Tropescilloscope: Guile Hero

A smart hero who uses wits to gain victory. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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