The Official DFederal Tropes Page

Trope your heart out, Beast
Spoiler Alert: This page contains spoilers to several battles both completed and in-progress. Please continue at your own risk.
==In General==
Tropes that apply to the entire city in general
*Adventure Guild: There are a few in the city, from the FFXIV Adventurer's Guild to the MCU Avengers to the Trails Bracer Guild.
*Ascended Fanon: Shitposts and general discussion frequently find their way into lore
*Asshole Victim: Kai Leng is at the very bottom of the DFederal totem pole, with the most losses. Everyone else profits off of his suffering, as the average house size gets larger the more he loses. But because Kai Leng is such an arrogant twit, no one really feels bad for him.
*Author Avatar: Many users make appearances as the city's officials. They range from cameos like Wassboss to fully fleshed characters like BeastMan14.
**Canon Sue: All the users are shown to have explicit and undeniable power over the other inhabitants of the city.
**Self-Deprecation: Most users are portrayed in a self-aware light, from Beast's incompetence as an administrator to Leolab being an eldritch abomination.
*Author Tract: Happens from time to time. Leo's work often has disliked characters as Butt Monkeys or dying brutal deaths, while Beast's will include conversations on films and references to his real-life politics, with conflicts often stemming from the city's authoritarian and pro-austerity policies. 
*Badass Crew: On top of the regular teams from canon, we have the DFSB, Planetary, and Cfp's Security Team.
*The Cameo: Numerous, with some playing larger roles later and others just being for fun.
*City of Adventure: By design, with all the entities crammed in there.
*Crack Pairing: Several characters get chances to interact in romantic or sexual relationships, from flirting to implied hook-ups to actual hook-ups. Examples include Lisbeth Salander/Supergirl, Ash Williams/Isabela, and Iron Man flirting with several of the Arrowverse's superheriones.
**Adaptational Sexuality: Supergirl, a character coded, at most, as bi-curious in her original media, hooks up with Lisbeth Salander.
*Crapsack World: For all of the city's potential, there is only one true theme: unless you're wealthy or in power, it sucks to live there.
*Creator's Favorite: Some warriors have obtained a favorable status from the users, with future works depicting them in better lights than their original appearances. Examples include Diarmuid ua Duibhne and Cole MacGrath.
*Death Is Cheap: Considering the ease of resurrection in the city, simply dying isn't a particularly major threat.
*Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Thousands of characters from hundreds of fictional works, all living in one enormous dystopian city.
*Mind Rape: How the DFSB treats the criminals it catches.
*Round Robin: General series is written as such, courtesy of the multiple authors working on it. Beast writes the world in a slice-of-life fashion, Leo's are pessimistic vignettes, and Cfp's genre changes depending on the story. Somehow it works.
*Spotlight-Stealing Squad: All stories end up having a minor form of this, thanks to the cameos of other warriors that tend to steal the spotlight from the actual battles and their starring warriors.
*White Void: A red version of this is the Illegal District, though the void encroaches on the trapped being's physical features. Also counts as a Sealed Room in the Middle of Nowhere, as the district does not appear to physically exist and it's used as punishment.
==The Wolves Are Back in Town==
Tropes that apply to the first story arc, The Wolves Are Back in Town
*Adaptational Heroism: The Wolves, originally a violent cult operating as a gang in their origin series, are portrayed as largely well-intentioned, if brutal, freedom fighters. Alpha in particular is genuine in his cause, as opposed to his original incarnation, who was a selfish, hypocritical man-child behind closed doors. 
*Adaptational Villainy: Eragon, a noble and righteous hero in his series, is depicted gleefully working with the Wolves to wreak havoc and destruction. Justified, as the loss of his home and being brutally killed by Haar has eroded his sanity somewhat. 
*Asshole Victim: Two of the Wolves early victims are Gideon Gordon Graves and Frank Tenpenny. Given that one is an abusive control freak and the other is a corrupt cop, one doesn't exactly feel sympathy.
*Big Bad: Alpha Wolf, with Kai Leng and Vulpes Inculta as Co-Dragons, and Voldemort and Amahl Farouk both playing Starscream.
*Big Badass Battle Sequence: The Wolves Uprising spans the entire city, and the small peeks we get are enormous in scale, from rampaging Kaiju to the Avengers teaming up with the Justice League to hold the line against an army of Wolves and Koloss.
*Big Damn Heroes: Joker saves Jordi from a surprise attack by Priest, easily killing the would-be assassin with Arsene. 
**Pete Wisdom and Sypha Belnades arrive just in time to take down Voldemort before he can kill a defiant Elijah Snow. 
*Bittersweet Ending: The Uprising fails and Alpha is dead, but Beast is killed and subsequently trapped in the Astral Plane, with no one, save Leo, even suspecting Farouk. Could be a straight up Downer Ending, if you were rooting for the Wolves.
*Butt Monkey: Beast's first appearance is him spilling papers all over his desk and realizing he's let a freedom fighter loose in the city. Things do not improve from there.
*The Cavalry: The Arrowverse!Justice League arrive just in time to provide Cap, Tony, and Spidey with vital back-up against the Wolves and their Koloss horde.
*Canon Character All Along: Played with. Both Alpha and Jack are introduced as seemingly minor characters who were part of generic gangs before being revealed to be the DFederal counterparts of characters from OCF, a previous RP conducted by several users.
*Chekov's Gunman: Alpha himself was this, making scattered appearances throughout Connor v K before revealing himself properly at the end of the battle, though both Jack, who disappears once the Uprising starts, only to return and kill Alpha and Beast, and Farouk, who makes a single cameo and is briefly mentioned working with the Wolves before hijacking Beast's body, are worth mentioning.
*Curb-Stomp Battle: The uprising as a whole was ultimately this, with the Wolves losing 90% of their fighting force and their leader over the course of the night, but specific examples include Robocop vs a squad of Wolves, Goro Akechi vs an entire platoon of them, and Pete Wisdom and Sypha Belnades vs Voldemort. 
*Didn't See This Coming: Alpha is prepared for every eventuality...save getting shot in the face by a hitman mid-gloat.
*Dragon Ascendant: Inculta tries this after Alpha's death. Doctor Doom has other ideas.
*Dropped A Bridge on Him: Alpha is unexpectedly shot in the head by Jack, who barely dwells on him before taking his mask as proof of a kill. 
*Early-Bird Cameo: Akechi and the full roster of the DSFB all make minor appearances in the lead-up to and during the Wolves Uprising, foreshadowing their greater role in the next arc.
*Evil vs Evil: A quasi-fascist police state that assigns worth based off of combat skill vs a terrorist cult dedicated to destroying it. Who's the hero? Up to you really.
*From Nobody to Nightmare: Alpha Wolf starts as an unnamed greaser on the run from the cops, and ends as a powerful, feared terrorist leader whose actions widely disrupt the city. 
*Hold the Line: Happens across the city as Wolves emerge from the sewers. Hawkeye and the Peacekeepers are mentioned doing this to defend Ice-T Puppy Incorporated, while we see Captain America, Iron Man, and Spider-Man take on a horde of Wolves to ensure they can't escape into the city. They are joined by the DCTVU!Justice League once the Koloss and Steel Inquisitors arrive, and we also briefly see Thor and Hulk attempting this against Biollante. 
*I Know You Know I Know: How Alpha's plans ultimately end up. He knows that many Users draw power from the generators, and disabled the one that powered their invincibility, and he knew that some users don't and had Farouk interfere with their ability to use their powers. He didn't foresee Farouk's intentions to betray him, nor that Leo had a backup even for that.
*Klingon Promotion: Doctor Doom takes control of the surviving Wolves by killing Vulpes Inculta mid-speech. 
*Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Most of the Wolves Uprising, from Supergirl killing King Ghidorah to Akechi Goro wiping out a platoon of Wolves on his own, are relegated to us seeing merely the aftermath.
*Out-Gambitted: Several examples in one. Beast's counter for Kai Leng coming to capture him is beaten by Alpha taking Kai's failure into account, and his back-up, the Seventh Kalvary, fails miserably in their rescue mission. On Alpha's part, he's unprepared for the numerous factions within the city to beat back the rebellion, nor is he aware of Farouk's plan to simply overthrow him once the dust settled.
*Summon Bigger Fish: Beast uses this tactic by calling in Thane to fight Kai Leng, then having the Seventh Kalvary acting as the rescue when he's kidnapped by the Wolves. The former goes well, the latter...considerably less so. In a more clear example, a thoroughly outgunned Leon S. Kennedy lures a squad of Wolves into Pennywise's lair in the sewers, using the chaos of the ensuing slaughter to escape.
*Suspiciously Similar Song: Damien Marcato's "Sneaky Sniper" is one for David Bowie's "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)". Lampshaded by the Irish mafia members, who deem Damien a knock-off of Bowie.
*Titled After the Song: The arc itself is named for a Soilwork song.
*Wham Shot: Beast is revived and emerges in a new outfit, only to look at his reflection and show off yellow eyes.
*What You Are in the Dark: Miranda Lawson is given a chance to kill her abusive boss and pin the blame on the Wolves. She doesn't hesitate.
==Proxy War==
Tropes that apply to the second story arc, Proxy War
*Adaptational Badass: Yoshikage Kira in canon targeted defenseless women and spent every encounter with another Stand user actively on the backfoot and forced to resort to deception to survive. Here, he's killed several formidable victims, including an Avenger, a member of the COG, and the daughter of Voldemort, and is able to outwit and kill Goro Akechi, a veritable One Man Army.
*Adaptational Personality Change: Combined with Adaptation Expansion, Saturos and Menardi are a lot more snarky than in canon, alongside explicitly being in a relationship. 
*A Day in the Limelight: Harley Quinn v Ramona Flowers is one for Ramona, Beast's Beleaguered Assistant, delving into her life in the city and her relationship with Scott and his bandmates.
*All For Nothing: Each of Beast's plans, which require effort and risk alerting Farouk to his sabotage, fail, with Kasumi and Asuha killing Raziel in spite of Akechi's sacrifice, Saturos and Menardi killing Blados and Chalis (though he still gets what he wants out of that), and Planetary stealing the package from the Joker gang.
*And I Must Scream: The ultimate fate of Yoshikage Kira, who is trapped by John Constantine in a soundproof box that no one can see until he is either summoned for a battle or dies. Doubles with Ironic Hell, given Kira's obsession with living a quiet life where no one notices him.
**Beast doesn't have it too good either, trapped in the Astral Plane with no one to talk to save a hastily constructed Ramona.
**This ends up being Farouk's fate. See Fate Worse than Death
*Another Side, Another Story: In Ramona Flowers vs Harley Quinn, Ramona briefly sees Agatio and Karst's food truck pull up to Beast's office, but doesn't interact with them. We see the context of their meeting with "Beast" in their own battle.
*Assassin Outclassin': Leo effortlessly dispatches a Wolf sent to kill him, using his Humanoid Abomination to shrug off the blow and then kill them in one hit. 
*Attack of the Fifty Foot Whatever: In response to both the Alchemic Beast and the Fusion Dragon, John summons Swamp Thing. A kaiju battle ensues.
*The Bad Guy Wins: Several times!
**Goro Akechi vs Yoshikage Kira ends with Kira killing Akechi and escaping the authorities, though it's a pyrrhic victory, as he's unable to kill Raziel and is ultimately captured by Constantine.
**Kiritsugu & Maiya vs Asuha & Kasumi has Farouk successfully manipulate the death of Raziel, slowing down Leo's plans and leaving the DFSB on the backfoot.
**Ramona Flowers vs Harley Quinn: Harley wins, killing Ramona and escaping with the mysterious package. Though, given the package was meant for Farouk, maybe that's for the best.
**Ultimately averted in the finale, with Farouk finally defeated and sentenced to a Fate Worse Than Death.
*Bait and Switch: Akechi states that his memory had been wiped after his death, initially suggesting Farouk's involvement, only to reveal that he's faking the amnesia so he can track down and kill Kira himself. 
*Bait the Dog: John Constantine's initial appearances have him as his snarky and cynical, but charming, self as he takes down Kira and Mr. C, and he initially seems to bond with Jesse...right up until he uses her as a living bomb in order to kill Kerry, then shrugs it off. 
*Battle Couple: Saturos and Menardi are one, working closely together as DFSB partners and a married couple.
*Big Bad: Amahl Farouk appears to be setting himself up as this, as he plays the role of Greater Scope Villain during both Akechi v. Kira and Kiritsugu Emiya & Maiya Hisau v. Kasumi Chigusa & Asuha Chigusa, using Kira's killing spree and the general chaos to further his own agenda, while Leo identifies him as a direct threat. He's ultimately closer to a Big Bad Wannabe, as it's made clear that he's very much a small fry in comparison to Leo and never even meets him until after his defeat. 
*Big Good: Leo and Beast both work in opposition to Farouk, waging the titular proxy war against him with various warriors operating under their orders. To a smaller degree, Elijah Snow is this as well, using Planetary to protect people and intervene when it's called for, though he's somewhat of an Unwitting Pawn to Farouk. 
*Big Damn Heroes: Gandalf saves Sorami from being killed by Michael Roa, then proceeds to wipe the floor with Roa, all while reassuring Sorami with his classic wizardly charm.
*Call-Back:
**Elijah makes good on his promise to recruit more people into Planetary, and his appearances have him speaking with new members John Constantine and Cole MacGrath, alongside inviting Jesse Faden and Goro Akechi on to the team.
**Aiden Pearce, a prominent member of the Wolves, is assassinated by the DFSB after a lengthy foot chase.
**Kara Danvers and Lisbeth Salander are officially a couple following an apparent one-night stand Akechi witnessed the aftermath of.
*Chekhov's Gun: The package, the unexplained MacGuffin that Harley and Ramona were fighting over, is revealed to be the Altered Item from Jesse v Cole, with Farouk using it to summon the Hiss and empower himself.
**Several come into play during John Constantine vs Mr. C, but most notably John's reflection spells and the Greench snowglobe. 
*Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: The more subtle, manipulative Farouk serves as this to the bombastic Alpha. While both seek to take power of DFederal, Farouk is doing it for entirely selfish reasons as opposed to Alpha's genuinely idealistic goals, alongside choosing to do it subtly by undermining the leadership and through proxies while Alpha attempted it through an outright armed uprising with himself as the face of it. 
*Curb-Stomp Battle: Akechi's fight with Kira is this, with Killer Queen getting thoroughly trounced by Loki and Kira surviving solely through tricks like Sheer Heart Attack and Stray Cat, which enables him to turn the tide and kill Akechi.
*Curb-Stomp Cushion: Planetary loses to the DFSB, with all of them dying without even coming close to destroying Kadingir, but not before killing most of their members, crippling Menardi, and forcing them to activate several Godzilla Thresholds to take them down. 
*Da Chief: Skullduggery Pleasant is this to the Magic Division, giving out assignments and communicating with higher-ups. In a subversion, he's actually helpful and understanding, giving Akechi leeway in his investigation of the Kira murders.
*Darker and Edgier: Dials up the horror and dystopian elements that were more subtle, or even absent, in the first season.
*Decoy Protagonist: The opening of Ramona Flowers vs Harley Quinn focuses on Johnny Rico and a squad of Roughnecks who are tasked with guarding the MacGuffin of the battle, only to be subsequently wiped out by Joker's gang.
**The opening chapter of John Constantine vs Mr. C depicts a variety of characters reacting to the drug epidemic in the city, but they are all ultimately just cameos while John is the story's actual protagonist. 
*Doom Magnet: Much like in canon, John Constantine is this, and his game of cat-and-mouse with Mr. C leads to numerous deaths and unfortunate fates for those around him. 
*The Dragon: This arc sees Carol becoming this to Leo, replacing Saturos, who continues to work on the DFSB in a state of semi-retirement. 
*Dual Boss: Blados and Chalis act as this for Menardi, while Agatio and Karst do the same for Saturos.
*Duel Boss: Happens several times during DFSB vs Planetary, with examples including Elijah vs Saturos and Zuko vs Lun Lun.
*Dying Clue: A mortally wounded Akechi leaves his uniform patch underneath the wheel of a car before Kira finishes him off, which tips off the DFPD (and Planetary) that the disturbance was tied to the ongoing investigation and gives the former justification to revive him. 
*Eldritch Location: This aspect of the city is given more prominence in this arc, especially during Kiritsugu & Maiya vs Asuha & Kasumi. More prominently this is Leo's office, which changes location and layout with every appearance.
**The Sewer Depths are one as well, with tentacle monsters roaming the halls, the residue of a failed Nyarlathotep summoning, and concrete flowers used as the main method of transportation, and all this on the more sane layers. Whatever is farther down is enough to not only frighten Saturos, but to make Leo wary.
*Eureka Moment: Akechi has one when he sees a drawing of an eye on a camera and realizes what Strange's hint meant. This clue puts him, indirectly, onto the trail of Kira.
*Fate Worse Than Death: Farouk's punishment for challenging Leo is to be trapped on his own for all eternity with his senses heightened, leaving him unable to enjoy what few pleasures he has left. 
*Fisticuffs Boss: After Saturos loses his sword, his fight with Elijah becomes this, ending in a draw and with both badly injured and exhausted.
*Genre Shift: The various stories set during the arc range from murder mysteries to spy thrillers to fast-paced action comedy. 
*The Ghost: Joker is this during Akechi v Kira, with Akechi's rivalry with him looming over much of Akechi's internal thought process, but he never makes a physical appearance. 
*Godzilla Threshold: Carol, Liliana, and the duo of Saturos and Menardi each cross theirs to defeat Planetary, with Carol becoming the Alchemic Beast, Lun Lun activating Absolute Zero, and Saturos and Menardi creating the Fusion Dragon. 
*Hero Of Another Story: During his hunt for Kira, Akechi encounters Dr. Strange and Lisbeth Salander, characters in the middle of, respectively, a cosmic horror/fantasy epic and a cyberpunk thriller, but ultimately continues on his way rather than pry further.
*Heroic Sacrifice: Akechi ultimately makes one, fighting and distracting Kira long enough for the authorities to arrive, forcing him to abandon his plan to kill Raziel, though it becomes a Senseless Sacrifice when Raziel is killed later.
*Hope Spot: John and Elijah destroy the Alchemic Beast with the Twin Blade and seemingly turn the tide, only for Carol to reform herself and kill them both. 
*Ironic Echo: Farouk's line of "A gilded cage is still a cage." used to justify his joining the Wolves is later repeated by him in an effort to convince Leo not to punish him further. Needless to say, it doesn't work.
*Kill Steal: John Constantine inadvertently does this to Akechi, capturing Kira before Akechi could track him down and kill him. 
*Lets You and Him Fight: Planetary is manipulated by Farouk into launching an attack on the DFSB and attempting to destroy Kadingir. 
*Literary Allusion Title: Each chapter of Kiritsugu & Maiya vs Asuha & Kasumi is a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche's Parable of the Madman. The Nietzsche trend continues in Saturos & Menardi vs Agatio & Karst vs Blados & Chalis, though the references are more esoteric.
*Magical Society: The Council of Magi, a group of sorcerers working to protect the city from eldritch threats. The full team is unknown, but both Doctor Strange and Gandalf are seen working on it's behalf during this arc.
*Murder Is the Best Solution: The DFPD and the DFSB both routinely kill criminals they chase. A Justified Trope because Death Is Cheap. When one can simply revive the dead, avoiding murder is less important.
*Noodle Incident: How exactly Lisbeth Salander managed to crack the city's surveillance systems, and how that brought her to the attention of Maxwell Smart, is never explained. Nor is the incident at North University that required DFSB involvement. Saturos also makes mention of "Red November", an event that occurred in 2017, and a time in 2015 where he and Leo teamed up with the Council of Magi to stop an attempt to summon Nyarlathotep, but stays sparse on the details.
*Not Me This Time: John Constantine vs Mr. C is the only story in the arc in which Farouk plays no role, instead focusing on Beast's own plans to escape the Astral Plane. 
*Offscreen Moment of Awesome: John Constantine runs his own side investigation into the Kira murders, and is able to not only clue together Kira's identity, but work out a plan to trap him for an eternity with Kira totally unaware of his existence.
**Boyd Crowder manages to piss off the Joker and fight his gang to an effective standstill, but we only hear of the aftermath of the fight.
**King Kong breaks out of containment and engages in a battle with Eva Unit-01, Superman, and Captain Britain that levels a chunk of the White Collar district, but Ramona pays little attention to it in her pursuit of Harley.
*Pet the Dog: Rather than punish her for her failure, Farouk still gives Ramona her paid vacation and assures her that the fight with Harley will be considered a match, ensuring she won't lose her home. 
*Poor Communication Kills: The duos of Blados/Chalis and Saturos/Menardi are both ordered to destroy the same generator, but Blados's Blood Knight tendencies mean he attacks Saturos before that can be explained, leading to both his and Chalis's brutal deaths.
*Proxy War: Exactly What It Says On the Tin, but a two-pronged example as Farouk tries to stop Leo from completing Project: Kadingir, with both them and Beast, still trapped in the Astral Plane, utilizing various warriors for their goals.
*Punch Clock Hero: Ramona storms Joker's hideout and engages in a length fight with Harley Quinn...in return for some paid time off.
*Sealed Good in a Can: Beast is reduced to this, working from his astral prison to stop Farouk.
*Sequel Hook: The creatures lurking within the depths and Astral Plane of DFederal continue to grow restless, while Elijah sets his sights on investigating Cfp.
*Slice Of Life: The general structure of Kiritsugu & Maiya vs Asuha & Kasumi, mostly told as a series of vignettes, typically contrasting the former pair's indifference to the horrors of the city with the latter pair's discomfort.
*Shout-Out:
**The surreal horror elements of Akechi v Kira, and the idea of a detective guided along a murder case by outside forces, calls to mind Twin Peaks, with Beast's visit to Akechi resembling the Red Room and Cooper's conversations with the Arm.
**With the exception of the first chapter, each chapter in Akechi v Kira is a reference to a different work, with some foreshadowing a character or event that occurs within. (Chapter 3's being a line from Doctor Strange, Chapter 5's being the theme song of Kira's native series and hinting towards a chase scene, etc.)
**Matthew Pennyfarthing's rant during his debate with Farouk is a reference to a similar incident by Matt Christman, Pennyfarthing's creator, who went on a similar drunken tirade during the Chapo Trap House Midterm livestream and had to be removed for fear of getting their Twitch stream shut down.
**Ramona briefly mistaking Superman for an ex of hers is a reference to Brandon Routh, who played Superman in Superman Returns and Crisis On Infinite Earths and Todd Ingram in Scott Pilgrim vs the World.
**Each chapter in John Constantine vs Mr. C is named after a song by The Police, whose lead singer, Sting, was the visual inspiration for John. 
*Spanner in the Works: A series of these come together during Akechi v Kira, with Doctor Strange, Maxwell Smart, and Lisbeth Salander all helping Akechi crack the case and prevent Kira's murder of Raziel.
*Summon Bigger Fish: Faced with the prospect of facing down the Alchemic Beast and the Fusion Threshold, John is forced to call in Swamp Thing for back-up. 
*Villain Protagonist: A twofer! Akechi v Kira is a manhunt between a sociopathic, glory hound detective and a misogynistic serial killer. Downplayed in the former's case in that Akechi is genuinely trying to help while boosting his profile, unlike in Persona 5, where he was firmly a villain who was hit with a Heel Face Door Slam.
*Unwitting Pawn: Zig-zagged with Elijah, who recognizes that he and Planetary are being used by Farouk but ultimately chooses to aid him anyway, as he feels that Leo and Kadingr are a bigger threat. 
*Weirdness Censor: The inhabitants of the city have developed one, with things like the tables occasionally having eyes simply ignored.
*You Have Failed Me: Kerry assumes he's going to be hit with this after his and Maiya's failure to protect Raziel, but Leo reassures him that he's still useful for the time being. 
*Zombie Apocalypse: Happens frequently enough, thanks to Black Dandelion, that most people simply find it an inconvenience.
==To Depths Yonder==
Tropes that apply to works taking place during the To Depths Yonder arc
*Alien Blood: Whatever the Chess Royale group was fighting before the match had yellow blood
*Big Bad: Calamity, a threat so fearsome Leo is willing to make further deals with Lurker and it's kind just to hold it off. 
*Big Bad Wannabe: Played with in terms of Doctor Doom. Multiple factions each recognize him and his Wolves as a threat, but ultimately dismiss him due to Calamity being a much larger one. 
**A straighter example is Cfp, who is an immense danger to the warriors that oppose him but is treated with dismissal by Leo and the other Users, who treat his coup attempt as part of his usual schtick. 
*Co-Dragons: Calamity has Cfp and Artorius, who each fulfill a specific purpose, with Cfp taking on the Users while Artorius shifts public opinion in the city and recruits viable warriors. 
*Curbstomp Cushion: While Calamity and it's allies are handily defeated by Leo, Lurker, and the DFSB, the Abbey manages to inflict heavy casualties on Class Zero, killing half of the team before being brought down. 
*Defeat Equals Friendship: After the events of Chess Royale, Shigure Rangetsu forms a team of bodyguards with the other participants.
*Demoted to Dragon: Defied. Amahl Farouk, Big Bad of the previous arc, is offered a chance to escape his prison in return for serving Calamity. As Calamity's end goal is the destruction of the city, he refuses the deal. 
*Did You Just Have Tea With Cthulu?: Leo has tea with Lurker fairly regularly. He later Lampshades that this is probably not good for his sanity.
*Dual Boss: The entire point of Fate/Shipping Wars
*Dwindling Party: Class Zero loses several members as they fight their way to Artorius, and only half the class is left standing by the end.
*Eldritch Abomination: There are several, with a distinct hierarchy. Entities, such as Lurker and Calamity, are at the top and command lesser abominations known as their "Brood".
*Enemy Mine: Leo and Elijah Snow, who ended the last arc on shaky terms, agree to work together to counter Cfp and Calamity's plans. 
*Godzilla Threshold: The impending attack of Calamity leaves several people willing to cross this, with Leo sacrificing an entire city and risking war with Lurker to acquire something that could stop it while Doctor Strange contemplates wielding the power of the Darkhold just to stand a chance. 
*Horrifying the Horror: Whatever Leo is planning to do has Lurker freaked out
*It's Personal With the Dragon: Leo never encounters Calamity, instead letting Lurker deal with them, while he has a confrontation with Cfp, with the two using the fight as an opportunity to air out their respective resentments. 
*Literary Allusion Title:
**The intro to Chess Royale is titled Das Veilchen (The Violet), a poem by Goethe about a boy having his heart broken by a woman.
**The chapter titles for Chess Royale are similarly lines from Goethe's works, though left in the original Gratuitous German
**The arc itself takes its title from a translated line of another Goethe poem, Des Menschen Seele (Song of the spirits over the waters)
*The Mole: Shigure is this, with elements of Fake Defector. He actively provides intel to the DFSB due to a fondness for the city's culture of combat, but ultimately takes part in the defense of the Order to see the strength of whoever Leo would send to take on Artorius. 
*Names To Run Away From Really Fast: Entities have this, with The Extinguishing Calamity taking the cake. 
*Pet the Dog: After Proxy War ruined Liliana and Zuko's friendship, Leo gives her the chance to patch things up with a dinner and a gift. And permission to expense it to the DFSB. In a more humorous example, he also takes offense to a homophobic remark directed at Akechi from Cole Phelps, silently shaming the latter for it. 
*Puppeteer Parasite: The worms encountered in Chess are effectively this, though they do so by manipulating their host's perceptions.
*Powers at a Price: The original six founders of the city have this through their deals with Lurker. Each pact has a price, and in return they get both Lurker's protection for the city and a personalized power.
*Pragmatic Villainy: Much of Doom's actions in the arc can be chalked up to this. He refuses to ally with the Order as he recognizes they're drawing too much attention from the city and doesn't punish Wolf for the botched assassination attempt of Artorius, instead giving the shinobi a sense of purpose in the Doomguard as it's a better use of a talented warrior.
*Replacement Goldfish: Wolf, to some degree, sees Yusuke Kitagawa as one for Kuro, a similarly eccentric, kind-hearted boy with desires of being an artist. 
*Shipper On Deck: Fate/Shipping Wars is basically Leo doing this.
*Snark-to-Snark Combat: Carol engages in this with the Council of Magi, who treat the banter with a mixture of amusement and frustration.
*Sole Survivor: Solaire of Astora, the Order's Token Good Teammate, survives the assault on the Order by virtue of being away on a mission for Wass at the time. 
*Spotting the Thread: Yuuhi was able to resist the worms after realizing that the illusion they tried to use to control him was acting out of character.
*The Starscream: Cfp actively plots alongside Calamity to seize power for himself, stockpiling weapons that could kill Users and ruthlessly dispatching anyone who comes too close to discovering his plans. 
*Title Drop: Fairly early on. The prologue for Chess Royale is the untranslated line.
*Unwitting Pawn: The contestants of Leo's royales are this, actively fighting one another without realizing he's using them as part of his plans against Calamity. 
*Villain With Good Publicity: Much like in canon, Artorius Collbrande is this, operating the Reformed Abbey as a safe haven for the less fortunate while secretly plotting with Calamity to destroy the city.
==DoomWar==
Tropes that apply to works taking place during the DoomWar arc
*All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Wolves take advantage of the distracted police force to seize control of the police station, shutting down communications and killing any units that attempt to respond. 
*Batman Gambit: The Wolves deliberately leak Doom's location, knowing that the city would be overzealous enough to send most of the police force into the sewers in pursuit of him. This enables them to trap the police in the sewers and wipe them out in an ambush. 
*Big Bad: After multiple arcs as a Wild Card operating in the shadows, Doctor Doom is finally this, driving DFederal forces out of the Lower District and turning it into New Latveria.
*Call-Back: Lots! 
**The arc opens with Beast's death at the hands of Jack during the first Wolves attack, with Doom revealed to have been watching from the shadows.
**The vial Doom and Sinister had discussed is revealed to be a vial of Beast's blood, genetically tuned to be transfused into Doom. 
**Beast and Cfp are introduced having one of their usual film conversations, with Cfp still running the nationalized Ice-T Puppy Inc. 
**After contemplating using it in the prior arc, Doctor Strange finally gives into the Darkhold so he can fight an empowered Doom. 
*Curbstomp Battle: In an inverse of the original attack, the Wolves second uprising is this, completely catching the city's defenders off-guard and wiping most of them out in a matter of hours. 
**Curbstomp Cushion: While the rest of the Council of Magi is easily killed, a Darkhold-enhanced Doctor Strange manages to briefly stymie Doom, forcing him to take their fight seriously, while Kiritsugu Emiya kills a considerable number of the Wolves ambush during his escape from New Latveria.
==Side Stories==
Tropes that apply to works not taking place in any arc
*And This is For: Bigby almost says this word for word before he attacks Kira to avenge Akechi. 
*Another Side, Another Story: Bigby Wolf vs Alucard gives us glimpses into John Constantine's investigation of the Kira murders, which we originally only the saw the initial culmination of.
*Assassin Outclassin': The Winter Soldier easily gets the drop on Kai Leng and defeats him so handily that the killing is entirely offscreen. 
*Bar Full of Aliens: Or, well, technically Bar Full of Robots, but the Claptrap gives off this vibe.
*Big Badass Battle Sequence: Both the Tarot and World War Royales involved massive battle sequences spanning the entire city. Tarot in particular had the fighting going on for several hours.
*Boxed Crook: Aiden Pearce signs on to the Surveillance division in return for Pete getting his collar removed. 
*Butt Monkey: Kai Leng and Eragon are all but guaranteed to have humiliating deaths whenever they appear.
*Co-Dragons: Doctor Doom has three, with Lelouch and Jim Raynor acting as his top commanders and strategists, while the Winter Soldier is his chief bodyguard/assassin. 
*Could Say It, But...: Hannibal would love to help Bigby deal with the grief of his partner's death, but he's afraid he can only give him time off where he'll be able to help find the killer. 
*Cyberpunk: The initial aesthetic of the city resembled this during Connor vs K, though later iterations leaned towards more grounded, dystopian depictions.
*Deadly Game: Each of the Royales are basically this, as warriors compete in brutal fights for survival amongst one another, often for a reward of some form.
*Decoy Protagonist: Happens often in royales, with the decoys often being characters who are quickly picked off to demonstrate the danger at hand. Examples include Kai Leng, who dies before even taking part in any actual fighting in Tarot, and Hawkeye, who is immediately taken over by the Oracle at the start of Color Royale.
*Disc One Final Boss: The Oracle is this in Color Royale, organizing his own scheme to take power and sending the possessed Hawkeye and Kakyoin as his muscle, before ultimately dying third, leaving Elijah and Sypha to duke it out for first.
*Early Installment Weirdness: Both Connor vs K and Operation Zodiac have plot points and minor mentions that are either contradicted or ignored in later stories, thanks to being the first works in the setting. Doesn't help that the latter was retconned in.
*Enemy Civil War: The Wolves remnants are undergoing one, with Doom's faction as the most dominant while others led by Bane and Asajj Ventress are actively feuding with it. 
*Entertainingly Wrong: Frank West speculates the Kira killings are part of a greater conspiracy, with Kira directly working on someone's behalf. He's almost right, save for the fact that Kira is being manipulated rather than directly working for Farouk.
*Fire-Forged Friends: Also an example of Defeats Means Friendship, Elijah Snow comes away from Color Royale with such respect for Sypha and Zuko that they're his first recruits to the new Planetary, while Cole MacGrath, Merill, Nightcrawler, and Nico di Angelo end up forming a close bond during World War Royale. 
*Five Second Foreshadowing: Jesse Faden recognizes that it's oddly cold in her apartment mere moments before realizing that Elijah Snow has broken in.
*Freudian Trio: Elijah Snow, Sypha Belnades, and Zuko form one during Color Royale, with Elijah as Superego, Sypha as the Ego, and Zuko as the Id.
*Guest Star Party Member: During World War Royale, Spider-Man helps Nightcrawler and Merrill fight Kanyneth before departing, recognizing that the fight ultimately isn't his.
*Hope Spot: During Color Royale, Zuko manages to overpower the Oracle and have him at his mercy, but a last-second distraction from Sypha gives the Oracle the opening to land a fatal strike.
*Inciting Incident:
**The Tarot Royale and the immense destruction it brought upon the city are a major cause of the dissatisfaction that prompted the Wolves' uprising, as well as one of the points Farouk is using to gain the trust of the citizens.
**Similarly, the jailing of the Greasers is what lead to Alpha regaining his memories and rising to power.
*Lets You and Him Fight: Comes with the setting, but this is explicitly the plan of the Oracle in Color Royale, using Hawkeye to kill Sara Lance before taking over Kakyoin and sending him after the trio of Elijah, Sypha, and Zuko. The former plan succeeds, the latter does not, forcing him to confront them personally.
**Bigby Wolf vs Alucard is this as well, with Bigby and Alucard both hunting for Yoshikage Kira and only clashing when Bigby's rage gets the better of him.
*Mob War: One is brewing between Michael Corleone and Marsellus Wallace. 
*Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sypha running her own investigation into the Kira murders ends up getting Alucard killed at the hands of an enraged Bigby and nearly alerts Kira that John Constantine, who was working with Bigby, is onto him.
*Odd Friendship: Comes with the setting, but a particularly notable one is Goro Akechi, an unstable Blood Knight masquerading as a reserved and polite teenager, and Bigby Wolf, a gruff, cynical anti-hero. 
*Offscreen Moment of Awesome: During Tarot, Joseph Joestar - a man with nothing but his wits and a Stand that has few combat applications - puts up enough of a fight against Kaladin, someone who can control gravity and has a shapeshifting weapon that ignores durability, that he's near death and almost out of the Stormlight he needs to power his abilities. We only see the very end of this fight.
*Plot Hole: Usually done to repair these.
*Reality Ensues: K wrecks valuable property in his fight with Connor and is in turn forced to pay for the ensuing repairs rather than be let off the hook, effectively squandering his bonus.
**Rather than simply accept his victory and the subsequent prizes for winning Color Royale, the famously anti-authoritarian and pragmatic Elijah Snow simply attacks Beast in retribution for the deaths of his fellow competitors over the course of the last two days. Beast survives entirely by giving Elijah the resources to form a new Planetary.
*Retcon: Leolab is attempting to correct the Schrodinger's Canon status of Operation Zodiac, mentioned below, by including the characters in matches.
*Schrodinger's Canon: Operation Zodiac exists in a state of this, as the University is referenced in other works, but elements of the story, such as the Babel Division and several characters appearing in the battle despite not being on the wiki, contradict set canon. Juuni Taisen is also questionably canon, though it's generally accepted to take place in a prototype DFederal.
*Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Officer K is this in Connor v K, as he's clearly unsatisfied with his role in the department and Connor's words give him pause, while Garrus Vakarian shows frustration with the entire system during his appearance in World War Royale.
*The Spymaster: Pete Wisdom uses the chaos of the post-Wolves DFPD to position himself as this, rebuilding the Surveillance division into a formidable organization and using the intel to both protect the city and keep Elijah informed. 
*Throw the Dog a Bone: After getting stuck in the sewers following his death in Operation Zodiac, Cole wins the World War Royale, winning himself a decent home in the slums, some new friends, and a job with Planetary. Shortly after, he defeats Jesse Faden, pushing him up to the Blue Collar district, and is shown to be back in good spirits during his cameo in Akechi v Kira.