Whether it's the ego, id, superego, or some other personality aspect, our own wants and feelings, of ourselves and of others, affect how we act. Such is the same with characters. For good or ill, egos can have strong effects on how characters act.
See also Admiration Tropes, Character Flaw Index, Entitled to This Index, Fame and Reputation Tropes, Prideful Tropes, Selfishness Tropes, and These Tropes Love to Brag.
Tropes
Subcategories
- Academia Elitism: Ego driven by an advanced or prestigious education.
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Once a character becomes popular, they immediately start becoming self-absorbed.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Combines powerful fighting ability with a huge arrogant streak.
- Attention Whore: A character who is desperate enough for attention that they'll do anything to get it.
- Awesome Ego: A cool egotistical person.
- Big Ego, Hidden Depths
- Break the Haughty: An arrogant person gets their comeuppance for being arrogant.
- But Not Too Challenging: A character is too proud to take an easy victory, but is also too much of a sore loser to take a loss.
- Caught by Arrogance: One's own ego makes them unintentionally confess to their crime.
- Cocky Rooster: A cocky, cocksure cock-of-the-walk.
- Dancing Royalty
- Delusions of Local Grandeur: Newsreaders believe they are local celebrities due to their jobs.
- Devil Complex: A character believes themselves to be Satan.
- Fighting Your God: A character decides their divine authority is their enemy.
- Giftedly Bad
- A God Am I: A character believes themselves to be a god.
- Godhood Seeker: A character thinks that they should be a god.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: A character fakes being egotistical in order to hide their insecurities.
- Insufferable Genius: An intelligent character who is so prideful of their genius that they're condescending to everyone who isn't as smart as they are.
- It's All About Me: A character who only cares about themselves.
- Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair
- Malevolent Mugshot
- Miles Gloriosus: A character boasts about being a good fighter, but turns out to be a total coward when facing real danger.
- Narcissist: A character who is obsessed with themselves.
- Offended by an Enemy's Indifference: A person feels offended that someone they like doesn't consider them worth thinking about.
- Pride: The deadly sin that pretty much every one of these characters have in common.
- Pride Before a Fall
- The Prima Donna
- The Proud Elite
- Proud Peacock
- Shapeshifter Showoff Session: Newly-unveiled shapeshifters just can't resist flaunting their powers.
- Small Name, Big Ego: A character thinks they're the best at what they do, but they really aren't.
- Smug Snake
- Smug Super: A super-powered being arrogantly sees themselves as above non-powered people.
- Speed Demon: Someone who either likes doing things at a really fast pace, loves racing and/or driving fast or is very proud of their speed/driving skills, often to the point of arrogance.
- Team Prima Donna
- Too Proud for Lowly Work: A character thinks that they're too good to do certain types of work.
