Tropescilloscope: Wounded Gazelle Gambit

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

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