Fatal Flaw / Live-Action TV

The following have their own pages:

• Game of Thrones
• Hell's Kitchen

---

• 24
  • Jack Bauer's uncompromising sense of justice.
  • Tony Almeida's love for Michelle Dessler.
  • Lynn McGill's need to be taken seriously as an authority figure.
  • Victor Drazen putting Revenge Before Reason.
  • Edgar Stiles' inability to leave people behind.
  • Chloe O'Brian's Undying Loyalty to Jack.
  • Michelle Dessler's selflessness.
  • Curtis Manning's inability to work with people who wronged him in the past.
• On American Gothic (1995), Dr. Crower's fatal flaw would quite obviously have to be his struggle with alcoholism (and the tragic event which resulted from it). Gail's, apparently, is sex.
• Wesley from Angel has a tendency to commit rash action usually for a good reason. It comes back to haunt him in Seasons 3-4. Wesley also has a mistrust of others and compulsively hoards every secret to himself.
• On Arrested Development, almost the entire family can count Greed and Narcissism as fatal flaws, but they've got individual issues too:
  • Michael's selflessness (or at least his desire to always be seen as selfless)
  • George Sr.'s corruption, greed, and controlling nature.
  • Lucille is even more controlling and also overly protective of her children.
  • G.O.B.'s ego and desire to be everyone's favorite.
  • Buster's dependence on his mother.
  • Lindsay being a spoiled brat.
  • Tobias's deeply closeted homoeroticism.
  • George Michael's crush on his cousin.
  • Maeby's lying.
• Babylon 5 had Dr. Franklin addicted to "stims" for most of one season, and battling his addiction for a second; and Security Chief Garibaldi's alcoholism (which he had successfully battled for most of the show's run) formed a major part of the fifth season's arc.
• The Big Bang Theory
  • Leonard is an Insecure Love Interest and Extreme Doormat. He has next to no ability to stand up for himself, leaving him to suffer Sheldon's unending demands even when he tries to say no. His relationship with Penny is also very fraught because he genuinely can't understand why she would be interested in him despite his own deep attraction to her and goes between fretting over her leaving him and trying to be controlling of what she does.
  • Sheldon's is pride. He thinks he's the smartest guy in the world and causes most of his own problems because he's not willing to admit he's not as smart as he thinks he is.
  • Howard has several glaring personality issues but the one that wreaks the most havoc on his life is timidity. His relationship with Bernadette had several problems because he pulled back from going forward in their relationship, partly because he honestly didn't know how to be in a proper romance and partly because of his fierce attachment to his mother who fought Howard on some of the changes he was trying to make in his life.
  • Raj's is passion. He throws himself into things very enthusiastically, which tends to put people off. He's prone to Acquired Situational Narcissism when he gets any accolades, his friends tend to find him grating when he tries to get them invested in things he's interested in or he inserts himself into personal affairs while being oblivious to the irritation he's causing; like with Bernadette's first pregnancy. The biggest place this shows up is in his efforts at romance, where he usually winds up putting women off with strongly he comes on. One of his romantic partners ended things because she had crippling anxiety and Raj kept pushing her into situations she couldn't handle. By contrast the longest lasting relationship he had was one where he was much calmer and avoided his usual excesses when courting.
  • Penny has Commitment Issues and insecurity. Her relationship with Leonard was rocky for a few years because she was scared of going further with him despite their mutual attraction and it took some time for her to grow comfortable with the idea of a life with him. She also has a bad habit of assigning malice to well meaning but obliviously hurtful statements that get at her inner worries, leading her to lash out and act up in spite of her better judgement just to prove whoever's set her off wrong.
• Black Mirror:
  • Playtest: Cooper's is his inability to directly face his problems. He left home to find himself because his father passed away after battling Alzheimer's, he refuses contact with his mother because he wants to avoid the pain of speaking to her about what happened to his dad, and eventually her worried attempts to contact him by phone eventually cause his death when the interference from the phone causes the experimental full-immersion video game he was playtesting to malfunction. Also arguably greed, as the whole reason he defied the warnings about leaving his phone on was to get some sneaky snaps of the device to sell on.
  • USS Callister: Robert Daly's is his inability to see the digital crew of USS Callister as human beings leads to him underestimating their ability to plot against him. They manage to escape the Infinity mod and leave his mind trapped in the game forever.
• Breaking Bad:
  • Walter White's Pride causes him to start cooking meth instead of accepting perceived charity in the first place, and continues to get him into escalating trouble from there, eventually turning him into a full-fledged Villain Protagonist.
  • Jesse Pinkman has two flaws: his lack of restraint, which sees him charge headlong into danger with little regard to long-term consequences; and his desire for the approval of others, which makes him particularly malleable to those who would take advantage of him for selfish reasons (Walt manipulating Jesse into doing his bidding, for starters).
  • Gus Fring's determination to get revenge against the men who killed his partner Max is another major example. He even had a chance to avoid his death by letting his dragon kill the main object of his hate. But because he had to do it, personally, he walked right into a death trap.
• Burn Notice
  • Michael's Determinator quality makes him utterly ruthless and willing to put others in danger.
  • Sam would put himself in danger for friends. "I owe him" is his unofficial motto.
  • Fiona resorts to violence more times than she should.
  • Nate's need to prove that he's reliable and not a screw-up.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: All the previous slayers are implied to eventually develop a death wish, and the resulting carelessness is what leads to their demise.
• In Cheers, Sam Malone's former drinking problem.
• Nick from New Girl always runs away from problems.
• Community, as a show about broken people trying to find their place in the world is filled with this.
  • Jeff has too much Pride. His body issues pushed him to make himself into a perfect physical specimen, but he almost kills himself when he takes anti-aging pills with alcohol.
  • Abed's Lack of Empathy and overindulgence in fiction.
  • Pierce's Brutal Honesty. His envy of the rest of the group in general and of Jeff in particular is also a major problem.
  • Troy's naivety and occasional laziness.
  • Britta's self-loathing leads her to casual hookups and drug use.
  • Shirley's anger (which manifests through her passive-aggression).
  • Annie's need to 'win'.
  • Oddly enough the seven of them collectively cover all Seven Deadly Sins.
  • In the episode Regional Holiday Music, all of the characters fall victim to the thralls of the Glee Club because of major character flaws that plague them throughout the season.
    • Abed is first due to his curiosity.
    • Troy is second after Abed tells him what to do.
    • Pierce is third out of a desire to feel relevant.
    • Annie is fourth out of a desire to fit in with Troy and Abed.
    • Jeff is fifth out of a desire to be close to Annie.
    • Shirley is sixth due to being drug into singing about her religion
    • Britta is seventh because she does what Jeff does.
  • Chang's two conflicting desires: wanting friends and wanting power.
• In CSI:
  • Warrick's gambling problem.
  • Ray's struggle to avoid giving in to the violent tendencies he feared he'd got from his father.
• Desperate Housewives has several:
  • Bree has two — has Control Freak tendencies and her habit of completely overreacting whenever she feels slighted, often resorting to blackmail to make her family fall in line with her wishes.
  • Lynette's love for her family means she often does some very underhanded things to ensure their happiness and always thinks she knows what's best.
  • Susan's are her extreme clumsiness and self-centered behaviour which often hurts her love life and friendships.
  • Gabrielle is hot-tempered and rather spoiled, so she often makes impulsive decisions to get what she wants without thinking the consequences through.
  • In general all the titular housewives have a terrible habit of meddling in other people's business and making situations much worse for it, especially Susan and Lynette.
• Doctor Who:
  • Adric's is pride. When he tries to divert a spaceship from a collision course with Earth, he ends up trapped on the ship as it crashes onto the Earth, killing him. It should also be noted that this ship was the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs.
  • The Eighth Doctor's was his all-loving nature, which caused him to die while trying to save a Time Lord-hating pilot during the Time War, leading to his regeneration into the War Doctor.
  • The Master's is his fear of death, leading to him trying to survive at all costs. It ends up being subverted with the "Harold Saxon" incarnation, whose fatal flaw instead is pride.
  • Clara Oswald's is her love for adventure. As she becomes more like the Doctor, she takes on greater risks and has more close encounters with death, which eventually leads to her demise on the Trap Street.
  • Rose Tyler's is her selfish streak and her over-attachment to the Doctor.
  • The Tenth Doctor's is his vanity and hubris. He tends to swagger around cockily, acting the big guy and showing off for all the humans he's surrounded by in order to bask in their adoration and hero worship. However, this leads to him getting over-confident and arrogant, resulting in him making mistakes or alienating people who are a bit less starry-eyed in their view of him, and being a bit too blinded to see all this until it's too late and the results are disastrous. He can also be quite self-pitying and self-loathing at times, which in addition to exacerbating the previous as a kind of shell can also lead to him thinking that It's All About Me.
• Doom Patrol (2019): As good an influence as his daughter is on him, Robotman's fixation on the life he lost with her keeps him wrapped up in his own head and hampers his attempts to be The Heart for the team.
• Lord Grantham from Downton Abbey is a Benevolent Boss to his servants but this doesn't stop him from thinking them inferior and preferring the company and advice of his "peers". This haunts him when bad advice from an aristocrat doctor over that of their regular physician Dr. Clarkson causes the death of his daughter Sybil.
• In the comedy series Drifters, Meg is Driven by Envy and she always wants what other people have — she makes Mark dump his girlfriend Fay when she gets jealous that he's moving on from her, then when Mark loses his venue and starts sliding back into being a creepy weirdo again, Meg decides she doesn't want him anymore and Fay refuses to take him back as well. Plus she gets offended when her new lesbian friend clarifies that she isn't attracted to Meg — even though Meg is straight, she gets upset when the girl prefers Bunny and calls her uptight and self-righteous. She also repeatedly ignores Nice Guy Andrew who is everything she says she wants in favour of Hot and Cold who ignores Meg except when he wants sex.
• Many of the characters in ER have one at some point or another. Examples include Abby's alcoholism and Carter's painkiller addiction.
• Farscape:
  • D'Argo's Hair-Trigger Temper. Even after Character Development kicks in, his violent tendencies consistently get him into trouble — sometimes ruining critical mission objectives in the process.
  • Crichton's obsession with wormholes. It's led him to take serious risks in pursuit of wormhole knowledge and a possible route home, once almost convincing him to abandon Moya in favour of the Pathfinders.
  • Scorpius's many obsessions — with Crichton, with wormholes, with revenge against the Scarrans...
  • Rygel's pride, greed, gluttony, and overall selfishness.
  • Chiana's impulsiveness and rebelliousness.
  • Stark's growing instability — which only gets worse following Zhaan's death.
  • Jool's haughtiness and intellectual vanity.
  • Crais's need for revenge, but only in the first season; later, it's revealed that his main flaw is the need to remain in control of the situation.
  • Talyn's violent impulses, rampant paranoia, and Trigger-Happy tendencies.
  • Moya's devotion to Talyn.
• Bloom from Fate: The Winx Saga has serious issues with self-loathing. The drive to uncover her past at any cost is rooted in a desperate hope that the truth will "fix" her and make her whole.
• In The Flash (2014):
  • Barry suffers from Chronic Hero Syndrome. He strongly desires to save people, including villains, even if he knows things can and will backfire on him. He is also a little too easy to emotionally provoke (especially when his loved ones are involved) and he can ignore potential consequences of his actions. He also has a tendency to want to be faster than any villainous speedsters he encounters, believing that's the only way to defeat them.
  • Joe is overprotective. He has well-meaning intentions to keep Iris and Barry safe but he often treats them like they were like young children instead of adults and his stubbornness has led to communication issues with both children.
  • Earth-2 Harrison Wells will do anything if his daughter is in danger, including treachery and murder, something Zoom deliberately exploits.
  • Speedsters in general have a very strong tendency to rush in without thinking, trusting their speed to see them through. This is what prevents them from being a true Story-Breaker Power; they can speed up their minds so much that they have hours to think in the space of seconds, but they rarely bother to do so. In particular, Eobard Thawne has a great deal of trouble dealing with the Black Flash because his first instinct is always to run. The Black Flash tracks him by the Speed Force he uses while running.
• One of the main plot drivers on Friday the 13th: The Series, which is only to be expected with a show that has a Gotta Catch Them All quest for Artifacts of Doom as its central premise. Nearly all the episodes involve the main cast retrieving a cursed object from a Faustian possessor. Each 'owner' of a cursed object has a fatal flaw of some kind, a craving for something (revenge/Wrath, love/Lust, money/Greed, fame/Ambition are the most common) that only the cursed object can give them, and the craving is bad enough to kill others to satisfy it.
• Both Ross and Rachel in Friends suffer from Never My Fault, most likely stemming from when their parents spoiled them as children. This leads to their breakup since a major reason why their relationship failed is that both of them don't take responsibility for anything and are quick to blame others and each other for their mistakes.
  • Chandler also suffered from deep self-esteem issues that inhibited his ability to engage in long-term relationships. Much of this is due to Freudian Excuse; his parents' acrimonious divorce was so traumatizing that it left him hesitant to commit out of fear of screwing things up. Exacerbating the matter was the fact that his two initial recurring love interests (Janice and Kathy) ended up cheating on him when their respective relationships became difficult to maintain. Thankfully, in Season 5, Chandler hooks up with Monica, someone who could share the feeling of suffering from emotionally Abusive Parents throughout childhood and who had worked through self-esteem issues of her own. Together, the two are able to build a relationship based on trust and mutual understanding, allowing for a happy marriage that lasted throughout the end of the series.
• Of the main characters in The Good Place, Eleanor is selfish, Chidi is The Ditherer, Tahani is Secretly Selfish, and Jason is Chaotic Stupid.
• Heroes: Pretty much every character on the show has a fatal flaw (drug addiction, insecurity, tendency to explode, carelessness.
• Homicide: Life on the Street — Frank Pembleton's self-righteousness and moral absolutism drive everyone away from him, and eventually force him to turn in Tim Bayliss, the closest thing he has to friend.
• House's Vicodin addiction, irritability, and inability to have a healthy relationship.
• Ted in How I Met Your Mother is In Love with Love and his overwhelming desire to find "the one" caused poor judgement on his part, such as rushing into an engagement with Stella when he had only known her for a few months. He also suffers from Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places. He continually pined and chased after Robin even when he logically knew they were incompatible due to many reasons. He went after Stella who was still in love with her ex-boyfriend, Zoey who was already married and actively trying to destroy Ted's career, and Jeanette who was stalking Ted and destroyed most of his property.
• In The Inbetweeners, Will himself lampshades that he will do literally anything a girl he fancies asks him to do, which often leads to him totally humiliating himself in an attempt to impress them.
  • He also has to be right in every situation, even if the smarter thing to do would be to just keep his mouth shut. For example, his tantrum about people pushing in on a roller-coaster ends up making him look like a massive twat because the people who "pushed in" turn out to be disabled. And then they vandalise Simon's car as payback.
  • Simon's is that he completely lets his heart overrule common sense and he frequently makes a complete and utter idiot out of himself trying to win over Carli — including trying to sneak into her window to confess his love to her and accidentally doing so to her little brother.
• In The John Larroquette Show, John Hemingway's (recovering) alcoholism.
• Kamen Rider villains can often only be beaten by exploiting theirs:
  • Kamen Rider Gaim Petty Mitsuzane Kureshima thinks that he is a master manipulator when in fact he has an IQ of a Spoiled Brat this causes him to gamble his plans to succeed and never thought of backup Plans. This also gives the other Big Bads the advantage of using him.
  • Kamen Rider Build antagonist Evolt is more powerful than all the rest of the cast put together by several orders of magnitude, capable of destroying entire planets in seconds. His habit of playing with his food and unwillingness to just quit while he's ahead are ultimately turned against him by tricking him into blessing himself with suck.
  • Kamen Rider Zi-O chessmaster Swartz is driven by an Inferiority Superiority Complex that brings about his downfall in two separate ways: first, he's so driven by his need to surpass his sister that he instantly believes her when she claims to submit to his rule, allowing her to easily stab him in the back at a critical moment. Second, his pathological need to become more powerful leads him to go overboard and cram the powers of a hundred superheroes into the titular hero, so that he'll be able to steal the powers once they're all gathered. While Zi-O can handle all of that power, Swartz can't, and nearly explodes when he tries.
• Law & Order: Most characters from the franchise have one of these that occasionally clouds their ability to do their job ethically and fairly or discredits their testimony once in court. Briscoe had drinking problems, Logan was a hothead who'd occasionally rough up suspects, Curtis couldn't curb his infidelity, and so on.
  • The same with Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Olivia and her belief all women are victims when it comes to dealing with men, given that she was a product of rape. Fin and the revelation that he was a deadbeat father. Elliot and his marital problems at home.
• Leverage
  • Team leader Nate's alcoholism has gotten the team into trouble more than once. In the periods where he isn't an alcoholic his desire to control takes its place with often worse problems.
  • Sophie, the team grifter, has the flaw that she is extremely good at what she does and has the habit of manipulating everyone around her, even her own team at times.
  • Hardison's pride in his own intelligence and habit of overdoing his roles get him into trouble repeatedly.
  • Parker has No Social Skills and has understood next to nothing about "normal" people, which is problematic when she is forced into the role of grifter.
  • Eliot is just a little too good as the hitter, which regularly makes cons more difficult down the line. On a more serious note, his desperation to atone for his bloody past often puts him off his game.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power:
  • Galadriel has two major flaws:
    • Entitlement, this behaviour of hers can land her in some serious trouble. While in Númenor, she acts entitled to Queen Míriel, trying to impose her will on her by demanding to speak with her father just because she is Galadriel, the Commander of the Northern Armies. Her 'There is a tempest in me! It swept me to this island for a reason. And it will not be quelled by you, Regent!' Badass Boast only infuriates Míriel and sends Galadriel directly into a cell with Halbrand. Galadriel may be an important person in Middle-Earth, but not so much to the Númenorians, who do not hold any authoritative power to make the demands she is making.
    • Her being so Hotblooded is a flaw Halbrand identifies in her and advises her to think and analyse the situation before acting like " a colt in full gallop".
  • Sauron's biggest flaw seems to be a lack of self-awareness. His inability to make the distinction between healing and remaking what he destroyed in the War of Wrath, and seeking to become a God-Emperor over Middle-Earth is what makes Galadriel reject his offer to become his queen consort.
• In the Merlin (1998) series, the titular character's fatal flaw is that he sees only the good in people, rather than their flaws, and thus expects too much of men. The villains also have their own fatal flaws, with Vortigern's being his Pride, and Uther's being Lust.
• In Misfits:
  • Nathan's is that he's a Troll and constantly winds people up for his own amusement, which results in him getting his chucked out by his mum and he tends to get his ass kicked or a person with a superpower coming after the gang because of his big mouth.
  • Alisha's is vanity — she's fixated on being seen as the most beautiful, fuckable girl in the room so she treats other people incredibly callously because they're too focused on her looks to bother much with her personality. It takes some Break the Haughty over the first season before she Took a Level in Kindness and becomes a Lovable Alpha Bitch — still sassy and vain but kinder and more supportive, especially to Simon.
  • Rudy's is that he's terrified of being rejected by other people, so he acts like a rude, loudmouthed twat that has sex with girls and then ditches them so they can't hurt him first — this tendency is even why his power is to split into two Rudy's — crass, upbeat Rudy One and depressed, sensitive Rudy Two.
• Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: For Lee Shaw, it's Passion. He's deeply driven by his emotions over reason, and it clouds his vision of the bigger picture and gets him into avoidable trouble. In 1955, he blows off an extremely important meeting that would have seen him put in charge of Monarch so he could join his friends on a field mission, particularly Keiko who he's fallen in love with, which leads to Lieutenant Hatch, who wants to sabotage Monarch for his own purposes, being put in charge instead. In 2015, Shaw blows off Cate's warnings to him that his plan to seal off the Hollow Earth in an effort to stop the Titans inside from invading the surface world any further is risking annihilating the world if he continues it once he hears that the data came from Monarch, whose history of being non-proactive to preventing Titan threats before they begin he has a chip on his shoulder towards. The latter sets off a chain of events which get Shaw, Cate and May stranded in the Hollow Earth and leads to his possible death there in the season finale.
• Nikita is too secretive, stemming from her inability to trust.
  • Alex is naive and vengeful and is turned into Oversight's pawn.
  • Michael puts himself in danger for the women he loves.
  • Carla's misplaced belief that Division can be redeemed with Percy still in charge.
• A few in Once Upon a Time:
  • Emma is too much of a doubter.
  • Rumpelstiltskin is a coward. This leads him to become the most powerful magical entity in his world to make up for it and find his son.
  • August is really bad at resisting temptation. At the start of the series, he was off at some resort island using money he was supposed to send to Emma.
  • Regina is completely Genre Blind and very emotional, which results in her being led around by the nose by Rumpelstiltskin.
  • Sidney's love for Regina.
  • Jefferson's need to please his daughter.
  • Henry leaps into danger without thought, a trait he no doubt inherited from Charming.
  • Mulan's unrequited love for Prince Philip made her overprotective of Princess Aurora because she promised him.
• Outnumbered, Pete has a bad habit of putting his foot in his mouth, such as accidentally ruining a funeral eulogy or admitting to his wife he kissed another woman but he was drunk at the time. "That came out wrong" is practically his Catchphrase.
• In Peaky Blinders, Arthur cannot control his temper and it makes him both extremely easy to manipulate and leads to him driving away Linda and beating the everloving shit out of a totally innocent man when he thinks Linda has been cheating on him. His Crazy Jealous Guy tendencies go so out of control Linda actually tries to shoot him just to stop his rampage. When that fails, Linda tells Arthur she never wants to see him again and ditches him for good.
  • John has two — his recklessness and his jealousy over being just the third Shelby. In Season 3, he's the one who kicks off the Shelby/Changretta feud when he attacks Angel Changretta for dating Lizzie Stark, his ex-girlfriend whom he still has lingering feelings for. He defies Tommy's orders to nip the problem in the bud, which ultimately results in his death when some Italians show up outside his house and he chooses to try shooting them instead of getting the hell out of there.
  • Chester Campbell's is his Sadism, firstly when he has Grace at his mercy in the Season 1 finale, but he lingers too long savouring her reaction and ends up getting shot in the leg, spending the remainder of the show walking with a cane, and he spends far too much time gloating about his rape of Polly and assumes she'll be too scared to do anything to him after what he inflicted on her. He's swiftly proven very wrong.
  • Grace is a Smug Snake and tends to assume she's a lot more competent/cleverer than she actually is, but whenever confronted with a threat she doesn't have the element of surprise over, she promptly finds herself outclassed and in need of saving. Polly lays it out to her on her wedding day when Grace gets a bit too pleased with herself that just because Tommy has chosen to forgive her, the rest of the family have not and are only pretending to accept her for his sake and if Grace ever backstabs them again, she will have Polly to answer to. Her assumption that nobody can touch her comes back to bite her hard when she gets killed in a botched assassination attempt meant for Tommy.
• Person of Interest.
  • Finch's inability to take drastic action when necessary.
  • Martine's mistaken belief that Samaritan will always protect her.
  • Control's inability to wrap her head around the idea that sentient AIs exist.
  • The Machine's love for its assets. Even Finch was surprised by this.
• Primeval: Cutter devotion to his missing wife. Even as Helen slides down the slippery slope, takes increasingly questionable actions, and gets people killed he can't quite bring himself to write her off entirely. It's his decision in Season 3 to run back into the burning ARC to save her life which results in her murdering him. Only too late does he realise he should've given up on her long before then.
  Nick: You know what, Helen? You're not as smart as I thought you were.
• Shinya Arino of Retro Game Master/Gamecenter CX has major problems when it comes to certain gameplay twists, most notably when dealing with a Sequential Boss. Whenever he makes a major accomplishment, he starts cheering and lets go of the controller. The problem is that he plays games blind. Thus, he doesn't realize it's not over, yet he never seems to learn. It's been called "Heaven to Hell" on a few occasions. By the time he realizes what's going on, he's too shocked to rationally continue and dies. Sometimes he recovers and retries, sometimes he doesn't, most notably with Act Raiser.
• Riverdale:
  • Archie’s Chronic Hero Syndrome and impulsiveness cause him a lot of problems, especially in Seasons 3 and 4. Luckily, the Time Skip in Season 5 have helped him overcome these and he starts thinking before he acts.
  • Polly Cooper is a Yes-Man who goes along with authority figures, most of whom do not have her best interests at heart. It’s resulted in her nearly losing her twins to adoption by an abusive troubled youth center, stuck in a cult that harvested organs, in rehab, involved in a gang, and her death.
  • Alice’s Stepford Smiler act and reluctance in dealing with problems, being honest, and letting her daughters go has resulted in a severely Big, Screwed-Up Family. In addition, she never takes responsibility for her actions and relies on being Easily Forgiven than actually doing the work of being a better person.
  • Veronica’s complicated relationship with her father mess up her attempts to break free of him or rein him in on his schemes.
  • Betty’s is her anger and lack of controlling it. Betty is Hot-Blooded with a violent temper and she has serious anger management issues. The intensity of her anger can be so extreme at times that she ends up resorting to Self-Harm by digging her fingernails into her palms until they are bleeding. This seems to be one of the few ways in which Betty is able to get control of her anger and impulse control issues. Betty's inability to control her anger is due to the probability that she's suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness.
  • Cheryl’s Undying Loyalty to her family despite them constantly failing her and taking things at face value, which harms her attempts to change and grow. Her possession by her ancestor Abigail seemly finally gets her to stop.
  • Kevin’s self-esteem issues result in him wasting his potential and damaging romantic relationships. He also is trusting to a fault, which puts him in the crosshairs of both Edgar Evernever and Percival Pickens.
• In Scrubs, the character Dr. Kevin Casey is an example of The Ace with a hidden Fatal Flaw. JD, Cox and Turk all despise him for being such an insufferable genius at everything he does. Until they see him suffering because of his obsessive-compulsive disorder, unable to stop washing his hands.
  • JD himself has the inability to commit to a relationship, sabotaging them over selfish actions or reasons. "Her Story II" even revolves around JD's friends getting him to realize it.
• Sherlock: The main character himself has the fatal flaw of Pride. He's savagely arrogant (being Sherlock Holmes, his ego is mostly justified), has lots of trouble seeing things from other people's point of view which makes him come off as a callous Jerkass, and expects the world to bend over backwards to entertain him. Moriarty tells Sherlock in the "The Reichenbach Fall" episode that his flaw is always wanting everything to be clever which is how Moriarty manages to deceive him. Sherlock still wins by exploiting Moriarty's own death wish.
• In Smallville:
  • Clark's is his lack of self-worth. Or alternatively his hypocrisy about keeping secrets from his friends, which Major Zod would call him out on.
  • Lex's is his envy of Clark's life: which gave him a loving family, was well-liked and was special; whereas Lex was a Lonely Rich Kid whose father was cold and manipulative with a Missing Mom who's worse than he'd like to imagine. Which set him on the path to villainy.
  • Chloe's was jealousy which worked to Lionel Luthor's advantage; but later became Pride, apparently.
  • Oliver's is his lack of self-worth, which later led to a suicide attempt, and Darkseid influencing him.
• Stargirl (2020):
  • Courtney has been shown to make a nasty habit of making impulsive decisions without considering the possible consequences of them. For example:
    • Repeatedly Courtney tries to pick a fight with Cindy to defend Yolanda, despite Yolanda's repeated pleas not to help her. Courtney thinks she's doing Yolanda a solid, but all she's doing is making Cindy more vicious and putting herself in the bully's crosshairs.
    • After her run-in with Brainwave, where she saw that she was hopelessly outgunned, she decides to ignore Pat's orders and splits up to look for him herself, and even goes into a secluded hallway by herself, which allows Brainwave to confront and threaten her with his telepathy. It was fortunate he wanted her staff, otherwise she'd have been dead then and there.
    • When going out on her first "mission" with Yolanda, she decides they should sneak into Brainwave's hospital room to find out if any of the ISA have gone to see him. While she has Yolanda sneaking in, she decides We Need a Distraction...and tries to cut the power. To the intensive care unit. The Cosmic Staff stops her and Yolanda drills into her head the potential harm she could have caused, leaving it apparent just how inexperienced Courtney actually is at this.
    • After learning that local delinquent Rick Harris is actually Rick Tyler, son of late JSA member Rex Tyler AKA Hourman, she deems him to be just the right person to recruit for her new Justice Society and approaches him with his late father's strength-enhancing hourglass and the hopes that he will be more than happy to join her, Yolanda and Beth. With that said, she's caught blindsided when Rick not only bluntly turns them down but also refuses to give back the hourglass, having not considered any other outcome beyond Rick saying yes to her. It's only due to Beth revealing the true circumstances behind the deaths of Rick's parents that he gets swayed into joining Courtney's cause.
    • Upon seeing Principal Bowin enter a hidden corridor, she immediately follows her, and is ambushed and badly hurt by Cindy. Had she encountered any of the actual ISA, she would have been killed or worse. Somewhat downplayed in that she at least takes the time to grab the Staff and her costume.
  • Yolanda's is self-hatred. Ever since she became a pariah in school and in her own home, Yolanda sees herself as corrupt and unlovable. This amounts to a dark side that makes her vicious to her enemies and overly critical of herself for it, and unwilling to burden her friends by seeking support. This flaw pushes Yolanda to her breaking point when she is consumed by guilt for killing Brainwave.
  • Beth's is denial. Beth's first response to troubling news is to bury her worries, put on a smile, and try to look on the bright side, which means she's slow to get to the heart of the matter when it's something painful to talk about.
  • Brainwave's is sadism. An extremely powerful telepath and telekinetic, he tends to lose the upper hand by using his powers cruelly instead of effectively, giving his opponents a chance to hit his unenhanced and unprotected human body. In the first season finale, he decides to have some fun by pretending to be his dead son miraculously survived to mess with Yolanda, resulting in his death when she realizes what's happening and immediately cuts his throat.
• Supernatural: Dean for Sam, Sam for Dean, and both of them for John while he was still alive. Ah, the joys of being a clingy, screwed-up family filled with martyrs.
  • Both brothers have no sense of self-worth thanks to Dad, who refuses to show any affection or let anyone help him, preferring to keep his sons completely in the dark. Not the greatest planner with vengeance on his mind, this works out badly.
  • Dean's self-loathing. His struggle to hold his broken family together, along with his sluttiness, death-wish, general bone-headedness, and feeling that he's only valuable as a "blunt instrument", all seem to stem from efforts to do enough that he feels worthwhile.
  • Sam's insecurity. His gullibility and pride seem to be born of his overriding desire to believe that bad people can be good — that he can be good.
• In The Chosen, Rebbe Saunders' near-fatal flaw was fear that his son would be unworthy. It is overcome because Danny loves his father enough to endure the harsh training that his father thinks he needs.
• The Sopranos:
  • Tony Soprano's Wrath and short fuse sometimes got the better of him.
  • Despite being one of the most ruthless characters in the series, Phil Leotardo considers himself too agreeable in nature and willing to compromise for his own good. In reality, it is his obsession with preserving his alpha male persona at all costs that proves to be his downfall.
  • Christopher Moltisanti's Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster! tendencies. He doesn't realize being a made man in The Mafia comes with a lot of responsibility, which means he cannot goof around when he's under tremendous pressure from his bosses to earn more money. By the time of his death, Tony had realized that Chris was The Load to the DiMeo crime family. While being a mafioso has its perks, Chris should have known that some parts of a mobster's life can be boring and dangerous at times.
• In The Vampire Diaries, Damon's impulsiveness, and Stefan's inability to control his addiction to human blood whenever he has even a little.
• Why Women Kill:
  • Alma has plenty. Meeting Tom, her old flame, while in the middle of covering up a crime — in a crowded room of witnesses — paired with her lust for the finer things in life (stealing Mrs. Yost’s possessions as if it isn’t a red flag for investigators) and her desire to have friends moreover her idealization of the rich ladies’ club (which is shown to be nothing more but bored ladies gossiping true to Mrs. Yost’s words and backstabbing snobs) could bite her and Bertram in the ass. While her daughter gave some good advice about being selfish and indulging for once, the way Alma is going about it isn’t going to end well.
  • Bertram’s love for his wife and his desire to quote save unquote more lives by murder. As much as he even hears a medical problem from someone tired about it all, he will go for the kill. In trying to make his wife happy, he will sacrifice even the homely things and theft.
  • Rita’s vindictive nature. She will go out of her way for revenge on anyone who crosses her, even innocent people who didn’t do it intentionally. She doesn’t care how much she hurts them as long as it's where it hurts.
• The Wire
  • Jimmy stepping on everyone's toes to solve a case.
  • Stringer calling shots behind Avon's back. Avon's toxic friendship with String gets him betrayed and arrested.
  • Herc's impatience.
  • Wallace's inability to adjust to a crime-free life.
  • Bodie believing that being a gangster is cool.
  • D'Angelo needing to prove he can handle things on his own.
  • Cheese bragging too much.
  • Prez's combination of lack of nerves and an itchy trigger finger.
  • Omar avenging the people he loves.
  • Marlo's Chronic Villainy.
  • Senator Davis's greed. Even if he got away in the end, there's no telling he won't be involved in another financial scandal.
  • Frank Sobotka's tendency to ask for help from anyone.
  • Ziggy not wanting to be the screwup.
  • Colvin believing the end justifies the means.
  • Michael never relying on anyone except himself.
  • Carver focusing on the big picture instead of an individual detail.
• Most of the cast of What It's Like Being Alone, including Armie, who only has one limb left, Aldous the Emo Teen, Princess Lucy, who would be the Alpha Bitch if she weren't fiendishly ugly, Sammie the alcoholic Fish Person, Charlie, who is always on fire, Seymour, who doesn't have a mouth, and other unfortunates. They're also all orphans.
• Xena: Warrior Princess is all too willing to give up her life to save others.
  • Gabrielle's strict adherence to Thou Shalt Not Kill.
  • Joxer wanting to prove he can fight.

---