Tropescilloscope: Anti-Villain

The antagonist is rather morally ambiguous instead of straight evil. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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