Tropescilloscope: Not What It Looks Like

Characters look like they're doing something wrong, but they aren't. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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