Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,906
edits
Broken Bird: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
Derivative (talk | contribs) m (→Webcomics: Fixing links to disambiguation pages) |
No edit summary |
||
| (21 intermediate revisions by 13 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|"''Oh! I have a heart to be stabbed in or shot in, I have no doubt," said Estella, "and of course if it ceased to beat I should cease to be. But you know what I mean. I have no softness there, no--sympathy-sentiment--nonsense.''"
|''[[Great Expectations]]'' [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Great_Expectations/Chapter_XXIX chapter XXIX]}}
These characters (often female) are coping with a [[Despair Event Horizon]] or a [[Dark and Troubled Past]] by becoming as cynical, stoic, and/or badass as possible.
Line 15 ⟶ 16:
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* Isuzu/Rin Sohma from ''[[Fruits Basket]]''. A [[Stoic Woobie]] who has gone through lots of heartache thanks to her [[Abusive Parents]] and the head of the Sohma clan, but hates herself for even wanting to cry on [[The Messiah|Tohru]]'s shoulder and pushes away her boyfriend, Hatsuharu, to not get him hurt any further.
** You could make a case for {{spoiler|said head of the family, Akito}}, too - though it isn't clear until pretty damn far into the manga why. Her grief manifested less as hypercompetency or great worldliness, but rather through {{spoiler|wild mood swings, crying at the fear of abandonment, and physically abusing family members - including blinding Hatori in one eye, pushing Rin out of a window and later locking her up until she almost dies, repeatedly thrashing Kisa, and stabbing Kureno (one of her lovers, and the most loyal to her).}} All of which springs from {{spoiler|a ''really'' bad childhood with a loving [[Disappeared Dad]] who died when she was a little girl, a very cruel and arguably crazy [[Evil Matriarch]] of a mother, and being [[Villainous Crossdresser|forcefully raised]] [[Sweet Polly Oliver|as a boy]] to avoid being seen as a threat by said mother, who poisoned her with hatred and insecurity}}.
Line 45:
* Zakuro Fujiwara from ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' rejected a band of [[True Companions]] that offered to include her, because she "didn't want to join anything". Someone she cared for died many years ago, her fame and beauty made people only want to be around her for shallow reasons, and on top of that, she'd become a [[Half-Human Hybrid|half-animal]] [[Magical Girl]]. She eventually saw that the girls were sincere and became their close friend, even going as close to returning [[Fan Girl]] Aizawa Minto's affections [[Hide Your Lesbians|as they could show on TV]].
* Caren from ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'', first season.
* Jounouchi Sai from ''[[
▲** While Ruki is a [[Little Miss Snarker]], she doesn't have an especially tragic past. While her parents are divorced and her good-intentioned yet childish [[Hot Mom]] [[My Beloved Smother|pushes her rather hard to follow in her footsteps]], her home life is otherwise quite normal and healthy. Juri, on the other hand, is much closer to this trope and has the prerequsite troubled past. Her bright, cheerful demeanour would appear to be a mask to hide her inner pain due to her mom's death and her inability to relate to her dad and her kind stepmother, a mask that shatters after the brutal killing of {{spoiler|her partner, Leomon}}. In fact, Ruki has an inner monologue in which she aknowledges that she may be hard on others and all but still has loved ones that support her unconditionally, whereas Juri's emotional/mental problems run terribly deep, and which finishes with Ruki feeling useless as she cannot help Juri.
* Angel from ''[[The Big O]]'' - right down to the scars on her back where her wings were plucked. It's hard, learning that your memories were fabricated and being told that you're not human; little wonder she ends up {{spoiler|piloting a [[Deus Ex Machina]] [[Humongous Mecha]] in order to erase the world}}.
** There is some debate over whether or not [[Mind Screw|this is what really happened.]]
* Shizuma in ''[[Strawberry Panic!
* Chika Ogiue from ''[[Genshiken]]''.
* {{spoiler|Mukuro}} from ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]''. Arguably, also Genkai.
Line 82 ⟶ 80:
* {{spoiler|Iserina Eschenbach}} from the ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' TV series becomes this, after her boyfriend's death.
** {{spoiler|Sayla Mass}} has some traces of this trope, too. The most broken of them all, however? {{spoiler|Lalah Sune.}}
*** Arguably ALL of the women in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' are this. {{spoiler|Fraw Bow}} becomes one after she states her disappointment at Amuro's selfishness and disillusionment after being forced to pilot the Gundam; {{spoiler|Mirai Yashima}} becomes one after the White Base reaches the Side 6 colony when she explains more about why she left Side 6 {{spoiler|to escape and arranged marriage that she did not agree to}}; {{spoiler|Crowley Haman}} becomes one after {{spoiler|the death of Ramba-Ral}}; {{spoiler|Kycillia Zabi}}, becomes one after {{spoiler|her brother Ghiren explains that he had their father, Degwin Sodo Zabi, killed to keep Zeon forces fighting instead of negotiate for peace; to which she promptly
* Amuro Ray is a perfect male version of this trope. {{spoiler|He watches his father get sucked into space during the Zeon attack on Side 7, only to meet him later in the series and discover that he suffers from oxygen starvation and is clinically insane due to his prolonged exposure to vacuum.}} After the White Base reaches Earth and travels west to Ireland, Amuro meets his mother at a small village where she is a nurse. After certain events play out, {{spoiler|she tearfully disowns Amuro when he refuses to leave the Federation and continue fighting Zeon forces in the Gundam.}} Lastly, after {{spoiler|Lieutenant Matilda Ajan sacrifices herself to protect the Gundam from the revenge of Gaia and Ortega of the Black Tri-Stars following the death of their friend Mash.}} Amuro had deep feelings for her, but never got the chance to tell her.
* Kai Shiden is another male example: after the White Base is ambushed over the Atlantic Ocean after leaving Ireland, he uses the Gunperry transport plane to defend the ship with {{spoiler|Miharu Ratoki.}} {{spoiler|Miharu previously hid aboard the White Base as a spy for Zeon, but met with Kai in Ireland before the attack to explain that she takes jobs she does not want to do in order to take care of her little brother and sister after their parents abandoned them. Kai develops feelings for her and understands why she chose to be a spy, but convinces her to leave Zeon and find another way to live; Miharu helps Kai fire a missile that had malfunctioned during the battle over the Atlantic, but it pushed out of the Gunperry from the exhaust and dies falling to the ocean.}} After the battle is won and the White Base safe, Kai realizes what happened to her and is heartbroken for a LONG time throughout the remainder of the war.
Line 89 ⟶ 87:
*** Roux Luka becomes this at the end of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ]]'' after {{spoiler|she kills Glemy Toto during their battle.}} Roux knew Glemy was in love with her, but she never returned his feelings because he had some serious parental issues that he constantly mentioned and also was a Zeon soldier.
**** {{spoiler|Puru-Two, after Elpeo Puru sacrifices herself to save Judau from the Psyco Gundam Mk.II}} becomes one after Judau and Puru's spirit reason with her.
* Ennil El from ''[[After War Gundam X]]'', if not one of these at the start of the series, is most certainly one after the end of the Estarde arc. She does admittedly go through a weird, "kinda" [[
** Garrod's mentor and [[Team Dad]] for the Freeden crew, [[The Captain]] Jamil Neate, counts as one of the rare male Broken Birds, as an ex [[Kid Hero]] who is left physically and emotionally scarred after {{spoiler|he used his Gundam X to fire the lethal shot that brought about the disastrous [[Colony Drop]]}}.
** Garrod's partner and love interest, Tiffa, has some traces of this, manifested in her pathological shyness and inability to connect with others. Starting to trust the Freeden crew (aside from her adoptive father, Jamil) and learning that her horrible visions aren't set on stone are big parts of her [[Character Development]].
Line 101 ⟶ 99:
* Many in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''. Particularly Evangeline, Setsuna, {{spoiler|Asuna (during [[Pensieve Flashback|flashbacks]], and partially after her [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]] is undone)}}, and Mana Tatsumiya, who is one of the straightest examples of this trope that you can find in Anime.
** Don't forget {{spoiler|every single member of Fate's "harem". They were all orphaned, shunned, abandoned, or abused in their war-torn pasts, hence why they adore Fate so fiercely...[[I Owe You My Life|because he gave them another chance to live]].}}
* {{spoiler|Princess Charlotte, aka}} Tabitha, from ''[[
* [[Haruhi Suzumiya]]. Think of the 'breaking' event as the baseball game, and the aftermath when she realized [[I Just Want to Be Special|she was really nothing special]] turned her into a total [[Jerkass]] [[Cloudcuckoolander]] for three years.<ref>possibly re-creating the universe while doing so</ref> The SOS Brigade is formed and she has a small, reflective moment where she describes the above ("being angry and cynical wouldn't stand out!") but gets no real emotional resolution because Kyon doesn't know what to say. Kyon also notes that she's [[Character Development|coming out of her shell]] and he thinks she's not ''becoming'' a better person, but ''returning'' to being a good person.
** Yuki Nagato, too. She lives out 2 weeks repeatedly for more than 15,000 times in Endless Eight. That's nearly 600 years, according to Kyon's calculations in the anime and in the novels. In both versions, Kyon sees her sadness easily, and worries, because she is usually [[The Stoic]] turned [[Up to Eleven]]. That experience gave her emotions, and made her {{spoiler|steal Haruhi's powers and create an alternate universe where everyone is normal and Haruhi is [[Put on a Bus]].}} It also nearly led to her deletion by her boss. If you thought 8 episodes of Endless Eight was bad, just imagine going through the whole thing more than 15,000 times, with no breaks, and each episode lasting 20,160 minutes instead of 23 minutes.
Line 108 ⟶ 106:
** It's also a popular portrayal of Hungary (the local [[Hot Amazon]]), Ukraine (the Slavic [[Team Mom]]), Belarus (Ukraine's younger sister), Belgium (Netherlands's sister), and Taiwan (Vietnam's sister and [[The Cutie]] from the Asian group) in [[Dark Fic]]s. Vietnam and Taiwan's "brother", Hong Kong, is sometimes made into a male Broken Bird in fics.
** China himself could also qualify as this, [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|considering how long he's lived]], [[The Woobie|what's he's lived through]], [[China|and how much the actual country itself has suffered throughout the years]], [[Yaoi Fangirl|fangirls]] don't hesitate to put him in this position.
** In the ''[[
* Hitomi from ''[[Welcome to The NHK]]'' appears to be successful despite her constant ravings about conspiracies. However, in the middle of the series, it is shown she is a bit of an outcast at work and unhappy in her relationship, even to the point that she {{spoiler|joins a suicide pact and seems intent on jumping off a cliff over the ocean, until her boyfriend asks her to marry him, thus saving her.}}
** Misaki, despite also being the Token Loli of the series, also has some very apparent Broken Bird tendencies as well. She flinches noticeably when she presumes another character is going to strike her because of the fact that {{spoiler|she was forced to live with her abusive stepfather who constantly beat her}}, and she also {{spoiler|attempts suicide by throwing herself off the same cliff her mother did years before}}.
Line 126 ⟶ 124:
*** Basically, every female character.
* ''[[SHUFFLE!]]'' has three of these:
** Kaede Fuyou, greatly broken as a little girl due to {{spoiler|her beloved mother's death and not being able to cope with it. Made worse because Rin blamed himself for the accident that killed Mrs. Fuyou ''and'' his parents, which drove Kaede to abuse him as revenge -- and it's only when the whole deal is cleared up that she can start living again. And then he falls for Asa and [[
** {{spoiler|Asa Shigure's mother, Ama. Her past as a normal demon woman chosen as the first test subject experimented on by the gods and devils was really, really bad. She still cries from all the trauma.}}.
** {{spoiler|Ama's daughter, Asa}}, also has a period in which she behaves as one. {{spoiler|Asa has huge demon powers and they start awakening, but Asa [[Refusal of the Call|refuses to accept them]], despite how the [[Power Incontinence]] is literally ''killing'' her. This is because Asa clearly remembers how Ama cried when she once used them accidentally, and she doesn't want to make her beloved mother relive her past life. Once Rin reaches for her, she gets better, but it takes him ''lots'' of effort (and having to deal with Kaede getting broken and unstable as well).}}
Line 139 ⟶ 137:
* In ''[[D.Gray-man]]'', {{spoiler|Lenalee Lee}} turns out to be one of these, hiding ''a lot'' of bitterness behind her [[Stepford Smiler|sweet and cheerful exterior]]. {{spoiler|She outright hates the Black Order, the Innocence, and even God, because of what she went through.}} It takes her a LONG time to get better.
** Miranda also had some shades of this before joining the Black Order, mixed with [[Butt Monkey]]. Even now, her self-esteem is badly damaged because of that.
** Eliade. Holy shit, Eliade. Made even worse because she mixes it with [[
** Kanda, despite being male, is probably [[Dark and Troubled Past|the best example]] in the series.
* Kureha from ''[[After School Nightmare]]''.
Line 161 ⟶ 159:
* ''[[Claymore]]'' has an entire [[Amazon Brigade]] of broken birds.
* A female-to-male [[Transsexualism]] example: Claudine de Montesse from [[Riyoko Ikeda]]'s ''[[Claudine]]'' The poor dude is so utterly broken that {{spoiler|he shoots himself dead.}} [[The Woobie|WAH!]]
* Seine Miyazaki fron ''[[Hekikai no AiON]]''. She was abandoned by her biological parents, her first foster father sold her to her second foster father who turns to be an abusive man, who maked her work, steal and traumatized her until being unable to swim. Her third foster father was loving and caring ( {{spoiler|not to mention, she loved him and wanted to marry him}}) but {{spoiler|ended eaten alive by the mermaids in from of her eyes}} and since she decided to follow the [[You Killed My Father]] path, she became target of the mermaids and [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] people for centuries and counting. All this combined make her a hell of an [[Ice Queen]] [[Action Girl]]'
*In [[Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS]] 90% of the male cast not named Naoki,Akira,Ai and Go qualify this trope and are male versions of this trope as most of them have [[Dark and Troubled Past]] and are holding sadness and bitterness in their mind but the most prominent ones are
**Yusaku Fujiki the main protoganist of the show is a stoic broken bird and has a dark past.As a child he and 5 other kids which includes Kusanagi's younger brother were kidnap for Hanoi project/Lost Incident 10 years ago.During the incident he and other kids are forced to duel an AI duelist and will only get food depending on their preformance if they lose not only will they be [[Denied Food as Punishment]] but also they will get electric shock and toture everytime they lose Yusaku has underwent many toture during the incident.This incident has haunted Yusaku for 10 years and no matter how much he wanted to interact with others and try to have a normal life his PTSD keeps on getting worse and the project has made him a very bitter and a broken person consumed with [[Revenge]] and he develops a deep grudge on Hanoi for ruining his childhood.
** Jin Kusanagi was also suffering the same fate as Yusaku being one of the 6 kids kidnap for Hanoi Project and has a dark past.All the hell and toture he went through during the incident has made him suffer much worster than Yusaku.After being rescued he became an [[Empty Shell]] and for 10 years he develop a horrible PTSD and his PTSD is worster than Yusaku and he is still shock over the incident and remains traumatised in the present day due to the severe trauma he induced.
**Takeru after the incident he learned his parents died in an accident while looking for him and after learning his parents death he became angry at the world and closed himself from the society similar to Jin after reading more about the Three Heroes of VRAINS he starts to get better and come out of his shell
**Blood Shepherd was once a cheerful young man after nearly losing his mother in a car accident he became very cold,emotionless and ruthless
{{spoiler|Akira and Go both had [[Dark and Troubled Past]] but both of them didn't end up being Broken Birds.Unlike other male cast who became bitter and sour after their traumatic past both Akira and Go manages to have a happy life and move forward after their traumatic past however Akira stated that he would have become this if his sister got kidnap and suffered the same fate as Yusaku}}
== Comic Books ==
Line 169 ⟶ 172:
** Why, exactly, aren't we counting the main character? Emp's got more than her share of issues too.
*** Emp isn't broken, although she's badly bent. She'll get stomped by a huge zombie, a foot deep in the ground, her outfit trashed and most of her powers gone...and get back up and try again, to the point where Thugboy has to jam her suit in the garbage disposal to prevent her going out when she's so sick she can barely walk.
** Oh, and let's not forget Mind████...Between the telepathy she ''can't turn off'', her horrible break-up with Sistah Spooky, and {{spoiler|being forced to gouge out her eyes and cut out her tongue by her older brother}}, it's no wonder she can get a bit cynical. The only reason she seems well adjusted, aside from self-imposed regular isolation? {{spoiler|She's forcibly re-edited her own psyche to suppress certain... problematic impulses in order to be as unlike her older brother as possible. That's right, she's so broken she brainwashed herself into faking un-breaking.}}
* Katchoo from ''[[Strangers in Paradise]]'' is outwardly tough but a frightened little girl inside, probably because of her terrible childhood and all the years she spent running from her [[Mafia Princess]] [[Psycho Lesbian|ex-girlfriend]]. She's very dependent on Francine and David (and later Casey), but can be very abusive of them as well, and she tends to [[Drowning My Sorrows|hit the bottle]] after every serious fight with them.
* Cassandra Cain, the second Batgirl.
Line 177 ⟶ 179:
* Still in Marvel comics, there's Spider Woman/Jessica Drew. On top of her already broken and screwed up past, she gets caught by the Skrull and impersonated, and when she's rescued, almost everyone ''hates'' her, which makes her grow even more cynical than she was in the past.
* Following the reboot, Solstice in ''[[Teen Titans]]'' is this. Despite seemingly taking her shift in appearance (she now looks like she's made of charcoal and has deep black smoke for hair) graciously then most would, Kiran has stated that she was forced to do horrible things in order to survive after N.O.W.H.E.R.E. kidnapped her. She also broke down and started crying when she realized Red Robin already knew well beforehand about what the organization was doing to teen metahumans but waited to make a move because he needed more tangible evidence.
* ''[[Minimonsters]]'' introduces [[Rose-Haired Girl|Henrietta]] as one of these. Her depressive, evasive behavior it's because of her being a ridiculously [[Ill Girl]] {{spoiler|and having a [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] trying to take over.}} Thankfully, after [[Gadgeteer Genius|Frank]] helps her deal with those issues and makes some friends, she becomes a lot more cheerful.
** {{spoiler|Said [[Super-Powered Evil Side]]}} [[Fiery Redhead|Miss Hit]] is one too, and possibly even worse. {{spoiler|Henrietta's [[Ill Girl|constant illnesses]] has left her a [[Social Darwinist]] obsessed with [[Split Personality Takeover|taking over her]] [[Inferiority Superiority Complex|so she will stop feeling "weak"]]. [[Tear Jerker|Things do not go well for her]] as she realizes that, no matter what she does, Henrietta is the true superior self, causing her to [[Villainous BSOD|shut down]].}}
** [[Cute Witch|Piruja]]'s mother is implied to be this, given her tendency to [[Drowning My Sorrows|drink]] and [[Anything That Moves|cling to everything she comes across]].
== Film ==
* Darryl Hannah's character in ''[[Legal Eagles]]''.
* Ash in ''[[Avalon (film)|Avalon]]''.
* The Hatter in [[Tim Burton]]'s ''[[Alice in Wonderland (film)|Alice in Wonderland]]''. Mercury poisoning is only part of what drove him mad.
* More than one [[James Bond (film)|Bond Girl]], but specially Countess Tracy Di Vincezo (Diana Rigg) from ''[[On Her Majesty's Secret Service]]''. She's barely recovering from a traumatic divorce (and her ex husband's death), drug addiction, ''and'' her child's death. {{spoiler|And once she and Bond are [[Happily Married]], she's shot to death.}}
Line 187 ⟶ 191:
* Maggie in ''[[Escape from New York]]'' has the attitude, although the audience learns very little about her past.
* Nicole in the movie ''Crazy/Beautiful''
* In ''[[Don't Cry,
* The Bride and O-Ren Ishii, in ''[[Kill Bill]]''.
* Annie Newton in ''[[The Invisible]]''. Call her that, and she'll [[Berserk Button|beat the tar out of you]]. Half the movie is spent learning how she was broken.
* Nina of ''[[Black Swan]]'' is this trope in its purest form. [[Body Horror|Sometimes literally.]]
* Sarah Packard (Piper Laurie) in ''[[The Hustler (film)|The Hustler]]'' is this both mentally and physically.
* Yoko from ''[[Love Exposure]]''.
* Julie from ''Heavy Metal 2000''.
Line 211 ⟶ 215:
* Lessa in ''[[Dragonriders of Pern|Dragonflight]]''. She was 11 when her entire family was killed; she's first introduced at the end of ten years disguised as a drudge and pretty much living solely for revenge. Needless to say, she has a lot of issues. Impressing a dragon and an eventual romance do a lot to allay them, though, and in later books, she's a lot more stable and one of the most badass authority figures around.
** In fact, when F'lar asks her what she wants to do after her revenge is achieved, she has no idea because she was never able to think past that point.
* Éowyn of Rohan, in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', has been forced to nursemaid an ailing uncle and endure the sexual harassment of his [[Evil Chancellor]] for years. Not to mention her cousin dying in the war, and her beloved older brother being imprisoned (or banished in [[The Film of the Book]]) for trying to protect her...Even the Witch-King's [[Emotion Bomb|terror aura]] didn't seem worse to her than that. Thank God she gets better {{spoiler|and befriends, and then marries, Faramir, the local [[The Wise Prince|Wise Prince]].}}
* Adora Belle "Spike" Dearheart, in ''[[
* Susan Rodriguez in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' {{spoiler|after she becomes a Half-Vampire}}.
** Harry Dresden himself is a male version. [[Iron Woobie|And]] [[It Got Worse|it only gets worse]] [[Break the Cutie|for]] [[Hurting Hero|him]]...
Line 223 ⟶ 227:
* Olive Nolan already starts out as this in [[Tranquilium]], being a rather world-weary [[Lady of Adventure]]. She becomes this even more so after going through {{spoiler|at least two different [[Mind Rape]] sessions and a prolonged period of utter insanity}}, though she did eventually get better from that last one, at least. {{spoiler|[[Break the Cutie|Svetlana becomes this too, by the end, but to a much lesser extent.]]}}
* Lily Bard in Charlaine Harris' ''Shakespeare'' series, due to her having been gangraped, tortured (leaving her body permanently scarred), then left for dead.
* When we meet Rochalla in the first of the ''[[Shadowleague]]'' books, she fits this trope perfectly, though she (oddly enough) gets better when she is forced to flee for her life with a bunch of strangers.
* Arguably, all K-named reincarnations ([[It Makes Sense in Context]]) in Kim Stanley Robinson's ''The Years of Rice and Salt''. This starts with the very first, Kyu, {{spoiler|who is abducted from his home as a child, castrated and horribly disfigured on a boat in the middle of nowhere, and finally mobbed to death by an enraged populace (one of the other characters remarks, after he comes out of his fever after said castration, that he's a different person altogether)}}, and continues on with all sorts of unpleasantness. In fact, much of the overarching conflict is based on this particular soul's Broken Bird status.
* Talia (Sleeping Beauty) from ''[[The Princess Series]]'' is an almost textbook example of this since her tragic past causes her to have a very stoic, sarcastic, and violent attitude.
* Abigail Tillerman in ''[[The Tillerman Family Series]]'', big time. Luckily, for her, her naturally sharp personality hides it well.
* Mira's group of university friends in Marilyn French's ''The Women's Room'' are varying degrees of this trope, except possibly Iso. Chris becomes one [[Break the Cutie|after her rape]], and Mira herself is one by the end of the book.
Line 239 ⟶ 243:
* Both Arpazia and her daughter Coira in ''[[White as Snow]]''. After her rape, Arpazia goes into lengthy trances where she forgets reality and her face is often described as an eggshell when she is being particularly stoic. Coira's only strong emotion was love for her mother until Arpazia wounded her. After that, she refused to feel much of anything.
* Pertelote in ''[[The Book of the Dun Cow]]''—and quite literally, seeing as she's a [[Talking Animal|hen]].
* Lucy in ''[[Someone Else's
Line 250 ⟶ 254:
** Buffy herself was taking on aspects of this by the end of the series.
* Malcolm Reynolds from ''[[Firefly]]'' is a rare male version.
* Policewomen and [[Action Girl]]s Olivia Benson and Dani Beck, as well as attorneys Alex Cabot and Casey Novak from ''[[Law & Order:
** And elsewhere in the franchise, ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]'' has Alex Eames, an ''extremely'' good police detective who is still suffering from the fact that her husband Joe was killed in the line of duty years before the show began.
* ''[[Farscape]]'''s Aeryn. Dead parents, dead friends, dead ex-boyfriends, torturing people, killing people, being tortured, killing more people, her own people hating her...she's very, very broken.
** Her repair is fittingly epic.
*
** Several of the Cylons argubly fit the trope, too. Boomer (all models), Gina...
* Claire from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has become this, after the events of Season Three.
Line 262 ⟶ 266:
* Claire Saunders and Adelle DeWitt in ''[[Dollhouse]]''.
* Dr. Temperance Brennan of ''[[Bones]]''. Being shuffled through a dozen or so foster homes from age 15 on (after both her parents ''went out on Christmas Eve and never came back'') doesn't do nice things to one's psyche, to put it nicely. It's no wonder she [[Straw Vulcan|deliberately acts as emotionlessly as possible]] as an adult.
* Ziva David from ''[[NCIS]]'' practically exemplifies this trope—her father brought her up to kill people, up to and including
** Ducky, the NCIS medical examiner, had an episode literally titled this, where a painful event in his past is brought up. {{spoiler|It ends in him breaking down weeping, if that tells you anything.}}
** Gibbs isn't the most emotional either.
Line 272 ⟶ 276:
* Most of the female characters on ''[[Deadwood]]'' are at least slightly crumpled around the edges—rather understandably, since the show's set in a frontier mining camp where about 98% of the women in town are prostitutes. Special mention ''has'' to go, though, to Joanie Stubbs—suicidal, lesbian incest survivor/brothel madam whose first tentative attempt at independence ends up with three people dead after her business partner sells her out—and Calamity Jane, a self-destructive, alcoholic fuckup who's an outcast in a town made up almost entirely of self-destructive alcoholic fuckups. (Incidentally, the two wind up together.)
* Kira Nerys of ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', who grew up under the Cardassian Occupation, witnessed her entire family killed, and learned that {{spoiler|her mother was the (willing) lover of the arch Big Bad in order to keep her family alive and relatively safe}}. And that's not counting all the crap that happens to her ''during'' the series. It's been mentioned elsewhere that while O'Brien had the annual "O'Brien Must Suffer" episode, the writers didn't ''need'' a "Kira Must Suffer" [[Running Gag]] because something horrible happens to her roughly every other week.
** No pity for Worf? First, his family gets killed. He has to live
* Vala Mal Doran of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' might have been one of these or might have just been messing with Daniel.
* Claire and Juliet from ''[[Lost]]''.
Line 279 ⟶ 283:
* Tess Mercer of ''[[Smallville]]''. She's a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]], [[Misanthrope Supreme]], and [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]], who's driven by a need to escape her past with her alcoholic, abusive father. The cynicism, sarcasm, and [[Zen Survivor]] attitude are all there, as is the desire for a [[Heel Face Turn]]. Her desperate gravitation towards Clark as a [[Messiah]] figure is quite hearthwrenching.
* On ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', Dean and Sam Winchester are rare male variants. They're both such incredible [[The Woobie|Woobies]], but Dean is more repressed, stuffing down his real feelings for the sake of his family and the hunt. Throughout seasons three and four, particularly, he is a [[Death Seeker]] with little hope and less of the humor he started with. And no wonder, after learning he broke the first seal for the lead-up to the Apocalypse and being unable to protect his brother from himself.
** In season five, Dean was seriously considering accepting Michael and becoming a [[Destructive Savior|major force]] in the Apocalypse because he didn't trust Sam, Bobbie was crippled and contemplating suicide every morning, Castiel was disillusioned with God and had lost his angelic powers, and Sam was operating under the guilt from giving in to the [[Dark Side]] above his brother for a chance to kill the [[Big Bad]] that [[Unwitting Pawn|turned out to free Lucifer]] and [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|start the Apocalypse]].▼
▲In season five, Dean was seriously considering accepting Michael and becoming a [[Destructive Savior|major force]] in the Apocalypse because he didn't trust Sam, Bobbie was crippled and contemplating suicide every morning, Castiel was disillusioned with God and had lost his angelic powers, and Sam was operating under the guilt from giving in to the [[Dark Side]] above his brother for a chance to kill the [[Big Bad]] that [[Unwitting Pawn|turned out to free Lucifer]] and [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|start the Apocalypse]].
** By the end of Season 5, Sam was in a worse condition even though he seemed to be hiding it better than Dean. On top of everything above, the only hope to get rid of Lucifer and prevent the Apocalypse turned out to be for Sam to {{spoiler|[[Self-Sacrifice Scheme|let Lucifer]] [[Fighting From the Inside|posses him]] so he could [[Heroic Willpower|condemn himself]] to an [[Fate Worse Than Death|eternity in the fallen angel's cage with Lucifer]]}}during the season finale, and he had to guzzle gallons of [[Psycho Serum|demon blood]] to do it after resisting his addiction for almost the entire season. And not even Sam believed he was strong enough.
* Morgana from ''[[Merlin]]''. If she had not been hurt, lied to, and ignored by the people she called friends, then she would not be where she is now.
** Deconstructed with her behaviour with Gwen, a guard and innocent people only (played straight for everything else, mostly in season 4), with which this trope is subverted. While {{spoiler|Morgana hurts the poor Gwen, her former best friend, because it is an easy way to attain her goal}}, [[The Stoic|Gwen]] [[The Messiah|is continously generous to everyone]], and only betrays {{spoiler|Morgana after the latter tried to kill her (a thing she suspects because Morgana smiled when she was dragged to the cells where she should be
* Sara Sidle from ''[[CSI]]''. Although she falls more into the badass version than the non-emotional one sometimes.
* ''[[The Inspector Lynley Mysteries]]''' Barbara Havers pretty much had any semblance of optimism ground out of her with extreme prejudice after [[Dead Little Brother|her little brother's death from cancer]] tore her family apart and her parents succumbed to mental illness and lung disease right before her eyes. When combined with the fact that she has [[No Social Skills]] (which have left her alone and misunderstood her entire life), a [[Hair-Trigger Temper]] (ditto), and massive class resentment issues, it's no wonder the poor thing was on the verge of being kicked off the force, [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|Bunny Ears Detective]] or not, before she teamed up with Thomas Lynley. Although the show proceeds to further [[Break the Cutie]] (and also [[Break the Haughty|the haughty]] - her partner isn't spared), she [[Defrosting Ice Queen|softens and blossoms]] when paired with the one man who refuses to give up on her no matter how much [[Jerkass Facade|she tries to drive him away]]. The result is a far more likable - but still [[Deadpan Snarker|snarky]] - Havers, in a rare case of a show helping put the bird back together again. [[The Woobie|Sort of.]]
Line 298 ⟶ 301:
** ''Afterglow'' really just serves to drive it home, as if Sarah's just finally coming to terms with her brokeness.
* Beth Hart's "Leave the Light On."
{{quote|''[[Abusive Parents|Daddy ain't that bad, he just plays rough]]
''[[Stepford Smiler|I ain't that scarred when I'm covered up...]]
''I swore to God that I'd never be
''[[What Have I Become?|What I've become]] }}
* The song "Broken Wing" by Thousand Foot Krutch is all about this.
* More than one [[Ayumi Hamasaki]] song has shades of this, made even worse by [[Lyrical Dissonance|the poppy, energetic tune.]]
Line 307 ⟶ 310:
* Just about any song from [[Emilie Autumn]]'s "Opheliac" album.
* Tina Turner's "What's Love Got To Do With It", which is practically the Broken Bird anthem. Not far from this is Tina Turner herself, who left a violently abusive marriage with Ike Turner in 1978.
{{quote|''What's love got to do, got to do with it?
''What's love, but a second-hand emotion?
''What's love got to do, got to do with it?
''Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken? }}
* The subject of [[Blutengel]]'s song "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogQnvzMO_ko Broken Girl]".
* Amy Lee and [[Evanescence]] are this trope.
Line 336 ⟶ 339:
== Theater ==
* Aldonza in ''[[Man of La Mancha]]''. "Aldonza" (the song) is a great portrayal of anger and cynicism overlaying a very unhappy backstory.
*
* Niobe from ''[[The Love of the Nightingale]]''. Procne and Philomele become literally birds after their [[Break the Cutie]].
* In the [[The Addams Family (musical)|''Addams Family''
* In ''[[Vanities]]'', Kathy arguably becomes this after being [[Break the Cutie|jilted by Gary]]. Mary, with her [[Dark and Troubled Past]], also somewhat qualifies.
* In ''[[The Little Foxes]]'', Birdie married twenty years ago into a [[Big Screwed-Up Family]], who took her cotton plantation and sired on her an unlikable twit of a son. She spends a lot of time [[Drowning My Sorrows|drowning her sorrows]] in her own room, which they try to hide by lying and saying she has a headache.
== Video Games ==
* The titular character of ''[[American McGee's Alice]]'' and its sequel [[Alice: Madness Returns]] is quite the cold snarker - then again, considering that {{spoiler|her sister was raped and murdered}}, she was the only survivor of a fire that killed the rest of her family right before her eyes, and she was incarcerated into a Victorian asylum where she underwent horrific treatments, you can cut the poor thing some slack.
* Over the course of ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'', Aribeth gets quite thoroughly shattered. By Hordes of the Underdark, what with her whole failed revolution and crisis of faith, she is definitely one.
** Nathyrra from Hordes of the Underdark is also an example.
Line 351 ⟶ 354:
* Viconia from the ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' series, as revealed by her romance backstory.
** [[White Magician Girl]] Aerie could almost literally be called a broken bird: she had wings, but [[Wangst|they were cut off]]. However, her personality is generally far less snarky than this character type.
*** Heck, all the romances in ''BG2'' are of this type. Yes, even stupid, whiney Anomen.
* Alice from ''[[No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle]]''. It's unknown exactly what caused her Broken Bird personality {{spoiler|(possibly the killing of her supposed best friend [[Elegant Gothic Lolita|Margaret]])}}, but she certainly acts like one.
* Almost every major female character (and some male characters) in the [[Dragon Age]] series. To recount:
** Leliana: {{spoiler|former Orlesian assassin, betrayed, tortured, and raped on the orders of her beloved mentor (and lover) before the game begins. The sweet, pious Chantry sister started out as an act.}} She manages to actually subvert this beautifully: as her own narration and, more importantly, ''Leliana's Song'' [[Downloadable Content|DLC]] reveals, she has suffered enough traumatic experiences ({{spoiler|betrayal by a loved one followed by brutal torture}}) to break another woman many times over; however, just as she was about to crawl into a hole and die, she got religion and started having prophetic dreams, one of which directed her to the Warden. At the end of the day, Leliana is easily the [[The Idealist|most cheerful and caring person]] you will ever meet in the game, [[Plucky Girl|strengthened by her ordeal rather than broken by it.]]
** Morrigan: raised alone in the wilds by Flemeth, with little to no human contact of any kind and no experience relating to others in any way. {{spoiler|Sent off by her mother to bear a child to a Grey Warden she may not even like.}} Granted, she's less broken than twisted, and there is little evidence that she ever had a more cheerful personality that changed as a result of a traumatic experience, making her a possible subversion.
** The Warden: depending on your Origin, many, many possible nasty things happen to the Warden, all leading to long-term exile from home, though you can choose to play the angst as [[Wangst|much]] or [[Angst? What Angst?|little]] as you please, and the Warden will always be some flavor of [[The Stoic]].
Line 364 ⟶ 367:
** [[Phlebotinum Rebel|Fenris]] actually fits the trope description very well, despite being male. Most of his conversations with Hawke are just laying out how much of a mess his life is.
* Visas Marr in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] 2'' was spared by Darth Nihilus when he killed every other living thing on her homeworld, and was raised by him as a Sith. For a light side character, turning her back involves restoring her hope that Nihilus can't kill every living thing in the galaxy.
** [[The Hero|Meetra Surik]], aka The Exile, is also quintessential example of this trope. While the only one to return from the events of Malachor V alive or not fallen to the dark side. The destruction of the entire planet
{{quote|'''Visas:''' To see everything around you extinguished... it... was as if I was blinded. It was as if the Force had... been bled from the world...
'''Exile:''' ...as if everything suddenly went silent.
Line 381 ⟶ 384:
{{quote|'''Miranda''' (to {{spoiler|Leaf}}): "It all started when you fled from {{spoiler|Lenster}}. My father was a kind man who loved peace. He had no reason to go against the Empire... But...but...! Just because {{spoiler|he hid you}}, we were caught by the Empire and attacked! My father was {{spoiler|forced to turn me over as a hostage and lost his right to his throne...he died a miserable death.}} I will never forgive you, {{spoiler|Prince}}! If only you hadn't come to Alster...this never would have happened...”}}
** A borderline example: {{spoiler|Hellene's stepdaughter}}, Princess Guinevere from FE 6, though she manages to get better. {{spoiler|Cath the Thief}} and Brunya the [[Lady of Black Magic]] play it straighter when you learn about their backstories, though.
* In ''[[Fire Emblem Akaneia]]'', we have [[Dragon Rider|Princess Minerva]] and [[The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask|Princess Nyna.]], and the remake adds {{spoiler|Katarina, aka Eine, who ''can'' get better if you manage to recruit her.}} (And {{spoiler|Eremiya, but ''only'' when we learn her tragic backstory.}})
* Jakuri from ''[[Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica]]'' is not only a perfect example of this trope and its sub-traits, being simultaneously [[Tall, Dark and Bishoujo]] (well, okay, she's actually kind of short, but she makes up for it with badassery), [[Tsundere]], and more than a little goth, but {{spoiler|is known for singing hymns in which she uses the imagery of a little bird as a metaphor for herself, a theme first seen in EXEC_HARMONIOUS/., the song she crafted when she was better known as the first game's antagonist, Mir.}}
** Aurica from the first game may also qualify, to some extent.
Line 397 ⟶ 400:
** Shepard has definitely become this by ''[[Mass Effect 3]]''. Everything that s/he's experienced through all three games and his/her attempt to suppress those emotions for the squad's sake really begin to take their toll on him/her.
* Depending on your play style, the Lone Wanderer of ''[[Fallout 3]]'' may qualify.
* ''[[Fable (video game series)|Fable]]''{{'}}s [[Meaningful Name|Sparrow,]] who can be either female or male. She begins the game as an orphan on the streets with her older sister, wanting nothing more than a bed and warm meal. She is then [[Forced to Watch]] as the [[Big Bad]] [[Dead Little Sister|kills her sister]], and is taken in by a mysterious gypsy {{spoiler|who secretly manipulates her every move}} before leaving to seek revenge. Later, she's trapped as a slave to the [[Big Bad]] for ''ten years'' in a bid to break her spirit, where she is forced to obey every order or lose her memories (literal experience points). Banshees in the game may torture her over her sister's death, and near the end, she's trapped in the [[Big Bad]]'s [[Lotus Eater Machine]] {{spoiler|after he literally [[Shoot the Dog|shoots the dog]]. There, she finds herself in an illusion as a child with her sister, living the perfect life she always wanted,}} which she THEN has to escape through pure fear. Finally, at the end, she has to make a [[Sadistic Choice]] between resurrecting her sister, {{spoiler|as well as her faithful dog and her family, who also got killed by the [[Big Bad]],}} [[The Needs of the Many|resurrecting the countless innocent people used to build]] said [[Lotus Eater Machine]], [[What the Hell, Hero?|or becoming rich and evil beyond her wildest dreams.]]
* [[Emotionless Girl|Setsumi]] from ''[[Narcissu]]'', [[The Woobie|oh so very much.]]
* Anna Lin from ''[[Bliss Stage First and Final Act]]'' can be forgiven for her more [[Tsundere]] outbursts, given that {{spoiler|she saw her first crush ''die'' when that crush's [[You Lose At Zero Trust|ANIMa shattered as soon as it was manifested]] -- and THEN her first requited love made a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]}}.
Line 415 ⟶ 418:
** She was already broken even before the Tokyo Lockdown began. A musician who came from a [[Big Screwed-Up Family|troubled family]], her mentor went overseas and she thinks that it's her fault {{spoiler|when she was actually kidnapped by a [[Religion of Evil]]}}, and to top it all off, {{spoiler|she's being hunted by demons because her songs are the key to summoning them to the real world.}}
* [[Ninja Maid|Ninja Maid Cecilia]] has shades of this in [[Vanguard Bandits]]. [[Multiple Endings|Whether she gets better or not depends on the player.]]
* Lulu from ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'', who starts off as a [[Deadpan Snarker]], although she later becomes a [[Defrosting Ice Queen]].
* Playable Caster ({{spoiler|Tamamo-no-Mae}}) from ''[[Fate Extra|Fate/EXTRA]]''. She is extremely cheerfully, more [[Genre Savvy]] than most otakus and her insanely cute 'mikuuun!' verbal tics doesn't help. However, has one of the saddest backstories in the entire Nasuverse: {{spoiler|she was literally divinity, but humans fascinated her so much that she threw everything away so she could go join them and help them in the mud, she lived to serve, to love them. What does her husband do? He sends an army to kill her when he finds out she isn't human. She spent three days fighting, killing and being bathed in blood in the field where she made her last stand. Every second of it was spent crying and shouting for her husband's forgiveness. Her biggest wish was to be the best wife in the world. That was thousands of years ago. It still is.}}
* {{spoiler|Elisabeth Blanctorche}} from [[The King of Fighters]]. She's a [[Tall, Dark and Bishoujo]] [[Lady of War]] {{spoiler|whose clan was decimated}} and has a complicated relationship with someone she used to care for more than anyone in the world: {{spoiler|Ash Crimson}}; as a result, her view of the world is pretty cynical, and if she had to fight younger girls she'll always remark on how "innocent" they are, compared with herself. {{spoiler|And in [[The King of Fighters]] XIII, when Ash unveils his true intentions and reveals that he did '''everything''' [[I Will Protect Her|to help and protect her]], [[Iron Woobie|Elisabeth]] [[Cry Cute|is brought to tears]], as the price he'll pay for her sake ''[[Ret-Gone|is being erased from existence]]''.}}
Line 421 ⟶ 424:
** Chizuru Kagura was this too, due to {{spoiler|her twin sister Maki's murder and the heavy burdens that the Yasakani-Kagura-Kusanagi bonds bring to her.}} She gets better thanks to Mai, King and King's brother Jean, though.
* Riven of ''[[League of Legends]]'', who saw the ideals she dedicated her life to get shattered during the wartime atrocities between Noxus and Ionia. She fights using a broken sword, and as she herself puts it, "The sword mirrors its owner." Even her signature move is called "Broken Wings"!
* Pretty much every female character is this in ''[[Dark Souls]]'', except {{spoiler|Sieglinde}} who becomes broken near the end of the game.
Line 431 ⟶ 434:
** ''All'' the heroines are this to one degree or another. Let's not forget that Emi {{spoiler|lost her father in the same accident that resulted in her legs being amputated and still has ''major'' issues regarding letting other people get close to her to the point where her [[Genki Girl]] persona is very much a mask for her pain.}} In Shizune's case {{spoiler|she has to deal with an [[Abusive Dad]] that forced her to spend much of her childhood taking speech lessons in an attempt to "fix" her as well as having major issues communicating and forming relationships with other due to her deafness, resulting in her being ''extremely lonely.}}
* Esperia in ''[[Eien no Aselia]]''. She has great difficult in treating Yuuto consistently because of this. She's always nice, but she can be oddly standoffish and distant.
* ''[[Kanon]]''{{'}}s nickname when it first came out was [[Fan Nickname|Sad Girls in Snow]]. Hell, [[Word of God]] has it that this was the Trope Namer's favorite [[Visual Novel]] at the time.
* Every one of the girls in ''[[AIR]]'' fits this trope to a T.
** Kano {{spoiler|deals with her memories of a past life where she killed her own child, to the point that the personality is physically killing her.}}
Line 437 ⟶ 440:
** Misuzu, dear God in Heaven, Misuzu, {{spoiler|between being cursed for wanting to see her Mother ''in her past life'' and experiencing excruciating pain, for herself, the cast, and, hell, even the audience, whenever she gets emotionally close to someone, and we won't even start with her Mother...}} Her pain is best summarized with one word... Gao~!
** Yukito fills this role as well, {{spoiler|from losing his Mother, the only person who he ever cared about, to being forced to complete her, and, by extension, his entire family line's, mission of helping the winged girl.}}
* ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'': Subverted, well, for Visual Key anyway, in that not ''all'' the characters are Broken Birds. Though Nagisa, Ushio, and especially Kotomi take the cake.
* Tsugumi from ''[[Ever 17]]'' is infallibly cold and unpleasant to all the other characters and repeatedly brushes off questions about why a slight young girl is stronger, tougher, and faster than the rest of them put together. Alongside merry japes with nail polish remover and blowtorches, she also manages to fit in suicidal tendencies and, in one scenario, {{spoiler|uses her superior strength to very nearly rape Takeshi.}} As a result, the point where she finally breaks down into tears and abandons all previous [[Jerkass]] tendencies is extremely satisfying, indeed.
** {{spoiler|So much so that it happens twice, when the even more bitter and twisted Tsugumi from Kid's route is revealed to be the same character 17 years later, who has since lost everything she gained in the first scenario.}}
** {{spoiler|She gets better, though, and at the end, returns to being the [[Tsundere]] that she had become after warming up to the main character.}}
* ''[[Tsukihime]]'' contains a subversion: there are a pair of twin sisters, one an obvious [[Genki Girl]], the other an apparent Broken Bird [[Emotionless Girl]]. However, {{spoiler|it turns out that Kohaku's genkiness is a mask for a completely [[
* Saber and Sakura in ''[[Fate/stay night]]''.
* Silviana, an [[Petting Zoo People|antrophomorphic dog]], from ''[[Wanko To Kurasou]]''. In this game, anthropomorphic dogs are pretty much regarded and treated as regular dogs, even if people ''do know'' that [[Unfortunate Implications|they're much more intelligent and self-conscious]]. Her owner not only mistreated her and had her permanently locked up in a room, but also tried to play backyard breeder and make her breed before she even had her first heat. That resulted in her becoming an [[Emotionless Girl]] until she was rescued by the main character. She got better, fortunately.
==
* Hayasaka Erika from ''[[Megatokyo]]'' is a prime example: cool, calm, sarcastic, and quick to inflict violence on anyone violating her personal space. At first thought to be the only person in the cast who wasn't awash with neuroses, she eventually turned out to be possibly the most damaged of them all. And, of course, [[Trope Namer|it was the title of one of her albums]].
** Tohya Miho might well be considered one too, despite being apparently still of high school age.
Line 457 ⟶ 460:
* Faye in ''[[Questionable Content]]''. Though she subverts the [[Freak-Out]], she makes jokes about it while she's in obvious pain from bringing it up, and chooses to tell Marten beforehand. Still counts, though, because she is [[The Woobie|pretty broken.]]
** More recent issues indicate that Dora may also be one, particularly regarding her relationship history and trust issues with Marten.
* Considering recent developments with her character, [[Dark Action Girl|Tsukiko]] from ''[[The
** Which wouldn't be surprising, as a lot of villains in ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' tend to have a dimension of sympathy. (Except the [[Big Bad]] himself, by [[Word of God|admission of the creator]].)
** Speaking of OOTS villains with a dimension of sympathy - [[Lawful Stupid|Miko]] [[Knight Templar|Miyazaki]] could be [[Alternate Character Interpretation|interpreted as such]] as well; she was orphaned at a young age, is severely socially awkward, and her only friend is her horse. One could imagine a lonely young girl with poor social skills adopting a rigid black-and-white view of the world as a means of emotional defense - only making things worse, as her narrow-mindedness and arrogance drives people even further away from her.
* Brianna, the Imperial Assassin from ''[[Servants of the Imperium]]'', could possibly be a Broken Bird.
* Iris Kolrick from ''[[Shadownova]]''. Her past hasn't been shown yet, but word of god confirms that it is a tragic one.
* Lindsey from ''[[Shadowgirls]]''. She ain't forgiving herself anytime soon.
* Galatea ("Golly") in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]].'' She's much less of an emotional disaster than she once was, but she still tries to project an air of competence and experience far beyond what she actually has (even if she is a genius).
* Susan, from ''[[El Goonish Shive]]''. She's not quite as broken as some on the list, but she has her problems. Also, one of the more [[Badass]] characters.
* In ''[[Homestuck]]''. [[Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl|Aradia]] [[Emotionless Girl|Megido]]. The poor girl is so broken by the time the game starts that she's forgotten what emotion feels like, {{spoiler|which makes her ascention to God Tier all the more heartwarming.}}
* Lucy of [[Bittersweet Candy Bowl]]. It's only noticeable under certain circumstances, but ''wow''.
* Carmen of ''[[Ninth Elsewhere]]''; explained by her childhood.
* {{spoiler|[[Rose-Haired Girl|Bathory]]}} of ''[[Crepuscule]]'' seems to be this, as revealed in more recent chapters: {{spoiler|For hundreds of years, she's been searching for a surviving relative from the extermination of the pureblood succubi. Thankfully, she finds Angela, her aunt, and seems to be getting better because of it.}}
* ''[[Penny and Aggie]]'' reveals [[The Fundamentalist|Charlotte]] to be one of these. Her issues are such that {{spoiler|she's willing to resort to kidnapping people due to those (granted, the victim is a repulsive sociopath), and when those issues are exploited, she even [[Driven to Suicide|tries to kill herself]].}}
* ''Long Exposure'' has both [[The Bully|Mitch]] and [[Lovable Nerd|Jonas]] as these in different ways. Thankfully, the series is all about growing out of them by [[Official Couple|falling in love with each other]].
* ''[[Sakana]]'': Yuudai Tanaka is an [[Grumpy Bear|emotionally coarse]], [[Hair-Trigger Temper|perpetually angry]] [[Jerkass]] who seemingly [[Hates Everyone Equally|hates everyone]] and makes the main cast's (especially [[The Hero|Jiro]]'s) lives a living hell. It turns out later this is a result of his severe [[Dark and Troubled Past]], involving a sick mother, a tenuous relationship with his father, growing up in poverty and ''especially'' {{spoiler|having dealt with an [[Domestic Abuse|abusive relationship]] so horrific it left him both physically and emotionally scarred.}} When left to his own it shows [[Tsunshun|he's a lonely, miserable man who uses his rude exterior as a defense mechanism]], and as such, it keeps him from getting the help he needs... {{spoiler|at least, until [[Nice Guy|Taisei]] manages to [[Defrosting Ice King|defrost him with his kind behavior]].}}
** Mori is introduced as an angry woman, but it's revealed she used to be a lot sweeter in the past, her rude behavior being sparked by her long-time fiancé [[Your Cheating Heart|cheating on her]].
== Web Originals ==
Line 482 ⟶ 488:
** Terra, too, though she tries to hide it behind a [[Fun Personified]] façade. Stick around her long enough, though, and it becomes obvious the girl has ''serious'' issues with people.
* Mittens from ''[[Bolt]]''.
* Megara from Disney's ''[[Hercules (
* Karai from ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' becomes one of these during the show's fourth and fifth seasons, after the turtles and Utroms exile her father to an icy asteroid.
* Meg of ''[[Family Guy]]''. Although it's [[Played for Laughs]] and she's a pretty big [[Butt Monkey]], some episodes depict her being both emotionally fragile and disturbed, [[I Just Want to Be Loved|derived from a desperation for love and attention.]]
* [
* Mrs. Krabappel from ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' is [[The Snark Knight]] variety. In her case, it's [[Played for Laughs]].
* Mai of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]],'' who [[Birds of a Feather|unsurprisingly]] ends up with the resident [[Troubled but Cute]].
** Zuko is essentially a male example of this trope. {{spoiler|He gets better, thankfully.}}
** The worst case of them all is, [[The Chessmaster|surprisingly]] [[Manipulative Bastard|enough]], Azula. {{spoiler|She had severe emotional problems due to perceived lack of love for [[Missing Mom|her mother]] and screwed-up upbringing as a [[Tyke Bomb]] by [[Abusive Parents|her]] [[Big Bad|father]]. When her "friends" [[Machiavelli Was Wrong|betray her]] near the end of the series, her issues come to a head and drive her into a [[Villainous Breakdown]].}}
* Gwen from ''[[Total Drama Island]]'', in spades.
* Charmcaster in ''[[Ben 10: Ultimate Alien]]''.
* Artemis from ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' comes from a broken home, with her mother having spent years in prison, her father being a supervillain, and her older sister, Jade, being the notorious assassin Cheshire. This has understandably made Artemis very cynnical and abrasive.
* [[Tsundere|Helga]] from ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'' is younger than most examples, but she still qualifies. She comes from a broken home, with a greedy and negligent [[Abusive Parents|father]], well-meaning but [[The Alcoholic|alcoholic]] mother, and a [[The Ace|"perfect"]] [[Cool Big Sis|sister]] [[Parental Favoritism|whom she's frequently compared to and ignored]] (and who is just as broken as her [[Broken Ace|''because'']] of said favoritism) When [[Nice Guy|Arnold]] gave her the attention she needed, she fell in love with him, but she got laughed by [[Kids Are Cruel|the other kids]] about it. All that trauma left her a [[The Bully|rude, aggressive child]] [[Loving Bully|who bullies her crush while loving him in secret]], which is shown to work against her multiple times.
Line 513 ⟶ 522:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
[[Category:Ice Queen Characters]]▼
[[Category:Love Interests]]
▲[[Category:Ice Queen]]
[[Category:Romance Novel Tropes]]
[[Category:Sadness Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
| |||