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* [[Write Who You Know]]: There are a large number of self insert characters or characters who are basically people each handler knows in real life. These characters are typically portrayed realistically, however.
* [[Your Head Asplode]]: Collar detonation. Stay in a danger zone too long, try to remove the collar, suffer an unfortunate impact, get used as an example by Danya to try to scare off SADD or Liz Polanski...
== Version 3 ==
* [[Air Vent Passageway]]: Used to escape a dead-end by John Sheppard, Vera Lang and Kyrie Joseph, as killer Harry Tsai was hot on their heels and it was the only way out of the building they had run inside.
* [[Alas Poor Yorick]]: Alice takes the severed head of Guy Rapide and starts talking to it as if Guy were still alive. She then stuffs the head in her daypack.
* [[Aloof Ally]]: Dominica Shapiro's part in [[Five Man Band|SADD]] was very much one of these, although she was slowly becoming more and more of a part of the team.
* [[Angry Black Man]]: Troy McCann tends to drop into this from time to time. Notably, he ''intentionally'' made himself out this way in order to be more like the rap stars he idolizes.
* [[A Plague On Both Your Houses]]: Anna Vaan to Lenny Priestly:
{{quote| '''Anna:''' My mother's dead, and so's my sister, just like yours is gonna be at the end of this god damn GAME!}}
* [[Apologetic Attacker]]: Bobby Jacks apologizes to Ivan Roeghmills before cutting his throat.
* [[Asexuality]]: Bobby Jacks has been clearly shown to hold absolutely no attraction to anybody. Even when he suspects a fellow classmate has a crush on him his reaction can be summed up as 'Hm. Interesting'
* [[Asian Gal With White Guy]]: Adam Dodd ends up getting Izzy Cheung, though considering the [[There Can Only Be One|pre]][[Kill Em All|mise]] and the [[Bolivian Army Ending|ending]], it's hard to say what really happened next.
* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: Adonis Zorba.
* {{spoiler|[[The Bad Guy Wins]]}}:{{spoiler|J. R. Rizzolo}} is the winner of V3.
* [[Becoming the Mask]]: this happened to Dominica Shapiro, who initially joined the group SADD on the off chance their plan would work, with the intent on a double cross if not, but gradually became more and more part of the group properly.
* [[Bifauxnen]]: Dacey Ashcroft is described as being very ambiguous in gender - especially since she is very tall for a girl and in general, just doesn't act 'girly'. That she deliberately perpetrates this charade doesn't help matters for the confused.
* [[Big Man On Campus]]: Arguably Steve Digaetano, probably the most popular guy at Southridge. He isn't perhaps a [[Jerkass]] of the highest order, but he certainly has his moments.
* [[Born Unlucky]]: Karl Van Buren, a ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' v3 character, seems to have this problem, as he's notorious for having extremely bad luck. Some of the things noted in his backstory include, in no particular order, almost drowning, the plane he was on sucking in two people, an ax falling down and hurting people while he was reading about an ax murder, and a transvestite commiting suicide and landing on his car, among other things. He doesn't last very long in-game, having had his neck snapped by Gabriel Theobaldt. He even gets posthumous bad luck, as Victor Kurchatov comes across his corpse and... [[Squick|you don't want to know]].
* [[Calling Card]]: [[Ax Crazy|Blood Boy]] does this at one point: carving a smiley face into one of his victims. (Blood Boy wore a smiley face mask).
* [[Casualty in The Ring]]: Part of Bobby Jacks' backstory is that he accidentally killed an opponent in a boxing match.
* [[Caught With Your Pants Down]]: This happens to Beth Vandelinder - as Melina Frost walks in her. Particularly squicky as Melina then forces her to ''keep going'' before effectively ''[[Rape As Drama|joining in]]''. [[Depraved Bisexual]] indeed... Oh, and Melina uses a vase to help.
* [[Cute Mute]]: Dawn Beckworth. Mute and most certainly cute. Although not particularly supernatural.
* [[Depraved Bisexual]]: Melina Frost. She lead the [[Amazon Brigade|all woman]] group named the Poison Angels in an attempt to kill all the men on the island. She was about as [[Ax Crazy]] as it got. One of the best examples of her insanity is when she rapes Beth Vandelinder. With a ''vase''.
* [[Don't Explain the Joke]]: Carson Baye was a particularly unpopular character in V3 due to his habit of referencing anime, then immediately explaining the references. Although, there were a number of other (mostly [[In and Out of Character|out of character]]) reasons for this too.
* [[Dropped a Bridge On Him]]: Mods are often forced to do this to inactive characters. A massive wave of inactivity in V3 forced the admins to (allegedly) kill off a large number of characters off screen en masse, including major characters such as Neil Sinclair, Julie Mikan, Darnell Butler, and even Adam Dodd.
* [[Everythings Worse With Bees]]: Katherine Blanco dies after a severe allergic reaction from a bee sting. [[Big Bad|Mr. Danya]] is less than sympathetic.
{{quote| '''Danya''': Sometimes, kiddos, you don't have to wait around for the competition to kill you. Some of you are so imperfect that Mother Nature decides to do it herself.}}
* [[Extremity Extremist]]: Bobby Jacks almost invariably resorts to his fists in combat. He is, however, a boxer, so that isn't a huge surprise. He doesn't seem to have many compunctions about using his head either. It's mostly a case of sticking to what he's good at. (In fact, the one time he tried to kick somebody he immediately got his ass kicked).
* [[Genius Bruiser]]: professional boxer Bobby Jacks stands at 190-1 cm and weighs in at 93 kg. He's also shown to be very intelligent, capable of trickery, fighting very tactically, and being able to quote [[Shakespeare]] (relevantly) purely from memory.
* [[Genius Ditz]]: Keiji Tanaka is firmly established to be an utter moron within moments of his entry into V3. However, he has an almost unparalleled skill handling a sword (due to years of practice), to the point where he comes close to defeating an axe-wielding opponent with a broken sabre whilst {{spoiler|bleeding to death.}}
* [[Girls Love Stuffed Animals]]: Alice Jones for most of the game carries around a plush rabbit, and is mentioned as having a collection of stuffed animals back home. Later on, she starts to hallucinate said rabbit talking to her, and eventually replaces it with {{spoiler|Guy Rapide's head}}
* [[Heel Face Revolving Door]]: Happens with Julie Mikan. She undergoes a [[Face Heel Turn]] at the very start whilst deciding to play, killing Owen Fontaine gives her a [[Heel Face Turn]] and a [[Heroic BSOD]], before a few days later, she once again decides to play, becoming a 'heel' for the second time.
* [[He's Back]]: A villainous variation occurs with Julie Mikan. After killing a fellow classmate she goes into a [[Heroic BSOD]], before somewhat reforming. However, a couple of days later, Julie finally breaks down due to the heat and sleep deprivation, signifying a return for her villainous self.
* [[Heroic Sociopath]]: Near the end of V3, Dominica Shapiro [[Heel Realization|realizes that she has become this]] {{spoiler|just before she throws herself at the terrorists guns a-blazing in a bid to keep the escaping students safe, and to have some fun in the meanwhile.}}
* [[Hit Me Dammit]]: In a more lethal instance, Wade Wilson of tells Edward Sullivan to shoot him. Edward, seeking vengeance against Wade for killing a girl he had a crush on, is all too happy to oblige.
* [[Honor Before Reason]]: Neil Sinclair fits this trope to the letter. The primary example of such behaviour is trusting Dominica Sharpiro by offering her a place in his Pro escape group, despite knowing, for ''certain'' that she {{spoiler|earlier killed another group member}} who became separated from the others.
* [[Hope Spot]]: Laeil Burbank is tortured by Riz, who cuts her eye out and leaves her to bleed out in a burning hanger, only for her to be rescued and patched up. At which point she dies of a heart attack due to massive blood loss. Also counts as a [[Real Life]] [[Hope Spot]], as she wasn't rolled until immediately after she was patched up.
* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]]: Bobby Jacks, was carrying about his person and in a smallish daypack at one point, the following: An English Claymore, an Armalon Carbine, a SIG Sauer, a scalpel, a syringe (and the pot of insulin that came with it), a pipewrench, ammo for the carbine (implied to be a lot), supplies five or six time the normal amount, an extensive medical kit, and a [[Arson Murder and Jaywalking|lock of hair]].
* [[I Did What I Had to Do]]: Bobby Jacks's justification of becoming a player in v3: he wanted to survive by any means necessary.
* [[Ignored Epiphany]]: Bobby Jacks. He quickly comes to the realisation that he's one of the bad guys, but immediately after he decides that he's gone too far to try and repent. He even supplements this with a quote from [[Macbeth]] (the ''exact'' same one which Macbeth himself uses in this selfsame situation).
* [[Ironic Echo]]: in a scene that's an homage to [[The Dark Knight|the Joker]], Blood Boy says "Why so serious?" as part of his intimidating speech to Matthew Wittany. {{spoiler|He then attacks Matt, viciously beating him with his gun, as well as killing Matt's friend, Corbin. The tides eventually turn, though, and Matt gets out his own gun and shoots Blood Boy with it. What does he say while shooting? [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"Why so serious?"]]}}
* [[I Shall Taunt You]]: Happens on two separate occasions with the same characters: Tyson Neills and Bobby Jacks. The first time around, Tyson taunts Bobby in an attempt to provoke a fight with Troy [[Mc Cann]] (to raise his 'street credit'). The second time is on the island itself, in an attempt to make him lose his cool and do something stupid. {{spoiler|It backfires, Bobby ''does'' lose his temper, but in the midst of his rage ''kills'' Tyson.}}
* [[Its Not Rape If You Enjoyed It]]: Adam Reeves attempts to justify his rape of Maxie Dasai by asserting that her body's arousal meant that she was into it. It's left ambiguous, but strongly implied that he brought her to orgasm (Reeves himself certainly thought so). [[Complete Monster|He is the only one that thought it was okay]].
* [[Instant Death Bullet]]: Usually averted, but played straight in the v3 Endgame when {{spoiler|Rizzolo shoots Lulu in the gut, and she falls dead instantly.}}
* [[Knight Templar Big Brother]]: Lenny Priestly will do ''anything'' to make sure his twin sister Elizabeth is safe. Literally anything, as he kills people for this reason. Though possibly a subversion, as it has been implied that he used her as an excuse to kill, especially since he went [[Ax Crazy]] and stopped being an [[Anti Villain]].
* [[Locked in A Freezer]]: Alex Steele gets locked in the freezer by Guy Rapide. He tries to escape by [[Shoot Out the Lock|shooting the lock out]], but instead has a bullet ricochet into his chest.
* [[Smite Me O Mighty Smiter]]: Sean O'Cann has a 'word' with God. Over the course of V3 up to that point, his best friend, cousin, and boyfriend had all been killed, as well as it being very likely he would go the same way.
* [[Meta Guy]]: Quincy Archer is the resident [[Meta Guy]], writing a blog about the fake SOTF and the tropes it shows, and then commenting through out the stories on the actions of the various villains and heroes. {{spoiler|He commits suicide, but if he hadn't, one of his [[Karmic Death|personal favorite villains]], JR Rizzolo, would have left him to burn.}}
* [[Morality Chain]]: Elizabeth Priestly is this to twin brother Lenny. When she's not around him, he acts even ''more'' of a complete bastard to get her back/find her. {{spoiler|The only thing that really changes once she dies is that he has no excuse for his kills now.}}
* [[Motive Rant]]: Melina Frost does this before attacking Dacey Ashcroft and Herman Johnson. Ironically, [[Bifauxnen|Dacey]] [[Sweet Polly Oliver|isn't a guy]].
{{quote| '''Melina:''' You know? I never really liked men. Do you know why? It's because they always WANT something. Did you know that? Well, obviously you do. Men constantly WANT. They want to hold you, touch you, kiss you. They want to make you THEIRS. But? I never really liked that you know. That's why, instead of letting them TAKE whatever they want? I decided to WANT and TAKE from them first!}}
* [[Mushroom Samba]]: James Brown accidentally ends up with Beth Vandelinder's acid pills when he wakes up, under the impression that they were aspirin.
* [[My Nayme Is]]: Ivye Dewley and Khrysta Lawrence.
* [[Near Rape Experience]]: J.R. Rizzolo's torture of Laeil Burbank ALMOST starts out with a rape scene, but then Riz decides it'd be a better idea to [[Eye Scream|cut out her eye instead]]. This was due to Riz' writer planning a rape scene, but deciding at the last minute that he wasn't up for it.
* [[Never Bring a Knife To A Fist Fight]]: Subverted when Ric Chee and Bobby Jacks fight with [[Good Old Fisticuffs]]. When Bobby realises that, conversely to his expectations, he is getting beaten down mercilessly (by a guy with no combat expertise whatsoever) he pulls out a scalpel and {{spoiler|immediately fatally stabs Ric.}}
* [[Offhand Backhand]]: Bobby Jacks pulls off the firearm based version with Andy [[Mc Cann]]. Bobby hears the latter cry out behind him and shoots him in the head with a pistol without even turning around.
* [[Paper Cutting]]: Maxie Dasai gets hit in the face [[Annoying Arrows|by an arrow]] and comes away with a minor wound across her cheek, somehow managing to avoid any serious harm.
* [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]]: [[Well Intentioned Extremist]] Lenny Priestly kills {{spoiler|Viki Valentine}} and runs off into the woods, leaving Gabe McCallum and Steve Digaetano to mourn her. Next time they meet, Gabe shoots down {{spoiler|Lenny's sister, Elizabeth Priestly}} in a fit of rage, despite Steve's best efforts.
* [[Poisoned Weapons]]: Blood Boy's assigned weapons were an Ida (an African sword) and a vial of poison meant to be applied to the blade.
* [[Poor Communication Kills]]: Simon Wood mistakes Darnell Butler for a player of the game (not altogether unreasonable, as he is holding a bloodied sword) and attacks to [[Heroic Sacrifice|buy his girlfriend time to escape]]. Before Darnell can get the chance to explain, he has {{spoiler|accidentally killed Simon.}}
* [[Precision F Strike]]: Used spectacularly. Yes, while most characters [[Cluster F Bomb|swear like sailors]], cute, [[Meganekko]], sugary sweet Louise "Lulu" Altaire manages to pull this off. When she meets [[Complete Monster|Lenny]] for the third time, after he has just killed her friends the previous times, this time she's prepared. She's killed people, she has a gun and isn't afraid to use it.
{{quote| '''Lulu''': See this thing, Lenny? Now you take your fucking hands off your handgun or I'll blow a hole through your head.}}
* [[Psycho Lesbian]]: Lyn "Laeil" Burbank of [[Survival of the Fittest]]'s third version. After confessing her love to a female friend, she gets bullied by her classmates for being a "dyke". Once she gets on the island, she kills her cousin (who was one of her major bullies) by [[Groin Attack|stabbing him in the groin repeatedly]]. Afterwards, she decides that she was going to die anyways, and that she was going to [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|get revenge on everyone who ever bullied her]]. {{spoiler|The last thing she sees before she dies is a hallucination of forementioned female friend forgiving her.}}
* [[Quicksand Sucks]]: Shows up in v3, where it's used to kill both {{spoiler|Melina Frost}} and {{spoiler|Beth Vandelinder}}, one getting stuck in the sand long enough to be stabbed, the other being [[Taking You With Me|pulled in head-first by Melina and drowned.]]
* [[Revenge By Proxy]]: Lenny Priestly kills Gabe McCallum's love interest Viki Valentine. Later on, Gabe gets his revenge on Lenny by {{spoiler|shooting dead his twin sister Elizabeth, who'd had nothing to do with the death}}.
* [[Rope Bridge]]: There's a rope bridge over a ravine, but subverts the collapsing part by having it be about as durable as you'd expect from a bridge on a military base. Gabe McCallum [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this while crossing it and wondering if it'll fall, reminding himself that the military wouldn't risk men and equipment by making a bridge that wasn't sturdy.
* [[Sad Clown]]: Sean O'Cann, to which the page quote applies almost perfectly. Prior to the point in the game (Day 3) that he found out his best friend, boy friend, and cousin died (three different people, before anyone says anything) he still cracked a joke every now and then. Afterward though, Sean begins making all sorts of remarks, not all of which are in the best taste, and sometimes are [[Dude Not Funny|just plain offensive.]]
* [[Satellite Character]]: Elizabeth Priestly, who plays the satellite to her twin brother, Lenny. Most of what she does consists of following Lenny around and angsting about his psychotic behavior.
* [[Sedgwick Speech]]: Josh Goodman.
{{quote| '''Goodman:''' [http://z10.invisionfree.com/SOTF_V2/index.php?showtopic=2042 "It's ove-"]}}
** Kathleen Martin too.
{{quote| '''Kathleen''': "Oh Adam, there's no way you could shoot me with that gun. You see, people like you aren't fit for these kinds of situations. Sure, you're basically a big load of muscle with more than enough attitude to compensate, but compared to people like me, you're nothing. Ultimately, it's the smart, the beautiful, and the well-prepared that are going to make it far in this game, and when it comes to you-"}}
* [[Shell Shocked Veteran]]: Adam Dodd, {{spoiler|the only survivor of version one}}.
* [[Stalker With a Crush]]: An odd variation (a non-villain example), from ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' is Matthew Wittany, V3's resident [[Woobie]]. A fan of photography, he carried around an album filled with pictures of boys he found attractive. Anderson Walker, the subject of most of these pictures, was not best pleased when he discovered this. Neither was his boyfriend, Sean O'Cann.
* [[Sweet Polly Oliver]]: [[Huge Schoolgirl]] Dacey "Dawson" Ashcroft pretends to be a guy due to the negative attention she received in her previous school, feeling it easier to get through highschool if everyone believes her to be a man. Luckily, she doesn't look all that feminine, and unlike some of the other female Southridge students lacks large breasts.
* [[Taking You With Me]]: Melina Frost from kills Beth Vandelinder this way. After the latter stabbed another almost fatally and left her to die in quicksand, the former grabbed hold of her hair in her last act and dragged Beth under with her, killing them both.
* [[The Fatalist]]: Adam Reeves in Survival of the Fittest. Also a Social Darwinist.
* [[The Load]]: Cara Scholte. Maxie Dasai has to literally pull Cara around for a good half a day and was prevented from fleeing from a dangerous encounter with [[Complete Monster|Adam Reeves]] in concern for her companion's well-being. Sure, Cara was catatonic at the time, [[Rape As Drama|but given the outcome of the fight...]]
* [[The Messiah]]: Neil Sinclair. No matter how many times he is knocked back by more [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|cynical or pessimistic]] characters, he keeps on trying, time and again, to gather as many students he can in an attempt to escape. His hugely idealist approach includes but is not limited to inviting a classmate into the group who had previously ''killed'' one of the other members of his group - S.A.D.D.
* [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You]]: In a fight between [[Psycho Lesbian|Laeil Burbank]] and [[Evil Redheads|Melina Frost]], Madison Conner suddenly appears and attacks Laeil to keep her from killing Melina before she can. Laeil also swears to be the only one to kill Melina, as well as kill anyone who tries to beat her to it. {{spoiler|She fails on both accounts as Melina and her killer [[Mutual Kill|kill each other]]. [[Villainous Breakdown|She doesn't take it well.]]}}
* [[The Stoic]]: Bobby Jacks very much embodied this trope, at least in pregrame. During version 3, he has, however, shown emotion a couple of times. On the other hand, most of these occurrences happened either when he was alone or internally - so other characters wouldn't be privy to the same knowledge as readers. The three occasions where Bobby shows real emotion are [[Justified Trope|justified]] however. Once because he had just been shot, the other two times because his [[Berserk Button]] was pushed.
* [[The Unfavourite]]: Lyn "Laeil" Burbank. While actually a niece rather than a daughter, her uncle and aunt still give her the same unfavorite treatment, treating her like something that just has to be tolerated, while lavishing all their attention on her [[Jerk Jock]] cousin, Anthony, who regularily makes her life hell. Once she's on the island, though, it isn't long before she gets [[Cain and Abel|bloody revenge]] on him.
* [[The Unpronounceable]]: Vilhjalmur Sigurbjornsson. Though his first name is often shortened down to [[Some Call Me Tim|Will]], his last name still causes problems for Danya.
* [[Victoria's Secret Compartment]]: Maxie Dasai does this with a gun.
* [[What Happened to The Mouse]]: During the big stand-off between SADD and Bobby Jacks, Arty Williams stumbled onto the scene with a password-locked cell phone, upon which he tossed SADD the cell phone (telling them the password,) telling them it might be their ticket to getting off the island before running off to get himself killed in a (failed) attempt to save Ivan Roeghmills from a hostage situation. SADD decides to honor his noble sacrifice by never mentioning him or the phone ever again.
* [[While Rome Burns]]: A particularly notable version occurs, where Carson Baye plays on his DS while a gunfight is starting around him.
* [[Whip It Good]]: Brendan Bredard is assigned a bullwhip as a weapon, which he later uses to strangle Luis Chezinski to death.
* [[Worthy Opponent]]: {{spoiler|Riz}} refers to {{spoiler|Eddie Sullivan}} as this at the end of v3.
* [[You Can't Go Home Again]]: {{spoiler|JR Rizzolo}} manages to return home after (ostensibly) being the [[Sole Survivor]], only to find that {{spoiler|his family has disowned him and completely moved out}}.
== Version 4 ==
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