Recap / Soul Eater Trial Enrollment Arc

place your bets, little scythe vs giant chainsaw wielding Gollum

The Trial Enrollment Arc is the eighth story arc in Soul Eater. As Crona and Ragnarok are admitted into Death Weapon Meister Academy, Arachne Gorgon is stirred from her eight hundred years of inactivity from Asura's Madness and launches her network into the opening: Arachnophobia.

"The Trial Enrollment Arc" contains examples of:

• Avengers Assemble: Lord Death calls in half the Death Scythes around the world to make a plan to defeat Asura and counter his madness wavelengths that he will cause. These Death Scythes include Justin Law, the European Death Scythe, Marie Mjolnir, the Oceania Death Scythe, And Yumi Azusa, the East Asia Death Scythe. Including Spirit they only have half of the eight death scythes, the other four were too busy to come.
• Breather Episode: Episode 25 has the main cast playing basketball after a grueling 7-episode story arc.
• Brown Note: Crona's poetry has the ability to instill extreme levels of depression in anyone who reads it.
• Corner of Woe: Crona is very familiar with it. S(He) even gave it a nickname! and soon enough everyone joins him in the corner after reading his poem
• Declaration of Protection: When Maka gets paralyzd by Arachnes magic silk threads, Crona steps up and vows to protect her. She is clearly moved by this, another reason why people ship these two.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Marie is a death scythe, therefore is incredibly powerful, with great strength in her attacks even in human form. Azusa Lampshades this;
  Marie: "You don't understand the power of love!" (Said while Delivering a Megaton Punch)
  Azusa: "Yeah, you may be right about that, but you don't understand the power of your punches"
• Evil Aunt: Arachne quickly proves to be this towards Crona, ordering Girko to "Kill the brat" without so much as a second thought
• Insane Troll Logic: Marie decides to marry a toilet, because a toilet would accept anything and everything, making it an ideal husband.
• In-Series Nickname: Azusa is called "The Queen of Commitee Chairman" by Spirit and Stein, due to her strict and bossy behaviour back as a student. Much to her dismay.
• Mama Bear: Marie shows signs of this already, at least towards Crona, as she notices how they are still afraid of Sid, whom she pushes out of the room for their sake.
  Crona: "The blue man is back, he scares me"
  Marie: "Sid, we need you to wait out here" (gently pushes him out into the hallway)
• No Sense of Direction: Marie can't navigate her way through the academy even though she used to go as a student. In the manga sid expalins that the DWMA is designed like a maze to help train students to sharpen their sense of direction for missions, this clearly didn't work in Marie's case.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Well, Aunt in this case. Arachne reveals Medusa is her younger sister, therefore she is Crona's maternal aunt. Given Cronas reaction, it safe to assume they didn't even know Medusa had a sister, or Who Arachne even was until now.
• Long-Lost Relative: Arachne, the heretic witch, is Medusa's older sister, making her Crona's maternal aunt. Since Crona seemed surprised at this, Medusa most likely never told Crona that she even had a sister.
• Stress Vomit: A comedic example in the anime. Maka's team loses a game of basketball, so as a forfeit she has to offer to spend the weekend with her Bumbling Dad. He's so happy at the prospect of unexpectedly spending time with his sort-of-estranged daughter he vomits.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Of a soul wavelength version. Crona recognizes Arachnes wavelength is very similar to Medusa;s wavelength, making them tremble with fear as if they were facing Medusa herself. In the manga, Maka notices the similarity between the two Witch souls as well.
• Take Our Word for It: We don't actually get to read Crona's poem, but it must've been pretty depressing, since it sends anyone who reads it into a Corner of Woe.
  • It even sent Black☆Star into a Corner of Woe! That must have been some poem.
• Wham Line: The heretic witch Arachne has been watching the entire world for eight hundred years, through her spiders, and she turns out to be Medusa's older sister, making her Crona's maternal aunt
  Aranchne: "I've been watching everything thats gone on throughout the world. For the last eight centuries, through the eyes of my dear spirders. You Too Crona, the child of Medusa, my little sister."
• We Can Rule Together: Arachne offers Crona a chance to accept her love and join her side. Crona refuses due to the Heel–Face Turn they made, are more loyal to Maka and are more concerned with protecting her than joining anyone evil anytime soon.
• Working with the Ex: Auzsa comments that Stein was Marie's first love, she denies this in the anime, in the manga she simply states "thats ancient history". Death has Marie assigned to Stein as his new partner since he needs Spirit at his side always from now on and because her healing wavelength should keep Steins old madness in check.
• You Are Not Alone: Marie assures Crona that she understands how they feel with being new to the DWMA, as she herself is new as well, as a teacher anyway. Sid even Lampshades this, complimenting her using this trope to help Crona relax and adjust to academy life.
  Sid: "Oh I get it, show him he's not alone. A nice technique Marie"