History Main / FatalFlaw

** Superman's ArchEnemy ComicBook/LexLuthor has a nasty combination of Pride and Envy; [[FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence he feels oppressed by the mere existence of people who are better than him]], gets super-paranoid about them, and [[EvilCannotComprehendGood cannot comprehend that they might not feel the same]]. The most common target is Superman because he's beloved in a way Lex never is (because Supes is a NiceGuy and Lex tops out at CondescendingCompassion), but quite frankly if it wasn't him Lex would find someone else to [[NeverMyFault blame for his own inadequacies]].
** "ComicBook/HowLuthorMetSuperboy", his Silver Age origin story, is often comically condensed into Lex hating Superboy for making him bald. This isn't ''exactly'' the case; what happened is that after the baldness incident (which happened when Superboy saved Lex from a lab fire), Lex tried to ''upstage'' Superboy repeatedly, which kept going wrong and forcing Superboy to save the day. Lex convinced himself that Superboy was [[EngineeredHeroics engineering his heroics]] to humiliate Lex, instead of Lex humiliating ''himself'' and Superboy dealing with the consequences.

** Likewise, ComicBook/{{Darkseid}} is overconfident (though to be fair, he ''is'' a god and his confidence is better-placed than most other villains), often underestimating his opponents and not using his powers to their full extent.
** ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} has ControlFreak tendencies, often having a VillainousBreakdown when things go south. As Superman points out, this is basically his biggest weakness. Due to his absolute need to be in control of everything, Brainiac pretty much always works alone (and his rare team-ups are guaranteed to end in backstabbing), with his only consistent 'allies' being either his machines or people under mind control. By contrast, Superman always has friends and allies backing him, often giving him the edge over the alien.

** Theatre/TitusAndronicus' unyielding insistance on tradition leads him to make two horrible decisions in the very first scene — the murder of Alarbus and the crowning of Saturninus — both of which collectively set up play's gruesome bloodbath.

** Theatre/TitusAnronicus' unyielding insistance on tradition leads him to make two horrible decisions in the very first scene — the murder of Alarbus and the crowning of Saturninus — both of which collectively set up play's gruesome bloodbath.

** [[Theatre/JuliusCaesar Brutus]] is extremely honorable and expects others to be, or [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation possibly]] self-centered and susceptible to flattery.
** Richard, Duke of Gloucester, a.k.a [[MagnificentBastard Richard III]], has a callous disregard for human life and an irrational lust for the crown.
** Theatre/{{Macbeth}} is blinded by power and paranoia and plagued by guilt. He's also very wrathful.
** Lady Macbeth is overly ambitious.

** Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet are so obsessed with each other they forget about anything else. Romeo is a bit of a hothead, too. Friar Lawrence also thought his plan was CrazyEnoughToWork.
** Theatre/AntonyAndCleopatra similarly allow their obsessions with one another to override any sensible political judgement, so that they needlessly make an enemy of Octavian.

** Theatre/KingLear is far too proud. This causes him to exile and disown his beloved, youngest daughter who tells him the truth and gets himself stabbed in the back by his two eldest daughters who tell him what he wants to hear.
** Goneril and Regan (Lear's back-stabbing daughters) are destroyed by their shared fatal flaw: ''lust''. Their mutual attraction to Edmund from Act IV onward turns them against each other, [[spoiler:culminating in a MurderSuicide during the final scene]].
** Theatre/{{Coriolanus}} is horribly arrogant and contemptuous of both the common people of Rome and his fellow politicians. He also flies into a near-murderous rage whenever someone calls him a traitor.

Heroes have a Fatal Flaw which they wrestle with on a consistent basis. This may open them up for specific conflicts later—when a protagonist's fatal flaw is encountered through the course of a plot, the audience's reaction is very tense. This works for [[VillainAntagonist villains]] as well, usually being the character trait that drives their evil in the story and the trait that causes them to make a mistake that lets the hero defeat them.

This is not to be confused with what Creator/{{Aristotle}} calls ''hamartia'', also a key part of {{Tragedy}}. A hamartia is a mistake or error a hero makes which leads to his undoing. It is '''not''' the same as a fatal flaw (though the two often overlap). This confusion arose from the misunderstanding of Aristotle's Poetics in the 19th Century.

Heroes have a Fatal Flaw which they wrestle with on a consistent basis. This may open them up for specific conflicts later—when a protagonist's fatal flaw is encountered through the course of a plot, the audience's reaction is very tense. This works for [[VillainAntagonist villains]] as well, usually being the character trait that drives their evil in the story.

* Vanity is Wrestling/CodyRhodes fatal flaw.

* [[StoppedCaring Disillusion]]

* In ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage'', Raphael's major character flaws are his temper and his tendency to act alone (two things which echo down in most of his incarnations).[[spoiler:In ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTheLastRonin'', these flaws got him killed.]]

* In ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage'', Raphael's major character flaws are his temper and his tendency to act alone (two things which echo down in most of his incarnations).[[spoiler: In ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesTheLastRonin'', these flaws got him killed.]]

-->'''Rorschach''': No. Not even in the face of Armageddon. Never compromise.

** Manfred von Karma has Perfectionism, which he passed down to his protege Edgeworth and his daughter Franziska. Just being a really good prosecutor wasn't enough; he had to have an absolutely ''perfect'' win record, and he didn't care if he cheated to do it. Edgeworth eventually wised up and Franziska was never as ruthless as she liked to claim, but Manfred kept that flaw for 40 years [[spoiler: to the point that a singular penalty infuriated him so badly that, given an opportunity, he ''killed'' the defense lawyer responsible.]]
** Distrust is another repeat one. The defense lawyer Roger Hammond ruined his client Yanni Yogi's life because he never trusted his clients (and so forced the guy to plead [[InsanityDefense Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity]], when Yogi really ''was'' innocent), and [[spoiler: Matt Engarde manages to [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat ruin his own case by trying to blackmail the assassin he hired]] (the assassin having treachery from clients as his BerserkButton) because, being a backstabbing sociopath himself, he didn't trust that the assassin wouldn't turn on him.]]

** Morgan Fey has Envy. She was passed over as Master of the Fey clan in favor of her younger sister Misty because Misty's spiritual powers were stronger, and she's never really gotten over it. [[spoiler: She ''twice'' tries to orchestrate Maya's death because Maya is next in line to become Master, while Morgan's daughter Pearl is next after Maya.]] The main villain of ''Spirit of Justice'' shares this flaw, [[spoiler: having likewise not become Queen of Khura'in because she had no spiritual powers and her sister did, and she eventually staged a coup to take the throne.]]

** [[spoiler: Kristoph Gavin]] has several such flaws, such as elitism, an inability to let go of the past, and [[INeverSaidItWasPoison an absolute inability to keep his trap shut about information he shouldn't know]], but his truest fatal flaw is so deeply ingrained that even ''he'' doesn't know about it: [[spoiler: envy. He absolutely cannot stand anyone else eclipsing him in skill, or even the ''insinuation'' that anyone else is better than he is, which is why he ruined Phoenix's career; a prominent client fired him in favor of Phoenix, so he decided to frame Phoenix for forgery in revenge.]]
** Wocky Kitalki has Naivete; he ''really'' doesn't understand what being a gangster entails and is quick to trust people he really shouldn't, [[spoiler: like his girlfriend Alita Tiala]].
** Florent L'Belle's main flaw is Vanity; the cosmetics he invented really are quite ingenious and he could get filthy rich selling them, but he just can't stand the thought of "peasants" being able to emulate his look and so sticks to only using them for himself. [[spoiler: He actually in severe debt because of this, which leads him to resort to theft and murder]].
** [[spoiler: [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies The phantom]]]] has Paranoia; they could have easily escaped the game scot-free with no one even knowing of their involvement, but they just ''had'' to get rid of anything that might remotely incriminate them... which of course put them in a position to get all their crimes exposed in front of a courtroom.
** Geiru Toneido has her desire to live up to her father, a famous Rakugo performer, despite not having his talent. [[spoiler: She had pinned so much of her hopes and dreams on rakugo that her mentor giving her father's stage name to someone else caused her to kill him in a fit of rage and frame his other disciple out of envy. He'd actually wanted her to realize that she was making herself miserable by focusing so heavily on rakugo and to set her free to pursue something she ''actually'' loved.]]
** Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in has ambition and despotism. Her desire for the throne and need to stamp out any potential opposition earns her no shortage of enemies, especially once the actions of Wright and co. expose how despotic her rule is. [[spoiler: In the end, Apollo figures out her claim to the throne is false since he manages to link her obsession with power to her desire for the Founder's Orb and the spiritual power it's said to bestow in order to come to the conclusion that Garan has no spiritual power of her own (and thus no proper claim to the throne by the laws of the kingdom). When Apollo exposes this in front of the court, her demands for a lawyer are shot down by the fact that there are no more lawyers due to her own laws, and she's forced to expose herself as the fraud she truly is, destroying what little support her regime had left.]]
** The villain of ''Turnabout Time-Traveller'' is called a time traveller because his fatal flaw is an utter inability to move on from [[spoiler: his failure to save his fiancee Selena Sprocket]], which causes him to mastermind a murder plot specifically to hurt [[spoiler: Sorin, who he blames for Serena's death because Sorin caused a car crash that nearly killed both him and Serena, and Pierce's choice to save Sorin first cost Serena her life]].

*** Speaking of Kazuma Asogi, his problem is his recklessness and tendency to get tunnel-vision in supporting his goals; [[spoiler: he signs up as an ''assassin'' (though he tries to reassure Ryuunosuke he had no intention of actually going through with murder) because it would get him to England to investigate his father's death, and he nearly plays right into Mael Stronghart's plans by convicting Barok as the Reaper because he personally had a grudge against Barok, though thankfully Ryuunosuke is able to get through to him in time.]]
*** Barok van Zieks tends to lose his ability to think rationally when people he genuinely cares for are involved. His more obvious flaw, his racism, is actually spun off from this.[[spoiler: The reason he convicted Genshin Asogi as [[SerialKiller the Professor]] despite the obvious signs that it was a frame-up was because the ''other'' option was that his beloved older brother Klint was the Professor. Klint really ''was'' the Professor and Barok had all the necessary evidence to realize this... but he just couldn't bring himself to think his brother was a murderer. He instead convinced himself that YellowPeril was a thing to avoid believing that either his brother or his close friend were monsters.]]
*** Mael Stronghart is a ControlFreak. [[spoiler: Which is why he set up the whole 'Reaper of Old Bailey' thing surrounding Barok and blackmailed Klint into killing people for him; he just can't accept that England's justice system might work ''just fine'' without him.]]

** Sakura Oogami's flaw is her HonorBeforeReason. Her devotion to her family's dojo allows [[spoiler: Junko to blackmail her by threatening it]], which ultimately leads to her death [[spoiler: by suicide, in lieu of following Junko's orders to kill another student]].
** Celeste Ludenburg has Lack of Trust. As a gambler and a ConsummateLiar, Celeste can't trust anyone. [[spoiler: She's the third culprit, because she couldn't trust the other students and Alter Ego to overturn the game, and instead decided to play it in her desperation to get out.]]

** Kyoko Kirigiri's fatal flaw is IWorkAlone. She is genuinely trying to figure out the Mastermind's plot so she can stop it, but her habit of going off on her own without telling anyone where she is leads to other students seeing her as suspicious [[spoiler: and plays into the Mastermind's plan to frame her]].
** [[spoiler: Mukuro Ikasuba]]'s flaw is [[ExtremeDoormat Blind Devotion]]. Even if she personally doesn't want to go through with something, she'll do it if [[spoiler: Junko]] asks, due both to emotional abuse and her training as the Ultimate Soldier. It also means that she has a severe blind spot about people she sees as commanding officers. [[spoiler: She helps Junko with the Ultimate Despair plan despite it involving her friends and crushed being brutally tortured and murdered, and she dies because she never realized that Junko really ''would'' kill her on a whim.]]
** [[spoiler: Junko Enoshima]] has Lust, though not the usual version. Rather, they will take ''any'' opportunity for stimulation, even if said opportunity is exactly counter towards their normal plans. [[spoiler: Junko killed her boyfriend and sister, both useful assets to her, just because she wanted to feel some momentary despair from killing loved ones. And when she's caught out in the first game, she doesn't try to regain control or to escape to continue her plans, instead executing ''herself'' because she liked the idea of despairing at seeing her plans fail.]]

** Nagito Komaeda, ironically enough, has Despair as his fatal flaw. Despite being such a [[LoveFreak Hope Freak]], he's never really experienced it for himself due to being a CosmicPlaything. Because of this, he breaks down when he can't lie to himself about having hope anymore. [[spoiler: This leads to him attempting to kill everyone on the island when he learns of their past as members of Ultimate Despair.]]

** Kirumi Tojo has Perfectionism. She will always go above and beyond to fulfil any task given to her, [[spoiler: which leads to her murdering Ryoma when she's led to believe that staying in school would lead to her failing in her role as Japan's effective Prime Minister.]]

** Tenko Chabashira's protectiveness over Himiko almost directly results in [[spoiler: her death, literally volunteering to take Himiko's face in a death trap, albeit unknowingly.]]

** Kokichi's is his constant lying to everyone. Though his lying tendencies do help out the group and allow him to outwit the culprits several times, it also gets in the way when he's genuinely trying to accomplish a goal and the other students don't believe him. It really comes back to bite him in the aftermath of Chapter Four [[spoiler: Miu and Gonta are dead, which is almost entirely his fault, and the group turn their backs on him when he falsely claims to be the Mastermind. When the group are shown a Flashback Light concerning Ultimate Despair, they assume Kokichi is a member. When Kokichi kidnaps Kaito, Maki goes after Kokichi and confronts him. When Kokichi tells her (truthfully) that he has no idea what she's talking about, Maki naturally doesn't believe him and shoots him with a poisoned arrow, which will slowly kill him.]]
** Himiko has two, her childishness and unwillingness to face her feelings. During the second trial, she [[SkewedPriorities thinks her magic show is more important than clearing suspicion of her]], so she stubbornly refuses to explain how her trick works until Shuichi figures it out himself and she's forced to confirm it. She's also a major suspect in two different trials because her childish nature makes her an easy target to frame. Then in the third trial, her grief over [[spoiler: Tenko's death]] looks fake because up until then, she expressed nothing but annoyance towards her. It's only when Himiko remembers Tenko's last words to her, that [[CharacterDevelopment Himiko is finally able to finally grieve for them and begin to express herself to honour her friend's memory.]]

** Tsumugi's flaw is her escapist tendencies; she immerses herself in the fictional worlds she cosplays to the point of actively rejecting reality. [[spoiler: She's ''such'' a fangirl of ''Danganronpa'' that she helped re-create the killing game and killed two people herself (killed Rantaro and got Kaede framed for it) as the Mastermind, and dies in the end because she couldn't bring herself to end the franchise.]]

** Kiritsugu wanted to save the world. It cost him [[spoiler:his wife]], [[spoiler:his daughter]], and his life. He admitted that he had never done a single act of good, nor saved a single person, until he pulled Shirou from the fire [[spoiler: which was caused by his own actions]].

** Carolina's {{Pride}} and her need to be better than Agent Texas has caused several issues for herself, her teammates and others. By taking the two A.I. meant for Washington and South so she could compete with Tex, Carolina only fueled South's envy and eventually [[spoiler: resulting in South leaving her brother for dead]]. During a training simulation with Tex to capture the flag, Carolina accidentally [[spoiler: killed Biff, Temple's dearest friend]] and callously dismissed the event, having been more focused on defeating Tex. This would lead to [[spoiler: Temple's StartOfDarkness and years later, hatch a plot to kill all remaining freelancers and the UNSC due to the latter's involvement.]]

** Sarge's flaw is his [[BloodKnight need for war]]; he's a ShellShockedVeteran who doesn't know what to do with himself if he isn't fighting someone. This is why he's so adamant on fighting the Blues even when it's fairly obvious that the fight is unnecessary and made-up. [[spoiler: It's also why he temporarily joins the Blues and Reds before coming to his senses.]]

** Tucker's fatal flaw is surprisingly ''not'' [[CasanovaWannabe Lust]]. It's his tendency to make [[LeeroyJenkins reckless decisions]]. [[spoiler: It's this flaw that causes Wash to get shot in the battle with the Blues and Reds, taking him and Locus out of the equation and later giving him brain damage.]]

** [[LightningBruiser Harriet Bree]] has two, her loyalty to Ironwood and determination to follow orders. [[spoiler: At the climax of Volume 8, despite the rest of the Ace-Ops realizing how far Ironwood has fallen and turning on him, Harriet not only continues to support him, but attempts to personally carry out his plan to bomb Mantle on principle. By the time she comes to her senses, Dr. Watts has hacked the bomb so it can't be stopped, and Vine is forced to sacrifice himself to protect everyone else from the explosion; Harriet is left horrified and grief-stricken over the fact that someone she cared about is dead as a direct result of her actions.]]

** Fishy Boopkins' flaw is his [[ThePollyanna naïve, friendly nature.]] Boopkins is one of the few main characters who is unambiguously nice. It's his biggest strength, as he manages to befriend characters that the others would normally never have a chance of doing so (he proves instrumental in recruiting Axol), but it's also his biggest weakness as he's a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter, which leads to him [[UnwittingPawn being manipulated by people]] (Bob), keeping company that most people would find unsavory (Saiko, Bob) or straight up [[TheFarmerAndTheViper repaying his kindness with evil acts]] ([[spoiler: Waluigi, the Anime Cartel,]] [[RuleOfThree Bob]]). For better or worse, it's his most prominent character trait aside for his love for anime.
** Bob's flaw is his [[GloryHound desire for fame]]. Bob desperately craves approval and attention from others, and will do anything to get it, even if it means doing morally dubious actions like betraying his friends or [[spoiler: engineering events so he can look good]]. Even when he does get recognition, his unquenchable thirst for more fame usually leads to him [[LaserGuidedKarma ruining whatever good he has going for him in the first place.]]

*** Her competitive spirit often causes her to become overzealous when it comes to training, which usually leads to trouble whenever she ropes her friends into joining her. Meggy often pushes her teammates way too hard and is extremely harsh when they fail to meet her personal high standards. [[spoiler: "Meggy's Bootcamp" reveals that this overly competitive desire stems from her self-esteem being damaged by her failures in the Splatfests, and her guilt over treating her friends like crap only makes her feel worse.]]
*** She keeps her real emotions hidden behind a confident mask, bottling all of them up. [[spoiler: When her suppressed emotions become too much to handle she lashes out at anyone nearby, which only makes her undergo HeroicSelfDeprecation, which she [[ViciousCycle tries to hide by bottling her emotions up]]... "Meggy's Bootcamp" and "There's Something Up With Meggy..." show the effects of this, with Meggy having a HeelRealization in both episodes before running away and when confronted, [[HeroicBSOD breaking down in tears or shutting down entirely.]]]]

** Haley's flaw is greed, although unlike most examples, she's vaguely justified in this: [[spoiler: her father is being ransomed for a small fortune and she became an adventurer to get enough money to save him from further imprisonment.]] At one point, the gold and treasure she owns is destroyed in a fire, and Haley's shock is so great that it renders her ''literally'' unable to speak for the next hundred or so strips. (One of the reasons she likes [[WideEyedIdealist Elan]] so much is because [[ThePowerOfLove his presence]] encourages her away from this.)

** Nale is a SmugSnake who thinks ItsAllAboutMe. [[{{Pride}} His massive ego]] and tendency to slip into EvilGloating have only hampered his ability to competently execute plans in the past, resulting in numerous defeats and a trail of kobold corpses in his wake. It's even noted in-universe that if Nale wasn't such an arrogant egomaniac, he would actually be dangerous. [[spoiler: He ends up in over his head when he makes a series of incredibly short-sighted choices on account of his pride, which first costs him Girard's gate, then his adventuring party, and finally his life.]]

** Arlo's fixation on keeping to the school's established power hierarchy keeps Arlo stuck from ever trying to improve the bullying problems that go on amongst the school's lower tiers, [[spoiler: which he finally becomes aware of after a group of Mid-tier students kidnapped and beat up a depowered Sera.]] John eventually calls him out for it in chapter 132, and threatens to destroy the hierarchy that Arlo is desperately trying to hold on to.

* LetsPlay/SomethingAwfulDungeonsAndDragons: Minerelle's Cowardice, Joey's Greed, Miriam's [[UnstoppableRage Anger]], Gibnaf's [[ChronicHeroSyndrome Idealism]], and Kod's Pride. [[spoiler: The former is particularly notable as Minerelle's strict running policy led her away from Joey and Kod, meaning when she went down there was no one to save her from being KilledOffForReal.]]

** Florent L'Belle's main flaw is Vanity; the cosmetics he invented really are quite ingenious and he could get filthy rich selling them, but he just can't stand the thought of "peasants" being able to emulate his look and so sticks to only using them for himself.

** The Space Marines' blind obedience to their Primarchs.

** The C'Tan's gluttony which led them to feast on each other.
** The Chaos Gods' selfishness which is why cooperation between them is impossible, and ultimately why they will never win.
** The Orks' love of fighting for its own sake.

** The Ethereal Caste it self has adopted a belief that the T'au would be better off not knowing about what goes on throughout the rest of the galaxy, out of either fear that the truth would shake the faith in "The Greater Good" or simply losing their political power, mirroring several of the same mistakes the Emperor made with the Imperium.
** The Adeptus Mechanicus' insatiable curiosity for LostTechnology has greatly slowed the Imperium's ability and willingness to adopt new designs, causing further items to become LostTechnology due to their unwillingness to make or study anything that lacks an available Standard Template Construction. As well as accidentally awakening a number of Necron Tombs.

*** Rogal Dorn's {{Determinator}} tendencies often translated as AttackAttackAttack in battle. He didn't know when to stop. The Iron Cage incident exploited this and his legion was decimated as a result.

*** Mortarian's confidence issues led to him seeing council from the wrong people.

* [[YouCantFightFate Fatalism]]

** ''When Lex Luthor Met Superboy'', his Silver Age origin story, is often comically condensed into Lex hating Superboy for making him bald. This isn't ''exactly'' the case; what happened is that after the baldness incident (which happened when Superboy saved Lex from a lab fire), Lex tried to ''upstage'' Superboy repeatedly, which kept going wrong and forcing Superboy to save the day. Lex convinced himself that Superboy was [[EngineeredHeroics engineering his heroics]] to humiliate Lex, instead of Lex humiliating ''himself'' and Superboy dealing with the consequences.
** ''ComicBook/TheBlackRing'' has what's probably the ultimate example of this flaw. Lex spends a long storyline grappling with most of the [=DCU=]'s other big name villains for a shot at [[PhysicalGod physical godhood]]. At the end, he gets it, with the caveat that he can't use his power to harm others. He's okay with this at first and uses his power to banish suffering from the universe... and then realizes that 'can't harm others' includes Superman. Total time with unlimited cosmic powers: less than 5 minutes.

* [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]]'s fatal flaw is his egomaniacism.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''
** The Emperor's arrogance and detachment from humanity. He never felt the need to explain himself, and assumed that no one would betray or disobey him regardless of what he did. He also couldn't comprehend people's seeming need to believe in a higher power, and thus never believed that his own anti-religious actions would eventually lead to his people worshiping him, as the priest in The Last Church rightly observed.

** The Tau's belief in The Greater Good. It's heavily implied their tolerance for other cultures and liberal ideology will lead to the extinction of their species, especially in a universe where [[ReligionOfEvil Chaos]] exists. Latter editions redefined this to being too trusting of the Ethereal Caste's teachings, with the Ethereals themselves intentionally hiding unpleasant truths, that they're completely not prepared to face some of the threats out there or seeing some of their side's own questionable actions and hypocrisy.

*** The Lion was a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter who couldn't read or relate to other people.

*** Angron... Where to begin? His uncontrollable rage, his obsession with avenging his comrades, his resentment against his father for letting them all die, his inability to relate with any of his brothers because of the pain of losing his old ones on his homeworld, his NeverMyFault tendencies which made him very hard to like... Poor guy.

*** Lorgar always sought a higher meaning to dedicate himself to. When the Emperor rejected him, he turned to Chaos.

*** And finally, Horus Lupercal himself, who above all other things wanted glory. He hated sharing credit with his brothers and eventually he hated sharing credit with the Emperor.

* OlderThanFeudalism: Pretty much all ancient Greek tragedies had a main character or characters with a ''hamartia'', which is often translated to English as "fatal flaw." While the actual plot device isn't ''exactly'' the trope (it's a bad decision on the heroes' part that causes tragedy), it is usually ''caused'' by a fatal character flaw. It was part of the basic structure for an Ancient Greek tragedy, according to Creator/{{Aristotle}}. [[Theatre/OedipusRex Oedipus]] was headstrong and didn't know when to stop, Creon in ''Theatre/{{Antigone}}'' was proud and was intent on making an example out of Antigone, Antigone was stubbornly committed to her traitorous brother...

** Theatre/{{Macbeth}} is blinded by power and paranoia and [[OutDamnedSpot plagued by guilt]]. He's also very wrathful.

** [[LightingBruiser Harriet Bree]] has two, her loyalty to Ironwood and determination to follow orders. [[spoiler: At the climax of Volume 8, despite the rest of the Ace-Ops realizing how far Ironwood has fallen and turning on him, Harriet not only continues to support him, but attempts to personally carry out his plan to bomb Mantle on principle. By the time she comes to her senses, Dr. Watts has hacked the bomb so it can't be stopped, and Vine is forced to sacrifice himself to protect everyone else from the explosion; Harriet is left horrified and grief-stricken over the fact that someone she cared about is dead as a direct result of her actions.]]

** [[BornLucky Clover Ebi's]] is his loyalty to Ironwood. [[spoiler:In "With Friends Like These", when General Ironwood ordered the arrests of RWBY, JNR, Oscar and Qrow, Clover blindly follows his orders, which is one of the factors that leads to the Manta crashing. During his fight with Qrow and Tyrian, Clover is so focused on following orders that he initially focuses solely on Qrow, leading Tyrian to manipulate the situation in his favour and ultimately kill him.]]

{{Heroes}} have a Fatal Flaw which they wrestle with on a consistent basis. This may open them up for specific conflicts later—when a protagonist's fatal flaw is encountered through the course of a plot, the audience's reaction is very tense. This works for [[VillainAntagonist villains]] as well, usually being the character trait that drives their evil in the story.

* [[AnythingThatMoves Sexual promiscuity]]

** Jin Kirigiri, headmaster of Hope's Peak, had his devotion to the academy's mission. His desire to help talented students succeed in life meant that he had a tendency to overlook the fact that some of his more talented students were ''spectacularly'' unstable people who would likely use those talents for evil. The Steering Committee he reported to were even worse in this regard, as at least Jin realized enough was enough when a student (who was enrolled behind his back) manipulated the Student Council into murdering each other. The Steering Committee covered the incident up.

* {{Claustrophobia}}
* [[TheKlutz Clumsiness]]

** Saber's selflessness was her downfall in life. [[spoiler:As King Arthur]], she chose to become her ideal of the perfect regent, ruling [[TheStoic without surrendering to her emotions]] and [[TheNeedsOfTheMany taking every action possible for the good and safety of her kingdom]]. However her perfectly just rule and emotional distance from the people led to many feeling [[UncannyValley she was in some way inhuman]]. This in turn led to civil war started by [[spoiler:Mordred, the "[[SamusIsAGirl son]]" created by Morgan le Fay [[IHaveNoSon whose love she rejected]] and [[LoveMakesYouEvil subsequently allowed to turn to hate]]]], and her death.