-->"My game plan all my life has been to demand acceptance of this," a vague wave down the length, or shortness, of his body, "because I was a smart-ass little bastard who could think rings around the opposition, and prove it time after time."
-->--'''Miles Vorkosigan''', ''[[VorkosiganSaga Mirror Dance]]''

A character archetype. These characters:

# Are extremely smart and/or good at whatever it is they do.
# Know it, and are probably [[InsufferableGenius pretty arrogant]] (in fact, they tend to think they're even better than they are).
# As a result, are continually driven to go BeyondTheImpossible. Usually they succeed (remember, they're really good), but their failures are spectacular.
# Often suffer some impediment, or endure some prejudice, to the point where being dramatically and demonstrably more awesome than everyone else in their field is a necessity if they're going to be seen as a success at all.

Usually this character is the hero (though generally not TheHero); they're often a {{Foil}} to TooDumbToFool. If they have BlueBlood, they could be an UpperClassWit.

----
!!'''Examples:'''

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

*Kiyomaro Takamine in ''KonjikiNoGashBell''.
*Urahara Kisuke and Aizen Sousuke from ''{{Bleach}}''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

*Mark Whitacre, the title character of ''TheInformant!'', is an accomplished scientist who speaks several languages and sorely overestimates his own prowess when he gets between his company's corrupt leadership and an FBI probe.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Miles Vorkosigan, as illustrated by the quote.
* Moist von Lipwig of ''Discworld/GoingPostal'' and ''Discworld/MakingMoney'' is a con man turned government official, who runs his government offices as though they were successively more complex con games. Which of course, in a very real sense, they sort of are.
* The titular character from ''ArtemisFowl''.
* Locke from ''[[GentlemanBastard The Lies of Locke Lamora]]'' and its sequel by Scott Lynch. He spends his life running elaborate (and usually successful) cons on nobles while posing as a petty thief. The end of the second book covers [[spoiler: a massive failure; he's spent the entire book on a plot to rob a casino, and it goes off flawlessly--except that the paintings he steals are fakes, put out for the express purpose of being stolen.]]
* Kvothe from ''TheNameOfTheWind'' by Patrick Rothfuss. A child prodigy, he talks his way into his world's premier university at the age of fifteen, after having spent three years as a beggar, and promptly antagonizes both one of the masters and the wealthiest and most politically connected student in the university. Between that and his perpetual poverty, he spends most of his time doing absurd things (learning an entire language in a day and a half, getting certified as a musician on a lute with a broken string) just to keep his head above water.
** To be fair, though, he was a musician before that, and he'd had to do without strings before.
* Tyrion Lannister from ''ASongOfIceAndFire''.
* [[TheThrawnTrilogy Grand Admiral Thrawn]], the MagnificentBastard that he is. He'd probably claim that he's not arrogant, and it's true that he has no qualms about accepting a good idea just because it's not his, but he definitely has an ego underneath his self-control. He's an alien in a xenophobic Empire whose talents caused him to get that rank. To a lesser extent, [[KnowledgeBroker Talon Karrde]].
* What, no [[HarryPotter Hermione]]? The smartest person in her classes, occasionally rather rudely disparaging of her peers' intelligence, and discriminated against for being a muggle-born. What more do you want?


[[/folder]]

[[folder: Television ]]

* Rodney [=McKay=] from ''StargateAtlantis'' nails all 4 points.
** Especially to degrees. Rodney is probably the second smartest human from earth. Despite everyone in the Stargate program being top in their fields, is the only one to make such a huge deal out of his intelligence. And on number three... while he regularly makes astounding accomplishments while under threat of imminent death, his biggest failure? Blew up a solar system, and almost destroyed two universes.
** Later characterisation showed [=McKay=] to be (at the very least) equal to Carter in terms of scientific genius, but sadly lagging behind the vast majority of Earth, let alone the Stargate program, in terms of common sense and social skills...
*** Rodney's problem isn't that he's not smart, it's that he's not as smart as he thinks he is.
** This gets taken to a literal level when he has Ancient intelligence downloaded into his frail human skull. He creates a new form of math just to keep up with his new discoveries. After being forced to choose between ascending or dying, he [[TakeAThirdOption invents a cure for himself]], returning himself back to "normal" genius levels, not realizing he was in spitting distance of [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascending]]. For a kicker, all his notes and his new mathematics are so complex that even ''he'' can't figure out what they meant, making [[StatusQuoIsGod everything that happened completely moot]].
* Doctor Gregory {{House}}. Hell, his choice of role model and reason for becoming a doctor (a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buraku burakumin]] medical genius working as a janitor in a Japanese hospital) was almost explicitly one of these, although without the implied arrogance.
--->''They listened to him, because he was smart. And he was '''right'''. And that was all that mattered.''
* Sheldon Cooper from ''TheBigBangTheory'' is a brilliant theoretical physicist. He's also [[InsufferableGenius insufferably arrogant]] and ignorant of basic social interaction. At least once the other characters acknowledged that if he wasn't Leonard's roommate they wouldn't hang out with him.
*[[DoctorWho The Doctor]] has a tendency to drift in and out of this trope, possibly moreso in his Third Incarnation.
** The Tenth Doctor is definitely this, especially given his love of telling people how clever he his.
* Villainous example: Orta from the ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Ensign Ro". Extremely good Bajoran terrorist with many impossible victories against the Cardassians, but his failures cost him his right eye and the ability to speak without a voice synthesizer. Over the course of the episode, Picard and Ro find that Orta did not make a strike they were investigating, because he didn't have the resources to do so (his freighter could only move at half impulse, for example)...because his rep was such that others were terrified in dealing with him.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* Riff, the mad scientist in ''{{SluggyFreelance}}'', not necessarily scientific, but builds stuff. Usually involving weapons, explosives, robotics or dimensional transports. Lately incorporating inflatable technologies. They may not always work predictably ("''Let me check my notes...''") or reliably, but hey, at least they work, and isn't that cool?
* Vaarsuvius is the resident SquishyWizard in ''OrderOfTheStick'' and needs to be smart. Also, [[CantArgueWithElves V's an Elf,]] so there's the arrogance. The current [[spoiler:demonic contract]] plotline seems to be setting up the "spectacular failure" bit, too.
** He gets over it. Well, the "spectacular failure" part. It's implied that he's too ashamed to admit to needing [[spoiler:demonic magic]] and avoids mentioning it.
** Roy as well. at times:
---> Oracle: Yes, you've certainly managed to cunningly outsmart yourself at the very least.
*** [[JustifyingEdit Although]], in that case, it was because Roy was very aware of the Oracle's habit of giving correct, but vague and weaselly, answers, and had tried to construct a question to which the only possible answer was a direct one; the quote was the Oracle attempting to prompt Roy to the fact that he'd failed to account for a particularly important variable, which Roy didn't catch on to until it was too late.
* Suspiria, InsufferableGenius mage prodigy from ''{{Flipside}}''. She really is a phenomenally powerful mage, but given her youth, she lacks both the experience and stamina of other mages of her rank, making her a much less formidable opponent than she should be. This has bitten her in the ass twice, in-story (the first with tragic consequences, the second costing her the other main characters' good will and respect and any sympathy the former granted her).

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

*Digeri Dingo from ''TazMania''.
* ''LooneyTunes'''s Wile E. Coyote, especially when pitted against Bugs Bunny, where he acquires a voice with which to proclaim himself a "Super-genius".

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* [[DotHack Sora]] is at the maximum level possible in The World, has the maximum possible stats, and goes around killing people for fun. Much of his arrogance is probably due to [[spoiler:his age.]]
** Apart from that, he also openly manipulates everyone and is essentially the most obvious sufferer of {{chronic backstabbing disorder}} ever. He has information sources no one else has and is basically invincible in any of the fights he gets in, constantly killing BT. He gets called on it, but it never hampers him [[spoiler:until finally motivated into doing something somewhat heroic (he didn't realize he couldn't get away) and taunting the big bad, at which point she turned him into a {{sequel hook}} and the show ended.]]
----
<<|CharactersAsDevice|>>