Sobriquet/Playing With

Basic Trope: A character has a name that describes his or her exploits, skills, or general Badassery.

• Straight: Bob calls himself the Lion, and prefers his title to his real name.
• Exaggerated: Bob has anyone who uses his real name executed.
• Justified: Bob is a feared fighter, and his enemies are so afraid of him that they created a nickname which stuck.
• Inverted: Bob hates his title and only wants to be called by his real name.
• Subverted: Bob asks to be called by his real name, not wanting to lose credit for his achievements.
• Double Subverted: ...but is given a nickname anyway.
• Parodied: Bob, a fearsome warrior, calls himself "The Kitten" or "The Bunny", and demands that everyone call him this.
• Deconstructed: Although proud of it at first, Bob starts to hate his title, which he sees as embodying an unwanted bloodthirsty nature, and eventually abandons it when he leaves war, but others still use his war nickname anyway, driving him into guilt and depression over the deaths he caused as the Lion.
• Reconstructed: Bob uses his title to impress and frighten the enemy, hiding as much information about himself as possible, building up an image as a ferocious, wily, mysterious warrior.
• Zig Zagged: Bob gains a title for his exploits in battle, using it during war to frighten his enemies. Afterward, he uses it to keep up his self-confidence, althogh it makes him feel out of place in the postwar world. However, he feels that his war nickname is all he has.
• Averted: Bob has no nickname.
• Enforced: Bob is a Badass, so he should have a cool nickname, like the Lion.
• Lampshaded: "Why does Bob need a scary nickname? He's scary enough by himself!"
• Invoked: "As the best fighter on this team, I need a Badass nickname."
• Defied: "I want credit for my own exploits under my own name, thank you very much!"

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