Tropescilloscope: My Greatest Failure

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

Film Frequency (%) Film Frequency (#)

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