This index lists tropes associated with The Western genre as a whole.
Also see Native Americans Tropes.
Tropes
Genres and general settings
- The Western: The basic genre of Westerns, typically set in the American Old West.
- The Wild West: The general setting for most classic Westerns. This area is synonymous with the American Old West, set in various US states and territories west of the Mississippi River, during much of the 19th century (though usually between the American Civil War and the 1890s).
- Canadian Western: The Canadian equivalent of a Western, usually set in snowy northern Canada and featuring Mounties.
- Cattle Punk: Steampunk science fiction with a Western setting.
- Dawn of the Wild West: Stories set in the western part of North America between the late 18th century and the 1840s.
- New Old West: Classic Western tropes applied to a more modern, contemporary, or even future setting, usually 1920 and onward.
- Space Western: A story that fuses Western tropes together with Space Opera, featuring other planets in outer space as a wild frontier.
- Spaghetti Western: Darker and Edgier deconstructions of The Western made in Europe, mainly consisting of Italian productions.
- Twilight of the Old West: Stories set in the western part of North America between the 1890s and 1920.
- Weird West: A Western story with paranormal or supernatural elements.
Specific settings
- Bleak Border Base: A fortress at the farthest corner of the country.
- Boom Town: A newly established settlement (town or city) with high population growth, usually due to rare riches being found there (gold, silver, water in an arid region, etc.).
- Bronson Canyon and Caves: A rocky canyon, including several cave entrances. Despite being located in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, the area looks fairly remote and desolate, making it a popular shooting location for Westerns.
- Close-Knit Community: A small Western town where its residents look out for each other.
- Friendly Local Chinatown: A massive number of Chinese immigrants worked on the railroads and in mines, and were forced into their own camps and towns elsewhere. This is the time period when a lot of Chinatowns were founded.
- Ghost Town: A town or village where no one (or next to no one) lives.
- Injun Country: An area where Native Americans, First Nations, or other Indigenous peoples can be found; in the heyday of the Wild West, settlers often clash with these peoples during American expansion.
- Kirk's Rock: A distinctive set of striated sandstone slabs, dozens to hundreds of feet tall, sharply-angled and pointed at their tops, that often appear in Westerns.
- Outlaw Town: A settlement run by and exclusively inhabited by criminals and outlaws.
- The Savage South: The Wild West is often stereotyped to barbaric and threatening, or at least more-so than the East.
- South of the Border: Stereotypical portrayals of Mexico.
Plots
- Bank Robbery: Outlaws steal money from a bank, typically by holding the tellers at gunpoint.
- Cattle Drive: A working cowboy brings his cattle from the ranch to the market.
- Clean Up the Town: A new person (or an old inhabitant returning after years away) takes position of responsibility, in this case usually a Sheriff, and makes things better.
- A Fistful of Rehashes: A character walks into a town with two rival factions, plays them both for suckers, and eliminates them when the fighting weakens them.
- The Magnificent Seven Samurai: A helpless community under attack hires heroes (usually seven) to protect them.
- Protect This House: A horror/thriller plot about intruders breaking into a home and the occupants having to fight them off.
- Quest to the West: A character has to head west for symbolic or significant purposes, e.g. a new life, a quest, or an adventure of some sort.
- Railroad Plot: Something gets in the way of a big construction project (often a railroad in Westerns); this something must be destroyed to complete the project.
- Run for the Border: A criminal tries to escape prosecution or persecution by fleeing the country; whether into Mexico or Canada (or vice-versa) or across Union/Confederate lines, needing to cross the border to safety (or arrest someone before they do) comes up fairly often in Westerns.
- Settling the Frontier: Moving to new lands, in this case the Western United States, provides new opportunities and dangers.
- The Seven Western Plots
- Train Job: Outlaws board a train to steal its cargo or rob passengers at gunpoint.
Costumes and appearance
- Americans Are Cowboys: Generalizing the stereotypical fashion of the Old West, especially cowboy hats, to the United States as a whole.
- Badass Bandolier: Belts that hold bullets, grenades, or just weapons in general are articles of clothing associated with badass characters; cowboys are often depicted to wear these.
- Badass Longcoat
- Boots of Toughness
- Dashingly Dapper Derby
- Evil Wears Black: Bad guys wear black hats.
- Good Colors, Evil Colors: The good guy always wears a white cowboy hat, the bad guy always a black hat.
- Manly Facial Hair: Manly men have facial hair.
- Overalls and Gingham: Dress code for the Determined Homesteader.
- Perma-Stubble
- Waistcoat of Style
Guns and gunplay
(* = not necessarily gun-specific, but very commonly involve guns in westerns)- Bang, Bang, BANG
- Blasting It Out of Their Hands
- Bottomless Magazines: Many old westerns had characters firing a six-shooter more than six times without reloading.
- Bullet Dancing
- Deliberately Jumping the Gun (*)
- Duel to the Death (*)
- Firing in the Air a Lot
- Firing One-Handed
- Guns Akimbo: Many westerns have characters firing with a gun in each hand.
- Gun Twirling
- Improbable Aiming Skills (*)
- Instant Death Bullet
- Mexican Standoff (*)
- More Dakka
- Quick Draw
- Revolvers Are Just Better
- Sawed-Off Shotgun: In the actual time and place, probably a cut-down shotgun or coach gun
rather than what we'd think of as a sawed-off, but the latter is common in the genre whether or not it's historically accurate.
- Showdown at High Noon
- Smoking Barrel Blowout
- Throw-Away Guns: Generally somewhat downplayed, but needing to pick up fresh guns from the gunmen you just shot comes up now and again.
- Shoot the Rope (*)
- Two Shots from Behind the Bar
- The "Why Wait?" Combatant (*)
Other tropes
- All Deserts Have Cacti
- Automaton Horses
- "Awkward Silence" Entrance
- Badass Preacher
- Bar Brawl
- Bar Slide
- Between My Legs
- Bloodless Carnage
- The Cavalry
- Chairman of the Brawl
- Chevalier vs. Rogue: Usually between The Hero or The Sheriff against the vandals or outlaws, or the cowboys against the Indians.
- Clint Squint
- Cool Horse
- Cowboy Episode
- Dead Man's Hand
- Diligent Draft Animal
- Dirt Forcefield: Common in pre-Spaghetti Western works.
- Dramatic Wind
- Ennio Morricone Pastiche
- Gambling Brawl
- Gold Fever
- Grievous Bottley Harm
- Hanging Around
- Invulnerable Horses
- Knows the Ropes: Covers lasso skills.
- Land in the Saddle
- Mobile Kiosk
- The Most Wanted
- Never Bring a Knife to a Fist Fight
- Not Big Enough for the Two of Us
- Obsessive-Compulsive Barkeeping
- Price on Their Head
- Railing Kill
- Riding into the Sunset
- Rollercoaster Mine
- Smoking Is Cool
- Tar and Feathers
- Traintop Battle
- "Wanted!" Poster
- Western Rattlers
- White Stallion
- Wild West Armadillo
