Enemy Within/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: The Split Personality is an antagonist.

  • Straight: Bob, the shy and kind protagonist, develops a split personality, boB, who is rude and offensive, and causes problems for all his friends.
  • Exaggerated: Bob is a saint. boB is a supervillain planning to Take Over the World, and doesn't care how many dogs he has to kick or babies he has to eat to do it.
  • Downplayed:
    • Bob is loving and kind. boB is angry and lashes out at people from time to time.
    • Bob's "Evil Side" is just his negative characteristics (anger, pride, etc.) and he has to suppress them.
  • Justified: A traumatic event triggered a rage inside Bob that is battling for control.
  • Inverted:
    • Alice is a villain who develops an heroic split personality.
    • boB is a mentor personality who guides Bob to do the right thing to do.
  • Subverted: A traumatic event triggers a split personality inside Bob. This new personality was created to help Bob get through his problems.
  • Double Subverted: That was a ruse. The new personality is manipulating Bob and giving him bad advice.
  • Parodied: Bob has a Complete Monster in fetus form literally inside his brain.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob has four personalities; boB, a Complete Monster who loves to rape children; Mark, a Straw Loser who bluffs to burn people down that used to be Bob's original personality before he had a traumatic incident; Tom, a Stepford Smiler Broken Ace that he developed as a defence mechanism; and Tim, a Friend to All Living Things who is a moral compass to Bob.
  • Averted:
    • Bob only has one personality.
    • His other personality is exactly the same.
  • Enforced: "How can I add angst to Bob, the saint who might just well have achieved nirvana? Give him an evil personality trying to take over!"
  • Lampshaded: "Bob, I will give you an advice. Your worst enemy is yourself."
  • Invoked: Ksogrians inflict psychological trauma to Bob so that he would help their plan to destroy the world instead of fighting against them as the prophecy told.
  • Exploited: Emperor Evulz uses Bob's evil split personality so that he can brainwash him into a mindless killing machine.
  • Defied: Bob seeks professional help, and with the right combination of drugs and therapy, Bob manages to take control of his demons.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???

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