Tropescilloscope: Alas, Poor Villain

The villain's death or downfall is painted in a sympathetic light. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Face–Heel Turn The Dragon Henpecked Husband Improbable Aiming Skills Recycled IN SPACE! Evil Sounds Deep Air-Vent Passageway From Nobody to Nightmare Stealth Hi/Bye Bloodier and Gorier Action Survivor Self-Deprecation And the Adventure Continues Off with His Head! Drives Like Crazy Big Eater Foil Put on a Bus Took a Level in Jerkass Gainax Ending There Is No Kill Like Overkill Take a Third Option Didn't Think This Through Rated M for Manly Artistic License – Physics Everyone Has Standards Bowdlerise Adaptational Attractiveness Badass Boast "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Accidental Murder Only Known by Their Nickname Arc Words Stealth Pun Slap-Slap-Kiss Not Quite Dead Jump Scare Hypocritical Humor Same Language Dub Damsel in Distress Revenge Does Not Like Shoes Say My Name No Ending Never Found the Body Danny Peary Cult Movies List Sports Stories Ambiguous Ending Eyepatch of Power Wretched Hive Dies Wide Open Man on Fire For Want of a Nail Suddenly SHOUTING! Disappeared Dad Camera Abuse "Awesome McCool" Name Would Hit a Girl It's All About Me Karmic Death Bait-and-Switch Decoy Protagonist All There in the Manual Straight Gay Shirtless Scene Stylistic Suck Empathic Environment Cruel and Unusual Death Book-Ends Contrived Coincidence Horror Films Line-of-Sight Name After the End Dumb Blonde Outrun the Fireball Bilingual Bonus Plucky Comic Relief The Alleged Car Butt-Monkey The Casanova You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Flashback How We Got Here Mugging the Monster True Companions Television Movie Index Horror Comedy Mystery and Detective Films Laser-Guided Karma Deal with the Devil Bunny-Ears Lawyer Dark Action Girl Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Pimped-Out Dress Dogged Nice Guy Shower Scene Biopic Translation Convention Cool Guns Cool Old Guy Gone Horribly Right Shipper on Deck La Résistance Amoral Attorney Loophole Abuse Catch-Phrase Chewing the Scenery Scenery Porn Rule of Funny Leave the Camera Running Sassy Black Woman Vomit Indiscretion Shot Madness Mantra Dramedy Establishing Character Moment Black Best Friend Poor Communication Kills Fingore Rule of Three Genre Shift Idiot Ball The Dog Bites Back Non-Indicative Name Mythology Gag Evil-Detecting Dog Meaningful Background Event Psychological Thriller Friend to All Children Heterosexual Life-Partners Serious Business Insult Backfire Obfuscating Stupidity Immune to Bullets Random Events Plot Interrupted Suicide Expository Hairstyle Change Heel Realization Back from the Dead Downer Ending Would Hurt a Child Toplessness from the Back The Load Big Fancy House Big Bad Faux Affably Evil Improvised Weapon Four-Temperament Ensemble Beware the Nice Ones Lampshade Hanging Only in It for the Money Beta Couple Artistic License – History B-Movie NO INDOOR VOICE The Hero Bloodless Carnage Breaking the Fourth Wall Agony of the Feet The Cameo Happily Married Even Evil Has Standards Mighty Whitey Tranquil Fury Our Vampires Are Different Red Herring Ax-Crazy Older Than They Look Disguised in Drag Anachronic Order Race Lift Eureka Moment Disproportionate Retribution Red Right Hand Cassandra Truth Mr. Fanservice Retirony Martial Arts Movie Broken Aesop Badass Bookworm Drugs Are Bad Logo Joke Insane Troll Logic Nice Hat Rasputinian Death She's Got Legs Cool Car Manly Tears Jerkass Aside Glance Almost Kiss Framing Device Dramatic Irony Film Series Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Rule of Symbolism Freeze-Frame Bonus The X of Y Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor The Place Kubrick Stare Ascended Extra Unreliable Narrator Redshirt Army Sci-Fi Horror A.I. Is a Crapshoot Determinator Drowning My Sorrows Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Villain Song Funny Background Event Redemption Equals Death Only Sane Man Demonic Possession Slasher Movie Fate Worse than Death Death Glare Important Haircut Children Are Innocent Actually Pretty Funny BFG All Girls Want Bad Boys Shut Up, Hannibal! Boom, Headshot! Developing Doomed Characters Guns Akimbo May–December Romance Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Have a Gay Old Time Heroes Want Redheads Blackmail Death of a Child Re-Cut Show Within a Show Evil Plan Vomit Discretion Shot Evil Laugh Advertised Extra Guile Hero The Cavalry The Lost Lenore Babies Ever After Ominous Latin Chanting Historical Hero Upgrade Hypocrite You Have Failed Me Daylight Horror Calling the Old Man Out Made of Iron Gratuitous English Serial Killer Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Five-Man Band Kick the Dog Manic Pixie Dream Girl A Date with Rosie Palms Fatal Family Photo Psychopathic Manchild Pragmatic Villainy Darker and Edgier Meet Cute The Atoner Annoying Younger Sibling Big Damn Heroes It Will Never Catch On Needs Wiki Magic Love Brutal Honesty Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Index of Film Westerns Deliberate Values Dissonance Continuity Nod Covers Always Lie Jerk Jock Malevolent Masked Men Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Composite Character Paper-Thin Disguise Neck Lift Car Fu Parental Incest Body Horror Hong Kong Films I'm a Humanitarian Too Dumb to Live Even Evil Has Loved Ones Hollywood Darkness Big "NO!" Evil Is Hammy Dying Moment of Awesome Villain Ball Enemy Mine Soft Glass Deus ex Machina Black Comedy Rape Victoria's Secret Compartment Tap on the Head Bury Your Gays Conspicuous CG Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Instant Death Bullet "Well Done, Son!" Guy Your Head A-Splode Dropped a Bridge on Him Chase Scene Homage Double Entendre The Film of the Book Honor Before Reason The Brute Gold Digger Bloody Hilarious Abhorrent Admirer N-Word Privileges Comically Missing the Point Break the Cutie Intrepid Reporter Vitriolic Best Buds Smoking Is Cool Wicked Cultured Make It Look Like an Accident Knight Templar All Men Are Perverts Tagline You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Blood Knight Never Trust a Trailer Creator Cameo Refuge in Audacity More Dakka Spiteful Spit Riddle for the Ages What Happened to the Mouse? Chekhov's Gunman Kill It with Fire Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Final Girl Asshole Victim Captain Ersatz Shout-Out Sequel Escalation Fourth Date Marriage Gorn Market-Based Title Bittersweet Ending No-Sell Early Installment Weirdness Evil Brit Once More, with Clarity! Animal Motifs The Sociopath She Cleans Up Nicely Reality Is Unrealistic Scary Black Man The Ace Pay Evil unto Evil Eldritch Abomination Extremely Short Timespan Roaring Rampage of Revenge Badass in a Nice Suit Plot Hole Reality Ensues Rape as Drama Star-Crossed Lovers It's Personal Jerk with a Heart of Gold Large Ham Coming-of-Age Story Mama Bear Spared by the Adaptation The '80s Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Not Even Bothering with the Accent Those Wacky Nazis As You Know Animal Title Index timeperiod Actor Allusion The Hero Dies The Vamp Properly Paranoid French Films Skewed Priorities Award-Bait Song Arranged Marriage Dark Reprise Betty and Veronica folderlabel Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Alliterative Name Police are Useless Action Girl Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Beauty Is Never Tarnished Stuff Blowing Up The Faceless Shoot the Shaggy Dog Pyrrhic Victory Getting Crap Past the Radar Superhero Department of Redundancy Department The '50s Rewatch Bonus Pet the Dog Running Gag Better to Die than Be Killed Batman Gambit Knife Nut Cool Old Lady Unusual Euphemism Demoted to Extra My Greatest Failure The Ditz Scare Chord Match Cut Manipulative Bastard Parental Substitute Hoist by His Own Petard Mexican Standoff Deadpan Snarker Let's Get Dangerous! Disney Villain Death Storming the Castle Suspiciously Specific Denial Chekhov's Gun Laughing Mad Protagonist Title Shell-Shocked Veteran In the Back What the Hell, Hero? Silence Is Golden Does This Remind You of Anything? Curse Cut Short Men Are the Expendable Gender Brick Joke Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Token Minority Curb-Stomp Battle Kick the Son of a Bitch Film Noir Costume Porn Defrosting Ice Queen Loads and Loads of Characters The Quiet One Black Comedy Sacrificial Lion Leaning on the Fourth Wall Deconstruction Kids Are Cruel Mood Whiplash Precision F-Strike Age Lift One-Word Title Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Science Fiction Films Broken Bird The '70s Big Applesauce Dissonant Serenity I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Male Gaze Face Death with Dignity Not So Above It All Cluster F-Bomb The End... Or Is It? Bond One-Liner Funny Foreigner Only One Name Sequel Hook "The Reason You Suck" Speech Pretty Little Headshots The Un-Reveal Extreme Doormat Hollywood Law Diabolus ex Machina Fan Disservice Public Domain Feature Films Blood from the Mouth Card-Carrying Villain Jerkass Has a Point Love at First Sight Truth in Television I Did What I Had to Do The Bad Guy Wins Anguished Declaration of Love Death by Irony All Just a Dream Russian Films Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds The Power of Love Intergenerational Friendship Humiliation Conga Bavarian Fire Drill Groin Attack Fatal Flaw Twist Ending Ambiguous Disorder From Bad to Worse Abusive Parents Gory Discretion Shot Aluminum Christmas Trees Artistic License – Law Heroic Sacrifice Unspoken Plan Guarantee Drill Sergeant Nasty Zombie Stories Kill 'em All Informed Ability Brainless Beauty Evil Is Petty Epic Fail Faking the Dead No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Papa Wolf Names to Run Away from Really Fast Corpsing A God Am I The Smurfette Principle It Can Think Freudian Excuse Captain Obvious The Ghost Sexy Discretion Shot Villain Protagonist The '90s Here We Go Again! Authority Equals Asskicking Stepford Smiler No Antagonist Major Injury Underreaction Becoming the Mask The Lancer Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Offscreen Moment of Awesome Mooks Crucified Hero Shot Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Ghost Fiction Our Zombies Are Different Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Dirty Cop Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Author Appeal Hope Spot Animated Credits Opening Genre Throwback Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Naïve Newcomer Death by Sex Anti-Villain Dirty Old Man Fat Bastard Jitter Cam Police Brutality Pretty in Mink Break the Haughty Missing Mom Reality Has No Subtitles Suspiciously Similar Substitute Parental Neglect Closed Circle The Stinger Dressing as the Enemy Hooker with a Heart of Gold Villain Opening Scene Rich Bitch Big Brother Instinct Driven to Suicide The Remake Depraved Bisexual Artistic License – Gun Safety Up to Eleven Adorkable Bald of Evil Belligerent Sexual Tension Morality Pet Time Skip Combat Pragmatist Eye Scream Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Adult Fear One-Man Army Creative Closing Credits The Mafia Scenery Gorn Adaptation Distillation Defiant to the End Dramatic Gun Cock Pragmatic Adaptation Arch-Enemy Ironic Echo A Minor Kidroduction Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Corrupt Corporate Executive Killed Mid-Sentence Playing Gertrude Wham Shot Ms. Fanservice I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Determinator aka: The Determinator Silent Movie Thriller Call-Forward Leitmotif Married to the Job One Steve Limit As Long as It Sounds Foreign Domestic Abuse Bad "Bad Acting" The Mole The Alcoholic Greater-Scope Villain Despair Event Horizon Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy '80s Hair The Stoic Irony Good Is Not Nice Big-Bad Ensemble Every Car Is a Pinto Mercy Kill British Films Wounded Gazelle Gambit Evil vs. Evil Cowboy Cop Historical Villain Upgrade The Dreaded Mistaken for Gay Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Cloudcuckoolander Punny Name Offscreen Teleportation Antagonist Title Cold-Blooded Torture Dirty Coward Only a Flesh Wound 20 Minutes into the Future An Aesop Chekhov's Skill Hell Is That Noise I Need a Freaking Drink Documentary Fish out of Water Crazy Jealous Guy Early-Bird Cameo Bi the Way Adaptational Heroism Motor Mouth Foregone Conclusion Slasher Smile The Musical Villain with Good Publicity Foreshadowing Bond Villain Stupidity Brother–Sister Incest Central Theme Male Frontal Nudity Heroic BSoD Alpha Bitch Auto Erotica Made of Explodium Those Two Bad Guys Action Prologue Fun with Acronyms Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Never My Fault Armor-Piercing Question Those Two Guys Mr. Exposition Epic Movie Romantic Comedy Eiffel Tower Effect Video Credits Catapult Nightmare Taking You with Me Nothing Is Scarier O.O.C. Is Serious Business Green-Eyed Monster Attempted Rape Creepy Child Mad Scientist Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Unwitting Instigator of Doom Eagleland The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Badass Grandpa Ass Shove I Have Your Wife Novelization Bar Brawl Heel–Face Turn Handicapped Badass Historical In-Joke All There in the Script Real Life Writes the Plot Sinister Minister Totally Radical Adaptation Name Change Celebrity Paradox Woman Scorned Improbable Weapon User Vampire Fiction Hero Antagonist Exactly What It Says on the Tin Genre Savvy Beard of Evil Pre-Mortem One-Liner What You Are in the Dark Pre-Asskicking One-Liner All for Nothing Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Really Gets Around The '60s Gilligan Cut Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Dutch Angle Crapsack World Apocalypse How Real Life Not So Different Together in Death Be Careful What You Wish For As the Good Book Says... Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! The Chessmaster Smug Snake "Shaggy Dog" Story Fake Shemp Fanservice Extra Double-Meaning Title Neck Snap Expy Black and Gray Morality My Beloved Smother Mind Screw Canon Foreigner Villainous Breakdown Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Whole Plot Reference Lighter and Softer Not What It Looks Like The Bully Retired Badass Humans Are Bastards Cool Shades Frame-Up Amusing Injuries The Starscream Adults Are Useless Overprotective Dad Spiritual Successor He Knows Too Much Nice Guy Alas, Poor Villain Christmas Movies Index Fanservice Works Set in World War II Sadistic Choice Chiaroscuro Naked People Are Funny Flipping the Bird Psycho for Hire Bare Your Midriff Character Development Bullying a Dragon Taking the Bullet Artistic License – Military Throwing Your Sword Always Works Maybe Ever After Action Genre The Smart Guy Visual Pun Hate Sink Dark and Troubled Past Destination Defenestration Manchild Implacable Man World of Ham Karma Houdini Your Cheating Heart Gender Flip Hidden Depths Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold You Killed My Father And I Must Scream Very Loosely Based on a True Story Red Oni, Blue Oni A Father to His Men Casting Gag An Axe to Grind Stalker with a Crush Did Not Get the Girl Wrong Genre Savvy Sanity Slippage The Chick Light Is Not Good The Reveal The Big Guy MacGuffin The Oner Spanner in the Works Dwindling Party Undying Loyalty The Voiceless Yandere Australian Movies Love Triangle Soundtrack Dissonance Not So Stoic Title Drop Setting Update Obstructive Bureaucrat Daddy's Girl Black Dude Dies First Call-Back Meaningful Name Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Ship Tease An Arm and a Leg Unresolved Sexual Tension Historical-Domain Character Credits Gag He Who Fights Monsters Unusually Uninteresting Sight Italian Films Bland-Name Product Ambiguously Gay Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Reckless Gun Usage Vacation Films German Films The Stoner No OSHA Compliance Last-Name Basis Romantic False Lead As Himself Product Placement Fantastic Racism Cain and Abel Overly Long Gag Adaptation Expansion Earn Your Happy Ending Broken Pedestal Peek-a-Boo Corpse Artistic License – Biology Mundane Made Awesome Red Eyes, Take Warning Country Matters Ungrateful Bastard Dark Is Not Evil Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Grey and Gray Morality Badass Longcoat Author Avatar Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Sir Swears-a-Lot Retcon Wham Line Fiery Redhead And Starring Exact Words Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Death by Adaptation Japanese Films Bad Boss Oh, Crap! Bolivian Army Ending Awesome, but Impractical Adapted Out Adaptational Villainy Rule of Cool Obviously Evil Military and Warfare Films Small Name, Big Ego Not Using the "Z" Word Canadian Movies Dual Wielding Spell My Name with an "S" Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Moment Killer Shown Their Work Reasonable Authority Figure In Name Only For the Evulz Well-Intentioned Extremist Famous Last Words Camp Gay This Is Gonna Suck Affectionate Parody Adaptation Dye-Job Hair-Trigger Temper Took a Level in Badass Red Shirt Posthumous Character Big Bad Duumvirate Grievous Bottley Harm Evil Counterpart No Celebrities Were Harmed Film Noir Index Punch-Clock Villain Anyone Can Die Insistent Terminology Lock and Load Montage Politically Incorrect Villain Meaningful Echo Music Stories Bound and Gagged Bottomless Magazines Accidental Misnaming Get Out! Imagine Spot Crazy-Prepared Affably Evil In Medias Res Monumental Damage Hero of Another Story Sealed Evil in a Can Cat Scare Adaptational Badass Slashed Throat Berserk Button Disney Death Cat Fight Take That! Sole Survivor Training Montage Femme Fatale Due to the Dead Rousing Speech Badass Normal Anti-Hero Anachronism Stew Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Word of God No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Distracted by the Sexy Dull Surprise Stock Footage Worthy Opponent Noodle Incident Based on a True Story Fantasy Films Fainting Blatant Lies Tempting Fate Death Seeker Narrator Race Against the Clock Left the Background Music On Half the Man He Used to Be Fire-Forged Friends War Is Hell Ripped from the Headlines Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie No Name Given Facial Horror Bring My Brown Pants Failed a Spot Check Easily Forgiven My God, What Have I Done? Room Full of Crazy Super Strength Trailers Always Spoil Off-into-the-Distance Ending Parental Abandonment Darkest Hour Deliberately Monochrome Artistic License – Geography The Great Depression Woman in White