Break the Cutie/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

** Jubal Early's threat to Kaylee in "Objects in Space." Poor, poor Kaylee...

** The first thing the series did was break the cutie. Joss did it to Mal in the very first scene.

** This is a show that actually uses the word "broken".

* The title character of ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' is shown to have already been broken before the first series begins - the flashbacks show an almost painfully-innocent girl lose her best friend and then all the others, her mother, her home, any social standing and any shred of dignity she might have otherwise held on to, and all in the space of a year.

** Wesley, Cordelia and Willow. Heck, for that matter, Buffy herself entered the series only slightly dented, and slowly bent to the breaking point. Even Faith can be put into this camp. A street kid, pursued by the hordes of Kakistos, desperate for someone to trust, constantly betrayed by Watchers and others until she had nowhere to turn when things went wrong, and then ruined by a father figure who got her to commit murders for him. After she came out of her coma, she was in such bad shape that she tried to commit "suicide by vampire".

** Drusilla from ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and ''Angel'' also counts towards this; as Angelus considered her to be his finest work. His methods of torture included taking advantage of the fact that she was psychic by pretending to be a priest during confession, saying such things as "Yes, you are evil. It is God's plan for you to be evil, so why not give in to His desire?". Also included was killing her entire family, sending her very nasty gifts and, when she went to a convent for sanctuary, he and Darla killed every nun in the building then had sex on the Altar in front of her. Finally, while Drusilla was utterly traumatised, Angelus turned her, leaving her utterly insane for the rest of her existence.

*** Of course, the results were the complete opposite of his hopes: instead of suffering forever she ended up even more psychotic, the ''definition'' of [[Too Kinky to Torture]], and arguably the most powerful and in an odd way least conflicted or unstable vampire in the show.

*** More like [[Broken Base|break the fanbase]].

** When Riley is introduced, he is happy with his job at the Initiative and thinks they're doing good work, and all in all is a pretty normal guy, 'cept the whole demon-fighting thing. Then he falls in love with Buffy, who his boss and mother-figure {{spoiler|tries to kill}}, he learns that Maggie {{spoiler|created a Frankenstein-like monster who will take over the world, and Riley is meant to become like the monster too}}, while he's going through horrible drug withdrawal from {{spoiler|all the chemicals the Initiative pumped into him to make him (and every other Initiative soldier) into a [[Super Soldier]]}}. He gets discarded from the Initiative and loses his faith in what they did, and two people he cared about are turned either into zombies or {{spoiler|Adam Mk. II}} by Adam. After that's all over, he comes to realise that no matter how much he loves Buffy, she doesn't feel as strongly about him and never really will. All these issues, especially Buffy's lack of love for him, lead to him {{spoiler|masochistically paying female vampires to suck his blood}}, and eventually he leaves town completely. When he makes a one-episode return in season 6, he seems a lot better.

*** In season 7, this is mostly absent, except for the entirety of "Conversations With Dead People". But this time, Dawn doesn't break.

** And then he ''gets'' emotions in [[The Movie|Generations]]... Frankly, it's surprising how he dealt with that with only one or two guilt trips. The amount of crap he went through wouldn't have been attempted with any other character, specifically because Data ''couldn't'' actually be broken. You could kick him around like a football and you're not likely to permanently psychologically wreck him.

*** Unless you count ''Descent''.

*** This troper thinks Data did actually break despite his inability to feel emotion. The troper above already mentioned the instance i am talking about; its the episode where Data gets kidnapped by an "art collector" who threatens to kill his servants if Data attempts to escape. When Data and the servant attempt to escape, the servant is caught by the art collector, who executes the servant in a very painful manner. Data manages to get his hands on the torturous killing device. The art collector then proceeds to torment Data by taunting Data's inability to feel rage or sadness over the servant's death, and gloating over Data's programming that is preventing him from killing the art collector, and then threatens to kill more servants if Data doesnt surrender. After a moment of silence, Data aims the torturous killing device at the art collector and pulls the trigger - just as he is teleported away by the Enterprise. Data's "Breaking moment" is confirmed when Riker tells Data the transporter noticed the weapon discharge, after which Data LIES to Riker by claiming it was a malfunction. Data pretty much never lies; especially to a higher-ranking officer.

*** Alternatively, he was trying to rationalize his breaking moment as a malfunction on ''his'' part.

* Randy Wagstaff of [[The Wire]]. {{spoiler|Starts out as a sweet, likeable kid trying to make the best of life in his surroundings but gets fucked over by Herc, causing him to be wrongfully branded a snitch. His house is burned down and his foster mother badly burned such that he has to go back to the group home, where takes numerous beatings from the other kids. By the next time he's seen, he become mean and violent just to survive.}}

** The next two season finales do arguably worse:

*** In ''Journey's End'', the Doctor has to literally wipe the mind of Donna Noble or risk having the Time Lord thoughts destroy her mind. She is not particularly pleased about this turn of events, and the Doctor is crushed by it too.

**** A madcap [[Bow Ties Are Cool|bow-tie]]-wearing, [[Nice Hat|hat-loving]] [[The Woobie|perma-Woobie]].

**** During the more [[Foe Yay|"serious"]] scenes between the Doctor and the Master, you can see the Master himself suffers this because of the drums. Suffers it horribly, in fact. Which means that ''everything the Master has ever done'' was the fault of {{spoiler|Rassilon and the Council}}; he started out as a completely normal child. Poor mad Master.

*** Don't forget that as part of all that {{spoiler|he was unable to resist being forced by his auton body to shoot the woman he loves}}. So yeah...

** The Fifth Doctor was the nicest, mildest, friendliest, most trusting and most pacific of all the Doctors. The death toll in his adventures was horrific and frequently claimed all the non-regular cast; Adric, a long-running companion and only a boy, was killed; Tegan ran away because she'd seen enough death. He eventually sacrificed himself to prevent yet another person dying on him. Poor soul.

** If you think Ten and Eleven had it bad, consider Eight's audio adventures. At the start he's the nicest, most cheerful Doctor in a couple of decades. He saves his newest companion, Charlie from the doomed airship R101, thus creating a paradox. In a heartwrenching scene Charlie begs him to kill her in order to save our Universe from anti-time, which breaks free through Charlie. The Doctor instead chooses {{spoiler|to materialize the TARDIS around the casket of anti-time, saving Charlie and sacrificing himself.}} He then becomes infected with the entity known as {{spoiler|Zagreus, who wants to destroy the Universe or something}}. He becomes basically mad with split personalities. Then it turns out that {{spoiler|TARDIS is infected as well}} and very pissed at the Doctor. Torture ensues. At last, mirroring earlier scene with Charlie, {{spoiler|he begs to kill him. Which she complies with much drama. He then fails to regenerate, because for a second, he wanted to die. He eventually survives by accepting Zagreus}}. He then forced to {{spoiler|leave our Universe forever, because otherwise Zagreus will infect our Universe with antitime, which is bad.}}. He is througly disillusioned with Time Lords, most of whom turn out to be lunatics on his watch. Thus begin his adventures in {{spoiler|the divergent Universe}}, where there is no time, which is highly uncomfortable for the Doctor and he is decidedly gloomier after his experiences and as a result of {{spoiler|merging with Zagreus}}. Eventually, he is able to return. Then it turns out that Davros {{spoiler|completely erased his memories of his two companions prior to Charlie}} as an elaborate revenge plan. Some time after, Charlie leaves {{spoiler|on quite the bad terms with the Doctor}}. The Doctor meets Lucie, and just when their relationship starts being warm and friendly, {{spoiler|The Doctor is trapped for 600 years on the planet with the jellyfish people, to whom he gets pretty attached. Who are all slaughtered by the end of the episode}}. The Doctor becomes even more aloof and gloomy and continues travelling with Lucie, but their realationship has suffered and they distrust each other. Just as things seem to have returned to normal, Lucie discovers that the Doctor lied to her by omission about her past. She {{spoiler|leaves}} in a decidedly unjovial Christmas special. He meets her again during an epic showdown with the Daleks, {{spoiler|during which both Lucie and the Doctor's great-grandson die}}. We've yet to see fallout form that one, but one thing for sure, it won't be pretty.

** They like doing this: Ianto gets broken in "Cyberwoman". "Greeks Bearing Gifts" does the same to Tosh. "Fragments" breaks both Tosh and Owen. And in "End of Days," Gwen loses it completely {{spoiler|when Rhys gets killed. He gets better}}.

** Esther gets it too over the first half of ''Miracle Day''.

** Jack. Series 2, 3 and 4 have been one long [[Trauma Conga Line]]. Not to mention the time gap between losing the Doctor and the start of the series.

*** And then [[It Got Worse|it gets worse]]. At the end of season five, Dean has to let his brother {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice|throw himself]] into hell to stop Lucifer,}} in season six, he {{spoiler|has to deal with [[Came Back Wrong|soulless Sam]], loses the family he'd always wanted,}} ''and then'' in season seven Dean has to deal with Sam going crazy and [[Eldritch Abomination|monsters]] they can't kill trying to eat the world {{spoiler|because his like-a-brother buddy Cas [[Jumped Off the Slippery Slope|betrayed them all]] [[Knight Templar|trying to save the world]], [[Moral Event Horizon|killed his angelic allies]], and [[Kick the Dog|broke Sam's mind]] before taking in [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|dangerous power]] that [[A God Am I|pushed him over the edge]] and released those monsters.}} Just when it seems like Dean has lost nearly everything and everyone, {{spoiler|with Bobby dead, Cas apparently dead, and Sam dying because of his memories of hell, Cas returns only to sacrifice his mind to save Sam's.}}

** We can now add John to this list. Once upon a time, he was a naive, innocent, sweet little himbo and look what happened to him. But unlike his sons, who have been broken slowly and horribly over the past few seasons due to numerous events, he just snapped from the one event (his wife dying) and became the borderline abusive, jerkass parent who was so at the end of his rope that he committed suicide for Dean in the most self-righteous way possible.

** Castiel now qualifies. Oh, how cute, a good little soldier angel that loves his daddy (God), gets nervous around whores, thinks humans are God's works of art, and he just made some new friends (Sam & Dean)! Here's what we'll do: Have his brother murder and corrupt his garrison, then turn on him too; rip him out of his vessel so he can be ''taught a lesson'' (No, you may ''not'' be friends with Dean!); force him to choose between Heaven and mankind; have his brother smite him to death; resurrect him with most of his powers gone (not particularly helpful in the middle of the apocalypse); then he spends nearly an entire season searching for God (for help, for guidance), only to find out that his daddy doesn't care about him and won't help {{spoiler|cue Cas drinking an entire bottle shop... understandably}}; then we have Dean surrender to the angels, essentially throwing all of Castiel's efforts and friendship back in his face. {{spoiler|cue Cas beating the living crap out of Dean in a back alley... again, understandably}}

** Even Badass Bobby! He is forced to kill his own wife when she becomes possessed, is trapped in a dream-state pursued by a vision of his alternately evil/crying-for-help wife, descended into alcoholism after someone he loves like a son {{spoiler|is killed by hell-hounds}}, is kidnapped and almost killed by the ghosts of children he was unable to save, is possessed by a demon, left paralyzed from the waist down, and artificially aged 25 years, is forced to kill his wife ''again'' after she returns zombified (guess we know what Bobby's vulnerable point is), and finally forced to allow the ''other'' person he loves like a son (Sam) {{spoiler|allow himself to be satanically possessed on the unlikely chance that Sam will be able to overcome said possession enough to commit suicide. Good plan.}}

*** Also he'd refused to have kids ever a few days before his wife died, and wouldn't explain it was because of deep issues going back to when he shot his abusive dad in the head as a kid. In the kitchen of the same house he lived in until the Leviathans burned it down a few episodes before he died.

** In summary, all Winchesters come pre-broken, or get broken shortly thereafter, along with any longtime associates. The customary dying seems to be easier. Unless you're Dean or Sam; then, Hell ''and even Heaven'' are all about this trope.

* The new ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' likes this one:

*** Athena {{spoiler|did break. A big part of Athena's motivation was that she didn't want to be a Cylon. By Season 4, she had pretty much convinced herself that she was human, hence her increasing animosity towards her own people. When Boomer had sex with Helo while she was tied up and forced to watch from the locker, it ''shatterd'' that viewpoint into a million, tiny pieces: Her own husband can't tell her apart from other individuals of her model number; She's not human and she never will be human, no matter how much she wants to be. Not only that, but Boomer kidnapped Hera, which means Athena had to go through the pain of losing her child ''a second time.''}} She breaks down completely near the end of the episode. The next one shows that she has completely closed herself off to everyone, including her husband.

** Felix Gaeta is{{spoiler|/was}} a good case of this. He was initially an earnest and contentious guy with a case of hero worship (or [[Bi the Way|more]]) on Gaius Baltar. Then saw his expectations betrayed by New Caprica, the occupation by the Cylons, got himself ostracised, tried and nearly killed for [[Les Collaborateurs|Collaboration]] despite the part he took secretly in [[La Résistance]]. Then lately he lost his leg to friendly fire and gangrene during a mutiny situation. He certainly grew more bitter and sarcastic, but the show reminds us what a [[The Woobie|woobie]] he is by showing off his singing voice.

*** {{spoiler|Because of Earth, could be applied to the entire fleet.}}

**** {{spoiler|According to the [[Word of God]] , as handed out in the weekly podcasts by the Executive Producer, the Earth arc is intended to be a [[Break the Cutie]] for the ''audience''.}}

* Happens in a completely mundane, underplayed, and painful way to Peggy Olsen on ''[[Mad Men]]''. In the pilot, she's tiny, wide-eyed, hopeful, and naive; since then, she's had a disastrous affair with a [[Jerkass]] coworker (which he initiated just days before his wedding), been mocked and sexually harassed on an hourly basis, and {{spoiler|gotten pregnant, denied it ''until she went into labor'', been declared an unfit mother, and been forced to hand the kid over. Then her boss came and told her to just go on pretending it'd never happened. Yeah, that'll work.}} Granted, she's made some great strides on the career front, and become miles more confident than she was in the pilot, but... to sum it up in one heartbreaking word? Playgrounds.

** Sally Draper gets a lot of this in season three, most notably when {{spoiler|Grandpa Gene, the only adult who really gives her the time of day, dies. Neither Don nor Betty initially take Sally's reaction into consideration and she's left to quietly grieve by herself, followed by an angry outburst at them when she overhears them laughing and thinks they're not taking his death seriously. They, in turn, send her back out to the living room, where she quietly watches news footage of a Tibetan monk ''setting himself on fire.''}} It probably doesn't come as a shock to most viewers that in the following episode she displays some antisocial tendencies at school. It only gets worse when {{spoiler|Betty decides to name her new son, born soon after Grandpa Gene dying, Eugene, which only serves to further traumatize Sally.}}

* Throughout the first 4 seasons of ''[[Lost]]'' Hurley was the series' comic relief and all-around nice guy, even though he believes he is cursed and still struggles with his food addiction on the island. Once he {{spoiler|gets off the island}}, however, he starts to become haunted by the ghosts of people from the island, and by the end of season four, he's far from the happy-go-lucky Hurley of earlier seasons. He gets better {{spoiler|once he returns to the island}}, however.

*** And poor Richard, who's been steadily beat down for [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|over a hundred years]].

** Really [[Dysfunction Junction|every single character was already broken at the beginning]]. [[It Got Worse]].

** It looked like he might finally break, but his reversion to his personality when he was 10 years old has saved him. Hiro Nakamura is Unbreakable.

*** Would this be a case of [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Nice Job Breaking Hiro]]?

** They're definitely hammering on Claire, too.

*** They've stepped up the pace recently. Season 3 has delivered at least one blow per episode so far. {{spoiler|1) Attacked by Sylar. 2) Lost ability to feel pain. 3) Her "lesson" with Meredith. 4) Being forced into a game of Russian roulette with her birth and adoptive mothers.}}

** Elle was the one character that was successfully broken.

** Even before that, the script writers decided to pile the abuse on Elliot, [[Deus Angst Machina|culminating with her being sued by a]] [[Jerkass]] [[Deus Angst Machina|patient, causing her to get kicked out of her house and live in her moving van,]] ''[[Deus Angst Machina|which then gets stolen with all of her stuff.]]'' And none of her friends seem to care.

** In season 1's "My Own Personal Jesus," this happens to Turk when he's on-call during Christmas Eve, and is inundated with a string of horrors from the emergency room that leave him utterly broken and hopeless by morning. [[Gallows Humor|His breaking is even set to a cheerful Christmas melody!]]

And a drunk who drove into a tree. }}

** In the seven hours after ''that'', she: found out the White House was the next target, swam the Potomac, saw a fellow agent murdered in front of her eyes, barely escaped Juma's army, discovered Jack was being held hostage by the dictator of Sangala (who also happened to have nabbed the President), saw a bomb go off in the White House, was told Jack had murdered Ryan Burnett and Senator Mayer, tried to help him, got herself fired, was proved right about Jack's innocence, was reinstated, saw her boss almost die, found out Jack had been infected with a deadly bioweapon, saw him have a seizure right in front of her eyes, and witnessed him refuse the only possible treatment to save his life. Emotional rollercoaster much?

*** After ''that'', she also got to see her dead {{spoiler|boss after Tony Almeida betrayed everyone and killed him}}. She also got to see Jack having more seizures, the {{spoiler|Heroic Sacrifce of Bill Buchanan}}, and after all that her metamorphesis into the female Jack Bauer was complete when she {{spoiler|tortured the Big Bad of Season 7, Alan Wilson}} in the Season Finale.

** President Allison Taylor began her run in ''24: Redemption'' as an idealistic President-Elect who won by a landslide. Since then, her son was murdered, Dubaku corrupted every department of her government, Juma landed on US soil, she was taken hostage, a bomb went off in the White House, her husband was shot and almost killed, the infrastructure of the entire United States was breached, two planes were crashed into each other just outside her window, a biochemical plant was just barely not blown up, her Chief of Staff resigned, she hired her manipulative bitch of a daughter to replace him, her Secretary of State quit, Juma's forces slaughtered most of the Secret Service, Senator Mayer and his traitorous Chief of Staff were murdered (by Jack Bauer, except not), she almost got into a civil war with Starkwood, her daughter also wound up going to Prison for having {{spoiler|Jonas Hodges (Starkwoods boss)}} killed, and her husband divorced her because of it.

*** [[It Gets Worse]] in Day 8, in which a peace on which she had built her entire administration implodes and her own inner circle turns against her, leaving her with precisely two people she can truly trust that aren't CTU - Secretary of Homeland Security Tim Woods and Secretary of State Ethan Kanin. Not to mention all the other things that go wrong. Poor, poor Allison has had some really godawful days in the first two years of her administration...

* ''[[Smallville]]'', end of S7 and so far all of S8, seems to be doing this with Chloe Sullivan. Fired, wedding ruined by Doomsday's attack, marriage ruined by her manipulation by Doomsday, new friend and one ray of sunshine in this mire is a serial killer. She actually had a [[Lampshade Hanging]] moment at her birthday party when she recounted much of what is listed previously (and more), but it was dropped somewhat by the end of the episode.

** The series began by breaking three year old Lana while in her fairy princess costume. Every so often we hear about the hole in her heart where her parents used to be.

** Don't forget that before he put his mom in a mental institution, he had to live with her for 8 years having psychotic breaks from reality. It was so bad, one of the MANY times he was picked on in high school (he was twelve, btw), he was led to believe a pretty girl liked him only to be ganged up on by the ENTIRE football team, stripped naked, and tied to a goal post. If that wasn't bad enough, when he finally got home (keep in mind that he's by himself, in Las Vegas, at midnight), his mom was having an episode and didn't even realize he was late. It's amazing he can function as well as he does.

** The Reaper arc in season five is dedicated to doing this to Hotch at warp speed. After Gideon's abandonment of the team and Hotch himself getting almost-blown up (and failing to save the life of another agent) in "Mayhem", he finds himself the target of the serial killer known as "The Reaper" (aka {{spoiler|George Foyet, [[Crazy Prepared|magnificent]] [[Magnificent Bastard|bastard]]}}). Hotch turns down the [[A Deal With The Devil|deal]] offered by the Reaper (stop hunting the Reaper, and he'll stop killing people), and every subsequent murder (and there are a ''lot'') is on Hotch's conscience. Then, in "Faceless, Nameless", the Reaper {{spoiler|attacks Hotch in his home and stabs him nine times. He then drops Hotch off at the hospital, saving his life, only to notify Hotch that he's going after his ex-wife and son next}}. Hotch must continue to try and hunt the Reaper while {{spoiler|his family is in Witness Protection, and he cannot have contact with them}}, and due to the stress, {{spoiler|he is asked to step down from his position as Unit Chief. Morgan takes over, temporarily}}. All the while, the Reaper is toying with Hotch, letting him know just how easily he's gotten to Hotch. Finally, in "100", {{spoiler|Foyet ups the ante by killing the agent assigned to Haley and Jack's detail, capturing Haley and Jack, and shooting Haley while Hotch listens over the phone. Hotch goes [[Despair Event Horizon|understandably apeshit]] and beats Foyet to death with his bare hands.}} The rest of the season seems to be devoted to exploring if Hotch can [[Family Versus Career|balance]] {{spoiler|single-fatherhood}} with the BAU.

** In "Lucky", Garcia {{spoiler|is shot}} by her new boyfriend. The following episode, "Penelope" shows the Team's efforts to track him down and stop him.

* In ''[[One Life to Live]]'', every time they want to bring Bo and Nora together, something bad happens to Matthew. Lucky for him, this ''is'' a [[Soap Opera]], and they're generous with the [[Soap Opera Disease|miracle cures]]...

* Any number of characters in ''[[Eastenders]]'', although Aidan Brosnan (promising young footballer to homeless drug addict) and Zoe Slater (statuesque beauty to murdering drug-addled prostitute) spring to mind. And we won't even mention what they did to poor bloody Joe Wicks.

* Gabrielle in [[Xena: Warrior Princess]]. The loss of blood virginity (killing someone), non-consensual impregnation by an immortal, having to kill her own daughter, domestic violence, killing her daughter (again) and grandson, crucifixion, killing an innocent teenager, and the death of her partner.

* Serial killers Mr. Yang and Mr. Yin attempt to break Shawn in [[Psych]]. In the season three finale Yang kidnaps a waitress, and sends Shawn a series of taunting clues warning that is Shawn does not solve them the girl will be killed. Yang then abducts Shawn's mother and straps her with explosives. Shawn realizes that Yang was watching him the entire time and was even in his office, which scares him. In the season four finale, Yang's partner Mr. Yin emerges and sets his sights on Shawn as well. Yin kills two people before kidnapping Shawn's longtime crush Detective Juliet O'Hara and his childhood sweetheart Abigail. Yin arranges for both girls to be killed, and calls Shawn with the information that he has time to save only one girl and that he must choose who means more to him. Shawn chooses to save Abigail; Juliet is saved by Detective Lassiter. When Shawn arrives to rescue Abigail, he finds himself face to face with Yin - he must let Yin go in order to get to Abigail in time. Losing Yin clearly shakes Shawn, as does his guilt at nearly sacrificing Juliet. It's hard to say if this will have any lasting effect, given the nature of the show, but since Yin is still at large Shawn will likely face him again in the future.

** Shawn is also shot, kidnapped, and held in a trunk in the episode "Shawn Takes a Shot in the Dark."

* [[Party of Five]]: Sarah (played by Jennifer Love Hewitt) started as a nice, cheerful girl and within 1-2 seasons was as morbid and whiny and angst-ridden as everyone else in the show...

'''Michael:''' She's sweet. At least she was until today. Today we drain her of her soul. }}

* Zack, from [[Bones]], anyone? He was an [[Adorkable]] kid who was very socially awkward, but overall well liked and definitely a cutie. {{spoiler|Then, we find out that he's the apprentice to a cannibalistic murderer, and he confesses to murdering somebody (although we find out later that he didn't actually kill the guy). He is then sent to a mental institution.}} Definitely qualifies as breaking the cutie.

* Sam from [[Glee]] seems to be headed this way, due to {{spoiler|Quinn cheating on him with Finn}}, Santana's consistent insults about his mouth and dorkyness, and just general pressure.

** {{spoiler|Aaaand... now he's homeless.}}

* Niles Crane on ''[[Frasier]]'', in stark contrast to his (and Frasier's) frequent, minor, [[Played for Laughs]] [[Break the Haughty]] moments, get ''several'' of these. Ignoring his [[Trauma Conga Line]] of [[The Woobie|smaller bouts of torture]]: he seems to already be broken by his mother's death, Frasier's long absence, and a stifling, emotionally-abusive marriage at the series' beginning and gets ground into progressively smaller pieces by the latter during the first two seasons. Then his marriage falls apart and he manages to build himself up again, but Daphne, with whom he is smitten, is utterly oblivious to his feelings and unknowingly shatters his heart over and over. Devastated by this, he eventually gives up and then naively returns to his unstable, [[Jerkass]] wife after she "promises" that she'll treat him better this time, only for her to turn around and cheat on him with their marriage counselor weeks later. He eventually pulls himself up by the bootstraps, but then, after he rejects his wife's offer to reconcile again, she tears up their unsigned divorce settlement and proceeds to slowly torture and financially ruin him over several months. Then, when he finally gets rescued from Maris by a savvy divorce lawyer and is about to put his life back together, said lawyer immediately starts dating Daphne, and ''then'' broken once more, he flees into the arms of a manipulative carbon-copy of his ex-wife...etc, etc, etc...Thankfully though, this all turns out to be an [[Earn Your Happy Ending]], as Daphne falls in love with him, and heals him after [[They Do]].

* The critiques, especially from Randy Jackson, after Haley Reinhart's first performance in Top 4 week of ''[[American Idol]]'' Season 10. [[It Got Worse]] after the round was over and Ryan Seacrest called the four finalists out for an overall Round 1 assessment. To top it off, they ruined the surprise of what she was wearing for her second performance (which epitomized [[Crowning Music of Awesome]] and showed that the "breaking" didn't quite work). Nigel Lythgoe couldn't have scripted it better...oh, wait...he admitted that he DID script it that way!

* Several characters on ''[[Breaking Bad]]'', but most notable among them Jesse. While he didn't exactly start as the most idealistic person, he was getting by making sub-par meth and his worst experiences were a few arrests. Since agreeing to partner with Walt, however, he's inadvertently gotten his girlfriend hooked onto drugs again, leading to her death; seen several other people die in front of him, most of them pretty brutally; and killed a decent man in cold blood on Walt's orders to prevent Gus from killing Walt. At times it seems the writers' main goal is to come up with new ways to break Jesse even further.

* Shawn Hunter on ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' started out as out with a fairly upbeat attitude despite his dysfunctional family and life in a trailer park. Then his mom abandons him and his dad leaves to chase after her. His dad keeps extending his absence and ends up being gone a whole year. Eventually he gets both of his parents back, but later on his mom leaves ''again'', his mentor and substitute parent Mr. Turner goes into a coma after being in a motorcycle crash, his dad kicks him out of the house (for Shawn's own good) and stays distant for a while. About a year and a half later his dad returns and promises he will stay this time, only to promptly die of a heart attack. At this point Shawn goes into a full-on [[Heroic BSOD]], though he is able to get over it and by the end of the series he had grown into a well-adjusted young man.

* OK, arguably most of the characters in ''[[Flashpoint]]'' get broken, and are various levels of cute, but Spike seems to fit the trope best. The goofiest, most happy-go-lucky of the team has had to deal with the deaths of his best friend Lew, his father, and his mentor, has been held hostage twice himself (including once with his kind of girlfriend), and has been hit with an incendiary device and a smoke bomb. Poor guy.