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