Tropescilloscope: Dark and Troubled Past

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

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