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An important thing to remember is that too much of these shows will cause the viewer to mutate into people who act like the cast. So occasionally watch ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'' or ''[[Mr. Bean]]'' or ''[[Doctor Who]]'' or something. Or do it at the same time and gain [[Stock Super Powers|superpowers]] involving the manipulation of angst into [[Power Glows|glowy balls of energy]]. TV Tropes is not responsible for property damage, casualties, or the men in the white suits coming to take you away.
 
This trope often goes hand in hand with [[There Are No Therapists]] and dramatic [[Crapsack World|Crapsack Worlds]]s. [[Big Screwed-Up Family]] can be a justification for this trope. [[Royally Screwed-Up|Royal families are particularly prone to this]], as are [[Defective Detective|cops and detectives]]. The [['''Dysfunction Junction]]''' is the natural habitat of the [[Jerkass Woobie]].
{{examples}}
 
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* ''[[Fruits Basket]]''. In most cases if the parents of a Sohma member are mentioned, at least one rejected their child as a monster. All of the characters have at least one other tragic aspect: Yuki was abused as a child, Kyo was looked down upon as a monster even by the ''other'' Zodiac members and blamed by his father for his mother's suicide, Hatori lost part of his sight and erased the memories of the woman he loved, Shigure was involved in a twisted love triangle, etc, etc... This includes Tohru and her friends.
** Although at one point it was actually ''subverted''. A flashback to Kimi being teased in middle school has [http://www.onemanga.com/Fruits_Basket/112/10/ girls asking why she doesn't just hang out with the guys and get by on her looks]; her response is, "[[Insult Backfire|So you think so too?!]]" with giant shiny eyes and a "Big ego boost" [[Unsound Effect]].
* ''Kodomo no Jikan'': Rin, Kuro, and Mimi all have ''really'' serious issues (especially for 9-year old girls) and could definitely use some [[There Are No Therapists|counseling]]. Later in the series it becomes clear that they aren't alone. Rin's caretaker Reiji's a mess for a long time ago (he doesn't seem to understand why Aoki is so [[Squick|squickedsquick]]ed by his [[Wife Husbandry]] plan), Shirai-sensei has mother issues and is emotionally stunted, and even Kyoko has issues (there's a reason she always wears the same sweatshirt and sweatpants ensemble to school everyday). Aoki is pretty much the only major character without any serious angst in his past. What the main storyline puts him through makes up for it.
* ''[[Ranma ½]]''. It's a lighthearted slapstick-action romantic comedy, so very few of the characters are genuinely malicious, but [[Alternative Character Interpretation]] tends to [[Comedic Sociopathy|take it in this direction]]. Even Ukyo Kuonji, sometimes considered the most normal in a cast of loonies, has no mother and abandoned her father to be a transvestite for most of her life because some other little girls taunted that she would never find a husband after [[Arranged Marriage|her so-called fiance]] ran off with her dowry. The fandom, of course, makes it [[Cerebus Syndrome]] or [[What Is Evil?]].
* Forget Oyashiro-sama and curses {{spoiler|and government conspiracies and [[Hate Plague|parasites]]}}. The abuse, betrayal and manipulation that the cast of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' has gone through in their [[Backstory]] would make ''anyone'' go insane.
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* ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei]]'': How about a harem made entirely of characters whose main trait is a specific dysfunction. Brilliantly [[Played for Laughs]].
* Just about every [[Hentai]] ever, especially of the [[Dating Sim]] variety, where the female characters are all suffering from various traumas that can only be cured (or are inflicted) [[Intimate Healing|BY SEX!]]
* The majority of the main characters from ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' fill this trope: two characters were orphaned at an early age (Makoto even lives alone as a minor), two have dead mothers, one is the child of divorce, and three never have their parents mentioned at all. Only three of the main characters have whole nuclear families (incidentally, these are the happier, more-or-less well-adjusted characters) and even then, both ChibiUsa and Minako have some intense issues with their parents--ChibiUsaparents—ChibiUsa feels completely inferior to her messianic mother, and Minako is constantly hounded by her shrill one. Usagi's really the only one without any deep-seated problems regarding her folks.
** With two exceptions, the Senshi all have lonely lives at school before they team up, as well.
* Pretty much everyone shown in ''[[Webcomic/Deadman Wonderland|Deadman Wonderland]]'', but considering DW is a maximum security prison / themepark / {{spoiler|[[Sealed Evil in a Can|secret mutant containment center]]}} it's hardly surprising.
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* The latest group of antagonists in ''[[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple|History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi]]'', YOMI (the disciples of YAMI), are all pretty messed up teenagers. Among them are a guy who was bought from a child slavery ring and put through [[Training From Hell]] that rivals Kenichi's, a prince who was [[Lonely At the Top]] his whole life and developed into a royal [[Smug Snake]] Jerkass as a result, a military nut obsessed with following orders to the point of suicide (possibly a [[Child Soldier]] as well), and {{spoiler|Odin, whose sole motivation for becoming a vicious fighter was losing a childhood squabble with Kenichi over a badge}}. This is all ''before'' YAMI molded them into killing machines. Half the reason Kenichi is able to eventually triumph against all of them is because unlike them, [[Sanity Has Advantages|Kenichi is not ''batshit insane'']]. Due to their issues, the YOMI members tend to have a [[Villainous Breakdown]] ''in the middle of the fight'' when confronted with Kenichi's conviction and/or his unexpected strength, allowing Kenichi to beat the crap out of his otherwise superior opponents.
* Most of the characters in ''[[Naruto]]'' that get any screen time usually have suffered through the death of a loved one or some kind of abuse, including Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, Gaara, Iruka, Kakashi, Sai, Hinata, Neji... you get the point.
* ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' isn't ''quite'' as bad as some of the other examples, but that may be in part because the original manga is [[Sliding Scale Long Name|fairly idealistic]]. Chrono was found by Rosette and Joshua Christopher sleeping in a tomb--whichtomb—which is later revealed to have been the final resting place of {{spoiler|Mary Magdalene}}, a woman he was in love with, that he accidentally killed during a fight with Aion. Rosette and Joshua's parents are dead, and when Joshua gets Chrono's horns from Aion and puts them on his head [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|he goes insane]]. Most of the people Azmaria has ever cared about have been killed or have abandoned her because of her powers. Satella's family was killed in front of her by a demon without horns, and she has spent her entire life searching for him so she can enact her revenge. Fiore is an [[Emotionless Girl]] that is later revealed to be {{spoiler|[[Luke, I Am Your Father|Satella's dead sister]], turned into a "mindless doll" by Aion to further his goals}}. Remington in the anime is {{spoiler|some sort of fallen angel}} and in the manga {{spoiler|was turned into a half-demon half-human thing by the Elder at his own request. Oh, and he may have been in love with Mary Magdalene too}}. In the manga, the ''bad guys'' don't even get away without tragic backstories--thebackstories—the Sinners are basically a [[Breakfast Club]].
* Just about every character in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' has either a tragic, despressing backstory or present.
* Subverted and played straight in [[One Piece]]. Subverted in that every member of the Straw Hat Pirates has a depressing backstory, but [[Angst? What Angst?|very rarely]] does it ever seem to get them down. Other characters, on the other hand, play it straight. Montblanc Cricket was bullied and derided for most of his childhood because of something his ''ancestor'' did (ironically, his ancestor was telling the truth and no one believed him). [[Hot Amazon|Boa Hancock]] and her sisters were sold as slaves to [[Aristocrats Are Evil|the Celestial Dragons]] when they were young, who did such terrible acts to them that they can't even speak about it without breaking down into tears. And surprisingly, {{spoiler|Arlong and his followers}} presumably went through some hard times, as {{spoiler|mermen and fishmen were always treated horribly by humans}}.
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* ''[[White Album]]''. Touji is a slacker and seemingly can't take any kind of initiative, Yuki is an [[Extreme Doormat]], Yaoyi is... well, not particularly functional, Haruka seems to be something of a [[Wild Child]], Misaki is pretty much incapable of functioning, Mana is neglected by her parents, Eiji is... Well, just crazy. All in all not the most mentally stable of casts.
* While not nearly as angsty or drama-milking as other series, there's barely a character in ''[[Baccano!]]!'' that isn't maladjusted, severely traumatized, or (most commonly) [[Cloudcuckoolander|just]] [[Talkative Loon|plain]] [[Ax Crazy|nuts]]. You know your cast belongs on the wrong side of the crazy train when even the [[Only Sane Man]] is an orphaned, Mafia-raised teenager with the [[Ghost Memory]] of a centuries-old [[Mad Scientist]].
* ''[[Durarara!!]]'' -- you—you know you've got a messed up cast when ''every leg of your [[Love Triangle]]'' is a [[Yandere (disambiguation)]] [[Stalker with a Crush|stalker]].
** ...and that even if you include two of them in the "weird, but ok" group, you can still count how many characters are in it with one hand.
** Technically, it's a love ''square''. What makes it a square, you ask? ''[[A Love to Dismember|A freaking head]]''. [[Cute and Psycho|The]] [[Ambition Is Evil|rest]] [[Stepford Smiler|of]] [[Abusive Parents|the]] [[Beware the Nice Ones|cast]] [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing|isn't]] [[Lack of Empathy|really]] [[Yakuza|that]] [[Tin Man|much]] [[Dark and Troubled Past|better]], [[A God Am I|either]]. [[There Are No Therapists|And they're]] [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|only]] [[Awakening the Sleeping Giant|getting]] [[Serial Escalation|WORSE]].
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* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing]]'' is full of them. Heero is orphaned very young. He's used as an assassin and trained as a [[Child Soldiers|child soldier]]. Duo [[Street Urchin|live on the streets]] with other kids and steal to stay alive. He ends up in a orphanage and all his friends are adopted except for him. OZ and the Alliance then massacre everyone leaving him the sole survivor. Trowa is trained as a [[Child Soldiers|mercenary]] with no memory of his lost family. Quatre has a low esteem of himself and thinks his father doesn't love him because he was born as a test tube baby (in reality he was conceived naturally and doesn't know it). Wufei lost [[Arranged Marriage|his wife]] during an OZ attack on his colony. Zechs lost his parents during an Alliance invasion and had his pacifist homeland conquered.
* In ''[[Sakura Gari]]'' between Souma's childhood, {{spoiler|being raped and tortured DAILY, silently and lonely while everyone pretends it doesn't happen}}, Matasaka's childhood {{spoiler|and rape and torture at the hands of Katsuragi}}, the ''entire'' situation with {{spoiler|Youya, and Souma's stepmother}}, [[Complete Monster|Katsuragi]] and [[Yandere (disambiguation)|Sakurako]] and you have [[Up to Eleven]] extremes that just keep on climbing.
* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'' -- unsurprisingly—unsurprisingly, since it was created by [[Gen Urobuchi]].
** Madoka is a shy little girl who has no self-worth and feels useless, {{spoiler|which enables her to delete herself from existence to save the world}}.
** Sayaka is a stubborn loudmouth with [[Knight Templar|an unwavering devotion to justice]] {{spoiler|that leads to her eventual transformation into a witch, as she refuses to replenish her Soul Gem because she thinks it's unheroic. She ends up broken and alone after watching her best friend fall for her crush and having her life destroyed by her wish.}}
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== Comic Books ==
* With few exceptions, almost all of the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' have tragic pasts, poor childhoods, dead parents or all three. This is compounded by the series' use of [[Expansion Pack Past]], which tends to add on progressively more tragedies in the character's personal history the longer the series goes on, continually "revealed" to the audience whenever a character is focused on. To be fair, some of this is [[Retool|retoolingretool]]ing to more clearly explain the animosity of mutants rejected by society.
* ''[[Watchmen (comics)|Watchmen]]'' comes close, the only of the superheroes in it that are remotely well-adjusted are the two Nite Owls. (And sometimes not even then!)
** This is part of what Moore wanted to portray, in that a person who chooses to become a masked hero and beat people up at night wouldn't exactly be right in the head.
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*** The animated Ultimate Avengers really didn't care for him, and flat out took him out, because, [[Redemption Equals Death|say it with me now...]]
** This explicitly seems to be the premise of [[Avengers Academy]]. The student body consists of six teenagers who were forcibly and torturously given powers by [[Dark Reign|Norman Osborn]]. They include a guy who's stuck in a metal body, a radioactive girl who gave her parents cancer and a girl who's slowly dissipating. They're all revealed to be "damaged goods" who are most likely to turn into villains and are given training to preempt that. Accordingly, their instructors are some of the most troubled members of the Avengers, who are supposed to benefit the kids with their experience of dealing with their problems.
* Three words: [[Batman|The Bat Family.]] It consists of a guy whose parents were shot dead in front of him when he was eight, a guy whose parents were killed in front of him when someone sabotaged their trapeze act, a girl who ''used'' to be a gymnastic crime fighter until she was shot and paralyzed (possably even raped) by someone after her dad, another guy whose parents are dead (including step parents and fake ones), a girl who was raised in [[The Spartan Way]] to be the world's greatest assassin and wasn't even taught how to read or talk, and a girl whose parents were shot dead in front of her when she was eight. Hell, we might as well just say Gotham ''is'' [[Dysfunction Junction]]. Just ''living there'' practically counts as an angsty past.
** And the Spoiler!
*** To explain for non-Stephanie Brown fans... her father was Cluemaster, a third-string Batman villain who was basically a Riddler rip-off. So when she was growing up, her house was constantly filled with criminals (including, briefly, the Riddler), her dad was in and out of jail, and her mom was addicted to prescription drugs. When she was a young teenager, she got pregnant and ultimately decided to give up her baby for adoption, never ever seeing it. Her father also repeatedly used her in his various plots, once getting her kidnapped and put in very real danger of death as part of an elaborate trap for Batman. For years she struggled with her feelings for her father, trying to figure out if he ever really loved her. And then he died. And she also got the chance to become Robin, but screwed that up, got fired, and promptly went out and accidentally started a massive gang war that killed hundreds of people and ended with her almost dying at the hands of the Black Mask. She eventually was able to come back from the dead and since has begun a relatively well-adjusted life as a college freshman while her mother (now off drugs) works a steady job at a hospital. But on the road to this, she also broke up with her long-term boyfriend (Robin), who later told her she should never do crimefighting again, and had to go through the death of the only strong male figure she ever had in her life (Batman). Then she becomes Batgirl and barely gets respect by not only Damian (duh), but also Babs and Dick. The poor girl just never gets a break! Amazingly she barely [[Plucky Girl|wangsts]] about any of this.
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** His parents were fine, upstanding people who did not balk at showing their love. Sadly the same did not hold for his maternal grandmother, who in her attempts to control Jesse's upbringing {{spoiler|kept him and his parents hostage from an early age on, and had his father murdered for attempted escape. His mother was later to suffer the same fate, for attempting to intervene when Jesse was to be punished by being left to stew in his own feces and urine, with no nutrition, in a submerged coffin, for a week.}} [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|For using a swearword]] in anger against her personal henchmen, who had recently murdered his puppy. [[It Got Worse]].
* The [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]. It's arguably more of a support group for superpowered teens than an actual team of superheroes. Considering how many of them have died and/or gone insane, it doesn't do a very good job.
* While ''[[Astro City]]'' typically avoids this trope (due to its [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|idealistic nature]]), it is played straight with the Williams brothers during the aptly-named "[[Dark Age]]" story arc. After seeing their parents gunned down during a super-hero fight, Royal becomes a [[Jade-Colored Glasses|jaded]] [[Sticky Fingers|petty thief]], while Charles becomes a [[By-The-Book Cop]] who gets shot [[In the Back]] by [[Dirty Cop|Dirty Cops]]s; the two eventually become vigilantes in a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] against [[You Killed My Father|their parents' killer.]] {{spoiler|They abandon their quest after realizing [[He Who Fights Monsters|what they've become,]] and retire to run a chartered fishing business instead.}}
* ''[[X-Force|X-Statix]]'' had this essentially as its core premise -- thispremise—this was a team of ''celebrities'', not heroes, and as such, extreme<ref> read "clusterfuck"</ref> personalities clashing is to be expected. But to go into detail: the Orphan has an adversarial relationship with the Anarchist, who in turn is bitter rivals with the Spike. Phat and Vivisector don't get along with anyone except occasionally each other. El Guapo disrupts the team when it starts to gel, the Mysterious Fan Boy's naivite grates on everyone but forces them to at least ''pretend'' to like each other, Venus Dee Milo draws flak from fans and the media, which lessens her stock among the team members themselves, and Dead Girl is just... weird. U-Go Girl is probably the only one who functions semi-normally within the group.
* Can somebody say {{spoiler|"Todd Casil"}} also known as [[Johnny the Homicidal Maniac|Squee?]] His parents explicitly state on several occasions "I wish you'd never been born," his neighbor is a homicidal psychopath, and he has a 1-sided friendship with {{spoiler|the son of Satan!}}
* [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]] were actually a groundbreaking feat in superhero comics because of this trope. Before their creation, it was unthinkable for a superhero team to have such blatantly dysfunctional interpersonal dynamics and depressing personal issues. Not including all the crap that they go through after they get superpowers, from the very beginning the group includes a guy whose entire normal life was ruined by getting turned into a giant, hideous rock monster who can't hide his identity. And as for screwed-up backstories, they have the guy whose [[Evil Former Friend|former]] [[Doctor Doom|friend]] [[Arch Enemy|hates him with such a]] [[The Power of Hate|blinding passion]] that every single thing said friend has done in his career as an [[Super Villain|evil]], [[Take Over the World|world-dominating]] [[Magnificent Bastard]] can be traced back to his [[Foe Yay|obsessive]] desire for [[Best Served Cold|revenge.]]
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** The worst of the lot is the little OC Nobody, Senayax. {{spoiler|She was forced to eat her own grandfather to survive, she has a horrific demon living inside of her that expresses delight in the thought of raping her, she was impregnated by her lover under orders from her father, she almost died as a result, and committed suicide after Zexion performed a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save her.}}
** To sum it up? Everyone in this fic is insane.
* [[Fallout Equestria Project Horizons (Fanfic)|Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons]] takes this trope and runs with it. [[The Hero|Blackjack]] is a none-too-smart bundle of self-loathing and guilt held together by chems, alcohol and [[Chronic Hero Syndrome]]. She's also {{spoiler|guilty of rape and murder before the story even begins}}. P-21 has deep emotional scars and constantly stuggles with cognitive dissonance, particularly {{spoiler|a repressed desire to kill Blackjack for raping him and killing his lover}}. Rampage is a nigh-invulnerable {{spoiler|child-murdering}} psychopath with a split personality, who actually ''wants'' to be good and/or find a way to die. Lacunae is {{spoiler|a live dumping ground for an entire [[Hive Mind]]'s collective angst}}, prone to being the subject of [[Villain Override|Villain Overrides]]s. Scotch Tape is a relatively sheltered [[Tagalong Kid]] who attracts psychological trauma like a magnet. The only (relatively) stable member of the main cast is Morning Glory, who quickly develops several problems of her own {{spoiler|such as being betrayed and [[The Exile|exiled from the Pegasi Enclave]], [[Mark of Shame|branded]], and later [[Broken Angel|losing a wing]]}}.
* [[Brave New World (fanfic)|Brave New World]], a [[Pokémon]] fanfic and sequel to ''[[Latias' Journey]]'' has a cast chockablock with this trope. [[The Hero|Ash Ketchum]] has a human soul inserted into the body of a Lucario and he has fleeting memories from his life as a human, haunted by memories of {{spoiler|previously destroying the world after watching his loved ones get killed}}; Pikachu is a samurai who knows he may one die in battle; the baby Larvitar, Tiny, had a traumatising birth and refuses to open up to anybody; Lily was born with the purpose to be a sacrifice to Giratina and has been abused all her life by her mother; Dawn was betrayed by her best friend, cannot speak because her vocal cords were removed at birth, and her entire ninja clan was exterminated; and Briney lost his wife to the villains, wearing her eye in place of his missing one. The only major heroes who escape the trope are Leo and Sasha, although they have their own troubles.
** The fanfic's version of Misty maintains her phobia of bugs, but it was caused after she was brainwashed into becoming part of a [[Hive Mind]] and believing she was an insect, until she was saved by Ash and Pikachu, suffering from a traumatic recovery.
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== Literature ==
* The ''[[Gemma Doyle]]'' trilogy: Just focusing on the four main girls, there are several cases of [[Parental Abandonment]] (both from death and otherwise), {{spoiler|[[Parental Incest]]}}, {{spoiler|self-harm}}, and in one case -- differentcase—different from the previous! -- {{spoiler|[[Driven to Suicide|suicide]]}}. For starters.
* Lampshaded in Peter Watts's [[Rifters Trilogy]], particularely the first book, ''Starfish'': several of the main characters got their jobs as "rifters" - deep-ocean explorers and colonists - ''by being'' too dysfunctional to fit in anywhere else; the theory is that those conditioned by their upbringing to accept undue stress as a normal living condition are actually more able to cope in extraordinary environments. This backfires more or less exactly the way you'd expect it to. Well, except that it's a Peter Watts book, so it backfires more or less exactly the way you'd expect it to ''except more so''.
** Ironically, the protagonist turns out to be so messed up not so much because her father abused her as because {{spoiler|her employers surgically tampered with her brain to make her ''think'' her father abused her before sending her down there. Her parents turn out to have been fine and upstanding people. Which, in a Peter Watts book, makes them pretty much unique.}}
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*** Firestar did the same thing: Leafpool was named after Spottedleaf.
**** Of course, this isn't because Leafpool looks like Spottedleaf. In fact, she looks like ''[[Brother-Sister Incest|Firestar's sister]]''.
* Dysfunction is the rule rather than the exception in ''[[Harry Potter]]''. It's most noticeable with the Blacks, the Gaunts, and {{spoiler|the Dumbledores}}, but pretty much every significant character has some family trauma in their backstory -- andbackstory—and if they don't have it by the beginning of [[Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows|Book Seven]], they [[Anyone Can Die|sure will by the end of it]].
** Hell, even the characters with normal families where no one dies will have trauma. For example, if she did it without their consent, what is Hermione going to tell her folks when she restores their memories?
* The [[X Wing Series|Wraiths]] are an X-Wing squadron composed initially of nothing but the [[Colonel Badass|Commander]], his [[Wing Man|old wingmate]], and people on their [[Last Second Chance]], in the belief that [[Career-Building Blunder|they will work hard to prove their worth]]. The [[Aaron Allston|author]] is a big believer in using a [[Cast of Snowflakes]]. ''Everyone'' has something wrong with them. Otherwise they wouldn't be a Wraith. The commander does notice that they're actually good for each other, able to help one another get past their pasts and presents rather than making things worse. Still, the reputation sticks. When a new pilot is transferred in who was assigned because of their track record and not because of big screwups, a pilot jokingly says that he's too normal for the Wraiths. The new pilot then proves to be a [[Large Ham]].
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* If a character in ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' doesn't have a [[Dark and Troubled Past]], chances are they'll have something traumatic happen to them in the main story, with Count Olaf being the cause of most of it. Most of the adults have a [[Dark and Troubled Past]] due to their involvement from an early age with V.F.D. And the main characters lose their parents in the first book in a fire that burned down their house, spend almost every book being pursued by Count Olaf, a greedy psychopath who is after their fortune, lose countless guardians and friends thanks to Olaf's interventions, face kidnapping, one is almost decapitated by her sibling and if not for her quick thinking is almost made to marry above greedy psychopath (who blackmails her with the life of her sister), they are unjustly accused of murder and forced to commit arson to maintain a disguise, get thrown down an elevator shaft by their "guardian", are forced to do chores for a town that's acting as their guardians, thrown into prison, and are nearly murdered by said town by being burned at the stake, accidentally kill a man, nearly ''die'' in the last book from being infected with the spores of poisonous mushrooms while stranded on an island... One almost wishes they died in the fire with their parents so they wouldn't be put through all this... because life totally sucks in their world.
* ''[[The Glass Menagerie]]'': There are really only four characters in the play but three of them, namely Amanda Wingfield and her two children Tom and Laura all have significant problems which seemed to be set into motion ever since the father left and their relationship with each other became strained.
* The [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] were generally like this. The Doctor was constantly [[The Woobie]], with enough issues to be his own personal walking [[Dysfunction Junction]] by the end of the series. He lost a {{spoiler|[[Temporary Love Interest|wife]] and [[Dead Little Sister|daughter]] in two entirely separate incidents, not to mention his [[Trauma-Induced Amnesia|memory]] and [[Bizarre Alien Biology|one]] [[Organ Theft|of his]] [[Heart Trauma|hearts]]}}. Fitz, one of his companions, seemed at times to be competing with him to be the most woobie. He grew up [[But Not Too Foreign|half-German]] during [[World War II]] and subsequently in foster homes, because his dad was dead and his mum was crazy. Then he met the Doctor, who [[Shoot the Dog|killed his mum]] (and before that, he'd seemed to be a rather endearing and justified-by-her-neediness variant on the [[Momma's Boy]]). {{spoiler|[[Cloning Blues]]}} and [[Cartwright Curse]] ensued. This overload of issues may explain why he never got a chance to [[Gayngst|worry much about his crush on the Doctor]]. After the seemingly wholesome and cheerful [[Soapbox Sadie]] discovered she had issues too and left, they were joined by a copy of a copy of a copy etc. of a [[Deadpan Snarker]], who started out a [[Broken Bird]] and just got worse, really, no thanks to the Doctor. And then there was Anji, who seemed just peachy until {{spoiler|her boyfriend of four years died}}. And then there was the fact that her whole childhood, the other kids picked on her for being Indian. Oddly, Fitz and Anji never seemed to commiserate about that similarity. And Trix pulled a bit of a [[Multiple Choice Past]] and was never quite clear about it, and Anji suspected that her [[Broken Bird]] act was just a trick to get Fitz to like her, but she also had [[Sticky Fingers]], and it was implied she'd been a sex worker at some point...
** Their predecessors, [[Virgin New Adventures|Virgin's New Adventures]], weren't much better. Over the course of the books, Seventh did quite a few morally questionable things, which would leave him wondering just how close he was to going over to [[The Dark Side]]. While he wasn't quite the woobie Eighth was, thanks to aforementioned morally dubious schemes, he got put through the proverbial grinder quite a few times in the course of events. Ace's parental issues had been established in the TV series, but in the books, the Doctor arranged the death of her current boyfriend, causing her to leave the TARDIS for several books and come back a [[Darker and Edgier|hardbitten mercenary]] who took a long time to reconcile with the Doctor. Bernice could probably rival Fitz in terms of just how many issues she had, mainly relating to her childhood involving an interstellar war, a dead mother and a [[Disappeared Dad]]. Roz was seriously unlucky in love; she killed her first partner - a man she loved deeply - when she found out he was corrupt, then [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|got it wiped from her memory]] by the [[Big Bad]]. Another of her love interests turned out to be a murderer; Roz being a by-the-book cop, this did not sit well with her. About the only one who was left untouched was Chris... up until Roz died, anyway.
* Hoo boy, ''Ironman''. (no, not [[Iron Man|that]] one.) The main character is an antisocial sports nut who suffers an inferiority complex due to his father's borderline draconian discipline policies. And his anger management group? One's a nihilistic [[Jerkass]], one's a confrontational punk with a [[Hair-Trigger Temper]], and the last one is a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] who is literally completely incapable of rational thought and can only spout inane gibberish {{spoiler|due to having suffered years of ''horrific'' torture from his psychopathic father.}}
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* ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'' often has tragic, melodramatic, hard to believe tragedies happen to most of the cast. In a relatively upper-middle class school- in [[Canada, Eh?|Canada]], no less, two students are dead via violence in unrelated incidents, one is crippled, another raped, beaten in a hate crime, had their father die, sent to prison for killing someone in a drag race, contracted HIV, become addicted to cocaine, etc. - all within the same five years.
** All Degrassi shows suffer from this, to various extents.
* The Sallinger family on ''[[Party of Five]]''. It really is a wonder that none of them picked up on being [[Cosmic Plaything|Cosmic Playthings]]s to a [[Finagle's Law]] obsessed writer.
* ''[[Lost]]''. The majority of characters have issues with their fathers, stepfathers, fathers-in-law, or other father figures (the exceptions being Shannon and Ana Lucia, who hate their stepmother and mother, respectively). Not to mention various other dysfunctionalities. It's saying something when the ''former Iraqi torturer'' is the most level-headed person on the island. One of the earliest episodes is even titled "All the Best Cowboys have Daddy Issues."
** Turns out to be an [[Invoked Trope]] as {{spoiler|Jacob was looking for people who were missing something in their lives to succeed him in protecting the island.}}
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* ''[[Persona 3]]'' - Every major character in the game you can interact and build social links with has ''some'' kind of mental or physical disorder, tragic past, neglectful or dead parent or similar that they angst over. And the one to reach to them with [[The Power of Friendship]] or [[The Power of Love]] and make them get over it? [[There Are No Therapists|It sure isn't the town psychologist]].
* Most, if not all, of the major characters of the computer RPG ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' possess some manner of dysfunction, tragic past, or similar torment. The player character, The Nameless One, is an amnesiac immortal with [[Identity Amnesia|a large number of dark pasts]], and his party members range from an orphaned part-demon to an insane fire wizard who was turned into a living conduit to the elemental plane of fire. Most of the major NPCs are similarly tormented - many of them, it turns out, as a result of interactions with The Nameless One at some point. This turns out to be a major plot point - {{spoiler|one of the 'powers' possessed by The Nameless One as a result of his immortality is an unconscious dominion over torment, symbolized by a tattoo on his shoulder. Whether he likes it or no, his power draws troubled and dysfunctional souls to him like moths to a flame and binds their destinies to his}}. Furthermore, in several cases (notably {{spoiler|Ignus, Vhailor, Dak'kon, Morte and ''especially'' Deionarra}}) the Nameless One is the direct and intentional ''cause'' of this horrid past, in one of his [[Complete Monster]] or [[Chessmaster]] incarnations.
* In ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'', the character personalities are pretty one-dimensional sketches, and tend to range from quirky to the point of being weird to outright insane. In ''[[Baldur's Gate]] II'', where the characters are better developed, not every one has a tragic past... but a good portion of them do, and all four possible [[Love Interest|Love Interests]]s most certainly do. {{spoiler|One is a recent widow, another was raised in an [[Exclusively Evil]] society and then is subject to prejudice when she leaves it, a third was subject to horrific abuse and abandonment, and the fourth has daddy issues up the wazoo}}. While not a romance option (he was originally supposed to be one, apparently), Valygar also has some [[What Happened to Mommy?|severe problems]].
* Every non-Valkyrie character in ''[[Valkyrie Profile]]'' has some sort of personal tragedy that ends in a convenient [[Karmic Death]]. Even the Valkyrie {{spoiler|was once a mortal girl who was raised by an abusive mother that was going to sell her into slavery. Her self-esteem was so low that she allowed herself to die in a field of poisonous flowers.}}
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'' also has universal tragic past syndrome. All of the characters a)are being hunted by the Empire (even before the story begins), b)are imprisoned or harassed by the Empire, c)are misused by the Empire, d)have lost a loved one to the Empire, or e)some combination of the above.
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** Let's start with the side characters, Furiae [[Brother-Sister Incest|has a huge thing for Caim]] which in turn {{spoiler|[[Driven to Suicide|caused her to kill herself once the secret was exposed]]}} by [[Creepy Child|Manah]] who was [[Abusive Parents|abused by her mother]] when her brother received all of the attention, was handed over to [[Religion of Evil]] and became the leader of it, and became [[Demonic Possession|possessed by the gods of the Drakengard world]] ! Also, Inuart gets [[Mind Raped]] by said [[Religion of Evil]] [[Go Mad From the Revelation]] that Furiae doesn't love him, gets into a pact, loses the only thing that he's good for, singing, and proceeds to kidnap said woman he's hopelessly in love with. Finally there's Verdelet, the resident [[Holier Than Thou]] priest who constantly complains about the state of the world, and later on develops into a [[Jerkass]] and even says that he can't be a good priest anymore after feeling angry about Inuart attacking him...
* Practically everybody in ''[[Psychonauts]]''. This is to be expected, as the game is about going into people's minds, but even characters whose minds you don't explore are usually pretty messed up, too. Even the ones who seem outright normal {{spoiler|like Milla}} have hidden traumas, usually found by exploring their memory vaults.
** My favorites are the preteen [[Stepford Smiler|Stepford Smilers]]s who are trying to {{spoiler|kill themselves so they can pull an Obi-Wan Kenobi and come back more powerful than you could ever imagine}}. And no, there is nothing in the game that implies this would actually work.
* Every main character in ''[[Persona 4]]'' (except the [[Heroic Mime|Protagonist]]) has some sort of secret fear, worry, or issue secretly eating them from the inside that eventually whisks them away to the shadow-possessed [[Trapped in TV Land|Mayonaka TV]], where the problem is able to freely manifest and eventually cause their death.
** In the manga, the Protagonist's parents' line of work causes him to move constantly. As a result he is afraid to get close to others, lest he becomes too attached to them and is hurt when he has to leave. This causes him to be a, secretly cynical, [[Stepford Smiler]] . {{spoiler|From the final scenes of the game it can be deduced that he gets over it because all the people he formed social links with, while living with his uncle, were actually reaching out to him without either side realizing it(in contrast to P3's protagonist). He left the town with a smile and no regrets. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|D'aww]]}}
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* Many, many of the players of ''The World'' in ''[[.hack|.hack//]]'' are very, very disturbed people. It doesn't help that the game ''uses this against them.''
** To be fair, most players are just fine. It's the screwed up ones that get the malevolent forces' attention.
* ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]''. Yuri despises most authority and in the game's second part alienates his best friend by {{spoiler|[[Vigilante Man|murdering]] two [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]]s}}, Estelle is naive and caring to a fault, and {{spoiler|is causing the world to die simply by ''existing''}}, Karol is extremely timid and cowardly to the point he's been discharged from multiple guilds, Judith is conflicted between her longheld desire to keep her life's mission a secret and her newfound loyalty to her new friends, Rita didn't have any friends before meeting the party, and in fact was treated like a freak and an outcast by the people of her town, and Raven {{spoiler|was brought [[Back From the Dead]] against his will by one of the major villains and forced to serve him, becoming a [[Death Seeker]] as a result}}. Whew.
** In the PS3 [[Updated Rerelease]], the party is joined by Flynn and Patty. The former struggles against becoming a [[Knight Templar]] and the latter {{spoiler|is an amnesiac pirate whose crew died in a horiffic manner.}}
* Basically the premise of [[Family Project]]. All the main characters are there precisely ''because'' they have messed up lives, families and are all generally on the edge of homelessness. The various issues vary drastically in seriousness and some also make things worse for everyone else. {{spoiler|Such as Chunhua's escape inciting a war between mafia groups and the house being burned down as a result in every route.}}
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* ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'', in part due to what [[The Fair Folk]] did to everyone before game began. At worst, the Spring Court are desperately throwing themselves into distraction to avoid coping with the pain, the Summer Court are endlessly angry and want to fight the immortal mad gods that made them, the Autumn Court throw themselves into the weird powers they picked up as a result of cosmic abuse, and the Winter Court would like it ''very much'' if you did nothing to draw ''their'' attention. And that's not counting whatever [[Les Collaborateurs|Loyalists or Privateers]] that may be lurking in secret...
* [[Bliss Stage]], what with all the adults but one having vanished, imminent alien attacks, and a bunch of teenagers way over their heads knowing that they are dead at 18.
* For [[Rule of Drama|some reason]], this trope is heavily involved in the formation of some -- ifsome—if not all -- [[Player Character]] groups in any tabletop game, ever. It's almost never "A bunch of folks good with {weapons/skills in use} that like to go treasure hunting and killing things for profit because they're good at it." The mage is power mad and/or [[Blessed with Suck]], the warrior/soldier is haunted by past battles or trying to reclaim honor, the priest only turned to religion after tremendous personal tragedy, etc. etc. etc.
** Moreover, [[Point Build System|point build systems]] pretty much encourage this to happen, as by picking flaws and misfortunes -- saymisfortunes—say, being an orphan -- theorphan—the player gets bonus points to spend on the character's stats.
* [[Warhammer 40000]]: For what its worth the dysfunction junction is just the beginning of how to describe the relationship between the emperor and his sons the primarchs. It can also be argued that the universe is this trope on a massive scale.
 
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** Isn't it nice when one of the most well balanced characters in the series is an 800+ year old vampire with less life experience than a teenager, no friends or family and who lives only to kill vampires? Of course, Arcueid ''does'' have the worst backstory she just [[Angst? What Angst?|doesn't let it get her down.]]
** Averted in a way in ''[[Fate/hollow ataraxia]]''. While all the horrible stuff that happened in ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' is still canon, people have just about entirely dealt with all of it.
* This is a given for ''[[CROSS†CHANNEL]]'', which takes place at a school for the emotionally disturbed. (Interestingly, a lot of the characters are twisted variants of recognizable archetypes--aarchetypes—a [[Tsundere]], an [[Emotionless Girl]], etc.)
* ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]'' deconstructs this trope with its setting where all people who are major characters and even most secondary characters have a disability of some kind. The deconstructive part? {{spoiler|They are all PEOPLE}}.
 
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** Terezi- [[Magnificent Bastard]] [[Amoral Attorney]] [[Blind Seer]] who [[Troll|loves to mess with people]] and [[The Hyena|laughs at almost everything]].
** Vriska- Thirteen-year-old [[Serial Killer]], thanks to her [[Abusive Parents|lusus]]'s [[Horror Hunger|refusal to eat anything but young trolls]]. [[Munchkin]], [[Jerkass]], [[Token Evil Teammate]], and {{spoiler|hiding some surprisingly tragic emotional insecurities}}.
** Equius- Has an unsettlingly large collection of creepy [[Fetish|fetishesfetish]]es and an obsession with the [[Fantastic Caste System]].
** Gamzee- [[The Stoner|Constantly stoned]], and [[Parental Neglect|his lusus was never there]]. {{spoiler|When he's ''not'' stoned, he's an [[Ax Crazy]] [[Monster Clown]]}}.
** Eridan- A genocidal, stuck-up douchebag who's [[Casanova Wannabe|always hitting on everyone in sight]].
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== Web Original ==
* The [[Binder of Shame]] by [http://albruno3.com/ Al Bruno III] details possibly embellished accounts of many play sessions with a bunch of socially inept, incredibly messed-up and/or horrible people. The cast, given [[Meaningful Name|Meaningful Names]]s to protect the author, includes:
** Ab3, the author and [[Only Sane Man]]... usually.
** Weasly Crusher, the [[Butt Monkey]] and [[Extreme Doormat]].
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** The four STRUQ sub-pilots have issues with the fact that individually they're useless, and when combined they have no real control.
** The Iberian commanders are [[Patriotic Fervor|dedicated to their countries]] that technically don't exist anymore, so they're obsessed with preserving dead cultures.
** The other three Phonos Weapons are little more than [[Wetware CPU|Wetware CPUs]]s with the body still attached. Not only that, but their minds are reduced to being fuelled on their given emotion alone, disallowing them to feel anything else.
** And really, everybody else who isn't that nameless one-shot [[Mission Control]] guy from the very beginning.
* Pretty much most of the characters on [[That Guy With The Glasses]].com. Nuff said.
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*** Boiling Rock pretty much pushed her over the line:
{{quote|'''Joker''': Insanity is like gravity. All it takes... is a little push.}}
* ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'': Most of it in [[All There in the Manual|the manual]] (and by manual, we mean [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|original comic book]]). Raven's [[Dark and Troubled Past]] is the only one which gets any detail, though. Cyborg's, Beast Boy's, and Robin's are only implied through dialogue and visual cues. Starfire seems to be the only one with a normal past until the episode "Go" which [[Retcon|retconsretcon]]s it into her tragic comic book origin.
** Robin has a pretty obvious traumatic past as he was raised by Batman.
** Beast Boy was infected with a deadly virus in a jungle, then his parents found him a cure that had side effects which turned him ''green'' and made him unstable for a very long time, then his entire family was murdered in front of him, all this when he was just a kid? At least Robin had the chance to live with Bruce Wayne, who was like a parent figure to him. Raven, too, who lived in a peaceful place like Azarath during her childhood. And let's not talk about Cyborg, whose case is worse than Beast Boy's.
** Let's talk about Cyborg. Victor Stone was the athletically inclined son of a pair of genius scientists, and his relationship with his father was...not great as a result. [[It Got Worse]] when he visited his parents' lab and arrived just in time to see his mother ''eaten alive by an [[Eldritch Abomination]]'' that was accidentally brought to Earth by his parents' interdimensional portal invention. Then said Abomination got its tentacles on ''him''. After his father managed to teleport the thing away, he rebuilt Victor using cyborg prosthetics he had invented. Victor did not take being turned into a cyborg very well, to put it lightly. Then his long-time girlfriend dumped him because she couldn't handle the changes. He's only able to reconcile with his father after finding out {{spoiler|his dad is dying of radiation poisoning because of the monster that destroyed their family}} -- and—and they can only spend a few days together before the inevitable. And all of this still pales in comparison to what the rest of the series puts him through.
** Dude, Starfire didn't even know what the word "nice" was until she came to Earth, and the closest word she had on her planet was "weak", she had a [[Cain and Abel]] relationship with her sister, and she was sold into slavery by people who experimented on her before attempting to bring her to live out her days as a servant on another planet!
* In ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', nearly every character with a backstory is tragic. Optimus {{spoiler|lost his friend Elita (now Blackarachnia) to giant monster spiders}} and was thrown out of the Elite Guard despite being qualified for the rank of Prime, Ratchet has PTSD from the Great War, and more specifically having to {{spoiler|mindwipe Arcee to save her from Lockdown}}, Blackarachnia was turned into a half-organic freak {{spoiler|because of said monster spiders}}, Bumblebee was taken out of the running for Elite Guard training because of something that wasn't his fault {{spoiler|and also wound up getting the innocent Wasp arrested for treachery}}, Bulkhead was mercilessly teased for his size and clumsiness during boot camp, and Prowl saw his master die before his eyes, with his last words admonishing him for his attempts to save his life.
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*** It's not like you'd expect a group of aliens who've been fighting for eons on end to stay well-adjusted.
*** Autobot triple-changer Broadside takes the cake, though. He easily gets seasick and is afraid of heights, so what does he turn into? An ocean-going carrier and a jet fighter!
*** The Stunticons, the second Decepticon [[Combining Mecha|combiner team]], are a [[Five-Bad Band]] [[Dysfunction Junction]], being made up of a pessimist, a psychopath, a schizophrenic, a win-at-all-costs egomaniac, and a tyrannical bully as the leader. When they unite into Menasor, the giant's personality is so messed up that he's not a warrior to command, he's a weapon to point at the enemy and get away from as fast as possible.
* ''[[Adventure Time]]'', despite being a show high in comedy, is very much this. Finn is a human who is secretly depressed about being the last of his kind, Jake's parents are dead, Princess Bubblegum has the stress of ruling a kingdom and never being able to be a kid, Marceline has daddy issues, the snail is possessed, the Ice King and the Tart Toter are insane, Cinnamon Bun is brain-damaged, Peppermint Butler is borderline satanic, Lemongrab is practically autistic, LSP is surrounded by horrible idiots...
* This trope is a defining feature of [[The Venture Brothers]], where every major character and most of the minor ones are profoundly damaged.
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*** Actually, many people with acute Asperger's Syndrome are virtually incapable of reading and expressing emotion, so their behaviour becomes almost purely cerebral (they may go very well with other similar people). Such people, while extremely aloof can be more psychologically stable and even socially adjusted that "normal" people suffering from anxiety, anger bouts, inferiority complex etc.
* Special schools for kids with serious learning disabilities or mental illnesses can be like this.
* The Internet, courtesy of the [[GIFT]]. Even otherwise normal people start acting like lunatics, [[Jerkass|jerkassesjerkass]]es, or both.
* Systemic psychotherapy is more or less based on revealing and resolving existing [[Dysfunction Junction]] in the family or similar social subsystem.
* Pretty much the entire world is this. [[Paranoia Fuel|Then you realize that some countries have too many nukes and too little wisdom.]]
 
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