Tropescilloscope: Decoy Protagonist

The story begins with someone who's not the actual protagonist, who will appear later. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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