Broken Bird: Difference between revisions

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In fact, she can sometimes fill a mentor role for less experienced and more idealistic characters, all the while loudly expressing her irritation with said arrangement, so no one gets the impression she's softening up. Sometimes, this is to [[Jerkass]] levels; however, she is most often a sympathetic [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]], giving an impression of independent toughness to hide a sincere affection for the other characters.

This character was a hero herself once and failed miserably, or maybe she was [[Freudian Excuse|abused]] in some way as a kid; whatever the case, her cynicism undoubtedly stems from some [[Break the Cutie|traumatic event in her past]] that destroyed her faith in just about everything. This revelation is normally accompanied by a [[Freak-Out]], said past often delivered in a [[Don't You Dare Pity Me!|bitter diatribe towards someone]] who proved a bit too stubborn in their desire to know what it was. At this point, tears are guaranteed, probably more of them the less she's expressed emotion in the past. She also has a 65% chance of engaging in [[Megaton Punch|serious physical violence]] against whoever is closest at the time. This is always treated seriously and ~~[[Broken Bird|~~Broken Birds]] have a tendency to be both prone to violence and very good at it, therefore, potential [[Love Interest~~|Love Interests~~]] should always prepare to be at least slightly maimed during these breakdowns.

This character was a hero herself once and failed miserably, or maybe she was [[Freudian Excuse|abused]] in some way as a kid; whatever the case, her cynicism undoubtedly stems from some [[Break the Cutie|traumatic event in her past]] that destroyed her faith in just about everything. This revelation is normally accompanied by a [[Freak-Out]], said past often delivered in a [[Don't You Dare Pity Me!|bitter diatribe towards someone]] who proved a bit too stubborn in their desire to know what it was. At this point, tears are guaranteed, probably more of them the less she's expressed emotion in the past. She also has a 65% chance of engaging in [[Megaton Punch|serious physical violence]] against whoever is closest at the time. This is always treated seriously and '''Broken Birds''' have a tendency to be both prone to violence and very good at it, therefore, potential [[Love Interest]]s should always prepare to be at least slightly maimed during these breakdowns.

If she is [[Epiphanic Prison|cured of her emotional torment]], expect any of a number of paths. At best, she will continue on as a [[Character Development|deeper and]] [[Defrosting Ice Queen|less emotionally constipated]] version of who she was before...but she may also fall prey to [[Good Is Dumb]] or mutate into a [[Shallow Love Interest]] or [[Satellite Character]]. Expect [[Hope Is Scary]] on the road to recovery.

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** Revy is unusual in that she's usually brimming over with emotion (usually visible boredom or annoyance when there's nothing to shoot at and unrestrained glee when there is), but goes through the above speech in complete [[The Stoic|stoicism]], foreshadowing her lapse into [[Ax Crazy|Whitman Fever]] later on in the arc.

** Balalaika. Oh ''God'', Balalaika. Thanks to the Afghan War, the cute teenager who wanted to become an Olympic marksman and make her family proud ended up as a cynical, scarred, and stylishly brutal [[The Baroness|Mafia queen]].

** Yukio Washimine sets out on the path to [[Broken Bird]]-dom in the "Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise" arc. {{spoiler|She never reaches it. She ends up crossing the [[Despair Event Horizon]] and kills herself in the end.}}

** Yukio Washimine sets out on the path to Broken Bird-dom in the "Fujiyama Gangsta Paradise" arc. {{spoiler|She never reaches it. She ends up crossing the [[Despair Event Horizon]] and kills herself in the end.}}

* 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.

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** 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 ''[[Zero no Tsukaima]]''.

* [[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.

* [[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.

* Vietnam, according to some ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' [[Fanon]] based in [[wikipedia:History of Vietnam|the country's Real Life History]]. In it, she was once an innocent young fisher-girl, but years of suffering as a plaything to China, France, America, and other larger powers forced her to become a battle-hardened soldier. Exactly ''how'' broken and embittered she is, [[Alternate Character Interpretation|is left to imagination]]: sometimes she's an unstable [[Dark Action Girl]], sometimes, she's the [[Team Mom]] to the younger Asians. (The canon leans more towards the second interpretation, as she's shown to be rather quiet and mature but with slight self-image issues.)

** If you adhere to the [[Fanon]] belief of North Korea being a female, she qualifies as well. [[media:3890099.jpg|This fanart]] is a pretty good example.

** 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~~|Dark Fics~~]]. Vietnam and Taiwan's "brother", Hong Kong, is sometimes made into a male [[Broken Bird]] in fics.

** 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 ''[[Nineteen Eighty Three Doomsday Stories]]'' AU, Austria is given this treatment {{spoiler|following Hungary's death in [[World War III|Doomsday]]}}.

* 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}}.

** 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}}.

* Basically, all of the Orochi (male or female) in ''[[Kannazuki no Miko]]''. The qualification for joining the Orochi is having a troubled past, and all of the characters in the original Orochi have either been through wars, sexual abuse, medical testing, or other violent situations. Many of the characters compensate by acting strong or confident, however, it is revealed in later episodes how destructive their pasts all were.

* Urd, the elder half sister of Belldandy in ''[[Ah! My Goddess]]''. She's had a great deal of trouble coming to terms with her part divine, part demonic heritage, though she's made significant progress with it over the course of the series.

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** Kanda, despite being male, is probably [[Dark and Troubled Past|the best example]] in the series.

* Kureha from ''[[After School Nightmare]]''.

* It's hard to decide who of the most "mature" [[Magical Girl~~|Magical Girls~~]] in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' is more broken: the [[Ice Queen|cynical]] Homura Akemi or the [[Stepford Smiler|more "smiley"]] Mami Tomoe. And after {{spoiler|Mami's horrible death in episode 3}}, it seems Madoka may be getting closer to this as well...

* It's hard to decide who of the most "mature" [[Magical Girl]]s in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' is more broken: the [[Ice Queen|cynical]] Homura Akemi or the [[Stepford Smiler|more "smiley"]] Mami Tomoe. And after {{spoiler|Mami's horrible death in episode 3}}, it seems Madoka may be getting closer to this as well...

** Kyouko Sakura reveals herself as one when she explains her backstory to Sayaka in episode 7.

** And Sayaka Miki herself ended up so broken...that by episode 8, {{spoiler|she hit the [[Despair Event Horizon]] and became a Witch}}.

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* 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.

* 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.

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== Live Action TV ==

* Ace from ''[[Doctor Who]]'' seems to fit this well.

** One of the many interpretations in fandom of why Amy Pond acts how she does is that she's one of these. Though, let's be fair, you'd be broken too if {{spoiler|your parents had been erased from existence and even from your memory, except you had a constant nagging in your head that you can't remember who they were or how you lost them. If Amy really was a [[Broken Bird]], by the end of series 5, she's definitely fixed after having her parents restored.}}

** One of the many interpretations in fandom of why Amy Pond acts how she does is that she's one of these. Though, let's be fair, you'd be broken too if {{spoiler|your parents had been erased from existence and even from your memory, except you had a constant nagging in your head that you can't remember who they were or how you lost them. If Amy really was a Broken Bird, by the end of series 5, she's definitely fixed after having her parents restored.}}

* ''[[Veronica Mars]]'' is indisputably a Broken Bird, it being the key character point which defines her in the first series - she's cynical about the world and much older in her mind than her seventeen years because her life went to hell within the space of a few months less than a year before we meet the character (her best friend is murdered, her dad (the sheriff) loses his job and they lose their house, her mother leaves her and her father, she is drugged and raped at a party (and laughed at when she reports it), and becomes a social pariah in a school where money makes the world go round). But she takes the new kid under her wing and makes friends with bikers, so it's all good. :)

* Faith from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' straddles the line between this and [[Dark Action Girl]], depending on what season she's in. [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Heh, straddles]].

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** 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~~|Action Girls~~]] Olivia Benson and Dani Beck, as well as attorneys Alex Cabot and Casey Novak from ''[[Law & Order: Special Victims Unit|Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]''. Heck, pretty much ''any'' female in the show ends up as this.

* Policewomen and [[Action Girl]]s Olivia Benson and Dani Beck, as well as attorneys Alex Cabot and Casey Novak from ''[[Law & Order: Special Victims Unit|Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]''. Heck, pretty much ''any'' female in the show ends up as this.

** 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.

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* 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 {{spoiler|directly ordering her to kill her own brother, Ari,}} which she does, and then never really gets over. Most of her close family members are dead (and not of natural causes), and the two men she's fallen in love with {{spoiler|have both died, one of radiation poisoning and one was shot by her partner, Tony.}} Ziva is consistently unemotional: while she does get angry, she is unlikely to show sadness or hurt; this is directly referred to by other characters. She is a skilled assassin and normally shows little or no remorse for killing.

* Ziva David from ''[[NCIS]]'' practically exemplifies this trope—her father brought her up to kill people, up to and including {{spoiler|directly ordering her to kill her own brother, Ari,}} which she does, and then never really gets over. Most of her close family members are dead (and not of natural causes), and the two men she's fallen in love with {{spoiler|have both died, one of radiation poisoning and one was shot by her partner, Tony.}} Ziva is consistently unemotional: while she does get angry, she is unlikely to show sadness or hurt; this is directly referred to by other characters. She is a skilled assassin and normally shows little or no remorse for killing.

** 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.

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** Not to mention the experimental drug trials she participated in as a child, and the abusive stepfather she almost killed in self-defense when she was eight years old.

** And she's back to being this as of the season 4 premiere. {{spoiler|That is, until the return of her memories from the previous timeline.}}

* Isabella from ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]''. Her parents died in a fire, she was sold to a sadistic rapist at age thirteen, and her relationship with Robin does not end well. (This was a controversial character, considering she was such a sympathetically [[Broken Bird]] and yet {{spoiler|the writers eventually chose to kill her off as an irredeemable villain}}.)

* Isabella from ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]''. Her parents died in a fire, she was sold to a sadistic rapist at age thirteen, and her relationship with Robin does not end well. (This was a controversial character, considering she was such a sympathetically Broken Bird and yet {{spoiler|the writers eventually chose to kill her off as an irredeemable villain}}.)

* Detective Kate Beckett in ''[[Castle]]'', who has had to live with both her mother's brutal murder and, due to what she considers the lack of imagination of the investigating officers, the fact that her killer was never caught.

* 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.)

* 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 amongst humans, who can't understand him. Then, he kills a boy, since he underestimated his strengh. He vows never to lose controll again. Then, his family gets dishonoured. His first love and the mother of his son gets murdered. He regains his family-honour just to lose it again. His brother gets suicidal, so they have to erase his memory for good and he loses the last of his family. His son hates him, and his wife and great love gets murdered. Poor guy can't get a break

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** As of season 11, Bianca.

* 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.<br /><br />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]].

* 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]].

** 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 imprisonned by Uther) to save her lover and her buddies}}. Gwen is tortured/looked down upon/neglegected by everyone except Merlin ({{spoiler|who remains oblivious to her crush on him}}), Gaius (who keeps her out of the way as much as Morgana when serious matters concerning her that Merlin must resolve arise), Arthur ( {{spoiler|who repeatedly breaks up with her because he thinks he must marry a princess and otherwise a noblewoman and thinks she cheated on him and banishes the poor innocent Gwen}}) and some minor characters, being lacking power because of her low social status. Yet, unlike initially [[Spoiled Sweet|kind and powerful]] Morgana, who arguably can only be furous and traumatized because of Merlin, Uther and (indirectly) Arthur, plus two minor characters and punishes poor {{spoiler|people who were indifferent/neutral in the conflict, and a guard who probably did horrible things, but was kind to her}}, she insists that killing Uther would make her as bad as him, even {{spoiler|after he menaced to burn her at the stake and condemned her father to be imprisoned}}.

** 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 imprisonned by Uther) to save her lover and her buddies}}. Gwen is tortured/looked down upon/neglegected by everyone except Merlin ({{spoiler|who remains oblivious to her crush on him}}), Gaius (who keeps her out of the way as much as Morgana when serious matters concerning her that Merlin must resolve arise), Arthur ( {{spoiler|who repeatedly breaks up with her because he thinks he must marry a princess and otherwise a noblewoman and thinks she cheated on him and banishes the poor innocent Gwen}}) and some minor characters, being lacking power because of her low social status. Yet, unlike initially [[Spoiled Sweet|kind and powerful]] Morgana, who arguably can only be furous and traumatized because of Merlin, Uther and (indirectly) Arthur, plus two minor characters and punishes poor {{spoiler|people who were indifferent/neutral in the conflict, and a guard who probably did horrible things, but was kind to her}}, she insists that killing Uther would make her as bad as him, even {{spoiler|after he menaced to burn her at the stake and condemned her father to be imprisoned}}.

* 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.]]

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* The [[Lady Gaga]] album "The Fame Monster" definitely qualifies, particularly tracks like "Monster" (in which the narrator becomes as bad as her "monster"-boyfriend) and "Speechless" ("I'll never talk again [...] I'll never love again"). Not to mention Gaga's more overt use of her more gothic stylings.

* 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.

* 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?

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* Pick a Katatonia song, preferably from "Tonight's Decision" or "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" (one track in the former is titled "I Break", for example). Broken. There's even a meeting of the broken birds in "Passing Bird" (one is faking it, though.)

* The Foreshadowing album "Days of Nothing" is a concept album about a male broken bird.

* Savage Garden's "To the Moon and Back" depicts the mindset of a [[Broken Bird]] in all details.

* Savage Garden's "To the Moon and Back" depicts the mindset of a Broken Bird in all details.

** "Gunning Down Romance" to an even deeper extent, though this time, it's the male singer experiencing it.

* Mr Mister's "Broken Wings" is about someone trying to help a broken bird pull [[Ambiguous Gender|themselves]] together

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** [[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.

* 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'' [[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.]]

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* 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.

* [[Planescape: Torment|Annah]] is [[Parental Abandonment|an orphan]], [[Half-Human Hybrid|a distrusted descendant of fiends]], raised by a money-grubbing corpse-seller, trained as a thief, and has the rather interesting experience of seeing one of the corpses she sells walking around again ~~later--and~~ not as a zombie. Then, {{spoiler|the only father she's ever known is killed while she's off helping said "corpse", very much against her will, except said parent ordered it}}, all before she's even really an adult. She hides her issues well, but occasionally, they'll slip out.

* [[Planescape: Torment|Annah]] is [[Parental Abandonment|an orphan]], [[Half-Human Hybrid|a distrusted descendant of fiends]], raised by a money-grubbing corpse-seller, trained as a thief, and has the rather interesting experience of seeing one of the corpses she sells walking around again later—and not as a zombie. Then, {{spoiler|the only father she's ever known is killed while she's off helping said "corpse", very much against her will, except said parent ordered it}}, all before she's even really an adult. She hides her issues well, but occasionally, they'll slip out.

* Eleanor from ''[[Rule of Rose]]''. Complete with literal bird.

** One could probably argue that all the girls, and even guys, in the orphanage fit this trope.

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** {{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 [[Yandere (disambiguation)|shattered]], [[Stepford Smiler|emotionless psyche]], while Hisui is a [[Shrinking Violet]] who hides her feelings to keep Kohaku stable.}}

* ''[[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 [[Yandere (disambiguation)|shattered]], [[Stepford Smiler|emotionless psyche]], while Hisui is a [[Shrinking Violet]] who hides her feelings to keep Kohaku stable.}}

* 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.

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* 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.

*** Estimates of Miho's apparent age are currently being [[Older Than They Look|revised upwards]]. She's still pretty young for a [[Broken Bird]], though.

*** Estimates of Miho's apparent age are currently being [[Older Than They Look|revised upwards]]. She's still pretty young for a Broken Bird, though.

*** Evidence is pointing toward Sonoda Meimi as well.

* Jillian Zamussels in ''[[Erfworld]]'' appears to be a [[Broken Bird]], among other things.

* Jillian Zamussels in ''[[Erfworld]]'' appears to be a Broken Bird, among other things.

* Miranda West in ''[[The Wotch]]''.

* Red in ''[[No Rest for The Wicked (webcomic)|No Rest for The Wicked]]''.

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* Some [[Alternate Character Interpretation|views]] of Janis Joplin.

* [[Marie Antoinette]], towards the end of her life.

* Female authors like [[Sylvia Plath]], Gabriela Mistral, and others radiate [[Broken Bird]] vibes through their texts and biographies (sometimes called the "Sylvia Plath effect").

* Female authors like [[Sylvia Plath]], Gabriela Mistral, and others radiate Broken Bird vibes through their texts and biographies (sometimes called the "Sylvia Plath effect").

* [[Rebellious Princess|Rebellious Empress]] Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary, aka Sisi, in her last years. Having lost two of her children (Sophia was a [[Littlest Cancer Patient]], Rudolf and his lover, Maria Vetsera, died in an apparent [[Suicide Pact]]) and being subjected to lots of loneliness and scorn as a part of the Habsburg clan, she would [[Woman in Black|dress in black]] and travel through Europe quietly, spending her time alone until her murder.

** Not to mention [[Neat Freak|perfectionism]], due to all the pressures around her, causing her to go through periodic bouts of depression and develop an eating disorder (said to be borderline anorexia by some modern historians).

** [[Tear Jerker|Heartbreakingly]], [[wikipedia:Romy Schneider|the actress]] who played Sisi in three movies ended up as a [[Broken Bird]] as well, with her career ruined after the role typecasted her, as well as with her son, David, dying in horrifying circumstances. [[The Woobie|Poor Romy Schneider]].

** [[Tear Jerker|Heartbreakingly]], [[wikipedia:Romy Schneider|the actress]] who played Sisi in three movies ended up as a Broken Bird as well, with her career ruined after the role typecasted her, as well as with her son, David, dying in horrifying circumstances. [[The Woobie|Poor Romy Schneider]].

** Coincidentally, her husband, Emperor Franz Josef, ultimately became this towards his final years as well, ''especially'' after her death.

* [[wikipedia:Barbara Hutton|Barbara Hutton]], an extremely wealthy American heiress, who's own tragic life, filled with loneliness, abuse, eating disorders, and the death of her only son, can qualify her as the "American Sisi." She's the [[Trope Codifier]] for "[[Lonely Rich Kid]]", as her nickname among the media was "Poor Little Rich Girl".