Tropescilloscope: Heel Realization

Realizing you're a bad guy. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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