Basic Trope: A character who is effortlessly good at something.
- Straight: Adam McAwesome is a School Idol who is good looking enough to work as a model as his side job and is surrounded adoring fan girls and guys wherever he goes. He is also the top of his class (if not his entire school) in every single subject without having to study, is athletic enough to go toe-to-toe with professional players even though he's not a part of any athletic team (and therefore is not involved in their practices), and is a Nice Guy to boot.
- Exaggerated: Adam McAwesome is physically perfect, has a leitmotif that sounds like a national anthem on steroids and a perfectly glinting set of teeth. He enters the scene to save the main characters from the Big Bad's Death Trap and absconds with The Baroness (who has instantly fallen for him) after suplexing the villain's entire supply of Elite Mook bodyguards all at once so they explode. As Adam rides off into the sunset he delivers a final and epic Kirk Summation that leaves everyone present swooning after him.
- Downplayed: Adam is a twelve-year-old who's widely regarded as extremely cool. Unlike his peers, he has no zits or braces, and he's got a girlfriend and good grades. He even has a job as junior coach of the Pee-Wee Teeball Team. He also wears Cool Shades and gets a ride to school on his dad's Cool Bike. However, aside from the teachers all being friendly to him, it's obvious that no adult gets that he's totally cool.
- Justified: The Rule of Cool and Rule of Funny are actual rules of physics in the show, and Adam knows how to exploit it.
- Inverted:
- The Sociopathic Hero. Adam still 'wins' constantly, but it's through being a bigger evil Jerkass than everyone else than being more heroic.
- Adam is a Ridiculously Average Guy who does not excel at anything.
- Adam is a Butt-Monkey who is bad at everything he tries.
- Subverted: Adam is shown to have some telling character flaws that give him areas where he is inferior to the protagonists.
- Double Subverted: But these flaws are comedic and non-serious and have no impact on his ability to save the day.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: Adam shows up and heroically rescues the cast in a dramatic over-the-top fashion, only to reveal after the fact that he was really scared crapless of the whole ordeal and only acted that way to one-up the villain. He then leaves the rest of the cast to their ordeals, stating that his heart won't take much more... Then, the moment the heroes are out of sight, Adam immediately leaps off to save someone else in a similar fashion. He only acts weak and insecure after the fact because he doesn't want the rest of the cast to feel inferior and unnecessary.
- Averted: There's no Ace in the cast. The heroes are the most heroic people around.
- Enforced: The writers respond to accusations by their audience that their characters 'aren't heroic enough' by adding a character who overcompensates and then some.
- Lampshaded:
- "What a guy!" *Swoon*
- "Who does that guy think he is anyway? He's too damn perfect, and the fans are giving him more attention!"
- Invoked: Adam was born a normal person, but takes special drugs or Bio-Augmentation to make himself smarter, stronger, more handsome, and generally better than everyone else.
- Exploited: The heroes know that Adam is better at them at everything, so whenever he shows up, they pack it and leave to save resources.
- Defied: The heroes chase off The Ace before he starts making them look bad (i.e. immediately after showing up).
- Discussed: "Is this guy for *real*?" "You tell me; I'd hate to think of what we're in for if he turns out to be a deranged hallucination."
- Conversed: "This show can't expect me to take someone that perfect seriously."
- Deconstructed:
- Adam regularly has to deal with The Perils of Being the Best.
- Adam turns out to be a Broken Ace: The perfection is only a facade used to compensate for and hide the emptiness and crippling mental issues inside.
- Adam is a Telepathic Master of Illusion who uses his powers to create a "perfect" image of himself in order to hide the fact that he's an incredibly ugly loser with huge self-esteem issues.
- ... Or the Big Bad, using his incredible power to win the trust of the land and conquer the world without being Obviously Evil about it.
- Due to Adam outperforming Bob, he feels worthless and believes that he shouldn't be the main character. Bob's True Companions became hostile to Adam for stripping away Bob's self-confidence.
- Since Adam is so much better than his peers, they stop trying, leaving Adam to pick up their slack. Eventually, Adam burns out and his performance suffers or he abandons them.
- The crown is heavy, and Adam must keep training/studying to stay perfect, without showing how much pressure he's under.
- Being the Ace makes Adam decide that he works better alone — and he gets overwhelmed by opponents who are individually not as skilled but capable of working together.
- Reconstructed:
- After getting therapy that cures the mental issues, Adam is back at work saving the day with his mind cleared of pesky distractions.
- Adam decides to do away with the illusions, puts himself through Training from Hell, gets a makeover and starts living up to his idealized self-image.
- Adam ends up Becoming the Mask and pulls a Heel–Face Turn, becoming The Good King.
- Adam befriends Bob and tries to make Bob feel more confident about his abilities and talents.
- Played For Drama: Broken Ace again.
Return to The Ace here. Adam could, of course, burst in there heroically and do it for you, but is that really worth the risk that he'll end up accidentally seducing your girlfriend/boyfriend/you in the process?
