revived in the Metaverse.
  • Due to awakening at Shido's Palace, Ren is far stronger than the other thieves by the time they tackle on Okumura's palace. The author mentions that the thieves Persona's awakening will have their strength to match the power of the Persona's and Shadows found in the Palace that they awaken in.
• Adaptational Deviation: The Adaptational Relationship Overhaul due to the Butterfly of Doom in effect where Ren never end up being the leader of the Phantom Thieves led to this effect:
  • Yoshida and Hifumi were Demoted to Extra, though the author later confirmed in their Retrospring that Yoshida will appear in the Strikers set sequel as one of Akechi's future confidants. On the other hand, Kurobane Eri from the Memento's Mission manga and Chouno becomes Ascended Extra's and part of Ren's confidants.
  • Ren's souring opinion regarding Ann and Ryuji led to them not becoming Ren's "confidant" bond. With Shiho and Liz taking that role for Ren.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Hereward appears as an evolution of Akechi's third awakening to protect Futaba in Shido's Palace. In the canonical game, Hereward can only be unlocked in February 2 if you pick the right choice dialogues to trigger Akechi's third awakening.
  • Kasumi joined the group two arcs early.
• Adaptational Expansion:
  • Akechi is shown to have his own set of "Confidants", not just Ren, and showcase his status as another wild card chosen by Yaldabaoth.
  • Okumura Kunikazu gets one when it's revealed in this story that in his greed to aim for a political career, he learned of how Shido achieved his success with Akechi and tried to replicate it, though Okumura had started to sponsor some orphanages, that objective didn't go anywhere due to Ren killing him off.
  • Shido's palace is being given an extra section to showcase and expand upon Shido's motives and his many atrocities over the years.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Akechi. In canon, he was completely in the dark about Shido knowing about his heritage and his plans to get rid of him once his usefulness had run its course. In this fic, however, he is fully aware of Shido's knowledge about his past and said plans, so he knows that his original plan was doomed from the get-go. This actually ends up changing his character for the better, as he has no desire to bloody his hands on Shido's behalf for no real purpose and starts undermining his plans more actively.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • Ann, Ryuji, Morgana and Makoto gets this, with the former three being under the assumption that Ren was complicit to Kamoshida's sexual assault of Shiho and didn't give Ren a chance to actually explain what really happened that day due to Shiho being out of commission. Makoto likewise completely believed the rumors Kamoshida had spread, and Mishima, who indirectly spread it by extension, at face value and didn't try to look further to see whether it was true or false. This is Justified due to the four of them not having the actual chance to get to know Ren as a person. This only ended when Futaba later informed them of the truth of Ren's criminal record and the consequences of how they constantly paint him as the "villain" for what happened to Shiho ended up having Ren Driven to Suicide.
  • Kawakami is even more of an Apathetic Teacher to Ren than she is in canon due to Ren's social isolation in Shujin for the first semester. This later caused Ren to snitch Kawakami to Chouno and gave Kawakami a Jerkass Realization when she realized that Ren snitched her and how her apathy and fear of her own situation with the Takase's caused him to do so.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Akechi ends up being portrayed a lot more sympathetically and with a lot more positive qualities on display, which is ironic given that he's one of the main driving forces towards Ren becoming a Villain Protagonist. In no small part because of his full awareness of how Shido considers him a pawn and plans to get rid of him down the line (see Adaptational Intelligence), Akechi has no desire to bloody his hands on Shido's behalf any further. He feels genuine kindness and sympathy towards Ren and Futaba, as well as guilt for causing Wakaba Issihki's death. More significantly, he was planning on abandoning his canonical assassination attempt on Kunikazu Okumura (which gets derailed only because Ren was the one who killed him instead),and goes out of his way to get Makoto out of the interrogation room alive. It's particularly telling that between Ren and Akechi, it's Akechi who comes across as less bloodthirsty, cruel, and vicious.
• Adapted Out: Caroline and Justine never appear to Ren for the majority of the story, and the Strength confidant goes to Lavenza instead of the twins for Ren and eventually, Akechi.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
  • In the game itself, Ren is the leader and founder of the Phantom Thieves and is close friends with all of them. In this story, however, the nail effect of Ann, Ryuji and Makoto getting hit with Adaptational Jerkass for the first act soured Ren's opinion of them and he doesn't have a "confidant" bond with the former two as a result. The only exception to this is Yusuke, Futaba, Haru and Morgana, of whom the latter Ren gave a second chance of despite Morgana also being given the Adaptational Jerkass treatment.
  • Kawakami, in the games, was Ren's Temperance confidant and a potential loyal ally. In here, Ren's social isolation caused Kawakami to be much more apathetic to him than she would in the game and Ren's Temperance arcana confidant is instead replaced by Chouno, who is more willing to hear Ren out.
  • Thanks to the remaining three Phantom thieves founders and Makoto receiving the Adaptational Jerkass treatment for the first act, Ren's relationship with Akechi is genuinely friendlier without the hatred and envy he would canonically have with Joker in the game over Joker living a Hourglass Plot in Akechi's eyes.
• Adaptational Sexuality:
  • In canon, Ren can date the girls in the game. In this story, Ren is also interested in men and is in love with Akechi, with Retrospring Q&A's revealing that Ren used to have a boyfriend back in his hometown.
  • Akechi's sexuality is left open in canon, but in this story, he is heavily implied to be demisexual.
• Adaptational Villainy: Due to the thieves sans Yusuke, Futaba, Haru and Yoshizawa getting the Adaptational Jerkass treatment, Ren fully descended to become the Villain Protagonist of the story. Ren in this story is portrayed to be far more ruthless than he canonically would and was the one who killed both Kobayakawa and Okumura senior here. The author confirms that this route of Character Development from Ren is inspired from the Bad Ending you can get by agreeing to Yaldabaoth's deal in the game and wants to explore what could motivate Ren to be just as ruthless and selfish as the portrayal of that Bad Ending's Joker. However, this is later a Downplayed Trope due to Ren having his own Morality Pet in Akechi, Futaba and Sojiro so while he isn't as villainous as the Yaldabaoth Bad Ending Joker, he is still willing to dirty his hands to keep them safe.
• All for Nothing: Mishima tried to justify his spreading of Ren's "record" under Kamoshida's threat by trying to find proof that Ren really is justified for having a criminal record slapped on him, and that he'll be painted a hero to the thieves and the school. When Makoto later reveals that Ren's probationary officer, Sojiro, told the thieves (via Futaba) about how Ren had the record slapped on him just to save a woman from being sexually harassed and how he tried to kill himself and would have succeeded if it weren't for Akechi over how isolated he was in Shujin over the rumors that he was complicit to Shiho's suicide, Mishima breaks down and realizes that he tried to paint Ren as a villain for nothing and ended up being someone else's villain and potential murderer.
• All There in the Manual: The author has a Retrospring account where they reveal some of their writing processes and answer potential scenario's and questions for the story.
• All There in the Script: The author gave a few tidbits of future plot threads that they are willing to share in their twitter and Retrospring, such as Kawakami getting a job as a teacher in Gekkoukan after a few months of job searching since she left Shujin, and Ren planning to move to Gekkoukan for his third year of high school.
• Alternate Universe Fic: The divergence in mention is what if Yaldabaoth decided to have both Akechi and Ren as tricksters controlled under his palm, leading to Ren not entering the Metaverse on April 11, and the canon divergence that follows.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Chouno, Shujin's English teacher, becomes the new 2-D homeroom teacher due to Kawakami later being under suspension and willingly leaving the staff on her own accord, and becomes Ren's new Temperance "Confidant".
  • Kurobane Eri, a Shujin first year who only appears in the Memento's Mission manga, becomes Ren's Star "Confidant" due to Hifumi being demoted to the background.
  • Shiho gets some chance to shine in Arc 2 and her developing friendship with Ren becomes a key point to his Character Development. She also gets narrative prominence as Ren and Akechi's confidants with Shiho being Ren's "Lover's" arcana confidant due to the Adaptational Relationship Overhaul that Ren had with Ann.
• Black-and-White Insanity: In the first arc, the Phantom Thieves idealistic view of their actions put them at odds with Ren and due to circumstantial evidence against him over what really occurred between him and Shiho, and were so convinced that Ren is as guilty and as bad as the Shujin rumor mill and Mishima say he is that they didn't stop to think further about why he's in probation instead of being sent to juvenile prison for his supposed "crimes" nor do they actually try to get to know Ren as a person due to their belief that he had a hand in Shiho's suicide. When they eventually learn the truth from Futaba that Ren is actually innocent and their hostility towards Ren over their misunderstanding of Ren and Shiho's interaction had grave consequences (namely, that their mistreatment of Ren over their misunderstanding of him caused Ren to develop a Palace to begin with), they are forced to realize and given the wake-up call that reality isn't as black and white, and look back on whether or not do they actually believe in what they fight for. Ann in particular is the worst offender in this regard during the first arc along with Ryuji and Makoto in regards to how hostile they were towards Ren and believing him to be guilty over what happened to Shiho (and in case of Makoto, for supposedly blackmailing Kawakami), and were hit the hardest when they learn that Ren was innocent all along by the start of Arc 2.
• Bluff the Eavesdropper: After Ren informs Akechi that Futaba bugged Leblanc with hidden cameras, Akechi realises that Futaba bugged his phone and is aware of his true identity as the Black Mask. The two discuss a fake plan within earshot of the phones, then hide the phone and discuss their real plan.
• Butterfly of Doom: Yaldabaoth deciding to interfere to ensure his victory against Igor leads to a couple of changes that make Ren turn for the worst. To note:
  • Ryuji overslept on the day of Ren's first day in Shujin, causing Ren to miss out his timing to awaken to Arsene until September.
  • Ren being present on the day Shiho was raped by Kamoshida with other witnesses being present to see him but not fully seeing the context of the event, causes Ann, Ryuji and Morgana to vilify and see him as complicit to what happened to Shiho, effectively isolating him in Shujin.
  • The ramifications of Kamoshida's arrest is shown to also affect other schools as Yusuke mentions that Hifumi's scholarship and enrollment is put to question when the news of her mother rigging her matches had come to light.
  • Without Ren as the leader of the Phantom thieves and the Phantom thieves themselves being antagonistic of Ren due to what they perceive to Ren being complicit to what Kamoshida had done to Shiho, the thieves ended up being far more dysfunctional without him. Except for Yusuke and Futaba at the time they learn the truth about Ren's criminal record and how they got it all wrong, Ann, Ryuji, Morgana and Makoto's constant antagonism of him end up making him their biggest threat as he is all too willing to join Akechi's hand once he awakened to his Persona to save Akechi. This culminated to Ren being the one to kill Haru's father instead of Akechi in an attempt to save Akechi from being killed by Shido for disobeying.
• The Call Put Me on Hold: Ren missing out the chance to enter the Metaverse first time on top of his social isolation in Shujin caused him to not awaken to Arsene and become a thief right away and instead, developed a Palace in Shujin before later properly awakening in Shido's palace to save Akechi.
• Character Development:
  • Arc 2 has the Phantom Thieves finally get one as they had a long running Jerkass Realization that comes to fruition in the third arc, with Ann, Ryuji, Morgana, Makoto and Yusuke coming to terms with how they failed and had been terribly mistaken about Ren.
  • A literaly example comes from the Phantom Thieves receiving their Ultimate Persona's through their own personal growths than to have it catalyzed by interacting with Ren who becomes the leader of the Phantom Thieves.
• Cold Equation: Ren personally killed Okumura senior so Akechi could be spared from Shido's wrath. However, after the deed is done, he instead had a fear that he is far more monstrous than he lets on when he doesn't feel anything when he killed Okumura Kunikazu despite knowing that he's Haru's father.
• Convicted by Public Opinion: Ren's reputation in Shujin is dirt poor no thanks to Kamoshida leaking his record by threatening Mishima and the events of Shiho's suicide caused the thieves to believe that Ren had a hand on the incident. Even after Shiho and Mishima later clarified and tell the truth to the Shujin student body, they had been so used to their personal narrative that Ren had been a criminal to believe in it. Even if Yaldabaoth's More than Mind Control had been at play.
• Crossover Cameo:
  • Liz, who is heavily implied to be Elizabeth from Persona 3, appears and is Ren's Chariot Confidant instead of Ryuji.
  • Philemon, who hasn't been seen since the first two Persona games appear and gave aid to Ren.
• Cutting Off the Branches: The story follows the timeline of Royal. The author also confirmed that Persona 5 Strikers is also part of the story's continuity after the main three acts centering the vanilla game is finished while the Third semester is to be adapted as a sequel story that continues to Strikers.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: When the Phantom Thieves confront Ren and Akechi at the entrance to Shido's Palace, Akechi offers to work with them to change Shido's heart on the condition that they manage to beat Ren in combat. Ren quickly makes short work of the Thieves, until he, Akechi and the Thieves get into a Mexican Standoff following Makoto realising that none of Ren's Personas resist guns.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: Following Ren's awakening, Akechi decides to train Ren in Mementos by sparring with him. All of the matches end with Akechi as the victor, although Ren manages to land a few good hits in each bout.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: An unnamed police officer ends up lost during Shido's assault on Sae's Palace, and gets brutally torn apart by Shadows.
• Deconstruction:
  • The thieves tendencies to say their planned actions outloud and not having a good place to hide or have privacy to discuss their actions has them be found out early. First, by Ren himself who didn't reveal their identities, and then by Sae when she recalled how Makoto had her friends hang out in her apartment some time after they learned the truth of Ren's criminal record and easily tracked her to be the one that stole her data from her laptop.
  • The Phantom Thieves ideals and goals are put to test in this story. Without getting to know Ren as a person during the duration of Arc 1, their ideals and treatment of Ren over circumstantial evidence against him in Shiho's suicide come off instead as Black-and-White Insanity to those who got to know him (Sojiro, Goro and Haru among a few examples), as their views led to them seeing Ren as completely "Black" despite the people who got to know Ren as a person telling them off from labelling Ren over the rumors surrounding him. When Futaba and Morgana later told them that Ren's crime record was completely fabricated just because he tried to save a stranger from being sexually harassed and that Ren was never involved with what Kamoshida had done to Shiho, with Shiho later telling Ann that Ren tried to bring her to the hospital after her incident when Ann asked Shiho about her conversation wtih Ren, the Thieves are horrified with the realization that they villify an actually innocent person who happened to be in the wrong place and time, making them no different from their former oppressors by villifying Ren and forced them to take some time to reflect on their beliefs and ideals at the start of Arc 2.
  • The Phantom Thieves canonical change of hearts had the wider consequences of their actions explored. While the pro's are great, society still faces the wide consequence of their actions. Hifumi, for an example, got the short end of the stick to the changes as without Ren in the picture to interact with her, her scholarship was put at risk as Kamoshida's change of heart caused many schools to be strict to their faculty and students and the Phantom Thieves actions sped up the "when" to the time Hifumi's mother was caught trying to rig her daughter's games in her favor.
• Demoted to Extra: Due to Ren not interacting with some of the confidants he would have interacted with, some of them get this treatment. One example is Hifumi, who was Ren's Star arcana confidant in the games, and Yoshida, who was Ren's Sun arcana confidant ^noteThe author however confirms in their Retrospring Q & A's that Yoshida will appear in the Strikers set sequel as Akechi's Sun confidant instead of Ren's. His other canonical confidants, like Shinya and Iwai, are alluded to instead, with the author mentioning that some of the interactions she initially had planned such as Shinya’s interactions with Ren and Jose’s involvement had to be cut due to time constraints.
• Didn't Think This Through: Ryuji's flaw which he even notes in his moment of self-reflection after learning how he and the Thieves handled the matter with Ren horribly. Ryuji's impulsiveness often cost him and his group more often than not.
  Man, thinking back he met Amamiya on the first day of school didn’t he? Before all the weird stuff with Kamoshida’s palace. When he overslept that morning.
  He knew about the rumors soon after too. Saw him sitting alone at the volleyball meet and saw Kamoshida break his nose.
  He shoulda said something. Could have checked up on him. Since when did he believe rumors so quickly anyway?
  He wasn’t thinking…so nothing new.
• Doorstopper: The story has three acts total and accumulated a total of 880,000+ words as of September 2023. And it has yet to include the future sequel that the author has planned that covers the third semester and the events of Strikers.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Due to not knowing Ren's real name during their online interactions, Futaba told the thieves about the friend she had who survived a suicide attempt and cooperated with looking into Ren to see if there is something that would implicate that he might be bad enough of a person to have a Palace. When Futaba later learned the truth of Ren's criminal record and found out that her online friend's real identity is Ren himself, Futaba was furious and shouted at the thieves how she now helped her friend's tormentors who contributed to his suicide and why Ren formed a Palace to start with.
  • Makoto privately hopes that Ren is recovering for the better when Futaba told them that his palace is now gone. The thieves didn't know then that the palace disappearing had to do with Ren awakening to a Persona and his problems are not solved by just having his Persona awaken, and he has a lot of grudge and anger for the thieves over their treatment of him for months.
  • Ren gave his condolences to Haru regarding her father's death in her point of view... right after he kills Haru's father moments ago.
  • When Akechi proposed to team up with the Phantom Thieves to protect Ren from being convicted by Sae, they were thinking that Ren is truly innocent and lament that acting on trying to fix their wrong too late resulted in this situation. Only Akechi knew that Ren is far from innocent by that point as the thieves animosity and hostility of Ren in the first arc contributed to Ren's Adaptational Villainy, with Ren being ruthless enough to kill Kobayakawa and later, Okumura senior in order to protect Akechi from Shido before Akechi made that deal to the Phantom Thieves.
• Driven to Suicide: Ren grows horrifyingly suicidal over the course of the first arc and it culminated to him trying to jump into a train. Fortunately, Akechi managed to save him in time and Ren gets the help he needs to slowly recover, but even then, he still had moments where he lapsed back to suicidal thoughts.
• Dysfunction Junction: The Phantom thieves are even messier as a group without Ren as their anchor and leader and had far more at risk here than in canon. Without Ren as their leader, the group doesn't proceed with their actions as smoothly as their canonical counterparts do, who had the benefit of Joker's leadership and help such as being under Sae's radar of potential Phantom thief suspects, where Sae quickly figured out that Makoto is a thief and blackmailed Sojiro with a recorded voice of Futaba confidently stating her hacking prowess down the line in this story.
• Fighting Your Friend: Ren starts a fight with Akechi in Okumura's Palace, knowing full well that Futaba can sense his Persona's level, in order to force the Phantom Thieves to get stronger by giving them a goal to reach.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Arsene, as Ren's Shadow, tells Akechi that "Our capacity to carry a grudge is immense" when Akechi met him in Ren's Palace. Come Arc 2, Ren displays heavy grudge against the Shujin enrolled thieves for what he went through in the first arc.
  • Philemon's involvement in ensuring a victory against Yaldabaoth despite the false god manipulating events to have both Akechi and Ren become the representative of Ruin under his palm had been hinted in the summary of the story. The "god" of the Velvet room does not refer to Yaldabaoth, who is currently taking Igor's visage by the start of Persona 5, but Philemon, who Igor and the Velvet Room attendants ultimately answer to. Or so it seemed at first...
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Arc 3 reveals that though Ren has forgiven and come to trust and see Sojiro as a Parental Substitute, he still hasn't forgotten how harsh Sojiro initially was to him that it convinced Ren that he'd still be a burden to Sojiro despite their improved relationship.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Yaldabaoth remains an antagonistic force that is responsible for the events happening behind the scenes.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: The story showcases this a few times. To note a few examples:
  • The Phantom Thieves, especially the Shujin enrolled thieves and Morgana, might have been a dick to Ren, but they were being jerks to him out of a mistaken belief that Ren might have been involved with what happened to Shiho and were later horrified when they realize and learn that they had gotten everything wrong about Ren. Some of their change of hearts are also shown to have unintended repercussions such as Kaneshiro's change of heart causing chaos in the underworld despite how doing so saved people from falling to his scams further.
  • Ren gets to learn the thieves identity but chose to hide them from Akechi because he still believed in what they are fighting for to a degree at the time he discovered their identities, at least until their Kick the Dog moment. Ren then leans heavily on the "gray" part as he willingly killed Kobayakawa in revenge and then killed Okumura senior in order to protect Akechi from Shido's wrath, even if he realized that he is doing wrong to Haru for killing her father to save Akechi and later invoked a Paranoia Gambit on Sae's shadow so she could leave Futaba and Sojiro alone.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the midst of the battle against Shido, Ren took the hit meant for Futaba and died once before being revived with a revive spell. Though he thankfully survives, Ren had to be sent to emergency care under Takemi due to the recoil after effect from Shido's palace.
• Hourglass Plot: Akechi and Ren's positions mentally and emotionally are the reverse of their canon counterparts. In canon, Joker finding the thieves has him improve and found people that he comes to cherish that he remains firmly heroic (Unless the Player consciously picked the bad endings), while Akechi remains isolated to everyone but Joker and becomes self-destructive due to believing that he had come too far in his plan. In A Tale of Two Tricksters, Ren's horrible first semester due to the mistaken first impression the thieves sans Haru, Kasumi and Futaba had on him on top of his pre-existing issues from his bad relationship with his parents caused him to spiral and becomes the self-destructive one between the two tricksters, to a point Ren willingly sabotages some of the relationships he formed and under the belief that even people he cares about would abandon him and leave him for dead, while Akechi instead manage to recover from some of his issues to a degree and is the one that tried to help Ren.
• Hypocritical Humor: When Akechi hypothetically discuss that he would date the leader of the Phantom thieves to get information of their activities, with Ren incredulously wondering if that means Akechi is willing to date Makoto, Akechi points out that Makoto seemed like Ren's type romantically, with Ren answering that he won't like someone so oblivious, all while Ren is nursing a crush on Akechi, who is just as oblivious and is by a technicality, a male version of Makoto in his civilian life.
  Akechi: ‘Date’' is a strong term. However, when someone has romantic inclinations toward you it impairs their judgment. She is the leader of the phantom thieves. There are many advantages in becoming the weakness of your enemy. But all things considered, she is more your type.
  (Beat)
  Akechi: Though I’m not sure why anyone would pick that particular brand of masochism but if you have a propensity for morons. Who am I to stop you?
  Ren: I agree. There’s nothing worse than liking someone who continually misses the obvious.
  Akechi: Hmph, well those are your tastes so you live with the consequences.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Non-romantic variant. Ren tells Sae's Shadow that he will kill her if she harms Futaba or gets her arrested.
• I Have No Son!: Ren's father kicked Ren out of the house due to both the false arrest and lacking any empathy and love for his son. His mother, on the other hand, loved Ren but Ren's father and the situation of Ren's false arrest complicated it.
• I Never Said It Was Poison:
  • Ren realises that the Phantom Thieves are onto him and Akechi when Futaba calls him a marshmallow thief, referring to when Ren ate some marshmallows from a jar in Leblanc. Futaba was never at the shop to witness the event, causing Ren to realise that she had been monitoring him through hidden cameras in Leblanc ever since he arrived.
  • Ren also invokes this trope when the Phantom Thieves try to interrogate him at Leblanc for information on Akechi. After bringing up Robin, Ren's stuffed turtle named after Akechi's Persona, the Thieves ask to take a look at Ren's broken phone in order to see if he has an application on it (the Metanav). Ren agrees on the condition that they tell him how they know he named his stuffed turtle Robin, since Futaba doesn't have cameras in the attic and he only ever told Akechi the name. None of the Phantom Thieves can tell him the truth, namely that Morgana told them, as that would require them to explain themselves to Sojiro, who is also in the room, and out themselves as Phantom Thieves, so they are forced to back down.
• In Spite of a Nail: Though the Butterfly of Doom changes how the thieves, Ren and Akechi approach the plot as they come, there are things that still remain intact:
  • The Phantom Thieves still had the same roster as canon even though Joker isn't the leader. They also went after the same targets as canon.
  • Morgana still left the Phantom Thieves during the Okumura arc, but instead of leaving due to being frustrated at the team's indecisiveness, he left in shame over the fall-out of how badly they, as a group, handled and contributed to Ren's situation.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Chapter 22 has Futaba and Morgana learning the truth of Ren's criminal record and Futaba realizing that Ren was the online friend that she wanted to help. Chapter 24 has the thieves also learning the truth from Futaba as they are out in Hawaii while Futaba made her discovery.
  • Chapter 35 has Ren finally learning that his close online confidant, Anat, is Futaba.
• Interrupted Suicide: At July 2016 after the Phantom Thieves reveal Ren's criminal record to Akechi within Ren's earshot, Ren tried to commit suicide by jumping into a train. Thankfully, Akechi saved him in time and get help for Ren with Sojiro's aid.
• Irony:
  • In canon, Ren awakens Arsenè out of a selfless desire to protect others. Here, he awakens Arsenè in order to save himself.
  • Ren's Palace had ice Elemental Motifs to symbolize his growing apathy towards his situation and cynicism of people as a result of his horrible first semester in Shujin. Arsene, on the other hand, is weak to ice.
• It Can Think:
  • Asterius turns out to be a Genius Bruiser, blitzing the Thieves with hit and run tactics while keeping its body hidden in the shadows. Once it realises Ren has an immunity to fire and physical attacks, it opts to suffocate him instead to bypass the immunity. It takes Ren combining a Deliberate Injury Gambit with Ice Age in order to defeat it, and he is left barely conscious afterward.
  • Briefly, but Shido's cognitive Akechi is shown to be more self-aware than the other cognitions that the ones that the Phantom Thieves, Akechi and Ren had encountered in the one section dedicated to a point of view about Akechi's cognitive copy in Shido's palace.
• Jerkass Realization:
  • After seeing Ren disassociating that he ran out of Leblanc barefoot, Sojiro realized that he was being unfair and unnecessarily harsh to Ren over his reason for probation and took the effort to reach out and have Ren open up to him, by June, Ren and Sojiro are close enough that Ren considers Sojiro a better father figure than his own biological father.
  • Ann, Ryuji and Makoto are hit with this when they learn from Futaba and Morgana of what Ren's criminal record is actually about and how they contributed to Ren forming a Palace.
  • Mishima has this when Makoto later told him the truth to how Ren got a criminal record to start with, prompting him to realize that he had been antagonizing Ren for nothing to satisfy his cowardice and selfishness and paid the price by having someone nearly killed by his own hand, and unlike what occured to Shiho, he nearly could have killed Ren had Makoto not tell him the truth and how Ren actually tried to commit suicide at July. Unfortunately for Mishima, Ren had a heavy grudge at Mishima over it once he learned that Mishima was the reason why his second chance in probation was ruined from the start, even if Kamoshida had blackmailed Mishima into it.
  • Kawakami has this when Ren legitimately sold her out to Chouno months later after an incident where Kawakami chose to turn a blind eye to another student claiming that Ren cheated on his tests, weeks after she initially thought that Ren sold her out to Makoto when he never did so, realizing that she failed her role as a teacher again like she did to Takase, but this time it's due to her apathy of Ren.
• Karmic Death: Kobayakawa's death under Ren is portrayed as this due to the man's apathy and priority of his connection to Shido screwing his school life. Kobayakawa had screwed the school over plenty, but Ren suffered the worst of that apathy, so it's karmic that it was Ren who dealt with him.
• Kick the Dog: The Phantom Thieves reveal Ren's criminal record to Akechi, right when Ren is still in earshot. Akechi was rightfully pissed off and called them out and after Akechi left, the Thieves had to admit to each other that they took their antagonism of Ren too far, even if they still believed that Ren is "guilty" at the time.
• Lack of Empathy: Downplayed Trope. Ren can still care and empathize with someone, but it only extends to people that Ren cares about, and anyone who is not part of that list are irrelevant. The author reveals in their twitter that Ren has genetic Anti-Social Personality disorder in this story inherited from the paternal side of his family, and the knowledge makes Ren hesitate to adopt or have kids in the future out of fear of turning out like his father.
• Logical Weakness: Shido's cognitive Wakaba has this due to Shido's own awareness of Wakaba's familial love for Futaba and also briefly to Akechi whom the real Wakaba figured out as Futaba's half-brother. Though Shido's cognitive Wakaba protected cognitive Akechi from being killed, she ultimately doesn't have the heart in her to actually harm Futaba due to the real Wakaba's love for her daughter and end up going against Shido's cognitive Akechi when he tried to kill Futaba.
• Long-Lost Relative: In this story, Akechi and Futaba are paternal half-siblings. While Futaba has yet to know this yet, at least until the end of Shido's palace, Akechi and Ren found out earlier.
• Mandatory Unretirement: After the Phantom Thieves split up due to learning of the truth behind Ren's arrest, Ren gathers a recording of Yamauchi, Kamoshida's Sketchy Successor, admitting to screwing over the track team and submits it to the Newspaper Club on behalf of the Phantom Thieves, forcing them to continue changing hearts so Shido's plan to frame them for Okumura's murder succeeds and Akechi doesn't get killed by Shido for messing up his plans.
• Morality Pet: By Arc 2, the only people that Ren truly cared and willing to give himself up for were Sojiro, Futaba and Akechi.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • When the thieves learned the truth of how Ren actually got his "criminal record", Ann, Ryuji, Morgana and Makoto, Ren's vocal detractors at the time over Ren's supposed criminality, were all horrified that they not only hurt and vilify Ren over false rumors and didn't give him a chance to speak the truth, they are hit with guilt when Futaba reveals that Ren had been her online friend and that they drove Ren to suicide, and by extention, are the reason why Ren formed a Palace to begin with, and how Ren would actually die if it weren't for Akechi's timely rescue.
  • Mishima gets this when Makoto later told him what Ren's probationary officer had said about his supposed crime and gets a Heel Realization from it that he tried to frame Ren the villain over nothing.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • The thieves treat their treatment of Ren and their potential contribution to Ren forming a Palace as this after learning the truth of Ren's criminal record. Ann especially took it harder among the thieves that she tried her best to keep things civil when the thieves got separated in the additional segments of Shido's palace in Arc 3, and tried to reach out to him despite acknowledging that she had burned that bridge with him due to her actions. Haru, meanwhile, though she doesn't contribute to Ren's spiral, she does lament how she wasn't able to do much to save Ren and wanted to do better.
    Ann, internally: I…I wish I took the time to know you. That I hadn’t ruined this. I really, really wish we were friends.
  • After Makoto helps Kawakami out with the Takase's, Kawakami has a Jerkass Realization and considers her lack of willingness to help Ren situate himself in school this way, along with her failure to help Shiho and Ryuji from Kamoshida's abuse as her apathy towards him is what led to Ren snitching her to Chouno.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Akechi tells Ren that if he wants to find out more about the Phantom thieves, he plans to date and win over the heart of the leader of the Phantom thieves at the time. Akechi did just that in the original game with Joker.
  • Liz, Ren's "Chariot" confidant is all but confirmed to be Elizabeth herself.
  • When Mishima figured out that Ren had been the one responsible for changing Ooyamada's heart, he internally laments that Ren could have become a good phantom thief and one of their allies had he not doubled down to trying to paint Ren a villain to satisfy his cowardice for leaking his criminal record. Earlier before this, Morgana tried suggesting the thieves to recruit Ren to join their side but was shot down due to their recent discovery of the truth of Ren's record and point that the Thieves did too much wrong to Ren to make Ren fully accept the idea of working together with them. In the original game, Ren really would have become one of the thieves had circumstances been different between Ren and the founding members.
  • The second arc has the distrust and social link break mechanic from Persona 3 and Persona 4 in play in Ren and Akechi's confidants with Ren's confidant link with Ohya being reversed (Due to Makoto being arrested) and Akechi's confidant with Sojiro being reversed as well (Due to learning from Futaba that Akechi's a traitor) by the end of Arc 2. The mechanic was also initially planned to be included in Persona 5 proper before it was eventually scrapped in the final product.
  • Ren ends up fighting Asterius in Shido's Palace, although the enemy in question is a Shadow. The fight also mimics the gimmicks of how Asterius is fought in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax.
  • The way the Thieves, along with Ren, Akechi and later Kasumi gained their Ultimate Persona's are more inspired by how S.E.E.S. got their own since the Butterfly of Doom in Arc 1 means it's not possible for the Thieves to have their canonical awakenings via their confidants with Ren.
• Nice Girl: Shiho is all and out revealed to be one of the kindest members of the overarching cast of this story. Beyond befriending Ann, she is willing to befriend Ren and was horrified herself when Ann admits to Shiho that she villified Ren over believing and thinking that Ren was guilty of Shiho's suicide and sexual assault under Kamoshida in the first arc. Shiho willing to reach out to Ren has her take Ann's place as Ren's Lovers Confidant due to Ann's Adaptational Relationship Overhaul with Ren.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Ann, Ryuji, Morgana and Makoto constantly seeing and painting Ren as a criminal and villain over Ren's criminal record and for supposedly being involved with Shiho's suicide had a hard consequence where he becomes the thieves greatest threat instead of an ally that they could depend on. When they realized their mistakes, it's too late for Ren to consider giving them another chance as he join hands with Akechi, with Makoto being given a second chance of benefit of doubt by a margin along with Morgana while Ann and Ryuji had long burned that bridge.
  • Since the thieves didn't try to clear up the rumors about Ren until it's too late in Shujin on top of Sae being suspicious about Makoto's friends and her meetups in their apartment, this results in Sae trying to frame Ren as a scapegoat to protect Makoto and the thieves are forced to team up with Akechi to protect Ren from Sae.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Ren forgetting to tell Akechi about Morgana after November 20 allows the Phantom Thieves to properly gather up again and catch up to them at the end of Arc 2.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ren's criminal record obtained from trying to save a woman from being assaulted by Shido, and later for trying to save Shiho from Kamoshida but fail, ended up giving Ren a long running Trauma Conga Line that has him join hands with Akechi and go against the thieves in full.
• Oh, Crap!: Ren reacts like this when Akechi informs him that Morgana can talk as he realises that not only has Morgana been snitching on him to the Thieves, he revealed his crush on Akechi to Morgana.
• Original Character: Dr. Ito, Ren's therapist assigned to him after his failed suicide is one and has no canonical equivalent.
• Paranoia Gambit: Ren decides to intimidate Sae into not handing over evidence that would falsely accuse him of being the Phantom Thieves' leader by manipulating police officers' Shadows to get their real selves to do things that unsettle her, such as breaking into her apartment and spraying cologne in her car. He also decides to threaten her Shadow directly. It works.
• Parental Substitute: Sojiro becomes one to Ren as Ren had a poor relationship with his father. The author mentions that his father's Antisocial Personality Disorder made him hate Ren and otherwise cares about his wife, and his hatred makes it easy for him to disown Ren when he was falsely arrested by Shido and Ren briefly was jealous of Futaba for her friendly relationship with her adoptive father.
• Poor Communication Kills: Plenty of it happens. To note:
  • A lot of Ann, Ryuji and Morgana's early hostility and Mishima's perception of Ren, along with their personal narrative that Ren is complicit to what happened to Shiho could have been solved had they actually given Ren a chance to speak for himself and it would have saved everyone a lot of grief.
  • Makoto's choice of wording when trying to ask Kawakami about the blackmails from Kaneshiro cause Kawakami to instead believe that Ren sold her out to Makoto for having a double job and her response caused Makoto to vilify Ren that he's just as villainous as his "records" say he was, and believe that Ren really threatened Kawakami. This action later, along with Kawakami's apathy over thinking that Ren sold her out to Makoto, caused Ren to actually go through with the threat Makoto claimed that he had done to the teacher and snitched her to Chouno for both this incident and for failing as a teacher.
  • Ren and Akechi end up gathering suspicion through giving the Thieves conflicting information. Ren gives the Thieves info on Kaneshiro, claiming to have gone behind Akechi's back to investigate Kaneshiro himself: when Akechi takes the Thieves to a restaurant (It Makes Sense in Context), he reveals that he allowed Ren to assist him in investigating Kaneshiro, causing the Thieves to investigate them both.
  • Akechi refusing to inform Ren that Morgana can talk allows the Phantom Thieves to use Morgana to spy on Ren for evidence of his supposed wrongdoings. This later goes both ways as Ren forgot to inform Akechi of dealing with Morgana, allowing the Phantom Thieves to properly group up and catch up to the two in Shido's Palace by the end of Arc 2.
  • Ren's growing cynicism on top of the Trauma Conga Line that is his first semester in Shujin makes him unable to actually trust and/or have faith in many people, making him guilty of this trope. So much that he willingly kept some things shut to himself and sabotages some of friendly relations he made such as Ohya and even to Sojiro, whom Ren believes still thinks of Ren as a burden due to Sojiro's early harshness towards him at the start of the year. Futaba called Ren out for lacking trust in anyone after they finished the infiltration route to Shido's Treasure.
• The Power of Acting: Ren in this story is formerly a part of the Yasogami drama club and made use of that experience to lie under Akechi's nose and keep up the act of planning nothing so he could kill Okumura senior discretely until the act is done in Arc 2.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: In the canonical game, Amamiya Ren would have become Joker, leader of the Phantom Thieves. However, Yaldabaoth's manipulation of the events caused Ren to be isolated and shoved towards the arms of Akechi Goro, solidifying his rise to become the Villain Protagonist of the tale with Akechi.
• "Rashomon"-Style: The story runs on having multiple point of views in each chapter with a dose of Unreliable Narrator and Dramatic Irony, playing this trope straight.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: When Chouno got to interact with Ren, she's shown to be more interested in helping Ren than Kawakami would and had tried to vouch for him to the principal. This led to Chouno becoming his Temperance arcana confidant instead of Kawakami.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Ren's eyes turn red when he uses his Third Eye ability, both in the real world and the Metaverse. Amusingly, he remains unaware of this until it is pointed out to him.
• Red Herring: Philemon initially shows up to help Ren out, but in Chapter 50, Lavenza in butterfly form acted hostile towards Philemon when he appears, revealing that Yaldabaoth disguised himself as Philemon instead while the real Philemon is still out elsewhere.
• Reformed, but Rejected: Ren's personal stance with Mishima as Ren hated and vowed to never forgive Mishima for leaking his criminal record and ruining his chance for a future even after Mishima's Heel Realization.
• Rejected Apology:
  • Ren's stance towards Ann, Ryuji, Mishima, and Makoto trying to apologize to him after realizing their mistake, as their apology had come too late for Ren to fully consider on accepting it. While Ren gave Makoto another chance due to Kobayakawa, that doesn't mean that his anger on her has simmered. To their credit, they acknowledge that Ren has a right to not forgive them as their apology had come too late to change things.
  • Akechi similarly doesn't forgive Ann and Ryuji as easily as he gave Makoto another chance due to the two being the main contributors to Ren's turmoil, pointing out how he lost his biological mother to suicide and can't forgive them for letting it happen to another person that Akechi cared about a second time in Akechi's life.
• Running Gag: The fact that the Phantom Thieves after the founders (Ryuji, Morgana and Ann) join via blackmail is poked fun on.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Chapter 51 implies that Akechi and Ren had sex off-screen as part of Akechi's celebration for Ren's 17th birthday.
• Ship Tease: The main ship is between Akechi and Ren, but there are also hints to others over the course of the story such as Makoto/Haru, Ryuji/Ann and Yoshizawa/Futaba.
• Shown Their Work: Ren's therapy sessions with Dr. Ito showcases a lot of research done with proper counselling and several mental illnesses such as Anti-social Personality Disorder. The author studied psychology and took counselling for their college education major and shows it in those segments.
• Shout-Out:
  • In Arc 2, Ren asked Akechi if he'd love Ren if he was a worm, referring to the "Would you love me if I was a worm?" meme.
  • The name of the woman who falsely accused Ren is named after the voice actress Minori Inase.
• Spiritual Antithesis: With Its Just A Light Rain But The Storms Still Comin, the story that inspired A Tale of Two Tricksters as a Foil example to it's inspiration. Both stories feature a Joker-less Phantom Thieves and a Joker who, due to the Butterfly of Doom, did not enter the Metaverse at April 11 and the chain of events had them shunned and mistaken to be guilty of being responsible for Shiho's suicide and sexual assault due to last being seen talking to her, even though no such thing happened. However, that's where the similarities end.
  • A Tale of Two Tricksters is an Accomplice AU story and unlike Akira, who had a completely isolated social life in Tokyo and his relationship with Sojiro being tense, Ren still had some semblance of social life to support him despite his social isolation in Shujin, which includes Sojiro and some of Ren's canonical confidants such as Takemi, Ohya, and Shinya. Ren is also on good terms with Kasumi and Haru in Shujin during his first semester while Akira in It's Just a Light Rain doesn't interact with Haru until far later.
  • Joker's Character Development took a different route in the two stories. Akira in It's Just a Light Rain grows withdrawn and isolated with the thieves later learning that he plans to run away from Tokyo to get a fresh start away from what he went through in his first semester in Shujin and it took four months for Akira to get a semblance of a friendly relationship in Haru, and later Morgana and Yusuke. Ren in A Tale of Two Tricksters, on the other hand, managed to have a support network on his own in Sojiro, Takemi, Shinya, and Ohya among his canonical game confidants, and Futaba, Kasumi, Haru and Akechi among the playable thieves in the game. But the support network alone wasn't enough to help Ren that the Trauma Conga Line Ren suffered in Shujin and under the Phantom Thieves constant antagonism of him led to Ren's Protagonist Journey to Villain that convinced him to join Akechi. Akira also remains a regular human without a Persona at the moment of writing but with a chance that he can potentially mend and reforge a better relationship with the Phantom Thieves of his story despite what he went through, while Ren had awakened to his Persona at September in Shido's Palace to save Akechi, but except for Futaba, Ren doesn't care about the rest of the thieves, especially the Shujin enrolled members, due to what they put him through for his first semester in Shujin and had a lot of grudge and understandable anger at them that makes any form of reconciliation harder to do.
  • The thieves never got to explore Ren's Palace despite knowing about its presence due to Ren awakening to save himself and protect Akechi in A Tale of Two Tricksters and the revelation of the truth of Ren's "criminal record" instead forces the thieves to realize that they had gotten everything they thought about Ren wrong, while in It's Just a Light Rain, the thieves go after Akira due to Mishima's request, with Akira instead being a victim of their Miscarriage of Justice until Futaba's awakening triggers a Wake-Up Call and Heel Realization that Akira isn't evil, and that they are the ones who caused Akira to develop a Palace.
  • Additionally, A Tale of Two Tricksters shows the cause and effect the thieves cause to society such as Hifumi being Demoted to Extra due to Kamoshida's arrest affecting how schools treat their faculty and students, while It's Just a Light Rain heavily focuses on the effect that the Butterfly of Doom has on Akira and the thieves. A Tale of Two Tricksters also had its moments of levity and showcase that the situation with the casts isn't as bad as it seems despite the Butterfly of Doom in effect (Ren having a social circle outside of Shujin Academy, the Phantom Thieves being True Companions even without Joker, etc), while It's Just a Light Rain has a bleak outlook for the majority of the plot and in regards to Akira and the Phantom Thieves situation as of writing.
  • In A Tale of Two Tricksters, the Phantom Thieves were still able to remain friends despite Joker not being in the picture and still finding some difficulty in advancing with their heists safely. And they also recognize that they had done wrong when they chose to reveal Ren's criminal record to Akechi within his earshot, despite still believing that Ren is guilty until Futaba told them the truth about what Ren's criminal record was about. While in It's Just a Light Rain, the Phantom Thieves are divided and heavily dysfunctional without Joker's leadership and presence to help them grow and get closer, with Morgana and the Shujin enrolled thieves having a hard time admitting that they had been completely wrong about Akira until it's shoved hard in their faces in Akira's Palace and from being called out by Futaba and Yusuke.
• The Spock: Deconstructed Trope with Makoto during Arc 2. Makoto is the most logical of the thieves, but Makoto more often than not favoring logic means that she lacked the proper knowledge to help the thieves in heavy emotional matters. When Futaba told the thieves about the truth of Ren's record, Makoto ends up being at a loss at what to do as a leader due to lacking the perspective to comfort and assure Ann, Ryuji, Morgana and Yusuke of how badly they handled Ren's case as she is just as much at fault as the rest of them in contributing to Ren's worsening state.
• Sweet and Sour Grapes: The Phantom Thieves face this dilemma in the second arc when it comes to the repercussions of their change of hearts, all of which were unintended. Though it ultimately gave the thieves the catalyst needed for their Character Development in a situation where Ren isn't the leader to lead them.
  • While changing Kamoshida's heart brought momentary peace to those who had been his victims in Shujin, Ren was still affected by the effects of Kamoshida's actions due to the misunderstanding that the Shujin enrolled thieves and Morgana had that Ren was complicit to what happened to Shiho, which ultimately was left unresolved until the second arc where the Phantom Thieves and Mishima were horrified that they villify an actually innocent teenager over being in the wrong place and time. While Shiho and Mishima both work together to reveal the truth that Ren actually tried to save Shiho from Kamoshida, Yaldabaoth's More than Mind Control makes it difficult for the Shujin population to actually believe in it as they are too used to their own opinion of Ren being a criminal. However, by that point, Ren could care less to what the Shujin population had to say about him.
  • Another side effect of Kamoshida's change of heart that the thieves later learn is that other schools started to be more critical of their students and faculty. Hifumi's fate was alluded to that her mother's rigging of Hifumi's matches were found sooner and though innocent of the crime, this puts Hifumi's scholarship in jeopardy. Though it saved the Shujin students from further abuse, the situation has shaken the schools nearby in the academic and educational sense at the cost of someone else, such as Hifumi, who was unaware of what her mother had done to begin with without the Phantom Thieves changing her mother's heart.
  • Though changing Kaneshiro's heart saved the civilians who were caught and fell to the human trafficking ring and scams, Kaneshiro's arrest caused a chaotic upheaval to the underworld's politics and Makoto only learned of it via Akechi.
• Tarot Motifs: The author list some of the "confidants" that Ren and Akechi had and mention that the motifs are based on how the Wild card themselves see their "confidants" with some arcana's only unveiled in the author's planned sequel focusing on the third semester and Strikers.
  Ren: Yaldabaoth (Fool), Morgana (Magician), Makoto (High Priestess), Haru (Empress), Yusuke (Emperor), Sojiro (Hierophant), Shiho (Lovers), Liz (Chariot), Lavenza (Strength), Futaba (Hermit), Chihaya (Fortune), Akechi (Justice), Iwai (Hanged Man), Takemi (Death), Chouno (Temperance), Ohya (Devil), Shinya (Tower), Eri (Star), Shujin's Librarian (Moon), Lala (Sun), Maruki (Councilor), Kasumi (Faith)
  Akechi: Yaldabaoth (Fool), Wakaba (Magician), Sae (High Priestess), Ren (Empress), Yusuke (Emperor), Sojiro (Hierophant), Shido (Chariot), Lavenza (Strength), Futaba (Hermit), Chihaya (Fortune), Shiho (Hanged Man), Shinya (Tower), Yoshida (Sun), Kasumi (Faith)
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Occurs twice. First with Akechi and the thieves for the heist of Sae's palace. And the second time occurs in Shido's palace where the thieves are split up in the section beyond the door after obtaining the five letters of recommendation and are forced to work together to survive and reach for where Shido's treasure is located.
• Took A Level In Cynicism: Ren grows less hopeful, apathetic, and more ruthless over the course of the story no thanks to his horrible first semester in Shujin. It reaches a point where when Ren had a Hope Spot that Akechi would stay by him after all, only for Akechi to tell him that he plans to turn himself in to the police after he is done with Shido, Ren becomes convinced that even people he chose to love won't stay for him and eventually comes to a decision to voluntarily turn himself in to juvenile prison in response and sabotages some of the friendly relations that he forged.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Ren and the founding Phantom Thieves rift in Arc 1 is caused by Ann mistakenly thinking Ren had a hand in Shiho's suicide when Shiho never once pointed fingers his way to who is responsible for her state due to Ren last being seen talking to her, which led to the Shujin enrolled thieves and Morgana (Sans Haru and Kasumi) to villify Ren in response. By the time they realize that they messed up and had it all wrong in Arc 2, it's too late to fix their mistake.
• Trauma Conga Line:
  • Poor Ren. Unlike canon, Ren was there on the day Kamoshida sexually assaulted Shiho and tried to help but he ultimately couldn't save her, unlike what happened to the woman he saved from Shido. Because of being in the wrong place and wrong time, twice, Ren is socially isolated by everyone except for Yoshizawa and Haru in Shujin but the isolation got so bad that Ren developed a Palace. The thieves constantly painting him the villain even out of the Metaverse end up driving Ren to suicide and when he is later saved by Akechi and get to recover, his relationship with the thieves sans Futaba, Yusuke, Morgana and Haru are completely burned and by the time the thieves tried to make amends, it is too little and too late for Ren and Ren had already transitioned to be the Villain Protagonist of the story and cooperated with Akechi in full.
  • The Phantom Thieves don't have an easy time in Arc 2 as it opens with them coming to the realization that they had been completely wrong and contributed to Ren developing a Palace. Then Okumura senior dies despite the thieves changing his heart and the Casino heist isn't easy as Sae is onto the group and then ends with Makoto being captured and put on the receiving end of the Cold-Blooded Torture that Ren would have received in canon during November 20, which Makoto belatedly realized might be part of Ren's retribution on her for her actions towards him in Arc 1.
• True Companions: Though they clash at times and despite Joker not being in the picture for the group, the Phantom Thieves were still able to remain friends with each other.
• Unwanted Assistance: Shido's cognition of Wakaba takes the form of Combat Tentacles that heal Cognitive Akechi and protect him from attacks. Akechi manages to exploit the latter to interrupt Cognitive Akechi's attacks, and Futaba discovers that the former applies to her as well, allowing Akechi to land a fatal blow with his newly awakened Persona, Hereward while Cognitive Akechi deals Scratch Damage to Futaba in a futile attempt to kill her.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Inverted. Philemon takes an interest in Ren and offers him one of several powerful Personas. Ren ends up picking Yoshitsune... though it's eventually Played Straight with the Red Herring reveal that the Philemon that interacted with Ren is Yaldabaoth in disguise.
• We Used to Be Friends: After meeting Yusuke, Ren quickly becomes friends with him. When he finds out Yusuke is part of the Phantom Thieves, Ren had mixed feelings about him. That said, Ren still considers Yusuke as one of the thieves that he's okay with interacting because, in Ren's book, Yusuke's inaction isn't as bad as Ann and Ryuji's early antagonism of him.
• What If?:
  • The author wrote one official Bad Ending What If? where Sae acted faster than the thieves and Ren was forced to be killed by Akechi because of it.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Akechi gave one to the thieves over painting Ren as the villain, not giving him a fair treatment or even a chance to speak for himself, and not leaving him alone despite Sojiro and Takemi's word. Haru and Yoshizawa also gave the thieves similar speeches at seperate points in the first arc. While their words did affect the thieves, it doesn't fully take until they learn the truth of Ren's criminal record.
  • Futaba lambasted at the thieves when she later revealed to them the truth and cause of why Ren became a Palace ruler, and of the cruel Dramatic Irony of Futaba helping the people that caused Ren to form a Palace in the first place. Unlike the previous times that Akechi, Kasumi, and Haru gave them this speech over their treatment of Ren, Futaba's words on top of the discovery of what Ren's criminal record actually was are what ultimately struck a nerve and gave the rest of the thieves, especially the Shujin enrolled members, the realization at how badly they messed up with Ren.
  • Once she awakens from her coma and properly recovered, Shiho gives a subdued one to Ann for vilifying Ren over circumstantial evidence of his supposed involvement with Kamoshida's sexual assault on her and of her suicide.
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • After the thieves learn the truth of Ren's "Criminal record", they are forced to reassess their own personal motives and goals as a phantom thief and whether or not are they truly fighting for justice for the weak.
  • Mishima has a moment of reflection as he learned from Makoto that Ren is actually innocent and had back-up of the truth and innocence of Ren's "crime" from Ren's own probatory officer (via Futaba), making him realize the selfishness behind his aid to the Thieves and try to make up his mistake of villifying the actually innocent Ren for as long as he did as best as he could. However, by that point, Ren is too incensed at Mishima's action in Ren's social destruction and isolation in Shujin to completely forgive him.
  • Ren has one where he confesses to Akechi on how he didn't feel anything when he killed Okumura senior despite knowing that he's Haru's father and fear that he maybe even worse of a person than he initially imagined.
• Wrong for the Right Reasons: Because Akechi operated and had been into the Metaverse longer, the thieves were under the assumption that he killed Okumura senior and also killed Wakaba. While Akechi did kill Wakaba, it's ultimately Ren who killed Haru's father.