Tropescilloscope: Developing Doomed Characters

Spending too much time developing characters that are likely going to die later on. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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