Tropescilloscope: Dark and Troubled Past

Tragic Back Story. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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