Tropescilloscope: My Greatest Failure

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

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