Pride Before a Fall: Difference between revisions

Compare: [[The Atoner]] (who is necessarily repentant by definition), [[A Taste of Power]] (for when this happens in video games), or [[Break the Haughty]] for a slower descent. It also may overlap with [[Fallen Princess]] and [[Tragic Hero]].

 

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* Aisha Clan Clan from ''[[Outlaw Star]]'' gets demoted in her introductory episode for letting the heroes get away, and is promptly dropped into the position of [[Butt Monkey]] for the next ten episodes as she has to hitchhike her way across the galaxy to track them down. She does, however, manage to upgrade herself to [[The Big Guy]] of the show's [[Five-Man Band]] when she sneaks on their ship and proves herself in battle.

** Also, Ryoma in the anime goes through another of these. {{spoiler|He behaves uninterested and apathetic towards [[Tyke Bomb|Kevin Smith]] until he sees him play, then pretty much ''demands'' to be included in the line-up of the Senbatsu team. Tezuka [[What the Hell, Hero?|does]] ''[[What the Hell, Hero?|NOT]]'' [[What the Hell, Hero?|take this kindly]] and promptly [[Armor-Piercing Slap|b*tchslaps]] Ryoma in front of others, since his selfishness sounded extremely out of place for someone supposed to become a future leader in Seigaku. Ryoma has to go into a [[Pose of Supplication]] to regain Tezuka's favor and be even ''considered'' as a reserve player.}} Due to [[Values Dissonance]] (teamwork v/s stardom, Japanese mentality v/s Western views), the episode is often derided by fans.

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', the homunculus [[Smug Snake|Pride]] {{spoiler|is reduced to a lilliputian-size infant, right after a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] and a panicked attempt at [[Grand Theft Me]] of the main character. [[Mad Bomber|Kimblee]] even lampshades that Pride has essentially cast aside his own pride as a homunculus.}}

* In ''[[Naruto]]'', {{spoiler|Pain has Naruto pinned down and impaled with six chakra draining rods to prevent movement. Instead of simply capturing him right then and there, he stabs Hinata in a way that would make her bleed out quickly without immediate medical attention. Turns out those chakra draining rods are no match for six tails of the Kyuubi's power, and his trump card is no match for eight tails. Pain snatches defeat, [[Redemption Equals Death|but also some redemption]], from the jaws of victory because of nothing but his ego.}}

 

 

* At the beginning of the movie ''Bella'', we see the main character as a famous up-and-coming soccer player driving with his manager a few years ago. He is then shown in the present day working as a chef at his brother's restaurant. Through flashbacks throughout the movie, we find out that {{spoiler|when he was driving, he accidentally hit and killed a small girl, causing him to stop playing soccer.}}

* Stephen Chow's character in ''God of Cookery''. When he starts to regain his former glory halfway through the film, he begins to revert to his haughty attitude, until tragedy forces him to reevaluate his priorities.

 

 

== Literature ==

* Kennedy in ''Bubba-Ho-Tep''.

* The classic children's historical novel ''[[Johnny Tremain]]''. The main character is more skilled and harder-working than his fellow apprentices Dove and Dusty, and doesn't hesitate to remind them of that, and their master, Mr. Lapham, has Johnny read the part about [[Foreshadowing|pride coming before a fall]]. While rushing to finish an order, Johnny gets a cracked crucible from Dove, resulting in molten silver spilling onto his hand, which fuses his thumb to his hand and ends his career as a smith.

* Prince Roger in ''March Upcountry'' doesn't get knocked down quite in the first few pages, but pretty quickly nonetheless.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[My Name Is Earl]]''. A petty criminal with no respect for authority has a $100,000 lottery ticket. He loses his ticket and undertakes to reform himself. When he does, the ticket returns to him.

* In ''[[Doctor Who|The Daleks' Master Plan]]'', a council of galactic leaders delude themselves into thinking the Daleks will give them power. This is most pronounced with [[President Evil|Guardian]] Mavic Chen of the Solar System, who actually orders the Daleks around. {{spoiler|Those others on the council who survive are able to warn their galaxies when the Daleks turn on them, but Chen is exterminated, his [[Last Words]] being "You cannot kill me!".}}

** In ''The Invasion'', [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] Tobias Vaughn thinks he can play the Cybermen for patsies. {{spoiler|He soon realizes he is [[Out-Gambitted]], and [[Redemption Equals Death|is deleted trying to stop them]].}}

** Uh . . . [[Completely Missing the Point|no, not exactly.]] It's made clear in the show and explicitly shown in the movie "In The Beginning" that the war between the humans and the Minbari was the result of [[Poor Communication Kills]] more than anything, with exactly the wrong human captain making first contact and drastically misreading the Minbari traditional gesture of greeting (approaching with gun ports ''open'') as a threat. If anything, most of the failing of pride falls on the Minbari-Dukat, their leader, had literally only MINUTES before informed only one person (Delenn) of the Vorlons and how important the humans would be. Then, Dukat is killed in the first encounter and Delenn, in her grief, casts the tiebreaker vote to "kill them all!" With technology differentials, the war is basically a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] in favor of the Minbari. They later refuse to reveal why they surrender long past the point it would be helpful to know and both the religious and warrior castes frequently make decisions based on face-saving. In [[Babylon 5]] pride is definitely the Minbari, not the human, [[Planet of Hats|hat.]]

*** Londo did mention that "Pride was not limited to humans", but humans had their share, too: They didn't stop the mission after being told that Minbary were dangerous, and sent a commander known to handle aggressively, because they were sure that they could handle whatever the enemy could throw at them if only they got to shoot first. Such attitude is always prone to make enemies.

*** The fate of the Centauri Republic (actually an empire) all happens due to Ambassador Londo's pride... and given how most of the other emperors had behaved (save for the sweet dying Emperor Turhan Bey {{spoiler|and future Emperor Vir}} ), it's a given that most of the Centauri upper class have the same failing.

* The short-lived drama ''Citizen Baines'' qualifies as this, as Baines is a senator-soon-turned-former senator suddenly having to raise his kids.

== Religion ==

* Of course, the archetypal example is [[Satan]], dating back [[Older Than Steam|at least]] to ''Paradise Lost''. He has respectively been portrayed as too proud to take second place to man, or too proud to take second place to ''God'', both of which result in him leading a rebellion against God, leading to him and his fellow rebel angels getting booted out of heaven.

** The titular character of DC Comics' ''Lucifer'' was a portrayal of the second type. He actually ends up {{spoiler|making his ''own'' Creation outside of the first one, just to show the old man up. It gets complicated from there.}}

** Horus, son of the [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|Emperor of Mankind]] in the Warhammer 40K universe, parallels Lucifer's Fall so closely [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|that it cannot possibly have been an accident]].

 

== Tabletop Games ==

 

 

== Video Games ==

** {{spoiler|Of course, it doesn't help that he's mentally a <s>five</s>seven year old and the story is really weird for expecting him to not be childish just because he's physically older.}}

* Subverted hard in ''[[God of War]] 2''. In the first level, Kratos is in his full God of War glory, but it ends with him drained of his godly power and killed by Zeus, almost immediately after screaming at the gods, ''daring'' them to fight him. This turn of events does absolutely ''nothing'' to change Kratos' mindset, and only gives him the motivation to go about the deicidal rebellion Zeus killed him to prevent in the first place.

** Then again, he was transformed and his kingdom was devastated because of an [[Omnicidal Maniac]], not because of him. So why would he need to?

*** Considering said maniac was really {{spoiler|using}} [[Monster Clown|Trode's court jester]] {{spoiler|as a temporary vessel}} [[Who's Laughing Now?|on a mission of revenge against those who had belittled him]], there probably should have been a lesson in there somewhere.

*** He ''does'' eventually come to understand that simply being a king doesn't entitle him to order everyone around. Sure, he does it ''anyway'', but later in the game, there's a distinct shift from "Do it because I tell you" to "Please help me do this".

* Clearly "inspired" by ''The Emperor's New Groove'', Dragon Prince Ao-Jun of ''[[Tradewinds]] Caravans'' is turned into a lowly talking camel as punishment for a life of debauchery and caravan-eating, and must do one truly selfless deed to regain his true form. It goes about as well as you might think, and he briefly becomes an invisible lowly talking camel after denouncing his faith (of which he is a deity) to tithe a ridiculous sum of someone else's money to heathens because it was just the easiest thing he could think of.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* The [[Disneyfication|Disney version]] of ''Beauty And The Beast''. A prince refuses to provide shelter for an old woman. She turns out to be a powerful enchantress who curses him ([[Moral Dissonance|and everybody in his castle, including a kid]]) for his judging her by her appearance. To be restored, the beast must learn to [[The Power of Love|love another and receive love in return]].

* Stitch in ''Lilo and Stitch''. He goes from being a [[Badass]] mutant escapee to a little girl's "dog". He learns an Aesop about the value of family and his gleeful feral edge is ... softened.

[[Category:Ego Tropes]]

[[Category:Plots]]