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