Tropescilloscope: From Nobody to Nightmare

A character evolves from humble beginnings to terrifying fame. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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