Tropescilloscope: Manipulative Bastard

A character who manipulates others through elaborate schemes and/or persuasive speaking. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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