"The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself."
— George R. R. Martin, paraphrasing William Faulkner
This is an index for tropes about internal conflict. Related to Psychology Tropes.
Categories:
- Amnesiac Dissonance: A amnesiac character comes to realize they were on the opposite side of their current allies / alignment.
- Amnesiac Villain Joins the Heroes: A villain gets amnesia and joins their former foes; this may result in internal conflict if they are told or start to remember who they once were.
- Angst: Anxiety and inner worries.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind
- Beneath the Mask: How a person presents themselves publicly differs from their true self.
- Broken Ace: A character is high skilled and well-loved, but still has a lot of personal issues.
- Conflicting Loyalty: A character is torn between their allegiance to two opposing factions / people.
- The Corruption
- The Ditherer: A person's problem is their inability to make decisions.
- Double Consciousness: A person's identity conflicts with itself (often a result of their upbringing clashing with their current persona).
- Double Think: A person holds contradicting beliefs at the same time.
- Dramatic Drop
- Dramatic Sit-Down
- Emotions vs. Stoicism
- Enemy Within
- Enemy Without
- Face Your Fears
- Fighting Back Is Wrong
- Fighting from the Inside
- Frequently-Broken Unbreakable Vow
- Friend-or-Idol Decision
- Gollum Made Me Do It
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Someone imagines an angel and a devil appearing on their shoulders to tell them what the right thing to do is.
- Heel Realization: A character is distraught at the realization that what they've been doing is wrong.
- Heroic BSoD: A character suffers a mental / emotional breakdown and stops functioning for a time.
- Heroic Willpower: The hero does their best not to give in to the madness that's trying to take over them.
- His Own Worst Enemy: A character's biggest obstacle is their personal flaw(s).
- Hope Is Scary: A character is afraid to have hope.
- Identity Breakdown: Having uncertainty or conflicting notions of who or what one is leads to a mental break.
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: A character wants to kill someone who has wronged them. Their friends try to talk them out of it on the grounds that killing their enemy would make them just as bad as their enemy.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Battling a transformed or corrupted friend while trying to reach the goodness inside them so that they'll overcome their transformation or corruption.
- Jekyll & Hyde: The person's conflict is changing into a villainous alter ego.
- Just One Extra Ticket: Someone plans to go to a show with their friends, but does not have enough tickets for everyone to come.
- Making the Choice for You
- Mental Monster
- The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: Someone talks to their reflection and the reflection responds to their statements as if they were an actual person.
- Many Spirits Inside of One
- Moral Dilemma: A character has to choose between two or more options where either outcome could be considered moral or immoral.
- Ordered to Cheat
- Ordered to Die
- Personal Horror
- Sadistic Choice: Having to make a quick decision where resolving either conflict will only leave one stuck with the consequences of not solving the other problem.
- Suicidal Sadistic Choice: Forcing someone to choose between killing themselves or suffering a threat.
- Secret-Identity Identity: A person with a secret identity is conflicted over which persona is their real self.
- Sexual Extortion
- Shapeshifter Identity Crisis
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: A war veteran is traumatized by the horrific things they witnessed in the war they fought in.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: A character is a jerk to others to cover up the sadness they feel inside.
- Split Personality
- Split-Personality Takeover
- Stages of Monster Grief
- Stepford Smiler: A troubled person pretends to be happy to mask their grief.
- Superpowered Evil Side
- To Be Lawful or Good: Conflict over whether one should do what they know is right or what their superiors say is right.
- Tsundere
- Warm Blood Bags Are Everywhere: A vampire lives among humans and is trying to resist the urge to feed on human blood.
- What You Are in the Dark: The moment where it's shown whether a character is truly as nice in private as they act when in public. Or alternatively, whether they're really as bad as they seem.
