Tropescilloscope: Big Bad

The ultimate villain of the story, who's causing the problem the heroes must solve. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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