User blog:FateAlbane/Jack of All Tropes - Big Iron 3

This is not a dril-I mean, you know the drill. All tropes that may be found in the third session.

...And then, all hell broke loose.

Massive WIP, naturally.

Session 3 ("JILLFIIIIITH!!! level JILLSPAIR")
Wham Episode - As anyone involved can attest to.
 * "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate..." - Canto III, Dante's Inferno (At the Gates of Hell)

They Plotted a Perfectly Good Waste - The storytelling in this session got a lot of criticism for the parts of the narrative that had "less than spectacular" execution, so to speak, or some of the events that transpired. ...On the other hand, it did do a good job of making the players feel as bad/bitter about the situation as the characters going through it.

Fission Mailed - The whole situation in the T-Junction City was this for the party.

But thou Must!/Cutscene Incompetence  - Generated great bitterness since the entire party was weirded or creeped out by the city and pointed how it seemed like a bad idea to enter T-Junction City after they see the weird man T-Posing over a sign. Yet, both Marty and said man (which for whatever reason also turns out to be the man who saves them and didn't help at all while they were pinned down nor came to the rescue until the villain herself noticed him ) points them to the city anyways where everyone is promptly surrounded and calamity ensues.

Idiot Ball - Marty was carrying it this week.

Jerkass Ball - Marty did not let go of it, yet. Pointed out even by Jill when she threatens Ahuatzi's life and he still acts like he doesn't care.

Ominous Foreshadowing - David T-Posing above the sign which also read "T-Junction".

Weather Dissonance/A storm is coming  - When nearing the T-junction, the party finds itself in a place that is mostly devoid of plant life, "like the desert of prairie, which isn't right for the region". As most suspected in meta, the phenomenon was caused by Rogue Spirits. In verse, characters got creeped out but proceeded anyways because the aforementioned "But Thou Must!", "Plot Hole" and "Idiot Ball" were a thing.

Crosses the Line Twice - The whole thing about a cult "T-Posing the party into submission to assert dominance" matter did not go well with the scene in any of the players eyes, it would seem. At all. Complaints ranged from "poor execution", passing through "Unfitting and didn't mesh with the atmosphere" to a plain, outright "Lame."

Hopeless Boss Fight - Jill. And her mooks. Dice rolls not mattering? Check. Circumventing criticals and critical failures? Check. Modifiers that are at least twice as high as the highest the party could possibly have at every attempt? Check. They did have the party hardly outnumbered, but judging by the looks of things it's not like numbers would have made any difference. She alone could have easily handled the party's collective efforts.

Final Boss Preview - Jill, definitely.

Heads I Win, Tails you Lose - Subverted in favor of the aforementioned Hopeless Boss fight. At first it seems like the party will have a chance despite how hopeless the situation is but the mooks stop most of them in their tracks anyways and Jill just puts the final nail in the coffin.

My rules are not your Rules/The GM is a Cheating Bastard  - Duf gets a critical roll ignored in favor of the Rouge Spirits winning the situation. Later the Rouge Spirits roll a critical failure but it affects the party anyways. Nearly everything the party does while trying to remedy the situation doesn't serve any purpose by the end of the day. Before it can be noticed, the players simply start lampshading these tropes/resigning to how resistance is futile when it's pretty much the DM that wants the party to fail - thus, no rules or rolls will change anything. How much the fact that this was plot-requested justifies these tropes ranges from "Should be acceptable depending on how this develops in the future" to "Makes no sense/Left a bitter taste in the mouth".

Sacrificial Lioness - Need I say... Scarlet?

Five Stages of Grief - Subverted so far, Magnum jumps straight to 2 and definitely stays very much angry about it for the rest of the session.

Plotline Death - Scarlet gets all of her life drained until she dies being turned to dust as a part of the narrative and there is nothing to be done about it but watch. May overlap with a cruel and unusual death depending on one's view but it's actually the modus operandi of Rouge Spirits.

They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character - Many had this reaction to Scarlet's death.

The Pawns Go First - Zigzagged. The pawns do go first, but Jill doesn't wait until the fight against them gets any resolution before she steps in and ends the battle.

Defiant to the End - Most of the party members have a moment to be this. Characters such as Ahuatzi and Dufresne manage to stay up and resist the T-cult attack, despite all odds, the former even going as far as telling the enemies not to touch his family. Magnum is an extreme case as she remains with pure hatred and death threats towards Jill through the whole session, regardless of what happens. Elly keeps trying to think of a manner to take the others or even just Marty out of the situation even as the latter keeps treating her like garbage, generally. Marty himself pulls this, arguably at the worst possible moment when he refuses to kiss Elly even if that would mean Ahuatzi - and eventually, all others - would die.

Not so Stoic - Upon witnessing Sakuya's death at the hands of Jill/The Scarlet Bride, Magnum's lazy ~ easygoing atmosphere utterly disappears and she shows all the emotion and empathy she didn't seem to demonstrate at first or a week ago in the story. And that hate only wells up more and more as Jill acts or keeps humiliating the party. She may well have been the most explosive character on her emotions.

Unstoppable Rage - ...Of the famous subversion variation. Magnum experiences this upon witnessing Scarlet's death, but while it does keep her defiant to the end, it doesn't help her do anything against Jill or her subordinates and she is forced into the ground through the events that ensue.

Forced to Watch - Everyone. At first the party can do nothing but watch as Scarlet is killed. Later they are forced to watch as Jill comes along and gloats about herself and the party's situation. Finally they are forced to watch as Ahuatzi gets his life threatened to end the same way Scarlet did, while Elly is ultimately pressed into begging Marty to take Jill's offer with what little she can "move" to kiss her so Jill would release the others. Seeing how this was her first kiss and how she had yet to get entirely over the way Marty had still been treating her, this was a particularly selfless act on her end - as she puts her own feelings aside.

Fake First Kiss - Played for Drama. Elly's first kiss didn't change the way either she or Marty acted around each other at all. In fact, it just destroys her further: Despite her aforementioned act, the horrible circumstances they were in, that it was the only choice to save the others and that she had been slowly developing feelings for him... Marty doesn't show Elly one bit of concern and his first words upon doing it are an even worse blow.

"Alright, I kissed her like a spitoon, now what?"

Manly Tears - For the first time in the series, Ahuatzi cries as he realizes his life is being used as a bargaining tool to push his friends - which he sees as family - into the above situation. Ultimately, Jill used the very kindness that had been bringing the party together as a tool to crush them further.

Hero Killer - The events in this session qualify Jill as such. And according to David Beckum, she does go around hunting others... The party being next in line for her target list and hunted down from now on.

Worf Effect - The whole party gets this, so they can be saved by...

Gary Stu - ...David Beckum's execution that got literally everything said about it, except compliments. Though in fairness, your mileage may vary - this is not to the absolute extent of the trope. Has stronger powers than everyone? Check. Solved the situation in half a minute that the party couldn't solve through the whole thing? Check. Did not need the party's help in any manner for that? Check. Knows more? Check. Cut speeches or spotlight to other characters as soon as he came up? Check. Did so borderline effortlessly in a coordinated effort of his own team, when every effort collectively done by the entire party didn't do so much as a scratch (or ever looked like it could possibly work)? Also check. ON the plus side and in the DM's defense, David at least wasn't shown to be stronger than Jill - in fact, his stronger attacks barely did anything to her - while he had to make an escape as well and the party wasn't exactly liking him for unnatural reasons either. He also seems to have been incapable of defeating Jill for as long as they've been around. He also needed to plan for it and use the party to lure the T-cult. The ensuing plot hole immediately noted on his plan and his rep as a jerk didn't help that image, though. So again, elements common to this trope were there but thankfully not full force so one might see his intro scene as just what was intended to be a Big Damn Heroes moment gone horribly wrong.

The Cavalry - A literal one in the form of David's Ghost Riders in the sky rescuing the party and engaging the T-cult in battle while giving them a very much needed chance to escape.

All according to plan - Jill already planned to, or at least didn't bother about letting the party go after getting her amusement. So David rescuing them in the end didn't seem to bother her enough for her to actively try and stop it.