Affably Evil: Lady Nim can be fairly sweet to people like Zoey or Dora, but has no qualms about humiliating Bumbershoot brutally.
Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Rolen uses Lay on Hands on Winifred when he's worried sick in order to soothe him. In practice, it looks like this.
Angelic Beauty: The Warden has an uncanny valley kind of perfection, not helped by his unorganic skin.
Anthropomorphic Personification: As is expected given the mythos, a spoke of the wheel has turned over the wheel of planes. It is the Aurora herself, the concept of guilt. A difference to the previous seasons however, is that she is (apparently) neutral tending towards benevolent.
The Armies of Heaven: Ilium is governed (in so far as it can be said to really have a government) by the Warden, an Angel who allegedly came down to aid those trapped in Ilium and bring them justice.
The Artifact: Veltari's initial motivation becomes so incidental that it's treated as a joke when she says the following upon leaving Ilium.
Veltari: Bumbershoot wasn't even fucking here! Let's go.
Veltari: I'm here, I'm queer, and I'm gonna kill a fucking angel.
The Bad Guys Are Cops: Gylan Cadun is the man who gave Rolen the order to slaughter an orc village, and subsequently had him tortured and cast out for his insubordination. It's clear that he's in this line of work because he thirsts for power and to impose his hateful vision on the world, and represents the corruption of the order's ideals overall.
Barrier Maiden: The Aurora is pinned into place by the Sacrum in order to prevent the Wheel of Forms from turning again, bringing disaster in the wake of the next spoke. She's not as human as this trope would suggest, however.
Because You Were Nice to Me: Wulf's loyalty to Garic and Veltari emerges from them simply not being as dismissive and cruel as the Lilies.
Beleaguered Assistant: Winifred, oh Winifred. No one ever signs off his calls properly except Rolen, or bothers to eat his preserves outside of rare occasions.
Berserk Button: While Rolen is unlikely to go berserk for any reason, one of the rare things that make him angry are the corruption of youths, and anyone threatening Winifred.
Light, on the other hand, almost locks every member of the team in mirrors when they break into his home and discover his daughter.
Big Damn Reunion: Mardis meeting Light at last with a tearful hug, having forgiven him and accepted the love between Lucas and the Light, and also meeting his young cousin for the first time.
Big Guy, Little Guy: Theodora is the little guy to her skeleton bodyguard Theodore.
Black-Tie Infiltration: The first mission for the Avant Guard involves retrieving a necromancer at a party, by first retrieving invitations.
Blob Monster: Robin Roc, husband of Claudia Roc, accidentally became an Ooze through illegal science experiments. He makes the most of it and shapeshifts to make himself as hot as he possibly can.
Bond Creatures: The whole team get a spirit guardian in the form of a supernatural creature.
Bounty Hunter: The player characters are grouped into a team of bounty hunters called the Avant Guards.
Brain Food: Asriel is a mindflayer. A hungry mindflayer. Dora eventually gives him permission to eat Zoey and Claudia's brains.
Breaking the Fellowship: Eventually, once a decision is reached concerning the Sacrum, Rolen and Veltari leave Ilium to rescue Mara Sladen and confront Count Danto, whereas Zoey is left behind to protect the Sacrum from Dora's faction.
Bully Hunter: Wulf sees Garic this way, and indeed Garic's targets seem oddly tailored to Wulf's feelings and beliefs.
Butt-Monkey: Zoey is a magnet for bad luck through her wild magic.
Carrie seems to be an example, given that Lady Nim is "always mad at her."
Canis Major: Ishmael the giant has a proportional pet dog, as well as a proportional cat.
Chain of Deals: The economy in Ilium functions based on the exchange of goods and favors. Rolen gave away his Triad Armour in order to get the Avant Guards office built, and still owes a favor to the Giant who built it.
The Chessmaster: Rolen perceives Count Danto this way, possibly to diminish his resentment towards Veltari by viewing her as a pawn. He still has to work with her after all.
Children Forced to Kill: Zoey is quite despondent after killing Nim, and unwittingly leading to her soul being devoured.
Chrome Champion: Angels apparently have metallic looking skins.
City of Adventure: As a closed off walled city from which no one can escape, Illium naturally becomes this sort of setting for the season.
Climax Boss: Episodes 31 and 32 feature several happening at the same time.
Roland and Veltari do battle with Gylan Cadun and eventually kill him.
Claire (being controlled by Quinn) and Robin battle Asriel and kill him.
Dora confronts Warden Light while she's trying to destroy the Sacrum, with her managing to trap him in a mirror and destroy the Sacrum.
Closed Circle: In keeping with the mystery theme of the season, the players are stuck together and cannot leave until the mystery is solved. Only, instead of being snowed in or held hostage, they enter a kind of pocket dimension.
Co-Dragons: Count Danto has three primary henchmen, Veltari, his personal assassin, Stellarosa LeGrand, who ensures his reign is popular with the people, and Gylan Cadun, the captain of his personal guard. He seems to hold the former two in a bit higher regard though.
Cool Old Lady: Alice is definitely a badass lady, with a badass past, though a little more unhelpful and long-suffering in demeanor than this trope would imply.
Cosmic Keystone: The Sacrum has immobilized the turning of the Wheel of Forms, to prevent the more or less benign Guilt from giving place to the cataclysmic spoke that follows.
Corrupt the Cutie: Ghaunadaur assigns Dora to "corrupt the youth", which given there are no other apparent children around, can only mean Zoey. She succeeds at first, but wild magic gets Zoey out of it.
Cry into Chest: What Mardis does to Light when he has finally been released from his 50 year imprisonment.
Dark Is Not Evil: Deliberately invoked with Sylvia Belle, the Shadar-Kai witch, who looks very tough with her body mods and tattoos, but is probably among the sweeter characters.
Dem Bones: The Hawthorne estate is guarded by skeletons with bone spears.
Rolen: If this guy's a necromancer, he does a terrible job hiding it.
Death of the Old Gods: As Theodora destroys the Spire and lets the next spoke of the Wheel turn, Death becomes the ruling aspect and immortality is null and void. All the gods die of old age.
De-power: Ghaunadaur threatens Dora with this should she fail to corrupt the youth. Or a youth, possibly one of two will do.
Determinator: Rolen proves himself to be one by carrying the First Snowflake back to the Sacrum even as a hydra butchers him.
Mardis would also qualify, given how diligently he applies himself to training to avoid going mad from isolation.
Die Laughing: One of Dora's spells is Tasha's Hideous Laughter. She uses it liberally when trying to subdue Zoey and Claudia Roc.
Dirty Cops: Under Gylan's command, the Order of the Merciful Sword devolves into this - Gylan being the same man who as a higher ranking officer ordered Rolen's division to attack an orc village based on an unsound allegation - and never more than when Danto buys them off.
Disappointed in You: When Warden Light tells Rolen this regarding him breaking into his house and discovering Grace it is absolutely scalding.
The Don: Lady Nim is the boss of the Lilies, and just radiates evil.
Don't Call Me "Sir": Warden Light scolds Rolen whenever he addresses him as "Your Grace". As it turns out, this may not be from a concern of equal footing, but simply because his own daughter is called Grace.
Too Dumb to Fool: Veltari jokes that the Avant Guards are too carefree to be driven insane by knowledge of the Sacrum's purpose as opposed to Warden Light.
Dysfunctional Family: Winifred insists the Avant Guards act as a family, and as such the rather polarized alignments of the team cause him stress.
Elemental Embodiment: Zoey's first wild magic roll ends up creating an angry wind boy.
End of an Age: The next spoke of the Wheel brings Death (with a capital D) to all. Immortality is no more, everyone can die. EVERYONE. The old gods die one by one as they can no longer sustain their existence indefinitely and the world will never be the same again.
Epiphanic Prison: Warden Light's prison allows those who reform to leave, adapts to the prisoner, and is not in an actual physical space.
While the mirror prison releases the prisoner based solely on repentance, the barrier itself releases people based on coming to peace with guilt. Rolen asks Grace to change the mirrors to reflect this, so they may use them to attain this peace and walk out individually from the barrier.
Evil Is Cool: Invoked by Mardis when he says infernal comic books are much better than others.
Evil Is Petty: Claudia Roc calls Bumbershoot "Bumble", just to get under his grill. Though to be fair, he was just as passive aggressive to her.
Face–Heel Turn: Dora leaves the Avant Guards and forms Team Evil with Azrael, the Rocs, and the Stalker.
Faceless Mooks: Justified, Count Danto's mooks are all vampires and thus wear face covering helmets to avoid the sun.
Fantastic Racism: Rolen checks Veltari for fiendish blood, at which point Austin intervenes asking if he is racially profiling his friend. A conversation about prejudice ensues between the two characters, with Rolen trying to relate with her through his own experiences of rejection for his beliefs and character. Veltari retorts that those are a bit easier to conceal than horns coming out of you face.
Fighting Your Friend: When Dora turns evil, she's forced to battle Zoey and the Rocs, people who she's grown close too over the course of the season.
Foil: In many ways, Veltari and Dora have inverse character arcs that complement one another narratively. Veltari begins chaotic evil and her only relationship of note is a mercenary's loyalty to her employer Danto, and by connecting to other people, she changes. Dora, on the other hand, starts out with the most friends of any Avant Guard, but as her devotion to Ghaunadaur increases she ruins her relationships with everyone and switches to Chaotic Evil.
Friendly Rivalry: The Avant Guards are on these terms with most of their competitors and adversaries. This is mostly thanks to Dora, who is repeatedly invited to join other ranks, partly because of her capacities for mischief, friendly disposition, and tight fashion sense.
Dora and Veltari develop this after the midway point. Notably episode 24 has them in a spookiness competition in order to decide who will duel Mardis.
Friend to All Living Things: Sylvia Bell is easily bribed with the promise of petting animals no matter how scary.
Ghibli Hills: In the mirror prison, Mardis furnishes his cell with a pastoral paradise modeled on the Fey Wilds, specifically on the forest near Mithrendain. Then he populates it with imaginary enemies to kill.
Girl Friday: Winifred the Flumph is the Avant Guards' hardworking secretary. His narrative function is in effect to provide exposition to the party whenever they need it.
Girl in the Tower: Warden Light's daughter lives at the top of the Sacrum, building mirrors for him. She has snuck out on at least one occasion, and expresses a wish to explore beyond the barrier, which fits her squarely into this trope.
Gone Horribly Right: Grace assisting Dora with taking the barrier down in hopes to see the world leads directly to her losing her father.
Greater-Scope Villain: Count Danto serves as this given he has a connection to every member of the party.
He's Bumbershoot's sire and Veltari's old boss.
He's possibly sending zombies after Dora. This turns out to be Iris, though she's working under one of Danto's henchmen.
He's corrupted Rolen's order of paladins and taken over his country.
He's recruited Zoey's sister Stellarosa as his court magician and PR person.
Hall of Mirrors: Not quite a maze type, but beyond the locked door in the Sacrum is a stairwell decorated with mirrors, each and every one a passage into an epiphanic prison cell.
When Ghaunadaur allows the Avant Guards to see the Aurora, she is found in the reflection of an enclosed room of mirrors.
Ham-to-Ham Combat: Any kind of conversation between Bumbershoot and Garic the Great.
Hard Light: The Aurora Borealis surrounding Ilium is impassible from the inside, but can be crossed from the outside.
Helicopter Parents: Warden Light. While arguably his protectiveness is proportional to the danger in Ilium, the egregious result remains that his daughter has hardly ever left the tower in which she was presumably born.
Heroic BSoD: After being caught in the crossfire of Veltari's Fear spell, Zoey is affected for a long time, and doesn't seem the same when she wakes. What's more, she seems rather more pliable to Ghaunadaur's orders.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Warden Light implies that the crew could have asked the Aurora what her nature was anytime they wanted.
Honesty Is the Best Policy: When Rolen finds the 'stalkerified' body of Warder Tewold, a member of his inner circle back at the Order of the Merciful Sword, Veltari elects to admit serving Danto in corrupting the order to keep the situation from escalating to violence later. A wise decision, as it turns out.
Veltari has also been honest with Rolen about her plans with Warden Light and Planar Binding. This also works out pretty well, as he agrees to not get in her way.
Hope Bringer: Rolen's Bravery ability makes him akin to this. He uses it on Warden Light, when he cannot cope with the truth of Ilium.
Hide Your Children: Ilium has become a rather cutthroat place. The arrival of an apparent child in their midst causes a bit of moral discomfort, and Rolen immediately attempts to, indeed, hide the child.
Humans Are Insects: Not only humans, but most all creatures. Even Warden Light, an angel, is struck by his own insignificance when told the nature of the Aurora.
Human Popsicle: In order to use Veltari's Speak With Dead spell twice, the team keeps Warder in Claudia Roc's freezer.
Hypocritical Humor: As Veltari bulldozes through Bumbershoot's booby-trapped room fun and fancy free, she turns back when Rolen gets jabbed with a poisoned dart, and responds with the following:
Veltari: You shouldn't just barge into things like that.
I Gave My Word: Though chaotic evil in theory, Veltari is particularly attached to being a woman of her word. She is relentless in her quest to find Bumbershoot until she learns that it is impossible, then attaches herself remorselessly towards the plan B of revenge. She also goes to collect Lyra's debts as promised.
I Just Want to Have Friends: The troll farmer Wulf is sadly not a charmer, and deeply craves friendship. Veltari takes advantage of this to further the mission, while seemingly developing true sympathy for him.
I Know Your True Name: Zoey has learned Lady Nim's (with a little help from Ghaunadaur) and given it to Claire.
Imprinting: Veltari's younger self believes her to be her mother when they meet in the mirror.
In Mysterious Ways: The Warden dismisses some of Zoey's questions with this argument.
Involuntary Shapeshifter: Due to her wild magic, Zoey has so far obtained Super Saiyan hair, a chimp's tail, a dragon form, and a high elf form that reflects her actual age.
Kick the Dog: Veltari casts Vicious Mockery on Mardis, who's been imprisoned for 50 years after knocking him down, causing him to cry. Luckily, he's just overjoyed to be around people again and his tears turn to laughter.
Knight Templar Big Brother: The moment Mardis leaves the mirror prison, his purpose becomes to protect Grace.
Lighthouse Point: A pure white lighthouse stands in the middle of Ilium, the circular gem that tops it controlling the day and night cycle of the town by irradiating magical light with one half and magical darkness with the other.
Living Lie Detector: The Warden will know when people lie to him, which makes Bumbershoot very uncomfortable.
Love Across Battlelines: While Veltari decides that she'd rather leave the barrier up to keep Ghaunadaur contained and the spoke of Guilt pinned, Carrie is convinced to side with Dora, and what's more, is likely considering mutiny against Claire-Elise.
Magitek: It is mentioned that this season has freezers, magic powered for the most part. It's all vaguely Steampunk-y.
Mayfly–December Romance: Veltari is a tiefling, a relatively short lived race, while Carrie is an immortal succubus. If they stay together, this will eventually become a problem. This ceases to be so much of a problem when Death Itself cancels out immortality as a concept, although Carrie may still have a longer natural lifespan.
A more immediate example is Warden Light and his dead husband Lucas.
My God, What Have I Done?: Zoey only begins to understand the repercussions of her conversion to Ghaunadaur when he devours Nim's essence.
Never Mess with Granny: Also known as Why Bumbershoot Why. Bumbles sneaks up on Alice to drain her, and while he does get her, she strikes him with a dragon bone staff and summons both ghosts and skeletons. It ends with Bumbershoot being possessed by Maximilian Hawthorne.
Non-Action Guy: Sylvia Bell is caught in the middle of the Avant Guards' fight with the maddened skeletons.
Noodle Incident: Due to Claire sharing Zoey's memories up to Claire's creation, she will often reference wild magic-related fiascoes from their mutual past, including a flying dog, an elephant crushing someone, and something to do with a water buffalo.
Only a Flesh Wound: Rolen certainly evokes this when not only he walks through an evisceration, but then politely refuses that Warden Light heal him.
Open Secret: Everyone knows about Ilium. They just don't know what's up with it.
Our Giants Are Bigger: Giants are a frequent sight in the landscape of Ilium, which is more notable for the fact that they are effectively extinct everywhere else.
Outlaw Town: Ilium is "governed", in as much as it can be said to have a government at all, by a criminal organisation.
Portal Fantasy: While it appears that Ilium is physically present in the rest of the world, the fact that the players cannot leave until the plot is resolved invokes this trope.
Power Glows: When Veltari glimpses the Triad through Warden Light's memories, they are bathed in a blinding holy light.
Power of Rock: Veltari and Zoey pair up, the former on guitar and the latter on the drums, to show off in front of Claire-Elise. It ends rather chaotically.
Rage Against the Heavens: Alice decries that religious people are self-righteous hypocrites who ruined her life, while the gods are so hands-off that they can only be considered malicious. She is one of many characters in Ilium who show a profound contempt towards Warden Light.
Rapid-Fire "No!": When Warden Light remembers the nature of the Aurora, this is the only thing he can say.
Redemption Demotion: Dora and Zoey risk this if they ever reject or anger Ghaunadaur. Zoey is saved from this setback as an anonymous god involved in the construction of the Sacrum imbues her sword and sponsors her, preventing Ghaunadaur from spying on her anymore.
Replaced the Theme Tune: As usual for Dice Funk, accompanying the tonal shift in episode 25. Episode 26 had new intro and outro music.
Rhymes on a Dime: One of the wild magic curses inflicted on Zoey is that for a while, she can only speak in rhyme.
Zoey: Damn, this magic is rather biting. It seems to work even in writing.
Quirky Town: The town is described as a charming English village set among rolling green hills blooming with flowers.
Relationship Upgrade: It turns out that Dora and Claudia (and probably Robin) have hooked up off-screen somewhere in the timejump between episodes 21 and 22. And they're now researching a way to get the stalkers off her back, as a result of the relationship cementing.
The Rival: Claudia Roc and Robin Roc are the main competitors to the Avant Guards.
Sadistic Choice: Veltari is given a job by Penny to either take his necklace from Wulf, a lonely unintelligent troll who thinks of her as his only friend, or to rifle through the possessions of Carrie, the downtrodden barmaid whom she likes.
The choice as to how to deal with the barrier winds up rather painful:
The party can bring the barrier down by destroying the Sacrum, thus causing Warden Light to lose his daughter and fail his mission, irrevocably making an enemy of him. Whatever evil was sealed by the pin upon Guilt would arrive, and Ghaunadaur would get what he wants. The refugees in town would be exposed to whatever they were fleeing from. Many residents would turn against the party for this.
The party can leave the barrier up and leave individually by coming to peace with their guilt. However, Ghaunadaur will turn against them, most of those locked inside Ilium against their will will never be able to leave, and slowly more people will be entrapped. Veltari in particular would lose Carrie's affection if she chose this.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Ilium cages a great many villains, including Ghaunadaur, and its existence prevents the arrival of a much greater evil.
Sealed Good in a Can: Just as Light is about to finish off Theodora during her attack on the Sacrum, she knocks him back into touching a mirror and removes him from Illium entirely. Grace repairs his broken mirror after the time skip and they are reunited.
Shipper on Deck: Asriel enjoys Veltari and Rolen's dynamic a bit too much, commenting that "The hatesex must be hot". He ismisinformed.
Sickeningly Sweethearts: Claudia and Robin acts this way, for a short lapse of time, after Claire pays them for delivering Veltari with one use of the Polymorph spell that gives him his elven form back for an hour.
Silent Snarker: Robin Roc, as a shapeshifting Ooze, cannot speak but still shows some serious sass.
Some Kind of Force Field: The town is surrounded by a mostly opaque Aurora Borealis-like field of light that goes up into the sky.
Squishy Wizard: The Avant Guards are very exasperated at the very concept of wizards, because they come to Ilium and get murdered, and then the bounty hunters have to clean up the mess.
Steampunk: The Glittergold pistols are in this style. The use of [[Magitek magic to augment technology]] has also led to this style of machinery in general, at least aesthetically.
The Stoner: Ishmael "the Blood Mountain" the giant is mentioned taking huge drags from his pipe.
Succubi and Incubi: Carrie is a succubus, although she appears to be fairly chill during her day job. This is explained as succubi exploiting all vices in the Austinverse, not only lust. Thus, Carrie actually exploits alcoholism.
Tarot Motifs: Almost all characters have a High Arcana attributed to them though this is thrown out of whack when the Wheel of Forms turns. Zoey is the Wheel of Fortune, Rolen is The Hierophant, Bumbershoot is The Tower, Dora is The High Priestess, and Veltari is The Devil. Non-player character arcana are listed here.
Tattooed Crook: Carrie, of the Lilies' gang, is described as having yakuza tattoos.
The Only Believer: As it turns out, in all his order only Rolen, the deceased Warder, and Mara still are faithful to the principles of the Triad, and have hearts guarded from corruption.
Team Pet: Dora's turtle is the mascot of the Avant Guards.
Technically-Living Zombie: The stalkers that follow Dora were kidnapped and given a drug of some sort. Though they are technically braindead, they are not truly deceased.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Rolen admits that he's not sure he can forgive Veltari for having facilitated the corruption of his order, but relents to working together as her assistance may be invaluable for the greater good, and she shows signs of possible redemption.
Then Let Me Be Evil: When Dora is confronted by Zoey, she decides that the situation is hopeless and renounces caring for other people entirely, her intent becoming murderous.
Theodora: I don’t know why I thought I could love things. This always happens: I always kill the things I love. I should have listened to you.
These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Warden Light forgot the purpose of Ilium because of the extreme mental strain it caused him, though there is the additional reason that he wished to protect the secret from his daughter's curiosity.
Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: Zoey immediately grabs an unthinkingly offered shot of liquor and downs it. While she is technically nineteen, she is literally de-aged, meaning her brain is not fully developed as she is now.
Undignified Death: Lady Nim dies from getting her arms torn off, getting a shark accidentally summoned on top of her, and Ghaunadaur eating her essence. She is rather bitter about it.
Asriel is polymorphed into a turtle and dissolved in Robin's acid slime body.
Undying Loyalty: Rolen & Veltari's friendship eventually takes on shades of this trope, especially with Veltari deciding she can no longer lie to Rolen at all once he expresses forgiveness towards her, and upon her panicking at the idea that she won't be able to run away and start over anymore, Rolen tells her there will always be someone willing to look beyond her mistakes.
Villain Decay: Audiences may disagree on whether Veltari was ever a villain, but she certainly perceives herself as having "lost her edge" when she changes alignment and no longer feels punk rock enough.
Violently Protective Girlfriend: Or wife, rather. Alice swears she will tear the Sacrum down if she has to, in order to get her husband out of Warden Light's clutches.
Welcome Episode: The first episode follows Zoey as she enters the town of Ilium and is introduced to the Avant Guards.
Wicked Witch: Stellarosa becomes the court magician for Count Danto, serving to impress people with her (and by order of command, his) power.
Wimp Fight: Wulf challenges Veltari to a fight in order to understand her character better. They both are so reluctant to hurt one another that they both botch and land in the mud, giving up.
When they first meet, Claire-Elise and Stellarosa immediately get into the weakest of slap fights.
Austin: (checks strength rolls) Four versus one, it's the saddest slap fight in the history of mankind. They land zero blows and do negative damage. They actually feel better after this fight.
A Wizard Did It: While Austin does go into a little detail of how the Sacrum manages seasons under the dome and evacuates carbon dioxide, he admits that it sums up to this trope.
The World Is Just Awesome: The subtext of Zoey's reaction to discovering the village, full of rare and wondrous creatures.
Wrench Wench: Grace is a perhaps more sheltered example than most, but she is an engineer like her father Luke was, though boredom has lead her to giving her inventions far less utilitarian style.
Wretched Hive: Ilium tends to attract people with nothing to lose and people who are running from something. As such, it's not the ideal holiday destination.
Yubitsume: Carrie (a gangster whose aesthetic is repeatedly compared to Yakuza) is implied to have gone through repeated finger-cutting for having given away her invitation to the Hawthorne party.
You Kill It, You Bought It: By killing Lady Nim, Zoey has earned the leadership of the Lillies. She gives it to Claire.
You're Not My Father: Austin jokes about Zoey reacting to Rolen this way, but in truth, they really do have this dynamic right off the bat.
One True Threesome: Dora and the Rocs eventually become an item. Splits up as a result of Dora's Descent Into Darkness.
", partly an arrangement of "Simple and Clean", and became "Destiny Forgotten