Tropescilloscope: Central Theme

A philosophy, message, idea, or question at a story's core. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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