Ego Tropes

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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

• Academia Elitism: Ego driven by an advanced or prestigious education.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Once a character becomes popular, they immediately start becoming self-absorbed.
• Arrogance Breeds Laziness: Too overconfident to bother putting in the work.
• 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.
• Bad Mood as an Excuse: They use their own delicate psychological condition as a defense for their bad behavior, which only worsens the situation if they don't prove it enough.
• Big Ego, Hidden Depths: A better person hidden beneath an egotistical exterior.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Instead of killing the hero immediately, this villainous character just decides to spare them, believing that they're now "weak".
• 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.
• Cocky Three Beat Laugh: A cocky character laughs when they feel sure of themselves.
• Condescending Compassion: This particular character only displays their sense of "kindness" to others in a way that it would satisfy themselves more than their subjects.
• Dancing Royalty: A character is treated like royalty because of their dancing skill.
• Delusions of Local Grandeur: Newsreaders believe they are local celebrities due to their jobs.
• Devil Complex: A character believes themselves to be Satan.
• Dirty Coward: When a character is at their weakest, they have the opportunity to use someone else just to save their own skin.
• Disrespectful Feet on Furniture: A character puts their feet on a desk/table to display their smugness, disrespect, and impoliteness.
• Egocentrically Religious: They think they're worthy of being provided salvation just for their religious practices, when they're just as guilty of committing sins as anyone else around themselves.
• Entitled Bastard: A character who believes that they should have the right to do or have anything without considering the consequences.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: A wicked or smug character does not understand the basics of virtue out of their own pride.
• Evil Is Easy: They simply think that they can achieve anything by performing any sort of misdeeds, no matter its degree.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: They only posed themselves as ideal figures just for themselves to look reverable to others.
• Giftedly Bad: An extremely passionate artist who is actually pretty bad.
• A God Am I: A character believes themselves to be a god.
• Godhood Seeker: A character thinks that they should be a god.
• Good Is Impotent: They think that implementing any virtuous value is ineffective to themselves.
• Hates Defiance: A character hates it when others make defiance against them.
• Holding-Back Backfire: A character's insistence on holding back against their foe ends up causing them to lose.
• Horrible Judge of Character: They simply view someone or something at face value alone, without thinking that there's More than Meets the Eye.
• Hypocrite: A character makes a claim they thought would be true to them... when it turns out to be the opposite of it.
• 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.
• I Reject Your Reality: A character tries to deliberately make others that what's presently true is the opposite of it, potentially because it leaves a bruise to their ego.
• It's All About Me: A character who only cares about themselves.
• Lack of Empathy: They simply don't have any particular feeling for others. Enough said.
• Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: Humanity was once prideful and strong but has now fallen.
• Malevolent Mugshot: A villain who places their likeness everywhere.
• Men Are Better Than Women: A specific Double Standard which insists that masculinity has more competence than femininity.
• 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.
• Not Helping Your Case: They make a defensive claim just to save their hide, only to backfire when it didn't work.
• 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: A prideful character falls from grace.
• Pride Makes You Dumb: A character does stupid things out of pride.
• The Prima Donna: A character in the show business who is beautiful yet highly egotistical.
• The Proud Elite: A person of elite status who is cold and aloof.
• Proud Peacock: A literally proud peacock.
• Psychopathic Manchild: This character will be irrationally immature when things don't go their way.
• Rightly Self-Righteous: This character sees themselves morally superior because they actually are.
• Shapeshifter Showoff Session: Newly-unveiled shapeshifters just can't resist flaunting their powers.
• Skipping the Basics: A character thinks they can learn something difficult without having to learn the basics first.
• Small Name, Big Ego: A character thinks they're the best at what they do, but they really aren't.
• Smug Snake: An arrogant, smug, smirking villain.
• Smug Super: A super-powered being arrogantly sees themselves as above non-powered people.
• Sore Loser: They simply don't like being lost, so they'll react erratically to any sort of loss they've experienced.
• 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: An egotistical, self-centred character on the heroes' team who looks down on a new recruit.
• Too Proud for Lowly Work: A character thinks that they're too good to do certain types of work.