Tropescilloscope: Foil

A character who highlights another character's trait(s), usually by contrast. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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