Tropescilloscope: Establishing Character Moment

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

Film Frequency (%) Film Frequency (#)

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