Tropescilloscope: Alas, Poor Villain

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

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