Tropescilloscope: Greater-Scope Villain

An evil that is greater than the Big Bad in some way, but is not directly causing the conflict of the story. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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