Tropescilloscope: Karma Houdini

Character gets away with foul deeds while avoiding justice. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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