History SmallNameBigEgo / Literature

** The Professor, an anarchist bomb maker, likewise considers himself a force to be reckoned with and thinks the only reason he's able to walk free is because the police are terrified of him. In truth the police consider him more weird than dangerous, and he secretly lives in terror of the truth that the masses not only are unafraid of him, hut barely realize he exists.

* In ''Literature/{{Emma}}'', the Mrs. Elton assumes that her £10,000 dowry and her position as the vicar's newlywed wife entitles her to act as Lady Patroness of Highbury. She often positions herself as more refined and worldly than the people who are ''actually'' the most respected figures in town (the Woodhouses, the Knightleys, the Westons) and treats them as uncultured bumpkins who need her guiding hand. Emma is frequently outraged by this behavior.

* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', the rogue SixthRangerTraitor Animorph David acquires a series of powerful morphs that he can use against the others, including a lion, a golden eagle and [[spoiler:an orca whale]]. However, once he started actively working against the rest of the team, while David declared himself "smarter" than the rest of the team, this was operating on the premise that the rest of the team were idiots where he was the only one 'smart' enough not to focus on the Yeerks. In reality, David relied on raw power and his knowledge of the Animorphs' civilian lives to be a threat, but he didn't have any clear plan beyond taunting them with his knowledge to get what he wanted and was eventually [[spoiler:caught and trapped in rat morph]]..

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' has several examples.
** Gilderoy Lockhart in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' ''is'' a big name, but takes credit for what others have done. Of course, it could just be an act designed to keep his fraudulent reputation afloat. His vanity about his physical appearance is almost certainly genuine, though. Creator/JKRowling has admitted that Lockhart is one of the few characters in the series explicitly based on a real person. While refusing for obvious reasons to reveal that person's identity, Rowling has said he was actually even ''worse'' than his fictional counterpart and suggested that he's out there now claiming to be the inspiration for Dumbledore, or that he wrote the books himself and just let her take the credit out of the goodness of his heart. As his actor, Creator/KennethBranagh, put it, Lockhart "feels himself to be terrifically important, thinks of himself also as being terrifically modest. He is neither of those things."

** While Fudge apparently didn't start out as such, he certainly comes across as one in the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix fifth book]] given his complete confidence that he can haul Dumbledore off to jail without a fight. He also awarded himself an Order of Merlin, First Class award, which is meant to be awarded for "acts of outstanding bravery", despite most people considering Fudge's career "less than distinguished".
** As Dumbledore shows Harry via PensieveFlashback in the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince sixth book]], Marvolo Gaunt is also this. Despite living in complete poverty, he felt being a Pureblood descendant of Salazar Slytherin made him untouchable. No one cared by that point, and his attempts to flaunt his supposed status were met with utter failure.

* ''To Defy a King'': In this Elizabeth Chadwick novel, the trope is zig-zagged by William Longespée. As the bastard son of King Henry II of England and raised in the royal court, his life starts out better than most. Yet his illegitimate status means that even into adulthood, his life and opportunities are much more restricted than they would be if he was true-born. He also develops a surprisingly petty rivalry with his half-brother Hugh Bigod (despite his lower status, Hugh is born in wedlock to twice Longespée's wealth). The latter regularly finds himself on the receiving end of Longespée's heavy-handed behavior, which Longespée himself rarely seems to consider as such. They do grow somewhat closer towards the end due to mutually inhibiting circumstances.

* In the {{Gamebook}} ''Literature/{{Deathmoor}}'', you have TheRivaal, Fang-Zen, who constantly brags about how he's entitled to finish this quest and way better than you, ''if'' he's with a crowd of his own thugs and at an advantage. If you're facing him alone, he tries an ambush by throwing a spear at you InTheBack and when you fight him, it turns out Fang Zen's SKILL is two points below yours.

* ''LightNovel/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'': Alma Kilzrake thinks she's a much better Drag-Knight than she actually is. She's an EX-class Drag-Knight and knows one of the three secret Drag-Knight techniques, which is admittedly above average... however, this puts her on par with Velvet Barth (the antagonist of the ''very first volume'') and far from the level of the main characters.

* Franchise/StarWarsLegends:

* ''Literature/XWingSeries''.
** A character who was never seen alive, Captain Darillian, was "a petty guy who reached his ultimate level of usefulness driving a minelaying barge for a warlord and then had to be scraped off the floor." His ego was big enough that he kept a CaptainsLog in full holo and talked into it like he was always on dangerous missions upon which the fate of his sect of the Empire rode.
** His boss, Admiral Apwar Trigit, was also an example, albeit a much quieter one. He fell for every single trick the Wraiths set up. Creator/AaronAllston [[WordOfGod addressed why]] in his [[http://www.aaronallston.com/faq.html FAQ]].
---> Because he's not as bright as he thinks he is. He's creative in certain intelligence-gathering functions, but that has led him to believe that he is brilliant at everything. It's this assumption of his own infallibility that leads him into several errors.
** And then we have ''Trigit's'' boss, Warlord Zsinj - although with Zsinj, it's a form of ObfuscatingStupidity which he knows a lot of people can see through. He's certainly got an ego, but it's not as unrestrained as it seems.
** In the second novel, the "commanding officer" of a crew of repair technicians on a fully automated power relay station takes his job way too seriously. When the Alliance invasion fleet appears in orbit and commandos hijack the power relay network, he tries to rally his crew to join the defense of their homeworld, until they explain to him that there is nothing they can do to shut down the station, that it doesn't have any kind of weapons, and he should just relax and join their card game.
** At one point, Wedge notes that this seems to be a racial failing of the Bothans, pointing out how, despite the fact it's well-known now that they were ''supposed'' to get the Death Star 2 information to lead the Rebels into a trap, they still bring up how many of their agents died getting that info and use it like a club to try and make other races respect them more.

* ''Dead Famous'' by Ben Elton has a few examples of the trope. Layla believes she is smarter and more attractive than the other House Arrest contestants; but is the first to be voted off the show because the others hated her. She also describes herself as a fashion designer but is just a shop assistant. David proclaims himself to be an incredibly gifted actor, to the point of hypocritically berating Kelly for "prostituting" her talent by appearing as a movie extra; but in reality his career is going nowhere and he lives off his earnings as a porn star. Geraldine thinks that Kelly herself is this, and thus resolves to destroy Kelly's public image through ManipulativeEditing.

** The same novel has an arrogant author (clearly based on Bret Easton Ellis) who throws a fit when he finds a bookstore isn't stocking his latest novel. The store's owner gives a short but sweet TheReasonYouSuckSpeech stating this man is nowhere near as talented as he thinks he is, his books are hacks hyped by their publishers and that in a few years, no one will even remember him.

* Janos Slynt, former commander of the City Watch of King's Landing spends a solid amount of his appearance talking about his own importance or how his "friends" the Lannisters are lucky to have him as an ally, never seemingly cottoning on to the fact most of the Lannisters detest him and none of them moves a finger or even lifts an eyebrow when Tyrion [[ReassignedToAntarctica ships him off to the Night's Watch]]. This trait gets even more ridiculous when he arrives at the Wall and seems to think that everyone there should be automatically bowing down before him due to being a "lord" and continues to call himself Lord of Harrenhal, even though he never saw it and has lost all claim to it. He also seems to be under the delusion that his status gives him licence to do as he pleases and repeatedly insults and disobeys Jon Snow for his youth and bastard nature, despite Jon being far more competent than him and technically his superior in the Watch. Slynt is only cured of this when Jon finally gets fed up of Slynt throwing Jon's attempts to be reasonable with a man he has good reason to hate [[note]] Jon makes a lot of effort to [[BeingPersonalIsntProfessional overlook the fact]] Slynt played a major role in [[YouKilledMyFather his father's death]][[/note]] back in his face and orders Slynt executed; Slynt goes to the block [[InelegantBlubbering sobbing]] and [[AintTooProudToBeg begging Jon]] [[VillainsWantMercy for mercy]].

* Janos Slynt, former commander of the City Watch of King's Landing spends a solid amount of his appearance talking about his own importance or how his "friends" the Lannisters are lucky to have him as an ally, never seemingly cottoning on to the fact most of the Lannisters detest him and none of them moves a finger or even lifts an eyebrow when Tyrion [[ReassignedToAntarctica ships him off to the Night's Watch]]. This trait gets even more ridiculous when he arrives at the Wall and seems to think that everyone there should be automatically bowing down before him due to being a "lord" and continues to call himself Lord of Harrenahl, even though he never saw it and has lost all claim to it. He also seems to be under the delusion that his status gives him licence to do as he pleases and repeatedly insults and disobeys Jon Snow for his youth and bastard nature, despite Jon being far more competent than him and technically his superior in the Watch. Slynt is only cured of this when Jon finally gets fed up of Slynt throwing Jon's attempts to be reasonable with a man he has good reason to hate [[note]] Jon makes a lot of effort to [[BeingPersonalIsntProfessional overlook the fact]] Slynt played a major role in [[YouKilledMyFather his father's death]][[/note]] back in his face and orders Slynt executed; Slynt goes to the block [[InelegantBlubbering sobbing]] and [[AintTooProudToBeg begging Jon]] [[VillainsWantMercy for mercy]].

* Janos Slynt, former commander of the City Watch of King's Landing spends a solid amount of his appearance talking about his own importance or how his "friends" the Lannisters are lucky to have him as an ally, never seemingly cottoning on to the fact most of the Lannisters detest him and none of them moves a finger or even lifts an eyebrow when Tyrion [[ReassignedToAntarctica ships him off to the Night's Watch]]. This trait gets even more ridiculous when he arrives at the Wall and seems to think that everyone there should be automatically bowing down before him due to being a "lord" and continues to call himself Lord of Harrenahl, even though he never saw it and has lost all claim to it. He also seems to be under the delusion that his status gives him licence to do as he pleases and repeatedly insults and disobeys Jon Snow for his youth and bastard nature, despite Jon being far more competent than him and technically his superior in the Watch. Slynt is only cured of this when Jon finally gets fed up of Slynt throwing Jon's attempts to be reasonable with a man he has good reason to hate [[note]] Jon makes a lot of effort to [[BeingPersonalAintProfessional overlook the fact]] Slynt played a major role in [[YouKilledMyFather his father's death]][[/note]] back in his face and orders Slynt executed; Slynt goes to the block [[InelegantBlubbering sobbing]] and [[AintTooProudToBeg begging Jon]] [[VillainsWantMercy for mercy]].