Deus Angst Machina: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:1018 12 4006.gif|link=Chick Tracts|frame|[[Sarcasm Mode|What a]] [[Contrived Coincidence|coincidence]].]]
{{quote|''"You'd think I'd be used to it by now. But they keep finding new angles to torture me with."''|'''[[Spider-Man]]''', inner monologue. It's unclear if he means [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall|his villains or his writers.]]}}
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{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Blue Gender]]'', the universe is out to get Yuji and Marlene. This is not a supposition, it is a fact supported by [[Word of God]].
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** There was also Nagato, who [[Cosmic Plaything|the universe itself]] seemed to love in a [[Domestic Abuse]] kind of way. Sure, it gave him the Rinnegan and, in the process, pretty much turned him into a [[Physical God]], and his life did have its glimpses of brightness, (like when he found [[True Companions|two friends to start a new family with]], or when Jiraiya took him and his friends in and taught them the ninja arts so that they could protect themselves and each other, and the time he decided his reason in life would be to protect his friends and bring about a lasting peace,) but for the most part his life was a trip down hell's own gutter from the moment his parents, the only family he had ever known, were ''accidentally'' killed before his own eyes by two ninjas... He was eventually broken when forced to make a [[Sadistic Choice]] which ended in the death of one of the friends he had sworn to protect.
* D-Boy/Takaya Aiba of ''[[Tekkaman Blade]]''. Gosh, his life is ''[[It Got Worse|really]]'' sucks. {{spoiler|Fortunately, the sequel show him completely recovered from his loss so it all ends well, but the sheer crap he gone through is so nasty, its a wonder why he doesn't snap from all of it}}.
* The life of [[Cosmic Plaything|Guts]] from ''[[Berserk]]'' sucks to such a major degree that it puts the [[Trauma Conga Line]]s of Griffith and Casca to shame, especially since [[Go Mad
== Comic Books ==
* ''[[Incredible Hulk]]'', to the point that the series more or less became a parody of itself for half a decade during [[The Dark Age of Comic Books]] because the writers were sick of the endless angst (probably).
* Since [[Robin Series|Tim Drake]] became [[Robin]]: His mother was poisoned to death, his friend Darla was killed {{spoiler|(but later came back to life (Of course))}}, his dad was killed by a Captain Boomerang, his girlfriend Stephanie Brown, tortured and 'murdered', his stepmother was most likely killed via a nuke in Bludhaven, his best friends [[Superboy]] and [[The Flash|Bart Allen]] were killed {{spoiler|(but, as expected, later came back to life)}}, his adopted sister [[Batgirl (2000 comic book)|Cassandra Cain]] went insane, {{spoiler|
** On the other hand, we have [[Batgirl 2009|Stephanie Brown]]. Grew up the child of a physically and emotionally abusive convict and a (now-rehabilitated) drug addict. Suffered attempted sexual molestation by her piano teacher at age 11. Almost had her face melted off by her own father with an acid capsule on her first foray as a vigilante. Set up for kidnapping and murder by her own father ''again'' several months later. Becomes pregnant by a boy who abandons her without even stopping long enough to learn that she ''was'' pregnant. Carries the child to term, then gives him/her/ up for adoption in a complete [[Tear Jerker]] of a moment, not letting herself even know her baby's sex or naming him/her because otherwise she could never force herself to let go. (And for extra angst points, almost dies of complications during the delivery.) Father (apparently) dies while trying to reform, leaving her entirely conflicted on the issue. Tortured grotesquely by Black Mask for hours. Upon returning from her faked death and one years' isolation in Africa, immediately ordered by Batman to betray her ex-boyfriend "for his own good", leading to complete alienation from him. Given the absolute minimum of support and validation in her superhero career, ''even by her own boyfriend'', throughout. Subjected to active ''discouragement'' from pursuing a superhero career by virtually ''everyone''. Depending on whether or not its [[Canon Discontinuity]] yet, possibly still carrying the guilt for setting off a destructive gang war that killed hundreds. And her response? [[Determinator|Total refusal to let any of this crap get her down.]] With arguably as much to angst about as her ex-boyfriend Tim, there is not ''one panel'' of her whining or indulging in self-pity available in the sixteen years the character has been in Bat-Comics. Steph entirely shares Commissioner Gordon's awesome immunity to PTSD or [[Wangst]].
*** Well, she gets an issue of ''Robin'' dedicated to a few of her really crappy life experiences after her dad died. That's it.
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* Goren from ''[[Law and Order: Criminal Intent]]'' qualifies, if any one does. Let's see.... his schizophrenic mother hates him, even though he's the only one who takes care of her, his drug-addicted brother gets all the love from their mother, his father—who treated him like shit anyway—turned out not to be his real father, and his biological father turned out to be a serial killer who's executed in another state. He gets persecuted by the FBI, ends up in a mental hospital, gets fired, not to mention that his health and good looks go to shit, too. This is only a partial list of all the shit that goes down. If anyone can be accused of provoking the wrath of the writer-deities, this character would be definitely be it. The unrelenting, unceasing suffering that occurs was enough to make many fans stop watching the show, out of sheer disgust. If anyone earned a happy ending they never got, it's Goren. [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]], already.
* ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' often falls into this. Granted, a [[Cop Show]] about victims of rape and other sex crimes isn't exactly going to be all smiles, sunshine and cartoon bluebirds, and there's going to be fair bit of angst at times, but they really do tend to lay it on a bit thick. Often occurs whenever one of the characters gets into an [[It's Personal]] moment, which is roughly every episode.
* Anyone in ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* Daniel Jackson in ''[[Stargate (film)|Stargate]]'' and ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''. Loses both his parents in an accident, has his scientific discoveries rejected and mocked... then, just as he finds that his theories aren't crazy after all and everyone thinks he's going to live [[Happily Ever After]] on another planet with his new wife, she is promptly taken away by the [[Big Bad]] and implanted with a Goa'uld symbiote. After he spends three years fighting the Goa'uld, with the hope of seeing her again being his only motivation, he's forced to see her [[Shoot the Dog|killed]] by Teal'c, one of his best friends. He recovers, only to have ''another'' love interest taken away by another Goa'uld. Not even death stops the chain of unfortunate events: after [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|ascending]], he's quickly frustrated with his inability to intervene, and finally kicked from the ascended plane after trying to stop another [[Big Bad]] from [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|dropping a planet's worth of bridges]] on Abydos... and ''failing''. The most amazing thing is how he eventually gets over all this...
** All the main characters of SG-1 have tormented pasts and presents, perhaps not contrived when you take into account how often they tempt fate and win.
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== Professional Wrestling ==
* A bizarre mix of real life and storyline trauma afflicted [[Jeff Hardy]] during the end of his latest run in the [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]]. First, his beloved older brother Matt's appendix bursts and he nearly dies from an infection. Then for several months he can't quite manage to get over the hump and win the WWE title, though he's coming closer than he ever has. Then he fails a Wellness test and gets suspended for two months, including [[Wrestlemania]], at which he had been rumored to win a high-profile match. While he's suspended, his house and everything he owns burns to the ground, and his cherished dog is killed in the fire as well. Then once he returns, he's set upon by a malevolent GM and still can't quite make it to winning the title. Finally, finally he wins it, but his brief run is marred by a mysterious person making repeated attempts on his life. His title run ends when his own brother turns on him in favor of Edge, who at the time was the mortal enemy of both. Matt then reveals that not only did he do that, he was the one repeatedly trying to kill Jeff, he was the one who burned his house to the ground, and he was the one who killed Jeff's dog, and he then goes on to soundly trounce Jeff in all but the very last match of their feud. After all this, he wins the title again but loses it within a few minutes to [[CM Punk]], who then goes on to rail at Jeff about his drug issues and keeps the title from him through many underhanded tactics. And when things are finally looking up for Jeff...he's made peace with his brother, he'd won the championship again, all was just starting to look up, bam, he loses it and his job thanks to CM Punk. The sad thing is, there's probably some more things that got missed in all of this. Can't blame the guy for wanting to go home and lick his wounds for a while now, can you?
** Of course, after he finally does go home, he's arrested for possession of obscene amounts of drugs.
*** And even THAT is rumored to be the result of a piss-poor attempt by the police at a sting operation, which, if true, will end up being entrapment and will mean he went through all this misery because of some overeager cops.
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* Oersted, one of the heroes from the SNES game ''[[Live a Live]]''. As his chapter starts, he wins the tournament which names him the greatest hero in the land, as well as the hand of the beautiful princess in marriage. As the two make wedding plans, a monstrous demon sent by the Demon King appears and kidnaps the princess. No matter, this happens in video games all the time. Oersted and his best friend Straybow the magician, as well as two older heroes who defeated the Demon King years earlier, set off on a quest to get her back. And then... {{spoiler|The group is barely able to reach the Demon King's palace before one of the heroes is killed. And then the palace collapses, and they are forced to leave Straybow behind. And then, when Oersted returns to the palace, he finds the Demon King there and slays him... oops, that was actually an illusion, and his would-be father-in-law is now dead. Oersted is arrested for murdering the King, and the other elder hero is tortured to death as an accessory, barely able to summon enough strength to help Oersted escape. Oersted flees the kingdom, every citizen in it who once cheered him now calling him a traitor and murderer, and makes a heroic solo effort to take the Demon King down. When he finally reaches the villain... it turns out it was his old friend Straybow all along. Oersted is forced to kill his best friend, and the princess appears. A bittersweet ending? Nope. The princess tells Oersted that she believed Oersted would save her, but it was ''Straybow'' who saved her,<ref>and after all that Oersted went through to try and save her, no less</ref> declares that she loves Straybow, not him, and commits suicide. Poor Oersted. Is it any surprise to find that the Demon King that the other heroes battled was Oersted himself, embracing the darkness?}}
* Acro (aka Ken Dingling) from ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' fits this trope to a T. {{spoiler|First, his parents abandoned him and his brother, forcing them to join the circus (lessened by the fact that the ringmaster is the nicest guy you'll meet. Acro dedicates himself to repaying his kindness). Some time later, the ringmaster's daughter Regina gave Bat a scarf covered in pepper, to get him back for all the times he teased ''her'' with it. He then proceeded to go "If I can put my head in the lion's mouth you have to take me to the movies!" The lion sneezed with his head inside, putting him in a coma. Acro tried to save him, but that just put him in a wheelchair. Shame she's so innocent and naive that she believes Bat is just a star in the sky, making Acro think she's making fun of the whole thing. He plans on murdering her, but after a series of events, he ends up accidentaly murdering the ringmaster, the man that has been his father figure all these years}}.
* ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' - Arguably an example the maincharacter(and again, arguably his/her entire party to an extent) suffers this in that over a ten year span you lose your father, your home, [[
** One companion, Fenris, practically embodies this. An elven slave in the evil Tevinter Imperium, he was forced to endure having lyrium tattooed into his skin in a ritual that stripped him of all his memories. The tattoos cause him great pain at all times, and he can't bear to be touched because of them. His masters were extremely physically (and, it's hinted, sexually) abusive, and continue to hunt for him to kill him and retrieve the valuable quantity of lyrium in his skin. Then, {{spoiler|he learns he had a sister who is still alive. After spending three years trying to contact her, and bringing her by ship all the way to Kirkwall, she betrays him by bringing his former master along with her to sell him out in exchange for a higher status in the Imperium. If you stop him from killing her on the spot, she tells him that he ''wanted'' the tattoos, and competed for them, before leaving (presumably forever).}} The universe just does not want this guy to be happy, and only the guiding hand of character development gives him the fanbase he has.
* Cloud Strife of ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''. {{spoiler|Failed to become a SOLDIER, instead ending up as a grunt. His great hero Sephiroth flipped out, burned his home town to the ground, apparently killing his parents. He received grievous wounds from Sephiroth, was then experimented on by Hojo and given mako poisoning. His best friend Zack then died defending Cloud, and Cloud's mako poisoning caused him to seriously alter his memories.}} That's all before the first game even begins.
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* Similarly to the ''[[Better Days]]'' example above, this was one of the major failings of ''[[The Broken Mirror]]'', together with no real character development from this "character development".
* Parodied in ''[[Trigger Star]]'' with the protagonist, Avocado, who initially sets out to avenge [[It's Not Porn, It's Art|his torched stack of porn magazines.]]
* The [[Ciem Webcomic Series]] began as one very long string of this, with the goal being a [[Break the Cutie]] moment [[Took a Level
* John of ''[[The Word Weary]]'' often uses his angst as an excuse not to move forward with his life or pursue women- unless he's drunk. Poor Trotmann on the other hand is straighter version of the trope.
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* [[Punny Name|Subplott's]] backstory in ''[[Life in A Game]]'': He finds out he's a prince, but then an evil wizard brainwashes his father, the king, killed his uncle, kidnapped his sister, Zelda, and banished him, then, to top it off, erased Subplott's [[Pokémon|Pokédex]].
* Plenty of main characters in the [[Whateley Universe]] have horrific backstories, but the ongoing Merry stories never seem to stop piling it on. When Merry isn't being captured and tortured by government agencies, she's getting multiple personality disorder, only one of the personalities is the evil AI she defeated, which has found a home for itself. ''In her head.'' She's been injured, killed, gone to Hell repeatedly, you name it.
* ''[[Limyaael's Fantasy Rants]]'', in "Rant on abuse of abused characters" [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/200469.html]/[http://limyaael.insanejournal.com/187189.html] and "Ten ways of managing angst" [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/534773.html]/[http://limyaael.insanejournal.com/456083.html]
{{quote|In fiction, you do have to show that these events make sense and have a reason for being there—and you have to make them interesting, too. It’s too easy to turn to nonfiction if we want to read a chronicle of endless suffering. So, when the character’s already been sexually abused, seen her little brother die in a fire, been singled out as “different” and beaten up because she’s telepathic, told she could destroy the world with a stray thought, had her first love betray her, been physically abused by her next caretaker, and cast out from her new village, reconsider having her puppy get stabbed to death. '''Please'''.}}
== Western Animation ==
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[[Category:Bad Writing Index]]
[[Category:Sadness Tropes]]
[[Category:Deus Angst Machina]]▼
[[Category:Finagle's Law]]
[[Category:Sturgeon's Tropes]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
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