Tropescilloscope: My Greatest Failure

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

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