Tropescilloscope: My Greatest Failure

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

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