i deleted my gender to make space for video game lore

A lot of these points are true. Trey says he only memorized the rules up to 350. He’s the one who is largely responsible for preparing food for unbirthday parties. He suggests to hold off on delivering the apology tart until tomorrow (the day of the unbirthday party) + that Deuce sleeps over too, to keep an eye on Ace. And yes, Trey can be good at “lying”, as Anon puts it, but I disagree with the terminology, as it inherently makes Trey’s intentions feel more sinister than I feel they actually are. These points having truth to them doesn’t necessarily mean Trey is some evil, manipulative mastermind that intentionally set Adeuce up for failure.

First of all, about the rules. Trey’s wording implies he was always trying to study/memorize them in numerical order, not by relevancy. There is no rhyme or reason to the rules, nor is there a pattern established for rules which involve food or drink. Trey honestly may not have had the foresight to anticipate there being super specific rules governing food and drink in the latter half of the 810 rules. Not many people think ahead to this degree, after all.

Trey is relatively laidback and spent his first year at NRC under the rule of the previous Heartslabyul dorm leader, who very much did not enforce the rules (thus, there was no urgency to remember them all). He probably did not learn most or any of the rules as a first year, then kind of had to cram them as soon as Riddle took over during the first week of Trey’s second year. But again, the nonsensical nature of the rules and the sheer number of them may have made them daunting to memorize on top of the school content + mandatory club activities, plus the stress of managing the dorm.

Trey does not suggest making a chestnut tart out of the blue; he specifically says Riddle has been wanting one and so that made the most sense as a gift to smooth over relations. Actually, Cater is the one who suggests a homemade tart in the first place. When the chestnut tart is done, Trey says it’s late, so they should wait until tomorrow to deliver it. He most likely thought Riddle would want to eat the apology tart when he receives it (considering that Riddle had expressed to him how much he wanted one earlier) and that it would make a better impact at a formal occasion.

Trey sending Deuce to sleep over with Ace at Ramshackle reads to me as less of a “he’s trying to set them up” and more like, “okay, the devs are setting us up for a main friend group”. Like, Cater asks to sleep over too, but Trey denies him a pass. Why? Because Cater isn’t going to be a part of the main friend group.

When Riddle had his blowup, Trey is surprised like everyone else is. Anon suspects Trey is lying or pretending here—and to that? I ask: “Why?” What exactly would be Trey’s intention here, passing the blame onto Adeuce? But what does he stand to gain from this? And if he wants others to be punished so badly, why does Trey immediately try to take the fall for Adeuce and insist that he be punished instead of them? It just doesn’t make sense to me.

About the whole “[Trey] is an extremely good liar” thing… yes but no??? Trey himself admits to not being entirely a good guy, but his peers struggle to believe him because he comes off as such a kind, reliable big brother figure.

Aaaand that’s where I feel the crux of my side is: Trey gets away with his lies (which are often little white ones or harmless jokes) because people buy into that “big brother”-ness of him. He also just presents himself as mild-mannered and “normal” compared to everyone else, so Trey feels more trustworthy. As an example, he jokes about adding oyster sauce as the secret ingredient for tarts, and everyone believes him because 1) Trey is the baking expert and 2) he’s been instructing and guiding them this entire time, so he comes off as trustworthy. I cannot think of single time when Trey actually lied about something big/that mattered or acted with sinister intentions. In fact, he usually either just acts passive OR does act in an effort to avoid worse consequences or to smooth over tensions. For example, Trey snuck after Ace to prevent him from going to Playful Land instead of telling Riddle (who would be much harsher with Ace’s punishment).

The worst Trey ever gets is taking advantage of the situation to get something out of it and/or letting people dig their own graves to teach them lessons. There's tons of examples if you look at vignettes: Trey getting free labor by offering to trade items he has or his own labor with peers (Ruggie Labwear, Jamil Dorm Uniform), Trey giving strawberries he grew so that he can obtain a fancy premade tart from a popular bakery instead of making it from scratch (Trey Labwear), the first years try baking after they complained and were not appreciative of his own efforts (Trey Dorm Uniform), etc. He refuses the first years his cake until they apologize, and even once they've done that, he says they must first eat their own cake creations so as to not waste food.

None of these things are evil, they're pretty... fair??? Sometimes stern, but always pretty fair.

Trey overlooking the rule about not bringing chestnut tarts to unbirthday parties feels genuine to me. It reads as the direction the writers took to both introduce the relevant dorm members to the story and to incite later conflict. I also think the story needed and/or wanted Trey and Cater to blame themselves for Riddle berating Adeuce so that Riddle can be pedantic about it. He keeps his anger on Adeuce because the rule specifies those who BRING a chestnut tart to an unbirthday party, not those who MAKE it. This is to demonstrate to us, the audience, that Riddle is being entirely unreasonable and is really flying off the handle over such little things + nitpicking about rules that not even the senior students know, and it therefore enhances the overall narrative and Riddle's character arc about learning to be more flexible. What exactly do we gain if this were actually not the intention? What does Trey being the secretly shady guy do for book 1's story? Not much.