Favourite Character's Flaws?

[Arachne]

IMO, a good character needs big flaws. I don't mean physical problems like "can't control their powers" or "missing most of their chest". I mean personality flaws like "overconfident" and "arrogant".

So what are your favourite character's best flaws and how do they cause trouble for said character?

[Arachne]

Dani Moonstar is temperamental, stubborn and tactless, but her biggest flaw is that she never asks for help when she needs it. She took on the Demon Bear by herself and got gutted. She went undercover to stop Reignfire and nearly got herself killed. How much trouble would the New Mutants have gotten I into if Dani had gone to the headmaster when there was trouble?

It's an issue that's never been dealt with properly, but it sure leads to good stories.

[Ambaryerno]

X-23's most recurring flaw is her difficulties interacting with others on a personal level. This is part of what destroyed her frielationship with Hellion, in that she failed to actually be there for him as a friend when he was reaching out for one. She's since improved, but it still crops up from time to time, such as in her interactions with Gabby (particularly issue 1 of the Tamaki book). It also contributed to her behavior in All New X-Men, with her "fake it 'till you make it" attitude to try making Warren happy, leading to her taking stupidly and excessively aggressive chances. It may even connect to her inability to discern ORDERS from REQUESTS, which led her to accepting Cyclops' invitation into X-Force, which only further set back her emotional healing.

[Silver Fang]

1. Deadpool
Very bad with decision-making & gullible. He has very little foresight & just goes with whatever feels right in the moment without thinking of long-term consequences. There's instances where he's tried to help or connect with others that were no good, then he doesn't listen to reason when he's warned. He protected Typhoid Mary and ignored Daredevil's warning about her. She later ends up raping him. He protected Shiklah, despite Blade & the Guardian telling him she was evil. She eventually cheated on him & started two wars. Coulson tries to tell him Hydra Cap is no good, he murders him anyway. Coulson was innocent, he's hurt Preston by killing her friend, then kills her when she gets after him & effectively costs Ellie her mother & uncle figure. Now none of the people he loved want anything to do with him.

2. Monet
Her pride & overestimation of herself. She has tons of abilities they make her seem perfect, but because of that, she can get in over her head. That has gotten her killed twice when she's gone up against beings out of her league. Bunn's Uncanny run was cancelled, but her involvement with the HFC may have bitten her in the ass if the story had continued. As some noted in her thread, she was not as worldly as her company but acted as though she could run the show & others should be glad she accepts them. It shows again when she's possessed by Emplate. She thinks she can keep things under control herself and doesn't tell anyone. Then she fell into darkness and murdered many Inhumans & Morlocks in cold-blood. And how was she saved? By her friends, who may have been able to save her sooner if she'd told someone before it got too out of hand.

3. Sabretooth
I suppose the biggest could be his mental weakness. Xavier said that he feared his bloodlust, but was also addicted to it. He was abused physically & psychologically by his father condemning him as a monster, so that's what he became. Though a retcon, he says that very thing to Xavier when the latter tried to recruit him -noting he was only seen as a monster, so that's what he will be. Xavier pointing out he tries to ease his pain by causing greater pain to others. Basically it's easier to wreck everyone else's crap and bring it down to his level than to working building his stuff up to their's. He shows jealousy toward things Logan has, but instead of following his example so he could have those same things, he takes the easy route of taking whatever Wolverine had. He has rushes from his sadism, but no happiness. In X-Men #33, the captions call him an empty shell of a man who wants to quiet the screams inside of him but doesn't know how. He kills Logan's women, but had women of his own when he showed his better side. After his inversion, he had Monet interested him. She still cares for him in Weapon X, with the issue 27 cover showing her trying desperately to hang on to him. When he tries, he has people caring for him and seeing the better side of him just like Logan, whom he complains gets a free pass for everything.

[ariwl1]

Jean Grey: She's a passionate person, but that can burn in both directions. If you need someone to be understanding, caring, and in your corner, there's few better people you could go to, but there's also few worse people to piss off. Her temper is mighty and can have a short fuse if she isn't careful. Fans of her often think it's fun and cathartic when she goes off when it's against someone who "deserves" it, but it can be overkill akin to showing up to a knife fight with a bazooka.

And she can be merciless when she's mad enough. As a part of being the empathetic person she is and a telepath, she knows people, which means she knows exactly which buttons to push. Best example is when Jean confronted Emma regarding the psychic affair with Scott.

On a similar level, Jean is a very idealistic person who want's the best for the world. Nothing wrong with that, but if those types of people aren't careful they may find themselves not being grounded enough. And Jean can get very impatient with people who aren't "getting with the program." When she first came back in X-Factor she was trying her darndest to get Warren and Scott back to helping mutantkind, but they both felt like they were done with the hero business. After maybe two to three pages of discussing it Jean's already so frustrated at their lack of commitment she threw a couch through Warren's wall.

She might have been "right" on a philosophical level, but this wasn't the best way to make her point (and she admitted it to herself as such just a few panels later).

[TheCape]

Logan is stubborn, once he has a goal set, you aren't changing his mind, especially when it comes to revenge. And aothougth he does an honest attempt of keeping himself under control his temper plus his mutation and the mental trauma caused by his time on Weapon X has made his temper a bit... unstable and haa gotten him on trouble more than once.

A more recent one is that his healling factor has made him a bit over reliant on it, so he has left himself be hit stuff that frankly he would have dodge easily in the old days, althougth it was also implied that is a sort of sick penitence for what he discovered about himself after M-Day.

[PsychoEFrost]

Oh boy... where to begin...

Emma Frost is at best highly conceited, and at worst a pattern narcissist. She is cold and distant to anyone she doesn't trust (everyone on the planet except Scott, Christian, and MAYBE her daughters), and borders on cruel as an instructor. By her own admission she is an alpha bitch, and masks every encounter she has with anyone with an air of arrogance and belittling of others.

I like the character because of these flaws, not in spite of them. She isn't perfect, and never will be. And much of her character is working through this litany of issues.

[Colt Cape]

Oof, y'all writing a novel?
In all seriousness though...
Old Man Logan
Massive Guilt Complex & Anti-Social Behavior

[davetvs]

Can one of the Storm fans please post in here

[donpricetag]

Cyclops' infidelity issues. Left Maddy for Jean; lusted after and kissed Psylocke at least once while he was with Jean; had psychic affair with Emma while married to Jean; Didn't cheat on Emma but he did try to choke the life out of her while they were fighting over the Phoenix Force.

[nandes]

Emma killed a horse once but it's okay. We all have been there, y'know.

She also seems to have a terrible taste in men.

[Vegan Daddy]

Storm - Being a complex black woman in a medium dominated by white male authors who don’t know what to do with her(excepting Lord Claremont <3).

Colossus - foolhardy, overly sensitive, possessive

[Rover]

Logan having a lot of anti-social traits...and yet being part of multiple teams over the years and even living at the mansion in some books.

And whenever new students think they have lost the mutant lottery big time because their powers suck or because of their appearance and then it turns out they save the day.

And can we add bad guys to the list? I love the over-the-top bad guys who hatch some insane plan and expect it to go through.

[yogaflame]

Storm - Being a complex black woman in a medium dominated by white male authors who don’t know what to do with her(excepting Lord Claremont <3).

That was going to be my answer!

[PsychoEFrost]

Storm - Being a complex black woman in a medium dominated by white male authors who don’t know what to do with her(excepting Lord Claremont <3).

Colossus - foolhardy, overly sensitive, possessive

So Storm has absolutely zero flaws other than people not using her right?

Nice to see the forum being objective...