History Main / InformedFlaw

** Luffy's Gear Second supposedly places a great toll on his body, and in the Thriller Bark arc, one arc after he starts using it, Usopp gets quite worried about how much Luffy relies on it. Since then, Luffy's used Gear Second in most of his major fights, at least until he breaks out Gear Fourth, and the toll it takes on him has been gradually downplayed over time.

** Likewise, Peter's boss, Angela, is also portrayed as being ugly and not worth having sex with. Other than Angela's breasts sagging down when they're revealed, she looks pretty plain.

** ''Film/AntMan1'' presents Scott Lang as an incompetent everyman who is always screwing up -- as he's introduced just getting released from prison. But his backstory for going to prison is that he was essentially a hacking Robin Hood who was screwed over by his bosses when he discovered them doing illegal things. The Blog/UnshavedMouse had this to say:
--->[[https://unshavedmouse.com/2019/01/31/12451/ "And, once again, I must remind you that the guy these movies insist is a perennial fuckup is a qualified electrical engineer, vigilante cat burglar who uses his skills to fight social injustice and also the world’s greatest Dad and that was BEFORE he became a superhero. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling thoroughly inadequate."]]

Clumsiness is by far the most popular of the informed flaws, since it can be showcased once (so that another character can heroically save them) and then doesn't affect the plot or actually detract from the character's personality or motivations for the rest of the narrative. Alternatively it can be used a few times for comedic effect but can also be ignored as the plot demands.

** In "The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place", Watson mentions for the first and only time that he spends half his wound pension gambling on horse races. For story purposes this is mostly [[SuddenlyAlwaysKnewThat an excuse for him to know something about people associated with the sport]], but he had never really shown much interest in this before (or mentioned spending that much time making bets or watching races). Some adaptations have run with this somewhat offhand remark and given Watson a general compulsive gambling problem.

* The French in ''ComicBook/{{Crecy}}'' are presented as monstrous terrors that have oppressed England for centuries which basically forces the English to engage [[ObligatoryWarCrimeScene war crimes]] in order to combat their enemies. However, the narrative doesn't particularly portrays them as anymore value than the English, and given the context of the conflict, it's the ''English'' who come off as worse since they are the aggressors and the French are merely defending themselves.

* ''Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera2004'' has Carlotta, supposedly a talentless case of ThePrimaDonna; her assistants are shown listening to her singing with earplugs on. She's noted to be blown out of the water by Christine, as well. But in the actual film, Carlotta's singing is significantly better than Christine's; even if you take TechnicianVsPerformer into account, they actually had to alter some songs from the stage version due to Emily Rossum's inability to sing them properly. Carlotta does [[HollywoodToneDeaf scoop a few times in her otherwise skilled performances]], and it's called attention to, but Christine does as well, and it isn't. Especially egregious since Minnie Driver was [[NonSingingVoice dubbed by Margaret Preece]] due to her lack of proficiency with opera.

!!Examples:

[[folder:Video Games]]
* According to ''[[VideoGame/ArtOfFighting Art of Fighting's]]'' canon, Kyokugen's Ryuugeki discipline is said to be flawed, due to the severe imbalances of focusing almost exclusively on kicks. Which places it below the Kooh discipline (used by [[HeirToTheDojo Ryo]]) that emphasizes equal activity between the arms and legs. Tell that to [[SharpDressedMan Robert]], 'cuz apparently, he didn't get that memo. Not only is he canonically stated to be Ryo's equal, he's been described as "a natural genius" [[DefeatMeansRespect by friend and foe alike]], and has defeated some of the most proficient martial artists in [[Creator/{{SNK}} SNK's]] [[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters universe.]]
* For someone so supposedly afraid of her past and future, VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}} doesn't seem very afraid to charge ahead and massacre anything in the way of her getting her memories back.
* ''VideoGame/{{Blazblue}}'':
** [[TheCutie Noel]] [[TheGunslinger Vermillion]] is stated in-universe to be a poor physical combatant with little in the way of athletic skill. In gameplay, however, she's a textbook FragileSpeedster and her fighting style is very acrobatic, with plenty of graceful jumps and flips. Heck, [[MurderousThighs just look at her standing neutral throw]].
** Kokonoe likes to say that Sector Seven are “total idiots” by releasing [[TheBerserker Azrael]]. As it turns out, [[spoiler:they put a limiter on Azrael basically preventing him from hurting ANYONE unless they desire to fight in the first place. The only exceptions seems to be Ragna, Tager, and Kokonoe but they’re exactly his targets.]] To be fair to Kokonoe, even if she knew about the limiter in advance, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out ways to circumvent it; Azrael nearly cripples a Sector Seven soldier with a “light pat on the back”. If he put the energy into it, he probably could have demolished Sector Seven on his own, restraints or otherwise.
* ''Videogame/DarkestDungeon'' has this as a ''mechanic.'' Because of the way the quirk system works it is entirely possible to have a melee character with a damage, accuracy and critical chance reduction to ranged attacks (and vice versa).
* Big Hat Logan in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' is said to be famously antisocial, with him wearing his famous big hat in order to block out the people around him. When you actually meet him, he is nothing but friendly and helpful.
* In ''VideoGame/Doom2016,'' The Slayer Testaments establish that the demons are ''absolutely terrified'' of [[OneManArmy The]] [[TheBerserker Doom]] [[HorrifyingTheHorror Slayer.]] He reputedly drove them over the DespairEventHorizon at least once when he defeated a Titan in single combat and had to be [[SealedGoodInACan buried alive]] in order to finally be stopped. However, when you fight the demons in game, none of them show even the faintest hint of fear. None of them retreat, beg, surrender, or offer to betray their peers in exchange for mercy. Instead, they [[WeHaveReserves throw themselves at the Slayer without hesitation]], fighting him to the last breath with the same expressions of rage and contempt on their faces that they show for their weaker victims.
* A plot point in ''VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin: Defender of the Future'' is that the Foe stole virtues (actual literal virtues, like Compassion and Intelligence) from the dolphins. In practice, the altered dolphins don't ''completely'' lack these traits, though to be fair the game does usually at least imply reasons why. The ancestors of the Man's Nightmare dolphins lacked their ''native'' Intelligence, but they were later [[UpliftedAnimal uplifted to sapience by humans]]. The Dolphin's Nightmare dolphins lack Compassion, but in a village that's right above the globe that contains the virtue, there's a dolphin desperate to save his sick father; the implication is that he's being affected by the globe.
* In ''VideoGame/FateExtra CCC'', Elizabeth Bathory is said to have zero talent for writing songs and is tone-deaf, to the point that her Noble Phantasm is belting out a song through castle sized amplifiers (though one might argue that any sound blasted out of amps that powerful would be severely damaging). In ''VideoGame/FateExtellaTheUmbralStar'', we do hear her sing, and while the lyrics are trashy, her actual singing is very good. All the characters still react as though it grates on their ears. Stories have varied for why this is -- one of the more common explanations is that Liz's voice is essentially her BreathWeapon (being part dragon), and it's less her lack of talent and more that she's throwing sonic magic into her song that makes it unpleasant.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyThe4HeroesOfLight'', each of the kids has to get over their flaws to reunite and save the world--Aire the RoyalBrat, Brandt trying IneffectualLoner, Jusqua getting more heart of gold in his [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Jerk With A]]. Yunita is variously described as TheLoad, prideful, or an IneffectualLoner by the others, but since her experience in the first half is getting hit with the backlash of ''their'' issues, we never really see this apart from some subtle indications that are open to interpretation.
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' has the character of Kishuna, who was rejected as a failure by Nergal because of his frail body. This tends to throw players for a loop, as Kishuna in gameplay is a massive StoneWall with HP and evasion only matched by the final bosses, a permanent field of AntiMagic surrounding him, and the ability to teleport on top of this (which he tends to do so whenever he seems endangered). This makes him one of the most difficult enemies to take down; the standard strategy is to just pray for a crit. He can't attack at all, but it's rather hard to imagine Nergal couldn't find some way to put such a phenomenal asset to good use.
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'': The ending says Aran became known for his honest, if clumsy, work. However, none of his ([[DemotedToExtra admittedly little]]) dialogue suggests that he is clumsy at all, and his fantastic Skill growth would imply that he's not clumsy at all.
* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEchoesShadowsOfValentia'', Clair is said to not get along with her future sister-in-law Mathilda, and disapproves of her seeing Clair's older brother Clive. Apart from one offscreen moment in which [[JerkassBall Clair apparently criticized Mathilda for overshadowing Clive]], and once getting annoyed when Mathilda claims to know Clive best at the end of the third [[DownloadableContent Rise of the Deliverance map]], Clair is completely respectful to Mathilda.
* On the Crimson Flower route of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', several characters will deride [[TheWisePrince Dimitri]] as being extremely violent, vengeance-driven, and extensively hateful towards [[VillainProtagonist Edelgard]] (the Main Lord of this route). These are all true...on every route ''other'' than Crimson Flower, ironically. This is the only route in the game where instead of being nearly executed and forced into exile, Dimitri is crowned King of Faerghus fairly quickly, has the support of the [[KnightTemplar Knights of Seiros]] due to the Kingdom's positive relationship with the church, and he puts his need for answers regarding [[DarkAndTroubledPast the Tragedy of Duscur]] on the back burner. Not only is he far more level-headed compared to the other three routes, but his anger towards Edelgard and the player is also generally more justified, as here you're invading both Faerghus and [[TheAlliance the Leicester Alliance]] and forcibly reuniting them under the Empire, in addition to gunning for [[FinalBoss Rhea]] and the Church of Seiros. It also makes Edelgard's derision of his anger at her come off as [[ItsAllAboutMe lacking in self-awareness,]] given that his grievances on this route are all about her causing the war to begin with.
* Garet in the original ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' is mentioned by his little brother to be a [[BigEater compulsive glutton]]. This is never mentioned again in canon (though [[SpinOffspring Tyrell]] gives it a CallBack in ''Dark Dawn''). Likewise, the official Nintendo strategy guide for ''The Lost Age'' directly describes [[TheBrute Agatio]] as "... [[DumbMuscle [lacking] substance between the ears]]". This is the guy who outwits [[TheChessmaster Alex]] to his face, and later sabotages Isaac's party because he knows he won't win a fair fight with them. Lacking substance ''he ain't''.
* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' Michael is repeatedly teased and mocked for being overweight. However, Michael doesn't look close to being overweight. He starts the game with the most stamina of the three protagonists and he does most of the field work during missions.
* ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' has Madison Paige who is stated to be suffering from insomnia. In her first playable sequence, she can't sleep due to her insomnia, but she's perfectly fine and fully alert for the rest of the game. She also is able to have a peaceful sleep in one scene where [[spoiler: she has sex with Ethan]]. There's also Scott Shelby, a pretty overweight man in his 40s who also suffers from asthma. In his first scene, Scott reaches for his inhaler due to the bad weather triggering his asthma, but he never needs it again afterwards. Despite Scott being out of shape, [[spoiler: he can easily keep up with Madison in the final chapter and go toe to toe with Norman, who is an FBI agent that is in much better shape.]]
* ''VideoGame/HypnospaceOutlaw'': While many of the "bad" musicians on the video game's fictional internet achieve StylisticSuck, Chowder Man gets more heat than he deserves. In-universe, he's treated like a hack. The actual music Music/HotDad wrote for him is musically solid, despite (or [[NarmCharm because of]]) lyrics that reflect Chowder Man's hilariously inflated ego and total lack of self-awareness.
* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'':
** [[TheHero Sora]] few of this:
*** Master Yen Sid throws Sora into the Dream Worlds in ''3D'' to train under the notion that Sora's self-taught style is going to be insufficient to handle the upcoming battles, [[DudeWheresMyRespect to which Sora objects]]. It's hard to disagree with Sora when all the amazing things he could already do in ''I'' and ''II'' were done with no formal training at all. He'd already beaten Xehanort and his forces several times by that point.
*** In ''III'', the story frequently states that Sora can't do anything without someone there by his side, and that's the reason why he failed the Mark of Mastery exam. Previous games show Sora defeating plenty of enemies and managing to survive even when his friends weren't around. And the reason why he failed the Mark of Mastery exam is because Xehanort hijacked the exam and put Sora into a deep nightmare that put his heart to sleep by the darkness, as Xehanort wanted to make Sora his final vessel for his new Organization. Also, Sora unlocked all seven sleeping keyholes (which was his and Riku's task for the exam), but Xehanort interfered and caused most of Sora's powers to be stripped away from him, including the new power he was supposed to acquire for unlocking the seven sleeping keyholes known as the Power of Waking. This all means that, by any metric, Sora passed the exam and proved to be just fine on his own. Yet the series acts like Xehanort's interference somehow invalidates Sora doing exactly what was asked of him.
** Terra is said to have an obsession with power. This is never really reflected in his attitude; though he is plainly interested in proving himself, Terra has a tendency to fear acquiring new power, with both Xehanort and Hades having to coax him into tapping into more power.
* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' series:
** The first ''Left 4 Dead'' has Bill, a Vietnam veteran whose knees are messed up due to the shrapnel injury he got during the war. Despite the fact that Bill complains about having to go up flights of stairs, he can run up and down stairs without any problems during the game.
** ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2'' states that Coach injured his knee during his days in college football and it sacked his football career. On top of this, Coach is overweight, which would make running and climbing more difficult for him. The injury and weight problem is shown off in the opening intro scene where Coach has to take a breather from climbing up several flights of stairs (while the younger and more fit Nick, while still noticeably out of breath, is blazing on past him), but Coach is not hindered at all during the actual game.
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'', at the start the game Zelda complains about how lazy [[TheHero Link]] is. For the rest of the game, Link comes off as far from lazy with all running around the surface killing a small army of demons he does. This is something of a RunningGag, as Link is often portrayed as having to be [[GoodMorningCrono dragged out of bed]] and put to work at the start of quite a few of the games - but not being a morning person is not the same thing as being lazy.
** Similar to the above example, in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'', Navi shouts at Link in the beginning of the game trying to wake him up and mentioning why with a greater destiny awaiting him would the kingdom depend on such a lazy boy. Throughout the game, Link is barely ever lazy, especially with all the dungeons, many creepy things he slays that would normally send even well-trained adult soldiers running for their homes, and surprisingly athletic things he does that wouldn't be normally expected of a boy of 10 years old. Not to mention all those cool front flips he does in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' while chasing after the Skull Kid.
** Same applies to ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'', where Link oversleeps on his birthday but is fully capable of setting sail overseas on his own.
** In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', a [[BirdPeople Rito]] woman visiting Gerudo Town claims that the Rito have especially poor night vision, but this is never dealt with in the story other than her comment about it.
** ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'': After gaining the Master Sword, Link is said to grow arrogant, rushing into battle alone with no regard for his own safety. Too bad this is just how the gameplay works, so it seems like the other characters are getting upset over Link doing nothing different whatsoever.
* A recurring plot element in ''Franchise/MegaMan'' games is that X was the first robot to be built with true free will, implying the cast of the classic series to be just following their programming. As the series runs on RidiculouslyHumanRobots, most stories involving Mega Man (who predates X by a good while) don't really show him as much less free-willed than X. Hell, Proto Man, who predates both, is arguably more emotional and willful than either.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'':
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'':
*** Meryl Silverburgh was mentioned as having had "special psychotherapy to destroy her interest in men". ''It didn't work''. It's not even that Snake "cures" her -- she's flirting with him from the very beginning, before she even knows who he is or what he's like, besides "handsome", and not five minutes after the supposed psychotherapy is mentioned, Psycho Mantis is telling Snake that she's fallen for him. The aim was probably to present her as someone who'd locked away all of her femininity in order to succeed as a soldier, but it has absolutely no effect on her character and absolutely no explanation is even attempted.
*** Psycho Mantis claims that Snake is ''even worse'' than the game's BigBad, Liquid Snake. While Snake is undoubtedly a JerkAss, he's [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold not without conscience]] and actually ''stopped'' World War III ''twice,'' while Liquid is trying to start it. There is no obvious indication in spoken dialogue or backstory to back up Mantis's claim. In fact, there is dialogue to the contrary when Snake's flippant description of him killing his father-figure Big Boss elicits such a reaction from Naomi, and Colonel Campbell points out that being a professional soldier -- even one with the body count of Solid Snake -- doesn't mean they don't have a heart.
*** Fox says that Snake "hasn't aged well", and while Snake does have accelerated aging which becomes very apparent in later games, in ''Metal Gear Solid'' he just appears like a handsome man in his early 30s, with all of the female characters noticing straight away how good-looking he is. Mind you, that's also InformedAttractiveness in itself, since, apart from the artworks used in the Codec and Briefing, his face is an immobile, low-poly block with no visible eyes. Still, his face is much more detailed in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', when he's 35 during the Tanker mission, and Liquid/Ocelot says, "Not so young anymore, eh, Snake?" Again, he looks for all the world like he's in his thirties, forties at most.
** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', the radio characters frequently remind us that Para-Medic is considered obnoxious because she talks too much. She does talk an awful lot, but so does everyone else in the series. In fact, compared to most characters, she's relatively subdued, as she only talks to you when the player chooses to contact her directly, apart from a small handful of forced conversations here and there -- most of which are her butting in on ''another'' radio character's conversation, in contrast to the legitimately annoying character who served her role in [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty the previous game]], who would at multiple points throughout the game force you into a ten-minute Codec call.
** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearGhostBabel'', Marionette Owl is a serial killer who murders women to collect bones to put in his Bunraku puppets, but refuses to kill men, even when this impedes his plans (Jimmy, the Metal Gear developer and potential informant, tells us Owl only kept him alive after he'd exhausted his use to him because he is male). However, Owl's opening boss battle speech against Snake (who is certainly a man) states that he's going to take Snake's collar bones for his doll Koharu, before pretty unambiguously attempting to kill him. Mind you, since it's stated he kills girls because he falls in love with them, if you're going to have an exception, it'd have to be [[EvenTheGuysWantHim Solid Snake]]...
* ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' has Dallas, a playable character who is a heavy smoker and has trouble breathing at times. This is never mentioned in the game at all nor does it reflect on Dallas' physical abilities since he can run around without being short of breath.
* Played with in ''VideoGame/Persona5''. Ryuji is constantly called dumb by Morgana, and while he sometimes fit the insult, it's shown various times that Ryuji can be quite smart.
* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'' Maya describes her past attempts at channeling spirits as "hit-and-miss," and estimates that she had a 30% success rate in the original trilogy(the Master of Kurain must have a 100% success rate). This might've been true for the [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney first game in the series]] where she did have a few failures, but that's when she's specifically described as being still in training. One game later, while she continues to train, she's considered full-fledged spirit medium, and from that point onward she never once she failed to channel a spirit of a dead person. (At one point she even beats out Pearl in channeling a spirit even though Pearl is a very strong medium herself). [[ZigzaggedTrope However]], it's also true that every situation Maya channelled a spirit is pretty much a desperate situation like the first one. Especially, in ''Bridge to the Turnabout'', where Maya would have ended up dead, so it's not like she had much of a choice.
* In ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', we have the infamous Pokédex entries...which are basically written to fill the blank. Sometimes they even contradict each other.
** Magikarp is said to be the weakest Pokémon ever, when it's not. And it's not like that entry alone is contradictory.
** Some entries for Dusknoir say that it takes both people and Pokémon to the world of spirits. But in the anime, it's shown that his role is to ''prevent'' they fall in there.
** One of Aurorus's entries says that its surface temperature is of -240 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning that it could basically freeze anything that touches it. As long as you don't touch his crystals, you can pet it no problem.
** Dracovish. If it can only breath water then why mine is outside the Pokéball and is showing no sign of suffocating? Even in the anime, there are times where Dracovish is nowhere near the water and has no problem breathing.
* PlayedForLaughs InUniverse in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' and its sequel where [=GlaDOS=] takes ''every'' opportunity possible to mock Chell for being overweight, despite Chell not being even close to a HollywoodPudgy woman who is slim and fit enough to run and jump non-stop without a rest. It's made very clear she's doing it because she knows humans as a species are sensitive about their weight and is trying to passive-aggressively get under Chell's skin, while Chell hilariously [[TheStoic never even bothers to react to it]] and [[TheVoiceless doesn't even speak back]]. Wheatley attempts this at one point too by uneloquently calling her "fatty fatty no-parents" in a sing-song voice: Chell couldn't care less and [=GlaDOS=] of course [[{{Hypocrite}} calls him a moron and points out she's not fat]].
* InUniverse example in ''VideoGame/Portal2''. Wheatley is a personality core designed to make stupid decisions, and [=GLaDOS=] continually remarks how big of a moron he is. In reality he outsmarts her and Chell numerous times, even using traps that ''rely'' on their belief that he is stupid to work. [[FridgeBrilliance Five possible justifications]]:
** He was designed to be a moron in the same way [=GlaDOS=] was designed not to kill all of Aperture's employees with deadly neurotoxin.
** The worst possible decision he could make would be to [[spoiler:stay in control and let everything explode]], and every smart decision he makes is allowed by his programming because of [[spoiler:their final outcome if he succeeds]].
** [=GLaDOS=] is just lying about, or misinterpreting Wheatley's actual role.
** He was designed specifically to distract [=GLaDOS=] and runs like the Facts Core. If the Facts Core constantly gave out incorrect facts you would be quick to just do the opposite of whatever it said. However, now and then it actually produces a correct fact which means you either always assume it's wrong and when a correct idea comes up you do the opposite and fail, or it forces you to analyze each one to check against the "broken clock being right twice a day". This is supported by [=GLaDOS's=] claims comparing Wheatley to a "tumor". If he was wrong about everything, she could just do the opposite of what he said. But since he is occasionally right, she must listen to and analyze everything he says.
** [[RuleOfDrama Chell was right about the universe having gone mad]] [[https://kotaku.com/5799408/why-chell-doesnt-speak and doing everything in its power to spite her.]]
* ''VideoGame/RainbowSix: Vegas''[='=] BigBad turns out to be Gabe Nowak, a teammate from the first mission who was effectively the team screw-up, and the prologue of the sequel decides to show us exactly how much of a screw-up he was... and it fails completely at this. Not least for the fact that the AI of Gabe and Logan for this mission is ''far'' superior to the [[ArtificialStupidity might-as-well-be-brain-damaged duo]] of Mike and Jung you're babysitting for the rest of the game, but because Gabe keeps making decisions that the writing goes out of its way to portray as "bad" and not how you should do things, only for the gameplay to do nothing to bear this out - for instance, one of the first encounters with enemies has him suggest throwing a frag grenade to just kill them all immediately. Logan suggests that if you do so, other terrorists will hear it and execute their hostages, but you can then do exactly as Gabe suggests for ''every'' encounter, except maybe the one that ''actually'' involves hostages, and not suffer for it in the least. The worst he gets is accidentally getting the hostage negotiator killed, because it legitimately seemed like the terrorists were going to just kill the hostages anyway; being [[AcquiredSituationalNarcissism narcissistic]], which only really comes up twice, once bragging that he could take a sniper out from twice the distance the player does and once assuming he performed a breaching maneuver perfectly; and, when the team is ambushed and he gets incapacitated after defusing a bomb at the end of the mission, angrily assuming that the team deliberately set him up to get killed for his screw-ups -- screw-ups that aren't nearly as numerous or terrible as the game wants you to think. It's telling that when you finally confront him at the end of the game, he has to completely change track to being angry at you over ''covering for'' his screw-ups and not letting him learn from them -- with the added bonus of him covering for the nonexistence of his own flaw by fabricating a completely new informed flaw for Bishop (their supposed "babying" of their recruits and not letting them mature on their own -- even though Logan, the other recruit from the prologue, is as competent as you can get considering he's the player character in the previous game).
* In ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'', Seth Of The Dead's official bio on the website claims he's a meth addict. In game, he's completely insane and not healthy-looking, but we never see him anywhere near meth or impaired by need for it (especially in contrast to a character met later on who is a cocaine addict, and talks about almost nothing besides his coke addiction to the point where it reaches OverlyLongGag).
** Landon Ricketts' bio describes him as 'vain and pretentious'. The worst he gets is slightly arrogant about his genuinely phenomenal gun-slinging ability, when poking fun at Marston for 'barely being able to shoot straight'. His self-deprecating attitude towards himself (and his love life), his genuine devotion to the people of Mexico, his compassion towards John Marston and his thoughtful but straight-talking manner actually lead to him coming across as humble, the precise opposite of what his bio says. Especially in contrast with the genuinely vain and pretentious Mexican politicians. He ''is'' vain and pretentious in the AlternateUniverse zombie DLC, though.
** In the game itself, John taunts Javier Escuella by claiming Abigail Roberts (John's wife) always thought he (Javier) was a creep. This never comes up in the [[VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2 prequel]], where Javier is presented as one of the nicest members of the gang. Also, John tells Abraham Reyes that Javier was a man with "passion but no love" who cared little for anyone else, a stark contrast to his portrayal in ''[=RDR2=]''.
* In ''VisualNovel/ShinraiBrokenBeyondDespair'', Rie, by her own admission, says that she can't bring herself to suspect her friends of wrongdoing, even when someone turns up dead and it is likely a murder. It ends up being downplayed, since after Taiko (the guy Rie likes) indicates that he's suspicious of Runa (Rie's best friend), Rie and Taiko end up feuding. That being said, [[spoiler:Runa's actually innocent, so while Rie may not be entirely rational when it comes to Runa, that doesn't change the fact that she's ''right''.]]
* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** Various sources state that Sonic can be a jerk at times. This contrasts with his actual in-game portrayal. He is always portrayed as a caring, friendly, if somewhat snarky guy.
** While more a case of CharacterizationMarchesOn, bios sometimes refer to Tails being childlike and hyperactive, despite his personality being [[WiseBeyondTheirYears even more mature and rational than Sonic's]] for the large part.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'', the Ecologist attribute card points to a [[ScaryDogmaticAliens scary dogmatic]] side (namely, the belief that they must slaughter any sentient species that harms a world's environment), that doesn't seem to show up.
* ''VideoGame/StardewValley'': According to Demetrius, Robin is quite short-tempered. In every interaction the player has with her, she is a NiceGirl.
* ''Franchise/StreetFighter'':
** Dan Hibiki, the iconic JokeCharacter, frequently has the joke taken a bit ''too'' far. It's been variously claimed that his homegrown martial art is completely useless, that he can't land a single hit on Sakura despite her lack of experience, and that the Gadoken is about as powerful as a slap. Though Dan's power has fluctuated over his history, he's still an incredibly muscular man who can jump six feet straight up and shoot fireballs out of his hands, even if only for a few inches before it disappears. It can get especially disconcerting when playing ''Super VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'', where Dan's Gadoken is actually ''[[LethalJokeCharacter stronger]]'' than the [[KamehameHadoken Hadoken]] when it hits.
** Balrog's fighting style is often considered brutal and crude in-universe. In a fight, he's a highly competent, technical boxer with enough strength [[LightningBruiser and finesse]] [[BadassNormal to fight against supernatural foes on even footing]]. He also uses a number of moves that are illegal in boxing -- that's how he got kicked out of professional boxing -- but this is just a vicious edge to solid technique.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** Mario is said to be impatient, hotheaded, and impulsive sometimes, yet this is rarely seen in the mainline games, where he is normally a kind-hearted, cheerful and generally optimistic guy. Spin-offs show that he can be overly competitive at times and quick to anger, but even then, he's still normally happy-go-lucky.
** While Luigi is commonly known for being the brother who scares easily, some characters will outright treat Luigi as if he is incapable of doing anything ''at all'', despite that he has been shown time and time again that he is just as capable, optimistic, cheerful, heroic and brave as, if not more than, his older brother. Not to mention he's just as physically powerful and has a higher jump.
** Peach is stated to be "Sassy and stubborn, but cute" although in the mainline games, she hasn't shown an ounce of sassiness nor stubbornness and is mostly depicted in a [[TheIngenue gentle, optimistic, and sometimes naive manner]]. The spin-offs, however, tend shown her sassy and stubborn side a lot more. This was mostly stated as a design choice of what Peach should represent rather than her actual personality, however.
** In the various [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario RPGs]], characters will mock Bowser's size with various insults like "overgrown turtle", "pudgy", "tubby", and so on. Bowser is large overall, but he's nowhere near fat.
** [[TheDragon Lord Crump]] from ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' is allegedly both a moron and, according to [[BigBad Grodus]] is his "most idiotic henchman". However, while a bit dense, Crump time and time again is very good at laying traps and out thinking the heroes, managing to outfox Mario and friends ''twice'' in the second dungeon, once by rigging a fake Puni Orb pedestal to entrap them, and once by letting them find the Crystal Star and swiping it from under their noses. He also only resorts to fighting them when he has superior numbers or [[HumongousMecha Magnus Von Grapple]] at his side, otherwise he relies on said trickery or traps which tend to only fail to a DeusExMachina nobody could have reasonably seen coming like [[CursedWithAwesome Mario's brand new "curse"]] or [[BigDamnHeroes Cortez and his crew unexpectedly aiding Mario's team]].
* In ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'' Kyosuke's mech Alt Eisen is stated to be an awkwardly-designed mech that Kyosuke can only use because of [[BornLucky his insane luck]], yet StatisticallySpeaking there isn't anything that keeps the thing from functioning perfectly as a MightyGlacier and fair much better than the average [[MookMobile Gespent]].
* Ange in ''VideoGame/TalesOfInnocence'' is a BigEater and is said to be overweight. However, this doesn't detract from her ability to perform melee combos, and she [[http://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/ToIR-Ange-Kongwai-MA.jpg certainly doesn't look any more pudgy than the rest of the cast.]]
* The mercs in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' have a few:
** While their sanity (or lack thereof) isn't questioned, they have been described as "mostly having below-average IQ's" by Miss Pauling, and as "idiots" by Helen the Administrator, though each of them later displayed smarts ranging from GeniusDitz to DitzyGenius level, probably factoring in the "emotional stability" part of IQ amongst others. A later comic shows why they make such claims; Helen believes them to be just like the lead poisoned idiots of Teufort, while Miss Pauling has secretly been providing all of them with bottled water, except the Soldier, who didn't bother listening to her warnings.
** Also, both of them claim that the mercs are illiterate; videos seem to contradict this, as all of them except the Soldier and maybe the Pyro are able to read just fine, with the Heavy and the Engineer even holding [=PhDs=] and the Medic having an MD, since he had a medical license in the past.
* We're told that ''VideoGame/TexMurphy'''s {{Love Interest|s}} Chelsee is a mutant, but unlike the other mutants featured in the game who all have noticeable physical deformities, Chelsee looks like a normal human. In fact, she's even rather pretty. Lampshaded, in that it's mentioned in-game that ''nobody'' knows what her mutation actually is, and she's not telling.
* The translocator in ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament2004'' was slightly {{nerf}}ed from the original game - it now has an ammo limit which slowly recharges. The justification for this is that using the thing too much can result in a disease called "Teleportation Related Dementia", even though in the original game there's literally nothing preventing you from just translocating everywhere for an hour or so, other than maybe [[TeleFrag someone sabotaging the disc]] or trying to take a flag with them. Much like replacing the SniperRifle with a LightningGun that shows exactly where the sniper's shooting from, the real reason is ''precisely'' to prevent people from translocating everywhere all the time as part of game balance.
* ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'':
** Sam has a low "funny" stat yet she is clearly shown having a good humor.
** Mike has low "brave" and "charitable" stats, even though he's friendly with everyone regardless how they treat him and is arguably one of the bravest characters.
** Chris has the lowest stat for "brave" out of all the characters (ironically, even lower than Ashley who is an easily frightened HystericalWoman). While not necessarily the bravest, Chris has shown and performed several feats of bravery, such as attempting to retrieve Josh despite knowing about [[spoiler: the Wendigos outside the lodge]].
** Matt is often treated by Emily, Jess and potentially Mike as being DumbMuscle but Matt has proven to show composure and be rational during tense situations.
* In the final season of ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' Clementine describes Lilly's father Larry as a "racist asshole" in spite of the fact that the man was a complete asshole to ''everyone'' except Lilly. His hatred of Lee was evidently from knowing the man was a convicted murderer rather than anything to do with race, as he seemed to treat Clementine and Glenn with the least hostility out of anyone in the group (though that's not saying much) and even cares enough about Clementine's well-being to threaten Lee if anything happens to her. Justified though, since Clementine was quite young when she knew him and would have easily misinterpreted it as racism because she ''didn't'' know about Lee's murder conviction.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', the Goblins have a reputation of things they invent blowing up in their faces, most notably their zeppelins, where everyone remarks about crashes and explosions, yet no matter how many times you ride them, nothing bad happens. In particular, the Azshara-Twilight Highlands zeppelin is described as a virtual deathtrap filled with volatile gas, fuel that "shouldn't even be moved, much less flown", and even the parachutes will most likely kill you. Yet the zeppelin is brought down by dragons near its destination.
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* ''VideoGame/HypnospaceOutlaw'': While many of the "bad" musicians on the video game's fictional internet achieve StylisticSuck, Chowder Man gets more heat than he deserves. In-universe, he's treated like a hack. The actual music Music/HotDad wrote for him is musically solid, despite (or [[NarmCharm because of]]) lyrics that reflect Chowder Man's hilariously inflated ego and total lack of self awareness.

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'':
** [[TheHero Sora]] few of this:
*** Master Yen Sid throws Sora into the Dream Worlds in ''3D'' to train under the notion that Sora's self-taught style is going to be insufficient to handle the upcoming battles, [[DudeWheresMyRespect to which Sora objects]]. It's hard to disagree with Sora when all the amazing things he could already do in ''I'' and ''II'' were done with no formal training at all. He'd already beaten Xehanort and his forces several times by that point.
*** In ''III'', the story frequently states that Sora can't do anything without someone there by his side, and that's the reason why he failed the Mark of Mastery exam. Previous games show Sora defeating plenty of enemies and managing to survive even when his friends weren't around. And the reason why he failed the Mark of Mastery exam is because Xehanort hijacked the exam and put Sora into a deep nightmare that put his heart to sleep by the darkness, as Xehanort wanted to make Sora his final vessel for his new Organization. Also, Sora unlocked all seven sleeping keyholes (which was his and Riku's task for the exam), but Xehanort interfered and caused most of Sora's powers to be stripped away from him, including the new power he was supposed to acquire for unlocking the seven sleeping keyholes known as the Power of Waking. This all means that, by any metric, Sora passed the exam and proved to be just fine on his own. Yet the series acts like Xehanort's interference somehow invalidates Sora doing exactly what was asked of him.

* ''Videogame/DarkestDungeon'' has this as a ''mechanic.'' Because of the way the quirk sistem works it is entirely possible to have a melee character with a damage, accuracy and critical chance reduction to ranged attacks (and vice versa).

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade'' has the character of Kishuna, who was rejected as a failure by Nergal because of his frail body. This tends to throw players for a loop, as Kishuna in gameplay is a massive StoneWall with HP and evasion only matched by the final bosses, a permanent field of AntiMagic surrounding him, and the ability to teleport on top of this (which he tends to do so whenever he seems endangered). This makes him one of the most difficult enemies to take down; standard strategy is to just pray for a crit. He can't attack at all, but it's rather hard to imagine Nergal couldn't find some way to put such a phenomenal asset to good use.

* On the Crimson Flower route of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', several characters will deride [[TheWisePrince Dimitri]] as being extremely violent, vengeance-driven, and extensively hateful towards [[VillainProtagonist Edelgard]] (the Main Lord of this route). These are all true...on every route ''other'' than Crimson Flower, ironically. This is the only route in the game where instead of being nearly executed and forced into exile, Dimitri is crowned King of Faerghus fairly quickly, has the support of the [[KnightTemplar Knights of Seiros]] due to the Kingdom's positive relationship with the church, and he puts his need for answers regarding [[DarkAndTroubledPast the Tragedy of Duscur]] on the back burner. Not only is he far more level-headed compared to the other three routes, his anger towards Edelgard and the player is generally more justified, as here you're invading both Faerghus and [[TheAlliance the Leicester Alliance]] and forcibly reuniting them under the Empire, in addition to gunning for [[FinalBoss Rhea]] and the Church of Seiros. It also makes Edelgard's derision of his anger at her come off as [[ItsAllAboutMe lacking in self-awareness,]] given that his grievances on this route are all about her causing the war to begin with.

** Same applies to ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'', where Link oversleeps on his birthday, but is fully capable of setting sail overseas on his own.

** ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'': After gaining the Master Sword, Link is said to grow arrogant, rushing into battle alone with no regards for his own safety. Too bad this is just how the gameplay works, so it seems like the other characters are getting upset over Link doing nothing different whatsoever.

* In ''Series/BloodTies'', the main character supposedly has retinitis pigmentosa, which makes her have very poor peripheral vision and night vision - not that it affects her ''at all'' after the very first episode. Even if she could see reasonably well in daylight, she should have been ''blind'' at night - after all, retinitis pigmentosa is also known as ''night blindness''. But she can easily navigate in a darkened room using a tiny little penlight. In the [[Literature/BloodBooks book series]] Vicki has serious problems navigating at night. The fact that she can't drive in the dark is a major plot point in the second book.

* In ''Film/Scream2022'', Richie claims to be [[GenreBlindness a total newbie to the horror genre]] and to the ''[[ShowWithinAShow Stab]]'' movies specifically, yet he also makes meaningful allusions to ''Film/Halloween1978'' and ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' and watches a Website/YouTube video bashing ''Stab 8''. [[spoiler:This is actually {{foreshadowing}} the fact that he's actually a diehard horror fan -- and one of the killers.]]

** The end of the Cell Saga has Goku declare that he wants to stay dead because he believes himself to be a DoomMagnet who keeps attracting trouble. But pretty much the only time a villain has arrived unbidden for reasons relating to Goku is in the case of Raditz, who was his brother. Every other time, it was a case of either the villains having an evil agenda from the get-go and Goku getting involved to stop them, or it was the villains delaying their evil agenda and wanting revenge on Goku because he interfered in their initially-unrelated scheme. The intended idea is that Goku is a DestructiveSavior whose presence creates more problems than he solves, but the fact is, even in the cases where Goku ''did'' create a problem by provoking the vengeance of the villains, those villains would have still been a threat to Earth either way. In fact, a major plot point at the beginning of the Android Saga was that, without Goku who died of heart disease in the original timeline, the androids [[CurbStompBattle steamrolled the rest of the Z-Fighters]] and triggered a BadFuture -- Trunks' plan to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong ''explicitly'' involved bringing heart medicine to Goku so he'd be alive to fight them off, meaning that if anything Goku should have had the exact opposite idea than what he had at the end of the Cell Saga.

* The titular superhero of ''Film/TheSuperInframan'' is stated to gain his powers from Solar Energy, which allows him to pull off his FinishingMove, the Solar Armor Beam. According to the film, without the sun, Inframan will be severely weakened... except that's not the case. When the villainess, Princess Dragon Mom, blocks out the sun with a powerful smokescreen, preventing Inframan from using his Solar Armor Beam, Inframan instead switches to using his Infra-kick and destroys two monsters with it. That's not accounting for the fact that the final battle took place ''indoors'', where Inframan wouldn't be receiving any sunlight, but it still doesn't stop him from killing tons and tons of enemy mooks and monstes.

* ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'': A ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[=/=]''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, Admiral Allison Nimitz really, really doesn't like working with the Pandorans and inhabitants of the wider galaxy because they're "uncivilized". She does anyway, claiming the GodzillaThreshold has been crossed, but given everything that's happened (and indeed looking at things Trans-Galactic Republic forces participated in previously, such as at a minimum ignoring tyranny spreading as a result of their technology), her complaints [[{{Hypocrite}} fall flat.]] Further, the actions of the [{{Mega Corp}}s [[JustifiedTrope make sense in their own universe,]] which is even discussed by a Trans-Galactic Republic captain, alluding to [[BlueAndOrangeMorality "blue and orange paint".]]

*** Psycho Mantis claims that Snake is ''even worse'' than the game's BigBad, Liquid Snake. While Snake is undoubtedly a JerkAss, he's [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold not without conscience]] and actually ''stopped'' World War III ''twice,'' while Liquid is trying to start it. There is no obvious indication in spoken dialogue or backstory to back up Mantis's claim.

** The end of the Cell Saga has Goku declare that he wants to stay dead because he believes himself to be a DoomMagnet who keeps attracting trouble. But pretty much the only time a villain has arrived unbidden for reasons relating to Goku is in the case of Raditz, who was his brother. Every other time, it was a case of either the villains having an evil agenda from the get-go and Goku getting involved to stop them, or it was the villains delaying their evil agenda and wanting revenge on Goku because he interfered in their initially-unrelated scheme. The intended idea is that Goku is a DestructiveSavior whose presence creates more problems than he solves, but the fact is, even in the cases where Goku ''did'' create a problem by provoking the vengeance of the villains, those villains would have still been a threat to Earth either way.

* In the episode "Working Witches", we're told at the end that Sabrina had let the fame of winning the contest go to her head. However, other than one blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene where she's proudly posing for pictures without Salem (which the guy right next to her threw away, not her), she doesn't show any signs of AcquiredSituationalNarcissism, and instead is perfectly justified by everything she does. Salem doesn't even seem to mind her getting all of the attention, and his biggest gripe is her almost using his camcorder without his permission, which was justified to keep their family secret.