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