Basic Trope: The Hero has zero self-esteem.
- Straight: Hiro has saved the world on more than one occasion. He also has very, very poor self-esteem, only being able to think of the time he couldn't save his dead sister.
- Exaggerated:
- Saving existence itself is a daily occurrence for Hiro; however, he is practically suicidal in terms of self-esteem, as his little sister once scraped her knee.
- Hidden Heart of Gold.
- Hiro is the unambiguously ultimate Incorruptible Pure Pureness and and this is proved by his reglurian Heroic Frontier Steps, but he still considers himself the most vicious and mean person in the history of humanity. It comes to the point that he tearfully begs the saved people not to thank and not to glorify.
- Downplayed:
- Hiro has decent self-esteem, but he considers it more important to remember defeats so he doesn't repeat them than bask in his victories.
- Hiro doesn't deny his world-saving abilities, but considers himself rubbish in every other area.
- Justified:
- While the outsiders can only see Hiro's good deeds, Hiro himself spends a lot of time thinking about what he's unable to do; as a result, this causes him to view reality quite negatively.
- Hiro comes from a Badass Family with a long Heroic Lineage. No matter how badass his own deeds, he still has to live up to the precedents set by his parents, older brother, older sister, and even the family servants.
- Hiro is The Perfectionist and, while acknowledging that he's done good deeds, he doesn't think he's done enough.
- Hiro doesn't want to become an egotistical Jerkass.
- Despite Hiro's accomplishments, All of the Other Reindeer still rag on him.
- Hiro has some sort of mental illness.
- Hiro did terrible things to save the world and can't forgive himself for what he's done.
- Hiro doesn't view his good deeds as being noteworthy or deserving of much praise, but just basic human decency. Being showered with praise makes him feel like people are giving him a prize for basic decency.
- Hiro has a Fatal Flaw, such as greed, selfishness, anger issues, a desire for revenge or a ruthless streak, and it leads him to question his own motivations for being a hero and whether he's truly a good person.
- Hiro is an abuse survivor and former victims of abuse often suffer from self-esteem issues.
- Following the Implied, he loves Self-Deprecation, and is constantly insulting himself because he thinks that's genuinely funny.
- Inverted:
- Hiro fails at saving the world more often than not, but his self-esteem is incredible.
- Emperor Evulz has self-esteem issues.
- Evulz's self-esteem issues result in him being perfectly willing to do horrible things, simply because he feels there's no reason to pretend he's better than he is. Think Then Let Me Be Evil, only self-inflicted.
- Small Name, Big Ego.
- It's All About Me
- Subverted: Hiro brushes off the townspeople's compliment and makes self-deprecating remarks about his deeds...but he's just acting humble to boost his popularity further. He secretly lavishes in their praise.
- Double Subverted: Hiro suffers from a Inferiority Superiority Complex. He craves other people's acknowledgement because he is unable to see anything good in himself otherwise, regardless of his accomplishments.
- Parodied:
- Hiro continually whines about how he is unable to do anything. And he's a Physical God. And he's angsting while he's kicking ass, sleeping with many women, and is honestly enjoying a hedonistic lifestyle.
- Hiro somehow harnesses his low self-esteem as a superpower, like a twisted version of The Power of Hate.Evulz: Aahahaha! You simply cannot stop my Doomsday Device from wiping out all of Tropeston City!
Hiro: Oh well, I guess I'll just go home and binge-watch some reality show while eating my last bag of tortilla chips.
(The doomsday device blows up.)
- Zig Zagged: Sometimes, Hiro will rebuff praises because he doesn't feel worthy of it. Other times, he'd sing praises to his own accomplishments.
- Averted: Like normal people, Hiro has days where he feels great and days where he feels...not so great.
- Enforced: "My totally awesome character needs a flaw, and the whole 'too beautiful to function' thing is out... I know! I'll have her be unable to think about anything but her failures!"
- Lampshaded: "You'd think that someone as amazing as Hiro would have better self-esteem."
- Invoked: Hiro purposefully acts depressed so that people will feel sympathy towards him and stroke his ego.
- Exploited: As a plot to keep Hiro down, Emperor Evulz makes sure he mentions his dead sister at every opportunity.
- Defied: "That's a load of fucking BULLSHIT! I kick ass, and I'll let EVERYONE KNOW IT!!"
- Discussed: "I know you hate yourself, but trust me, You Are Better Than You Think You Are."
- Conversed: "Why does the hero of this story always act so depressed? It's like the writers wanted to go on about how awesome she is without making her look arrogant."
- Implied:
- Hiro doesn't openly self-criticize, but he is never upset when others admonish his actions or say something Innocently Insensitive about him. He just stays silent, as if in quiet agreement.
- Alot of Hiro's boasts are rather backhanded, and don't reflect well on him.
- Deconstructed:
- Hiro's low self-esteem takes its toll; he eventually gets so depressed that he's virtually unable to focus as a hero or even a person.
- Or Hiro regularly saves the day, but the people around him keep criticizing and nitpicking ways he could've done it better, constantly calling him inadequate. He takes it to heart, which plummets his self-esteem.
- Following Justified and Implied, Hiro's constant jokes about how dogwater he is makes everyone think very low of him, with some not knowing that they are jokes.
- Reconstructed:
- After visiting a psychiatrist and getting some therapy, Hiro slowly but surely recovers; His work gradually gets back to its peak again.
- Reconstruction 1 to Deconstruction 2: ...but when his non-existent self-esteem incapacitates him as a hero, the others realize the harmful effects their complaints had on Hiro. Since a good but imperfect hero is better than no hero at all, they let up and even praise him to bring him back.
- And with an amazing De-reconstruction, Hiro simply goes full on Don't You Dare Pity Me! mode, getting angry at them for giving him pity even though they think poorly of him, invoking the Deconstruction of that trope as well.
- Reconstruction 2 to Deconstruction 2: Hiro simply just snaps and chews these ungrateful bastards out, telling them that if they really don't like the way he does things, then they might as well just ignore him. This puts some sense into the critics, and while some apologize to him, Hiro brushes them off, asserting their ungratefulness (which only offends them and makes him way more hated than he even thought he was) and simply just keeps working as a hero. Sure, he may have less popularity, but at least he's not being bogged down by constant negativity.
- Played for Laughs: Hiro is constantly using Hypocritical Humor, saying stuff like "Wow, imagine being such a loser that you have to rely on Hypocritical Humor to make good jokes!" Wow, that got a bit meta.
Heh, if I was any hero at all, I could do better than provide you with a mere link back to Heroic Self-Deprecation.
