Tropescilloscope: Rule of Symbolism

Themes or imagery inserted for symbolic value. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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