Tropescilloscope: Armor-Piercing Question

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

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