Tropescilloscope: Bavarian Fire Drill

Acting with authority fools others into thinking that you have it. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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