Tropescilloscope: Armor-Piercing Question

Question that forces a character to consider their actions. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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