Tropescilloscope: Wounded Gazelle Gambit

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

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