History Fanfic / StartAgain

* UncannyValley: InUniverse, Madarame finds Yusuke's self-portrait of himself (which he based off his cognitive self from Madarame's Palace) as a painting deeply unsettling due to its resemblance to how he himself sees Yusuke as a means of profit. He even refuses to plagiarize it and tells Yusuke that it's personal to the latter and should keep it hidden in his room.

* UncannyValley: In-universe, Madarame finds Yusuke's self-portrait of himself as a painting deeply unsettling due to its resemblance to how he himself sees Yusuke. He even refuses to plagiarize it.

* UpToEleven: Tokyo doesn't just have 7 palaces like in the game, as anyone with a distorted desire that can impact a location can form one. Goro and Makoto estimate that ''every'' high school has at least one palace connected to it, due to the stress it brings for both students and teachers.

** [[spoiler:Without either Goro's powers or Wakaba's cognitive psience research, the Conspiracy attempts to learn to use Mementos by tossing teenagers into the other world, with Shujin Academy as one of their sources. This directly leads to Shiho and Mishima gaining their own Personas, and the complicit Principal Kobayakawa undergoing a change of heart]]. %%(possibly averting his later death)
*** In addition, [[spoiler:without a mental shutdown-inducing assassin, the Conspiracy has to use more mundane methods of dealing with their targets. It's mentioned in passing that a politician who originally died of a mental shutdown was instead killed in a 'car accident'.]]
** The Thieves setting Sae on the path to investigate corruption in her workplace leads to [[spoiler:Makoto being attacked by Kaneshiro.]]
*** The Thieves response to the above ends in [[spoiler:Kaneshiro getting arrested over a year early.]]

** Futaba is warned about the threat towards her mother by a note from Morgana (and her own half-memories) and bugs her phone just in case. [[spoiler:Without Goro]], the Conspiracy tries to kill Wakaba through the real world and frame it as an overdose, only for Futaba to overhear the confrontation and tell Sojiro, who rushes to Wakaba and gets her into the hospital in time. [[spoiler:This ultimately results in Wakaba surviving, and joining the Thieves as Archive.]]
** [[spoiler:Without either Goro's powers or Wakaba's cognitive psience research, the Conspiracy attempts to learn to use the Mementos by tossing teenagers into the other world, with Shujin Academy as one of their sources. This directly leads to Shiho and Mishima gaining their own Personas, and the complicit principal undergoing a change of heart]].

* TheFreakshow: The SIU Director's Palace has one that describes how he really thinks about the individuals in his life, whether co-workers like Sae or conspirators like Shido. Interesting, the cognitions in the Freak Show look exactly like they do in real life, with the only "freak" quality being the bias descriptions the director makes.

* TheFreakshow: The SIU Director's Palace has one that describes how he really thinks about the individuals in his life, whether co-workers like Sae or conspirators like Shido.

* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: Jikken Academy. They encourage students to spy on each other in the dorms, confiscating items they deem 'unfit' for the students to have, including money- with a student even losing his only [[TragicKeepsake keepsake of his dead sister]] because they thought it was improper for boys to own ribbons. Outside of that, Akechi is punished by having him run laps around the track in his bare feet, which bleed so badly it soaks through his socks. The principal's Palace has the school represented as a laboratory with the students being vicious beasts(at-risk teens with "sub-optimal" or "undesirable" backgrounds) that the lab(school) uses vivisection and all sorts of ghastly surgery(abuse) to transform them into horrific, but controllable chimeras("productive members of society").

* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: Jikken Academy. They encourage students to spy on each other in the dorms, confiscating items they deem 'unfit' for the students to have, including money- with a student even losing his only [[TragicKeepsake keepsake of his dead sister]] because they thought it was improper for boys to own ribbons. Outside of that, Akechi is punished by having him run laps around the track in his bare feet, which bleed so badly it soaks through his socks. The principal's Palace has the school represented as a laboratory with the students being horrific chimeras.

* IHatePastMe / FutureMeScaresMe: [[spoiler:Thanks to Haru approaching Akechi and therefore preventing him from ever joining Shido, Akechi never becomes a murderer and is a far better person as a result. He sees the version of him from the original timeline as evil and psychotic]].

* AdaptationalBadass: Hifumi Togo, [[spoiler:Wakaba Isshiki]], Shiho Suzui, and Yuuki Mishima awaken to Personas in this timeline when they didn't in canon.

** Akechi's Wild Card abilities are not left stunted as they were in the original timeline, and he learns how to other Personas like Joker did. He also obtains Medusa, which enables Akechi to induce fear in his targets rather than madness.

* BadPowersGoodPeople: Akechi falls under this trope (albeit as an example of ReformedButNotTamed) in this timeline, specifically with regards to his HatePlague abilities. Makoto and Haru are both understandably uncomfortable with his ability to cause "rage fugues." However, they also acknowledge that the rage fugues can be very useful in a battle if utilized wisely by setting enemy combatants against each other, and they have utilized that tactic in important battles.

* ImStandingRightHere: Goro and Makoto discuss on the chat why Haru knows so much about the Metaverse, and why is going through so much trouble to take her father's heart, despite his corruption and trying to force her into an arranged marriage, with Goro suggesting that her concern for him is from lifelong conditioning. Haru then responds that their discussing this on their Phantom Thief chat, meaning she can read the entire conversation.

* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Akechi's default solution to any problem is "rage fugue". [[NotSoDifferent The Thieves' default solution to any problem is a change of heart.]]

** Several cases present in canon carry over, including the Magarios and Kunikazu Okumura. Both of these examples are targets for changes of heart by the new Phantom Thieves, [[spoiler:with Haru in particular working with Makoto and Akechi to not only make Kunikazu Okumura a better person much earlier, but also to stop him from joining the Conspiracy and get wrapped up with Shido.]]

* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: Haru, big time. In the original game, she suffered from LateCharacterSyndrome. Here, she is the first character whose perspective we see, and she immediately makes a huge impact by [[spoiler:blackmailing Akechi for the Meta-Nav, which has the unintended but major effect of preventing him from joining Shido's conspiracy and convincing him to genuinely work with the Phantom Thieves isntead.]]
* AdaptationalHeroism: [[spoiler:Goro Akechi, thanks to Haru's attempts to blackmail him, decides not to reveal his powers to Shido and instead starts working with Haru and Makoto. He's still very much an AntiHero and a clear-cut example of ReformedButNotTamed, but he never becomes the murderous Black Mask and is overall a MUCH better person than he was in the original timeline (best exemplified by how he grows to genuinely care for Haru and Makoto and appreciate them as teammates.)]]
* AdaptationalIntelligence: Ryuji displays this in his story. He is still somewhat brash in nature (and fully aware of it), but when he discovers that he is thrust back into the past in November (before starting Shujin) without the other members of the Phantom Thieves to support or even contact, he starts thinking and planning things out more carefully, and also tries to be as discrete as possible so that he can try and save Shiho and Ann from Kamoshida while minimizing negative attention to himself. Ryuji's mother complements him on his maturity with regards to how he's approaching the problem of Kamoshida, and Futaba is shocked that Ryuji has known since November and managed to avoid telling anyone else.

* ArrangedMarriage: When he sees Haru is making unauthorized trips, her father tries to rein her in by having her engaged to a vice-president in his company, who is only marrying her to improve his standing. Goro is able to end the engagement by finding the man's shadow and giving him a rage fugue during a dinner with Kunikazu.

* BadPowersGoodPeople: Akechi falls under this trope (albeit as an example of ReformedButNotTamed) in this timeline, specifically with regards to his HatePlague abilities. Makoto and Haru are both understandably uncomfortable with his ability to cause "rage fugues." However, they also acknowledge that the rage fugues can be very useful in a battle if utilized wisely by setting enemy Shadows against each other, and they have utilized that tactic in important battles.

** [[spoiler:The end of ''Valor and Discretion'' has the combined forces of Haru's and Futaba's teams arriving to help Ryuji's group against Principal Kobayakawa's shadow]].

* InsistentTerminology: Goro prefers "rage fugue" over "psychotic breakdown" to describe Loki's ability against shadows. Makoto admits that it's more fitting because "psychotic" is a clinical term and doesn't match up with the observed behavior of the victims.

* ReformedButNotTamed: While Haru is able to get Akechi on their side, [[spoiler:stopping him from joining the Conspiracy and becoming an assassin]], he still finds rage fugues the best solution to most of his problems. He also despises Shido just as much as ever, but given how much of an asshat Shido nobody can blame him.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Actually averted with [[spoiler:Akechi]] and the members of the original Phantom Thieves (Haru, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba) who remember the old timeline. While there is some occasional abrasiveness, it has nothing to do with Akechi's actions from the original timeline, and they are mostly able to cooperate and coordinate with each other without problems. Futaba outright states that she doesn't hold Future Evil Akechi's actions against the new timeline Goro, and Goro himself regards "Future Evil Akechi" [[FutureMeScaresMe with contempt and considers him a psycho]].

* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Akechi's default solution to any problem is "rage fugue".

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Actually averted with [[spoiler:Akechi]] and the members of the original Phantom Thieves (Haru, Makoto, Futaba) who remember the old timeline. While there is some occasional abrasiveness, it has nothing to do with Akechi's actions from the original timeline, and they are mostly able to cooperate and coordinate with each other without problems. Futaba outright states that she doesn't hold Future Evil Akechi's actions against the new timeline Goro, and Goro himself regards "Future Evil Akechi" [[FutureMeScaresMe with contempt and considers him a psycho]].