Informed Flaw: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Much like the [[Informed Ability]], an Informed Flaw is a [[Fatal Flaw]] that simply doesn't have any effect on the plot or character. It can come up in one of two forms:

 

A [[Sub-Trope]] of [[Show, Don't Tell]], A [[Super-Trope]] of [[Hollywood Homely]], [[Hollywood Pudgy]] and [[Gorgeous Gorgon]]. Related to [[Informed Ability]], [[Informed Attribute]], [[Suetiful All Along]] and [[Anti-Sue]]. Contrast with [[I Am Not Left-Handed]], [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]], and [[Obfuscating Stupidity]].

 

* In ''[[Sonic X]]'', in a rather shabby attempt to make Chris Thorndyke likable, he often complains about being rich meaning he doesn't have any real friends, and his parents never being home. While at first this seems almost true, over the course of the show he is shown to have more human friends, more guardians, and his parents repeatedly manage to show up for special occasions. Being obscenely wealthy is certainly never played as a disadvantage.

* In one of the episodes of ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', Usagi lists a bunch of her faults, one of them is flat-chested. Have the writers actually seen any art of the show?!

** Then there's a later episode where the [[Monster of the Week]] and Chibi-Usa both agree that she's fat. In reality, her proportions are more exaggeratedly thin than Barbie's even though she's constantly portrayed as a lazy [[Big Eater]].

* In ''[[Elfen Lied]]'', we're told Lucy's [[Combat Tentacles|vectors]] only have a range of two meters, but judging from visual estimates, she often extends them a good few meters further. This can be explained as Lucy holding back, or it could just be a [[Artists Are Not Architects|mistake]].

** The two meters was used as a plot point, in that she's unable to reach people who stand beyond that (though, when this happens, she just throws things so it's pretty pointless). She wouldn't be holding back, it's just an artist error.

* Nami of ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei]]'' is something indicated to be kind of plain, on account of being [[The Generic Guy|the normal girl]]. However, outside of clearly [[Gonk]] characters in the series, [[Generic Cuteness]] applies for everyone, Nami included, and [[Only Six Faces|and there's nothing that really distinguishes her features from everyone else's]]. Of course, she really ''is'' the most normal compared to [[Dysfunction Junction|the other main girls]], which makes her unique in and of itself. Also, she loudly objects whenever someone brings this up.

* In ''[[Beelzebub]]'', Furuichi is revealed to have the highest standardized test score at Ishiyama High (where studying is hated "180 percent!")...a '''59''' (though Oga pointed out no one knows what it was out of, it's assumed 100). Furuichi himself is often shown to be smarter (as are other characters like Himekawa and Natsume), and none of the class mentioned any grade trouble one moving to Ishiyama Academy (though they might not have been graded, it was a temp thing...and the teachers were terrified of them...).

** Most chalk the episode up to [[Rule of Funny]], which the series usually runs on.

* In ''[[One Piece]]'', Trafalgar Law was stated to be a coldly cruel pirate and even Kidd was wary of the rumours surrounding him. From what we have seen, he appears to have a friendly relationship with his crew, took pity on an enslaved pirate captain and risked his life to save Luffy for no particular reason. {{spoiler|Then post-timeskip, we find out his "resume" to join the Shichibukai - extracting and delivering 100 pirate hearts.}}

* Musashi's kicks in ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' are supposedly powerful with the drawback that he isn't entirely accurate. Yet he never missed a single kick in the series (apart from a flashback where Shin had directly blocked it). Even his rival Kotaro who is known for his 100% accuracy instead of power misses a pivotal kick.

 

* When "he" first appears in ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|New Avengers]]'' a sharp-eyed reader might notice that the mysterious character Ronin seems to be ignoring Spider-Man and Iron Man. This makes sense when it's revealed that Ronin is actually Echo - a deaf woman - who can't lip-read someone whose mask/helmet covers their mouth ... unfortunately, once that's revealed, Echo's deafness seems to go away; she even replies to comments made by people facing away from her.

* In ''[[The Umbrella Academy]]'', Alison, The Rumor, is described as being narcissistic. Now, we have never seen her being narcissistic on her adult ages, nor on her younger years. That she lost her narcissism growing up, could be acceptable.

* An early ''[[Superman]]'' Christmas story shows us an older boy who's supposed to be spoiled and unappreciative of his wealth, but the actual writing shows him as no worse than sheltered, and far from being unappreciative of his many toys, he's surfeited, and wants to move on to real things, which is perfectly normal and reasonable for a twelve year old.

 

* A shining example of the trend described above happens with Ronan of ''[[Naruto Veangance Revelaitons]]''. When reviewers complained that Ronan had no flaws (apart from those the author doesn't consider as such, including his terrible treatment of women), the author pointed out that Ronan did have a flaw, namely ''a mole on his face that was never mentioned before or since''.

 

* In ''[[Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever]]'', Jeremiah Ecks is introduced as an alcoholic that spent the previous couple years getting sloshed in bars. Apparently, not only did it not reduce his physical prowess at all, but he didn't even need any time to sober up.

* The Russian animated movie ''Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber'' draws attention to Ilya's superstitiousness for about its first half, and then it's forgotten and has no effect on the plot when the characters get to Constantinople.

* The film adaptation of ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' has Bella's purported clumsiness displayed in a throw-away scene where she slips and falls on wet steps only to be caught by her father.

* In ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'', Eddie Valiant seems to be healthy enough for ''five years'' of alcoholism, though the chili dogs have clearly had some effect on his stomach. He quits with no ill effects, too.

* Averted in ''[[Die Hard With a Vengeance]]'', in which McClane, established as being only "one step away from becoming a full-blown alcoholic" enters the story with a splitting headache from the previous night's drinking, and spends the entire day bitching about his "bad fucking hangover". He still retains his badass moves, though. {{spoiler|It even proves a help when as a "last request" he asks the [[Big Bad]] if he has any aspirin for his headache: he does, provided by the hotel he was staying at.}}

* In ''[[The Broadway Melody]]'', the two main characters, a sister act, each have one. There's the "attractive but untalented one" (who seems every bit as good a dancer and singer as the other) and the "talented but plain one" (who is [[Hollywood Homely|not even a little plain]]).

* In ''[[Thor (film)|Thor]]'', Loki is said to be "sometimes mischievous", possibly as a nod to the [[Trickster Archetype|mythological character]] he's based on. Except he's deadly serious and never does anything you could consider to be mischievous except in the [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|absolute loosest sense of the word]]. His pranks were cut from the theatrical release and only included in the Extended Cut.

 

* Tom and John's father in ''[[The Great Brain]]'' books has a reputation for buying new inventions that turn out to be worthless, but it never happens in any of the stories. He orders a flush toilet in the first book that works, to everyone's surprise, and gives John a basketball and backboard that make him the most popular kid in town.

* In the ''[[Pellucidar]]'' novels of [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] there are a race of gorilla-like humanoids called Sagoths. In the book it is stated a few times that Sagoths are inferior to humans in intelligence. However, none of the Sagoth characters appear to be particularly stupid, the Sagoth guard captain in the second book is able to see through a human's ruses and the Sagoth that Tarzan befriends in the fourth book seems to be of at least average intelligence.

* The ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series supposedly has Richard behave as something of a [[Deadpan Snarker]], whose mouth sometimes writes checks his ass can't cash. Most often this flaw is mentioned only in its absence, where the author states that Richard was '''tempted''' to say something snarky, but managed to keep it under control. You can count on one hand with fingers left over the number of times in the entire series where Richard actually spits out some quip that he ends up regretting.

* For a guy who claims he was far too squeamish to finish medical school, Escott from ''[[The Vampire Files]]'' seems awfully at-ease with collecting bottles full of cow blood for Jack every couple of books {{spoiler|or even letting Jack bite his wrist when he's ''really'' horrifically injured}}.

** Of course, Vimes is also a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]], so it would make sense if he only ''acted'' that way.

** According to Pratchett, Vimes ''thinks'' he is a much worse person than he is, because he's aware of all the impulses he tries to curb... much like everyone else.

* ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'': Annabeth's fatal flaw is said to be hubris, but she gets in more trouble from complex abandonment issues that result in irrational distrust of people who have done nothing to deserve it (particularly Percy and her father) and exaggerated devotion to distant parental figures who treat her like crap (particularly her mother and {{spoiler|Luke.}} Percy's fatal flaw is said to be personal loyalty, but he gets in a lot more trouble from his big mouth and [[Leeroy Jenkins|recklessness.]] Bianca, as a child of Hades, is said to have a fatal flaw of holding grudges, but it never really shows up, though the book doesn't have much of a chance to show it before {{spoiler|her death.}}

 

* In ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', for all of Volume 3's talk about Sylar's uncontrollable "hunger", he seems perfectly capable of hanging around and interacting with other supers without popping open their brains to see what makes them tick. This seems to be the case even after he turns back fully to the side of evil (he never chows down on Luke, for example, despite on multiple occasions being given a good reason to do so. Ditto for Doyle, who he must have been lugging around for more than a day). Peter Petrelli, on the other hand, pretty much chops open the head of ''every single person'' he meets after acquiring Sylar's ability, despite (unlike Sylar) receiving no apparent tangible benefit from doing so. This becomes even more baffling when Sylar learns how to take powers without killing but ''decides'' to do so anyway (it's fun for him), leading one to assume the hunger talk was nonsense and Peter is so thick he felt the compulsion because he thought he would.

* In ''[[Star Trek]]'', much is made of Q being a liar. For example, Worf in "Déjà Q" says "You have fooled us too often, Q," and Vash in "Q-Less" mentions that the people of the planet Brax believe Q is the god of lies. Yet he almost never lies onscreen.

* In ''[[Blood Ties]]'', the main character supposedly has retinitis pigmentosa, which makes her have very poor peripheral vision and night vision - not that it affects her ''at all'' after the very first episode. Even if she could see reasonably well in daylight, she should have been ''blind'' at night - after all, retinitis pigmentosa is also known as ''night blindness''. But she can easily navigate in a darkened room using a tiny little penlight. In the [[Blood Books|book series]] Vicki has serious problems navigating at night. The fact that she can't drive in the dark is a major plot point in the second book.

* The pilot episode for ''[[No Ordinary Family]]'' informs the audience that the family in question is highly dysfunctional and on the edge of fragmenting. The show's framing story is that of the two parents seeking marital counseling in an effort to save their family. However, the 'dysfunctional family' idea is dropped for the rest of the series.

** Similarly, Lilith is usually spoken of as if she is the devil herself. Yet while she is portrayed as a bit emotionless and overly rational, there are no signs of malign intent or immorality that would justify this reputation.

* James Berluti on ''[[The Practice]]'' is supposed to be a less-good lawyer than the other employees at McDonnel-Young. In fact, Bobby pointedly makes everyone ''except'' James partner in one day. But while he may lack polish, James seems to have a similar win-loss record as everyone else, and is shown winning cases through sheer relentlessness the partners couldn't match.

* Season four of ''[[Sons of Anarchy]]'' makes a big deal out of the club's racism, and what the Sons would do to their secretly half-black member if they found out about it. This is despite the club having at least two Hispanic members, one Jewish member, the president having a Jewish wife and another member having had a black wife, and generally having no more problems working with [[Gang-Bangers|black]], [[The Triads and the Tongs|Asian]] or [[The Cartel|Hispanics]] criminals than they have with [[The Mafiya|Russians]] or [[The Troubles|Irish]]. They also fight two [[Those Wacky Nazis|white supremacist skinhead groups]], who see the club as traitors to their race. This is because real life outlaw biker groups are often racially segregated, even if the members themselves are not really racist, but a little explanation before would have been nice.

 

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* Therese of ''[[For Better or For Worse]]'' was repeatedly described as shallow, petty, materialistic and whatever else Lynn Johnson could use to paint her as the villain in Anthony's marriage. However, she rarely got any panel time that involved anything other than complaining to Anthony about Liz - whom she turned out to have good reason to dislike. When she was shown interacting with other characters, she came off as little more than a normal, if somewhat removed person and some thought her actions were justified when details of their marriage came to light.

* Lieutenant Fuzz of ''[[Beetle Bailey]]'' is often described as the world's biggest [[Jerkass]] by the other officers (and by Sergeant Snorkel) for no other reason than that he's a bit immature and occasionally dull. Sure enough, he bugs General Halftrack (for advice or approval) quite often, but that still doesn't explain why the other officers seem to hate him so much and with such sincerity. Even the military chaplain claims he can't find any redeeming qualities in Fuzz (and he doesn't help matters by adding "''I really tried!''")

 

* Another way is accuse the [[You Bastard|fans of something]]. Chris Jericho once showed video evidence to prove the fans were hateful toward men like him because they hated values, but the video showed the audience clapping for him.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Spore]]'', the Ecologist attribute card points to a [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|scary dogmatic]] side (namely, the belief that they must slaughter any sentient species that harms a world's environment), that doesn't seem to show up.

* At the very beginning of ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'', people talk about how Lucca's made yet another "crazy invention", and sarcastically say they hope it doesn't blow up like all the others. Over the course of the game Lucca then proceeds to invent a teleportation device (the Telepod), a portable flamethrower (her Flame Toss attack), a portable hypnotic device (her Hypno Wave attack), a knockout device (her "Zonker 38", which she can use to rescue Crono), a supply of potent hand grenades (her Napalm and Mega Bomb attacks), a device capable of controlling warps in the space/time continuum (the Gate Key), fixes and improves on a piece of futuristic technology that's been rusted out for over 300 years (Robo), and discovers a way to harness solar energy and use it as a weapon (the Wonder Shot).

** Lucca's father Taban fits this too. He's amazed that their teleportation device works, but he then proceeds to develop a series of increasingly effective pieces of body armor for Lucca (the Taban Vest, Taban Helm and Taban Suit), and also converts solar energy into a device capable of increasing its user's physical power (the Sun Shades).

*** One of his devices ''did'' cripple his wife. {{spoiler|At least until Lucca uses time travel to change that, though he would have built a device that ''almost'' crippled his wife.}} Perhaps this is a case of in-universe [[Never Live It Down]].

** To be honest, they're some of the only Goblin technology that doesn't have a chance of blowing you up. And how fun would it be to be on a zeppelin that suddenly kills everybody onboard?

** This is partly [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]] - some NPC goblin technology in the game does blow up, but zeppelins are just supposed to get you around, and it would be incredibly annoying to players if they didn't - and partly [[The Artifact]]. The engineering profession is unique among [[Item Crafting|professions player characters can learn]] in that a fair number of malfunctions are possible with the items or abilities it grants. In classic [[WoW]], some malfunctions could single-handedly kill your character, and goblin-related gadgets would usually kill you with explosions. Recent patches have toned down the side effects, making most of them inconvenient or funny but harmless, but lots of players specialized in goblin-style engineering did in fact blow themselves up once upon a time.

* Saki from ''[[Snow Sakura]]'' is teased as being flat-chested every now and then. However, when you're looking at her, there's not any angle that you can consider her chest flat.

* Garet in the original ''[[Golden Sun]]'' is mentioned by his little brother to be a [[Big Eater|compulsive glutton]]. This is never mentioned again in canon (though [[Spin Offspring|Tyrell]] gives it a [[Call Back]] in ''Dark Dawn'').

** Likewise, the official Nintendo strategy guide for ''The Lost Age'' directly describes [[The Brute|Agatio]] as "... [[Dumb Muscle|[lacking] substance between the ears]]". This is the guy who outwits [[The Chessmaster|Alex]] to his face, and later [[Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty|sabotages Isaac's party]] because [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|he knows he won't win a fair fight with them]]. Lacking substance ''he ain't''.

 

* As does Pete in ''[[Darths and Droids]]''. He took Lactose Intolerance as a flaw...for [[Star Wars|R2-D2]].

** He's been shown to be angry before, managing to make Seymour back off and run away.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* As stated by multiple characters in ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'', Numbuh One's butt is supposed to be ridiculously huge, but it looks just about the same as the other character's.

* In ''[[Invader Zim]]'' Dib is regularly mocked for having a giant head, even though his head is the same size as any other characters.

* Jay Sherman from ''[[The Critic]]'' is constantly described by the other characters as being ridiculously overweight and ugly, he's fairly normal looking and he's short and chubby.

* Ackar from ''[[Bionicle]]: The Legend Reborn'' is said to be an old warrior way past his prime, and as such, his people are growing tired of him. Doesn't stop him from performing impossible multi-somersaults and wiping away a gang of marauding Bone Hunters and their dinosaur steeds with ease.

* Lana Kane from ''[[Archer]]'' is constantly made fun of by other characters for having big hands, even though her character is drawn in proportion with normal sized hands.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Informed Attribute]]

[[Category:Character Flaw Index]]

[[Category:Show, Don't Tell]]