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.

Breaking the Fourth Wall - Being the Speechless and all, Ino has a pretty funny case of this when the DM tells everyone "they may speak".

"DMUA: You may speak if you wish.

(Ino glares at DMUA)"

- Hilarious, in hindsight.

Protectorate - Scarlet was becoming this for Magnum, and she always stood by her side... That is, until the very last moment. The party as a whole, for Ahuatzi.

Child Mage - Ino is this.

Badass Adorable - Ino feels this way to me to Elly.

Prospector - Hob qualifies for this. He's going west and most of all, he's been looking for minerals and the gold riches as he travels alongside the party. While this has yet to get more exposition or be explored as much in the story proper, the idea fits well with his backstory.

Heartwarming Moment - The start of the session definitely serves as this. Characters who weren't present the other time joined, the fruits of Ahuatzi's work seemed to make Elly a better person, both Ino and Magnum were warming up to the party, Hope was sounding less worried and not as wary as before. Scarlet was being more liked, Hob too was finding the time with the party fun and despite all they went through before... Everyone was getting past the bad events and making the group look more united. Like actual friends having fun instead of a group of strangers banded together, by force of circumstance and nothing else. Marty is the only one to remain distant at this time. Yet, little did they know this would only last until the sun would set...

The Runaway/Walking the Earth - Hope has ran away from her home and, according to herself, has been this ever since.

"“Depends on what’chu mean by before all this. Before I met y’all I just...wandered. Always on the move. Never bothered to find a place to stay.” She shrugged, leaving some key facts out on purpose, because...they didn’t need to know."

- Hope's own impressions on her past travels, during the party's talk in the wagon.

Genius Ditz - Scarlet was in yet another hangover from drinking too much... Yet it didn't stop her from showing enough skill in Cat's Cradle for everyone to be astonished at how her ability was way beyond being just good at it.

Non-Answer - This trope is what usually entails whenever some of the newer party members inquire about the Chungus. Justified trope as explaining it would be complicated and, at the same time, a blow/bad move against Marty.

Mood Whiplash - The session opens with most of the party happily becoming closer to each other and more understanding, as well as having carefree fun together. Cue the sun setting... The T-cult's entrance, Scarlet's death [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FromBadToWorse and finally Jill... With everything she pulls.]

This way to Certain Death - Not quite with other people but the whole party - Marty included - turns Genre Savyy about the place looking like a desert and the odd atmosphere about the man T-Posing in the sign as well as other signs that indicate the presence of Dust Devils. Doubles up since they had a warning about this in the previous session. As said above, Marty feels it's not a good sign but that they still have to proceed.

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 or 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 player's 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.

Locked Out of the Fight - Party members who failed the initial roll got immediately pinned down and unable to help the ones who succeeded. In fairness towards them, it was a Hopeless Boss Fight and the best efforts from those who initially managed to fight back were just as quickly overwhelmed. Some like Hob still tried something while pinned, subverting this trope, but also to no avail. Later it fully gets into play once more for Marty as he tries to fight Jill on his own while everyone else is still pinned.

Final Boss Preview - Jill, definitely.

Pinned Down - The party gets a supernatural version of this imposed on them for most of the session, to varying extents. By the end of the day, everyone gets much of an opportunity for staying on the ground.

No-Sell - Jill is particularly fond of this trope. Hob's assault critically fails against her to the point where she needs not do anything about it, Marty's attempts do next to nothing, managing only to get a one-liner from her and finally, David Beckum's attacks don't pose much of - if any - actual threat to her. Her own powers naturally fit the "too powerful" aspect of this. This trope is justified, as she's clearly a Big Bad type of character or at least very high in the Sorting Algorithm of Evil and Sliding Scale of Villain Threat.

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".

Only the author can save them Now - What with a Hopeless Boss Fight being involved and several other tropes related to inevitable loss at play, this is the eventual conclusion reached.

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.

Heroic Willpower - Deconstructed. Pretty much every character tried as hard as they could to do something or counteract the situation in any possible manner and wanted more than ever in their lives to be capable of stopping the events there from happening or fighting back. It doesn't stop them from staying very much pinned to the ground in face of far superior power. Said deconstruction gets lampshaded further by David when he attests once again to Jill's power in the middle of Elly's vow towards the party. He later recognizes their resolve, if nothing else.

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.

Not so Different - Jill invokes this towards Elly's character... Specifically, the way she was at the beginning of the story/prior to the events in this session.

Rage Breaking Point - Hob attempts to keep himself from reaching this through the whole ordeal the party goes through, in the T-Junction situation. He tries really hard, at that since despite it all he - and to some extent, other characters like Ino - had been trying to keep their cool. Likely because they figured going into Blind Rage would not solve the current Predicament.

An Offer you Can't Refuse - Jill pulls this card on Marty and Elly, while having pretty much the lives of the whole party at her mercy. Extra points in cruelty as she implies to everyone that Elly had feelings for Marty when she had yet to say anything or even sort the way she felt about them (luckily for Elly, it seems everyone took that as Jill messing with them and nothing more).

Sadistic Choice - Refer to the above and the session.

Screw your Ultimatum! - Marty's reaction to Jill's offer is type A, on both accounts. Eventually turns into a sort of mix between A and B by the time the situation is too pressing for him to keep this up.

The Worf Barrage - Hob's "Metallica-like attack" was hyped in meta for days, but - half due to rolling a 1 and half due to Jill being too strong for it anyways - ended up doing literally nothing when used. Marty also tries this as the following sequence best puts it:

"Suddenly, with the quickest draw in his life, Marty pulled his gun, loaded with Mana, and fanned the hammer right in her face. Even if only the last bullet even had a chance to do anything.

As the last bullet unleashes, you hear a loud clash of metal against flesh, as a blast of smoke rings out from the gun to cover the area.

The smoke takes a few seconds to clear... As you see the bullet on the ground, flattened to nothing, as her face is still entirely fine. "Joke's on you, my hair was already a mess today.""

- Hope's own impressions on her past travels, during the party's talk in the wagon.

Complete Monster - The Scarlet Bride /Jill. Did I mention Jill? Sometimes, also Jill. Definitely Jill. And before I forget, Jill.

Knight of Cerebus - Jill fits this one on every level. Compared to the light hearted adventures and enemies presented before, her appearance and actions make the whole story go somber and take a turn for dark levels which are around the same level or dark that War was at times.

Cerebus Syndrome /Gut Punch - This is what happens when Jill and her cult enter the screen. For more on this matter... Just look at pretty much every trope related to them. The atmosphere of this session as a whole overflows of these two tropes. Your Mileage may vary on how bad/justified/good this was or was not.

The Heart - Ahuatzi has been this to the party all along, but it finally gets lampshaded in the last of ways any of the party members would want to: By Jill threatening his life and making it clear how if he died right there, things would never be the same again.

"Marty notices the state of everyone... Then turns to Jill again.

Marty:... I don't care. Go ahead.

Jill: Oh, really? You do know, I'm not gonna kill anyone but him. And if I only kill him, everyone's gonna have their old Chungus wounds bleeding again. You need him, Marty. Be smart."

- Jill making it clear once again, that she wasn't making a request as much as an ultimatum. And given how she had already seen the thoughts, it only made it all the harder to bear.

Living Emotional Crutch - As it can be seen in the aforementioned quote, Jill lampshades that Ahuatzi has been functioning as this for the party and the consequences of his death would be worse upon Marty and the others by leaving them alive to cope with it instead of killing them right away.

Immune to Bullets - Feel free to ask Marty if shooting Jill worked.

Shoo Out the Clowns - Jill does this to any semblance of comedy while she's around.

Villainous Face Hold - Elly gets this done to her by Jill as she keeps her "break them by talking" demeanor going.

Pun - Jill's "You need to Chill!" as she freezes Magnum.

Kid has a Point - Lampshaded by Jill when Ino thinks about most of the party's open defiance at the present moment. It leave him noticeably frightened to the point of cold sweating at the realization that she read both his thoughts and yet unspoken name out loud.

"Ino takes a moment to wonder why she doesn't just silence everyone. (...) "You know what Ino, you're right.""

- So Jill speaks, as she forcefully shuts their jaws.

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.

Humongous Mecha - Invoked by Jill... In the middle of a serious scene, averting the First Law of Tragicomedies in this particular scene. The Scarlet Bride cynically tells Eleonore to get her "a giant robot" - which nobody else in the party even knows what is supposed to mean - or shut up when the latter asks her to stop. *See "Ain't too proud to Beg" below.

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?"

- Marty's words to Jill, as Elly is left in the ground, incapable of knowing just how, the why or what she was supposed to feel in this moment.

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.

Please, I will do anything! /Ain't too proud to beg - Of the darker, "They mean It" variation for Elly. She has two of them. First to Jill as she begs her to leave Marty and the others alone, then another to Marty himself as she begs him to take Jill's offer at her own expense so Ahuatzi doesn't have to die.

Break them by Talking - Not quite just by talking, but the elements of this trope are there for Jill. Particularly done against Marty.

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. Even the combined might of the riders is not enough to outmatch her power.

"David: For some God forsaken reason, she's one of the strongest spirits out there. We don't know how or why she got so strong, but, either way, even all of us put together can't really beat her."

- David's explanation, a part of what he knows about Jill.

Curb-Stomp Battle - The fight against Jill and her cultists is a whole can of OOF for the party.

Big Damn Heroes - ...David Beckum's execution and, mainly, his introduction. It initially got literally everything said about it, except compliments. Though in fairness and further analysis, your mileage may vary - while David did have stronger powers than the party, solved the situation that the party couldn't solve through the whole thing, apparently did not need the party's help, knew more than them and cut speeches or spotlight to other characters short as soon as he came up, most of them actually make loads of sense if you consider the context. David has been out and fighting for far longer than the party and wasn't anywhere near as badly outnumbered as they were - one way or another, he did need help. While the coordinated effort of his own team seems easily done at first glance, he actually need to plan in advance, get a proper position to strike and needed the party to lure the T-Cult beforehand. His troops seemed evenly matched with Jill's, though he was clearly outmatched by her and a mere punch wasted loads of his mana to deflect. Every effort collectively done by the entire party didn't do so much as a scratch (or ever looked like it could possibly work), but in reality his would be no different in the long run: Given his statement that all of his riders would not yet be capable of putting Jill down even together with him - in fact, his stronger attacks barely did anything to her. He to had to make an escape, 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. They only escaped seemingly this easy because Jill wasn't that interested in stopping them in the first place - not because David and his team were hypercompetent by comparison. Him cutting spotlight and talk from other characters short is simply his rep as a jerk not helping his image. And the ensuing plot hole immediately noted on his plan (the waiting) could possibly be covered - in my personal opinion - by saying his riders were getting into position, in turn. So again, elements common to that one trope everyone hates were seemingly there but thankfully just on a surface level. So one might see his intro scene as just what was intended to be a Big Damn Heroes moment gone horribly wrong and sort of entering Deus Ex Machina territory.

Deus ex Machina - To some extent you might see David and his riders resolution of the situation as this. Extra indications towards this trope as the riders weren't pointed towards much outside of Marty referencing them in folk songs and the most of foreshadowing David got was looking like one of the cultists who led the party towards the trap, in the first place - then sort of seemingly watched until the last minute due to an unfortunate Plot Hole.

Mr. Exposition - ...Is a role that fell on David's shoulders this week.

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.

The Wild Hunt - David's Riders are this trope to a T. They are indeed otherwordly what with being Rogue Spirits, and hunt the dead - their own kind, the other Rogue Spirits - so they may consume the lifeforce that these antagonistic forces have once consumed. That way they get rid of dangerous RS while also keeping themselves mostly harmless to the world for the timebeing.

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 the woman to actively try and stop it. Besides, if his words are anything to go by she will have more amusement by seeing how the party fares while being hunted than if they simply got killed then and there.

Death Glare - Magnum gives several of these to the T-Cult and keeps giving one to Jill even as she's frozen and silenced. Later, David and Hope also get one in sequence during a conversation in the wagon. It happens after the party makes their escape, and due to the matter of Jill's other name/title being Scarlet Bride... Making it ironic as she was responsible for Scarlet's death by proxy.

"Magnum glares with pure hatred. “Don’t call her Scarlet, only one person deserves to have that name.”

“Uh, other people have the name scarlet, though,” Hope pointed out with a small frown.

Death glare."

- “Alright, alright, I’ll shut it...” is the answer that follows from Hope.

Tragic Keepsake /It was a Gift - After the death of her friend and during the escape from Jill, Magnum takes and keeps Scarlet's clothes, wearing them as her personal attire from this point onwards - as a memento of her.

Roaring Rampage of Revenge - Mainly invoked by Magnum to be her very personal intent for the future as an answer to the events this time around, but applies to other party members to varying extents.

It's Personal - The party's aftertaste against Jill after the events of this day - each for their own reasons and regardless of final impressions on the session, the sole thought shared in everyone's minds about heris to eventually get a day of reckoning to even the score.

My God, What have I done? - DMUA's eventual reaction to the hell he himself had unleashed, by the end of it all.

Creator Breakdown - The DM had one by the end of this session due to, well... The trainwreck it turned out to be by the end of it all.

Alternative Character Interpretation - ...This will be a long one. Elly just got one of these and was accused of sort of gravitating towards Marty sort of like a Satellite out of nowhere/in the span of one session and having that one syndrome towards him in the basis of a few quotes about her in meta, some of her player's - that would be me - impressions and her behavior during the session. Namely, according to DMUA, she went from mockery to "I don't want you to die.". ...Except the whole Alternative Interpretation is utterly unwarranted and by the end of the day, about as grounded as "Ron The Death Eater". Elly's "I don't want you to die!" quote, which was pointed as if it implied "unnaturality" or feelings for him, was out of context. In the story proper, said quote was immediately preceded by: "We're all at risk here... And I don't want anyone else to die!", evidencing that Elly didn't want to see the rest of the party end the exact same way Scarlet just had died in front of her eyes. then goes the actual quote "You idiot... I don't want *you* to die, Marty!" and the reason for this specific one gets lampshaded as follows after Marty tells her to "Go to Hell": '(...) Just because I might go there... It doesn't mean I want any of you to follow me on that trip! - Elly closes her eyes. - And if you hate me that much... Then do it for all those people believing in you. If you died here because you were too stubborn... They won't have the hope you gave them anymore! As she looks at her friends trying their best to either fight or stay up, her breathing is deep and shows how much she's hopelessly trying to join the effort.* ...Elly was very much keeping in mind that, if the events in Session 2 were anything to go by, there was a whole town's worth of people depending on Marty to get through diseases and such, maybe even more' as the waitress said he goes from one place to another helping people. And as the whoole quote says, Elly was taking the entire party into account. Anyone dying there would accomplish nothing but further imploding of the group. The point she got from the previous session was not to let anger get to her head and cloud her ideas - and Elly's speech in the wagon at the beginning of this one was a further indication: Her dislike of Marty doesn't mean she wants to enter a pointless confrontation with him to only feel empty about it afterwards, and that would be especially true when the other things at stake are hers and everyone's lives. Being disgusted at someone who is nonetheless an important part of the team would not translate to wanting them to be reduced to dust even at the cost of everyone's safety, unless Elly herself was devoid of morals. Further jossing the idea, the feelings mentioned towards Marty were something she started having... As a result of seeing with her own eyes how everyone in the town/inn they visited liked him for his good deeds. Saving their lives in that way made Elly believe that Marty was to those people the same that her unknown savior had been for her. Thus, she was slowly forgiving the shot incident (because, again, that had been justified with "We end the argument this way or people die") and, just as slowly growing feelings out of a sense of admiration, which may be seen in how she still remained on her guard and snarky during the climb of the mountain, being confrontational with him but trying to keep his reputation untouched when he wasn't around, until the Soul Read event. After that, Elly did not even look Marty in the eye for a week straight, her sole "interactions" with him left her even more broken in the ground as they happened and were all imposed for Jill's amusement - leaving her without any choice in the matter but to do them for the party's sake, even at her own expense. Ahuatzi is left crying at what she had to go through and Elly herself was only crying more as it happened, left thinking of herself as incapable of anything when it matters most. Her latter speech being literally the same thing she does through the whole series so far: Trying to look alright by putting up a thin veil/front on her feelings so others don't have to worry about her while having so much to stomach, themselves. A literal moments before saying it, she was in a corner of the wagon stuttering and, as the narrative puts it: "Clearly disturbed as a child in the dark who wonders if monsters are around. It's easy to see she's trying her best to be strong, and yet..." Finally, her staring at Marty, without ever making eye contact is lampshaded in meta at her not knowing how to even look at him presently, her "stare but looks away without making eye contact" moment being a relatively simple to get reference to this meme after his attitude towards her. Further backing this up, post the 3rd session her quote and abilities were updated, but her character profile never stopped listing that she feels deep disgust towards Marty. By now, the entire events had left people with a bad taste in their mouth about it in meta, as well.

(Note: Separated because this point is allowing personal opinion here for once and because I can't skip the ref : Seeing how off this character interpretation was from the events that took place around her, as I wrote these observations... Personally makes me feel like Elly was just getting Bias Steamrolled in true DIO fashion with this stuff.)