Tropescilloscope: My Greatest Failure

The mistake that motivates the hero. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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