Tropescilloscope: Pyrrhic Victory

Victory so costly it feels like a defeat. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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