Tropescilloscope: I Did What I Had to Do

An after-the-fact justification for morally questionable but necessary actions. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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