The 10 Worst Things About Aries

As the first sign of the zodiac, Aries is born with a tireless drive to be first in everything. A fire sign ruled by the warrior planet Mars—Aries is also the god of war in Greek mythology—they are energetic, bold, and need to be the top dog in everything that they do.

But any virtue taken to its extreme can become a flaw. Bravery can become recklessness, confidence can become arrogance, and determination can become stubbornness.

The good news for Aries is that their negative traits are most abundant when they are young and immature. Over time and tempered by experience, they learn to tone down the rough edges and focus on the traits that make them shine.

Here are the ten worst things about Aries. Keep in mind that these dark traits are not absolutes, but they can apply to every Aries to different degrees. Because Aries is such an out-of-control fireball, these negative traits are merely the flip side of all the great things about them. To learn about the great things, read “What Sets Aries Apart: The Top 10 Best Aries Traits.”

1. Hot-Tempered

As an intensely fiery warrior sign, Aries is argumentative, prone to tantrums, and will sometimes start arguments just to fill the void. After all, what is a warrior without a war? Combative on every front and filled with a burning need to always be right, their molten-hot anger can drive away everyone in their vicinity. They are very quick to anger and very slow to cool down. But you’d better believe that when they are angry, you don’t want to get gored by the Ram’s horns.

2. Cutthroat

It’s good to be competitive, because competition often brings out the best in someone. It makes a person strain harder to reach their goals, to amplify their virtues and discard their flaws. But “cutthroat” is a realm that goes way beyond “competitive.” It’s the point where being competitive turns into an obsession that drives someone toward unethical behavior, toward wallowing in slogans such as “might is right” and “the ends justify the means.” To an Aries, coming in second merely means that you’re the first loser. It means they see you as a competitor rather than a friend or lover. The sad part about all this is that when things become a power game between people, love and friendship fly out the window.

3. Reckless

There’s a difference between being brave and being foolhardy. Born with such an incurably alpha personality means that Aries, despite their better instincts and the advice of people who care about them, often goes where angels fear to tread. They take risks that place them in physical and financial danger. They hate to be perceived as cowards, but they don’t seem nearly as concerned with coming off like fools. This will lead them toward acts of bravery/masochism such as swimming in the Great Barrier Reef without a shark cage, blowing wads of cash on startup companies that never get off the ground, and diving into romantic relationships with “exciting” people that they know will ultimately be bad for them.

4. Hard-Hearted

When you’re the center of your own solar system, the blazing star around which all the other planets dutifully revolve, it can be difficult to think of anything but your own self-interest. It can be doubly hard to feel anything in terms of empathy or compassion for those less fortunate or successful than you are. In extreme cases, Aries can get so wrapped-up in themselves that they find it hard to feel anything for others. Since they are impelled by action rather than emotion, they strive to come out on top and don’t care very much for those they leave behind. This can manifest in cruel and uncaring behavior. If someone else is hungry, they’ll adopt a “let them eat cake” attitude. If you come to them with a problem, they may tell you to go cry on somebody else’s shoulder.

5. Arrogant

Being confident is a virtue, and no other sign beams and pulsates and throbs with more confidence than Aries. Where it crosses the line from a virtue to a flaw is when being confident morphs into being conceited. On the darker ends of the Dark Aries spectrum, they start to lift themselves up by putting others down. They can hurt others with words and even bully them in a downward behavioral spiral that alienates everyone in their orbit. They may exaggerate their accomplishments and virtues and develop a tendency to boast that can only come from deep-seated insecurity rather than true confidence.

6. Impatient

Ordained by the stars with restlessly dynamic energy and a wee bit of an entitled attitude that makes them feel they deserve to own the world and own it now, Aries quickly grows flustered and infuriated by anything that they feel stands in their path toward total world domination. They quickly become bored. They are better at starting projects than they are at finishing them. They fall in love quickly but often won’t stick around if someone new catches their eye. In conversations, they hate when people don’t get straight to the point and will often interrupt someone to express their own opinion, even if no one asked for it.

7. Selfish

The “a” in “Aries” is for “alpha,” and as the first letter in the Greek alphabet and the first sign in the zodiac’s calendar, Aries comes first, and it doesn’t matter whether or not you like it. Terms such as “self-effacing,” “modest,” “humble,” and “selfless” are not in their vocabulary. If you ever use such terms, they may look at you as if you’re speaking a foreign language. They will make sure that they are happy before anyone else is. If that means they eat the last slice of pizza before you get home from work, that’s your problem rather than theirs.

8. Headstrong

If an Aries has made up their mind on something, even a crate of dynamite won’t be able to dislodge that stubborn idea from their heads. No matter how wrong they are, and no matter how obvious it is to everyone, including themselves, they find it excruciatingly hard, and often impossible, to admit it. Since they are so driven to win, they just can’t take the “L” and get on with their lives. This often makes it very hard to reason with them, no matter how pure your intentions and how solid your reasons are. If they are determined to enact a plan, it’s best to get out of their way lest you get run over.

9. Salacious

If you don’t know what “salacious” means, I only chose that word because “highly sexual” is two words, and I’m following a one-word format to list these traits. Simply and crudely put, Rams have horns and are therefore exceedingly horny. It’s good to have a high sex drive—many people go to extreme lengths to pharmaceutically enhance their libido—but it becomes a bad thing if your sex drive becomes a distraction, gets you in trouble, or makes it impossible for you to commit to someone else. But in the Ram’s case, coupled with the fact that they get easily bored, it can lead them to seek out multiple partners and break the hearts of lovers who see them as something more than just a good lay.

10. Jealous

For Aries, jealousy is a byproduct of their cutthroat nature and their endless drive to come out on top. If anyone is richer or more popular than they are, they tend to act as if it was the result of cheating or deception. They have trouble simply being happy with who they are and their place in the world. If you are romantically entwined with them, they may grill you about why you were talking to that other person and what you do in your spare time away from them when they can’t track your every move. At first it can be flattering to think they care so much about you, but over time it can be suffocating and even nightmarish.