Tropescilloscope: Rule of Three

3 is a magic number. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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