Tropescilloscope: Not What It Looks Like

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

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