Literature / I Became the Villain the Hero Is Obsessed With

I Became The Villain The Hero Is Obsessed With is a comedic Korean Web Serial Novel published on Novelpia and concluded at 425 chapters. A man named Da-in, wakes up inside the universe of his favorite Super Hero comic, Stardust!, and decides to dedicate his life to his favorite titular superhero … as her Arch-Nemesis! Using the powers of Mind over Matter and Psychic Teleportation, along with his knowledge of future events, and a sense of theatrics, Da-in adopts the pseudonym of Egostic and begins systematically paving the way for her future, murdering her worst villains, and presenting staged challenges to make her grow in power in a way that won’t be so painful for her as her bleak comic story-line. Along the way, he recruits several colorful villains to his side using his knowledge of interfere in their Start of Darkness, and earn their loyalty.

Knowing everything about the Hero, in order to make her play into his schemes, and for the thrill of her anger, Egostic repeatedly taunts her, while occasionally giving her advice and encouragement. Unbeknownst to him, Egostic being a Master of the Mixed Message begins to drive a Yandere obsession in the hero Stardus/Shin Haru…

---

Provides examples of:

• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Egostic repeatedly gives Seo-eun these since he sees her like a daughter.
• All Psychology Is Freudian: Averted. Guile Hero Icicle practices Jungian Psychology in the form of MBTI profiling.
• All Women Are Lustful: Downplayed. When trying to threaten female hostage in Egostic’s terror schemes, inevitably it ends up being a Fangirl of his. One of whom fakes being scared, to which his livestream chat is filled with women saying they wish they were her.
• And Then What?: The comic version of Seo-eun went mad trying to destroy South Korea as a Misanthrope Supreme after the successful destruction of the Han-Eun group who tortured her and killed her friends.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: The villain Crocodile Man is a house sized crocodile-man hybrid from an experiment gone wrong.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Since Egostic is using Media Transmigration foreknowledge to prevent the worst disasters, sometimes they end like this, such as the huge black mass of writhing tentacles that dissolves into a river before it can do anything.
• Arch-Nemesis: Invoked. Egostic’s plans revolve around simultaneously protecting and drawing as much attention as possible from Stardus.
• Arc Words: Egostic referencing The Joker about how Stardus completes him as a villain, as well as her being a Cosmic Keystone due to her theoretically infinite potential.
• Ascended Extra: Icicle and Shadow Walker are talked about on occasion, but only really come into play later in the story.
• Ascended Fan:
  • Da-in was a mega-fan of the Stardust comic and then one day found himself inside of it. He still fanboys at her.
  • Mist was an avid watcher (and possibly commenter) on Egostic’s streams before he recruits her.
• Ascended Meme:
  • The scene where Stardus visits a festival incognito references the “Distracted Boyfriend” meme.
  • Considering how heavily this work is inspired by Imageboards and such with the livestream and fanclub chat rooms. There’s the scene where, after Egostic platonically shares a huge hotel bed with the underage Seo-eun, and armed men kick down the door shouting “FBI, open up!”.
• Audience-Alienating Era: In-Universe, it was the Stardust! Arc where Moonlight Shaman ravaged Seoul over a dozen times where the heroes could do nothing about it, giving it a depressing tone.
• Backing Away Slowly: A Supehero Association employee sneaks out after walking in on Stardus splitting her desk in half out of frustration.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: One of the main reasons Egostic is a Super Villain is so that he can Shoot the Dog without having to worry about being Slave to PR like the heroes are. He will kill supervillains who can’t be redeemed before they get a chance to commit their worst crimes. Something Stardus really struggles with him doing, waffling back and fourth on the issue.
• Berserk Button: For Stardus, it’s other women getting along with Egostic, as she gradually becomes Yandere.
• Better the Devil You Know: Egostic cites this as part of the reason why he wants South Korea to fall under control of Icicle.
• Beware the Nice Ones: The Team Mom Soobin is the Ego Stream member Egostic is most afraid of, despite being The Team Normal, what with her Psycho Supporter moments.
• Birds of a Feather: Icicle liking Egostic and the two so easily getting along at first, in contrast to the Opposites Attract mutual attraction between him and Stardus]
• Blessed with Suck: Egostic’s powers, when overused, are really bad for his health.
• Blood from the Mouth: A perpetual problem Egostic gets from using his powers too much. Gets him suspected of an Incurable Cough of Death.
• Break the Haughty: Metel’s arc.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: The psychopathic cult leader of Wolgwanggyo reacts like this to Moonlight Shaman being defeated, as she was a disposable pawn.
• Bystander Syndrome: Shows up after the murder of Teleporter, with civilians in a crowded street just taking out their phones instead of taking a showdown between Stardus and Egostic seriously.
• The Cartel: It’s mentioned one of the supervillains led an army into Mexico to try and take these over before getting thrashed and coming back to South Korea.
• Casting a Shadow: Shadow Walker’s powers, most notably including teleportation, make him nearly unstoppable at night.
• Cast From Hitpoints: Egostic’s powers work like this when he pushes his limits, leading to Heroic RRoD and Blood from the Mouth.
• Catchphrase: Discussed Trope in narration how using these is somewhat awkward and embarrassing, but a key part of the superhero setting.
• The Cavalry Arrives Late: Happens several times, most notably with the Hotel Raid as the cavalry are an even bigger problem for our supervillain protagonist.
• Clickbait Gag: Press coverage about the events of the series inevitably involve Gukppong Youtube videos with clickbait headlines talking about how other countries react to events.
• Collateral Damage: Notable for a supervillain, Egostic does the best he can to limit civilian casualties, and has a function on his website to apply for damages compensation. Holding hostages is the main way Egostic keeps the vastly stronger than him Stardus from breaking him like a twig (besides Psychic Teleportation), taking advantage of her concern for it. The American hero Metel has less qualms.
• Color-Coded Secret Identity: Seo-eun scolds Egostic for wearing black while incognito.
• Combat Stilettos: Metel’s presence is proceeded by the sound of hers.
• Combat Tentacles:
  • The Han-Eun giant blob monster was made of black ones.
  • The Behemouth Living Weapon lets Egostic use these. Of course Egostic ends up wrapping them around Stardus…
• Combination Attack: This is how Egostic deals with Metel, who’s used to supervillains being out for themselves.
• Comforting Comforter: Egostic occasionally ends up doing this to his female supervillains.
• Conveniently Empty Building: Justified, as Egostic goes far out of his way to minimize casualties.
• Cooldown Hug: Egostic gives some of these to Stardus, and one to Moonlight Shaman when recruiting her. Shippers online go crazy each time.
• Contemplate Our Navels: Sections of chapters are dedicated to Stardus or Egostic doing this, contemplating the nature of hero morality.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Stardus starts worrying about this once she can’t help but think “Mango Stick” when seeing her favorite flavored drinks. Egostic’s influence on Stardus making her go from visceral hatred at messages he writes to her in the blood of supervillains, to happy, which shocks her.
• Cosmic Keystone: Egostic repeatedly proclaims this about Stardus, with her virtually unlimited potential. This is why he is so serious about training her through adversity, because she must eventually face down Physical God enemies that threaten the world.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: Egostic introduces himself to the public by leaving a message in the blood of a supervillain addressed to Stardus.
• Criminal Found Family: Ego Squad/ Ego Stream and it’s main members act more like a family than anything, and is certainly seen by Egostic like this. Seo-eun using affectionate honorifics plays into it.
• Da Chief: The President of Korea’s Hero Association is basically a well meaning but incompetent man who likes Egostic for making his job easier, much to the frustration of Stardus.
• Dead Man Writing: Egostic keeps a magically sealed guidebook on what to do if he dies, which includes resurrection methods (apparently Death Is Cheap in the Stardust! comic).
• Distant Prologue: Egostic putting up his cape and Stardus begging him to stay.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: Egostic has Seo-eun take control over Korea’s television channels repeatedly for his “terror attacks”. Despite efforts to reinforce against this, there never seems to be too much trouble for her. It’s a good thing they don’t think of going analog.
• Dirty Communists: A Red German S-class supervillain leader of the Red Motors who threatens Egostic in an international Legion of Doom meeting.
• Double Think: In Stardus’ mind, is Egostic a hero, or a villain? It can change minute to minute. If someone criticizes him, she’ll argue he’s a hero, if someone praises him, she’ll argue he’s a villain. This is a realistic condition as it stems from trauma.
• Dragged by the Collar: Mist isn’t too enthusiastic about her supervillain training. Kissing Egostic also gets her this from some of the women in Ego Stream.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The Mad Scientist supervillain Kim Sunwoo is repeatedly brought up in Spam messages in Egostic’s livestreams, pleading to free him.
• Eco-Terrorist: Atlas, the King of the Ocean, engages in these schemes on a global scale due to sea pollution.
• Elemental Powers: Recurring but not especially common:
  • Lee Seola/Icicle: An Ice Person.
  • Choi Seehee/Elektra: Shock and Awe
  • Seo Jayoung/Mist: Playing with Fire (that’s purple.)
  • Metel: Dishing Out Dirt.
• Embarrassing Hobby: Both Egostic and Stardus have the embarrassing hobby of hanging out on each-other’s fansites. Stardus justifies it to herself as looking for evidence, and fights addiction to it. Egostic downplays his participation even while downloading new material of Stardus for his personal collection.
• Embarrassing Nickname: The most frequent Running Gag is Da-In forcing embarrassing nicknames on others, and also facing them himself. He is a big fan of superhero comics, after all.
• Emotional Powers: Rooms tend to get cold when Icicle is angry.
• Enemies Equals Greatness: Egostic keeps this in mind and makes sure to give Stardus Villain Respect in his broadcasts.
• Engineered Heroics:
  • Egostic specializes in doing this, but on BEHALF of Stardus, not himself. And it often backfired in one way or another.
  • Icicle, when making a deal with Egostic, explicitly asks for and gets this.
• Epic Fail: Pretty much any plan Egostic comes up with to either make the public at large, or Stardus in particular, hate him. He pays a bunch of money and tampers with media algorithms to spread hostile news reports about Egostic, only for Stardus to leave a comment defending him.
• Exploring the Evil Lair:
  • The Han-Eun Mad Scientist Laboratory under Seoul, and it’s mutant Humanoid Abomination subjects.
  • The Weapon Master’s armory.
• Fantastic Rank System: The Hero Association ranks powered individuals on a letter scale, and it’s much easier for supervillains than superheroes to get an S rank. The agency gets a lot of flak in-universe for the inconsistency of the ranks.
• Flying Weapon: Egostic typically fights with Mind over Matter lifted guns.
• Foe Romance Subtext: As the title says, it’s pretty much the premise of the whole series.
• Foil: Stardus and Egostic are like this with their strict and pragmatic methods of heroism.
• Forced into Evil: The Moonlight Shaman at the behest of the evil Leader of the moon cult Wolgwanggyo, via curse.
• Forced to Watch: Ha-yul’s comic villain Start of Darkness was being Bound and Gagged while watching a gang murder her little brother in reaction to her pickpocketing their leader. This is prevented in style by Egostic.
• Foreign Culture Fetish: Gukppong youtubers are repeatedly referenced (with their clickbate titles being a Running Gag). These basically seek to validate Korean national pride by finding foreigners praising the country.
• Friendly Enemy: The Egostic and Stardus dynamic is full of this.
• Grail in the Garbage: The magical ring that contains Death Knight was sold at an auction house as if it were junk.
• The Generation Gap: Early on, it’s noted that Gen Z are the most accepting of Egostic with his being willing to kill supervillains rather than putting them in a Cardboard Prison. Egostic is a live-streaming super-villain, after all.
• Genre Shift: It’s explicitly mentioned to be happening at the seeming introduction of a Love Triangle between Stardus and Icicle. However, things don’t really change that much.
• Geometric Magic: The magical sigils traced into the ground in Seoul by Wolgwanggyo buff Moonlight Shaman and de-buff heroes.
• Good Needs Evil: Egostic muses that based on his comic knowledge, if he just gets rid of all the threats to Stardus, the complacency would just leave her weak when threats too big for Egostic to handle on his own show up, dooming the world. So he sets about managing her entire career as The Chessmaster.
• Gossip Evolution: Some of the celebrity relationship gossip surrounding Egostic follows into this. An entertainment channel mentions how the “scandal” of him being close to Elektra was an embarrassing overreaction.
• Gratuitous English: Shows up in character names and other puns.
• Green-Eyed Epiphany: Repeatedly subverted. Stardus proves, it IS possible to be Yandere and in denial of your feelings at the same time if you keep making excuses.
• Gut Feeling: Comes up frequently with Stardus (who’s noted to have it as a latent super power), and Egostic claims to have one that saves him from women’s jealousy.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Stardus repeatedly gets this reaction without noticing.
• Heroic RRoD: These happen frequently, especially if you count Egostic.
• Heroes "R" Us: Each nation in the setting has it’s own Superhero Association, subordinate to the International Association. The President of the South Korean association is a well meaning buffoon most notable for getting out popcorn whenever Egostic appears. The International Association is synonymous with the American branch.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Egostic notes in the comics that Stardus had a big problem with this later in the story due to villainous schemes. An argument Egostic has with her in public has the effect of negative publicity for her, which Egostic takes measures to remedy.
• Hero-Worshipper: Egostic is a dedicated one to Stardus and can’t help but gush at her, and he gets some reactions like this from his fanclub. This leaves Egostic exasperated several times, when things happen like an entertainment reporter screaming about how Egostic and Stardus are true love, or some of his hostages being a Fangirl van asking for his autographs.
• High-Speed Missile Dodge: Egostic invokes this, as a form of I Am Not Left-Handed, and to make entertaining spectacle while fighting with Metel.
• Hobbes Was Right: Da-in borrows this as a philosophy for his Egostic persona specifically to get under the skin of Stardus. Da-in’s actual ideology seems more like simple pragmatism, even if his trying to get South Korea under his control by proxy does fit with Hobbesian thinking.
• Holographic Disguise: Face scramblers are common for both heroes and villains in order to wear aesthetic costumes without exposing their Secret Identity.
• Holographic Terminal: Egostic uses this to read his youtube livestream comments without missing a beat.
• Homage:
  • Generally speaking, the prevalence of the Incredibly Lame Pun is this to superhero comics.
  • Ego explicitly bases his first terror attack on the climactic scene of The Dark Knight, with Arc Words of Egostic saying how Stardus “completes him”. This would be at least manageable to re-write into Light Novel form to avoid copyright issues, something that can’t be said about many Super Hero based Web Novel contemporaries.
  • Seo-eun’s Starbuster Mini-Mecha armor series is clearly based on the Iron Man Hulkbuster suits.
• Hostage Situation: The standard means of villains preventing superhero intervention. Specifically used by Egostic because he knows he can’t defeat Stardus on his own and has to keep her at bay. But his hostage situations are essentially fake, he makes sure no matter what happens that they don’t die.
• Hufflepuff House: American superheroes and the synonymous International Association.
• Human Resources:
  • The head of the orphanage that raised Ha-yul tried to traffic her healing powers, and was killed by her.
  • Han-Eun’s mutants and the Behemoth project were all made out of human corpses.
  • And then there was the Weapons Master and his plan to kidnap people to turn into cyborgs.
• Humanoid Abomination: The mutants left behind in the abandon Han-Eun labs.
• Humongous Mecha: Kim Sunwoo and The Remnant of Han-Eun launch a Taking You with Me suicidal attack on Seoul with one.
• Identity Breakdown: A good chunk of page time is dedicated to Stardus being torn apart inside due to her moral code conflicting with her intuition and feelings about Egostic.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Due to a curse, in the Comic story, Moonlight Shaman wanted to kill herself over the destruction she caused at the behest of Wolgwanggyo, but could only beg Stardus for a Mercy Kill, which she received.
• Ignored Enamoured Underling: Downplayed Running Gag with the women in Ego Stream. Ego just can’t get Stardus out of his head, though there’s some room for interpretation how much of it with the members of Ego Stream it’s just wanting attention and validation versus actual romantic interest (Egostic himself sees them more like family members.)
• I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That: Icicle responds like this to Stardus wondering aloud if she should post confidential information on the Egostic fansite about a new hero coming after him.
• Imaginary Love Triangle: The gossip rags and shows reporting on Egostic and the women he interacts with can hype these up.
• Impeded Communication: Inside the Han-Eun Mad Scientist Laboratory under Seoul, Mission Control is out of reach, allowing for some arch nemesis bonding.
• Implacable Man: The villain Crocodile Man. Even gas isn’t enough to do him in.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Many of the names, both actual and Super Identity, are these in Korean and Engrish. The Ego Show quiz is based entirely on these.
• Indirect Kiss: Soobin blushes and freaks out over sharing an ice cream with Egostic, as he remains oblivious.
• Indy Ploy: Egostic, realizing he just ran out of energy and is surrounded by all the A class heroes in Korea, buys himself time by pretending to be an S-class hero they don’t know. The name? Apple Mango!
• Inner Thoughts, Outsider Puzzlement: Mist commenting on Egostic’s mumbling to himself after he has a chapter length Inner Monologue. Which is the author Lampshade Hanging his own writing quirk.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: A Running Gag with Egostic, since his low self-esteem convinces him that people won’t take him seriously enough.
• Internalized Categorism:
  • Moonlight Shaman sees herself as a monster for the mass carnage she delivers to Seoul, despite being raised as a Tyke Bomb and controlled by a cult and curse to do such.
  • Gukppong youtubers run into an issue after one of Egostic’s terror attacks that they can’t find clips of foreigners praising South Korea, due to the fact seven million South Koreans aided in one of Egostic’s terror schemes tarnished their image, and many Koreans feel guilty about that besides. Of course, Gukppong runs on perceived cultural hierarchies in the first place.
• Invoked Trope: Egostic admits to invoking the Suspension Bridge Effect when recruiting female Egostream members to ensure their loyalty. Of course, all of his Engineered Heroics are built on a lot of superhero tropes.
• It Amused Me: Seo Jayoung/Mist’s super villain origin was… she was bored!
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: A random hostage Egostic interviews during his bridge terror attack, causing Egostic’s chatroom to feel guilty for helping him carry it out.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Egostic is suspected of having this.
• Is This Thing On?: Egostic when festively challenging Crocodile Man.
• Just Friends: When it comes to women in Ego Stream, Egostic can only see them as Like Brother and Sister.
• Just Toying with Them: When Stardus bumps into Egostic in the labs under Seoul, she clearly enjoys just intimidating and making him squirm, as for once there are no hostages to restrain her.
• Kneel Before Zod: Egostic commands this in reaction to being set up to meet Stardus incognito by Icicle.
• Kryptonite Factor: Both the Behemoth Living Weapon and the flames of Mist act like this for Shadow Walker.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • The fact that superpowers work so well when unleashed in the form of punching baffles multiple people. Egostic thinks to himself, it’s because it’s a superhero comic universe, and so Rule of Cool is built into things.
  • Mist making fun of Egostic for mumbling to himself lampshades the lengthy Inner Monologue segments the writer gives Egostic and Stardus.
• Large Ham: Discussed Trope as both Egostic and Stardus play up their super personas like this despite it being somewhat awkward.
• Laughing Mad: Egostic regularly pretends to be this as part of his supervillain persona.
• Legion of Doom:
  • Egostic creates one, tentatively called Ego Squad and eventually properly named Ego Stream. More technically it’s an Anti-Hero team or Anti-Villain one.
  • And then there is Cathedral, the international legion of S-class supervillains led by Celeste.
• Level Grinding: Egostic’s Engineered Heroics on behalf of Stardus are compared to this.
• Light Is Not Good: The Medic Ha-yul as a supervillain in the comic wore a white priest outfit.
• Like Brother and Sister: This is how Egostic sees the women in his Legion of Doom, as he only has eyes for Stardus.
• Likes Clark Kent, Hates Superman:
  • Stardus is afraid of her friend Chaeyun expressing this feeling, considering she’s part of Egostic’s Mango Union fanclub.
  • Da-in hires a destitute reporter to make anti-egostic content to help turn around public opinion about him in Korea. She is very grateful, but doesn’t know it’s being done by the very person she passionately raves against.
• Living Weapon: Han-Eun’s secret Behemoth project made from human test subjects created a mass of tentacles to wear on your arm that can be controlled by thought. Mainly used for a powerful punch.
• Locked in a Room: Stardus and Egostic in a power nullifying lab under Seoul.
• Lunacy: The Wolgwanggyo moon cult has magic based on the moon.
• Mad Scientist Laboratory:
  • Seo-un’s is appropriated by Egostic as his beginner lair.
  • The Han-Eun laboratory hidden just south of the Han river. Complete with hideous mutants.
• Make an Example of Them: To prevent future incidents of copycat terrorism, Egostic brutally executes most of the copycats.
• Mana Meter: Egostic explains his power like this for why he doesn’t use it for the Mundane Utility of getting a drink without getting out of bed. Essentially, when he runs out and keeps using powers, it’s Cast From Hitpoints causing fatigue and Blood from the Mouth.
• Media Transmigration: Da-in is sucked into his favorite super-hero comic book, which he read many times.
• MegaCorp: Being based in South Korea, these are naturally present in the form of Chaebol:
  • Han-Eun, a Villain with Good Publicity company run by Evilutionary Biologist types and fond of Playing with Syringes.
  • Yuseong Enterprises, run by third generation oligarch, and superhero Lee Seola/Icicle. Has ambitions of taking over Korea, seemingly for the greater good.
• Meteor-Summoning Attack: American S-Class superhero Metel specializes in this.
• Mini-Mecha: Sao-eun eventually develops the Starbuster series of mechs so she can get some of the fame during attacks.
• Misery Builds Character: Egostic repeatedly thinks to himself how, both mentally and physically the superheroes in the story need challenges to grow, and using his foreknowledge, he surgically removes the most disproportionate causes of suffering (like people Stuffed into the Fridge). He nearly changes his mind at the last minute when leaving Stardus to fight Moonlight Shaman, his resolve being broken by seeing her cry.
• Mood Dissonance: Egostic interrupting another villain’s terror attack by playing upbeat rock music and dancing to it.
• Mook Horror Show: Egostic rescuing the bound Ha-yul and her brother from a gang is presented like this, picking them off one by one in a dark house.
• Muggle Best Friend: Stardus has one in college, Kim Chaeyun, mainly serving to keep Egostic on her mind and fuel her obsession with him. She falls out of the story to be replaced by the more plot relevant superhero Icicle as her best friend.
• Mundane Object Amazement: Moonlight Shaman is especially prone to this, considering she was raised as a Tyke Bomb by a psychopath led Religion of Evil.
• Mundane Utility:
  • Egostic using his teammate’s Gadgeteer Genius abilities… to display youtube livestream comments on his visor via hologram.
  • Subverted when Seo-eun asks why Egostic doesn’t use Mind over Matter to get a drink, and he explains his powers basically work like a Mana Meter and he’s saving them for when he needs them.
  • During the Bridge terror incident, Egostic uses his teleportation power to fetch sweet bread for a hungry hostage.
  • Apparently the beach of the Beach Episode is maintained with the help of a super with a heat creation power.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Stardus has thoughts along these lines when seeing or being reminded of how affectionate Egostic acts with his female supervillain recruits.
• My Defense Need Not Protect Me Forever: This is how the confrontation between Egostic and Metel goes.
• My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: Played for Laughs with the 10 scoop ice cream falling towards Da-in.
• No-Sell: When Egostic has someone alter the Geometric Magic glyphs to buff him instead of Moonlight Shaman when he finally moves to confront her, he casually flicks away her attacks that pummeled the superheroes on previous days.
• Oblivious to Love: Egostic with regard to Stardus, thinking her feelings are simple hatred, because he specifically tries to do things she hates. And Stardus being in denial of her own feelings by some point.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Egostic coming up with his panicked super hero identity of “Apple-Mango”.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Death Knight tries to give out his real name, but gets cut off each time by Egostic and forced to go by Death Knight.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Stardus’ obsession with Egostic as her Arch-Nemesis has her thinking like this as an excuse for her Yandere like feelings about Egostic getting along great with Icicle.
• Opposites Attract:
  • Stardus and Egostic.
  • After Icicle’s character is developed, it’s apparent this is how her friendship with Stardus works.
• Orphanage of Fear: Ha-yul and her brother escaped from one of these after the headmaster tried to profit off of her healing magic, ending up living as a pickpocket in the slums.
• Parental Abandonment: Stardus’s motivation for super heroics was supervillains killing her parents as she was a child.
• Pass the Popcorn: A Running Gag, especially done by Egostic when watching Stardus live. Da Chief of Heroes "R" Us gets in on it when Egostic shows up.
• Pent-Up Power Peril: Electra’s Shock and Awe abilities cause severe stress when not let out. This is what caused the original comic version of her to be basically Drunk On The Darkside, and for her to have the comic readers Fan Nickname of "Bully".
• Person of Mass Destruction: Egostic’s first moves are to murder the unredeemable supervillains like this. S-class villains generally have this level of power regardless of alignment.
• Playing Both Sides: Both Egostic and Icicle do this by cooperating with each-other as Supervillain and Superhero.
• Playing with Syringes: Pretty much everything the Evilutionary Biologist Han-Eun MegaCorp and Kim Sunwoo do involves this. That’s how Seo-eun got her super intelligence (and grudge against them).
• Police Are Useless: B class heroes. The best they can do is be mentioned in the same breath as normal police helping evacuate civilians.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: In-Universe. Celebrity focused media and online fan clubs use these in their gossip and Ship-to-Ship Combat arguments about who goes best with Egostic.
• Post-Victory Collapse: Egostic, frequently, bonus points for Blood from the Mouth.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Stardus’s hair changed to blonde when her superpowers awoke.
• Power Nullifier:
  • A facility in the Han-Eun Mad Scientist Laboratory under Seol allows for Egostic and Stardus to be Locked in a Room.
  • Geometric Magic symbols etched into Seoul by Wolgwanggyo, serve to dampen Hero’s powers amongst other things in preparation for Moonlight Shaman’s attacks.
• Princess Carry: With his love of theatrics, Egostic does this several different times during public broadcasts, giving fuel to entertainment network and online shippers.
• Private Military Contractors: Egostic sets up some of these with an intermediary in order to organize some more minor potential heroes and villains to help face stronger threats in the future. The Hero Association doesn’t have very good pay, after all.
• Psycho Supporter: The group of copycat terrorists that emerge after Egostic’s first attack. Soobin emerges from that group, saying she was just following the crowd… though she does have her scary moments occasionally.
• Puppet King: In the comics South Korea ends up being puppeteered by Icicle, and things head in that direction in the new timeline.
• Refusal of the Call: Subverted with Mist turning down Egostic’s recruitment offer purely to Troll him.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Shadow Walker makes some surprisingly accurate assumptions about Egostic, it’s just the WHY that was wrong.
• Required Secondary Powers: Notably averted with Stardus’ flight. It’s said if she does it without her special suit, the friction of flight would tear her up.
• Resurrective Immortality: Death Knight, as he’s basically a ghost.
• Rivalry as Courtship: The main premise, between Egostic and Stardus.
• Sadistic Choice: A number of Egostic’s terror attacks are based on these, accurately counting on Stardus to Take a Third Option before faking a Villainous Breakdown. The first is ripped from The Dark Knight, and the second is the famous Trolley Dilemma. The bridge one is a unique take of asking Koreans to take an offer of free money, and if enough take it, he’ll blow up the bridge. Which ends up hurting South Korea’s reputation abroad, to the public’s chagrin.
• Samaritan Syndrome: This is noted to be a major part of South Korean culture when it comes to superheroes, that they blame heroes for failing to prevent damage just as much as villains, hence Egostic’s popularity. In the original comic, Stardus suffered from this guilt tremendously.
• Sensual Spandex: Naturally, Stardus wears this which protect her from the friction of flying at high speeds as a Flying Brick.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Pretty much every plan came up with Egostic is this, using his knowledge of the comic world he found himself in. It’s played with, in that, he has to replace the suffering Stardus would have suffered with Engineered Heroics to strengthen her enough for coming battles.
• Serial Escalation: Discussed Trope. Using his knowledge of the original comic, Egostic points out this pattern of escalating power and destruction of enemies he has to manage in one way or another, be it by taking care of the threat himself, or by strengthening Stardus through struggle to prepare her.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Both Egostic and Stardus have the same reaction to Entertainment News declaring them to be lovers, throwing their remote at the TV. Eventually Egostic has to clear up that he’s not dating Mist after she kisses him to Troll Stardus.
• Shipper with an Agenda: Icicle scheming to get Egostic and Stardus together to keep him closer to her than to Ego Stream members. Backfires.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: In-Universe, Egostic’s live streams and fanclub site often have debates about this, because of the overly affectionate ways in which Egostic interacts with female Ego Stream recruits, as well as Stardus. Amusingly, Stardus gets directly involved at least once using the anonymity of the internet, despite being in denial.
• Shock and Awe: Choi-Sehee/Electra’s powers.
• Shout-Out: After playing mind games with someone to hide his Secret Identity, Da-in thinks to himself "Just as Planned", in a shout out to Death Note, as that exchange would have been right at home between Light and L.
• Shown Their Work: The author repeatedly displays an in depth understanding of how trauma effects people. An off-hand thought by Icicle suggests he is part of the MBTI typology scene.
• Smug Super: S-Class superhero Metel, a Type 2 Eagleland stereotype.
• Sneeze Cut: A Running Gag near the end of chapters, not necessarily taking the form of sneezing.
• Soul Eating: The Kaiju released by Wolgwanggyo do this, and conveniently return the souls after being defeated. They apparently can evolve into a more powerful form if they absorb enough.
• Stalker Shrine:
  • Egostic keeps a more modern equivalent: An online photo and video collection of Stardus he updates daily.
  • Stardus eventually starts a more traditional one in her house of Egostic.
• Standard Super-Hero Setting: The setting is generic enough, and there are enough references to the status quo in America and how that differs from Korea, one could easily imagine this taking place in the DC or Marvel universes.
• Status Buff:
  • The magic sigils placed around Seoul buffed Moonlight Priestess making her unstoppable, until Egostic interferes with them.
  • Elektra can use electricity to boost Death Knight.
  • Ha-yul can temporarily buff the powers of supers within a certain category of superpowers, doubling their power for hours, at the cost of exhausting herself.
• Stuffed into the Fridge: Egostic Set Right What Once Went Wrong and prevents a number of these in order to get help from Super individuals either sooner or later, typically playing the long game.
• Superhuman Trafficking: The head of Ha-yul’s Orphanage of Fear was planning to sell her and her healing abilities for profit, prompting her killing of the headmaster and escape alongside her little brother.
• Super Registration Act: These are announced all over the world as a result of nation-scale villain attacks. South Korea has the least push for it because of Egostic’s interference in the timeline. Even before any talk of this, it’s noted that countries are reluctant to send their heroes across borders for fear of talent poaching.
• Support Party Member: It’s quite a while before Egostic’s team gets anyone who’s not just this.
• Sustained Misunderstanding: Egostic simply thinking Starus hates him, not realizing how much her personality has changed from the original timeline.
• Take a Third Option: Stardus stopping the Trolley Dilemma train. Which is Just as Planned by Egostic because he knew her personality and that her doing so would increase her strength.
• Taking the Bullet: In the underground labs, Egostic, while dueling with Stardus, takes a hit from a monster for her and nearly dies. This leaves her with major trauma.
• Tantrum Throwing: Stardus does this multiple times out of frustration when seeing Egostic get along too well with other women, damaging her phone or desk.
• Terms of Endangerment: Egostic’s public displays towards Stardus sometimes include these to Troll her.
• Three-Point Landing: Egostic marvels at Stardus doing this at their first meeting.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: Egostic does this at the start of one of his terrorist attacks, seemingly taking inspiration from The Green Goblin.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Shadow Walker and night time, since his powers are limited in the day.
• 13 Is Unlucky: The 13th international ice cream festival of course means trouble.
• Throw-Away Country: Bye bye, Brazil!
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: One of the biggest differences between Egostic and Stardus is her belief in this, which is also part of several Contemplate Our Navels sequences where she wonders if he’s a hero or villain for killing Person of Mass Destruction supervillains. Apparently she killed multiple supervillains in the comic though.
• Tickle Torture: This is implied to be how Egostic "reforms" Metel.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Stardus struggles with this all the time, since when left on her own, she hates vigilantes and killing. But her intuition superpower and emotional attachment to Egostic go counter to this. Eventually trauma breaks her down to the point of Double Think on the subject.
• Tone Shift: Discussed Trope relating to the Stardust! Comic, as the second half became bleak and dark, with Korea physically being ruined and Stardus having her mental health devastated.
• Translator Microbes: Meetings of international villain leagues a magical equivalent, that doesn’t always keep up.
• Trauma Button: Soe-eun starts with some fear of men due to the Playing with Syringes conducted on her by Han-Eun. Soobin has episodes when her terrifying recruitment by Egostic is brought up. Stardus eventually gets a double bind trauma from Egostic betraying her and then Taking the Bullet to save her.
• Trigger-Happy:
  • The President of South Korea proves a little too happy to press the Big Red Button and launch mass explosives at Seoul.
  • The American S-class superhero Metel is quite cavalier when it comes to Collateral Damage.
• Troll: Egostic makes it clear early on that he derives great pleasure from the glares and anger from Stardus.
• Tsundere: Ego’s stream commenters call him one, causing him to almost fall. Considering he has the tripartite motives of reducing the suffering of Stardus, increasing the power of Stardus, but also just trolling her for his own thrills, it’s not hard to see why.
• Underwater City: Lantis, the domain of the boisterous supervillain Atlas.
• Ungrateful Bastard: It’s noted that South Koreans in particular are harsh on their country’s superheroes, blaming them for being too late to prevent damage. Which plays into the public liking Egostic more, since he has Media Transmigration foreknowledge to work from.
• Unishment:
  • One of Egostic’s motivations for being a supervillain and launching terror attacks is making Stardus glare at and threaten him, which he greatly enjoys.
  • Mist is thrilled when Egoistic uses Mind over Matter to carry her outside to do sparring, saying it’s comfy.
• The Unmasking: Apparently there was an arc about Stardus going through hell from this in the comic, to which Egostic warns her against doing after she nearly does it.
• Unnecessary Combat Roll: Egostic nearly blows his cover by doing this to escape a towering ice cream cone. Getting covered in dirt in the process.
• Unwilling Roboticisation: The Weapon Master S-ranked supervillain’s plans for Seoul were to kidnap people and do this before attacking using said monsters.
• Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: Egostic using telekinesis to pick up Mooks guns to shoot them.
• Vigilante Man: De facto what Egostic acts as, being a hero without the shackles of the law that bind conventional superheroes. Knowing that Stardus hates these types, blinds him to the complicating factors in her perception.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: This is part of why Egostic chooses to become a supervillain, to have agency instead of being leashed by the Hero Association. It doesn’t help that Stardus isn’t the investigative type, and so is always being led around by others, be it the association or Egostic.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Relationships amongst Ego Stream members sometimes develop along these lines. Especially their constant teasing of Egostic.
• Villains Out Shopping: Depending on how you define “Villain”, much of the series could count as this. The Ice Cream Fair is the most traditional example, from Stardus’ perspective.
• Villain with Good Publicity:
  • The Han-Eun MegaCorp manage to keep good public relations until one of their lab experiments escapes and they evacuate Korea.
  • Egostic becomes very popular, due to a combination of showmanship, preventing civilian casualties, and being willing to Shoot the Dog by killing supervillains instead of putting them into Cardboard Prison. This is seen as a problem by him, as he wants to boost and not worsen the reputation of Stardus.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: Seo-un and the President of the Hero Association act as this for Egostic and Stardus, respectively.
• Wants to Be Hated: Egostic specifically wants to be hated by Stardus, so that he can give her the challenges she needs to grow stronger in a manageable way, as opposed to her comic storyline enemies who systematically destroyed her mental health.
• Weak, but Skilled: Egostic’s powers aren’t too powerful in their own right, so he depends mostly on cleverness and strategizing to succeed. This is why he is left as an A-Rank supervillain despite having S-ranked ones under him.
• Weaksauce Weakness:
  • Shadow Walker is as good as powerless in the daylight.
  • The Kaiju tentacle monster that escapes from Han-Eun’s labs is weak to plain old water.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: It’s mentioned a few times that the most common superpowers are pretty useless in battle, things like reversing plant growth or heating an area.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Stardus relies on raw strength to handle most situations, in contrast to her foils Egostic and Icicle. Her lack of guile leaves her just reacting to Egostic, to her frustration. Meanwhile, other villains who would have given her the slip in the comic are dealt with by him, so she doesn’t develop the practical or emotional skills to cope with a recurring villain.
• Whole-Plot Reference: Egostic’s first terror attack is explicitly a partial recreation of the climax of The Dark Knight.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Subverted when Egostic pretends to be more injured than he is to guilt Icicle for having him meet Stardus out of disguise, only to get back to base, take out his IV, and be scolded for it.
• Your Head A-Splode: Egostic’s early method of assassinating supervillains was doing this with Mind over Matter. He’s disgusted by it, so switches to guns after.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: Egostic goes out of his way to make Stardus hate him so that he can take the place of her comic villains, for a sort of Level Grinding in his encounters with her to prepare her for the future, and because he enjoys her angry reactions. Egostic specifically hires a reporter to make anti-Egostic content for her to watch, to which she replies by leaving a comment supporting Egostic.
• 0% Approval Rating: The President of South Korea is noted to have a 9% approval rating, and that’s before he’s accused by several people of being Trigger-Happy with nuclear missiles.

---