Tropescilloscope: What the Hell, Hero?

The hero gets called out on acting unheroically. (read more at tvtropes.org)

Film Frequency (%) Film Frequency (#)

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