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