"All of you just run around with no understanding of what you're doing and why — you're just driven by the need to exist, instead of actually having a purpose."
—The Adjudicator
The third round of Trustfell.
Warning: all spoilers are unmarked.
- Accidental Misnaming: Brady slips up and calls Archie's Sharpedo "Sharknado."
- Actually Pretty Funny: When most of the Competitors are horrified at Ferid making a tasteless pun about one of the murders, Walter, who can't stand Ferid normally, is snickering at his podium.
- Ain't No Rule: Luca tries to reason that coming Back from the Dead isn't against the rules to try and prevent a retaliation and save Chitoge when Juri finds out she's back.
- All Are Equal in Death: A key part of the argument against the judgments Ginti gives in the mastermind trial is the idea that this should be the case, but the exercise was unfair from the start.
- All Myths Are True: Aymeric notes that legends will at least have some basis in fact. AZ agrees, as he feels conflicted when the things he lived through and saw firsthand are just old legends to Archie and Cilan.
- Ambiguously Human: The app restrictions this time allow only human or human-passing captives.
- Arc Symbol: A haloed water droplet. It seems to symbolize that the Competitors were all Dead All Along.
- Back for the Dead: Chitoge's brief return combines this with Back from the Dead.
- Back from the Dead: Chitoge manages to return to the living during Week 6. Sadly, she is forced to go back to the afterlife when Juri finds out, but not without some letters to the dead from the living.
- Balancing Death's Books: When Chitoge revives and Juri finds out, some of the others offer to be sent to their deaths in her place. Juri kills Chitoge again anyway.
- Being Watched: Deadland, 24/7, and they all feel it.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: Ferid, he of no sense of too much information, publicly comments that he thinks so.
- Bittersweet Ending: Even though the Platinum Ending eked out a happier ending than planned for everyone, they're still all dead and won't return to their normal lives, and despite everyone's hope, it's not guaranteed that they'll be reincarnated into the same world or meet each other again.
- Boy Meets Ghoul: Angel gets together with Chitoge after the latter dies, thanks to a Ouija board and Chitoge's less-than-a-day-long resurrection. Some of the other characters are creeped out.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: When Katniss tries to explain the exercise."Some people get their kicks hunting. Baking bread. Making weapons. Forcing people to murder each other."
- Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: Mack and Brady, an Official Couple in the round, feud in week three and make up during the trial that week.
- Call-Back:
- 3-7 has one to 2-4, invoking the Norman Clause again.Juri: Keep in mind that we vote by title for a reason. The title is assigned to the body, not whoever happens to be piloting it around at the moment.
- Just like Elise in R1, Jean is told that Juri thinks he's on a Mission from God, responds with "Which god?", and has to have monotheism explained to her.
- Aligula uses the phrase "greatest cool" at one point.
- The final investigation calls out Sigrun for licking the murder weapon in 2-2.
- "There are so few of you now" makes another return.
- 3-7 has one to 2-4, invoking the Norman Clause again.
- Came Back Wrong: Robert and Aymeric discuss how their worlds won't bring anyone Back from the Dead except as a zombie.
- The Cameo: Remember Kimblee? His stuff cameos and it's hinted that Ginti sent him to the Void after Susan stabbed him in the face.
- Celebrity Paradox: Chitoge fourth-walls previous rounds' canons.
- Central Theme: Even the worst of people have the right to be judged fairly outside of a rigged system.
- Clone Angst: Defied. After learning that his Pokémon are copies made from his memories and the real ones are likely still alive, Archie decides not to tell them so they can keep thinking they're real.
- Cloudcuckooland: Downplayed. Most of the round's characters are strange or unstable in some way, from finding the Adjudicator attractive to having No Social Skills, to possessing Control Freak tendencies, or just being Aligula.
- Comfort Food: Katniss ends up learning to make grilled cheese and tomato soup, and it becomes this for the captives as it is in Real Life for many.
- Creepy Doll: Juri keeps "dolls," unliving replicas of the Competitors' bodies, and apparently likes to set up creepy scenes with them. It turns out that they can come to life with "memories shoved into them," too.
- Cycle of Revenge: Jean addresses the last round's theme."But... if you want the world to change, the first step cannot be on the same path that led to that point. Otherwise, it just... becomes an unbroken circle."
- Dead All Along: The Competitors. The game was an exercise to judge the souls of the dead.
- Deal with the Devil: Archie suspects that AZ "got wrapped up in somethin' he shouldn't have" with a legendary Pokémon to be as old as he is.
- Discovering Your Own Dead Body: It's bad enough when Jean finds duplicate bodies of other competitors, living and dead, stored in a series of cabinets. Then, in the last one...It's you, Jean.
- Don't Go in the Woods: This round's setting is a remote lodge.
- Double Subversion: With the mastermind's identity. With the setup being that the Adjudicator would actually appear in person from the beginning, this round seemed to subvert the previous two rounds' revelations that the masterminds were existing characters from real franchises. Nope. Juri was just a disguise. Do we say "Death Parade confirmed" now?
- Everybody Lives: One week had no murders due to overlapping with Otakon.
- Faking the Dead: Juri exchanges himself with a doll and has the Competitors investigate his "death" in the final investigation.
- Fantastic Racism: In the endgame trial, Juri says that he hates humans.
- First-Name Basis: Juri executes Ferid/Cunning with his real name and Walter/Methodical with a pseudonym from canon.
- Flat "What": Isaac's response when Ferid flirtatiously offers to turn him.
- Flirting Under Fire: Ferid makes it a priority to embarrass Isaac even in the courtroom. Even when they're both about to be executed. Inigo similarly flirts with a lot of people in court.
- Flower Motifs: Katniss makes a garden for the dead, filled with flower-meaning symbolism.
- Forced into Evil: Juri says that someone who ordered or forced another to kill is considered the real culprit, but someone who just suggested it isn't. Maybe he read another murdergame's 3-5?
- Frame-Up: Juri tries to frame Inigo for his "murder". The other Competitors don't buy it.
- Get Out!: Juri uncharacteristically demands this of the Competitors after Archie manages to injure him during the third execution.
- Good News, Bad News: One of the Week 4 victims to the other in deadland."Good news: I feel way better. Bad news: I think we died."
- Go Through Me: Yuri says Juri would have had to go through everyone to execute Katniss if she'd killed Walter instead of just hit him in the courtroom.
- Heroic Sacrifice: While she doesn't actually die, Fern throws herself in front of Katniss when Walter tries to stab her.
- Hollywood Exorcism: Inigo tries and fails to get Juri to exorcise a nolo pen.
- Hotter and Sexier: While it still sits around the equivalent of a PG-13/R, the dirty jokes, shameless characters, and occasional teasing the appropriateness line mean that, if you're looking for a Trustfell round to read at work, this might not be the one.
- Human Resources: One of the victims of case 6 had her blood drained and used as paint.
- Hypocritical Humor: Isaac can't believe that Ferid flirts with Juri of all people. Hmm. Who here actually had feelings for a murdergame mastermind?
- I Choose to Stay: Ginti ends up taking Ferid and Aligula on as temporary assistants.
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: Nephenee says this (lancer, not a cartographer) when she's embarrassed about the map she drew.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Luca derails the seventh trial to ask the others their thoughts on why Juri's acting preoccupied. Juri is not amused.
- Inherent in the System: Of course people were going to fail Ginti's test; he rigs every one he runs, and as Jean says, it's meant to draw out the worst parts of you. At this point, the argument to save everyone focuses on whether or not a system that errs Void-heavy and sometimes cheats to do it is a bug or a feature.
- Insult to Rocks: At the fourth afterparty, multiple conversations mull that their insults to the culprit are too nice.
- Ironic Echo: In the third trial, the culprit stabbed Juri and spat in his face, giving some hope to the survivors. A week later, Walter showed his true colors by stabbing Fern and spitting in Katniss's face.
- Ironic Hell: The Void leaves you alone with your thoughts and misery. Aligula also moves that the game itself is one, because it made her feel and reflect, too.
- Irony: In the Round 2 finale, Cherryblod says that you can't have the chance to reform if you're dead. Round 3's endgame depends on the idea that you can and proving that the Competitors have done so.
- It Amused Me: The reason Ferid does anything, apparently, including killing Angel and Yuri — though others press him to admit that there was more to it.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Juri's not happy with his coworker's handling of the dead.
- Kill It with Fire: The common response to a regain you don't want or a reminder of someone you don't like. Robert comments that it seems almost religious. Even Juri does it, burning most of his reminders of the Competitors... and his gift from Ferid: the world's ugliest suit.
- Kiss of the Vampire: Ferid has always wanted to bite Juri, and when he gets his chance, it's played as this.
- Love Dodecahedron: Luca has a crush on Isaac, who's tsundere for Ferid, who loves to tease everyone but mostly Isaac and Juri, and Juri just wants normal captives instead of this nonsense.
- Love Hurts: Romance seems to be cursed in this round, with one or both parties always dying even if the feelings were unrequited.
- Mistaken for Pregnant: One of the many, many red herrings the fourth culprit lays out about one of the victims.
- My Greatest Second Chance: Two of the Competitors are known for being some of the first major characters to die in their canons. For Sayaka, she's the first body again, but Robert makes survivor pool. As well, Week 3 had a do-over motive.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: Luca's regret when he finds out that he's dead is that he wasn't able to say goodbye to his kid.
- Oddball in the Series: While we still learn a little about Murder vaults, Inc., this round doesn't involve one of their games. Instead, Arbiters who judge the souls of the dead were inspired by a victim of one of the games, who came through to be judged, and it's implied (and later confirmed) that the first round's Big Bad was also judged by Ginti.
- Oh, My Gods!: Mozu, Inigo, and Robert say it verbatim and the Pokémon cast invokes legendaries.
- Poison Is Evil: Very much so with Walter, but Chitoge and Archie are treated more sympathetically for poisoning the Adjudicator instead of a fellow Competitor.
- Psychopomp: Both the mastermind and one of the deadland NPCs are this, and the exercise is a game to judge and deliver the dead.
- Rage Quit: What to do when there's no right answer to the last trial, and not voting is already off the table? Cilan realizes that this trial skipped the "Majority Rules" clause. They hang the jury in hopes of stopping the game.
- Reincarnation Romance: In the ending, many of the couples are banking on this. The alternative would be too sad to fit the mood.
- Rustproof Blood: The blood in case 6 took a strangely long time to start browning when used as paint.
- Shout-Out: Jean comments that they can try fighting with silverware, as long as the cook doesn't care what happens to the spoons.
- Skewed Priorities: A small number of the characters, meeting the Adjudicator for the first time, comment on how hot he is. A number of the other competitors are not amused.
- Slasher Smile: Isaac is described with one during his execution when he's trying to fight back.
- Stealth Pun: Walter White killed the Disney Channel characters. And then there's the shape Isaac's home is in.
- Suicide Mission: Chitoge poisons the Adjudicator knowing full well it breaks Rule 5.
- Surprise Party: Aligula, being a Friendly Enemy to Juri, throws him a birthday party without his knowledge.
- Talking Your Way Out: Endgame, for every single character. Out of being sent to the Void, that is.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Subverted in case 6. Nobody actually did anything to the radish. Used straight when Aligula drugs Ferid's blood jar.
- Tarot Troubles: Mack reads for herself with playing cards while she and Brady are feuding. All she ever concludes is that she's not as over him as she'd like to be.
- Teasing from Behind the Language Barrier: Ferid tells Aligula that a clue she found, written in German, is propositioning the recipient; it is not. Earlier, Aligula herself tries to explain Japanese Honorifics and flat-out starts making stuff up.
- Tin-Can Telephone: Naoto tries to build one and leave one end in the courtroom. It doesn't work out.
- Together in Death: Mack and Brady are found dead on the same day.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Subverted. Having nasty-tasting blood didn't save Angel; Ferid just stopped drinking and used the rest as paint.
- Totem Pole Trench: Description text jokes that AZ, being very tall, mysterious, and covered up with a long coat and scarf, could well just be nine Espurrs in a trenchcoat like kids trying to get into R-rated movies.
- Twist Ending: Not only is everybody Dead to Begin With, the mastermind trial takes a different form. Rather than the mastermind himself being on trial, the Competitors are, and the effort is not to figure out whether to spare or kill Juri, but whether to accept their own judgments or try to Screw Destiny to save themselves.
- Unusual Euphemism: "Special diet" for vampirism.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: When Juri fakes his death. Everyone takes it back when he turns out to be alive, though.
- Wham Line: In deadland, there's "I called her Rachel." Why? Rachel is one of the six Mystery Women, but presumably any mention or backstory for her would have been saved for a later round, since Lisbeth got Round 1, Hilda 2, and 3 already had Alena.
- What You Are in the Dark: The entire purpose of the exercise is to judge people on this.
- Where There's a Will, There's a Sticky Note: Late in the game, Aligula sets up a write-your-own-will station at a swap meet dinner.
- Why Don't You Marry It?: Aligula's reaction to Cilan fanboying over subway trains.
- World of Pun: Every other thread is a Hurricane of Puns, with stealth puns in titles and murders and outright puns in dialogue constantly, even (especially?) from Isaac, who claims to be annoyed by them.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Aymeric tells Fern she's braver than she knows after the fourth trial.
- You Can Keep Her!: Robert's response to the motive threatening to replace the Competitors with their loved ones.
- You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: Walter says as much in his MTB, asserting that he won't be convicted and the evidence against him is flawed.
- Your Mom: Robert makes this kind of comment to try and rile up Archie when they're accusing him of the third murder.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Appears to be Juri's motive, considering his Vampiric Draining habit, but given that deadland still exists, it's no surprise to learn that things are more complicated than that.
