Tropescilloscope: Wounded Gazelle Gambit

Pretending to be a victim to manipulate others. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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