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To make characters realistic and relatable they are given flaws, because if there is anything a writer can be sure of it is that no one in their audience will be perfect. Flaws are character traits that have a negative impact in the narrative, unless they are simply informed. They can also be exploited. See Good Flaws, Bad Flaws for a scale of flaw acceptability.
Compare Seven Deadly Sins, Ego Tropes.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Habitual violence and cruelty to their own children.
- Aggressive Categorism: Judges people too easily and too bizarrely - for example by attributing character flaws to individuals on loose grounds such as their gender, ethnic background, or hairstyle.
- The Alcoholic: Drinks way too much and may not realize they have a problem.
- Allergic To Routine: Gets bored extremely easily and needs to be entertained at all times.
- Ambiguous Disorder: Their behaviour is thoroughly outside of what is the social norm.
- Anything That Moves: Unrestrained in bisexual behavior.
- Apologises a Lot: Apologises all the time even for stuff they did not do.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Incapable of realizing when a fight is futile.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Has no attention span and is easily distracted.
- Attention Whore: Craves more attention than is considered normal.
- Ax Crazy: Psychologically unstable and presents a clear danger to others.
- Bad Boss: Treating employees extremely badly.
- Bad Liar: Unable to lie in a convincing way and comes up with really silly lies that fool no one.
- Because I'm Good At It: Does a less than morally sound job simply because they are competent at it.
- Believing Their Own Lies: Unable to see things as they really are, to the point of delusion.
- Berserk Button: Something makes the character extremely angry.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: A lot of things make the character extremely angry. Or they're just a jerk spoiling for a fight or wanting to intimidate someone.
- The Berserker: Throws themselves into battle with complete disregard for danger or consequences.
- Big Eater: Habitual excess in eating, a.k.a. gluttony.
- Blood Knight: Loves to fight and by extension hurt others.
- Blood Lust: Wants you to bleed so that they can drink it.
- Boomerang Bigot: Hates members of a group, even though he's a member of the group.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Snarky self-important youngster.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Whiny self-involved adolescent girl.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Talented but no drive to apply himself/herself.
- Brutal Honesty: Will tell you the truth even if it hurts your feelings.
- Cannot Convey Sarcasm: Doesn't understand how to properly use sarcasm.
- Cannot Keep A Secret: Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Inability to voice their true feelings.
- Cannot Talk To Women: Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: Unable to grasp the concept of lying.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Can't handle even a drop of alcohol.
- Child Hater: Possesses an inexplicable hatred for all children.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Wants to save everyone and right every wrong they see, even when it's not always wise.
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Their profession disables them from helping their loved ones within their field of expertise.
- Combat Sadomasochist: Loves to receive and most importantly dispatch pain.
- Competition Freak: Takes an extremely rivalistic if not outright antagonistic attitude to any competitive event.
- Complexity Addiction: Will come up with an overly complicated plan and realize it even if it is doomed to fail.
- Compressed Abstinence: Characters try to live without reasonable levels of something bad. It doesn't last.
- Compressed Vice: Develops a flaw out of nowhere for the sake of An Aesop.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Sees conspiracies behind everything.
- Control Freak: Obsessed with doing everything rigid, proper, by the book, and to exercise control over themselves and others.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Has good cooking skills, but often creates recipes that sound and/or taste disgusting.
- The Corrupter: Enjoys bringing out the worst in everyone around them.
- The Corruptible: Prone to be corrupted easily.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Possessing an extreme need to collect animals.
- Culture Justifies Anything: Uses their culture to justify their own vicious deeds.
- Cute and Psycho: Hides a scheming and unstable demeanor that can resurface at any time.
- The Cynic: Believes that people are exclusively motivated by self-interest.
- Deadpan Snarker: Prone to sarcastic and cynical remarks.
- Deaf Composer: Inability to enjoy their own creation.
- Delinquent: School kids who breaks rules to the extreme.
- Desperately Craves Affection: Excessive desire for affection from other people.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Prone to be Thinking Out Loud even though it is something they don't want others to hear.
- Dirty Coward: A shameless, selfish coward.
- Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: Uses their disability as an excuse to be a Jerkass.
- Dismotivation: Wants to keep things as they are and actively avoids doing anything that might change their life for the better.
- The Ditherer: Can't make decisions or make up their mind to save their life.
- The Ditz: Stupidity.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: Has trouble gauging just how much of his or her considerable strength to apply to a specific task.
- Does Not Like Spam: Possesses an immense dislike for a particular food.
- Does Not Like Men: Dislikes men as a whole.
- Domestic Abuser: Inclined to abuse their partner either mentally, sexually, verbally, physically, or emotionally.
- Don't Look At Me: Extreme dislike of being looked at.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Too prideful to appreciate sympathy.
- Drama Queen: Responds to situations in a melodramatic way.
- Dreadful Musician: Displays little talent for music, often to comical extremes.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Deals with sorrow by getting drunk.
- Drunk with Power: When given power they start to treat people under them like crap.
- The Eeyore: Perpetually depressed and brings everybody down with them.
- Emotionally Tongue Tied: Has trouble uttering a specific word or phrase, like a term of affection or an apology.
- Entitled Bastard: Treats prople like crap but still expect them to serve the entitled's interest.
- Extreme Doormat: Unmotivated and has no drive, but freely bend to the will of others.
- Extreme Omnisexual: They will have sex with anything. Not that they should.
- Fatal Flaw: A flaw which the character wrestle with on a consistent basis.
- Ambition Is Evil: Their aspiration is money, fame or power.
- Delicious Distraction: Easily distracted by something delicious.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Desire for some object, item, or abstract notion (such as love or power) which another person possesses, and hating that person for their good fortune.
- Hypocrite: Pretending to have beliefs, opinions, virtues, feelings, qualities, or standards that one does not actually have.
- Jerkass: Unlikable and despicable, and treats other people like crap.
- Pride: Excessively high opinion of oneself or one's importance.
- Greed: Desire for large amounts of money and material possessions.
- It's All About Me: Extremely self-centered.
- Fearless Fool: Not scared of anything even if it is dangerous.
- Forgets To Eat: Notorious for ignoring their body's need for nutrition and has to be reminded to eat.
- The Fundamentalist: Their beliefs are right, and anyone who does not believe as they do is stupid, crazy, evil or all three.
- The Gambling Addict: Likes gambling, to the extent where it starts to cause problems.
- General Failure: An incompetent leader.
- Glory Seeker: Driven by the need for glory.
- Glurge Addict: Extreme love for sickeningly sweet things.
- God Is Flawed: Not even supreme beings are perfect.
- The Grinch: Hates Christmas.
- Grumpy Bear: Has a grim and gritty point of view even though they live in a rose-colored world.
- Guilt Complex: Blames themselves for everything.
- Guilty Pleasure: Ashamed of what brings them pleasure because they think it is of low-quality.
- Hates Baths: Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Hates Being Touched: Dislikes physical contact.
- Hates Everyone Equally: Is a misanthrope.
- Heavy Sleeper: Almost impossible to wake up.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Dislikes women as a whole.
- Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Loves to fight evil because it enables them to disperse pain.
- Hikikomori: Locks themselves away from the outside world like a recluse.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Over-sexualized behavior of adolescents.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Implicitly trusts people who should really not be trusted.
- Honor Before Reason: Does what is right, even if it's foolish.
- Humans Are Flawed: No one is perfect.
- Implausible Deniability: Denies something even in front of unquestionable evidence.
- Inadequate Inheritor: When the character is unfit to fulfill heritage expectations.
- Ineffectual Loner: A loner whose capacity is reduced to the point of not being able to fulfill their goal because of their solitary nature.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Uses arrogance to mask low self-esteem.
- Informed Flaw: Flaws not really shown or followed up on.
- Innocently Insensitive: Unknowingly offensive.
- Insufferable Genius: Arrogant about their own impressive skills.
- Internalized Categorism: Possesses a nondestructive trait that causes self-hatred which makes it destructive.
- Irrational Hatred: Hates someone over something that isn't their fault or have no control over.
- Kids Are Cruel: Child prone to bullying others.
- The Kindnapper: Someone who means to display benevolence... by kidnapping those they intend to be nice to.
- The Klutz: Excessive clumsiness.
- Knight Templar: Vicious but convinced of their own righteousness.
- Lack of Empathy: Does not have the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
- Lazy Bum: Profound laziness.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Rushes into dangerous situations without thinking, often getting themselves or others hurt or worse.
- Lethal Chef: Has poor cooking skills, often to comical extremes.
- Literal-Minded: Does not understand figurative language.
- The Load: Contributes nothing to a group except weighing it down.
- Loony Fan: Follows someone everywhere out of obsessive admiration, either causing trouble or just creeping them out.
- Love Hungry: Tries to force others to like or love them, not understanding that it doesn't work that way.
- Love Martyr: Willingly endures misery and abuse for love.
- Lust: Driven by one's sex drives.
- Lolicon: Sexually attracted to little girls.
- Shotacon: Sexually attracted to little boys.
- Madonna Whore Complex: Thinks all women are either promiscuous, immoral seductresses or sweet, naive ingenues and that smart, capable, good women who enjoy sex do not exist.
- Man Child: An adult who possesses a very childlike or childish demeanor.
- One of the Kids: A grown-up who is highly immature or childish because they hang out with kids.
- Married to the Job: Is so devoted to their career that it seriously affects their ability to hold any kind of relationship outside of it.
- Martyr Without a Cause: Will insist on making a Heroic Sacrifice even if it's stupid and unnecessary.
- Miles Gloriosus: Makes himself out to be the ultimate badass, but proves to be a coward when faced with a real fight.
- The Millstone: The cause of most if not all of a group's failures.
- Minor Flaw, Major Breakup: Inability to accept partner's minor flaws.
- Misplaced Sorrow: Prone to miss another character for shallow, selfish reasons, such as money.
- Mood Swinger: Has unstable emotions and acts unpredictably.
- Motor Mouth: Speaks if not constantly then often so quickly that it's hard to make out individual words.
- Mouthy Kid: Overly talkative, insolent, and loud child.
- Muse Abuse: Exploits their real life and the people around them for the sake of their art, with harmful results.
- Narcissist: Extreme love and admiration for oneself.
- Neat Freak: Obsessed with cleanliness.
- Nervous Wreck: Panics over the slightest thing.
- Never My Fault: Blames others for their own mistakes.
- Nietzsche Wannabe: Rejecting all religious and moral principles in the belief that life is meaningless to the extreme.
- Nobody Calls Me Chicken: Can't turn a challenge down.
- No Object Permanence: Inability to recognize that an object continues to exist even when you cannot see, hear, or touch it.
- No Sense of Humor: Doesn't get jokes.
- No Sense of Direction: Gets lost easily.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Gets way too close for comfort around others.
- No Social Skills: Ignorant of and confused by social customs.
- No Sympathy: Does not feel pity or sorrow for others' misfortune.
- Not a Morning Person: Is unusually cranky and snippy when just woken up.
- Obliviously Evil: Can't comprehend that they're doing anything wrong.
- Oblivious To His Own Description: Unable to recognize a perfect definition of themselves.
- Oblivious to Love: Inability to notice any romantic intentions.
- Obsessed With Food: They pay more attention to food than anything else.
- Old Windbag: Known for being an insufferable bore.
- Only in It for the Money: Doesn't care about anything except getting paid.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Prone to vocal stupidity or self-incrimination.
- Overprotective Dad: Tendency to protect one's child excessively, especially in the romantic department.
- Paper Tiger: Looks and acts threatening and tough, but is anything but.
- Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: Desires romance and/or sex, but is too afraid of sexuality.
- The Perfectionist: Has to be perfect at what they do, or at everything they do.
- Picky Eater: Immature distaste of a certain type of food.
- The Pig Pen: Someone whose hygiene is lacking.
- Pitying Perversion: Feels sorry for someone who is not like themselves and looks down on them with mercy.
- Poisonous Friend: Loyal but hazardous companion that secretly commit nasty deeds for their friend that said friend would not approve of.
- Post Stress Overeating: Excess in eating as a coping mechanism.
- The Prankster: Very fond of playing pranks on others.
- Psychopathic Manchild: A lunatic with all the strength/intellect of an adult and the innocence of a child.
- Rebellious Spirit: Possesses a immense desire to resist authority, control, or convention.
- The Resenter: Feels bitterness or indignation for a person.
- Revenge Before Reason: Putting Revenge over sensible actions.
- Rich Bitch: Rich, snobby and haughty.
- Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Has little understanding of things that people without money take for granted.
- Ridiculous Procrastinator: Puts something off 'til the last minute.
- Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Grown up without learning a very basic skill.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Does not understand sarcasm.
- Schemer: Constantly uses zany schemes to get money, become popular, etc., that always blow up at the end.
- Schedule Fanatic: Has to do everything according to precise schedule, every day of their lives.
- The Scrooge: Values his wealth more than anything else.
- Selective Obliviousness: Refuses to comprehend a particular fact.
- Serial Romeo: Keeps insisting their newest Love Interest is their one true love, completely forgetting about previous Love Interests who rejected them.
- Serious Business: Treats an activity as though it had much more importance than most people would give it.
- Sex Is Evil and I Am Horny: Believes that Sex Is Evil, but can't escape their own sexuality.
- Shrinking Violet: Painfully shy.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: A serious fucking potty mouth.
- Skilled, but Naive: Lacks the experience needed to accomplish their goal.
- The Slacker: Just plain lazy.
- Slave to PR: Obsessed with upholding one's reputation, no matter what.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Thinks they are all that, but they are not.
- Smug Super: Knows they are powerful, and they have the ego to show.
- Smitten Teenage Girl: Gets crushes with a intensity that is just too much to make sense.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Is more afraid of social situations than of actual dangers to life and limb.
- Someone Else's Problem: Thinks that any given crisis isn't important and doesn't require their help because they're not personally involved and have no desire to get involved.
- Sour Prudes: Tries too hard to make themselves look good at the expense of others, claiming superiority on the ground that they doesn't have as much sex as others do, doesn't dress as sexily as they do, or something like that.
- Spoiled Brat: Arrogant, selfish and disrespectful kid who demands to be given everything.
- Royal Brat: Arrogance, power, pettiness, and a huge sense of entitlement.
- Stalker with a Crush: Expresses their love for someone by stalking them.
- Stopped Caring: Believes nothing really matters and only do what has to be done.
- Super OCD: Obsessed with order, symmetry and following certain patterns of behavior.
- Taking Advantage of Generosity: Demanding more of others who are being generous.
- The Tease: Prone to tempt someone sexually with no intention of satisfying the desire aroused.
- Too Clever by Half: Is incredibly smart, irritatingly aware of it, and driven to go beyond themselves, which often leads to spectacular failures.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Gets friends into serious trouble, or takes leave of their common sense when around a particular friend.
- Trash of the Titans: Extremely messy.
- Trash Talk: Prone to utter insulting or boastful speeches intended to demoralize, intimidate, or humiliate someone.
- Tsundere: (Type A) Unable to express their true inner feelings and resorts to being condescending and/or violent. (Type B) Even with their sweet demeanor they cannot deal with their Love Interest and resorts to being condescending and/or violent.
- Sugar and Ice Personality: Acts aloof and apathetic despite really being sweet and kind.
- Tsunshun: Forces people away with their abrasive attitude while really feeling depressed because they can't get close to anybody.
- Unfit for Greatness: Wants to do good but lacks the willpower, insight, and virtue to direct the power he has been given.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Doesn't show appropriate gratitude.
- Unstoppable Rage: Making them angry is suicidal.
- Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Demands praise for behaving in a situation like a decent human being instead of a Jerkass, disregarding that basic humanity is expected of others by default, rather than something above-and-beyond, to be rewarded for.
- Weight Woe: Obsessed with dieting.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Someone who uses good ends to justify less than good, if not outright evil, means.
- Weak Willed: Easy to brainwash.
- What Do You Mean, It\'s Not Heinous?: Their reaction to a minor offense is ridiculously excessive.
- What You Are in the Dark: Commits vicious deeds when no one is watching.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Crippling and extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Has a naive, rose-colored outlook in a world that is anything but idealistic.
- Wildcard: Unreliable, untrustworthy and traitorous.
- Workaholic: Compulsively works hard and long hours.
- Would Hurt a Child: No qualms about using violence against children.
- Yandere: Can't handle being in love without acting extremely obsessive or possessive of the one they are in love with.
- You Need to Get Laid: Too high-strung, uptight, or ill-tempered for their own good.
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