Tropescilloscope: The Dragon

The Big Bad's Number Two; often the penultimate challenge that The Hero must face before confronting the Big Bad. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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