Tropescilloscope: Establishing Character Moment

Moment during or soon after a character's introduction which illustrates their personality. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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