Tropescilloscope: My Greatest Failure

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

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