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alt title(s): Hubris
You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God." So, how'd that work out for you, Lucifer? "Pride goes before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."
Question: How many bosses does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: One. He holds the light bulb and the universe revolves around him to screw it in.
Just like beer, sometimes having a good opinion of yourself — your position, your accomplishments, your skills — can be too much; it can go to your head and make you do some really stupid shit. That's Pride.
Like, say, boasting. In their myths the Greeks were big on having a mortal (un)deservedly boasting that they're better at something than their highly petty and vengeful gods. You can guess how that went. Or (always a classic) walking right into an enemy's hands confident they'll fall just like everyone else has, despite how they seem to be goading you to stand on the big red bulls-eye.
Then there's Hubris (basically, "excessive pride"), which goes so well with scientific sins against nature. Or best of all, never asking for help or Forgiveness because "pride" won't allow it, and letting highly preventable events play out, to the pain and misfortune of protagonists and their close ones. When done on a larger scale, leads to Look On My Works Ye Mighty And Despair or And Man Grew Proud (if in the Back Story).
The technical term for that is " Tragedy".
Pride and its sister Hubris have brought down more heroes and villains than Homer could shake a cudgel at. As a Fatal Flaw and Achilles Heel it is a classic that's one of the Oldest Ones In The Book and not likely to go away any time soon, especially since pigheadedness and vanity seem to be pretty firmly rooted human foibles (and they go so well with megalomania!).
Pride is a potent driving force for Drama: Some stories begin with the proud brought low and their attempts to learn humility, others are driven by prideful quests, while others end because of an unwillingness to forsake said pride.
Kneel Before Zod, Grudging Thank You and Dont You Dare Pity Me are proud stock phrases. A leading element in Its All About Me and Moral Myopia, such as We Have Reserves and Ungrateful Bastard. Come To Gawk is frequently uncommonly painful for the proud — and the proud are uncommonly likely to jump to the conclusion that someone did Come To Gawk. The Green Eyed Monster often accuses the envied person of Pride — justly or unjustly. Acquired Situational Narcissism is a Sub Trope, as is Fairest Of Them All. See also Fallen Angel.
There's a good reason why this is one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Examples
Anime
- Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion is practically defined by this (even more than being the series Tsundere). This is both a strength and a weakness. As the art book Eve states: "Asuka's pride is a double-edged sword of Damocles".
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, Pride is the leader of the Homunculi (following the Seven Deadly Sins theme). However, his identity differs between the first anime and manga — in the former Pride is Fuhrer King Bradley, but in the latter it's Selim Bradley! In the former, the pride aspect comes through the character ultimately making some A God Am I proclamations. In the latter, Pride is the "pride and joy" of the Big Bad, Father, but at one point, Hohenheim addresses Pride, and characterizes his self-love as particularly evil: Pride is utterly incapable of giving value to the life of any other person, and is Lack Of Empathy personified.
- Particularly in the Brotherhood version, Ed's pride (being an Insufferable Genius) seems to be a major motivation in his ill-fated attempt to bring his mother back from the dead, although love for her was certainly a big part of it as well.
- Vegeta from Dragonball Z gets his ass handed to him so many times for his stubborn pride, you start to wonder if he likes it.
- Vegeta is the friggin king of this trope. I defy you to name one character who has done more stupid things for the sake of their pride.
- Word Of God confirms that pride is Lelouch's main motivation.
- It's been mentioned a lot that if Light from Death Note hadn't been so big on pride and tried to be such a smartass, he could've tricked L very easily into thinking that he's some retard that couldn't possibly be Kira.
- Its debatable whether L would have fallen for that. A better example would be his downfall. It did occur to him that Near could have replaced both notebooks, but he dismissed the possibility since he couldn't believe that someone other than L could be as smart as him.
- L and Near also lets his pride get in the way of settling the investigation. He and Near as well refuses to accept the end of the Kira case without solid proof.
- That wasn't really pride. They had good reason to think that the case wasn't closed — and as it happens, it wasn't.
- Light's God Complex is the most obvious example of this trope in the manga — not just his delusion of godhood, but the very fact that he thinks he has the right to kill whomever he deems fit, and whomever gets in his way.
- Neji from Naruto. He thinks he's better than everyone, until Naruto beats some sense into him
 ◊.
- Lucifer is the eldest of the Stakes of Purgatory in Umineko No Naku Koro Ni. Naturally, she has a quite a bit of Pride in this position, which makes sense, considering that's the sin she embodies. This makes her Defeat By Modesty at the hands of Kanon in the third arc all the more hilarious. However, the Stakes Valentine's Day side story reveals that she's actually the least competent of her sisters, and her TIPS reveal that she takes great pleasure in surrendering.
Comic Books
- Dream of The Sandman spent most of the series going through a slow change, and trying to correct mistakes his strict code of honor "compelled" him to make. In the process of doing so, he made several powerful enemies, so it wasn't his pride per se which did him in, but his attempts to make amends that did.
- The nutshell description of the series is 'Dream of the Endless finds it necessary to change or die... and makes his choice.' If that wasn't an example of pride in action, what is?
- Naturally the titular character of the Lucifer comics, who rankled at the idea that any being should be in any way bound to another. On one hand this led to his total honesty and strict paying of all debts he owed, on the other it fueled his sociopathic disregard for anyone who wasn’t him or his (very) small group of companions. As God pointed out it also meant he would be eternally unhappy, because the universe was by nature co-dependent and linked.
Literature
- In Shadow Puppets, one of the Enders Game sequels, Virlomi sets herself up as a holy woman/god on earth to lead a resistance movement in India against the Chinese occupation. After a long sequence of everything going right for her against rivals she knows are better than she is, she becomes convinced that she really is either divine or favored by the gods, and carelessly leads her army into an obvious trap.
- Later stories show just how much old Ma and Pa Wiggins manipulated their children because the pride of their children (especially Peter) was such there was no way their parents could have figured out they were world famous political Bloggers. Ender In Exile especially shows this with how they manipulate Peter to exile Ender and Valentine to join Ender. In Peter's case it takes him 4 books to even suspect his parents used him due to his own pride.
- This may be a retcon.
- If so, one inspired by the fact that the reason (according to the Hegemony) that Peter, Val, and Ender are so smart to begin with is that their family has such an excellent genetic history of intelligence.
- In Starless Night, Drizzt Do'Urden leaves his friends behind to see if he can head off the coming storm all by himself. Not only does he fail, not only would he have died if his friends (and even some enemies) hadn't rescued him, but he arguably makes things worse. This would be fine...if it weren't for Drizzt's proclivity for endless navel-gazing on various philosophical themes and subjects in his journal, just in case you missed the point.
- Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice, obviously; sometimes, people who accuse others of being too proud are the proudest of all.
- Emma, too - pride goeth before a fall for dear Miss Woodhouse.
- Persuasion, too, though it's not Anne Eliot herself, but her father, quite conceited over his Blue Blood and good looks, and older sister. Though at one point they are being abject to restore a connection and Anne thinks something she had thought she would never think: she wished they had more pride.
- In The Bible, Satan supposedly rebels against God because of his pride. Paradise Lost describes this in much more detail, giving us the quote "Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven."
- In the 'Keys To The Kingdom' series, Lord Sunday of the Improbable Gardens is implied to possess this Sin.
- Jorus C'baoth claimed that a Jedi was immune to pride. He was extremely wrong.
- In Nick Kyme's Warhammer 40000 Salamanders novel Salamander, Tsu'gan blames himself for his arrogance that led to his leaving his post, and so to an enemy's breaking in and killing his captain.
- In James Swallow's Warhammer 40000 Blood Angels novels Deus Encarmine and Deus Sanguinius, Sachiel's pride is contrasted to Rafen, down to their reactions to each other's loss. Sachiel's reaction to news of an explosion (No One Could Survive That) is to gloat; Rafen sees Sachiel's corpse and pities him.
- In the Back Story, Rafen was so arrogant as to have been rejected as an aspirant for it, but that humbled him and (through some other circumstances) lead to his being selected anyway.
- Stele explicitly compares Sachiel to Rafen: while it nearly killed him to break Rafen, and that was to drive him to despair because he could not win him over, he quite easily brought over Sachiel, through his pride.
- In Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Chessman Of Mars, the men of Manator are particularly proud and maltreat their slaves from contempt because they have never been defeated themselves.
- In Ben Counter's Warhammer 40000 Soul Drinkers novel Chapter War, Eumenes justifies his rebellion on grounds of fighting for what he believes in, but is clearly after power, especially when he gloats over what he will do with Sarpedon after Sarpedon submits to him to save the Chapter.
- In Ben Counter's Warhammer 40000 Grey Knights novel Grey Knights, the daemon accuses Alaric of Pride, which, it claims, blinds him to both his faults and his defeat.
- Pride is the ultimate source of all the misery Winterbourne and Daisy suffer in Daisy Miller.
- As CS Lewis puts it in Mere Christianity:
...the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.
- Being as Things Fall Apart is more or less stated to be a classical Greek tragedy set in pre-colonial and early colonial Nigeria, it makes sense that Okonkwo's driving force and ultimate cause of death is Pride. Subverted in that the author does not condemn Okonkwo's pride but rather is saddened by it.
Live Action Television
- Breaking Bad has the main character with an obvious streak of pride coloring all his actions. He'd rather make and sell Meth than ask for or accept help for his family or condition. At one point it's revealed that his partner in grad school created a successful biotech company that his ideas helped create. Rather than accept a very large check that would have covered his bills and act as a late payment for his help with the company, he tears it up and goes back to making drugs to earn his own way.
- The Minbari of Babylon 5 is an entire species of this. Same with the Centauri, who fuss over their glorious and long-be-gone past until their planet is reduced to rubble, the Narn, who fuss over their grudges with the Centauri and the need to take a rightful place in the galaxy until, you guessed it, their planet is reduced to rubble, Vorlons and the Shadows. The last two are worst (they incite genocidal wars and run species into extinction just to prove that their tutory strategy is the best one) and they are the ones that get away relatively easy. Huh.
- The Doctor can fall into this, given his Smug Super tendencies, and it's a notable part of the Tenth incarnation's personality. One of Ten's last appearances, in The Waters of Mars has him basically go into A God Am I mode with massive hubris, but then end up as much more humble afterward after his arrogance is crushed.
Music
- Because I'm awesome by the Dollyrots may or may not be a parody of when you have a little too much pride.
Mythology
- Though mythology is chock full of these, a notable one is Medusa, a priestess of Aphrodite. Depending on the version, she either had sex with Poseidon in a temple of Aphrodite, or out and out said she was prettier. She got turned into one of the Gorgons by Aphrodite because of it.
- This is true only in regard of one version of myth, because in another one she was a titaness raped by Poseidon due to her beauty and turned to her horrible form due to anger and grief. And this has nothing to do with pride.
- Alternately, she was raped by Poseidon inside a temple, and was cursed for daring to profane the temple by having sex inside it (and, knowing Greek myth, because Aphrodite was angry and couldn't get back at Poseidon himself).
- It's worse for her sisters, Stheno and Euryale — in one version, they helped her sneak into the temple, but in the other, they did absolutely nothing wrong or proud. They still got changed. Of course, the gods in Greek mythology are all huge dicks...
- Aphrodite? Really? This Troper thought it was Athena. 'Cause, y'know, she has the Aegis and all.
- Athena got the Aegis (a shield with Medusa's head bolted to it) as a gift from her protege, the hero Perseus, who slew Medusa.
- Arachne claimed she could sew better than the Goddess of Arts (and most everything else), Athena. When it turned out she wasn't lying (in some versions, she actually was because what mortal is conceivably better than a god? They can do magic!), she got turned into the first spider (arachnid).
- Another version has Arachne boasting she was better than Athena at weaving or sewing and then actually beating her. Athena, angry that even one mortal beat her at something, simply killed her. Afterwards she felt anguished and instead turned Arachne into the first spider, who was very excellent at weaving webs.
- Achilles in Homer's The Iliad refused to leave his tent and help the Greeks fight even after Agamemnon apologized for their meaningless spat earlier. He ended up with a Dead Sidekick.
- Later on in The Odyssey, Odysseus blinds the cyclops Polyphemus, and tells Polyphemus "Nobody" did it, so that when the other cyclops asked who blinded him, Polyphemus could only reply, "Nobody." Of course, this plan failed, when Odysseus became so proud of his feat he yelled to Polyphemus to remember the man who blinded him, Odysseus, son of Laertes, King of Ithaca. Polyphemus' dad, who just happened to be Poseidon, overheard this, and stranded Odysseus on Calypso's island for seven years.
- Both Psyche and Andromeda ended up Chained To A Rock because someone had said they were more beautiful than Aphrodite, who did not tolerate challenges to her Fairest Of Them All.
- Queen Niobe of Thebes once boasted that she was superior to the goddess Leto because, among other things, she had seven sons and seven daughters as compared to the latter's only two children: Apollo and Artemis. It did not end well.
- According to The Bible, this was the reason for Lucifer's fall from grace; he believed he could do a better job at the whole being God thing, and we all know how that ended. In fact, the Bible specifically singles out Pride as the sin most hated by God (though This Troper can't remember the specific verse).
How have you fallen from the heavens, O morning star, son of the dawn! How are you cut down to the ground, you who mowed down the nations! You said in your heart: "I will scale the heavens; Above the stars of God I will set up my throne; I will take my seat on the Mount of Assembly, in the recesses of the North. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will be like the Most High!" Yet down to the nether world you go to the recesses of the pit!
Tabletop Games
- Every bad thing has happened to the mages in the new World Of Darkness, from the Abyss to the released Goetia can be traced back to mages who decided to push the provebial big red button and were too hubristic to consider the consequences of their actions. Indeed, a major theme is that all evil is ultimately human evil in Mage.
- Many Space Marine chapters in Warhammer 40000 have this problem. The last codex had optional disadvantages to represent this, such as We Stand Alone (essentially preventing them from ever getting Inquisitorial allies because they refuse help from anyone). Additionally, although some fall to Chaos through despair or rage, many (such as Horus himself or the Inquisitors who believe they can control Chaos) enter the claws of the Dark Gods due to pride.
- The orks have Flash Gitz, who are this trope personified within ork society, with a fair share of Greed to go with it too. Where normal orks love fighting anything that moves, Flash Gitz are more concerned with getting more teeth (the ork currency, mind you) while spending as little of it as possible, and showing off their highly custimized guns and money to other orks. They are widely disliked amongst normal orks due to these facts for being huge showoffs.
- Tremere, founder of the clan of the same name in Vampire The Masquerade,essentially tore a massive hole in vampiric society and damned himself and all followers to eternal tribulation simply because he was too proud to admit he could fail.
Video Games
- The Shaper Council from the Geneforge series. If you choose to help a faction that opposes them, then they learn the hard way that yes, the rebellion can be a threat to them. Unfortunately, the other factions are often just as arrogant.
- Pride is the Fatal Flaw of Gilgamesh from Fate Stay Night; he is the single-most powerful being in the story, capable of frightening even Avenger — the embodiment of all human evils incarnated in an unlimited source of power... But he never goes all out on people because he is too secure in his own superiority, and it always comes back to bite him in the ass because by the time he gets serious it is already too late.
- Shinji is also overly prideful (with far less justification, too), which (combined with his general uselessness) ultimately leads to his downfall in all three routes (in particular Heaven's Feel).
- Geese...poor, poor Geese. If it weren't for his...excessive pride, he wouldn't be stuck to the pavement like a mancake right now.
- In the original Ridge Racer, the ultimate unlockable vehicle in the game is the black car (officially #13, 13" Racing). Even a good player can expect be passed like they were standing still soon after the starting line, whereupon they will come around the next lap to see their opponent lounging by the black car, waiting for them catch up.
- In Dragon Age: Origins, the Seven Deadly Sins are divided up among five different types of demons: Rage (wrath), Hunger (gluttony), Sloth, Desire (greed, envy, and lust), and Pride. Pride Demons are considered the strongest of the five types by the Chantry because the emotion that they feed off of is the most human and complex.
Webcomics
- Order of the Stick: Vaarsuvius' pride and inability to admit mistake or rely on others is what ultimately causes him/her to accept a Deal With The Devil. There are many mitigating factors, because at the time of making this decision V was traumatized, stressed out after months of frustrating failures and lack of rest to the point where feeling helpless had become V's ultimate weak spot, unaware of certain crucial details in the bargain and close to mindless panic due to the knowledge that his/her loved ones were likely dying torturously at that very time. And last but not least, V had just been pushed off his/her hill of moral confidence (as he/she had believed he/she was accepting the deal as a self-sacrifice to save his/her loved ones, not out of pride) when the fiends caused him/her to question his/her own motives and then left him/her with exactly four seconds to "take it or leave it".
Western Animation
- This is so Tai Lung's Fatal Flaw in Kung Fu Panda that it isn't funny. He became the best kung fu master ever, the only to master all one thousand scrolls, and that still wasn't good enough for him because he wasn't chosen as the Dragon Warrior. He only wanted to make Shifu proud of him, but when told that his father had always been proud of him, all he could focus on was the scroll he'd been denied. And after having it explained to him that the scroll did nothing, he still insisted upon attacking Po to gain whatever 'wisdom' it had given him - because of course, the only way a big, fat panda could ever beat him was with mystical help. Here's hoping if he survived to the sequel, he finally got this pride beaten out of him.
- Darkwing Duck is to pride what Scrooge Mc Duck is to greed and avarice. With a chaser of Loners Are Freaks.
- Don't forget the Care Bears. "Proudheart Cat doesn't have a lot to say, but she's Purrfect In every way ."
- Jafar was this close to complete victory but his unacceptance of any position other then of the most powerful beingon the face of Earth undid him.
Film
- Marsellus: The night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That's pride fucking with you. Fuck pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps.
- The theme of Pride/Vanity as an engine of destruction runs all through the plot of Devlils Advocate, namely because it makes you careless and imprudent or just drags you into the affairs that will for surely and painfully bite you in the ass. Even the father of the sin himself is not invulnerable to its pernicious influence.
Real Life
- This Troper recently finished a book called Demonic Males that states (quite reasonably and with evidence) that every fight - from the smallest brawl to the biggest war - in human society, when you get down to the deepest meanings & reasons (sometimes even subconscious), all boils down to pride.
- Considering that the gist of this book seems to be that "men are like chimpanzees," "men are evil" and "if we become ruled by women, there will be no more wars," I would take the worth of anything the book says with a whopping cartload of salt. This kind of argument is pretty close to the scientific racism of the early 20th century.
- (First troper): ...It was an assignment from my college class, okay?
- CS Lewis said the pretty much the same thing, namely that pride is inherently competitive. Any single desire (for money, women, power, whatever) can eventually reach a point where you have enough of the thing that gaining more would be pointless. The thing with pride is that it doesn't care for the thing itself, only having more of it than everybody else. A billion dollars a year is really enough to get you just about anything you want, but people will try to make even more money just so that they can say that they have more than anyone else.
- He also points out, in The Screwtape Letters, that it is an incredibly easy trap to fall into, because the very act of being a good person in other ways can inspire pride; in fact, the titular demon recommends that his nephew convince a human to be proud of his own humility.
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