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Fatal Flaw / Video Games

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  • Aselia the Eternal - The Spirit of Eternity Sword: Yuuto's fatal flaw in would be his stubbornness and anger. His life to this point has been more difficult than it needed to be due to the former, and because of the latter he nearly kills Kaori.
  • Conker's Bad Fur Day: Stupidity and mistreatment of his subordinates. The Panther King would be a genuinely threatening villain if it weren't for the fact that he's so stupid. His whole reason for wanting to capture Conker is because his table is damaged, requiring a scientist to tell him that his table was missing a leg and wanting to use Conker as a replacement rather than simply buying a new table. Playing into his stupidity, the Panther King also badly mistreats von Kriplesac and his guards, which causes them to despise him and only when it's too late would the Panther King realize that being a tyrannical bully is NOT A GOOD IDEA. Not only does he not realize how much his guards and von Kriplesac hate him, but this also leaves him open to manipulation and being easily used, proven when von Kriplesac uses him to birth a Xenomorph, killing him.
  • Dark Souls:
    • Gwyn's fatal flaw was his paranoia and inability to accept the unfamiliar. The Pygmies had the power of the Dark Soul perfectly handled, but Gwyn was so paranoid about the Dark that he created the Seal of Fire that would eventually become the Darksign- which caused the Pygmies to lose control of the Dark and create the Abyss, and also put a major strain on the First Flame that's the reason it keeps fading. The act of creating the Seal of Fire is what is later called the First Sin and is the cause of every problem in the games.
    • The Witch of Izalith was rather reckless and prone to doing unadvisable things with her magic. She turned her entire race into demons and herself into a tree monster by trying to replace the First Flame, an attempt that inevitably went out of control.
    • Vendrick had his love for Nashandra; she played The Corrupter to him and wished to plunge his kingdom into the Abyss, and Vendrick knew this but was unable to stop loving her. At least he was able to take precautions to make sure she could never reach the Throne of Want.
    • Vendrick's little brother Aldia had his unfettered desire to end the cycle of fire, which created no end of horrible monsters and left him a soulless abomination.
  • Rufus of Deponia has a tremendous ego. Not only does this tend to piss off quite a lot of people, it also means that he rarely pays attention to potential problems with his plans or inventions.
  • In the Diablo series, the weakness of the Great Evils is Selfishness. As demons Made of Evil, it's in their nature to always seek greater power for oneself. There was a time when the Burning Hells came within a hair's breath of winning the Eternal Conflict against the High Heavens, but the promise of victory made the Evils begin fighting amongst themselves over the potential spoils. This infighting gave the angels time to regroup, rally, and push back the forces of Hell.
  • Dragon Age has plenty of characters, and hence a lot of these.
    • Morrigan's biggest flaw is Stupid Evil; she's been trained to think of love and cooperation as weakness, so she can't even understand Enlightened Self-Interest. She's ditched this weakness in favor of overconfidence in her own knowledge by her reappearance in Inquisition.
    • Loghain's biggest flaw is his hyperfixation on Orlais; sure, he's right that Orlais wants to conquer Ferelden, but at least if Orlais ruled, there would still be a Ferelden, while the Blight currently ongoing would reduce the place into a blasted empty ruin.
    • Cullen's flaw is his bigotry; while he's no raving fanatic and genuinely cares about mages' safety, he can't quite let go of the disctimination he was taught as a Templar and is very quick to assume that free mages lead to Abominations.
    • Merrill has Pride- in this case, she's convinced that she knows best because she's aware that blood magic and demons are dangerous and takes precautions, unaware that they might not be enough. She shares this flaw with her teacher Marethari, who is just as convinced that Merrill cannot possibly know what she's doing, no matter how often Merrill proves her ideas have merit. This leads them into a Stupid Sacrifice-off where both try to one-up each other in how badly they can ruin themselves to prove the other wrong.
    • The Grey Wardens as an organization have their secrecy and willingness to get their hands dirty, which sometimes goes to the point where they don't even try to Take a Third Option. This makes it very easy to subvert them into helping Corypheus in Inquisition; he creates a problem (faking the Calling for the whole order) and sends a minion to suggest an Obviously Evil plan (killing themselves to summon a demon army, supposedly to fight Darkspawn) that actually helps him. They immediately go for it, when if they'd stopped to think about why even the youngest Wardens are suddenly experiencing the Calling, they could have solved their problem easily and without any bloodshed or moral dilemmas.
    • Sera has Immaturity; her genuinely compassionate nature is hampered by her inability to think in the long term, inability to confront her feelings, and grudge against elves for refusing to accept her.
    • Solas has Pride (which, ironically enough, is what his name means in Elvish), to the point where a nightmare demon even taunts him about it. In his case, he tends to have a hard time correcting initial assumptions and assumes others' opinions for them. Which is why he's trying to destroy the world by removing the Veil; he thinks it's a problem because he remembers what the world looked like when the Fade was still present, so he ignores other people telling him they're happy with the world as it is and he doesn't need to fix it.
  • In Dragon Ball FighterZ, Big Bad Android 21 has the fatal flaw of gluttony. As a bio-android created from Majinn Buu, she has his love of sweets and ability to turn people into candy, and her only goal is to eat more, especially the candy she made out of people. Because power level determines how said candy tastes to her, she uses the Dragon Balls to bring back a bunch of fighters and often lets ones she considers to be too weak escape her so they can get stronger and be better snacks. This works for her about as well as it does for every villain who has ever let the hero escape to get stronger; the protagonists inevitably get too strong for her and beat her.
  • Dungeon Keeper 2: Turned on its head in execution, but still used perfectly straight. One of the earlier campaign missions pits you against Lord Avaricious in his impenetrable fort. The elegant way to win (as opposed to a head-on slaughter) is to have your imps mine away almost all of the gold beneath his realm, enraging the man enough to lead the charge personally. It doesn't end well.
  • Lu Bu from Dynasty Warriors is a man of unparalleled might and a One-Man Army among One Man Armies, but his two greatest flaws are his disloyalty (he backstabs his own father, Dong Zhuo and Liu Bei over the course of his storyline) and sheer arrogance (he regularly ignores his strategist Chen Gong's advice in favor of his own preferred strategy of simply running in and crushing everything in his way.) Both of these prove to be his downfall at Xiapi, the latter leading to his actual defeat, and the former ensuring his execution when not even Cao Cao, with his habit of recruiting defeated officers, thinks he's worthy of another chance. Lu Bu's Hypothetical Route in 8 (where his downfall never happens and he eventually kills all the other captains of the Three Kingdoms and becomes emperor) requires him to swallow his pride and actually start following Chen Gong's advice.
  • Elden Ring:
    • Morgott has Fatalism; he knows damn well that what the Tarnished are doing is necessary to repair the Elden Ring and stop the Lands Between from descending into madness, but doing so requires a sin against the Golden Order and he can't bring himself to go against it, despite being an Omen and thus mistreated by it all his life.
    • Malenia has her devotion to her brother; while normally this is a good thing since her pride as the Blade of Miquella allows her to keep her sense of self despite the Scarlet Rot that infects her and Miquella probably the nicest demigod in the Lands Between, it also means that she's willing to draw upon the power of the Scarlet Rot in order to protect him. This is why Caelid is currently a Scarlet Rot-infested hellhole and the rot has infected her home of the Haligtree.
    • Godfrey had his nature as a Blood Knight, which made him unfit for the civilization he built as a conquering king. The reason he grafted the spirit lion Serosh to himself was to keep this flaw under control enough that he could actually rule as Elden Lord.
    • Radahn's fatal flaw is Ambition; unlike Miquella and Ranni (the two other 'good' faction leaders) he had no order he wished to impose, nor reason beyond glory to participate in the Shattering and not ally himself with anyone. This ultimately led him to his confrontation with Malenia and the sorry state he's in at the present.
    • Godrick's fatal flaw is his desire to prove himself; he is a descendant of Marika instead of a direct child, and his desire to be on the same level as Marika's more direct relatives caused him to turn to Grafting and kill hundreds if not thousands to artificially increase his own power by attaching their body parts to himself, and to overreach his own power by trying to attack Leyendell (failing miserably) and insulting Malenia (she kicked his ass).
    • Diallos has his suggestibility and inferiority complex; the guy means well, but he's easily persuaded to join the Volcano Manor because Tanith told him it'd make him a champion.
    • Brother Corhyn has his inflexible devotion to the Golden Order; unlike his idol Goldmask, he'd rather die than admit that it was flawed and needed fixing.
    • Nepheli's fatal flaw is her trusting nature; she trusts Gideon Ofnir and is completely shocked he'd order a massacre to get his hands on a MacGuffin, and she'll take Seluvis's Potion without even asking what it does. It turns the imbiber into a mindless puppet.
    • Seluvis has a lot of flaws, but the one that continuously gets him in trouble is his Smug Snake nature; he is completely convinced that he is a master schemer and so targets people he really has no business working against. He wants to turn Ranni into a puppet to hijack her power and is completely convinced that she'd take his potion if you present it; Ranni already has his number and kills him off the instant she no longer needs him.
    • Sorceress Sellen has the lengths she'll go For Science!; she seeks to study the Primeval Current despite the rather horrible fates that befell other Primeval Sorcerers. If you finish her questline, she'll have turned herself into a School of Graven Mages while continuing her studies.
  • In The Elder Scrolls series, Pride is the fatal flaw of dragons. This flaw is often literally fatal, because a dragon who is challenged must accept, and to not do so is to call into question whether you're a true dragon in the first place.
  • Elohim Eternal: The Babel Code: Joshwa's main issue is wrath, since he's filled with rage for his father's untimely demise. This causes him to be impatient in climbing the Idinite ranks and makes it easy for enemies to goad him into reckless action. His secondary issue is his gullibility, making it hard for him to question or distrust any beliefs or people he grew up with. This leads to him giving Lamech the Babel Code, despite all the evidence that Lamech is a fanatic for the Kosmokraters who can't be trusted with it.
  • Evolve:
    • Parnell had the dual flaws of selflessness and believing the best of people. The second caused him to be lenient with his crew, believing they would live up to the people he thought they could be. While this worked with Abe, who did his best to live up to the expectations, it nearly got them all killed because he wasn't strict enough to make sure they did tasks vital to their survival (like charging the cannons before going into a battle). The other flaw ended up being the more serious of the two when he tried to rescue the crew of an enemy ship only for the ship to explode, destroying both his own and the enemy ship and killing the entirety of the enemy crew and all but two of his own.
    • The DLC character Kala's flaw is her scientific curiosity. In an effort to understand the Monsters, she infused herself with their DNA, causing terrible mutations in her body that threaten to completely turn her into a monster. One of the characters calls her out on it, seeing that she would not only do it again, but might go even further if it would give her more answers.
  • In Fate/stay night, Gilgamesh has a titanic ego and tendency to underestimate his opponents.
    • Shirou's need to save everyone constantly causes him problems and is what eventually led to him becoming Archer.
      • It also gives him severe self-esteem issues and a martyr complex. (If Saber weren't around to protect him, Shirou would be dead before the second cutscene.)
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy VII has Sephiroth with his Pride. Sephiroth really is the strongest being on the planet, but this means he never recognizes when an opponent is an actual threat to him and he doesn't exert the full force of his powers against them. This is how Cloud repeatedly defeats him; Sephiroth prefers to toy with him instead of finishing him off when he has the chance, and then Cloud pulls a comeback and blindsides him.
    • Each of the party members in Final Fantasy XIII suffers from a significant flaw, culminating in each of them hitting a Despair Event Horizon and summoning their Eidolons, beings sent to prove to l'Cie that they have the strength to carry on.
      • Lightning strives to be independent, self-reliant, and stoic, traits that alienate her from those around her and provoke conflict with her sister's fiance Snow and the feeble and frightened Hope. Her snapping at having to babysit Hope summons Odin, who'll focus his attacks on Hope and easily take him and then her out if she doesn't assist Hope, forcing Lightning to realize that she needs others' help just as much as they need hers.
      • Snow arrogantly rushes into any danger, too headstrong to believe he even needs to think up plans. Being faced with seemingly no way to save his fiancee Serah summons the Shiva sisters. While they can be beaten with raw force, as they are the tutorial to Eidolon fights, the easiest and simplest way is for Snow to simply hold back and defend — as only one of the sisters will attack him and the other will heal him.
      • Hope is a coddled child who believes himself to be The Load to the others, and only by clinging to his revenge fantasy against Snow does he manage to find the strength to continue. After that hatchet gets buried, Hope relapses into self-doubt, prompting Alexander to appear and forcing Hope to fight him, proving to Hope that he does have the strength to stand alongside his companions.
      • Sazh becomes willing to surrender to PSICOM, even if he would be executed, simply to see his son one more time. When it turns out that Vanille, whom he is with, caused the incident that turned his son into a l'Cie, his fury and loathing summon Brynhildr. Appeasing Brynhildr requires not only fighting back, but buffing himself and Vanille — in other words, wanting not only himself but the woman responsible for her son's fate to live.
      • Vanille constantly lies in an attempt to escape the past and to protect Fang, but her deceit culminates in disaster. Fang calling her out on her dishonesty ends up summoning Hecatoncheir, which Fang faces alongside Vanille, proving to Vanille that she can let Fang share her burden.
      • Fang doesn't dare to defy the fal'Cie's will, due to what would happen to Vanille if they didn't follow their Focus. When she almost attacks the party when they intend to defy their Focus, Bahamut appears. Fang conquers Bahamut with the aid of Vanille and Lightning, showing her that with her old companion and her new companions, she can indeed fight her fate.
  • In the Fire Emblem franchise:
    • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War:
      • The main character Sigurd of Chalphy is noble, caring, and an excellent military commander, but he is far too quick to jump to military force to solve his problems. Worse, he is reckless, naive and short-sighted, believing firmly that because he only acts with good intentions, things will turn out fine. Ultimately, his flaws are ruthlessly exploited by the Big Bad, he pays for it with his and his soldiers' lives, and the mess he ends up leaving in his wake takes an entire generation to fix.
      • Eldigan warns Sigurd early on that his innocent efforts to save his friends look like empire-building to everyone else and is justifiably angry when Sigurd does the same thing to Eldigan's own country. Unfortunately, Eldigan's family swore an oath to serve the monarchs of Agustria and Eldigan considers himself duty-bound to save Chagall from a well-deserved defeat—it doesn't matter how bad Chagall's decisions are, Eldigan will still uphold them. This gets Eldigan killed either in battle with Sigurd's army in a second ill-advised war, or by execution if Lachesis convinces him to leave the battlefield.
      • Quan is less afflicted by belief in intent or inflexible honor, but he has a dangerous amount of faith in pure battle prowess. He is certain that no enemy can beat him in a stand-up fight and only grows more convinced when he receives his Ancestral Weapon, declaring that he can't be defeated whilst he holds it. He therefore does not reckon with the enemy's guile, and Travant—leader of the neighboring enemy nation—completely bypasses Quan's efforts to fortify his home and instead goes for an ambush in the desert where he can force Quan to drop that weapon to save his daughter.
    • Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia:
      • Fernand cannot let go of his hatred of commoners, leading him to ditch the Deliverance when Alm is made their new leader.
      • Berkut is directly done in by his relentless desire to become emperor of Rigel, leading him to throw away his fiancee's soul and a chance to reconcile with his long-lost cousin in a mad attempt to seize the throne.
      • Celica tends to put far too much faith in the Goddess and the first half of her story is her trying to find Mila to help repel the Rigelian forces instead of focusing on what she and her group manage to accomplish themselves in their quest to do so. Her religiousness also means that the Big Bad is able to easily manipulate her because he is a holy man, tricking Celica into sacrificing her soul to Duma, and it's up to Alm to save her.
    • Pretty much all of the main characters of Fire Emblem: Three Houses other than the player character Byleth have many fatal flaws. Should you choose their route, you help them overcome their flaws; if you don't, their flaws often eventually consume and destroy them.
      • Edelgard's ambition and need to do things her way leads her to antagonize many people around her, even the ones she cares about, due to placing her ideals and ambition above everything else. Her hatred of the Church makes her only view those supporting the Church as enemies and prevents her from learning the entire truth behind Seiros and Nemesis.
      • Rhea's tendency to dish out ruthless retribution on people who defy her and her knack for giving a form of Half-Truth when answering questions both make her lose valuable allies and even those loyal to her question her intentions. In the Black Eagles route, this attitude makes it easy for Byleth to side against her and even turn those formerly loyal to her to join the Empire instead. Also, her leaving out certain details regarding Byleth's birth makes Jeralt lose faith in her and leave the Church.
      • Dimitri's Wrath and need for Revenge. He suffers from Survivor's Guilt after witnessing his father and friends' deaths and swears to kill the Flame Emperor and Those That Slither In The Dark for causing the Tragedy of Duscur. Dimitri starts losing his sanity once he finds out Edelgard is the Flame Emperor and becomes an Ax-Crazy Blood Knight post-timeskip. His deaths on all routes outside his own are a direct cause of him recklessly trying to get revenge on Edelgard, even though she wasn't involved in Duscur.
      • Claude's Heroic Neutral status in all routes but his own means that when he attempts to maintain a neutral stance during the war, it fractures the Alliance and means they are unable to fully unite to fight off the Empire once they inevitably do invade, He’s also cocky and selfish, so confident in his plan that he puts all his people on a boat without enough resources to support them because he’s sure he’ll win the battle, even though his plan could go horribly wrong.
      • Played for Laughs, but in the Support story for Catherine and Alois, the latter is shown to be too trusting. He believes in the Golden Rule, but he goes too far and ends up gullible and an easy target for crooked merchants and those faking misfortune.
  • In Genshin Impact, from what is shown of the current Archons, despite their well intentions, they are so focused on their chosen ideals that it unintentionally brings trouble and misfortune to their loved ones, their people and themselves.
    • Barbatos values freedom so much that he refuses to rule directly over his people. However, this has led to the rise of corrupt aristocrats that stained Mondstadt and everything that Barbatos fought for. Also, Barbatos does not intervene to help his people unless they can't manage the crisis themselves. This unfortunately has led him to be too late to prevent certain tragedies such as the death of Signora's lover, thus leading her to join the Fatui.
    • Morax follows the contracts he makes to the letter, even if it would backfire on him. When he agreed to deal with an infestation of slimy sea creatures, he had to follow through even if it meant painstakingly removing them by hand. When the Traveler asks him about their sibling, Celestia and Khaenri'ah, due to a pre-existing contract, Morax is unable to speak about it, even though it's evident that he badly wants to.
    • The Raiden Shogun, in her pursuit of "eternity", wants Izanuma to be eternally unchanging, leading her to put the Vision Hunt Decrees in place. This only caused the nation and the people's lives to suffer and for a civil war to erupt. It's later revealed that Ei is fearful of loss after losing her twin sister, the first Electro Archon, and witnessing what happened to Khaeri'ah, resulting in her coming to believe that preserving her beloved nation exactly as it is would be the right course.
    • Lesser Lord Kusanali does care for her people but due to the death of the previous beloved Dendro Archon and how Kusanali does not match their view of a God of Wisdom, Kusanali is shunned and ignored by the sages and her people, leading her to develop an inferiority complex towards her predecessor and becoming an Extreme Doormat. So when the Akademiya started actively scrubbing out her existence and using the Akasha to harm the people, she did nothing (at first) to stop it.
  • Ghost of Tsushima:
    • Shimura takes Honor Before Reason to the extreme and will refuse to do anything that violates the samurai code. He does want to defend his home but he is more concerned that they fight with honor than consider the casualties, especially against opponents who will exploit them because of this. This causes him to make strategic blunders, getting soldiers needlessly killed and also sours his relationship with Jin when Jin starts using "dishonorable" tactics to win battles.
    • Masako's desire to avenge her family can lead her to blindly attack anyone who she thinks is involved, including an innocent man who was framed. Even after getting revenge for her family, Masako does not know what to do after.
    • Ryuzo's flaw is Pride. He could have improved his situation by simply asking his friend Jin to raise him as a retainer but he did not want Jin's charity and wanted to become a samurai by his own merit. His pride also made it so he did not tell Jin why it was important for him to win Lord Nagao's tournament two years ago, in hopes to impress the samurai to become one of them, only for Jin to go all out and beat him. This made Ryuzo hurt that in his mind, his friend did not want some commoner to best him. All of this would ultimately make Ryuzo a headstrong bitter leader who ignores the advice of others out of determination to prove himself and it leads his men to disaster.
  • God of War:
    • Kratos' flaws are his volcanic rage and inability to accept the consequences of his actions. By the time he's finally gotten his revenge and killed everyone who ever wronged him, he's singlehandedly caused the apocalypse.
    • In God of War (PS4), while Kratos has managed to move on from his earlier flaws, he now carries a lot of self-loathing and refuses to face his past actions, especially telling his son Atreus about it. All of this eventually results in Atreus becoming deathly ill due to his body wrestling with his divine nature. If Kratos had entrusted Atreus with the truth early on, Atreus would not be Delicate and Sickly.
  • Grand Theft Auto:
    • Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: Besides his Hair-Trigger Temper (which caused his superiors to have him sent down to Vice City), Tommy Vercetti believes that among the family nothing is more important than honor and loyalty. However, as the story progresses, he soon realizes he was very much alone in this belief as Sonny Forelli has duped and betrayed him at every turn.
    • Grand Theft Auto IV: Niko Bellic's inability to let go of the past and his ineptitude in adjusting to civilian life.
    • Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned: Johnny Klebitz chooses Honor Before Reason, which leads to all kinds of problems for him and his crew. His compulsion to help every single member of The Lost in their troubles dooms his quest to bring the club out of its rut.
    • Grand Theft Auto V:
      • Michael De Santa has a Hair-Trigger Temper that gets him into all sorts of trouble, a lack of self-control (which drives much of the main plot) and like Niko Bellic, he can't let go his past. In one of the endings, he's also the cause of his own death because his anger over Franklin stabbing him in the back causes him to fall to his death.
      • Like Michael, Trevor Philips' Ax-Crazy behavior and berserker tendencies sometimes gets him and the crew into big trouble.
    • The game's primary antagonist, Devin Weston, has two:
      • His ego. Devin believes himself to be completely invincible to the point where he screws over many of his connections in favor of keeping/making more money. Also, he gloats about it to the point of being really annoying. So when he tries screwing over the player characters he is just asking to be thrown off a cliff. Michael even lampshades this in a "The Reason You Suck" Speech in Ending C.
      Michael: You paid a private company to do your dirty work for you. And then you underpaid that company because you thought you were big enough and bad enough that you didn't have to play by the rules.
      • Logic. Devin is always thinking things through, covering every angle, and knows everyone's weak points. He's simply too useful for any one of his many enemies to get rid of. Trevor points out how this is a huge weakness of his since it means he has nothing to protect him from an inherently illogical person, like Trevor himself, who doesn't care how useful Devin could potentially be and just wants to kill him. He also believes he can use his logic to get Franklin to turn on Michael, thinking Franklin would choose pragmatism over saving his mentors.
  • Guilty Gear:
    • Sol Badguy was betrayed by his partner and given Gear powers against his will. As a result, he's terrible at working with others and nihlistic. He gets better about it over time, but as of Strive he still doesn't want to be involved with the plot. This tendency leaves him either fighting the latest threat alone, or causes him to reject help that he really needs due to his trust issues.
    • Ky Kiske is obsessed with justice and, while still a good person, suffers from Black-and-White Insanity. In XX he has a crisis of faith after being proven wrong.
    • That Man/ Asuka has horrible communication skills and is very secretive, even when it goes against his needs. This leaves him with many enemies who blame him for various in-universe events and no support beyond his very small circle of operatives.
    • I-No is physically unable to feel desire. Everything she does is for her entertainment, but she never improves herself or her status. when she gets the ability to feel desire, she becomes a god.
    • All of the Valentines have underdeveloped emotions and are easily manipulated due to their lack of life experience.
  • In Hitman (2016), many a problem is caused by Diana's need to be the smartest person in the room. Like when she agrees to work with Providence because they offered her really interesting information. She knows they've killed people on her side and clearly intend world domination, but... she wants to know.
  • In I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, the five protagonists all have a fatal flaw that AM wants them to succumb to; Gorrister's sense of guilt has driven him over the Despair Event Horizon; Benny is arrogant and entirely lacking in empathy; Ellen's potential is continuously hampered by her psychological trauma; Ted is an exploitative hedonist; and Nimdok's memory has failed him in his old age — making him oblivious to his real fatal flaw, namely his cold-hearted Mad Scientist tendencies. Over the course of the game, each of the characters have chances to indulge their fatal flaws — or rise above them.
  • In Iji, the titular character eventually manages to defeat the seemingly-invincible Assassin Asha... with the simplest weapon in her arsenal, the shotgun. Although Asha has lightning-fast reflexes, years of training, and an active teleportation device that lets him dodge nearly any attack conceivable, he considers evading such antiquated technology beneath him.
  • Injustice 2:
    • Regime Superman has two flaws:
      • Refusal to compromise. He cannot bring himself to doubt his ideals or reflect on his own actions, and so, anyone who doesn't agree must be betraying him. Unlike the last game, he shows "patience" with people who won't come around at first, but ultimately he'll try to make them conform to his worldview by force rather than ever consider the idea that he might be wrong, and incarceration hasn't changed it much. This ultimately kiboshes the second chance the story gives him, as he still remained firmly in this mode.
      • Cynicism. He really believes that only tyranny and lethal force can save the world from evil, because he tried the more idealistic route and still lost everything he held dear. Due to this, he ignores Supergirl's attempts to appeal to his kinder side, being too cynical to accept that maybe he was right the first time, combined with thinking traditional superheroics is fundamentally flawed. He also clings on to I Let Gwen Stacy Die, telling Supergirl that heroes' loved ones die if they hold back, but his ongoing disillusionment from losing Lois prevents him from moving on.
    • Batman has his own flaws as well:
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • King Mickey Mouse's inability to let go of his mistakes. Mickey repeatedly tries to save everyone, and he frequently can't. The fact he couldn't save Terra, Aqua, and Ven from their respective fates weighs heavily on Mickey's mind, to the point that he won't say where Riku is in II because of the guilt weighing on him. Mickey does eventually get better about this, but even Sora calls him out on the fact that a lot of pain could have been avoided if Mickey had just opened his damn mouth.
    • Master Eraqus allowed himself to fear darkness so much that he become blinded by his own light.
    • Master Aqua has a few of her own flaws:
      • Like Eraqus, Aqua is also strict, stubborn and overprotective, which sometimes makes her seem condescending. Aqua tries to protect and look after Terra and Ventus, even from themselves, which the two of them find insulting. She always worries about Ventus because of his age and lack of experience, ordering him to go home whenever she finds him without giving him a chance to prove himself. Also, Aqua gets trapped in the Realm of Darkness saving Terra from the same, which allows Xehanort free rein to enact his experiments in Radiant Garden.
      • Her inclination to reject other people's help. Even in III, after more than a decade of suffering, Aqua still can't fully shake the thought that she does not have to do everything by herself. When she confronts Vanitas in the Land of Departure, she casts a wall so Sora, Donald, and Goofy cannot interfere with her fight against him, which she considers personal. This almost leads to her death when she Takes The Bullet meant for Ventus' comatose body, rendering her wide open for Vanitas to attack if not for Ventus' timely awakening. Vanitas actually flees when he finds himself up against him, Aqua, Sora, Donald, and Goofy, but it's pretty clear Aqua wanting to fight him by herself was just too convenient for him. Tellingly, when she tries to do it again in Keyblade Graveyard, when she tells the others to go ahead while she fights the army of Heartless and Nobodies alone, Ventus and Kairi shoot her idea down, stating that this will only get her killed.
    • Terra wants power to protect his friends from any harm that might befall them. In a series where Ambition Is Evil, he's doomed.
  • The Last of Us: Quite a lot of the characters, but Henry and Sam share one. Normally, Big Brother Instinct is seen as a positive trait, but here, Henry is far too protective of Sam and consequently Sam never learns to fend for himself, making him The Load. After he is bitten by an infected, Henry is forced to kill his little brother and takes his own life out of despair.
  • Raziel from Legacy of Kain is too rash and ends up being an Unwitting Pawn.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel reveals that Rean's fatal flaw is that he tends to be a Martyr Without a Cause: sacrificing himself every single time to ensure the safety of his friends and students. All of them end up calling him out on it and tell him to stop that as they can at least share his burdens.
  • Mass Effect:
    • For all their intelligence the salarians' relatively short lifespans appear to make them VERY shortsighted when it comes to decision making on a galactic scale. Uplifting the krogan without taking into account the long term consequences of their birth rate, especially when freed from the natural mortality rate of Tuchanka. Creating the genophage but not expecting the turians to use it without their permission. Worse still it seems they feel the yahg are a great new prospect for uplifting into galactic society. Anyone familiar with this race can see the glaring flaws in that strategy a mile away. As what Renegeade Shepard bluntly describes them, if one wants a new problem, one should simply ask the salarians.
      • For those who don't know the yahg? We see only two specimens. One manages to escape in the midst of a Cerberus attack, slaughtering better armed, trained, and equipped soldiers with nothing but its bare hands. The other managed to take over the job of Shadow Broker and has been running the gig from behind the scenes for years... and still manages to be a very difficult fight, despite being an intellectual.
      • It's stated that the yahg live by a pack animal mentality; a group of them will simply not co-operate until some leader has been established either through social manoeuvring or violence, and the rest immediately drop all their past rivalry and serve their new superior loyally — equality is an insult to them. We're talking about a species who are so obsessed with dominance and control that they make the krogan look friendly — hell, they massacred the delegation team the Council sent to them, causing the Council to quarantine their planet. Given the salarians' past experience with the aforementioned krogan, what they thought they'd accomplish with the yahg really defies all understanding.
  • Mortal Kombat:
    • Reptile is far too trusting and sides with any Big Bad on the promise that his people will survive. He dies in every game.
    • Scorpion is hell-bent on revenge for his clan, leading him to kill his rival, the elder Sub-Zero, then later plotting revenge against the Elder Gods when they bring back the Shirai-Ryu as zombies. In Mortal Kombat 9, he was on the verge of giving up his desire to kill Sub-Zero under Raiden's guidance, until Quan Chi manipulates him with images of the Lin Kuei's massacre of his clan, including one of Sub-Zero killing Scorpion's wife and child himself, driving Scorpion to kill Sub-Zero in a blind rage and making him forevermore a pawn of Quan Chi. In Mortal Kombat X, after being freed from Quan Chi's control and restored to true life as Hanzo Hasashi once more, Scorpion finally learns the truth about what happened to his clan and his family, and that Quan Chi was responsible for the deaths of the latter. But while Hanzo succeeds in finally killing Quan Chi, his need for vengeance at any cost ends up dooming everyone who wasn't brought back to stay revenants and unleashing Shinnok back upon Earthrealm again.
    • Kung Lao succumbs to pride at his detriment through the course of Mortal Kombat 9. He boastfully accepts a fight with Scorpion which gets him immediately eliminated from the tournament, then later dies whilst grandstanding after defeating Kintaro, courtesy of a Neck Snap from Shao Kahn.
    • Raiden tends to deal in half-measures, failing to interpret the messages his future self sent to him at the beginning of Mortal Kombat 9. This eventually becomes a major problem, where he misses several opportunities to tilt the events into Earthrealm's favor, culminating in the deaths of many of his defenders (especially Liu Kang, who died at his own hands, but not before Liu Kang calls him out). And then it goes From Bad to Worse from that point on, where he has to contend with an invasion from the Netherrealm in Mortal Kombat X, creating a chain of events that lead to his Face–Heel Turn at the end of X.
    • Kotal Kahn tends to make rash decisions in anger while ignoring the ramifications. The first time he got pissed off, he left Goro armless, but refused to kill him, forgetting that Even Evil Has Loved Ones and enraging Goro's father King Gorbak, who proceeded to wipe out the Osh-Tekk and make Kotal The Last of His Kind. When D'Vorah betrayed him, he let his anger against her, and Earthrealm get in the way of reason, deciding to outright kill Cassie's group instead of helping them stop Shinnok, almost bringing ruin to the realms. If Kotal's angry, expect him to really clench the Idiot Ball as if it's a part of his body. He also didn't realize that his actions have attracted the ire of a corrupted Raiden in his MKX arcade ending.
    • Of course, most Mortal Kombat villains such as Shao Kahn, Shang Tsung, Shinnok and Quan Chi are blindsided by their own megalomania and pettiness.
      • Shao Kahn's arrogance and overconfidence get the better of him, as he often underestimates mankind, and therefore tries to conquer Earthrealm many times to no success. His blinding lust for conquests is another flaw, as it allows others who are smart enough to exploit this weakness to easily manipulate him.
      • Shang Tsung constantly needs souls to stay young forever. Likewise, his and Quan Chi's Chronic Backstabbing Disorder got the better of both of them in many arcade endings. In fact, Liu Kang actually exploits it to get Shang Tsung to do the groundwork and get Kronika's crown during the Aftermath storyline in Mortal Kombat 11 to take it back at the very possible last moment.
      • As with Shao Kahn, Shinnok's A God Am I tendency has led to his downfall many times, most notably in MKX, where he's permanently reduced to a catatonic state by a corrupted Raiden.
    • As noted by many characters in Mortal Kombat 11, Frost's arrogance, envy, and ambition to become the Lin Kuei grandmaster have consumed whatever sanity she had. This is exacerbated by her desire to robotize herself, which only worsened her sanity problems and drove her to Jump Off The Slippery Slope even further.
  • The plot of No Straight Roads is directly sparked and actively worsened by Tatiana's hatred of rock music. Besides motivating Bunk Bed Junction to dismantle her operations, she fails to see that including rock could have assisted in resolving the city's energy crisis, as the city is literally powered by music. In the end, she realizes her mistake with restricting the kind of music that should represent the city.
  • Persona 3 has Yukari indicates in "The Answer" that it's failing to consider others' feelings, specifically noting that she imagined that she was the only one suffering and didn't realize what Mitsuru was going through. The same can be said of her mother since Yukari admits that she initially didn't realize what it was like to lose the one you love.
  • Persona 4 uses this as a major plot point, confronting most of the party (and at least one other character) with their Fatal Flaws in the form of Shadows that act as gross caricatures of the sides they want to keep hidden (Shadow Chie becoming a dominatrix to represent Chie's need to control Yukiko to feel better about herself, Shadow Yukiko becoming a princess to represent Yukiko's desire to be taken away from what she feels is a stifling future, Shadow Kanji being a Camp Gay stereotype to represent Kanji's insecurity about his girly hobbies, etc.) Accepting and overcoming these flaws instead of just denying them is the only way to truly defeat the Shadows and transform them into their Personas.
  • Persona 5:
    • Goro Akechi has flaws that made them fails towards their Revenge:
      • Selfishness. In fact, it's the main reason why they are unable to fulfill their desire for acknowledgment and drives their inner conflict. Akechi wishes to be loved, but they don't make the effort to actually reach out to people to form relationships. They instead form a false appearance to win people over, all while hiding their true colors underneath it all, not unlike their father. And as lampshaded by the Phantom Thieves, they could've just gone after Shido themselves, but Akechi's desire to make not only their father but society as a whole suffer (due to their lousy upbringing and the problems within Japanese society), causes them to hatch up a convoluted revenge scheme against Shido (if in their defense, they were enabled extensively by Yaldabaoth). Their need for validation also means that while Akechi genuinely hates their father, their subconscious desire for recognition allowed Shido to manipulate them. This caused them to be blindsided by the revelation that Shido knew Akechi's true motives all along and had planned to dispose of them once they have served their purpose — even if they manages to kill Shido (or vice versa), the public will not react as they intended and Yaldabaoth will proceed to take control of humanity. The closest time Akechi forms a genuine bond was when they have to partner up with the Phantom Thieves as part of their cover. By genuinely coming to enjoy their time with them along with developing their first real bond with Joker, they found somewhere they belonged. However, they never truly realized how much this bond means. They envy Joker for having companions and friends despite comparing them unfavorably between the two. It never occurs to them that it's their own fault for not trying to get close to people and forming meaningful relationships. This envy along with operating on Sunk Cost Fallacy has them turn against the Thieves. In Royal with the third semester, they come to terms that they're monstrous people for their actions, but don't seem to grasp that it was because of their selfish attitude.
      • Another of Akechi's flaws is that they're nowhere near as smart or clever as they believe they are, this allows the Phantom Thieves and specific individuals like Sae Niijima, Shido or Yaldabaoth to manipulate and outsmart them instead.
    • Sumire has Envy. Sumire's jealousy over her sister Kasumi's more natural talent in gymnastics leads to a not-insignificant amount of heartbreak.
  • Persona 5 Strikers:
    • Akane/the fifth Monarch's is wrath and immaturity. While their anger towards their father Zenkichi is partially justified and their distrust of the police is understandable, Akane grows to hate everyone except themselves regarding their mother's death. They ascribe to a Black-and-White Morality, believing people who catch the bad guys are good (the Phantom Thieves) and those who don't are bad (Zenkichi/police), when things are never that simple. Their anger at the world makes them blind to the true situation and because Akane is still a child, they have no idea how dangerous people in power are or EMMA's supernatural dangerous aspects. All of this results in Akane being tricked into believing the lies spread that the Phantom Thieves are terrorists and working with their father and falling directly into Konoe and EMMA's manipulations.
    • Konoe, The Dragon suffers from over-trusting on EMMA for decisions. While EMMA can tell the best option for any situation, the A.I. lacks any emotional algorithm, causing it to take the most pragmatic approach. This would backfire on Konoe when EMMA created a plan to use a friend of the Phantom Thieves as a hostage and trap them but did not tell Konoe that the friend was Zenkichi's daughter, leading Zenkichi, a police officer to personally go after Konoe and freeing the Thieves.
      • Konoe's motif is also pride. They arrogantly believed that they and they alone are the hero of people's desires and is so self-convinced in their righteousness that they believe they can enforce their own justice on whomever they deem to be "evil", whether it's on the genuinely corrupt politician Owada or creating false accusations on the Phantom Thieves.
    • EMMA, the Big Bad lacks any empathy and they have no understanding of human emotions, as well as being prone to Exact Words to a detriment. EMMA believes that the answer to all suffering is mesmerizing the whole population of Tokyo and potentially all of Japan to give in all their desires so nobody will ever make the wrong decisions, because EMMA's initial application really only sees people telling it to make decisions for them. They failed to keep an eye on the Phantom Thieves after their capture and thus, was not aware of their escape. When Konoe received their calling card and demanded to verify their capture, EMMA could only confirm their last known knowledge about the Thieves' status. This would lead to Konoe's change of heart and EMMA's eventual defeat as well.
    • Ichinose, the true culprit is an interesting case where they are aware of their flaw but completely misjudged it. They believed they lack emotion, which was the reason why they created Sophia and EMMA, kickstarting the story's events in the first place. But in reality, it's self-loathing. Ichinose feels they are emotionally dead and cannot connect or emphasize with the world and lost faith in understanding it. Because of that, they ignore their own needs and wants, preventing them from realizing that deep down, they are just lonely and dig themselves deeper and deeper to fill a void in their life rather than confront it head-on.
  • Randal, the protagonist of Randal's Monday, is Sticky Fingers, which makes him grab anything and everything from anywhere, which earns him everyone's distrust.
  • Both of the titular characters in the Ratchet & Clank games started their first adventure with a serious flaw.
    • For Ratchet, his flaw was wrath. This emerged when Captain Qwark, who Ratchet hero-worshipped so much, tossed him into a pit to be eaten by a Snagglebeast, provoking the then 14-year-old lombax to pursuit Qwark across the galaxy with the intent of killing him. Ratchet intentionally gives no thought on the billions of lives in danger and badly mistreats Clank, actions that slowly sends him towards villainy. It isn't until after Ratchet completes his revenge does his evil actions catch up with him in the form of a destroyed city he could've easily protected, and he becomes The Atoner. Come to the sequels, and he has mellowed out to the point where he doesn't overreact to Azimuth's betrayal.
    • Clank's main flaw is his naivety. He believes that Qwark would honestly help him stop Drek, but is shocked when he just ditches him and an upset Ratchet on Umbris. His attempts to get Ratchet to understand the situation of Drek's danger fall on deaf ears (at best). And when he finally confronts Drek over his attacks on other planets, he's dismissed because Clank didn't get the signs that Drek was not interested in building a home for his race. While he becomes less naïve in later games, Clank does have his moments at times, like thinking Qwark in drag was a sister in the third game, or asking what "stones" are in Tools of Destruction.
  • Red Dead Redemption II:
    • Pride is arguably Dutch's biggest flaw. The majority of the problems that befell the gang, especially later in the story, are because of Dutch's self-destructive ego. He refuses to acknowledge any mistakes he made, doesn't listen to the advice of others, and would rather follow plans that he comes up with or supports and mistrusts others, such as John and Arthur, who don't share his opinion.
      • Dutch is also a Thrill Seeker. Many of his actions can be explained that he loves to take risks and most of his plans are far more dangerous than it needs to be. This would also explain why, despite all his talk, Dutch doesn't want to leave his life as an outlaw and continues to cling to the ideal of the Wild West era despite the reality that the world is becoming more civilized.
      • Paranoia. Early on in the game, Dutch asks Arthur why he didn't give up Dutch's location to Agent Milton, hinting at his mistrust of even his most loyal members. He also begins believing that John is more loyal to his family than to the gang and starts becoming hostile towards John, leading him to incorrectly believe that John was the traitor. When Arthur and John start openly doubting Dutch's questionable actions, especially in the later half of the story, he sees this as his adopted sons conspiring behind his back and betraying him. Dutch's (mostly) unfound doubts about Arthur and John would lead him to take actions to betray and abandon them for dead more than once.
    • Arthur's is his loyalty to Dutch. He was raised by Dutch for most of his life and is always loyal to him even if he doesn't agree with Dutch's actions. This made Arthur make many mistakes in his life and lose opportunities to get out of the outlaw life.
  • Along with hefty doses of Pride, the three main secret societies of The Secret World all possess their unique flaws, most commonly embodied in the high-ranking members from whom you receive your orders.
    • Self-righteousness for the Templars. True, they're undoubtedly the most moral of the three, but as Arturo Castiglione points out, their self-image as heroic crusaders has made them arrogant, self-important and reluctant to change their ways — to the point that society is undergoing an internal split between the Old Templars and the New. Worse still, their crusader image often makes them dismiss less-obvious threats in favor of zeroing in on the apparent Big Bad of the mission — which comes back to bite them when they single out Lilith as a target while ignoring the threat posed by the Black Signal.
    • Ambition, intellectual vanity and Lack of Empathy for The Illuminati. They honestly believe they're cleverer and more capable than anyone else in the Secret World; combined with their hunger for power and their open dismissal of civilians, it's left them with a long record of embarrassing fuckups in New England they'd rather keep hidden. They've learned some Pragmatic Villainy since then, but they're still not above figuratively playing with fire. Plus, their megalomaniacal ambitions mean that they really hate it when someone edges in on their prospective monopolies, particularly the Orochi Group: by the Tokyo arc, they're so eager to ruin them in a way they can get away with that, just like the Templars, they ignore the Black Signal and Samael in favor of targeting Lilith.
    • Faith in their own omniscience for the Dragon: by this time, they're so sure of their predictive models and their ability to plan for the future that they end up getting easily surprised when something doesn't go according to plan — the player getting snatched away by the Dreamers, for example. Comes to a head when Daimon Kiyota outright states that their abilities have made them complacent — and decides to take the organization in a completely different direction in making history instead of just predicting it.
    • Just about every single faction in the game has one of these, really. For the Brotherhood of Phoenician Sailors (AKA The Phoenicians), it's greed: having set themselves up as an Artifact Collection Agency and part-time Private Military Contractors, they're still out for nothing but profit, even though the incoming apocalypse has forced all other factions to band together or die. For good measure, it's gotten quite a few Phoenicians screwed over or even killed. Plus, they're so profit-obsessed that they've accepted contracts from Lilith, the Morninglight, the Fear Nothing Foundation and the Atenists — almost kicking off the End of Days.
    • The Council of Venice is continuously undone by its focus on law and order above all else. In theory, the Council exists to keep the peace, maintain secrecy and ensure that everyone remains united against the darkness; in practice, it's become so fixated on regulations and bureaucracy that it's become almost impossible to get anything done. When a disaster crops up, a common response is to establish a committee to discuss things, and by the time any action is taken, it's all over. Needless to say, the Council is widely regarded as a joke, and it's fatal flaw has actually encouraged some shadier Council members into accepting corruption in order to accomplish their goals.
    • The Orochi Group suffer from both overconfidence and naivete: like the Illuminati, they think they're better than everyone else... but unfortunately, they haven't got the savvy that centuries of experimentation and dominance have taught the Boys In Blue. At least the Illuminati are clever enough to recognize when to walk away from an unprofitable situation: despite all the signs that experimenting on the Filth and its associated phenomena is a bad idea, Orchi just keep doing it, and still end up getting surprised when their research teams turn up dead or infected. At one point, they actually went so far as to steal one of the Songs of the Sentinels just for their research — a theft that would have woken up Akhenaten and ended the world. Even Samael calls them out on it, and he's the company CEO!
    • Like the Templars, the Jingu Clan are hampered by their own self-righteousness; however, they're also blinded by their hatred of the Oni. Descended from a long line of demon-hunting samurai, they're so convinced that there's no such thing as a "good demon" that they continue hunting them down even if it means endangering the lives of innocents — or ignoring a more serious threat. It's one of the causes of the Tokyo disaster, for the Jingu were actually collaborating with the Fear Nothing Foundation without realizing that they were accepting help from the very apocalyptic threat they were trying to stop
    • Greed and hedonism for the House-In-Exile. Like many mercenary factions, they're a profit-first organization, but they're so determined to ensure that they maintain their luxurious lifestyles that they're prepared to take dangerous shortcuts in lean times: in one case, accepting a partnership with the Illuminati; in another, accepting contracts from the Morninglight, unwittingly paving the way for the Tokyo disaster.
  • In The Sims Medieval, every Sim in your kingdom has some sort of fatal flaw that directly affects their mood or performance (Gluttons have to eat more frequently, and require more than one meal to be fully satisfied; Licentious Sims get in a bad mood if they don't kiss or Woohoo with other Sims after a set amount of time). Succeeding in certain quests allows them to drop their fatal flaw and replace it with a Legendary Trait, which can't be selected during character creation.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Sonic himself is presented as overly cocky and prone to acts of recklessness, a lot of which are exploited by foes or end up with him making a detrimental mistake. Eggman took advantage of an opening left by Sonic's arrogance in Sonic Unleashed, while in Sonic Lost World his over-eagerness to swat away Eggman's new toy left another antagonist, the Deadly Six, free to bring havoc, an act which almost led to Earth being drained of its life and Tails being transformed into a robot).
    • Since his first appearance, Knuckles is infamous for being gullible, something that is constantly exploited by Eggman as a Running Gag, usually to trick him into fighting or distracting Sonic.
  • Soul Series:
    • Seong Mi-na's is her pride as a martial artist. When it is affronted, she loses her temper in a big way and this has twice so far caused her to lose in a Curb-Stomp Battle (first to Ivy, then to the man who trained Kilik). Though she starts to grow out of it by the third game, it can still possibly get the better of her in her ending, if you screw up the button inputs.
    • Yunseong's is Patriotic Fervour. Though three different people close to him have warned him that the sword is evil and that nothing good could come of possessing it, he seeks it anyway as he feels it's the only way to save Korea from the invading Japanese.
  • Captain Martin Walker's tragic flaw in Spec Ops: The Line is his inability to reconcile the kind of man he wants to be (a hero like his idol Colonel John Konrad) and the kind of man he actually is (a hopelessly misguided Anti-Hero Slowly Slipping Into Evil until he becomes a full-on Villain Protagonist). His other major flaw is his unwillingness to accept the consequences of his actions.
  • Mithos, the Big Bad of Tales of Symphonia, is a Determinator of the first order. Unfortunately, his complete unwillingness to give up and know when enough is enough leads him to create a system where two worlds vie for a rapidly draining amount of resources, leads countless people to die meaninglessly, and turns his own allies against him. Even when he nearly succeeds in getting what he wants, the benefactor of all his scheming tells him he's gone way too far.
    • From the same game, Colette not wanting anyone to worry about her leads her to keeping quiet about all sorts of problems. This never works out well, as the things she's keeping quiet about all blow up in her face at the worst possible time, often when the heroes really need to focus on something else.
    • Zelos suffers from massive self-loathing and trust issues, which he hides with his seemingly carefree, playboy personality. And in one possible ending of the game, he even ends up getting killed because he decides he will never earn the party's trust and sides with Cruxis, forcing them to fight and Mercy Kill him.
    • Regal's guilt complex is a recurring problem for him in the game — when he willingly turned himself in over killing Alicia, the person actually responsible for her fate got off scot-free as a result and, being a sociopathic Jerkass, simply moved onto performing experiments on another member of her family instead. His refusal to fight with his hands over his guilt also means that he ends up getting his ass kicked by enemies a lot because he won't fight at full strength. Several characters call him out on how pointless this is and by the end of the game he eventually does remove his handcuffs.
    • Lloyd is entirely too trusting of people and it leads to him getting betrayed several times in the game, especially by people he thought were his allies. Admittedly the entire group suffers this problem as well (especially Colette), but since Lloyd is The Leader he is frequently the one who makes the decision to trust them. Kratos even calls him out on how easy it was to mislead them and Raine even admits she knew there was something off about him but there wasn't much she could do about it.
  • In Touhou Project, the Lunarians as a whole have a titanic ego and tendency to underestimate those they believe to be impure. To their credit, they are more powerful than most people in Gensokyo. Their arrogance eventually render them vulnerable to Yukari's plan... to steal Lunarian sake, Now that's just petty.
  • The World of Warcraft has no shortage of flaws:
    • The world, in general, is populated with the likes of Arthas, Grom, Illidan and Kael'Thas who use drastic but well-intentioned methods when dealing with a crisis.
    • According to Vol'jin of the Darkspear trolls, the flaw of the other tribes, the Zandalari especially, is that they're stuck in the past. All of their efforts are spent trying to recapture lost glory from a golden age none of them ever saw. Only the Darkspear Tribe focuses on the future, and so far they're the only ones who have thrived.
    • Thrall, the former Warchief of the Horde, suffered from Pride. He saved the orcs from demonic influence, returned them to their shamanistic roots, and saved them from human oppression. He's accomplished much, and it made him defensive of his actions. This is best shown when one of his closest allies, Cairne, advised against Thrall naming Garrosh Hellscream the Warchief in his absence. Thrall didn't make the choice lightly, and his argument with Cairne was the last time Thrall saw his old friend before his death.
    • Arthas Menethil, Crown Prince of Lorderon, struggled with insecurity. His entire life he constantly worried about being able to protect his people and live up to the example of the great men around him. Sometimes he would take compliments as insults, his concerns for the future caused him to call off his engagement with Jaina Proudmore, and it was his self-doubt that drove the extreme decisions he made while fighting the Scourge that eventually sent him on the path to damnation.
    • Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider's downfall came from arrogance. Kael'thas comes from the ruling bloodline of the High Elves, the former Highborn of the once arrogant Night Elves. Magic was his birthright and he was held in great esteem by his people and the mages of Dalaran. But that acclaim gave him an inflated sense of self. That arrogance made him callous in places and drove people like Jaina away from him. In his arrogant need for a fix for his addiction to magic immediately, he became a thrall to Kil'jaeden of the Burning Legion and damned many of his fellow Blood Elves to fel corruption. In the Shadowlands expansion, Kael'thas is in Revendreth. As his sins are being judged, the Accuser deems that most of his terrible crimes stem from his arrogance. It nearly gets him cast into the Maw as he had to be dragged kicking and screaming into giving up his anima (and the power it grants) to start fresh.
  • The World Ends with You: Both Shiki and Beat have issues and flaws that drag them into bigger problems.
    • Shiki's envy issues concerning Eri being Always Someone Better in comparison to her end up causing her a LOT of heartbreak throughout the game. When Eri tries to suggest to Shiki that her talents are more suited towards becoming a seamstress instead of being a designer, Shiki takes it incredibly badly and runs off crying, which unfortunately ends up with her death in an accident the next day. Later on, when entering the game, she ends up giving up her appearance as her Entry Fee, forcing her to take on Eri’s appearance instead. At first, Shiki is happy about this little outcome, finally having the chance to be someone other than what she views to be her inadequate real self, and even takes on Eri’s bubbly personality, only for the whole thing to make her envy issues turn out even WORSE so it only reinforces the fact that she will never actually be Eri, which Higashizawa exploits in order to have her undergo a Heroic BSoD. It takes Neku to help her to realize the value of her true self and hear Eri express how much Shiki meant to her for her to ultimately snap out of it.
    • Beat and his desperate cravings for attention from Rhyme. As Hanekoma himself notes in the Secret Reports, Rhyme is Beat's greatest weakness, which Reapers such as Uzuki and Konishi use to their advantage by holding her Soul hostage and forcing Beat to comply with their demands. And Beat’s Leeroy Jenkins tendencies also tend to bite him in the butt more often than not, such as when he accidentally triggers a trap that gets Rhyme Erased when she tries to save him. He notably cites this as one of his greatest failings and even asks Neku to help keep his head in the game in order to accomplish their goals more efficiently.
    • NEO: The World Ends with You has Rindo and his Indecisiveness. Like Shiki and Beat above, Rindo has issues as well that drag him towards big problems. Rindo, despite being in a leadership position, is very hands-off and has difficulty making meaningful choices while refusing to take responsibility for any failures that arise because of it. This often necessitates the use of his Replay ability to fix the situation and is symbolized by the fact that his clothing article of choice is a face mask, which covers his mouth and thus limits his ability to speak. Getting over this is the thrust of his Character Development. What makes Rindo's indecisiveness such a special case is that there is a physical manifestation of all the mistakes born of it: Phoenix Cantus, the Final Boss, is a fusion of all the Soul Pulvis that are created as a byproduct of his Replay psych, and the Secret Reports explicitly note that it has a tail feather for every day he Replayed, numbering thirteen in total.

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