Tropescilloscope: Greater-Scope Villain

An evil that is greater than the Big Bad in some way, but is not directly causing the conflict of the story. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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