Tropescilloscope: Alas, Poor Villain

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

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