Tropescilloscope: Kick the Dog

A gratuitously cruel action serves to darken a character. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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