Shell-Shocked Veteran: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

The war never ended for the '''Shell-Shocked Veteran'''. They've [[War Is Hell|seen]] and [[My God, What Have I Done?|done]] things that [[There Are No Therapists|no amount of therapy]] will ever completely heal (see the [[Real Life]] section below, though), and it's left them so irrevocably scarred they have trouble [[The Stoic|feeling, emoting, and caring]] about the people around them and themselves. If they continue to feel anything at all, it's usually restricted to [[Survivor Guilt]]. Thus they're usually the first to [[I Did What I Had to Do|do what must be done]] and [[Shoot the Dog]].

 

A subtrope of [[The Stoic]], also related to [[Heroic BSOD]]. They may be an [[Old Soldier]]. Expect him to have a [[Sympathetic Murder Backstory]].

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* The ex-revolutionary pirate [[Captain Harlock]] of his eponymous series was one of the earliest examples of this trope.

* Lucy from ''[[Elfen Lied]]''.

* 16-year-old Sara Werec of ''[[Soukou no Strain]]''.

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', Dr. Knox is an Ishbal veteran who was so damaged by the war that his wife and son left him. He's incredibly scarred by what he had to do in the war, and hates any mention of the war or his comrades in it (though he does help out his old war buddy Roy Mustang when pressed). Knox may be redeemable, but he's still living in the war so far.

** The ''Brotherhood''-only Isaac McDougal, AKA the Freezing Alchemist is very badly scarred by the war, and by {{spoiler|what he knows about the [[Ancient Conspiracy]]}}. He goes AWOL for a couple of years, and then shows up again one day, attempting to put all of Central City under ice. {{spoiler|Once you get further in the series, his plan doesn't seem so evil after all...}}

** Played straighter with {{spoiler|[[My God, What Have I Done?|Noël]]}}.

* Some of the robots in ''[[Pluto]]''.

* Sousuke Sagara, and his [[Evil Counterpart]], [[Lack of Empathy|Zaied]] from ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'' fit this trope perfectly. They're both ex-[[Child Soldiers]], they're both [[The Stoic]] and they both have serious mental issues. Sousuke's are normally [[No Social Skills|played for laughs]]. Zaied's [[Sociopathic Soldier|aren't]].

* Surprisingly few Shinobi suffer from this trope in ''[[Naruto]]'', however Kakashi Hatake seems to be a Shell-Shocked Veteran since his memento of war is ''permanently'' with him. He's lost everything to war, his dad (who committed suicide after failing a mission to [[Leave No Man Behind|save his comrades]]), his best friend, Obito, (who, on his untimely deathbed, gave his Sharingan to Kakashi,) and even his potential love interest, Rin, (the [[Combat Medic|medic]] of his team,) and finally his sensei, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, after the last great ninja war. As such, when Sasuke demanded to know how Kakashi would react if he killed everyone that Kakashi cared about, his reply was to simply [[Stepford Smiler|smile]] and say that he had [[Tear Jerker|already lost everyone precious to him.]]

* Jackie acts this way in ''[[Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters]]'' when pretending to be a Red Baron, a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Peanuts|Charlie Brown]].

 

* [[Harry Potter]] is already one of these, but many fanfics exaggerate this aspect of him.

* Darkfic tends to turn Max from ''[[Across the Universe (film)|Across the Universe]]'' into one of these. Arguably, he's a bit of one in canon-- "everything below the neck works fine," and all.

== Literature ==

* All the characters in ''[[All Quiet on the Western Front]]'' become Shell Shocked Veterans to one extent or another. Remarque wrote a sequel of shorts, ''The Road Back'', which describes the survivors trying to integrate back into society.

* Marshal Teddy Daniels of ''[[Shutter Island]]'' has a lot of bad dreams and a drinking problem because of the things he saw at the liberation of Dachau.

* [[Lord Peter Wimsey]], especially in the earlier books in the series. He suffered a nervous breakdown right after the war, and has two more [[Heroic BSOD]]s during the series.

* ''[[The Silmarillion]]'': Beren is described as being like this in various ways in different versions of the story, at least when he arrives in Doriath - unsurprisingly, given that [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]] was a WWI veteran. Fortunately, Beren has a half-elf, half-goddess lover to help him heal.

* [[The Lord of the Rings]]: How many there are...almost all the Elves lefts in Middle Earth (most of whom are thousands of years old, have fought in countless wars which all turned out to be pointless in the end, and have seen or are about to see everything they care about in Middle Earth pass away). Gimli, who's never the same after Galadriel (it isn't just BAD things that can leave you with stress injuries). Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam, who all have scars from carrying the Ring. (Note: All the listed characters ultimately sail to Aman, the approximate equivalent of Heaven, where it is said anyone can heal from anything. The story really ends when Sam goes, on the very last ship, having lived a long, happy, full life, but never having entirely healed from the Ring.)

* Septimus of ''Mrs. Dalloway.'' He watched his friend die in an explosion. As a result, he lost his humanity, he can't feel anything, he has hallucinations of the aforementioned friend, he's possibly schizophrenic, and he eventually kills himself.

* The protagonist of "For Esmé, With Love and Squalor" (in J.D. Salinger's ''Nine Stories''). The viewpoint switches from first- to third-person during the time the WWII soldier is at his lowest ebb, emotionally. However, it's not difficult to guess "Sergeant X" is the narrator. In the paragraph preceding the POV shift, he writes, "I've [[Lampshade Hanging|disguised myself so cunningly]] that even the cleverest reader will fail to recognize me." (Unlike X, the other characters in this passage have names.)

* [[Meaningful Name|GSV Lasting Damage]] {{spoiler|later the Masaq' Hub mind}} from Iain M. Bank's [[The Culture|Culture novels]] is a rather [[Driven to Suicide|depressed]] veteran of the Culture-Idirian War.

* All of the [[Animorphs]] become this by the end of the series. Also, Loren describes her father as a shell of his former self ever since he came home from Vietnam.

** Rachel ''doesn't'' feel anything like this, though—which gravely concerns her (and just about everybody) thanks to [[Blood Knight|what it says about her]].

* Name a ''[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'' character. '''Any''' ''Battlestar Galactica'' character, in no way limited to the ones currently in uniform. (The ''Razor'' movie is especially notable in allowing viewers to witness the events leading up to all three of its central characters becoming prime examples of the trope: one winds up as [[General Ripper]], the other two ''both'' {{spoiler|become suicide bombers. For opposite sides.}})

* Played straight in ''[[Blue Heelers]]'' with There Last Night, The Cull and a few others. For several years around Anzac Day or Rememberance Day there would be an episode where they invoked this trope.

{{quote|'''Simon:''' If that battle was so horrible, why'd he name the ship after it?

'''Zoe:''' Once you've been in Serenity, you never leave. You just learn to live there. }}

* [[Played for Laughs]] on the last sketch of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'''s 34th season where a man (played by host and former cast member Will Ferrell) who vacationed in Vietnam acts like a Shell-Shocked Veteran and sings Billy Joel's "Good Night Saigon" (joined by all of the then-current cast members, celebrity guest stars Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Tom Hanks, Maya Rudolph, Anne Hathaway, Norm McDonald, and Artie Lange [from [[Mad TV]], which at the time, was airing its final episode], and the musical guest for the episode [Green Day])

* Rick Simon on ''Simon & Simon'' experienced PTSD in the "I Thought The War Was Over" episode.

* ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]:''

{{quote|'''Lewis:''' I think Santa doesn't want to kill us anymore. We didn't get any death threats, recently. And, when we threw Kate to him and left her for dead he didn't touch her.

* Various characters show signs of this on [[Covert Affairs]].

**Auggie when he wants to buy a ring for his girlfriend buys pearl instead of diamond. As a CIA officer he knows that diamonds are criminal money and doesn't want a reminder of that world on her finger.

 

== Music ==

* In [[Quake III Arena]], this trope applies to many of the characters from previous Id games, especially from the Slipgate and Stroggos wars. Wrack, Grunt and Major are [[All There in the Manual|said to be this]].

* Jack Krauser is strongly implied to be this in ''[[Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles]]''. To put it simply, he held a long, extensive, and extinguished service in the military as a SOCOM operative, and also underwent mercenary business whenever he had any days off from SOCOM, he has spent enough time on the battlefield to sense something is terribly wrong in an area due to it "smelling like a battlefield," and lastly is unable to function in regular society and thus needs the battlefield to function. This last part is ultimately what drives his [[Face Heel Turn]] by the time of ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'', as {{spoiler|a serious injury to his arm that he received during his fight against Hilda Hidalgo essentially resulted in SOCOM firing him due to it never recovering.}}

 

== Web Comics ==

* The character Flippy from the ''[[Happy Tree Friends]]'' flash animations is a parody of this trope.

* [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ptsd-clarinet-boy PTSD Clarinet Boy] is this trope [[Played for Laughs]].

 

== Western Animation ==

* In [[Family Guy]], Stewie ended up becoming severely traumatized with being in the car after an incident where Lois was forced to crash the car due to Peter pooping on it from a highway bridge as part of one of his reality shows.

 

* At once more and less prevalent than it used to be. War is no longer so much about hacking apart other people at arm's length or closer, and more advanced weapons tend to make for less in-your-face combat, which takes some of the edge off. But those weapons are also far more lethal, more diverse and more easily made or obtained than ever before. The last century in particular has seen the advent of 'total war' and the rise of guerrilla warfare, which has redefined the relationship of civilians to warfare in a way that just asks for atrocities to happen.

** Total war is not in any way a new thing. Pretty much right up until the Age of Sail, it was standard operating procedure for invading armies to kill '''everyone''', and historically the reason soldier's pay was so low is because it was assumed that the vast majority of their income would be looted from the bodies of the slain and the homes of their families. Women were included amongst the things to be looted, naturally.

*** Total war is ''not'' killing everything. While the line between civilian and combatant blurs, and thus "kill everyone" did become more frequent, total war is not simply the slaughtering and sacking of an enemy combatant. Total war is the near total mobilization of the country's population, industry, economy, and resources to fight the war. Since even noncombatants are involved in the war effort, some would argue that they become, depending on their particular role in the war effort, legitimate targets. Since everyone and everything is mobilized, complete destruction is often called for in order to render the enemy state incapable of fighting back, as simply defeating the enemy army on the field of battle no longer meant the war was lost. In order for a state to participate in total war, it has to have an advanced infrastructure and technology, which meant that states prior to the Industrial Revolution were for the most part incapable of waging total war. The decentralization of authority that prevented wholesale conscription and mobilization of the population and lack of technology to fully exploit resources as well as overcome natural obstacles (such as winter, which pretty much ended an army's ability to wage war) meant that total war had to be a relatively recent phenomenon. It was only during the tail end of the 18th century, with the French Revolutionary Wars, that total war began to take shape, finally culminating in its ultimate form of World War II.

* There's a saying among veterans and survivors of horror ordeals: There Last Night. As in a discussion between two vets where one would say they were in Vietnam in 68, and the other might reply, "Mate I was there last night." For some they can never let it go. The tragic real life trope of Shellshocked Veteran led to the forming of groups such as Legacy.

** Not surprising; in real-life, people don't ever recover from or "get over" PTSD. They must learn to ''live with'' PTSD (which sucks for all concerned), because those ravages never go away. Sort of like cancer's remission. Tragically, in many cases, a [[Trigger/Analysis|Trigger]], a return to battle, a social situation requiring subtle grasp of nuance, or a random startle will instantly ratchet a sufferer right back up to their ''highest ever''—and most unbearable, undefusable, and unmitigated—levels of PTSD symptoms.

** An issue has been a perception of weakness if a veteran were to seek treatment while in service; part of the US military's efforts as a result of Iraq (and particularly of "traumatic brain injury" due to so many explosions) has been to both facilitate treatment and to encourage service members to take advantage thereof.

* [[wikipedia:Roméo Dallaire|Roméo Dallaire]], one of the most admired people in Canada, commanded UN forces in Rwanda during the genocide there and is credited with helping to save more than thirty thousand lives. He later had problems with depression and alcohol, including a suicide attempt. He is often cited as an example of a strong and heroic person who was nevertheless vulnerable to PTSD, and has spoken about it publicly in order to destigmatize the condition.

* The term 'shell shock' originates in part from the trenches of the First World War; due to the immense and near-constant heavy bombardment that many troops were forced to live in and the vicious, near-uninhabitable living conditions, many soldiers simply snapped from the pressure and suffered mental and emotional breakdowns. Unfortunately for some of them, their superiors ([[Armchair Military|whom, it should be noted, were frequently many miles away from the front]]) were in too many cases not at all sympathetic. That is to say, they had the soldiers court-martialed, and often ''[[Kick the Dog|executed]]'', for "cowardice".

** Other factors also greatly reduce or prevent PTSD. They include acknowledgement of the person's experience (it goes a surprisingly long way just to help the person know that they aren't flawed for feeling the way they do), having social support, and no previous history of mental illness. Also, the older a person is when the traumatic experience happens, the less likely they are to develop PTSD, possibly because they have established ways of coping with the trauma and context for what is happening to them.

** There is some evidence that certain types of activities that 'desensitize' a person to violence (such as playing some types of video games) seems to reduce the effects of combat on many people. Given how debilitating PTSD is, anything that may help to reduce the incidence and severity needs to be looked at seriously.

* William Tecumseh Sherman, second in command of the Union armies during the [[American Civil War]] had previously been relieved after having a near psychotic break. He's the [[Trope Namer]] for [[War Is Hell]] for a reason.

** They were not alone. Doctors diagnosed "soldier's heart", which we can see, with hindsight, was PTSD. This was particularly likely in the final part of the war, where unrelenting campaigns racked up a fearful death toll.

* Adolfo Scilingo, a pilot responsible for dumping bodies during Argentina's Dirty War. He's so thoroughly traumatised by his experience that he actually wants to go to prison for his crimes, doesn't sleep, can't interact with his children, and generally speaking, [[The Atoner|hates himself]].

** Apparently not uncommon among Argentine military personnel compelled to participate in the activities of the security services, presumably to [[If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten|ensure their loyalty to the regime by making them accomplices]]. Several ended up in long-term psychiatric care.

* Finland ignored many international anti-drug treaties and refused to impose such laws because of PSTD—and the drug abuse resulting from it—being so commonplace amongst veterans after WWII. Only in the late 1970s were the drug laws taken seriously as many of the veterans were now in their fifties and sixties and past their prime.

* There was a psychologist who worked with autistic war veterans who had PTSD, but didn't get it from combat as one would expect. They had it because they had been bullied as children so badly that they had lasting psychological trauma from it.

* On that note, not all people with PTSD are even involved with military combat. People can be lastingly traumatized by anything that presents a threat to a person's psychological, physical, or sexual integrity or causes psychological or physical harm.

** The idea that a person could face long-term traumatization from anything besides military combat came into fruition in the psychological community initially because some psychologists noticed that some rape victims suffered psychological symptoms similar to those who had "battle fatigue."

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Hollywood Psych]]

[[Category:Internal Conflict Tropes]]

[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]

[[Category:This Index Has Had a Hard Life]]