Tropescilloscope: Broken Pedestal

A character's mentor/role model turns out to be not so good after all. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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