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