Tropescilloscope: Guile Hero

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

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