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Changed line(s) 138 (click to see context) from:
* LonelyAtTheTop: In the New World he has no equals and no friends he can truly confide in. Everyone in Nazarick is a subordinate (and sees him as a deity so they are always subservient to his will). The rest of the world knows him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, PhysicalGod, or TheHero. He wants to find other YGGDRASIL Players, originally part of his guild or not, because he wants to have the friendship of a fellow human from Earth and try to be Satoru Suzuki again.
to:
* LonelyAtTheTop: In the New World he has no equals and no friends he can truly confide in. Everyone in Nazarick is a subordinate (and sees him as a deity so they are always subservient to his will). The rest of the world knows him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, PhysicalGod, or TheHero. He wants to find other YGGDRASIL Players, originally part of his guild or not, because he wants to have the friendship of a fellow human from Earth and try to be Satoru Suzuki again. This is best summed up by the lyrics to the Season 4 ending song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAUbD-DjTyc No Man's Dawn]]", sung from Ainz's persepctive, where he expresses how he deeply misses his old comrades and longs for the glory days of Ainz Ooal Gown (the guild), showing that even with all his power and the entirety of the New World practically at his fingertips, Ainz would gladly give it all up if it means he could have his old friends back.
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Changed line(s) 73,75 (click to see context) from:
** In general, Ainz is a deconstruction of the typical Isekai protagonist. The man formerly known as Satoru Suzuki was an ordinary salaryman who had no friends, family, or even a girlfriend and whose only joy in life was an MMORPG that was on the verge of shutting down. So when he ends up transported to the New World, he quickly adapts to his new role as an EvilOverlord mainly because he had nothing else going for him in his old life. While he initially took the role mainly to keep up appearances in front of his subordinates as a means of finding other guild members who got transported to the New World, as the series progresses, he begins to genuinely settle into his newfound position as a ruler and begin seeking world domination just for its own sake. Also, while initially unnerved by his crimes and his LackOfEmpathy towards them, as his humanity is consumed by his new skeletal form, [[ItGetsEasier he begins to become more comfortable with committing atrocities if it accomplishes his goals]].
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillain and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The [=NPCs=] of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, a PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, often leaving him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find other members of the Guild who have been sent to the New World so he can have someone to call a friend.
** EvenEvilHasStandards is also deconstructed. His "standards" might be an intent from the author to make him look more sympathetic and likable, but only makes him a {{Hypocrite}} in the long run. He always ignores that his servants are no better than those he considers "scum" and while he is not as bad as them, he still has no qualms about doing or allowing his minions to do the same terrible things he is disgusted by.
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillain and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The [=NPCs=] of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, a PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, often leaving him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find other members of the Guild who have been sent to the New World so he can have someone to call a friend.
** EvenEvilHasStandards is also deconstructed. His "standards" might be an intent from the author to make him look more sympathetic and likable, but only makes him a {{Hypocrite}} in the long run. He always ignores that his servants are no better than those he considers "scum" and while he is not as bad as them, he still has no qualms about doing or allowing his minions to do the same terrible things he is disgusted by.
to:
** In general, Ainz is a deconstruction of the typical Isekai protagonist.protagonist, particularly the AscendedFanboy. The man formerly known as Satoru Suzuki was an ordinary salaryman who had no friends, family, or even a girlfriend and whose only joy in life was an MMORPG that was on the verge of shutting down. So when he ends up transported to the New World, he quickly adapts to his new role as an EvilOverlord mainly because he had nothing else going for him in his old life. While Initially, he initially took the role mainly to keep up appearances in front of his subordinates as a means of finding other guild members who got transported to the New World, World. But as the series progresses, he begins to [[BecomingTheMask genuinely settle into his newfound position as a ruler and begin seeking world domination just for its own sake. sake.]] Also, while initially unnerved by his crimes and his LackOfEmpathy towards them, as his humanity is consumed by his new skeletal form, [[ItGetsEasier he begins to become more comfortable with committing atrocities if it accomplishes his goals]].
goals]]. All in All, Ainz demonstrates what happens when someone whose been powerless all his life is suddenly granted absolute power.
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillain and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The [=NPCs=] of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, a PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, which oftenleaving leaves him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find out if other members of the Guild who have been sent were transported to the New World so he can have someone to call a friend.
** EvenEvilHasStandards is also deconstructed. His "standards" as mentioned below might be an intent from the author to make him look more sympathetic and likable, but only makes him a {{Hypocrite}} in the long run. He always ignores that his servants are no better than those he considers "scum" and while he is not as bad as them, he still has no qualms about doing or allowing his minions to do the same terrible things he is disgusted by.
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillain and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The [=NPCs=] of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, a PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, which often
** EvenEvilHasStandards is also deconstructed. His "standards" as mentioned below might be an intent from the author to make him look more sympathetic and likable, but only makes him a {{Hypocrite}} in the long run. He always ignores that his servants are no better than those he considers "scum" and while he is not as bad as them, he still has no qualms about doing or allowing his minions to do the same terrible things he is disgusted by.
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Changed line(s) 73,74 (click to see context) from:
** In general, Ainz is a deconstruction of the typical Isekai protagonist. The man formerly known as Satoru Suzuki was an ordinary salaryman who had no friends, family, or even a girlfriend and whose only joy in life was an MMORPG that was on the verge of shutting down. So when he ends up transported to the New World, he quickly adapts to his new role as an EvilOverlord mainly because he had nothing else going for him in his old life. While he initially took the role mainly to keep up appearances in front of his subordinates as a means of finding other guild members who got transported to the New World, as the series progresses, he begins to genuinely settle into his newfound position as a ruler. Also, while initially unnerved by his crimes and his LackOfEmpathy towards them, as his humanity is consumed by his new skeletal form, [[ItGetsEasier he begins to become more comfortable committing atrocities if it accomplishes his goals]].
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillain and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The [=NPCs=] of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, a PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, often leaving him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find other members of the Guild so he can have someone to call a friend.
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillain and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The [=NPCs=] of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, a PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, often leaving him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find other members of the Guild so he can have someone to call a friend.
to:
** In general, Ainz is a deconstruction of the typical Isekai protagonist. The man formerly known as Satoru Suzuki was an ordinary salaryman who had no friends, family, or even a girlfriend and whose only joy in life was an MMORPG that was on the verge of shutting down. So when he ends up transported to the New World, he quickly adapts to his new role as an EvilOverlord mainly because he had nothing else going for him in his old life. While he initially took the role mainly to keep up appearances in front of his subordinates as a means of finding other guild members who got transported to the New World, as the series progresses, he begins to genuinely settle into his newfound position as a ruler. ruler and begin seeking world domination just for its own sake. Also, while initially unnerved by his crimes and his LackOfEmpathy towards them, as his humanity is consumed by his new skeletal form, [[ItGetsEasier he begins to become more comfortable with committing atrocities if it accomplishes his goals]].
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillain and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The [=NPCs=] of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, a PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, often leaving him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find other members of the Guild who have been sent to the New World so he can have someone to call a friend.
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillain and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The [=NPCs=] of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, a PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, often leaving him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find other members of the Guild who have been sent to the New World so he can have someone to call a friend.
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Changed line(s) 74 (click to see context) from:
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillain and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The [=NPCs=] of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, a PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, often leaving him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find other members of the Guild so he can have someone to call a friend.
to:
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillain and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The [=NPCs=] of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, a PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, often leaving him him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find other members of the Guild so he can have someone to call a friend.
Changed line(s) 76 (click to see context) from:
** TheChessmaster and TheStrategist are also deconstructed. While Ainz ''can'' be clever and intelligent, he's not as smart as his subordinates think he is. Most of the time, he's just winging it and sometimes accomplishes his goals by sheer dumb luck. In Volume 10, [[spoiler:he convinces Jircniv to surrender The Empire as a vassal nation to Nazarick without intending to. All he really wanted to do was recruit adventurers by showing off in the Arena. He actually had to look up what a vassal state even ''is''.]] It helps that his subordinates tend to misinterpet his statements as some profound wisom or part of some grand master plan and he's forced to [[SureLetsGoWithThat roll with it to keep up his image of a competent leader]].
to:
** TheChessmaster and TheStrategist are also deconstructed. While Ainz ''can'' be clever and intelligent, he's not as smart as his subordinates think he is. Most of the time, he's just winging it and sometimes accomplishes his goals by sheer dumb luck. In Volume 10, [[spoiler:he convinces Jircniv to surrender The Empire as a vassal nation to Nazarick without intending to. All he really wanted to do was recruit adventurers by showing off in the Arena. He actually had to look up what a vassal state even ''is''.]] It helps that his subordinates tend to misinterpet his statements as some profound wisom wisdom or part of some grand master plan and he's forced to [[SureLetsGoWithThat roll with it to keep up his image of a competent leader]].
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Changed line(s) 23 (click to see context) from:
* AchievementsInIgnorance: In Volume 10, [[spoiler: he convinces Jircniv to surrender The Empire as a vassal nation to Nazarick]] without intending to. All he really wanted to do was recruit adventurers by showing off in the Arena. He actually had to look up [[spoiler:what a vassal state even is.]]
to:
* AchievementsInIgnorance: In Volume 10, [[spoiler: he [[spoiler:he convinces Jircniv to surrender The Empire as a vassal nation to Nazarick]] Nazarick without intending to. All he really wanted to do was recruit adventurers by showing off in the Arena. He actually had to look up [[spoiler:what upwhat a vassal state even is.]]
Changed line(s) 74 (click to see context) from:
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillain and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The [=NPCs=] of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, a PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, often leaving him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find other members of the Guild so he can have someone to call a friend.
to:
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillain and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The [=NPCs=] of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, a PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, often leaving him him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find other members of the Guild so he can have someone to call a friend.
Added DiffLines:
** TheChessmaster and TheStrategist are also deconstructed. While Ainz ''can'' be clever and intelligent, he's not as smart as his subordinates think he is. Most of the time, he's just winging it and sometimes accomplishes his goals by sheer dumb luck. In Volume 10, [[spoiler:he convinces Jircniv to surrender The Empire as a vassal nation to Nazarick without intending to. All he really wanted to do was recruit adventurers by showing off in the Arena. He actually had to look up what a vassal state even ''is''.]] It helps that his subordinates tend to misinterpet his statements as some profound wisom or part of some grand master plan and he's forced to [[SureLetsGoWithThat roll with it to keep up his image of a competent leader]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 74 (click to see context) from:
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillan and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The NPCs of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, often leaving him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find other members of the Guild so he can have someone to call a friend.
to:
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillan InvincibleVillain and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The NPCs [=NPCs=] of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, a PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, often leaving him him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find other members of the Guild so he can have someone to call a friend.
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To be honest, I'm not too sure about this entry so make whatever changes you need.
Changed line(s) 73,74 (click to see context) from:
** In general, Ainz is a deconstruction of the typical Isekai protagonist. The man formerly known as Satoru Suzuki was an ordinary salaryman who had no friends, family, or even a girlfriend and whose only joy in life was an MMORPG that was on the verge of shutting down. So when he ends up transported to the New World, he quickly adapts to his new role as an EvilOverlord mainly because he had nothing else going for him in his old life. While he initally took the role mainly to keep up apperances in front of his subordinates as a means of finding other guild members who got transported to the New World, as the series progresses, he begins to genuinely settle into his newfound postition as a ruler. Also, while inititally unnerved by his crimes and his LackOfEmpathy towards them, as his humanity is consumed by his new skeletal form, [[ItGetsEasier he begins to become more comfortable committing atrocities if it accomplishes his goals]].
**
**
to:
** In general, Ainz is a deconstruction of the typical Isekai protagonist. The man formerly known as Satoru Suzuki was an ordinary salaryman who had no friends, family, or even a girlfriend and whose only joy in life was an MMORPG that was on the verge of shutting down. So when he ends up transported to the New World, he quickly adapts to his new role as an EvilOverlord mainly because he had nothing else going for him in his old life. While he initally initially took the role mainly to keep up apperances appearances in front of his subordinates as a means of finding other guild members who got transported to the New World, as the series progresses, he begins to genuinely settle into his newfound postition position as a ruler. Also, while inititally initially unnerved by his crimes and his LackOfEmpathy towards them, as his humanity is consumed by his new skeletal form, [[ItGetsEasier he begins to become more comfortable committing atrocities if it accomplishes his goals]].
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillan and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The NPCs of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, often leaving him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find other members of the Guild so he can have someone to call a friend.
** Ainz also deconstructs the InvincibleVillan and WorldsStrongestMan tropes. The NPCs of Nazarick are fanatically loyal to Ainz partly because of his sheer power. Because of this, he often feels pressured to live up to their expectations of him as this competent, infallible leader for fear that they may abandon him. Also, because he's so powerful, people generally regard him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, PhysicalGod, TheHero, or some combination thereof. Because of this, [[LonelyAtTheTop Ainz has no one he can confide in or call an equal, often leaving him feeling isolated and alone]]. Thus, his main goal is to find other members of the Guild so he can have someone to call a friend.
Changed line(s) 79,80 (click to see context) from:
* DualWielding: Wields a pair of greatswords as Momon. Clementine mocks him for this impractical combat style, but she's also frustrated since she still can't win.
** This is ironic considering Clementine herself dual-wields short swords with hidden elemental effects.
** This is ironic considering Clementine herself dual-wields short swords with hidden elemental effects.
to:
* DualWielding: Wields a pair of greatswords as Momon. Clementine mocks him for this impractical combat style, but she's also frustrated since she still can't win.
**win. This is ironic considering Clementine herself dual-wields short swords with hidden elemental effects.
**
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To be honest, I'm not too sure about this entry so make whatever changes you need.
Changed line(s) 70 (click to see context) from:
* DealWithTheDevil: He has a knack for offering ''exactly'' what a dissatisfied person has always wanted under the condition that they turn to his side and betray their former allies. It works on an outcast dwarven runesmith, a war troll gladiator in the Empire, the top mage of the Empire and the guild master of E-Rantel at the very least.
to:
* DealWithTheDevil: He has a knack for offering ''exactly'' what a dissatisfied person has always wanted under the condition that they turn to his side and betray their former allies. It works on an outcast dwarven Dwarven runesmith, a war troll gladiator in the Empire, the top mage of the Empire and the guild master of E-Rantel at the very least.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype:
** In general, Ainz is a deconstruction of the typical Isekai protagonist. The man formerly known as Satoru Suzuki was an ordinary salaryman who had no friends, family, or even a girlfriend and whose only joy in life was an MMORPG that was on the verge of shutting down. So when he ends up transported to the New World, he quickly adapts to his new role as an EvilOverlord mainly because he had nothing else going for him in his old life. While he initally took the role mainly to keep up apperances in front of his subordinates as a means of finding other guild members who got transported to the New World, as the series progresses, he begins to genuinely settle into his newfound postition as a ruler. Also, while inititally unnerved by his crimes and his LackOfEmpathy towards them, as his humanity is consumed by his new skeletal form, [[ItGetsEasier he begins to become more comfortable committing atrocities if it accomplishes his goals]].
**
** EvenEvilHasStandards is also deconstructed. His "standards" might be an intent from the author to make him look more sympathetic and likable, but only makes him a {{Hypocrite}} in the long run. He always ignores that his servants are no better than those he considers "scum" and while he is not as bad as them, he still has no qualms about doing or allowing his minions to do the same terrible things he is disgusted by.
** In general, Ainz is a deconstruction of the typical Isekai protagonist. The man formerly known as Satoru Suzuki was an ordinary salaryman who had no friends, family, or even a girlfriend and whose only joy in life was an MMORPG that was on the verge of shutting down. So when he ends up transported to the New World, he quickly adapts to his new role as an EvilOverlord mainly because he had nothing else going for him in his old life. While he initally took the role mainly to keep up apperances in front of his subordinates as a means of finding other guild members who got transported to the New World, as the series progresses, he begins to genuinely settle into his newfound postition as a ruler. Also, while inititally unnerved by his crimes and his LackOfEmpathy towards them, as his humanity is consumed by his new skeletal form, [[ItGetsEasier he begins to become more comfortable committing atrocities if it accomplishes his goals]].
**
** EvenEvilHasStandards is also deconstructed. His "standards" might be an intent from the author to make him look more sympathetic and likable, but only makes him a {{Hypocrite}} in the long run. He always ignores that his servants are no better than those he considers "scum" and while he is not as bad as them, he still has no qualms about doing or allowing his minions to do the same terrible things he is disgusted by.
Deleted line(s) 85 (click to see context) :
** Deconstructed as a whole. His "standards" might be an intent from the author to make him look more sympathetic and likable, but only makes him a {{Hypocrite}} in the long run. He always ignores that his servants are no better than those he considers "scum" and while he is not as bad as them, he still has no qualms about doing or allowing his minions to do the same terrible things he is disgusted by.
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None
Changed line(s) 51 (click to see context) from:
* BerserkButton: Ainz cherishes the memory of his old friends above all else and reacts with rage when anyone threatens their creations the Guardians, the guild's ''name'' or insults their memory, even accidentally. Most of his more evil moments come from people who accidentally push this button. [[spoiler:Evileye just barely survives beating Entoma in a fight because Ainz and Demiurge's plan would be messed up if she didn't survive to bear witness to their fight]]. Later when he opened up the Tomb for Adventurers, a group named Foresight ended up encountering him and tried to bluff their way out of danger by claiming to be sent by Ainz's friends. [[INeverSaidItWasPoison When they call him Ainz and not Momonaga]], he flies into a moment of rage at them daring to lie about his friends.
to:
* BerserkButton: Ainz cherishes the memory of his old friends above all else and reacts with rage when anyone threatens their creations the Guardians, the guild's ''name'' or insults their memory, even accidentally. Most of his more evil moments come from people who accidentally push this button. [[spoiler:Evileye just barely survives beating Entoma in a fight because Ainz and Demiurge's plan would be messed up if she didn't survive to bear witness to their fight]]. Later when he opened up the Tomb for Adventurers, a group named Foresight ended up encountering him and tried to bluff their way out of danger by claiming to be sent by Ainz's friends. [[INeverSaidItWasPoison When they call him Ainz and not Momonaga]], Momonga]], he flies into a moment of rage at them daring to lie about his friends.
Changed line(s) 216 (click to see context) from:
* TranquilFury: His skeletal body suppresses most of his strong emotions and inhibits his ability to react as such. The keyword here being '''strong''' emotions, so instead pouring all out in an UnstoppableRage his wrath simmers down and into a [[ThePowerOfHate cold, seething hatred]] worthy of the undead overlord he is, giving him time to think up the cruellest form of retribution that he can.
to:
* TranquilFury: His skeletal body suppresses most of his strong emotions and inhibits his ability to react as such. The keyword here being '''strong''' emotions, so instead of pouring all out in an UnstoppableRage his wrath simmers down and into a [[ThePowerOfHate cold, seething hatred]] worthy of the undead overlord he is, giving him time to think up the cruellest form of retribution that he can.
Changed line(s) 221 (click to see context) from:
* UselessUsefulSpell: As a spellcaster and top-ranked player of YGGDRASIL, he is actually not greatly above average in player-versus-player combat because he chose to build his character for purposes of role playing, not fighting. As a result, he mostly uses instant death spells when such abilities generally don't work against player characters, setting aside the monstrously powerful special ability granted by the Eclipse class. However, the real world doesn't have to worry about game balance, so instant death spells work just fine.
to:
* UnstoppableRage: Even with his undead emotion suppression, there are times when even that is not enough to calm him down if something ''seriously'' pisses him off.
** Wish Upon a Star failing to free Shalltear from her brainwashing forced his emotion suppression to activate multiple times before he was finally calm enough to stop kicking the ground in anger.
** Upon realizing that Foresight was lying to him about meeting one of his old guildmates, he unleashed a torrent of screaming fury that lasted even after most of them were dead.
** The worst case by far is when he learned from reading Zesshi Zetsumei's memories that the Slane Theocracy was responsible for Shalltear's brainwashing. He enters such an uncontrollable state of anger that his emotional suppression is rendered useless, and he directs all his energy toward gathering Nazarick's forces to destroy the Theocracy with little care for tactics or subterfuge.
* UselessUsefulSpell: As a spellcaster and top-ranked player of YGGDRASIL, he is actually not greatly above average in player-versus-player combat because he chose to build his character for purposes ofrole playing, role-playing, not fighting. As a result, he mostly uses instant death spells when such abilities generally don't work against player characters, setting aside the monstrously powerful special ability granted by the Eclipse class. However, the real world doesn't have to worry about game balance, so instant death spells work just fine.
** Wish Upon a Star failing to free Shalltear from her brainwashing forced his emotion suppression to activate multiple times before he was finally calm enough to stop kicking the ground in anger.
** Upon realizing that Foresight was lying to him about meeting one of his old guildmates, he unleashed a torrent of screaming fury that lasted even after most of them were dead.
** The worst case by far is when he learned from reading Zesshi Zetsumei's memories that the Slane Theocracy was responsible for Shalltear's brainwashing. He enters such an uncontrollable state of anger that his emotional suppression is rendered useless, and he directs all his energy toward gathering Nazarick's forces to destroy the Theocracy with little care for tactics or subterfuge.
* UselessUsefulSpell: As a spellcaster and top-ranked player of YGGDRASIL, he is actually not greatly above average in player-versus-player combat because he chose to build his character for purposes of
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* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When he finds out Lupisregina didn't report about the Giant of the East and Serpent of the West, he was ''furious'' because she not report him over she thinks is very little when he's made it known that Carne Village has value to him. Narberal and Aura, who were also present, were sweating bullets and Lupis was outright ''terrified'' because she fears of angering him. the light novel makes it know that this is what scared her the most.
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* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When he finds out Lupisregina didn't report about the Giant of the East and Serpent of the West, he was ''furious'' because she not report him over she thinks is very little when he's made it known that Carne Village has value to him. Narberal and Aura, who were also present, were sweating bullets and Lupis was outright ''terrified'' because she fears of angering him. the The light novel makes it know known that this is what scared her the most.
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* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When he finds out Lupisregina didn't report about the Giant of the East and Serpent of the West, he was ''furious'' because she not report him over she thinks is very little when he's made it known that Carne Village has value to him. Narberal and Aura, who were also present, were sweating bullets and Lupis was outright ''terrified'' because she fears of angering him. the light novel makes it know that this is what scared her the most.
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* PayEvilUntoEvil: There's no denying he can be an evil bastard at times. But when he faces against an opponent who's far worse and evil than him, he'll make it known that their deaths will be swift. And he's not joking on the latter.
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* PayEvilUntoEvil: There's no denying he can be an evil bastard at times. But when he faces against an opponent [[EvilerThanThou who's far worse and evil than him, him]], he'll make it known that their deaths will be swift. And he's not joking on the latter.
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* 1payEvilUntoEvil: There's no denying he can be an evil bastard at times. But when he faces against an opponent who's far worse and evil than him, he'll make it known that their deaths will be swift. And he's not joking on the latter.
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* 1payEvilUntoEvil: PayEvilUntoEvil: There's no denying he can be an evil bastard at times. But when he faces against an opponent who's far worse and evil than him, he'll make it known that their deaths will be swift. And he's not joking on the latter.
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* 1payEvilUntoEvil: There's no denying he can be an evil bastard at times. But when he faces against an opponent who's far worse and evil than him, he'll make it known that their deaths will be swift. And he's not joking on the latter.
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* After Nfirea finds out about his identity in his Momon disguise and giving his thanks to him, he goes out of his way to save the boy after he was captured by Clementine. And thus, both him and his grandmother end up on his list that Lupisregina is required to protect along with Enri and Nemu.
** In volume 8, he is so flattered by Nemu's amazement and wonder at the sight of Nazarick that he goes into a fit of joyful laughter, pats her on the head, takes her on a guided tour of the more visitor-friendly parts of Nazarick [[spoiler:and adds her name to the list of people Lupusregina Beta must keep alive in Carne Village.]] This happens well after his lingering humanity has been all but consumed by his EvilOverlord persona.
** In volume 8, he is so flattered by Nemu's amazement and wonder at the sight of Nazarick that he goes into a fit of joyful laughter, pats her on the head, takes her on a guided tour of the more visitor-friendly parts of Nazarick [[spoiler:and adds her name to the list of people Lupusregina Beta must keep alive in Carne Village.]] This happens well after his lingering humanity has been all but consumed by his EvilOverlord persona.
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** In volume 8, he is so flattered by Nemu's amazement and wonder at the sight of Nazarick that he goes into a fit of joyful laughter, pats her on the head, takes her on a guided tour of the more visitor-friendly parts of Nazarick [[spoiler:and adds her name to the list of people Lupusregina Beta must keep alive in Carne
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* After Nfirea finds out about his identity in his Momon disguise and giving his thanks to him, he goes out of his way to save the boy after he was captured by Clementine. And thus, both him and his grandmother end up on his list that Lupisregina is required to protect along with Enri and Nemu.
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* ShockAndAwe: One of the spells he uses is Dragon Lightning, a 5th Tier spell.
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* CantTakeCriticism: Inverted. He actually wants them, since it allows him to think about his plans more thoroughly. Due to his subjects literally praising his every word, anyone outside of Nazarick will give him a fair and sound criticism and tells his flaws in his plans so he can make alternate use of them.
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* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Is it Ain'''z''' or Ain'''s'''? The novels prefer the former, and official anime subs the latter.
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* AFatherToHisMen: Ainz treats all of his subordinates with love and compassion. He cares very much for their well-being. He is also very forgiving towards them and offers them a chance at redemption if they have failed him.
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* HeartDrive: Adverted. That glowing red orb in his stomach is actually a World Item. Though a few have thought this was his weak point.
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* WellIntentionedExtremist: While he has no compunction about doing horrible things to accomplish his goals, the goals themselves are far more often than not truly noble and just. He orders the building of an orphanage in volume 10, run by the widows of his victims in volume 9, seeks to make the Adventurer's guild ''true adventurers'' to explore the unknown, as opposed to merely being monster-hunting mercenaries, and wants to make his country a utopia where the various races of the world can live side by side in peace.
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* WellIntentionedExtremist: While he has no compunction about doing horrible things to accomplish his goals, the goals themselves are far more often than not truly noble and just. He orders the building of an orphanage in volume 10, run by the widows of his victims in volume 9, seeks to make the Adventurer's guild ''true adventurers'' to explore the unknown, as opposed to merely being monster-hunting mercenaries, and wants to make his country a utopia where the various races of the world can live side by side in peace. That being said, these goals are less motivated by any altruistic desire ([[LackOfEmpathy which he is mostly incapable of due to his undead body lacking empathy]]) and more a case of PragmaticVillainy or the ultimately selfish desire to create a world his former comrades would be proud of him for.
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* WithholdingTheCure: Has more than enough resurrection wands for to bring back the dead of Carne Village but doesn't bother because there's nothing in it for him.
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* WithholdingTheCure: Has more than enough resurrection wands for to bring back the dead of Carne Village but doesn't bother because there's nothing in it for him.him (and because he does not want to display the power to casually bring back the dead to avoid creating problems).
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* NormalFishInATinyPond: While he is a very powerful undead, skilled tactician and good fighter, Ainz wasn't someone particularly powerful back in the MMO he used to play with the other supreme beings. Indeed, it's stated that he isn't particularly strong for a level 100 character, and he mostly got by through the help of the other supreme beings and his gamer skills. In the new world, the power system is so low that a level 30 characters is considered something legendary, so his level 100 status, as well the tomb consisting of monsters who've surpassed that level, make for an invencible overlord whose weaker spells are above even the strongest magic casters.
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* NormalFishInATinyPond: While he is a very powerful undead, skilled tactician and good fighter, Ainz wasn't someone particularly powerful back in the MMO he used to play with the other supreme beings. Indeed, it's stated that he isn't particularly strong for a level 100 character, and he mostly got by through the help of the other supreme beings Supreme Beings and his gamer skills. In the new world, the power system is so low that a level 30 characters character is considered something legendary, so his level 100 status, as well the tomb consisting of monsters who've surpassed that level, make for an invencible invincible overlord whose weaker spells are above even the strongest magic casters.
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* WithholdingTheCure: Has more than enough resurrection wands for to bring back the dead if Carne Village but doesn't bother because there's nothing in it for him.
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* WithholdingTheCure: Has more than enough resurrection wands for to bring back the dead if of Carne Village but doesn't bother because there's nothing in it for him.
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* InstantExpert: A variant. Before coming into the new world, Ainz (formerly Momonga) was merely Satoru Suzuki's in-game avatar, and as such, all the spells he has were learned through level-grinding and the related skill progression requisites. Once he becomes his in-game avatar in the new world, he also gains the knowledge of how to cast these spells. However, once somebody begs Ainz to provide tutelage, Ainz realized that while he knows ''how'' to use magic, he cannot teach them to somebody else because he doesn't understand the fundamentals of magic from an academic standpoint.
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* InstantExpert: InstantExpert:
** A variant. Before coming into the new world, Ainz (formerly Momonga) was merely Satoru Suzuki's in-game avatar, and as such, all the spells he has were learned through level-grinding and the related skill progression requisites. Once he becomes his in-game avatar in the new world, he also gains the knowledge of how to cast these spells. However, once somebody begs Ainz to provide tutelage, Ainz realized that while he knows ''how'' to use magic, he cannot teach them to somebody else because he doesn't understand the fundamentals of magic from an academicstandpoint.standpoint.
** His Perfect Warrior spell allows him to temporarily exchange his caster levels for equivalent levels in a warrior class, allowing him to use equipment he would normally be blocked from using, although he doesn't gain any other abilities, so a theoretical equivalent warrior would still be stronger.
** A variant. Before coming into the new world, Ainz (formerly Momonga) was merely Satoru Suzuki's in-game avatar, and as such, all the spells he has were learned through level-grinding and the related skill progression requisites. Once he becomes his in-game avatar in the new world, he also gains the knowledge of how to cast these spells. However, once somebody begs Ainz to provide tutelage, Ainz realized that while he knows ''how'' to use magic, he cannot teach them to somebody else because he doesn't understand the fundamentals of magic from an academic
** His Perfect Warrior spell allows him to temporarily exchange his caster levels for equivalent levels in a warrior class, allowing him to use equipment he would normally be blocked from using, although he doesn't gain any other abilities, so a theoretical equivalent warrior would still be stronger.
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* SerpentStaff: Ainz wields a MagicStaff entwined by seven serpents, each one with a different colored jewel in its mouth.
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* MegaManning: His Dark Wisdom apparently works by learning spells from the corpses of players.
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* PowerCopying: His Dark Wisdom apparently works by learning spells from the corpses of players.
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* GuestFighter: Ainz appears alongside Albedo as a playable character in ''VideoGame/AFKArena''.
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[-''The Great Tomb'': [[Charactes/Overlord2012The41SupremeBeings The 41 Supreme Beings]] ('''Ainz Ooal Gown''') | [[Characters/Overlord2012NazarickNPCs Nazarick NPCs]] | [[Characters/Overlord2012NazarickMonsters Various Monsters and Creatures Used by Nazarick]]\\
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[-''The Great Tomb'': [[Charactes/Overlord2012The41SupremeBeings [[Characters/Overlord2012The41SupremeBeings The 41 Supreme Beings]] ('''Ainz Ooal Gown''') | [[Characters/Overlord2012NazarickNPCs Nazarick NPCs]] | [[Characters/Overlord2012NazarickMonsters Various Monsters and Creatures Used by Nazarick]]\\
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[[WMG: [[center: ''LightNovel/Overlord2012'' [[Characters/Overlord2012 Main Character Index]]\\
[-''The Great Tomb'': [[Charactes/Overlord2012The41SupremeBeings The 41 Supreme Beings]] ('''Ainz Ooal Gown''') | [[Characters/Overlord2012NazarickNPCs Nazarick NPCs]] | [[Characters/Overlord2012NazarickMonsters Various Monsters and Creatures Used by Nazarick]]\\
''Humans'': [[Characters/Overlord2012Kingdoms The Human Kingdoms]] | [[Characters/Overlord2012Adventurers Adventurers and Workers]] | [[Characters/Overlord2012Criminals Criminals]]\\
''Others'': [[Characters/Overlord2012NonHumanKingdoms Non-Human Kingdoms/Countries]] | [[Characters/Overlord2012Miscellaneous Miscellaneous]]\\
''Bonus Story'': [[Characters/Overlord2012NewAinzOoalGown New Ainz Ooal Gown]]]]]]-]
[-''The Great Tomb'': [[Charactes/Overlord2012The41SupremeBeings The 41 Supreme Beings]] ('''Ainz Ooal Gown''') | [[Characters/Overlord2012NazarickNPCs Nazarick NPCs]] | [[Characters/Overlord2012NazarickMonsters Various Monsters and Creatures Used by Nazarick]]\\
''Humans'': [[Characters/Overlord2012Kingdoms The Human Kingdoms]] | [[Characters/Overlord2012Adventurers Adventurers and Workers]] | [[Characters/Overlord2012Criminals Criminals]]\\
''Others'': [[Characters/Overlord2012NonHumanKingdoms Non-Human Kingdoms/Countries]] | [[Characters/Overlord2012Miscellaneous Miscellaneous]]\\
''Bonus Story'': [[Characters/Overlord2012NewAinzOoalGown New Ainz Ooal Gown]]]]]]-]
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!!Satoru Suzuki/Momonga/Ainz Ooal Gown
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ainz.png]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/SatoshiHino (Japanese), Creator/ChrisGuerrero (English), Creator/VictorHugoAguilar (Latin American Spanish/Ainz), Hector Mena (Latin American Spanish/Satoru)
Ainz Ooal Gown, formerly known as Momonga, is TheProtagonist of Overlord. He is the guild master of Ainz Ooal Gown and regarded as the highest of the 41 Supreme Beings by the {{Non Player Character}}s of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
An unexceptional salary man thrown into the role of a leader of more than a gaming guild, Momonga quickly adapts to his role as a (supposedly) EvilOverlord while still retaining distinctly human traits; notably, Momonga searches for his friends in this new world.
He has the appearance of a Lich, an undead skeleton creature devoid of skin and flesh. He wears an elaborate, jet-black academic gown adorned with gold and violet edges, has a dark red glow inside the empty eye sockets, and a dark halo-like object glimmered behind its head.
In his dark warrior persona, he wears a fully black body armor with purple and golden markings. He has a red cape on his back with two large swords.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A - I]]
* AboveGoodAndEvil: WordOfGod confirms that Ainz effectively operates on this logic. Because his empathy for humans is sealed and he is so far above the level of any possible challengers, he can no longer be constrained by traditional morality. He is so far above everyone else that he has lost the ability to consider normal human beings as equals or to respect them at all, so any human casualties from his actions are treated with the same level of dispassion one would show after swatting a fly.
* AchievementsInIgnorance: In Volume 10, [[spoiler: he convinces Jircniv to surrender The Empire as a vassal nation to Nazarick]] without intending to. All he really wanted to do was recruit adventurers by showing off in the Arena. He actually had to look up [[spoiler:what a vassal state even is.]]
* AchillesHeel: Being undead gives him a lot of strong suits, but also many weaknesses: he is weak to [[HolyBurnsEvil Holy magic]], as well as [[KillItWithFire Fire]] and [[LightEmUp Light element]]. Being skeletal bones, he is also weak to physical damage from blunt weapons. He can cover some of these weaknesses individually, but not all at the same time. [[spoiler:To compensate for that, he devised ways to trick his opponent about WHICH of his weaknesses he's currently covering.]]
* AffablyEvil: Ainz is [[PoliteVillainsRudeHeroes unfailingly polite]], [[AFatherToHisMen loves all his subordinates like his own children]], keeps any DealWithTheDevil he offers, and wants to create a utilitarian utopia where all races can live peacefully together. But he still has a complete LackOfEmpathy for anyone who is against him or even simply not a part of his kingdom, and has no problem killing even millions of those outside his protection if it means keeping those on his side even slightly more safe.
* AlliterativeName: Was called Satoru Suzuki in his old life.
* AlmightyIdiot: PlayedWith. Not in regards to tactics, as Momonga is quite intelligent and crafty, although not as much as his servants think, but definitely in magic. While capable of magics far beyond anyone in the New World, he has no idea how those magics work as he just got them by leveling up. He finds himself unable to teach Fluder magic as he doesn't know how he himself uses it.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: How much of Ainz's villainy is because of his undead body taking away his emotions and how much he truly is evil is rather hard to say. It's a wonder how much evil he'd turn out to be if he had his emotions well, but it seems that Ainz never truly had a sense of moral per se, giving that it took him about some weeks to decide that taking over the world and things like mass murder and torture are okay as long as he can benefit from it. It's rather implied that his own servants are for fault, since Ainz feels like he has to act as the evil overlord he is supposed to be in his role (which explains why he always tries to hide his disgust for some amoral in front of them).
* AntiVillain: Most of the things he wants aren't that bad, such as creating a diverse kingdom free of racism or conflict or allowing adventurers to be more than monster slayers employed by the kingdom. However, he has no qualms with mass murder, torture or any number of atrocities so long as he feels they don't get in the way of his plans and serve ''some'' purpose, even if it's just intimidation.
* TheArchmage: Not to the extent of one like Ulbert, but he still qualifies. The wiki page for him shows 80+ known spells he uses, but that is still barely touching the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Ainz's knowledge of the arcane arts. The normal amount of spells a level 100 player character can know in YGGDRASIL is 300, but Ainz used a special Overlord ability "Dark Wisdom" to master a total of '''718''' different spells. And his mana level? [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale "Exceeds Limit"]].
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Since the lizardmen value strong leaders, they quickly start to worship Ainz as a GodEmperor after their conscription even though they never worshipped gods before. He also uses Shalltear to establish some authority for himself by beating someone basically minmaxed to defeat him, leaving Nazarick to believe no one can stand against him in a fight.
* AtrociousAlias: "Momonga" is actually the Japanese name for a Japanese dwarf flying squirrel, not noted to be a particularly fierce animal.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Averted during his time as the Guild leader of Ainz Ooal Gown. He has stated multiples times that his character is not among the best players in terms of pure combat ability, as it was never built for Player vs. Player. It is {{downplayed}} in the New World, as the only characters explicitly noted to be capable of defeating him in a straightforward fight are Shalltear and Rubedo, the former is a ManOfKryptonite for him and the latter is a OneManArmy designed to take down entire parties of level-capped players.
* AwesomeButImpractical
** What his build used to be in YGGDRASIL. He focuses heavily on {{OneHitKO}}s and other spells that are amazing in theory but not all that amazing in practice due to game balance, especially against other high-level players. But in a world where game balance does not exist, suddenly Ainz can OneHitKO pretty much anybody who is not undead or has a level comparable to him, the latter of which amounts to almost '''none'''.
** On the opposite side, his spells that summon high-level undead but consume experience points have become more impractical than they used to be. They would probably not be too bad in YGGDRASIL, where he could always just level back up, but in the New World, where he has no similarly-leveled opponents, recovering the lost experience may be impossible or at least teeth-grindingly hard. So skills like these just aren't worth using.
** In his Momon persona, he wields two greatswords in combat. While definitely cool looking, many warriors have commented that this is a very inefficient way of fighting as it makes his attacks (relatively) slow and easy to read. The fact that he cannot use Martial Arts skills to augment the shortcomings of this fighting style makes it more inefficient.
** His Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown is this as well. It comes with many powerful bonus spells for him to use, boosts his stats tremendously, [[EmpathicWeapon and can even act independently of him and cast spells of its own volition]], so that fighting Momonga becomes akin to fighting two people instead of one. Its power is said to rival that of a [[InfinityPlusOneSword World-Class item]]. However, if it were ever to be destroyed, the guild Ainz Ooal Gown would be disbanded and all of its possessions would be forfeit (including the guild base of Nazarick and all of its {{Non Player Character}}s). The risk was simply too great to take in ''YGGDRASIL'', as even with the Staff's power Momonga was not invincible, so after all the effort it took to create it, the weapon sat to gather dust in the guild's vaults. In the New World, the risk of someone successfully taking it from Momonga and destroying it is slim, but not null, and its power is incredibly overkill roughly all the time anyways, so the powerful weapon is once again doomed to never see use in battle.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: He isn't much good at the details of long term strategy and only has vague plans for the future, but when preparing for a fight he's incredibly meticulous and analytical in his preparations. In YGGDRASIL this allowed him to fight above his build's tier, though it wasn't enough to make him a top level [=PvPer=]. [[spoiler:He even manages to take down ManOfKryptonite Shalltear twice in a direct fight.]]
* BadassBoast: He does these often when he handles things, personally.
** His line to Clementine at the end of episode 8, after she compared herself to Stronoff.
---> '''Ainz:''' No matter what, I won't fight you seriously.
** Plus, the declaration he made to the [[spoiler:brainwashed Shalltear]].
---> '''Ainz:''' I am Ainz Ooal Gown! And this name cannot ever know defeat!
** And later.
---> '''Ainz:''' Know this. The strength of the 41 people from Ainz Ooal Gown stands before you! And you did not have any chance of winning from the start! [[spoiler:Shalltear Bloodfallen]]. I am the leader of the Supreme Beings of the Tomb of Nazarick. Feel the power of the man you all respect and call your master!
* BadassCape: He wears a red cape over his black armor in his Momon persona, and he earns a reputation of being a badass adventurer over time.
* BecomingTheMask: At the start of the series, he was a fairly neutral figure, but worried about keeping appearances in front of his subordinates, who were all already pretty evil apart from one or two exceptions. By Volume 4, he's a genuine overlord, attacking innocent lizardmen for little reason and slaughtering people willing to submit to his authority. In Volume 6, he assists Demiurge in sacking the capital of the local kingdom and in Volume 7 he decimates a bunch of workers for their imagined slights against him, even though they were only there because he wanted them to be there. By the time of Volume 10, he has accepted the idea of eventual world conquest and becoming a "benevolent" dictator. The AlternateTimeline side novel where Momonga arrives on the new world without Nazarick makes it fairly clear that this ultimately has less to do with EmotionSuppression and is more just a [[DrunkWithPower natural human reaction to being in a position of absolute power]].
* BenevolentBoss: He has genuine affection for his subordinates in Nazarick and tries to find means of rewarding them even though his HundredPercentAdorationRating means that they are simply happy to be of service. This is shown in both the dramas CD and manga as he feels that he is obliged to make the Guardians have their own salaries and even suggests to make everyone in Nazarick have occasional vacations, which was received with shock by everyone. However, those who weren't directly created by the Supreme Beings are ultimately considered expendable as necessary.
* BerserkButton: Ainz cherishes the memory of his old friends above all else and reacts with rage when anyone threatens their creations the Guardians, the guild's ''name'' or insults their memory, even accidentally. Most of his more evil moments come from people who accidentally push this button. [[spoiler:Evileye just barely survives beating Entoma in a fight because Ainz and Demiurge's plan would be messed up if she didn't survive to bear witness to their fight]]. Later when he opened up the Tomb for Adventurers, a group named Foresight ended up encountering him and tried to bluff their way out of danger by claiming to be sent by Ainz's friends. [[INeverSaidItWasPoison When they call him Ainz and not Momonaga]], he flies into a moment of rage at them daring to lie about his friends.
** His other button is someone tarnishing his name or affronting his honor as he takes great pride in his honor and being a man of his word. Stated explicitly when the criminal organization Eight-Fingers kidnapped Tsuare whom Ainz swore on his name to protect.
---> '''Ainz:''' [[ThisIsUnforgivable This is unforgivable.]] Even if they did not know!
** The most subtle one, '''don't be rude''' around him. At the absolute best, it will irritate him, and even then it could make him murderous in the blink of an eye if you're foolish enough to persist.
* {{BFS}}: Deconstructed. As Momon, his two large broadswords makes him slower and easier to read, which is lampshaded by Clementine and other adventurers. Justified as he has no real experience with swords, which tends to make him sloppy.
* BlackKnight: As Momon, he wears completely concealing black armor and while apparently heroic is still a very mysterious figure. He cultivates this image to discourage people trying to find out too much about him while also looking inspiring and fearsome.
* BlingOfWar: He has terrible fashion sense himself but has maids who pick out his wardrobe to make him look threatening on top of being perfectly functional and dangerous gear. It's also invoked in that his favorite sets are designed to look good together because players didn't want to look stupid just to be strong if they could avoid it.
* CantHaveSexEver: Since he's a skeleton, he can't have sex because he lacks the equipment to do so. This understandably frustrates him.
* CassandraTruth: Even when he ''does'' admit that he's not infallible, the Guardians refuse to believe it, as shown near the end of Volume 11.
* TheChainsOfCommanding: He's under the impression that he has to be the perfect overlord for his subordinates or they might lose their respect or possibly even loyalty to him. As a result, whenever Demiurge assumes he figured out what Ainz's (nonexistent) master plans are, Ainz feels compelled to do whatever Demiurge said. However, it's quite clear that he is worrying over nothing; Everyone important in Nazarick is fanatically loyal to the point that Demiurge has something of an existential crisis when he considers a world where he has no one to serve. The AlternateTimeline side novel also shows explicitly that without everyone in Nazarick expecting him to be their ruler, he would have remained considerably more empathetic and human, rather than embracing the role of an EvilOverlord.
* ChekhovsSkill
** He uses the lessons and experiences Cocytus learned by ruling the Lizardman tribe to administer [[spoiler: E-rantel]]. The citizens are completely shocked that an undead skeletal overlord is a truly benevolent dictator, and the end of volume nine indicates that he grants the citizens true peace for the first time in their entire collective memory.
** When it comes to diplomacy, his time as a salaryman proves highly advantageous in just about every encounter.
* CluelessBoss: Ainz quickly learns that he is out of his depth when he transitions from [=MMO=] player to EvilOverlord. Even when he finds out what his subordinates are doing, he just goes with it. Can't let his subordinates think he's incompetent, after all, even if they wouldn't care. His saving graces are that his minions have no idea, and would remain completely loyal even if they did, and his social skills as a salaryman lets him roll with the punches without anybody being the wiser.
* CollectorOfTheStrange: One of his primary hobbies is collecting people, or whole races, and magical, or even mundane objects with unusual properties or abilities, purely for the sake of having them. This is why he tends to have all sorts of lame (by Yggdrasil standards) items in his inventory that he uses or hands out to others throughout the story such as the useless Christmas Mask he wears or the low-level Goblin Horn he gave to Enri that most players would just throw away. It's stated that most of the useless junk in Nazarick's treasury was his, and the one [=NPC=] he designed for the guild base was the treasurer. This interest ultimately culminates in wanting to build an entire kingdom of all the world's races living side by side in peace. He has Enri Emmot's efforts in Carne Village to draw upon as inspiration as well. This is seen in volume 11 when he notices with glee that Zaryusu and Crusch's infant son is a rare albino like Crusch. Crusch picks up on this and holds her baby even tighter out of fear that Ainz might try to take him away. One reason why he decides to give Zaryusu a suit of magical armor as a gift to celebrate his son's birth is because he wants Zaryusu to sire more unique children with Crusch in the future and thinks the armor will ensure he survives to do so.
* CrazyPrepared: With over 700 spells and an arsenal's worth of magical items, he has just the right solution for basically every occasion and the cunning strategic mindset to match. He went through his whole battle with [[spoiler:Shalltear]] relying on nothing but his ability to be prepared for anything.
** This was basically his entire playstyle in YGGDRASIL, as well. His main set of abilities was AwesomeButImpractical, but he managed to pull his weight in the guild simply because his ludicrous amount of spells allowed him to have solutions to really obscure problems. Most other players passed on these {{Situational Sword}}s, making someone like Ainz a godsend in a game with as many secrets as YGGDRASIL.
** On a more mundane level, he frequently rehearses conversations he will have. He'll perform a lot of his cool poses in front of a mirror as well as taking copious notes in advance. He hates it when people go off-script.
* DealWithTheDevil: He has a knack for offering ''exactly'' what a dissatisfied person has always wanted under the condition that they turn to his side and betray their former allies. It works on an outcast dwarven runesmith, a war troll gladiator in the Empire, the top mage of the Empire and the guild master of E-Rantel at the very least.
* DebtDetester: He always pays his debts. Always.
* DemBones: He's an undead skeleton.
* DidntSeeThatComing: There some points where he will not see something coming. Perhaps the best example is when Enri, the village girl whom he saved in order to honor Touch Me, summons an army of '''''5000''''' goblins, each with their own class, with what he initially saw as nothing but a JokeItem.
* DopeSlap: As Narberal was about to attack Nfirea simply for hiring Momon by name, Ainz smacks the back of her head to remind her not to overreact to every little thing.
* DualWielding: Wields a pair of greatswords as Momon. Clementine mocks him for this impractical combat style, but she's also frustrated since she still can't win.
** This is ironic considering Clementine herself dual-wields short swords with hidden elemental effects.
* EmotionSuppression: Whenever he experiences strong emotions, his undead body suppresses them, though something slamming his Berserk Buttons can overcome this. Although it makes him more inhuman, this is in some ways a good thing, since it allows him to not worry about fear, anger, or any other emotions that would otherwise cloud his mind and make him a less effective ruler (especially in the early stages where he's still adapting to his new position). This is demonstrated in the Pleiades shorts, when an item accidentally removes his racial resistance to emotions and he kinda starts losing his shit.
* EntertaininglyWrong: Not to the same extent as characters like Demiurge or Jircniv, but Ainz has plenty of oblivious moments. A great example is from volume 10, where Ainz unironically believes he has a good relationship with Jircniv, who is in fact terrified of Ainz and desperately wants to kill him. Ainz even [[spoiler:crashed Jircniv's secret meeting with the Theocracy]] without realizing what was going on. Admittedly, Ainz was slightly miffed when he heard Jircniv screaming for [[spoiler:the Martial Lord to kill him, but he just assumed Jircniv was a massive Martial Lord fanboy]]. At no point in the volume did it ever occur to Ainz that his relationship with the Emperor was anything but sunny.
* EvenEvilHasStandards
** He was perfectly willing to let Carne Village be slaughtered while he watched through a magic mirror. Understandable, as he didn't have enough information to intervene, until he saw a full grown, armed and heavily armored soldier chase down, torment, maim, and prepare to execute two helpless little girls. [[CurbStompBattle That soldier didn't have a prayer, and neither did the army that came with him.]]
---> '''Ainz:''' You can chase down women and children, but you lack the conviction to face an enemy? ''[[OneHitKill Grasp Heart!]]''
** He was truly disturbed when he saw what [[spoiler:Clementine did to Ninya]]. Let's remember that by this time Ainz has already lost all empathy towards humans and his emotions were mostly suppressed. When he [[spoiler:got his hands on Clementine, he made sure that [[CruelAndUnusualDeath she would pay]]]].
---> '''Ainz:''' You took your time killing her, didn't you? It's only fair to give you the same treatment, slow and painfully.
** [[spoiler:When a group of Re-Estize nobles came to him pleading him to spare both themselves and their families, while presenting the decapitated head of Zanac, their king whom they betrayed, Ainz went full TranquilFury and ordered them to be sent to [[TortureTechnician Neuronist.]]]]
** Deconstructed as a whole. His "standards" might be an intent from the author to make him look more sympathetic and likable, but only makes him a {{Hypocrite}} in the long run. He always ignores that his servants are no better than those he considers "scum" and while he is not as bad as them, he still has no qualms about doing or allowing his minions to do the same terrible things he is disgusted by.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: He doesn't understand why the StupidGood Remedios would be angry at him for coming to her aid, failing to see others may not share his utilitarian worldview, that him not even trying to save people when it's in his power to do so is cruel, and that he's devaluing the sacrifice of her men. He just assumes she must be an unpleasable bitch rather than considering he's being just as much of an asshole and is further a foreign power that has to be kept from enacting his very real intentions of creating a political base within her country.
* EvilOverlord: Well, a more benevolent example for this trope. He's the ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, a magic fortress that appeared in on a plain, and as soon as he feels it's safe, seizes large portions of territory from his nearest neighbor, vassalizes the next closest, and is perpetually close to war with a country of paladins and a theocracy. However, life under the rule of Nazarick is actually ''better'' than most other kingdoms... if you're a citizen and not a criminal reduced to "[[HumanResources livestock]]" status or a slave.
* EvilSoundsDeep: In the anime, his internal dialogue is through the voice of Satoru Suzuki, who sounds, as expected, like an average Japanese man. His physical voice as Momonga/Ainz uses a different register nearly two octaves lower than his "human" voice.
* EvilVersusEvil: He's had run-ins with other villainous groups such as [[StarterVillain Nigun]] and his men, the Eight Fingers, some dangerous trolls, and the Theocracy. He's proven to be far stronger than them, and his servants have proven to be worse than them as well.
* EvilVirtues: He makes sure to keep a good public image, is as honest as possible, honors his agreements, avoids falling victim to arrogance, and does a good job of cultivating genuine loyalty by showing his own.
* FakeWeakness:
** '''Masterfully''' pulled off by Ainz while fighting [[spoiler:Shalltear]], playing up his weaknesses as strengths and his actual strengths as weaknesses. [[spoiler:He makes her think that he is weak to Holy and resistant to Fire when it was actually the other way around, and even used False Data: Life to make sure she would not realize the trickery. He pretends not to know her abilities, even though he knew them full well, so that she would keep using attacks that she thought he hadn't been able to plan for. He also leads her to believe that he is weak without his mana even though he had fully prepared to battle her in melee with a full arsenal's worth of powerful items. Shalltear falls straight for it and expends all her special attacks and mana on him early on, expecting a weakened Ainz with an empty mana pool to be an easy kill due to her superior fighting skills. He wasn't.]]
** In volume 10, he lies to a merchant that the spell (one that the Empire mistakenly believes is his strongest one) he used to slaughter the Kingdom's army in volume 9 was something he can only cast once every ten years.
* FakingTheDead: As part of a training exercise, he decides to pretend he's dead to see how Nazarick runs without him. While a few idiots like Remedios or the idiot noble that hits on Albedo believe it, for the most part everyone under him reacts with "Bullshit, there's no one strong enough to kill him."
* FalseFlagOperation: Accidentally. During the yearly conflict between the Kingdom and the Empire, he's nominally on the side of the Empire, but they don't trust him and he's largely indifferent to the arrangement. Unfortunately for Jircniv, only top-level members of their two nations actually know this ''and'' he's far more powerful than they realized, so he brings disgrace down on their side without drastically affecting his own reputation since everyone hated him anyway. As a result, the Slane Theocracy grows very suspicious of the Empire, and many of Jircniv's most important tools believe he knew what Ainz was going to do, shaking faith in the Emperor and greatly weakening his power as a result.
* AFatherToHisMen: He regards the denizens of the Tomb of Nazarick as his surrogate children as the creations of his TrueCompanions and treats them accordingly. He also regards anyone who becomes his servant and who he swears to protect in name of Ainz Ooal Gown as this as well.
* FeigningIntelligence: Although he's not stupid by any means, he's nowhere near as smart as he leads the Guardians to believe. However, if he's regal and imposing he can often get away with pretending to know what people are talking about and when he can't can usually make other people explain on his behalf by pretending it's beneath him to do so.
* TheFool: Ainz has very little idea as to what he's doing outside of very narrow situations, but the world seemingly bends over backwards so that everything goes well. People end up vastly overestimating him as a result, which makes it even easier for him to secure information or their outright submission. It gets to the point where while indulging in a pet project he accidentally subjugates an entire nation with no bloodshed and actually ''worries'' that he might have screwed up by securing their surrender. Demiurge, the actual genius in Nazarick, is stunned by his seemingly "brilliant" plan because he had thought it would take months at least to conquer the Empire without destroying it outright and result in massive casualties.
** It's implied that Ainz was actually a good salesman in real life. For example, he uses sales tactics and charisma to win over the guildmaster, who becomes one of his most loyal human subjects. Unfortunately he's not good at much else, and even his management experience is pretty worthless with Nazarick, since he's thinking about it in terms of being a CEO, where the Guardians view him as a god.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: From virgin salaryman with no close friends or family and obsessed with an old MMO, to a brutal mass-murdering EvilOverlord. His instincts for it aren't the greatest, but as time goes on he commits or makes use of more and more atrocities.
* {{Glamour}}: Wears an illusion of his human face the few times he needs to remove his helmet as "Momon". Since it is just an illusion, he has to avoid letting anything make actual physical contact with it lest he suffer GlamourFailure.
* GodEmperor: Not a title that Ainz claims, but rather how he is treated by the denizens of Nazarick and [[spoiler:the lizardman tribes]].
* AGodIAmNot: While never referred to as a god by anyone directly, Ainz knows his subordinates in Nazarick worship him and see him as a god. This makes him very uncomfortable even after he had gotten used to the idea of being a king and world domination.
* GodlikeGamer: Satoru was one, being a hardcore MMORPG gamer with an unbelievably powerful lich avatar before he finds himself TrappedInAnotherWorld as his overpowered avatar Ainz. His character has been maxed out so virtually no one poses any challenge to him, even though he tries to keep the extent of his true power a secret.
** Averted while he was playing YGGDRASIL itself. He had a max-level character, a powerful class, and more mana than could be displayed on a character... but his character wasn't built for [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] but for role-playing purposes, and he thus had to rely on working with the other members of his guild.
* TheGoodKing: Invoked and downplayed. He's trying to cultivate an image of a wise benevolent ruler, however there is no mistake who is in charge, no one dares speak out against Ainz, and it's something of a police state. On the other hand, it's peaceful and prosperous, fair and practical decisions are made about governance, and even though mind control magic is used in investigations, it's genuinely only used to find the culprits of crimes and discern guilt as when the Sorcerer Kingdom asked the Empire for their death row inmates, a few were sent back as they were found to be innocent.
* TheHeart: When Touch Me disbanded the clan Nine's Own Goal so that they could form a proper guild, he picked Momonga to replace him as the new guild leader. Ulbert and likely several others were somewhat sick of Touch Me by this point due to his rather demanding nature, and Touch Me agreed that he should step down. Momonga was chosen because everyone liked Momonga, even both Touch Me and Ulbert, and no one else could have held the group together. Momonga for his part wasn't much of a leader, but he was good at coming up with solutions that satisfied everyone and came across as fair.
* HiddenHeartOfGold: While it's downplayed and more apparent in his interactions with the [=NPCs=] of Nazarick, Ainz will occasionally help others or do something nice, even for humans or outsiders, because GoodFeelsGood. Though in all these instances, if anyone questions him on it, [[SlaveToPR he'll say he was doing it for a practical reason that had nothing to do with morality or decency]]. He can be a real selfish jerkass, but if anything, his overlord persona is still mostly a role he is playing, and he usually has to fake sharing his servants' sadism and racism toward humans to keep the image. While he certainly ain't a good guy, he is not as evil and monstrous as many people think he is, and he always tries to hide his good side to everyone, especially the Guardians.
* HumbleHero: As Momon, he goes out of his way to never seem arrogant or condescending except when it comes to confidence in his own abilities, which is a selling point. It's a deliberately cultivated image so that he can become as popular as possible and then try to pass that esteem back to his 'real' self when he's Momon.
* HyperspaceArsenal: He often holds important items, weapons, or equipment in a pocket dimension and simply opens a dark portal when he wants to take something out. He does this in either his Ainz or Momon persona. He tries not to keep anything too valuable in there, as it can be accessed by other people with the appropriate skills.
* HypocrisyNod: {{Invoked}} in the anime with the "fight" between Ainz and Clementine. Just before the battle, he told her that it would be hypocritical of him to reproach her for [[spoiler:slaughtering the Swords of Darkness]], since he was using them as a means to gain fame for his Momon persona, and would have done the same if his plans called for it. Afterwards, he then quips to her lifeless, broken body:
--> '''Ainz Ooal Gown:''' [[BondOneLiner I forgot to tell you. Try as I might, I have a tendency to be... hypocritical.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: Setting aside the above nod, see the EvenEvilHasStandards entry above? He's done such things himself with no qualms, only worse and on a larger scale with no hesitation.
* IAmNotLeftHanded: Ainz makes it a point to use only the bare minimum level of strength needed to accomplish his goals, to avoid people learning about his true capabilities. When he finds someone that's above what his current level can do he'll show off a bit more. A favorite one for the series in general is him admitting that he isn't a warrior but a mage with (relative) super strength.
* IGaveMyWord: When he promises to do something, he refuses to back down on it even if it comes at a personal cost, though the limit of this is not known. One of the clearest examples is when he promises on 'his' name to keep Tsuare safe, only for her to get kidnapped. He's furious not because he cares about her, but because the group that took her is mocking the name of the guild by doing so. He crushes the criminals responsible, enslaves and breaks them and more without a thought as to the benefits or consequences, though it does turn out to be a pretty good deal for him anyway.
* IMeantToDoThat: He tends to pass off blunders and thoughtless action as part of some greater scheme, which tends to work as a mere distraction if nothing else. It also maintains his image of being an infallible and near omniscient king to his subordinates.
* InstantArmor: The full plate armor he wears as "Momon" is a magical construct that he can summon and dispel at will, though he has a real version as well in case he needs it to look damaged or something, in which case he has to really carry it around.
* InstantExpert: A variant. Before coming into the new world, Ainz (formerly Momonga) was merely Satoru Suzuki's in-game avatar, and as such, all the spells he has were learned through level-grinding and the related skill progression requisites. Once he becomes his in-game avatar in the new world, he also gains the knowledge of how to cast these spells. However, once somebody begs Ainz to provide tutelage, Ainz realized that while he knows ''how'' to use magic, he cannot teach them to somebody else because he doesn't understand the fundamentals of magic from an academic standpoint.
* InvincibleVillain: He's the VillainProtagonist, and both he and his minions annihilate hordes of enemies like they're nothing, due to the fact that [[NormalFishInATinyPond they have the highest levels in the New World]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:J - Y]]
* JerkassHasAPoint: Ainz may have went too far when he slaughtered the Workers, including Arche, who was just in the job to protect her little sisters, but he does point out that the Workers did invade his home to rob him, not that they knew it was a home. He also asked them prior to them entering as Momon what their motivations were for going into the Tomb, and all they did was say they were doing it for the money and nothing more, which in his eyes makes them greedy and not worth giving respect to. At the very least, had they told him their real motivations at the start, he would have some inkling to be lenient about it, but their greedy motivations, especially given one of the crypts that was very easy to enter had a huge stash of gold that didn't satisfy the group enough to leave, makes it hard to find him being too far with it.
* KavorkaMan: Subverted. He's a giant, amoral skeleton, yet has multiple suitors. But the women in love with him are women inhabitants of Nazarick, who are [[CuteMonsterGirl heteromorphs]] with [[BlueAndOrangeMorality different beauty standards]] and [[UndyingLoyalty fanatical devotion]], while the likes of Evileye are actually in love with a lie. Albedo, her biggest and most devoted suitor, was programmed by him to be in love with him as a joke just seconds before arriving to the new world and the settings stayed with that, and would have sex with anybody if it wasn't for that (granted, she would still be atracted to Ainz regardless, but he wouldn't be the only object of her lust if her settings hadn't been changed)
* KillerBearHug: He murders [[spoiler:Clementine]] by wrapping his arms around them and squeezing down, drawing out the process to make it a CruelAndUnusualDeath. He ends up snapping their spine and rupturing their organs since a fountain of HighPressureBlood jets out of their mouth.
* KillItWithFire: Both on the giving and receiving end of the trope: he knows several fire spells, but fire is also a weakness of the undead. He selected his default gear specifically to [[NoSell negate that weakness entirely]].
* LackOfEmpathy: After coming to the new world, Ainz noticed a disturbing lack of care for the suffering of others. He believes it may be due to his undead body dulling his morals, but either way he's almost eager to engage in mass murder and torture so long as he can get away with it, with only respect for his old friend Touch Me, pragmatism, and a lack of outright sadism holding him back.
* LargeHam: Though mostly reserved, Ainz also has a flair for theatrics should the situation warrant it. Most of the time, it simply comes off as the requisite showmanship befitting an EvilOverlord such as himself. He even keeps notes on what gestures to use in certain situations and practices them in private.
* LeonineContract: He's quite fond of these, often seeking out people in desperate situations, providing a solution and charging a steep price. However, the terms he offers are always considered quite fair, sometimes even seen as quite generous, like when he rescued Carne Village in return for whatever information they could give him about the New World, which in turn motivates them to eagerly serve him without having to be asked; and he '''always''' keeps his end of the bargain, as much as possible, even if it would be against his interests or he has no obligation to do so.
* LivingLegend: Thanks to Ainz's efforts to improve his reputation as Momon and his sheer power, Momon ends up an extremely popular and respected figure. This ends up making him a valuable tool for pacifying the people and allowing a peaceful transition of power.
* LonelyAtTheTop: In the New World he has no equals and no friends he can truly confide in. Everyone in Nazarick is a subordinate (and sees him as a deity so they are always subservient to his will). The rest of the world knows him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, PhysicalGod, or TheHero. He wants to find other YGGDRASIL Players, originally part of his guild or not, because he wants to have the friendship of a fellow human from Earth and try to be Satoru Suzuki again.
* LovingAShadow: Momonga's devotion to the mere memory of the other members of Ainz Ooal Gown. Even as they all moved on from the game, Momonga kept on holding to their legacy because he had nothing else left to live for, dedicating all of his play time just to support a guild that was all but dead in practice. This remains true in the New World, where Momonga sees all the [=NPCs=] basically as extensions of his dear comrades, and, most tragically, reacts with anger and hatred at any perceived slight against their memory. If they were to come to the New World, would his guildmates really approve of the wretched entity he has become in their name?
* MediaTransmigration: Satoru was a normal Japanese businessman who ends up becoming his skeletal lich player avatar when he stayed to commemmorate his favorite [=MMORPG=]'s shutdown.
* MegaManning: His Dark Wisdom apparently works by learning spells from the corpses of players.
* MercyKill: The kindest thing he can do for prisoners is to give them a swift painless death, a mercy he gives to those who have done nothing to offend him [[spoiler:such as the children taken by Demiurge]]. Well, he could just set them free, but that wouldn't be good for his overlord figure. He considers death mercy, at least compared to what the most evil denizens of Nazarick can do to others, and proves when he orders Shalltear to kill Arche without pain.
* MistakenForPedophile: When humoring the child Aura, he says he likes her the most among the girls of Nazarick. He's quite confused by her sudden panic, but all his further statements do is convince her he's engaging in WifeHusbandry.
* MomentOfWeakness: Albedo has witnessed them on several occasions. Momonga has exhibited his loneliness as the last Supreme Being and a desire to see his comrades. He shared his selfish reasons for not letting the Floor Guardians fight [[spoiler:Shalltear]]. She was present when he displayed hesitation and uncertainty at rumors that a fellow guild member was in the New World. See Albedo's spoilerific DragonWithAnAgenda trope entry for her reaction to protect him.
* MoralMyopia: He disdains the Slane Theocracy for their unprovoked attack on Carne Village and Clementine for her torture, but attacks and subjugates the lizardmen while engaging in horrific torture himself. He's protective of Nazarick guardians and enraged when they are threatened, but kills wantonly himself and ignores how terrible his subordinates actually are, such as Entoma and Demiurge.
* MotiveDecay: Acknowldged InUniverse as well, he laments how he abandoned his original goal of gaining attention of any of his friends also trapped in with him, and using his power to TakeOverTheWorld because gaining the loyalty of his subordinates (who are still loyal to him no matter what) is all he has left now.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: In the first overlord drama CD, he uses time-stop, explosive spells, and a spell meant to simulate a meteor impact to dress the giant doom tree as a Christmas tree before having the time-stop and all the fireworks go off simultaneously, all because his guardians wanted to see one. [[GoMadFromTheRevelation The Dryad on the scene does not take it well.]]
* MundaneUtility: To cultivate the image of an all-powerful undead sorcerer king, Ainz has used his forces in mundane ways simply to either impress or show the amount of power he wields. Some direct examples are:
** To announce his intention of subjugating the Lizardmen tribes, he summoned an army of magically equipped skeleton warriors and made them into a stepping platform. He also used a spell to freeze the swamp and ordered one of his guardians to toss a giant rock cube on the frozen lake to act as a stage for him. Finally, he ordered another one of his guardians to summon monsters simply to announce his presence.
** When the Emperor of Baharuth came to arrange a meeting with him, he first made sure that the weather was nice enough by using a tier 6 spell (appropriately named Control Weather). He also summons Death Knights to act as wait staff for his visitors, something that both bewilders and terrifies them because even the Empire's best wizard cannot subjugate even one Death Knight.
** During the Massacre of Katze Plains, he recalls one of his summoned Dark Young to act as his mount.
* {{Necromancer}}: Powerful undeads are generally capable of [[SummonMagic summoning lesser undead]]. Ainz is an Overlord, so he is able to summon low, medium, and high tier undead. Back in the game, these are only temporary summons which will vanish after a certain amount of time. Much to his surprise, when he tries to create a Death Knight after killing a man in the New World, it raises the corpse as a Death Knight that does not vanish. However, there are certain limits: Ainz is unable to create higher-tier undead which don't vanish using human corpses. To do so, he needs a stronger 'base material' so to speak - the corpse of stronger beings will allow the permanent creation of stronger undead.
* TheNeedless: Doesn't eat or drink as he's undead.
* NewLifeInAnotherWorldBonus: Ainz Ooal Gown reincarnates in his YGGDRASIL VRMMORPG avatar. He has level 100, unique classes, all of his similarly powerful comrades equipment, their guild base (one of the strongest guilds in-game) is an entire army including 8 other level 100 servants; with absolute authority over all of them.
* NobleDemon: He's a mass-murdering monster, but also generally willing to accept surrender and has no need to cause suffering just for the sake of suffering. He also honors nobility from his enemies.
* NormalFishInATinyPond: While he is a very powerful undead, skilled tactician and good fighter, Ainz wasn't someone particularly powerful back in the MMO he used to play with the other supreme beings. Indeed, it's stated that he isn't particularly strong for a level 100 character, and he mostly got by through the help of the other supreme beings and his gamer skills. In the new world, the power system is so low that a level 30 characters is considered something legendary, so his level 100 status, as well the tomb consisting of monsters who've surpassed that level, make for an invencible overlord whose weaker spells are above even the strongest magic casters.
* NoSell: Being a skeletal undead makes him immune to the [[ShockAndAwe Electric]], [[ToxicTropes Poison]], and [[AnIcePerson Ice]] elements and greatly resists slashing and thrusting weapons because he has no organs to damage. He cannot be critted, life-drained, mentally attacked, hit with instant-kill effects or most status effects. With carefully selected gear, he can also neutralize one of his crippling weaknesses to fire, light, holy, or bash attacks, generally preferring to go with fire. Finally, as a high-level player character, he is outright immune to physical attacks from those below an effective level of 60 unless he deactivates this skill. Given that he's only seen a single entity in the New World above this level, he's basically untouchable by anything this world can throw at him.
* NoShirtLongJacket: Much to Albedo's and Shalltear's pleasure, his Lich attire exposes his skeletal chest and the red orb in the void of his abdomen.
* OneHandedZweihander: As "Momon", he dual-wields greatswords thanks to the enormous strength he has from being incredibly overleveled. Interestingly enough, this is actually considered highly impractical and is something he can only get way with due to being so physically strong.
* OneHitKO: He's specialized in instant death effects to the point where he even has access to a secret bonus class with a one hit kill ability that can kill ''inanimate objects, terrain, and the undead''. Use of the ability turns an entire field into a dust-filled crater. He also has a death aura that among high-level players would only cause a status debuff, but is strong enough to kill some of the most powerful known monsters of the New World.
* OneManArmy: A level 100 character in a world where level 30 is considered unstoppable. His reaction to the Slane Theocracy {{Mooks}} summoning a giant badass angel was to {{facepalm}} at how weak it is. Later, by using a single spell he kills nearly two hundred thousand people.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: A justified example. He is known to his subordinates as Momonga and rechristens himself as Ainz Ooal Gown in the New World, which is the name citizens know him by. His actual name, Satoru Suzuki, is unknown to almost everyone in the story because he never uses it to identify himself and it's very likely that his guildmates addressed him by his handle name of Momonga as well.
* OurLichesAreDifferent: In YGGDRASIL, a lich (literally translated as Elder Lich) is simply a racial class for undead spellcasters, evolving from the more basic Skeleton Mages. They generally appear as a skeleton or at least a mostly decayed corpse, and possess no phylactery. However, in the new world their bodies are usually not the corpse of anyone in particular because undead simply arise in places where there has been much bloodshed. Ainz's own class, an Overlord, is something of an extremely souped-up version of a lich, which is usually divided into the sub-classes Overlord Wiseman (has great mastery over magic), Overlord Chronos Master (possess time-related skills), Overlord General (possesses the inherent ability to summon and control other powerful undead creatures).
* TheParanoiac: Though kept in check from others noticing, his inner monologue shows a surprising degree of paranoia. He recounts incidents involving Tabula Smaragdina (the revelation of Nigredo, an issue with experimenting the Caloric Stone, Albedo assigning restricted equipment) and questions these events having malicious intent. He questions if Peroroncino designed Shalltear to specifically defeat him, despite being best friends with him (and the fact Shalltear was {{Munchkin}} for any opponent). He holds back advanced PlayerVersusPlayer tactics from his followers, as it remains one of the few "trump cards" he has in the event of betrayal. His overall caution in the New World is rooted in the fear that other Yggdrasil players are secretly active or plotting against him.
* ParentalSubstitute: Whenever Aura and Mare are involved, Ainz often has internal monologues about nice things he should do for them, such as who he should delegate to give them TheTalk, or sending them to school.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: His super tier spells place him in this category. While Ia Shub Niggurath destroyed an entire army numbering over 200,000, it could just as easily depopulate an entire city if cast in an urban area.
* PetTheDog:
** To honor Touch Me, he went out of his way to save Enri and Nemu, [[TerrifyingRescuer despite their initial reactions]]. While he somewhat doesn't care for the remaining villagers, Enri particularly stood out as he's gifted her two goblin horns, which became ''extremely'' handy [[spoiler:in defeating Prince Barbro and his men]].
** His interactions with his subordinates are filled with these moments, from giving water to Aura and Mare when they seemed thirsty, embracing and apologizing to Shalltear after he [[spoiler: was forced to kill her]] and so on...
** After learning that [[spoiler:Tuare is the sister of his now-deceased adventurer comrade Ninya, he lets her stay in Nazarick]].
** In volume 8, he is so flattered by Nemu's amazement and wonder at the sight of Nazarick that he goes into a fit of joyful laughter, pats her on the head, takes her on a guided tour of the more visitor-friendly parts of Nazarick [[spoiler:and adds her name to the list of people Lupusregina Beta must keep alive in Carne Village.]] This happens well after his lingering humanity has been all but consumed by his EvilOverlord persona.
** He accepts Gazef's request for a duel during the Massacre of Katze Plains, despite being both powerful enough to kill him right then and there without trying, and not even having a reason to do so. [[spoiler:After he kills Gazef, he honors his wishes of not taking his weapon as spoils of war, doesn't desecrate his body in any way, and makes it so he cannot be resurrected by lower-tier magic.]]
* PoorCommunicationKills: He has a tendency to misread what his subordinates are doing and saying, leading to atrocities that he would at least not continue, though he probably wouldn't condemn them either. For example, he honestly believes that Demiurge is skinning chimeras, not human beings.
* PowerIsSexy: Explaining his KavorkaMan tendencies to a great extent. At one point, Shalltear comments that Ainz's sheer aura of power and domination [[JizzedInMyPants "caused her underwear to go through a bit of a crisis"]]. Evileye seems to be enamored with Momon because he is strong enough to overpower her, one of the absolute strongest entities in the New World, and Zesshi Zetsumei seems to be set up as another potential conquest for the exact same reasons.
* PragmaticVillainy: He has no qualms about ColdBloodedTorture, experimenting on people and corpses, or letting the Guardians run wild, but he does his best to ''look'' heroic in the process, i.e. his targets are usually explicit criminals, or worse. If any other players made it to this world, then they would be appalled if he acted openly evil, and he isn't entirely sure that there aren't creatures like dragons that can match him anyway.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: He goes from an overworked Japanese salaryman in the real world who wished to learn more about the New World he was teleported into, to an extremely cunning EvilOverlord desiring to TakeOverTheWorld along with his loyal subjects, most of them more evil than him, using EngineeredHeroics to its logical conclusion, ''all in the span of a few weeks''.
* ReadingsAreOffTheScale: Ainz and most of his major followers have character sheets detailing their statistics (such as health, mana, physical and magical power), ranging from 0 to 100. Momonga's mana level exceeds the limit of 100 and [[http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1018094-anime breaks the scale]].
** In the series proper, this happens to Arche when she uses her Talent, which allows her to determine the strength of a spellcaster, on Ainz. Up until that point, the strongest mage she is likely to have ever seen was Fluder Paradyne, a tier 6 caster whose level is likely in the high 30es or low 40es. When she tries that on Ainz, a level 100 mage who can use tier 10 and Super-Tier magic, the magical pressure he emits is so overwhelming that she immediately [[StressVomit gives up her lunch right then and there]].
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He's willing to amend his plans sometimes if given reason to believe his earlier plans were flawed. For example, he wants a kingdom comprising of all races because he likes collecting weird things, but is told that heteromorphs and demihumans will often eat humanoids. As such, he quickly puts a ban on any citizens consuming each other or citizens of other nations because even the latter will cause internal strife.
* RedBaron
** As Momon, he is known as "The Dark Hero" or "Raven-Black Hero" for his [[BlackKnight jet-black armor]].
** After declaring his intent to create a new nation, the Floor Guardians come up with different suggestions for titles. Ainz goes with Cocytus' name for him: "Sorcerer King".
* TheRedMage: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. Ainz's build was designed with role-playing in mind and has certain key strengths, the first being [[{{Necromancer}} Death Magic]], the second is SummonMagic, and the third is [[TimeStandsStill Time Magic]]. However, many times throughout the Light Novel it is remarked that Ainz doesn't have the destructive power that other members of the Guild had, so he had to make due with his versatility and the sheer number of spells he possessed.
* TheRoleplayer: Ainz notes that his build is not optimized as it was designed with mainly role-playing in mind, specializing in abilities that most players would have solid countermeasures to at high levels, such as death magic and time magic. In ''YGGDRASIL'' such suboptimal characters created for flair over substance were known as "dream builds" and largely shunned by the player base as inefficient, but Ainz managed to pull his weight in the guild thanks to the sheer versatility of his spell repertoire. In addition, his roleplaying skill does end up helping him pull off the overlord act convincingly.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: While he leaves most of the bureaucratic paperwork to his trusted attendants and the Guardians, notably Albedo, he otherwise takes a very personal and "hands on" approach to running his country, and he's quite skilled at it, especially when it comes to diplomacy.
* ScarySkeleton: He certainly seems to fit the trope, and commands a great deal of fear from those who see his true face.
* ShipperOnDeck: He encourages Sebas Tian and Tuare to "get together".
* ShouldersOfDoom: His cloak is held up by massive shoulder pauldrons.
* TheSleepless: Demiurge considers Albedo rubbing her scent all over Ainz's bed pointless as he'll likely never be in it, though he does rest there.
* SlouchOfVillainy: Does this on his throne. ''Especially'' when he's alone and trying to vent off stress for FeigningIntelligence, being a CluelessBoss, or brooding how it's LonelyAtTheTop, or even lamenting the fact that he can't reciprocate Albedo and Shalltear's feelings for him.
* SlowlySlippingIntoEvil: Once he awakens in the New World, he grows increasingly comfortable with atrocities, as his caution regarding potential rivals decreases. The openings of the first and second season of the anime, told from his perspective, lampshade this, by the ending of the third season, it's an open lament about how much of an evil monster he has become.
* SorcerousOverlord: As a powerful necromancer and the lord of Nazarick, he eventually takes the title of Sorcerer King.
* SpannerInTheWorks: He completely and unintentionally thwarts Emperor Jircniv's plans to recruit the Slane Theocracy in volume 10 by showing up virtually unannounced in the Arena to battle the Empire's strongest gladiator. All he wanted to do was show off to adventurers and recruit them for his new guild.
* SquishyWizard: Almost completely averted. He is of course nearly unkillable in the New World (and NighInvulnerable to most of their attacks due to a special skill), but he is able to keep up with Shalltear for quite a while despite taking many blows from her attacks and spells. A look at his stat block shows that his health and physical defense are both middling at least, and his magic defense is actually higher than his magic attack, making him difficult to take down in a spellcaster duel.
* StalkerWithoutACrush: He keeps a surveillance spell on Emperor Jircniv for two reasons: 1) To have early warning for when the man acts to betray him; and 2) to emulate his ruling style as Jircniv is loved by the vast majority of Empire citizens. It has served Ainz well (at the cost of Jircniv's mental health, since he can sense he's being watched but can't do anything about it).
* TheStrategist: Surprisingly. In the two "Prologue" prequel chapters, we find out that when he was made leader of the guild "Ainz Ooal Gown", the very first thing he did was put together the strategy to outright conquer a dungeon, "The Tomb of Nazarick", in one shot, a feat that no other guild had ever even attempted, not even with any other dungeon. It was a roaring success. And as a bonus, ''because'' the guild conquered the tomb outright without any casualties or failures on their first try, the guild was rewarded with a World Item.
* SueDonym: While he never uses his actual human name, the name of his disguised persona - "Momon" - is clearly just a minor distortion of his character name, "Momonga". This avoids being stupid because he does not actually use the name "Momonga" in the New World, instead going by his guild name, Ainz Ooal Gown. So the only ones who would recognize the name are Nazarick residents (who are already in on the ruse) and other players (whom he's looking for anyways). And if they do recognize him, they'll see him as a heroic swordsman.
* SummonMagic: He can summon various undead such as Death Knights. Normally these summons vanish over time, but in the New World, casting the spell near a corpse raises the corpse as a permanent version. He can also summon angels to serve as bodyguards with the right tools, though this is not an ability he normally uses.
* SuperStrength: Though he's a Magic Caster and therefore relatively physically weak, he's just so far above everyone in level that even his worst stats are above the greatest heroes that he has come across. When Clementine, one of the most adept physical fighters in the realm gets caught in a grapple, he's strong enough to completely rupture her internal organs and shatter her spine just by squeezing her against his chest with one arm. Though she identifies him as a supposedly physically weak Elder Lich, she's unable to break out of his grip no matter how hard she tries.
* SureLetsGoWithThat: While he certainly has his moments of tactical brilliance, his reputation for being a long-term strategic and political mastermind comes largely from others misinterpreting things he said in passing or things that just happened to work out in his favor. When he is aware of this happening, he just rolls with it to maintain that reputation.
* SweatDrop: One of his most frequent expressions in the manga, coupled with his face being super deformed into a generic, undetailed, and very surprised skeleton skull.
* TaughtByExperience
** He's able to beat his own personal ManOfKryptonite Shalltear in a straight fight because he had to actually learn how to [=PvP=] himself rather than just being that strong from the start. Her tactics are clever and make good use of her skills, but she's weak to bluffs and paces herself poorly.
** Ainz goes to a ''lot'' of effort to prevent scrying because YGGDRASIL was very much an information based game. You didn't want your enemies to know anything and almost everyone was potentially your enemy. Conversely, he does a lot of scrying himself (keeping an eye on the defense of Carne village or spying on Jircniv to take notes on how a leader should act).
* TerrifyingRescuer: When he comes to the rescue of Enri and Nemu, they're even more scared of him than the soldier that just slashed Enri despite him having saved their lives. He has to alter their memories as a result and learns to hide his nature as one of the undead. Later, after living under his protection for some time, they're no longer concerned by it when he stops hiding his true face.
* ThinkingUpPortals: His ''Gate'' spell.
* ThisIsUnforgivable: His one and only response to harm, or threat of harm, befalling anyone under his protection, denizen of Nazarick or not.
--> '''Ainz:''' They dare to harm someone I have sworn on the name of Ainz Ooal Gown to protect! ThisIsUnforgivable. Even if they did not know!
* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: This is the first thing he does when going up against Zurrernorn's ZombieApocalypse in Re-Estize. It convinces the guards at the graveyard to stay out of his way. He doesn't need to worry about losing his weapon, since his whole set of armor and weapons are magically conjured anyways (he cannot use real weapons due to class restrictions), so he can always summon a new one.
* TimeStandsStill: One of the spells in his repertoire, "Time Stop". It was relatively useless in YGGDRASIL since most players would have countermeasures against it by level 70 or so, but in the New World it makes him unbeatable with no one able to understand what he even did.
* TooAwesomeToUse: He accumulated a large arsenal of consumable magical items because he didn't want to use them up, even when he might have needed them. They come in handy in the New World, where the stakes are higher, and he ends up using quite a few of them.
* TouchOfDeath: His mere touch spreads negative energy if he isn't careful, which is enough to cause pain even to those as strong as Albedo. Weaker creatures would presumably be killed outright.
* TranquilFury: His skeletal body suppresses most of his strong emotions and inhibits his ability to react as such. The keyword here being '''strong''' emotions, so instead pouring all out in an UnstoppableRage his wrath simmers down and into a [[ThePowerOfHate cold, seething hatred]] worthy of the undead overlord he is, giving him time to think up the cruellest form of retribution that he can.
* TrueCompanions: He saw his fellow guild members as this, and extends this feeling to The Guardians.
* UndeadAbomination: As he is a skeletal lich capable of summoning [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]], powerful undead hordes, stop time, and the countless other spells and skills his magic grants him, along with being strong enough to kill trolls, giants, and many other monsters with his bare hands, he is this.
* UnskilledButStrong: Skilled warriors who've fought "Momon" quickly note that he just swings around his sword like an ignorant child, then begin questioning how he's survived being an adventurer with such terrible abilities. He doesn't even use any Martial Skills. However, left unsaid is that he's so strong and fast that they still can't get any attacks in, which Clementine in particular finds frustrating. On the other hand, he can trade his ability to use magic temporarily in order to become a level 100 warrior. While not a match for a real warrior of his level, he does become stronger, faster, ''and'' more skilled. By volume 7 Ainz has undergone enough training to give a decent showing of martial prowess against an experienced team of Workers, though he admits he still lacks the instincts of a true warrior.
** In volume 10, he's gotten even better, and considers himself equivalent to a low 30's warrior. Not just in power, but in skill and tactics too. He even turns off his damage immunity when he fights the Martial Lord, and mentally worries about how much he enjoys fighting.
* UselessUsefulSpell: As a spellcaster and top-ranked player of YGGDRASIL, he is actually not greatly above average in player-versus-player combat because he chose to build his character for purposes of role playing, not fighting. As a result, he mostly uses instant death spells when such abilities generally don't work against player characters, setting aside the monstrously powerful special ability granted by the Eclipse class. However, the real world doesn't have to worry about game balance, so instant death spells work just fine.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Initially, he had no goal concerning the Sorcerer Kingdom. When asked in volume 10 by loyal non-Nazarick citizens, and one of the Nazarick maids, he decided to "take a little walk". Upon seeing a near-abandoned lifeless city, he decided to create a utopia where the various races can live side by side in peace.
* VictoriousRoar: While in his adventurer persona "Momon", he shouts in victory, with a little encouragement from Evileye, after he drove off the demon Jaldabaoth, who is forced to retreat with his forces from the city of Re-Estize. He's shortly joined afterwards in cheering for their victory over the demon by the other adventurers and the surviving forces of Re-Estize. Of course, only [[VillainProtagonist Ainz]], his companion Naberal, and the audience are aware of the true irony of the entire situation, as "Jaldabaoth" is just a pseudonym Demiurge chose, and the invasion was just a ruse to cover up the true targets of their attack, the entire Eight Fingers criminal organization.
* VillainProtagonist: His lich body prevents him from having any real empathy for humans anymore, though he's kept from getting too evil by the [[PragmaticVillainy possible consequences]]. As time goes on, he realizes how powerful he is compared to everyone else and begins to develop grander ambitions as well as expressing greater comfort with committing atrocities.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Attempted with mixed results. He's ''trying'' to make a good name for himself, but as an undead who rather casually commits terrible crimes on occasion it's a bit of an uphill struggle, though interacting with people on a personal level does tend to win supporters.
* WalkingArmory: During his fight with Shalltear he brought along multiple weapons that belonged to his former guild members, wielding them in rapid succession once he expended his MP.
* WartsAndAll: He idolizes Touch Me, but privately feels that he was somewhat selfish and made bad decisions.
* WeakButSkilled: In YGGDRASIL his build was subpar. But with strategy and a vast move pool, he managed to be in the upper middle tier anyway.
* WeHaveReserves: He treats the characters created by the Supreme Beings [[AFatherToHisMen practically as his children]], but the low-level undead mooks of Nazarick are another story, since they are automatically and freely respawned and don't seem to be entirely sentient. Same goes for his summons. In ''YGGDRASIL'', the guild's resident {{ninja}} was capable of detecting traps, but not disarming them, since he built his character for [[GlassCannon maximum DPS]] over utility. The solution? Have Momonga summon a low-tier undead to trigger and waste the trap.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: While he has no compunction about doing horrible things to accomplish his goals, the goals themselves are far more often than not truly noble and just. He orders the building of an orphanage in volume 10, run by the widows of his victims in volume 9, seeks to make the Adventurer's guild ''true adventurers'' to explore the unknown, as opposed to merely being monster-hunting mercenaries, and wants to make his country a utopia where the various races of the world can live side by side in peace.
* WhatHaveIBecome: Early on, Ainz finds himself disturbed to realize that watching a massacre provokes no disgust or horror in him, nor does killing someone with his own hands.
* WillfullyWeak: His Momon disguise is a warrior running off caster stats and without the ability to use the vast majority of his spells. He can make his disguise stronger by casting a spell to temporarily change his class, but it's generally only useful for fighting when out of mana.
* WithholdingTheCure: Has more than enough resurrection wands for to bring back the dead if Carne Village but doesn't bother because there's nothing in it for him.
* YoureNothingWithoutYourPhlebotinum: Few people not aware of Ainz's power scale attempt to do this, but quickly get corrected when Ainz curb-stomps them anyways.
[[/folder]]
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ainz.png]]
->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/SatoshiHino (Japanese), Creator/ChrisGuerrero (English), Creator/VictorHugoAguilar (Latin American Spanish/Ainz), Hector Mena (Latin American Spanish/Satoru)
Ainz Ooal Gown, formerly known as Momonga, is TheProtagonist of Overlord. He is the guild master of Ainz Ooal Gown and regarded as the highest of the 41 Supreme Beings by the {{Non Player Character}}s of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
An unexceptional salary man thrown into the role of a leader of more than a gaming guild, Momonga quickly adapts to his role as a (supposedly) EvilOverlord while still retaining distinctly human traits; notably, Momonga searches for his friends in this new world.
He has the appearance of a Lich, an undead skeleton creature devoid of skin and flesh. He wears an elaborate, jet-black academic gown adorned with gold and violet edges, has a dark red glow inside the empty eye sockets, and a dark halo-like object glimmered behind its head.
In his dark warrior persona, he wears a fully black body armor with purple and golden markings. He has a red cape on his back with two large swords.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A - I]]
* AboveGoodAndEvil: WordOfGod confirms that Ainz effectively operates on this logic. Because his empathy for humans is sealed and he is so far above the level of any possible challengers, he can no longer be constrained by traditional morality. He is so far above everyone else that he has lost the ability to consider normal human beings as equals or to respect them at all, so any human casualties from his actions are treated with the same level of dispassion one would show after swatting a fly.
* AchievementsInIgnorance: In Volume 10, [[spoiler: he convinces Jircniv to surrender The Empire as a vassal nation to Nazarick]] without intending to. All he really wanted to do was recruit adventurers by showing off in the Arena. He actually had to look up [[spoiler:what a vassal state even is.]]
* AchillesHeel: Being undead gives him a lot of strong suits, but also many weaknesses: he is weak to [[HolyBurnsEvil Holy magic]], as well as [[KillItWithFire Fire]] and [[LightEmUp Light element]]. Being skeletal bones, he is also weak to physical damage from blunt weapons. He can cover some of these weaknesses individually, but not all at the same time. [[spoiler:To compensate for that, he devised ways to trick his opponent about WHICH of his weaknesses he's currently covering.]]
* AffablyEvil: Ainz is [[PoliteVillainsRudeHeroes unfailingly polite]], [[AFatherToHisMen loves all his subordinates like his own children]], keeps any DealWithTheDevil he offers, and wants to create a utilitarian utopia where all races can live peacefully together. But he still has a complete LackOfEmpathy for anyone who is against him or even simply not a part of his kingdom, and has no problem killing even millions of those outside his protection if it means keeping those on his side even slightly more safe.
* AlliterativeName: Was called Satoru Suzuki in his old life.
* AlmightyIdiot: PlayedWith. Not in regards to tactics, as Momonga is quite intelligent and crafty, although not as much as his servants think, but definitely in magic. While capable of magics far beyond anyone in the New World, he has no idea how those magics work as he just got them by leveling up. He finds himself unable to teach Fluder magic as he doesn't know how he himself uses it.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: How much of Ainz's villainy is because of his undead body taking away his emotions and how much he truly is evil is rather hard to say. It's a wonder how much evil he'd turn out to be if he had his emotions well, but it seems that Ainz never truly had a sense of moral per se, giving that it took him about some weeks to decide that taking over the world and things like mass murder and torture are okay as long as he can benefit from it. It's rather implied that his own servants are for fault, since Ainz feels like he has to act as the evil overlord he is supposed to be in his role (which explains why he always tries to hide his disgust for some amoral in front of them).
* AntiVillain: Most of the things he wants aren't that bad, such as creating a diverse kingdom free of racism or conflict or allowing adventurers to be more than monster slayers employed by the kingdom. However, he has no qualms with mass murder, torture or any number of atrocities so long as he feels they don't get in the way of his plans and serve ''some'' purpose, even if it's just intimidation.
* TheArchmage: Not to the extent of one like Ulbert, but he still qualifies. The wiki page for him shows 80+ known spells he uses, but that is still barely touching the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Ainz's knowledge of the arcane arts. The normal amount of spells a level 100 player character can know in YGGDRASIL is 300, but Ainz used a special Overlord ability "Dark Wisdom" to master a total of '''718''' different spells. And his mana level? [[ReadingsAreOffTheScale "Exceeds Limit"]].
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Since the lizardmen value strong leaders, they quickly start to worship Ainz as a GodEmperor after their conscription even though they never worshipped gods before. He also uses Shalltear to establish some authority for himself by beating someone basically minmaxed to defeat him, leaving Nazarick to believe no one can stand against him in a fight.
* AtrociousAlias: "Momonga" is actually the Japanese name for a Japanese dwarf flying squirrel, not noted to be a particularly fierce animal.
* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Averted during his time as the Guild leader of Ainz Ooal Gown. He has stated multiples times that his character is not among the best players in terms of pure combat ability, as it was never built for Player vs. Player. It is {{downplayed}} in the New World, as the only characters explicitly noted to be capable of defeating him in a straightforward fight are Shalltear and Rubedo, the former is a ManOfKryptonite for him and the latter is a OneManArmy designed to take down entire parties of level-capped players.
* AwesomeButImpractical
** What his build used to be in YGGDRASIL. He focuses heavily on {{OneHitKO}}s and other spells that are amazing in theory but not all that amazing in practice due to game balance, especially against other high-level players. But in a world where game balance does not exist, suddenly Ainz can OneHitKO pretty much anybody who is not undead or has a level comparable to him, the latter of which amounts to almost '''none'''.
** On the opposite side, his spells that summon high-level undead but consume experience points have become more impractical than they used to be. They would probably not be too bad in YGGDRASIL, where he could always just level back up, but in the New World, where he has no similarly-leveled opponents, recovering the lost experience may be impossible or at least teeth-grindingly hard. So skills like these just aren't worth using.
** In his Momon persona, he wields two greatswords in combat. While definitely cool looking, many warriors have commented that this is a very inefficient way of fighting as it makes his attacks (relatively) slow and easy to read. The fact that he cannot use Martial Arts skills to augment the shortcomings of this fighting style makes it more inefficient.
** His Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown is this as well. It comes with many powerful bonus spells for him to use, boosts his stats tremendously, [[EmpathicWeapon and can even act independently of him and cast spells of its own volition]], so that fighting Momonga becomes akin to fighting two people instead of one. Its power is said to rival that of a [[InfinityPlusOneSword World-Class item]]. However, if it were ever to be destroyed, the guild Ainz Ooal Gown would be disbanded and all of its possessions would be forfeit (including the guild base of Nazarick and all of its {{Non Player Character}}s). The risk was simply too great to take in ''YGGDRASIL'', as even with the Staff's power Momonga was not invincible, so after all the effort it took to create it, the weapon sat to gather dust in the guild's vaults. In the New World, the risk of someone successfully taking it from Momonga and destroying it is slim, but not null, and its power is incredibly overkill roughly all the time anyways, so the powerful weapon is once again doomed to never see use in battle.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: He isn't much good at the details of long term strategy and only has vague plans for the future, but when preparing for a fight he's incredibly meticulous and analytical in his preparations. In YGGDRASIL this allowed him to fight above his build's tier, though it wasn't enough to make him a top level [=PvPer=]. [[spoiler:He even manages to take down ManOfKryptonite Shalltear twice in a direct fight.]]
* BadassBoast: He does these often when he handles things, personally.
** His line to Clementine at the end of episode 8, after she compared herself to Stronoff.
---> '''Ainz:''' No matter what, I won't fight you seriously.
** Plus, the declaration he made to the [[spoiler:brainwashed Shalltear]].
---> '''Ainz:''' I am Ainz Ooal Gown! And this name cannot ever know defeat!
** And later.
---> '''Ainz:''' Know this. The strength of the 41 people from Ainz Ooal Gown stands before you! And you did not have any chance of winning from the start! [[spoiler:Shalltear Bloodfallen]]. I am the leader of the Supreme Beings of the Tomb of Nazarick. Feel the power of the man you all respect and call your master!
* BadassCape: He wears a red cape over his black armor in his Momon persona, and he earns a reputation of being a badass adventurer over time.
* BecomingTheMask: At the start of the series, he was a fairly neutral figure, but worried about keeping appearances in front of his subordinates, who were all already pretty evil apart from one or two exceptions. By Volume 4, he's a genuine overlord, attacking innocent lizardmen for little reason and slaughtering people willing to submit to his authority. In Volume 6, he assists Demiurge in sacking the capital of the local kingdom and in Volume 7 he decimates a bunch of workers for their imagined slights against him, even though they were only there because he wanted them to be there. By the time of Volume 10, he has accepted the idea of eventual world conquest and becoming a "benevolent" dictator. The AlternateTimeline side novel where Momonga arrives on the new world without Nazarick makes it fairly clear that this ultimately has less to do with EmotionSuppression and is more just a [[DrunkWithPower natural human reaction to being in a position of absolute power]].
* BenevolentBoss: He has genuine affection for his subordinates in Nazarick and tries to find means of rewarding them even though his HundredPercentAdorationRating means that they are simply happy to be of service. This is shown in both the dramas CD and manga as he feels that he is obliged to make the Guardians have their own salaries and even suggests to make everyone in Nazarick have occasional vacations, which was received with shock by everyone. However, those who weren't directly created by the Supreme Beings are ultimately considered expendable as necessary.
* BerserkButton: Ainz cherishes the memory of his old friends above all else and reacts with rage when anyone threatens their creations the Guardians, the guild's ''name'' or insults their memory, even accidentally. Most of his more evil moments come from people who accidentally push this button. [[spoiler:Evileye just barely survives beating Entoma in a fight because Ainz and Demiurge's plan would be messed up if she didn't survive to bear witness to their fight]]. Later when he opened up the Tomb for Adventurers, a group named Foresight ended up encountering him and tried to bluff their way out of danger by claiming to be sent by Ainz's friends. [[INeverSaidItWasPoison When they call him Ainz and not Momonaga]], he flies into a moment of rage at them daring to lie about his friends.
** His other button is someone tarnishing his name or affronting his honor as he takes great pride in his honor and being a man of his word. Stated explicitly when the criminal organization Eight-Fingers kidnapped Tsuare whom Ainz swore on his name to protect.
---> '''Ainz:''' [[ThisIsUnforgivable This is unforgivable.]] Even if they did not know!
** The most subtle one, '''don't be rude''' around him. At the absolute best, it will irritate him, and even then it could make him murderous in the blink of an eye if you're foolish enough to persist.
* {{BFS}}: Deconstructed. As Momon, his two large broadswords makes him slower and easier to read, which is lampshaded by Clementine and other adventurers. Justified as he has no real experience with swords, which tends to make him sloppy.
* BlackKnight: As Momon, he wears completely concealing black armor and while apparently heroic is still a very mysterious figure. He cultivates this image to discourage people trying to find out too much about him while also looking inspiring and fearsome.
* BlingOfWar: He has terrible fashion sense himself but has maids who pick out his wardrobe to make him look threatening on top of being perfectly functional and dangerous gear. It's also invoked in that his favorite sets are designed to look good together because players didn't want to look stupid just to be strong if they could avoid it.
* CantHaveSexEver: Since he's a skeleton, he can't have sex because he lacks the equipment to do so. This understandably frustrates him.
* CassandraTruth: Even when he ''does'' admit that he's not infallible, the Guardians refuse to believe it, as shown near the end of Volume 11.
* TheChainsOfCommanding: He's under the impression that he has to be the perfect overlord for his subordinates or they might lose their respect or possibly even loyalty to him. As a result, whenever Demiurge assumes he figured out what Ainz's (nonexistent) master plans are, Ainz feels compelled to do whatever Demiurge said. However, it's quite clear that he is worrying over nothing; Everyone important in Nazarick is fanatically loyal to the point that Demiurge has something of an existential crisis when he considers a world where he has no one to serve. The AlternateTimeline side novel also shows explicitly that without everyone in Nazarick expecting him to be their ruler, he would have remained considerably more empathetic and human, rather than embracing the role of an EvilOverlord.
* ChekhovsSkill
** He uses the lessons and experiences Cocytus learned by ruling the Lizardman tribe to administer [[spoiler: E-rantel]]. The citizens are completely shocked that an undead skeletal overlord is a truly benevolent dictator, and the end of volume nine indicates that he grants the citizens true peace for the first time in their entire collective memory.
** When it comes to diplomacy, his time as a salaryman proves highly advantageous in just about every encounter.
* CluelessBoss: Ainz quickly learns that he is out of his depth when he transitions from [=MMO=] player to EvilOverlord. Even when he finds out what his subordinates are doing, he just goes with it. Can't let his subordinates think he's incompetent, after all, even if they wouldn't care. His saving graces are that his minions have no idea, and would remain completely loyal even if they did, and his social skills as a salaryman lets him roll with the punches without anybody being the wiser.
* CollectorOfTheStrange: One of his primary hobbies is collecting people, or whole races, and magical, or even mundane objects with unusual properties or abilities, purely for the sake of having them. This is why he tends to have all sorts of lame (by Yggdrasil standards) items in his inventory that he uses or hands out to others throughout the story such as the useless Christmas Mask he wears or the low-level Goblin Horn he gave to Enri that most players would just throw away. It's stated that most of the useless junk in Nazarick's treasury was his, and the one [=NPC=] he designed for the guild base was the treasurer. This interest ultimately culminates in wanting to build an entire kingdom of all the world's races living side by side in peace. He has Enri Emmot's efforts in Carne Village to draw upon as inspiration as well. This is seen in volume 11 when he notices with glee that Zaryusu and Crusch's infant son is a rare albino like Crusch. Crusch picks up on this and holds her baby even tighter out of fear that Ainz might try to take him away. One reason why he decides to give Zaryusu a suit of magical armor as a gift to celebrate his son's birth is because he wants Zaryusu to sire more unique children with Crusch in the future and thinks the armor will ensure he survives to do so.
* CrazyPrepared: With over 700 spells and an arsenal's worth of magical items, he has just the right solution for basically every occasion and the cunning strategic mindset to match. He went through his whole battle with [[spoiler:Shalltear]] relying on nothing but his ability to be prepared for anything.
** This was basically his entire playstyle in YGGDRASIL, as well. His main set of abilities was AwesomeButImpractical, but he managed to pull his weight in the guild simply because his ludicrous amount of spells allowed him to have solutions to really obscure problems. Most other players passed on these {{Situational Sword}}s, making someone like Ainz a godsend in a game with as many secrets as YGGDRASIL.
** On a more mundane level, he frequently rehearses conversations he will have. He'll perform a lot of his cool poses in front of a mirror as well as taking copious notes in advance. He hates it when people go off-script.
* DealWithTheDevil: He has a knack for offering ''exactly'' what a dissatisfied person has always wanted under the condition that they turn to his side and betray their former allies. It works on an outcast dwarven runesmith, a war troll gladiator in the Empire, the top mage of the Empire and the guild master of E-Rantel at the very least.
* DebtDetester: He always pays his debts. Always.
* DemBones: He's an undead skeleton.
* DidntSeeThatComing: There some points where he will not see something coming. Perhaps the best example is when Enri, the village girl whom he saved in order to honor Touch Me, summons an army of '''''5000''''' goblins, each with their own class, with what he initially saw as nothing but a JokeItem.
* DopeSlap: As Narberal was about to attack Nfirea simply for hiring Momon by name, Ainz smacks the back of her head to remind her not to overreact to every little thing.
* DualWielding: Wields a pair of greatswords as Momon. Clementine mocks him for this impractical combat style, but she's also frustrated since she still can't win.
** This is ironic considering Clementine herself dual-wields short swords with hidden elemental effects.
* EmotionSuppression: Whenever he experiences strong emotions, his undead body suppresses them, though something slamming his Berserk Buttons can overcome this. Although it makes him more inhuman, this is in some ways a good thing, since it allows him to not worry about fear, anger, or any other emotions that would otherwise cloud his mind and make him a less effective ruler (especially in the early stages where he's still adapting to his new position). This is demonstrated in the Pleiades shorts, when an item accidentally removes his racial resistance to emotions and he kinda starts losing his shit.
* EntertaininglyWrong: Not to the same extent as characters like Demiurge or Jircniv, but Ainz has plenty of oblivious moments. A great example is from volume 10, where Ainz unironically believes he has a good relationship with Jircniv, who is in fact terrified of Ainz and desperately wants to kill him. Ainz even [[spoiler:crashed Jircniv's secret meeting with the Theocracy]] without realizing what was going on. Admittedly, Ainz was slightly miffed when he heard Jircniv screaming for [[spoiler:the Martial Lord to kill him, but he just assumed Jircniv was a massive Martial Lord fanboy]]. At no point in the volume did it ever occur to Ainz that his relationship with the Emperor was anything but sunny.
* EvenEvilHasStandards
** He was perfectly willing to let Carne Village be slaughtered while he watched through a magic mirror. Understandable, as he didn't have enough information to intervene, until he saw a full grown, armed and heavily armored soldier chase down, torment, maim, and prepare to execute two helpless little girls. [[CurbStompBattle That soldier didn't have a prayer, and neither did the army that came with him.]]
---> '''Ainz:''' You can chase down women and children, but you lack the conviction to face an enemy? ''[[OneHitKill Grasp Heart!]]''
** He was truly disturbed when he saw what [[spoiler:Clementine did to Ninya]]. Let's remember that by this time Ainz has already lost all empathy towards humans and his emotions were mostly suppressed. When he [[spoiler:got his hands on Clementine, he made sure that [[CruelAndUnusualDeath she would pay]]]].
---> '''Ainz:''' You took your time killing her, didn't you? It's only fair to give you the same treatment, slow and painfully.
** [[spoiler:When a group of Re-Estize nobles came to him pleading him to spare both themselves and their families, while presenting the decapitated head of Zanac, their king whom they betrayed, Ainz went full TranquilFury and ordered them to be sent to [[TortureTechnician Neuronist.]]]]
** Deconstructed as a whole. His "standards" might be an intent from the author to make him look more sympathetic and likable, but only makes him a {{Hypocrite}} in the long run. He always ignores that his servants are no better than those he considers "scum" and while he is not as bad as them, he still has no qualms about doing or allowing his minions to do the same terrible things he is disgusted by.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: He doesn't understand why the StupidGood Remedios would be angry at him for coming to her aid, failing to see others may not share his utilitarian worldview, that him not even trying to save people when it's in his power to do so is cruel, and that he's devaluing the sacrifice of her men. He just assumes she must be an unpleasable bitch rather than considering he's being just as much of an asshole and is further a foreign power that has to be kept from enacting his very real intentions of creating a political base within her country.
* EvilOverlord: Well, a more benevolent example for this trope. He's the ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, a magic fortress that appeared in on a plain, and as soon as he feels it's safe, seizes large portions of territory from his nearest neighbor, vassalizes the next closest, and is perpetually close to war with a country of paladins and a theocracy. However, life under the rule of Nazarick is actually ''better'' than most other kingdoms... if you're a citizen and not a criminal reduced to "[[HumanResources livestock]]" status or a slave.
* EvilSoundsDeep: In the anime, his internal dialogue is through the voice of Satoru Suzuki, who sounds, as expected, like an average Japanese man. His physical voice as Momonga/Ainz uses a different register nearly two octaves lower than his "human" voice.
* EvilVersusEvil: He's had run-ins with other villainous groups such as [[StarterVillain Nigun]] and his men, the Eight Fingers, some dangerous trolls, and the Theocracy. He's proven to be far stronger than them, and his servants have proven to be worse than them as well.
* EvilVirtues: He makes sure to keep a good public image, is as honest as possible, honors his agreements, avoids falling victim to arrogance, and does a good job of cultivating genuine loyalty by showing his own.
* FakeWeakness:
** '''Masterfully''' pulled off by Ainz while fighting [[spoiler:Shalltear]], playing up his weaknesses as strengths and his actual strengths as weaknesses. [[spoiler:He makes her think that he is weak to Holy and resistant to Fire when it was actually the other way around, and even used False Data: Life to make sure she would not realize the trickery. He pretends not to know her abilities, even though he knew them full well, so that she would keep using attacks that she thought he hadn't been able to plan for. He also leads her to believe that he is weak without his mana even though he had fully prepared to battle her in melee with a full arsenal's worth of powerful items. Shalltear falls straight for it and expends all her special attacks and mana on him early on, expecting a weakened Ainz with an empty mana pool to be an easy kill due to her superior fighting skills. He wasn't.]]
** In volume 10, he lies to a merchant that the spell (one that the Empire mistakenly believes is his strongest one) he used to slaughter the Kingdom's army in volume 9 was something he can only cast once every ten years.
* FakingTheDead: As part of a training exercise, he decides to pretend he's dead to see how Nazarick runs without him. While a few idiots like Remedios or the idiot noble that hits on Albedo believe it, for the most part everyone under him reacts with "Bullshit, there's no one strong enough to kill him."
* FalseFlagOperation: Accidentally. During the yearly conflict between the Kingdom and the Empire, he's nominally on the side of the Empire, but they don't trust him and he's largely indifferent to the arrangement. Unfortunately for Jircniv, only top-level members of their two nations actually know this ''and'' he's far more powerful than they realized, so he brings disgrace down on their side without drastically affecting his own reputation since everyone hated him anyway. As a result, the Slane Theocracy grows very suspicious of the Empire, and many of Jircniv's most important tools believe he knew what Ainz was going to do, shaking faith in the Emperor and greatly weakening his power as a result.
* AFatherToHisMen: He regards the denizens of the Tomb of Nazarick as his surrogate children as the creations of his TrueCompanions and treats them accordingly. He also regards anyone who becomes his servant and who he swears to protect in name of Ainz Ooal Gown as this as well.
* FeigningIntelligence: Although he's not stupid by any means, he's nowhere near as smart as he leads the Guardians to believe. However, if he's regal and imposing he can often get away with pretending to know what people are talking about and when he can't can usually make other people explain on his behalf by pretending it's beneath him to do so.
* TheFool: Ainz has very little idea as to what he's doing outside of very narrow situations, but the world seemingly bends over backwards so that everything goes well. People end up vastly overestimating him as a result, which makes it even easier for him to secure information or their outright submission. It gets to the point where while indulging in a pet project he accidentally subjugates an entire nation with no bloodshed and actually ''worries'' that he might have screwed up by securing their surrender. Demiurge, the actual genius in Nazarick, is stunned by his seemingly "brilliant" plan because he had thought it would take months at least to conquer the Empire without destroying it outright and result in massive casualties.
** It's implied that Ainz was actually a good salesman in real life. For example, he uses sales tactics and charisma to win over the guildmaster, who becomes one of his most loyal human subjects. Unfortunately he's not good at much else, and even his management experience is pretty worthless with Nazarick, since he's thinking about it in terms of being a CEO, where the Guardians view him as a god.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: From virgin salaryman with no close friends or family and obsessed with an old MMO, to a brutal mass-murdering EvilOverlord. His instincts for it aren't the greatest, but as time goes on he commits or makes use of more and more atrocities.
* {{Glamour}}: Wears an illusion of his human face the few times he needs to remove his helmet as "Momon". Since it is just an illusion, he has to avoid letting anything make actual physical contact with it lest he suffer GlamourFailure.
* GodEmperor: Not a title that Ainz claims, but rather how he is treated by the denizens of Nazarick and [[spoiler:the lizardman tribes]].
* AGodIAmNot: While never referred to as a god by anyone directly, Ainz knows his subordinates in Nazarick worship him and see him as a god. This makes him very uncomfortable even after he had gotten used to the idea of being a king and world domination.
* GodlikeGamer: Satoru was one, being a hardcore MMORPG gamer with an unbelievably powerful lich avatar before he finds himself TrappedInAnotherWorld as his overpowered avatar Ainz. His character has been maxed out so virtually no one poses any challenge to him, even though he tries to keep the extent of his true power a secret.
** Averted while he was playing YGGDRASIL itself. He had a max-level character, a powerful class, and more mana than could be displayed on a character... but his character wasn't built for [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] but for role-playing purposes, and he thus had to rely on working with the other members of his guild.
* TheGoodKing: Invoked and downplayed. He's trying to cultivate an image of a wise benevolent ruler, however there is no mistake who is in charge, no one dares speak out against Ainz, and it's something of a police state. On the other hand, it's peaceful and prosperous, fair and practical decisions are made about governance, and even though mind control magic is used in investigations, it's genuinely only used to find the culprits of crimes and discern guilt as when the Sorcerer Kingdom asked the Empire for their death row inmates, a few were sent back as they were found to be innocent.
* TheHeart: When Touch Me disbanded the clan Nine's Own Goal so that they could form a proper guild, he picked Momonga to replace him as the new guild leader. Ulbert and likely several others were somewhat sick of Touch Me by this point due to his rather demanding nature, and Touch Me agreed that he should step down. Momonga was chosen because everyone liked Momonga, even both Touch Me and Ulbert, and no one else could have held the group together. Momonga for his part wasn't much of a leader, but he was good at coming up with solutions that satisfied everyone and came across as fair.
* HiddenHeartOfGold: While it's downplayed and more apparent in his interactions with the [=NPCs=] of Nazarick, Ainz will occasionally help others or do something nice, even for humans or outsiders, because GoodFeelsGood. Though in all these instances, if anyone questions him on it, [[SlaveToPR he'll say he was doing it for a practical reason that had nothing to do with morality or decency]]. He can be a real selfish jerkass, but if anything, his overlord persona is still mostly a role he is playing, and he usually has to fake sharing his servants' sadism and racism toward humans to keep the image. While he certainly ain't a good guy, he is not as evil and monstrous as many people think he is, and he always tries to hide his good side to everyone, especially the Guardians.
* HumbleHero: As Momon, he goes out of his way to never seem arrogant or condescending except when it comes to confidence in his own abilities, which is a selling point. It's a deliberately cultivated image so that he can become as popular as possible and then try to pass that esteem back to his 'real' self when he's Momon.
* HyperspaceArsenal: He often holds important items, weapons, or equipment in a pocket dimension and simply opens a dark portal when he wants to take something out. He does this in either his Ainz or Momon persona. He tries not to keep anything too valuable in there, as it can be accessed by other people with the appropriate skills.
* HypocrisyNod: {{Invoked}} in the anime with the "fight" between Ainz and Clementine. Just before the battle, he told her that it would be hypocritical of him to reproach her for [[spoiler:slaughtering the Swords of Darkness]], since he was using them as a means to gain fame for his Momon persona, and would have done the same if his plans called for it. Afterwards, he then quips to her lifeless, broken body:
--> '''Ainz Ooal Gown:''' [[BondOneLiner I forgot to tell you. Try as I might, I have a tendency to be... hypocritical.]]
* {{Hypocrite}}: Setting aside the above nod, see the EvenEvilHasStandards entry above? He's done such things himself with no qualms, only worse and on a larger scale with no hesitation.
* IAmNotLeftHanded: Ainz makes it a point to use only the bare minimum level of strength needed to accomplish his goals, to avoid people learning about his true capabilities. When he finds someone that's above what his current level can do he'll show off a bit more. A favorite one for the series in general is him admitting that he isn't a warrior but a mage with (relative) super strength.
* IGaveMyWord: When he promises to do something, he refuses to back down on it even if it comes at a personal cost, though the limit of this is not known. One of the clearest examples is when he promises on 'his' name to keep Tsuare safe, only for her to get kidnapped. He's furious not because he cares about her, but because the group that took her is mocking the name of the guild by doing so. He crushes the criminals responsible, enslaves and breaks them and more without a thought as to the benefits or consequences, though it does turn out to be a pretty good deal for him anyway.
* IMeantToDoThat: He tends to pass off blunders and thoughtless action as part of some greater scheme, which tends to work as a mere distraction if nothing else. It also maintains his image of being an infallible and near omniscient king to his subordinates.
* InstantArmor: The full plate armor he wears as "Momon" is a magical construct that he can summon and dispel at will, though he has a real version as well in case he needs it to look damaged or something, in which case he has to really carry it around.
* InstantExpert: A variant. Before coming into the new world, Ainz (formerly Momonga) was merely Satoru Suzuki's in-game avatar, and as such, all the spells he has were learned through level-grinding and the related skill progression requisites. Once he becomes his in-game avatar in the new world, he also gains the knowledge of how to cast these spells. However, once somebody begs Ainz to provide tutelage, Ainz realized that while he knows ''how'' to use magic, he cannot teach them to somebody else because he doesn't understand the fundamentals of magic from an academic standpoint.
* InvincibleVillain: He's the VillainProtagonist, and both he and his minions annihilate hordes of enemies like they're nothing, due to the fact that [[NormalFishInATinyPond they have the highest levels in the New World]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:J - Y]]
* JerkassHasAPoint: Ainz may have went too far when he slaughtered the Workers, including Arche, who was just in the job to protect her little sisters, but he does point out that the Workers did invade his home to rob him, not that they knew it was a home. He also asked them prior to them entering as Momon what their motivations were for going into the Tomb, and all they did was say they were doing it for the money and nothing more, which in his eyes makes them greedy and not worth giving respect to. At the very least, had they told him their real motivations at the start, he would have some inkling to be lenient about it, but their greedy motivations, especially given one of the crypts that was very easy to enter had a huge stash of gold that didn't satisfy the group enough to leave, makes it hard to find him being too far with it.
* KavorkaMan: Subverted. He's a giant, amoral skeleton, yet has multiple suitors. But the women in love with him are women inhabitants of Nazarick, who are [[CuteMonsterGirl heteromorphs]] with [[BlueAndOrangeMorality different beauty standards]] and [[UndyingLoyalty fanatical devotion]], while the likes of Evileye are actually in love with a lie. Albedo, her biggest and most devoted suitor, was programmed by him to be in love with him as a joke just seconds before arriving to the new world and the settings stayed with that, and would have sex with anybody if it wasn't for that (granted, she would still be atracted to Ainz regardless, but he wouldn't be the only object of her lust if her settings hadn't been changed)
* KillerBearHug: He murders [[spoiler:Clementine]] by wrapping his arms around them and squeezing down, drawing out the process to make it a CruelAndUnusualDeath. He ends up snapping their spine and rupturing their organs since a fountain of HighPressureBlood jets out of their mouth.
* KillItWithFire: Both on the giving and receiving end of the trope: he knows several fire spells, but fire is also a weakness of the undead. He selected his default gear specifically to [[NoSell negate that weakness entirely]].
* LackOfEmpathy: After coming to the new world, Ainz noticed a disturbing lack of care for the suffering of others. He believes it may be due to his undead body dulling his morals, but either way he's almost eager to engage in mass murder and torture so long as he can get away with it, with only respect for his old friend Touch Me, pragmatism, and a lack of outright sadism holding him back.
* LargeHam: Though mostly reserved, Ainz also has a flair for theatrics should the situation warrant it. Most of the time, it simply comes off as the requisite showmanship befitting an EvilOverlord such as himself. He even keeps notes on what gestures to use in certain situations and practices them in private.
* LeonineContract: He's quite fond of these, often seeking out people in desperate situations, providing a solution and charging a steep price. However, the terms he offers are always considered quite fair, sometimes even seen as quite generous, like when he rescued Carne Village in return for whatever information they could give him about the New World, which in turn motivates them to eagerly serve him without having to be asked; and he '''always''' keeps his end of the bargain, as much as possible, even if it would be against his interests or he has no obligation to do so.
* LivingLegend: Thanks to Ainz's efforts to improve his reputation as Momon and his sheer power, Momon ends up an extremely popular and respected figure. This ends up making him a valuable tool for pacifying the people and allowing a peaceful transition of power.
* LonelyAtTheTop: In the New World he has no equals and no friends he can truly confide in. Everyone in Nazarick is a subordinate (and sees him as a deity so they are always subservient to his will). The rest of the world knows him as the EvilOverlord, an EldritchAbomination, PhysicalGod, or TheHero. He wants to find other YGGDRASIL Players, originally part of his guild or not, because he wants to have the friendship of a fellow human from Earth and try to be Satoru Suzuki again.
* LovingAShadow: Momonga's devotion to the mere memory of the other members of Ainz Ooal Gown. Even as they all moved on from the game, Momonga kept on holding to their legacy because he had nothing else left to live for, dedicating all of his play time just to support a guild that was all but dead in practice. This remains true in the New World, where Momonga sees all the [=NPCs=] basically as extensions of his dear comrades, and, most tragically, reacts with anger and hatred at any perceived slight against their memory. If they were to come to the New World, would his guildmates really approve of the wretched entity he has become in their name?
* MediaTransmigration: Satoru was a normal Japanese businessman who ends up becoming his skeletal lich player avatar when he stayed to commemmorate his favorite [=MMORPG=]'s shutdown.
* MegaManning: His Dark Wisdom apparently works by learning spells from the corpses of players.
* MercyKill: The kindest thing he can do for prisoners is to give them a swift painless death, a mercy he gives to those who have done nothing to offend him [[spoiler:such as the children taken by Demiurge]]. Well, he could just set them free, but that wouldn't be good for his overlord figure. He considers death mercy, at least compared to what the most evil denizens of Nazarick can do to others, and proves when he orders Shalltear to kill Arche without pain.
* MistakenForPedophile: When humoring the child Aura, he says he likes her the most among the girls of Nazarick. He's quite confused by her sudden panic, but all his further statements do is convince her he's engaging in WifeHusbandry.
* MomentOfWeakness: Albedo has witnessed them on several occasions. Momonga has exhibited his loneliness as the last Supreme Being and a desire to see his comrades. He shared his selfish reasons for not letting the Floor Guardians fight [[spoiler:Shalltear]]. She was present when he displayed hesitation and uncertainty at rumors that a fellow guild member was in the New World. See Albedo's spoilerific DragonWithAnAgenda trope entry for her reaction to protect him.
* MoralMyopia: He disdains the Slane Theocracy for their unprovoked attack on Carne Village and Clementine for her torture, but attacks and subjugates the lizardmen while engaging in horrific torture himself. He's protective of Nazarick guardians and enraged when they are threatened, but kills wantonly himself and ignores how terrible his subordinates actually are, such as Entoma and Demiurge.
* MotiveDecay: Acknowldged InUniverse as well, he laments how he abandoned his original goal of gaining attention of any of his friends also trapped in with him, and using his power to TakeOverTheWorld because gaining the loyalty of his subordinates (who are still loyal to him no matter what) is all he has left now.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: In the first overlord drama CD, he uses time-stop, explosive spells, and a spell meant to simulate a meteor impact to dress the giant doom tree as a Christmas tree before having the time-stop and all the fireworks go off simultaneously, all because his guardians wanted to see one. [[GoMadFromTheRevelation The Dryad on the scene does not take it well.]]
* MundaneUtility: To cultivate the image of an all-powerful undead sorcerer king, Ainz has used his forces in mundane ways simply to either impress or show the amount of power he wields. Some direct examples are:
** To announce his intention of subjugating the Lizardmen tribes, he summoned an army of magically equipped skeleton warriors and made them into a stepping platform. He also used a spell to freeze the swamp and ordered one of his guardians to toss a giant rock cube on the frozen lake to act as a stage for him. Finally, he ordered another one of his guardians to summon monsters simply to announce his presence.
** When the Emperor of Baharuth came to arrange a meeting with him, he first made sure that the weather was nice enough by using a tier 6 spell (appropriately named Control Weather). He also summons Death Knights to act as wait staff for his visitors, something that both bewilders and terrifies them because even the Empire's best wizard cannot subjugate even one Death Knight.
** During the Massacre of Katze Plains, he recalls one of his summoned Dark Young to act as his mount.
* {{Necromancer}}: Powerful undeads are generally capable of [[SummonMagic summoning lesser undead]]. Ainz is an Overlord, so he is able to summon low, medium, and high tier undead. Back in the game, these are only temporary summons which will vanish after a certain amount of time. Much to his surprise, when he tries to create a Death Knight after killing a man in the New World, it raises the corpse as a Death Knight that does not vanish. However, there are certain limits: Ainz is unable to create higher-tier undead which don't vanish using human corpses. To do so, he needs a stronger 'base material' so to speak - the corpse of stronger beings will allow the permanent creation of stronger undead.
* TheNeedless: Doesn't eat or drink as he's undead.
* NewLifeInAnotherWorldBonus: Ainz Ooal Gown reincarnates in his YGGDRASIL VRMMORPG avatar. He has level 100, unique classes, all of his similarly powerful comrades equipment, their guild base (one of the strongest guilds in-game) is an entire army including 8 other level 100 servants; with absolute authority over all of them.
* NobleDemon: He's a mass-murdering monster, but also generally willing to accept surrender and has no need to cause suffering just for the sake of suffering. He also honors nobility from his enemies.
* NormalFishInATinyPond: While he is a very powerful undead, skilled tactician and good fighter, Ainz wasn't someone particularly powerful back in the MMO he used to play with the other supreme beings. Indeed, it's stated that he isn't particularly strong for a level 100 character, and he mostly got by through the help of the other supreme beings and his gamer skills. In the new world, the power system is so low that a level 30 characters is considered something legendary, so his level 100 status, as well the tomb consisting of monsters who've surpassed that level, make for an invencible overlord whose weaker spells are above even the strongest magic casters.
* NoSell: Being a skeletal undead makes him immune to the [[ShockAndAwe Electric]], [[ToxicTropes Poison]], and [[AnIcePerson Ice]] elements and greatly resists slashing and thrusting weapons because he has no organs to damage. He cannot be critted, life-drained, mentally attacked, hit with instant-kill effects or most status effects. With carefully selected gear, he can also neutralize one of his crippling weaknesses to fire, light, holy, or bash attacks, generally preferring to go with fire. Finally, as a high-level player character, he is outright immune to physical attacks from those below an effective level of 60 unless he deactivates this skill. Given that he's only seen a single entity in the New World above this level, he's basically untouchable by anything this world can throw at him.
* NoShirtLongJacket: Much to Albedo's and Shalltear's pleasure, his Lich attire exposes his skeletal chest and the red orb in the void of his abdomen.
* OneHandedZweihander: As "Momon", he dual-wields greatswords thanks to the enormous strength he has from being incredibly overleveled. Interestingly enough, this is actually considered highly impractical and is something he can only get way with due to being so physically strong.
* OneHitKO: He's specialized in instant death effects to the point where he even has access to a secret bonus class with a one hit kill ability that can kill ''inanimate objects, terrain, and the undead''. Use of the ability turns an entire field into a dust-filled crater. He also has a death aura that among high-level players would only cause a status debuff, but is strong enough to kill some of the most powerful known monsters of the New World.
* OneManArmy: A level 100 character in a world where level 30 is considered unstoppable. His reaction to the Slane Theocracy {{Mooks}} summoning a giant badass angel was to {{facepalm}} at how weak it is. Later, by using a single spell he kills nearly two hundred thousand people.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: A justified example. He is known to his subordinates as Momonga and rechristens himself as Ainz Ooal Gown in the New World, which is the name citizens know him by. His actual name, Satoru Suzuki, is unknown to almost everyone in the story because he never uses it to identify himself and it's very likely that his guildmates addressed him by his handle name of Momonga as well.
* OurLichesAreDifferent: In YGGDRASIL, a lich (literally translated as Elder Lich) is simply a racial class for undead spellcasters, evolving from the more basic Skeleton Mages. They generally appear as a skeleton or at least a mostly decayed corpse, and possess no phylactery. However, in the new world their bodies are usually not the corpse of anyone in particular because undead simply arise in places where there has been much bloodshed. Ainz's own class, an Overlord, is something of an extremely souped-up version of a lich, which is usually divided into the sub-classes Overlord Wiseman (has great mastery over magic), Overlord Chronos Master (possess time-related skills), Overlord General (possesses the inherent ability to summon and control other powerful undead creatures).
* TheParanoiac: Though kept in check from others noticing, his inner monologue shows a surprising degree of paranoia. He recounts incidents involving Tabula Smaragdina (the revelation of Nigredo, an issue with experimenting the Caloric Stone, Albedo assigning restricted equipment) and questions these events having malicious intent. He questions if Peroroncino designed Shalltear to specifically defeat him, despite being best friends with him (and the fact Shalltear was {{Munchkin}} for any opponent). He holds back advanced PlayerVersusPlayer tactics from his followers, as it remains one of the few "trump cards" he has in the event of betrayal. His overall caution in the New World is rooted in the fear that other Yggdrasil players are secretly active or plotting against him.
* ParentalSubstitute: Whenever Aura and Mare are involved, Ainz often has internal monologues about nice things he should do for them, such as who he should delegate to give them TheTalk, or sending them to school.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: His super tier spells place him in this category. While Ia Shub Niggurath destroyed an entire army numbering over 200,000, it could just as easily depopulate an entire city if cast in an urban area.
* PetTheDog:
** To honor Touch Me, he went out of his way to save Enri and Nemu, [[TerrifyingRescuer despite their initial reactions]]. While he somewhat doesn't care for the remaining villagers, Enri particularly stood out as he's gifted her two goblin horns, which became ''extremely'' handy [[spoiler:in defeating Prince Barbro and his men]].
** His interactions with his subordinates are filled with these moments, from giving water to Aura and Mare when they seemed thirsty, embracing and apologizing to Shalltear after he [[spoiler: was forced to kill her]] and so on...
** After learning that [[spoiler:Tuare is the sister of his now-deceased adventurer comrade Ninya, he lets her stay in Nazarick]].
** In volume 8, he is so flattered by Nemu's amazement and wonder at the sight of Nazarick that he goes into a fit of joyful laughter, pats her on the head, takes her on a guided tour of the more visitor-friendly parts of Nazarick [[spoiler:and adds her name to the list of people Lupusregina Beta must keep alive in Carne Village.]] This happens well after his lingering humanity has been all but consumed by his EvilOverlord persona.
** He accepts Gazef's request for a duel during the Massacre of Katze Plains, despite being both powerful enough to kill him right then and there without trying, and not even having a reason to do so. [[spoiler:After he kills Gazef, he honors his wishes of not taking his weapon as spoils of war, doesn't desecrate his body in any way, and makes it so he cannot be resurrected by lower-tier magic.]]
* PoorCommunicationKills: He has a tendency to misread what his subordinates are doing and saying, leading to atrocities that he would at least not continue, though he probably wouldn't condemn them either. For example, he honestly believes that Demiurge is skinning chimeras, not human beings.
* PowerIsSexy: Explaining his KavorkaMan tendencies to a great extent. At one point, Shalltear comments that Ainz's sheer aura of power and domination [[JizzedInMyPants "caused her underwear to go through a bit of a crisis"]]. Evileye seems to be enamored with Momon because he is strong enough to overpower her, one of the absolute strongest entities in the New World, and Zesshi Zetsumei seems to be set up as another potential conquest for the exact same reasons.
* PragmaticVillainy: He has no qualms about ColdBloodedTorture, experimenting on people and corpses, or letting the Guardians run wild, but he does his best to ''look'' heroic in the process, i.e. his targets are usually explicit criminals, or worse. If any other players made it to this world, then they would be appalled if he acted openly evil, and he isn't entirely sure that there aren't creatures like dragons that can match him anyway.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: He goes from an overworked Japanese salaryman in the real world who wished to learn more about the New World he was teleported into, to an extremely cunning EvilOverlord desiring to TakeOverTheWorld along with his loyal subjects, most of them more evil than him, using EngineeredHeroics to its logical conclusion, ''all in the span of a few weeks''.
* ReadingsAreOffTheScale: Ainz and most of his major followers have character sheets detailing their statistics (such as health, mana, physical and magical power), ranging from 0 to 100. Momonga's mana level exceeds the limit of 100 and [[http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1018094-anime breaks the scale]].
** In the series proper, this happens to Arche when she uses her Talent, which allows her to determine the strength of a spellcaster, on Ainz. Up until that point, the strongest mage she is likely to have ever seen was Fluder Paradyne, a tier 6 caster whose level is likely in the high 30es or low 40es. When she tries that on Ainz, a level 100 mage who can use tier 10 and Super-Tier magic, the magical pressure he emits is so overwhelming that she immediately [[StressVomit gives up her lunch right then and there]].
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He's willing to amend his plans sometimes if given reason to believe his earlier plans were flawed. For example, he wants a kingdom comprising of all races because he likes collecting weird things, but is told that heteromorphs and demihumans will often eat humanoids. As such, he quickly puts a ban on any citizens consuming each other or citizens of other nations because even the latter will cause internal strife.
* RedBaron
** As Momon, he is known as "The Dark Hero" or "Raven-Black Hero" for his [[BlackKnight jet-black armor]].
** After declaring his intent to create a new nation, the Floor Guardians come up with different suggestions for titles. Ainz goes with Cocytus' name for him: "Sorcerer King".
* TheRedMage: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. Ainz's build was designed with role-playing in mind and has certain key strengths, the first being [[{{Necromancer}} Death Magic]], the second is SummonMagic, and the third is [[TimeStandsStill Time Magic]]. However, many times throughout the Light Novel it is remarked that Ainz doesn't have the destructive power that other members of the Guild had, so he had to make due with his versatility and the sheer number of spells he possessed.
* TheRoleplayer: Ainz notes that his build is not optimized as it was designed with mainly role-playing in mind, specializing in abilities that most players would have solid countermeasures to at high levels, such as death magic and time magic. In ''YGGDRASIL'' such suboptimal characters created for flair over substance were known as "dream builds" and largely shunned by the player base as inefficient, but Ainz managed to pull his weight in the guild thanks to the sheer versatility of his spell repertoire. In addition, his roleplaying skill does end up helping him pull off the overlord act convincingly.
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: While he leaves most of the bureaucratic paperwork to his trusted attendants and the Guardians, notably Albedo, he otherwise takes a very personal and "hands on" approach to running his country, and he's quite skilled at it, especially when it comes to diplomacy.
* ScarySkeleton: He certainly seems to fit the trope, and commands a great deal of fear from those who see his true face.
* ShipperOnDeck: He encourages Sebas Tian and Tuare to "get together".
* ShouldersOfDoom: His cloak is held up by massive shoulder pauldrons.
* TheSleepless: Demiurge considers Albedo rubbing her scent all over Ainz's bed pointless as he'll likely never be in it, though he does rest there.
* SlouchOfVillainy: Does this on his throne. ''Especially'' when he's alone and trying to vent off stress for FeigningIntelligence, being a CluelessBoss, or brooding how it's LonelyAtTheTop, or even lamenting the fact that he can't reciprocate Albedo and Shalltear's feelings for him.
* SlowlySlippingIntoEvil: Once he awakens in the New World, he grows increasingly comfortable with atrocities, as his caution regarding potential rivals decreases. The openings of the first and second season of the anime, told from his perspective, lampshade this, by the ending of the third season, it's an open lament about how much of an evil monster he has become.
* SorcerousOverlord: As a powerful necromancer and the lord of Nazarick, he eventually takes the title of Sorcerer King.
* SpannerInTheWorks: He completely and unintentionally thwarts Emperor Jircniv's plans to recruit the Slane Theocracy in volume 10 by showing up virtually unannounced in the Arena to battle the Empire's strongest gladiator. All he wanted to do was show off to adventurers and recruit them for his new guild.
* SquishyWizard: Almost completely averted. He is of course nearly unkillable in the New World (and NighInvulnerable to most of their attacks due to a special skill), but he is able to keep up with Shalltear for quite a while despite taking many blows from her attacks and spells. A look at his stat block shows that his health and physical defense are both middling at least, and his magic defense is actually higher than his magic attack, making him difficult to take down in a spellcaster duel.
* StalkerWithoutACrush: He keeps a surveillance spell on Emperor Jircniv for two reasons: 1) To have early warning for when the man acts to betray him; and 2) to emulate his ruling style as Jircniv is loved by the vast majority of Empire citizens. It has served Ainz well (at the cost of Jircniv's mental health, since he can sense he's being watched but can't do anything about it).
* TheStrategist: Surprisingly. In the two "Prologue" prequel chapters, we find out that when he was made leader of the guild "Ainz Ooal Gown", the very first thing he did was put together the strategy to outright conquer a dungeon, "The Tomb of Nazarick", in one shot, a feat that no other guild had ever even attempted, not even with any other dungeon. It was a roaring success. And as a bonus, ''because'' the guild conquered the tomb outright without any casualties or failures on their first try, the guild was rewarded with a World Item.
* SueDonym: While he never uses his actual human name, the name of his disguised persona - "Momon" - is clearly just a minor distortion of his character name, "Momonga". This avoids being stupid because he does not actually use the name "Momonga" in the New World, instead going by his guild name, Ainz Ooal Gown. So the only ones who would recognize the name are Nazarick residents (who are already in on the ruse) and other players (whom he's looking for anyways). And if they do recognize him, they'll see him as a heroic swordsman.
* SummonMagic: He can summon various undead such as Death Knights. Normally these summons vanish over time, but in the New World, casting the spell near a corpse raises the corpse as a permanent version. He can also summon angels to serve as bodyguards with the right tools, though this is not an ability he normally uses.
* SuperStrength: Though he's a Magic Caster and therefore relatively physically weak, he's just so far above everyone in level that even his worst stats are above the greatest heroes that he has come across. When Clementine, one of the most adept physical fighters in the realm gets caught in a grapple, he's strong enough to completely rupture her internal organs and shatter her spine just by squeezing her against his chest with one arm. Though she identifies him as a supposedly physically weak Elder Lich, she's unable to break out of his grip no matter how hard she tries.
* SureLetsGoWithThat: While he certainly has his moments of tactical brilliance, his reputation for being a long-term strategic and political mastermind comes largely from others misinterpreting things he said in passing or things that just happened to work out in his favor. When he is aware of this happening, he just rolls with it to maintain that reputation.
* SweatDrop: One of his most frequent expressions in the manga, coupled with his face being super deformed into a generic, undetailed, and very surprised skeleton skull.
* TaughtByExperience
** He's able to beat his own personal ManOfKryptonite Shalltear in a straight fight because he had to actually learn how to [=PvP=] himself rather than just being that strong from the start. Her tactics are clever and make good use of her skills, but she's weak to bluffs and paces herself poorly.
** Ainz goes to a ''lot'' of effort to prevent scrying because YGGDRASIL was very much an information based game. You didn't want your enemies to know anything and almost everyone was potentially your enemy. Conversely, he does a lot of scrying himself (keeping an eye on the defense of Carne village or spying on Jircniv to take notes on how a leader should act).
* TerrifyingRescuer: When he comes to the rescue of Enri and Nemu, they're even more scared of him than the soldier that just slashed Enri despite him having saved their lives. He has to alter their memories as a result and learns to hide his nature as one of the undead. Later, after living under his protection for some time, they're no longer concerned by it when he stops hiding his true face.
* ThinkingUpPortals: His ''Gate'' spell.
* ThisIsUnforgivable: His one and only response to harm, or threat of harm, befalling anyone under his protection, denizen of Nazarick or not.
--> '''Ainz:''' They dare to harm someone I have sworn on the name of Ainz Ooal Gown to protect! ThisIsUnforgivable. Even if they did not know!
* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: This is the first thing he does when going up against Zurrernorn's ZombieApocalypse in Re-Estize. It convinces the guards at the graveyard to stay out of his way. He doesn't need to worry about losing his weapon, since his whole set of armor and weapons are magically conjured anyways (he cannot use real weapons due to class restrictions), so he can always summon a new one.
* TimeStandsStill: One of the spells in his repertoire, "Time Stop". It was relatively useless in YGGDRASIL since most players would have countermeasures against it by level 70 or so, but in the New World it makes him unbeatable with no one able to understand what he even did.
* TooAwesomeToUse: He accumulated a large arsenal of consumable magical items because he didn't want to use them up, even when he might have needed them. They come in handy in the New World, where the stakes are higher, and he ends up using quite a few of them.
* TouchOfDeath: His mere touch spreads negative energy if he isn't careful, which is enough to cause pain even to those as strong as Albedo. Weaker creatures would presumably be killed outright.
* TranquilFury: His skeletal body suppresses most of his strong emotions and inhibits his ability to react as such. The keyword here being '''strong''' emotions, so instead pouring all out in an UnstoppableRage his wrath simmers down and into a [[ThePowerOfHate cold, seething hatred]] worthy of the undead overlord he is, giving him time to think up the cruellest form of retribution that he can.
* TrueCompanions: He saw his fellow guild members as this, and extends this feeling to The Guardians.
* UndeadAbomination: As he is a skeletal lich capable of summoning [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]], powerful undead hordes, stop time, and the countless other spells and skills his magic grants him, along with being strong enough to kill trolls, giants, and many other monsters with his bare hands, he is this.
* UnskilledButStrong: Skilled warriors who've fought "Momon" quickly note that he just swings around his sword like an ignorant child, then begin questioning how he's survived being an adventurer with such terrible abilities. He doesn't even use any Martial Skills. However, left unsaid is that he's so strong and fast that they still can't get any attacks in, which Clementine in particular finds frustrating. On the other hand, he can trade his ability to use magic temporarily in order to become a level 100 warrior. While not a match for a real warrior of his level, he does become stronger, faster, ''and'' more skilled. By volume 7 Ainz has undergone enough training to give a decent showing of martial prowess against an experienced team of Workers, though he admits he still lacks the instincts of a true warrior.
** In volume 10, he's gotten even better, and considers himself equivalent to a low 30's warrior. Not just in power, but in skill and tactics too. He even turns off his damage immunity when he fights the Martial Lord, and mentally worries about how much he enjoys fighting.
* UselessUsefulSpell: As a spellcaster and top-ranked player of YGGDRASIL, he is actually not greatly above average in player-versus-player combat because he chose to build his character for purposes of role playing, not fighting. As a result, he mostly uses instant death spells when such abilities generally don't work against player characters, setting aside the monstrously powerful special ability granted by the Eclipse class. However, the real world doesn't have to worry about game balance, so instant death spells work just fine.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Initially, he had no goal concerning the Sorcerer Kingdom. When asked in volume 10 by loyal non-Nazarick citizens, and one of the Nazarick maids, he decided to "take a little walk". Upon seeing a near-abandoned lifeless city, he decided to create a utopia where the various races can live side by side in peace.
* VictoriousRoar: While in his adventurer persona "Momon", he shouts in victory, with a little encouragement from Evileye, after he drove off the demon Jaldabaoth, who is forced to retreat with his forces from the city of Re-Estize. He's shortly joined afterwards in cheering for their victory over the demon by the other adventurers and the surviving forces of Re-Estize. Of course, only [[VillainProtagonist Ainz]], his companion Naberal, and the audience are aware of the true irony of the entire situation, as "Jaldabaoth" is just a pseudonym Demiurge chose, and the invasion was just a ruse to cover up the true targets of their attack, the entire Eight Fingers criminal organization.
* VillainProtagonist: His lich body prevents him from having any real empathy for humans anymore, though he's kept from getting too evil by the [[PragmaticVillainy possible consequences]]. As time goes on, he realizes how powerful he is compared to everyone else and begins to develop grander ambitions as well as expressing greater comfort with committing atrocities.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Attempted with mixed results. He's ''trying'' to make a good name for himself, but as an undead who rather casually commits terrible crimes on occasion it's a bit of an uphill struggle, though interacting with people on a personal level does tend to win supporters.
* WalkingArmory: During his fight with Shalltear he brought along multiple weapons that belonged to his former guild members, wielding them in rapid succession once he expended his MP.
* WartsAndAll: He idolizes Touch Me, but privately feels that he was somewhat selfish and made bad decisions.
* WeakButSkilled: In YGGDRASIL his build was subpar. But with strategy and a vast move pool, he managed to be in the upper middle tier anyway.
* WeHaveReserves: He treats the characters created by the Supreme Beings [[AFatherToHisMen practically as his children]], but the low-level undead mooks of Nazarick are another story, since they are automatically and freely respawned and don't seem to be entirely sentient. Same goes for his summons. In ''YGGDRASIL'', the guild's resident {{ninja}} was capable of detecting traps, but not disarming them, since he built his character for [[GlassCannon maximum DPS]] over utility. The solution? Have Momonga summon a low-tier undead to trigger and waste the trap.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: While he has no compunction about doing horrible things to accomplish his goals, the goals themselves are far more often than not truly noble and just. He orders the building of an orphanage in volume 10, run by the widows of his victims in volume 9, seeks to make the Adventurer's guild ''true adventurers'' to explore the unknown, as opposed to merely being monster-hunting mercenaries, and wants to make his country a utopia where the various races of the world can live side by side in peace.
* WhatHaveIBecome: Early on, Ainz finds himself disturbed to realize that watching a massacre provokes no disgust or horror in him, nor does killing someone with his own hands.
* WillfullyWeak: His Momon disguise is a warrior running off caster stats and without the ability to use the vast majority of his spells. He can make his disguise stronger by casting a spell to temporarily change his class, but it's generally only useful for fighting when out of mana.
* WithholdingTheCure: Has more than enough resurrection wands for to bring back the dead if Carne Village but doesn't bother because there's nothing in it for him.
* YoureNothingWithoutYourPhlebotinum: Few people not aware of Ainz's power scale attempt to do this, but quickly get corrected when Ainz curb-stomps them anyways.
[[/folder]]
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