Tropescilloscope: Chiaroscuro

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

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