Tropescilloscope: The Lancer

The Hero's foil and The Leader's trusted companion. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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