Tropescilloscope: Bavarian Fire Drill

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

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