Tropescilloscope: Black and Gray Morality

Evil villain, flawed hero. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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