Tropescilloscope: Chiaroscuro

One bright light source leaves everything else in shadow. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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