Basic Trope: Powers that reflect or fit one's personality.
- Straight: Bob, afraid of tight spaces, is able to teleport.
- Exaggerated: Bob gets a superpower for every facet of his mind.
- Downplayed: Bob, though not a pyromaniac, possesses pyrokinesis best suited to his claustrophobia.
- Justified:
- The powers base themselves off their owner's personality.
- The powers are a result of the characters exerting their will really hard, and thus what comes easiest to them is things that are already part of their personality.
- Inverted:
- Bob's personality is shaped by his powers.
- Alice, a Hot-Blooded Action Girl, has the ability to control water.
- Subverted: Bob seems to possess teleportation to deal with his claustrophobia, but he actually got over that long before the power.
- Double Subverted: ...Instead his teleportation is because of his adventurous behavior.
- Parodied: Bob, who really enjoys soda, gains the ability to summon it at any point.
- Zig Zagged: Bob seems to get his teleportation because of claustrophobia, but he got over that years ago. Instead his adventurous personality appears to be why, except he got like that after acquiring teleportation. Still...
- Averted: Powers are random, with claustrophobic Bob being able to stop time for example.
- Enforced: "It would be pretty cool if their powers draw from their character. Ratings would increase too."
- Lampshaded: "Wait, you got your power because of your claustrophobia? Why didn't you get emotion control for believing men aren't supposed to cry or something else?"
- Invoked: Bob, deciding teleportation would be cool, becomes outwardly more adventurous to obtain the power.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz raises children to obtain the powers he needs.
- Defied: "Things would be too predictable if one's powers fit their personality... Time to make it random!"
- Discussed: "Hey, do you think Bob got his teleportation because he's so adventurous?" "That seems rather odd, and I recall him having claustrophobia."
- Conversed: "I get that it's pretty nifty assigning personality-fitting powers, but that's so uncreative." "Really? The fact the powers are derived from their personality says some interesting things when it comes to stranger abilities."
- Implied: Bob the teleporter always seems uncomfortable with small places, even teleporting away once when randomly waking up in a bathtub.
- Deconstructed: Children have their entire lives shaped to get an ideal power, while maintaining a Secret Identity is next to impossible.
- Reconstructed: People are able to adjust their personality after already acquiring their ability, thus allowing them to blend in when needed.
- Played For Laughs: Alice thinks she'll become a Flying Brick or other respectable ability, instead getting the power to summon slugs because of her interest in them.
- Played For Drama: Serial killers and other such criminals are able to acquire powers as well, becoming vastly more dangerous.
- Plot Foundation: Personality-based powers function as a metaphor for the individual, much-more-abstract gifts and talents the characters have. Bob's teleportation abilities are born of not only his claustrophobia, but also his innate need to be a pillar of support for his friends (since his teleportation allows him to almost literally be in two places at once).
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