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{{trope}}
[[File:
▲[[File:one_of_those_days_1945.png|link=Bigger Than Cheeses|right|There's getting back-stabbed, and then...]]
{{quote|''"The rule for finding plots of character-centered novels... is to ask, 'What's the worst thing that can possibly happen to ''this'' guy?' And then do it."''
|'''[[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'''}}
▲{{quote|''"The rule for finding plots of character-centered novels... is to ask, 'What's the worst thing that can possibly happen to ''this'' guy?' And then do it."''|'''[[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'''}}
You have reached a writer's block. You've created a hero so righteous, noble, good and pure that traumatizing them just once is not convincing enough to break them. Yet you want the intended audience to still feel like they want to reach into your work and [[The Woobie|hug the character]] in question.
Hence the name of this trope. You sit in front of your typewriter (for all us oldies who can remember what a typewriter is) or your laptop computer (for all you young-uns) and put on a hat with the name [[
"If traumatizing a hero once can earn the audience's sympathy, then what better way to earn your audience's ''love'' for the character than to lay [[Deus Angst Machina|trauma after trauma]] on them like a falling row of dominoes?"
Having donned the hat of [[
The usual results of a
Result A) The hero perseveres over the trials of life, rises above it and [[Character Development|becomes a better person for it all]].
Result B) The protagonist [[Fallen Hero|throws off his hero mantle]], tramples it, and in a cold rush of unrelenting cynicism [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|becomes a villain just as bad, if not worse, than the antagonist]].
Result C) The hero [[Heroic BSOD|curls into a figurative or literal catatonic ball]] in a [[Corner of Woe|cold dark corner]], then [[Despair Event Horizon|proceeds to give up on life and the world]].
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Result D) [[The Last Dance|Goes out in a blaze of bloodthirsty rage realizing that the best way out is by]] [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|taking it out on everyone]].
Result E) The protagonist [[Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids|loses their sense of idealism]], but [[Knight in Sour Armor|not their morality]]. Most [[Anti
Result F) Rarest one: [[Angst? What Angst?|the protagonist just shrugs their shoulders at the]] [[Deus Angst Machina]]. No lessons are learned nor does the character behave differently. All that's changed is that the [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] now sleeps in a cardboard box and eats out of dumpsters.
This trope is a particularly vicious example of [[Break the Cutie]], and is a gamble on the part of you, the writer.
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On the other hand, one melodramatic violin-music-laced scene too many, and you'll have the [[Narm]] of the century.
See also [[Humiliation Conga]], where this happens to a villain who deserves what's coming to him. [[Deus Angst Machina]] is similar and there is quite a bit of overlap, but with the
{{Unmarked Spoilers}}
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== Advertising ==
* Somewhat spoofed in the [[Parody Commercial|parody commercials]] for Rhubarb Pie on ''[[A Prairie Home Companion]]''. They always feature some [[Innocent Bystander|random, unfortunate fellow]] who happens to get caught in a series of increasingly bad situations, going from, say, locking yourself out of the car to being arrested for high treason. Good thing "nothing takes the taste of shame and humiliation out of your mouth like rhubarb pie!"
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== Anime and Manga ==
* Ian from ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* Lelouch, the [[Anti
** There are a few other ''[[Code Geass]]'' characters that would fall under this, too, though less obviously due to not being the main character. Shirley and Suzaku stick out the most, but there are probably more [[It Got Worse|this being Code Geass]].
** Lelouch actually has a lot more in common with Type E, largely because he still has a firm grasp of his own sense of right and wrong, as well as wanting to see his ultimately noble goals come to fruition, even if he comes across as quite dark. It's hard to be a Type B when your enemy is a racist [[The Empire|Empire]] that has one leader {{spoiler|willing to destroy individuality due to his own crappy childhood, and a Prime Minister who's willing to nuke the whole world from orbit to enforce peace}}. Shirley almost becomes type C, before Mao makes her go into Type D, then she almost lapses into type C again before some [[Laser
* Albert Morcef from ''[[Gankutsuou]]''. Albert first gets betrayed by [[Magnificent Bastard|the Count]] and Peppo, who he thought could be trusted, when Haydee exposes Albert's father as a criminal who gained nobility and power through non legal means. Then, his best friend Franz gets killed when Franz decides to go to the duel with the Count (the duel which the Count goaded Albert into making so the Count can get an excuse to kill Albert) instead of Albert. However, instead of breaking down, Albert ends up taking the route A and becomes a better person who not only saves the Count's soul from [[Cosmic Horror|Gankutsuou]] but also fixes his father's wrongs by becoming an envoy of peace.
** Don't forget that Albert's father also tries to stage a coup detat after he's exposed, even going so far as to ''try to kill his own wife and son'' when they get in the way.
* Shinji Ikari of ''[[
** In ''[[
** It is implied that his father is a type B or a type E
* On the other hand, Ayasaki Hayate of ''[[
** If you think about it, Hayate is kinda Joker-crazy. His childhood was crap, his parents were [[Complete Monster|complete monsters]], and the entire universe occasionally [[Cosmic Plaything|punts him around like an old football]] ("Watch out for this paint that will permanently stain a cashmere coat!" and "We will attack you with swords that cut cashmere really well!" come to mind). And yet...he keeps [[Stepford Smiler|smiling]].
* Tokiha Mai of ''[[
* [[Kurohime|Zero's]] past was really horrible.
* Shiina Tamai from ''[[
** Most of the kids connected to the Dragon Children. If they don’t have issues they will quickly get them. Akira is [[Abusive Parent|sexually abused by her father]], forcibly dragged into a conflict with [[Teens Are Monsters|teenage psychos]], [[Mind Rape|mind-rapped]] at least twice to [[We Can Rule Together|make her join]], {{spoiler|locked away for almost a year for killing said father}} and confronted with dozens of violent deaths. There is also {{spoiler|Hirako}}, who has [[Lonely Rich Kid|no-one beside Shiina]], is heavily bullied in school and her demanding parents don’t give a damn as long as she has good grades. When her father tries to {{spoiler|cut her ties with Shiina}} she ''slips''.
* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Vash the Stampede]] from ''[[Trigun]]''. As we learn more and more about him two important facts come to mind. 1. He is the [[Break the Cutie|unluckiest person who's ever lived]]. 2. There is someone out there [[Big Bad|directly responsible]] for that and ''he's far from finished.'' However, Vash takes the route A because he is just that ''badass''.
* Nana from ''[[
** To a lesser extent in ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' too. Several times she thinks she's finally put her old hellish life behind. Not so. Until the very end of the manga... ''maybe''.
* Kagura from ''[[Ga
** Amazingly, the result is eventually type A, even though it's obvious that nothing can fill that spot for Yomi in Kagura's heart (the current arc of the manga is dealing with this, as {{spoiler|someone who looks exactly like Yomi appears.}}).
** Mind you, in the arc before the current one Kagura had ''even worse'' things happening to her. The turn of events destroyed what little resolve she still possess in order to live, and thus her [[Mons|spiritual beast]] went absolutely out of control. Life is a lot unfair for Kagura.
** Forget Kagura, Yomi had it even worse. {{spoiler|Yomi's adoptive father his killed by her Seishouseki-mind-controlled adoptive [[The Rival|cousin]], the cousin takes what was supposed to be her place as the family head and her inheritance, then lures her to a fight. When the cousin admits killing Yomi's father, she goes [[Berserk Button|berserk]] and kills her. Then [[Manipulative Bastard|Mitogawa]] attacks Yomi, rendering her quadraplegic and mute, and she is accused of murdering her cousin. Her fiancee Noriyuki is too busy trying to prove her innocence to visit her in the hospital, his father breaks off their [[Perfectly Arranged Marriage]] because of her physical condition, and her best friend Kagura abandons her after she admits to killing her cousin. Then Mitogawa gives her the same Seishouseki, which heals her but its mind-control powers provide the extra push to send her [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope]] and killing her former friends.}} Her [[Despair Event Horizon]] is such a [[Tear Jerker]] that even after becoming a Type B she is still sympathetic.
* Almost ''every'' major character in ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]''. One good example is Fay, who has a backstory so mindbendingly dramatic [[Deus Angst Machina|it's verging on ridiculous]], and during the course of the story manages to {{spoiler|[[Unwitting Pawn|be used by the BigBad]], be killed (in a virtual world, but still), have an eye gouged out and ''eaten'' by his surrogate son, after which he tries to let himself die but is ''forced'' to become a vampire by his [[Ho Yay|partner]], a curse obliges him to stab his surrogate daughter, his father figure [[Suicide
* Houjou Satoko, of [[Higurashi no Naku Koro
** In ''Watanagashi-hen'' and ''Meakashi-hen'', she is {{spoiler|tortured to death by Sonozaki Shion, after finding out that Shion has also killed both leaders of the village, Satoko's best friend, and is going to torture Satoko's other friends to death (including Shion's ''twin sister'').}}
** In ''Tatarigoroshi-hen'', she is brutally abused by her uncle, and is too scared of the very-real threat of him killing her to call child services. She also {{spoiler|sees her best friend's bloody, mutilated corpse being eaten by crows and finally cracks, pushing Keiichi off a bridge}}.
** In ''Minagoroshi-hen'', she is again abused by her uncle, but is also {{spoiler|shot in the face by the [[Big Bad]] after [[All for Nothing|nearly overcoming all the hardships in her life]]. The same [[Big Bad]] makes sure she watches the murder all her friends in quick succession, with the knowledge that Rika will be tortured to death afterwards}}.
** In ''Yoigoshi-hen'', the [[Alternate Universe]] plotline, she is {{spoiler|killed along with the rest of her classmates when Rena goes insane and blows up the school.}}
** In ''Yakusamashi-hen'' and ''Tsumihoroboshi-hen'', she is {{spoiler|killed along with the rest of the town when the [[Big Bad]] sets off the gas and murders the entire village}}.
** It is revealed in her backstory that she was also beaten an inch from death by {{spoiler|Shion disguised as Mion}}. Since this happened before the main plot, it means this applies to ''every arc.'' In ''Saikoroshi-hen'', another [[Alternate Universe]], the one who beats her is {{spoiler|Rika, her best friend in the normal universe}}.
*** It is no surprise that most of the [[Tear Jerker]] moments in the series come from Satoko.
** In the [[Umineko no Naku Koro
*** And then {{spoiler|he finds out his [[Missing Mom|late mother]] wasn't his real mom, putting him in such a bad [[Heroic BSOD]] that his ''brain shuts down'' and he ''physically vanishes'' for awhile. Only to be brought back by his sister! Yay! ...Who he finds out is his sister only as the universe is turning her into a [[Memetic Mutation|delicious hamburger]]}}. Then EP6 {{spoiler|he is one of the first six victims of the FIRST TWILIGHT. Sure he survived but how LONG was he [[And I Must Scream|STUCK]] in that room is horrifying. And the crazy part about it? HE PLANNED IT!}}
* In ''[[Bleach]]'', there are quite a few characters who fall victim to this. Kuchiki Rukia, Hinamori Momo, and Inoue Orihime are the worst off.
** Later, Ichigo himself got the worst conga yet, by a long shot.
* This happens to Mai Kujaku/Valentine. She was [[Mind Raped]] during the Battle City Finals and her subsequent inadvertent [[Face Heel Turn]] that gets her in arguably even worse danger during the Doma saga in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!''.
** This happens on much a higher, much more heartbreaking scale to Judai Yuki in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'', and could very well pass as the best example of this trope next to [[Naruto]] down below in Shonen anime history.
* [[Mahou Sensei Negima]] has Negi. Lets see, he's [[Parental Abandonment|never known his parents]], [[Doomed Hometown|saw his entire hometown get destroyed]] at about [[Harmful to Minors|age 6 or so]], gets attacked by a vampire with a grudge against his father, inadvertently causes several of his students to get sold into slavery in the Magic World, gets framed for a terrorist attack (along with his other students), starts to lose control of his [[Black Magic]], and when he finally discovered who his mother is, it turns out that most of the Magic World hates her because they think she's a genocidal maniac. And yet, he still manages to hold a positive outlook on life, making him a case of type A.
** He does occasionally show a few Type D traits. He's been shown to have some really severe hatred for those who destroyed his hometown, and it is suggested that, unconsciously, his real reason for learning how to fight so well was to exact revenge on those responsible. The fact that he specifically learned a spell designed to outright ''kill'' demons is telling...
* Almost everyone in ''[[Monster (
* ''[[Naruto]]'' and Sasuke definitely qualify. The former was [[All of the Other Reindeer|a life long outcast]] [[Parental Abandonment|who never knew his parents]] at the beginning, before being told [[Sealed Evil in
** Sasuke isn't exactly happy either. First his family is killed, and he is forced to watch it over and over again. All of this at the hands of his beloved brother. Just as he was beginning to open up more, he is humiliated time and again by the supposed dead last as he beats enemies even he couldn't. Then, he finally meets his brother again, where he gets beaten and [[Mind Rape
** Naruto is lucky to be as well adjusted as he is, and Sasuke... well it doesn't excuse his actions, but it does make it easier to see why he is doing what he is.
** Don't forget some of the other characters. Gaara, Kimimaro and Pain are stand outs. Notably a lot of them end up going the antagonist route (until Naruto shows them the error of their ways).
*** FYI, that makes Naruto a type a, Sasuke a mixture of B and D, Gaara a B -> A and Pain a type B.
* In ''[[
* Himura Kenshin from ''[[
** Considering that Kenji basically becomes {{spoiler|an orphan and most of his childhood consists of waiting for his redemption-obsessed father and watching his mother slowly dying from the grief and a skin illness she caught from said father,}} his life doesn't look much better.
* Simon from ''[[
* ''[[Elfen Lied]]''. The anime traumatizes the characters enough already, and let's [[It Got Worse|just not get into the manga]]...
* Allen Walker, from ''[[D
** After the series starts, the hits keep coming, including having his Innocence seemingly destroyed and getting a hole torn out of his heart thanks to Tyki; having his friends disappear one by one as the Ark disintegrates around him; and having the only place that he could ever call home, the Order, almost be destroyed by a Level Four Akuma attack. Think he deserves a break? [[It Got Worse|Not a chance]]. After nearly killing himself to fight off the Level 4 Akuma, he is told that he is {{spoiler|the host of the mysterious [[Super
* ''[[Madoka Magica]]'' more or less is this trope. Much of the plot is about Sayaka going nuts because of everything that happens to her, which further traumatizes Madoka. Homura's past is one long string of things going horribly wrong no matter how hard she tries to prevent it.
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]''- Another one that most would answer with "Everyone", however this is especially true for Roy, Riza, and everyone who had to live through both Ishval ''and'' the Promised Day storylines.
* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro
* Alice from ''[[Nemurihime]]''. In the space of eight chapters she has {{spoiler|lost her father, was stricken with a disease that will kill her in a year, was frozen for fifty years, learned that her doctor was in love with her but married another woman to have a family. His wife became so desparate for his affection that she figured they could only be [[Together in Death]], which caused the doctor's son to hate Alice so much he unfroze her just to torture her for the rest of her life -- which will be one year because there's still no cure for her disease}}. According to those who read the whole thing ''it gets worse''. [[Break the Cutie|Poor Alice.]]
* ''[[Clannad (
* In ''[[
* The title character of ''[[
* Rintaro Okabe from ''[[Steins
* After a childhood full of emotional and (implied) physical abuse at the hands of his mother and, as an adolescent, more abuse (and an attempt on his life) at the hands of his half-brother, Kazutaka Muraki, the main villain of ''[[Yami no Matsuei]]'', becomes a very creepy Result B.
== Comic Books ==
* Quite surprisingly, even [[The Joker]] ''himself'' may not have started out as a bad person. [[
{{quote|
** But contrary to this, Gordon fails to break under the Joker's torments. Batman tells the Joker: "Gordon's fine. Maybe it was just you all along."
* If the Joker thought ''he'd'' had one bad day, he should've seen what happened to Zomax, the villain of a 1941 ''Jungle Comics'' story by the notoriously grim cult-favourite cartoonist Fletcher Hanks. It begins when Zomax goes hunting in the jungle and is [[Super
* Tim Drake, the
* Weirdly enough, Tim Drake's mentor, the goddamned [[Batman]] himself is a type F. He's lost sidekicks, allies both superpowered and non-, and has had multiple efforts to try to make something out of his life crushed. But he's still pretty much the same person he was at the beginning of his [[Darker and Edgier]] remake as he is now.
** His transition from young Bruce Wayne to Batman is type E though. But when he is Batman, he stay at type F.
* [[Spider-Man]] is also a Type F. [[Cartwright Curse|Repeatedly loses loved ones?]] Check. [[Hero
** Blame [[Executive Meddling]] for that. Spider-Man has progressed in his life - he was happily married, and he may be a [[Hero
*** Before that, Spidey had a Type A origin, and has lost, in no particular order, his robo-parents, his actress-aunt, his first true love, his marriage (talking about the brief separation that ended through the Straczinsky run), his best friend Harry, some love interests and pals (we still miss you, Captain [[De Wolff]]), has suffered by every one of them, and then he grew a few more. In fact, before [[One More Day]], this trope could have been called "The Parker".
* [[Daredevil]] on the other hand is a Type E, especially after Kingpin put him through the wringer in his excellent ''Born Again'' series.
* Robert Kirkman's ''Astonishing Wolf-Man''. Hoo boy, it's impressive how crappy the title character's life got so quickly. So he was a wealthy CEO shredded by a werewolf, became one himself, lost his multi-million dollar company, got an oh-so-brief respite of awesome when he got some control over his wolf form and became a superhero, found out he still became a murderous beast during a full moon by killing a well-known superhero, became estranged from his wife and daughter, found out that his vampiric mentor killed his wife, got framed for said murder (including, worst of all, in the eyes of his daughter), became a fugitive, got another minor respite when he became friends with a prominent superhero, reluctantly got a minor alliance with someone he already knew was hugely bad news, was thrown into prison, and was stabbed in the chest by his own daughter, who'd turned to the previously mentioned vampiric mentor to avenge her mother's death (and let him drink some blood from her), not knowing she was training with the real killer! Whew! It was only in issue 17 that his life took any appreciable change for the better.
* [[X-Men (Comic Book)|Madelyne Pryor]] is a full-on Type D. After her husband abandons her and her infant son for reasons unexplained, she tries to get on with her life. Then she's ambushed by a squad of superpowered assassins out to kill her and steal her baby. They only succeed in the latter. Then she goes on the run with the X-Men...no one's idea of a relaxing vacation at the best of times...and starts falling in love with her ''brother-in-law.'' After finding some semblance of equilibrium with the team, she starts working as their tech support, and just happens to find her disappeared husband on a news broadcast...standing alongside a woman who looks just like her. Cue BSOD, and [[Deal
* Roy Harper, the former sidekick of [[Green Arrow]], has had it pretty rough recently. In ''Cry for Justice'' he got his arm chopped off by Prometheus. Then Prometheus and his accomplice the Electrocutioner unleashed a [[Kill Sat]] on Star City, killing thousands including {{spoiler|Roy's daughter Lian}}. This drove him back to drug abuse, which just made things worse. To add insult to injury, when he and Cheshire got involved, he couldn't perform, so to speak. He became a Type E Jerkass, railing against his former friends and teammates, going so far as to blame Mia for {{spoiler|Lian's death}} and calling Donna a whore when she tried to sympathize with him. Later he became a full-on Type B when he agreed to join Deathstroke's Titans (a team of assassins for hire) {{spoiler|though it's heavily implied that this was an act he and Cheshire cooked up together in a bid to kill Deathstroke.}}
* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]''{{'}}s Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane. To say she's had it rough is putting it lightly.
* Ultimate Reed Richards, as of the end of ''[[Ultimatum]]'', cementing himself as a hybrid between Types B & F.
* [[Iron Man|Tony Stark's]] ''entire life'' consists of one traumatic event after another, mixed with a morass of personal issues covering everything from alcohol to troubled romantic relationships, an angst-and-tragedy-ridden personal and professional life that include, but is not limited to, traitorous/murderous friends and business partners who have tried to destroy him and his friends multiple times, all combined with a ridiculous amount of overwork <ref>(running Stark Industries, churning out new inventions to keep it running, managing the Avengers' legal and financial problems, being constantly on-call to consult other superheroes on technology-related crises, being a founding Avenger and occasionally the group's leader, being a superhero on his own time, and dealing with enemies who want to kill him on both superhero and business fronts)</ref> that is directly responsible for most of the aforementioned trauma, to the point where he has had to basically completely rebuild his life from the ground up on several different occasions.
==
* Used for a few chapters in the ''[[The Princess and
* The ''[[Firefly]]'' fanfic ''[[
* The ''[[
** So does [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3529129/1/True_Elision ''True Elision''] by Ezan, another post-series fanfic. Having been given a second chance to {{spoiler|have a proper afterlife}} and avoid being transformed in a Shinigami, Light is forced to face a [[Nintendo Hard|Trial from hell]] and battle his worst nightmares (which include {{spoiler|being torn apart by the thousands of people he directly killed with their bare hands [[And I Must Scream|while being unable to move]] and having a handful of hair forcefully shoved down his throat. Multiple times. [[Baleful Polymorph|And]] [[Rape
* This is [[Big Bad|Deadlock's]] intention in ''[[The Legend of Spyro:
* The ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
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* [[The Dark Knight|Poor Harvey Dent]], the White Knight of Gotham, was a prime candidate for [[Mind Rape|vicious brainwashing]] by the [[Complete Monster|disgustingly hateful]] [[The Joker|Joker]] after losing Rachel, the love of his life, ''and'' half his face in a gas explosion. His transformation into the cynical monster Two-Face only took a the slightest of nudge on the [[Monster Clown|evil bastard's]] part.
* This trope drives much of the events in the Coen brothers' 2009 film ''[[A Serious Man]]''; it's played for dark comedy.
* The film version of ''
* ''[[Precious]]'', anyone?
* ''[[
* ''[[The Human Centipede]]'' is an unusually literal use of the trope. Do I really need to spell it out?
* Present in a good number of [[Don Bluth]] films. Fievel just never gets a break in ''[[
* In the ''[[Thor (
== Literature ==
* This is a most popular plot device for sentimental 19th-century novels such as ''Dog of Flanders'', ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' and ''[[A Little Princess]]'', as well as their anime adaptations in the ''[[World Masterpiece Theater]]''.
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: The Book of Job (from ''[[
** And it's pretty [[Narm
** [[Robert A. Heinlein]] wrote a deliberate parody/deconstruction of Job in ''[[
* ''[[Candide]]'' is the lord and master of this trope. Almost every single character falls victim to this.
* In ''[[Fahrenheit 451]]'', Guy Montag by the end has had {{spoiler|his secret work for [[La Résistance]] discovered and smashed, his wife killed, his friend and mentor "disappeared", and been forced to burn down his own house}}, all the while his [[Magnificent Bastard]] of an opponent laughs about how they're [[Not So Different]]. It's a relief to see {{spoiler|Beatty meet his [[Karmic Death]] and Montag eventually get at least a [[Bittersweet Ending]]; the play makes it a [[Happy Ending]]}}.
** Except, that Bradbury wrote the story for the text-adventure sequel, and he cheerfully gives Montag and Clarisse a [[Bolivian Army Ending]].
* [[Lois McMaster Bujold]] has explicitly stated that she generates her plots by asking herself what the worst possible thing she can do to the hero is. For example, in her [[Miles Vorkosigan]] novel ''Memory'' she begins by having interstellar superagent Miles notice he is suffering from seizures from injuries sustained in the last book. Next he makes the bad decision to personally lead a prisoner rescue mission anyway and ends up having a seizure in mid mission. While have the seizure he accidentally saws off the legs of the prisoner he was rescuing with a plasma gun. Then he lies about the seizures on his [[After Action Report]] because he is afraid of getting a desk job. This gets him cashiered. And this is just the plot setup in the first few chapters! Miles, fortunately, always manages to achieve Result A.
** Later on she refined her philosophy to "the worst possible thing ''that the hero can still learn a useful lesson from''." For example, despite the political trouble the circumstances of Tien Vorsoisson's death caused Miles in ''A Civil Campaign'', a far more thorough and protracted torture could have been produced for Miles simply by ''not'' killing Tien off in ''Komarr'' and letting Miles suffer for years knowing that the woman he loves is married to someone else and thus condemning them both to suffer nobly, unrequited, for years. (That Ekaterin was going to leave Tien anyway cuts no
* [[
* Captain Lawrence in the [[Temeraire]] book, ''Victory Of Eagles''. He starts the book off {{spoiler|under a death sentence for treason and ends it sailing off in exile to Australia, on the books as a prisoner. In between, he has to put up with half the Aerial Corps despising him as a traitor (the other half thinks he did the right thing), his commanding officer/lover [[What the Hell, Hero?|chewing him out]] for his [[Lawful Stupid
* [[Harry Potter]]. Nearly every adult authority figure either despises Harry and tortures him, or is killed protecting him. He also is the witness to several of his friends and loved ones being murdered. If your family was murdered while you were a baby and you bear a scar from that event the rest of your life, and it WASN'T the worst thing to ever happen to you, you have a seriously messed-up life.
* Vanyel Ashkevron of the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' series. He starts out life hated and abused by his father and brothers for the sin of being gay, which they [[Locked Out of the Loop|deliberately try to keep him from figuring out]]. When he finally gets a [[Love Interest]], he's [[Driven to Suicide]]. The [[Superpower Lottery|earthshattering magical powers]] Vanyel gets as a result only serve to make him the go-to guy for every problem Valdemar has, to the point where he [[Samaritan Syndrome|can't take a break]] for five minutes without the kingdom falling apart. Then, just when he makes up with his family, someone starts picking off his friends one by one. This nearly causes him to break his oath as a Herald as he storms off on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]], only to walk into a trap in which he's serially raped into a [[Heroic BSOD]]. After recovering from that, he's forced to give up his new [[Love Interest]] in order to deliver a final [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save the kingdom. To top it all off, the [[Aesop]] appears to be [[Comes Great Responsibility]].
** Mercedes Lackey has a basic formula to give her characters Angst: Drop a mountain on them. Let them recover slightly. Drop another mountain on them. Repeat.
* The title character of ''[[
{{quote|
** And he was right. After all he's gone through in ''Changes'', ''Ghost Story'' cranks it up beyond eleven.
* This is where we get to mention [[The Time
* Murtagh from ''[[The Inheritance Cycle]]''. The main article describes his life as a series of people kicking him in the balls. As of the ending of the 2nd book, he's well on his way to becoming {{spoiler|Type B}}.
* This happens to most of the characters in ''Sometimes A Great Notion'', but the one who gets it worst has to be Hank. He loses {{spoiler|his father, who dies of blood loss after losing his arm in a logging accident}}; he fails to {{spoiler|save his cousin Joby from drowning while trapped under a log ''from the same logging accident''}}; his half-brother Leland {{spoiler|tells him he was having an affair with Hank's wife Vivian and then blames him for driving Leland's mother to suicide by having sex with her, even though she was several years older and it would count as statutory rape - and says all this ''immediately after leaving their father's deathbed''}}; his wife Vivian {{spoiler|leaves him}}; and the whole town gangs up on him for refusing to join their logging strike. ''All in the same day.''
* What is it with people named some variation of "Henry"? In ''[[The Time
* ''Chinese Cinderella'', full stop. The main character is blamed for her mother's [[Death
* [[Black Dagger Brotherhood|Zsadist]] has this in spades. He was abducted from his family as an infant, sold into slavery, and then the moment he became an adult his mistress began raping him. Often she'd let her other male slaves watch, or even have them join in. He was sometimes kept bound to a pallet on the floor, flat on his back, for days at a
* Seyonne in the ''Rai-Kirah'' books. He's been a slave for sixteen years by the time we're introduced to him, and is basically just waiting to die. Then things get worse. He spends a good chunk of the second book in hell being arbitrarily tortured, and the third book ends with him stripped of his powers and about half his memory...and those are just a couple of the highlights.
* ''[[
* ''[[The Hunger Games]]'': {{spoiler|Peeta Mellark falls in love with Katniss, is thrown into an arena to fight to the death with her, goes back into the arena to fight her to the death again, has a heart attack, gets left behind when Katniss leaves, is tortured to the point of seemingly irreparable insanity, and never stops having insane outbursts. Ouch.}}
** Don't forget Katniss. {{spoiler|Her father is killed in a mining accident, she goes to The Hunger Games, she is forced to fake love to someone who really loves her during and after the games, she goes back into the games, she accidentally becomes the face of a rebellion, she goes into a battlezone and watches her sister explode. Not to mention her breakdown after she shoots Coin.}}
*** They both saw a lot of people die.
** Invoked by [[The Government|Capital]] for all victorius tributes. As children they are put through [[Deadly Games]], where [[Children Forced to Kill|they are forced to kill, or be killed]] not only by other tributes but also by [[Everything Trying to Kill You|most of the things on the arena.]] These experiences are enough to make most of them [[Shell
* For someone whose books are geared towards women, [[Danielle Steel]] tends to employ this with disturbing frequency. One of her books starts off with the protagonist's mother dying from cancer, then killing her father after years of him sexually abusing her (which her mother has told her that she must submit to, as she can no longer fulfill his sexual needs). Then she's sent to jail for murder, where she's nearly beaten by her fellow inmates. After her release, she starts to rebuild her
** Similarly heroines in [[Catherine Cookson]] books are born to suffer, and spend much of the novel(s) having all sorts of angst thrown at them. They don't necessarily get a happy ending either. They very often settle for a life that's not quite as miserable as the one they've gone before. Example: One girl became a mistress to her rapist (and father of her child) when she decided he was actually quite a nice man. He had undergone some character development, but even so...
* [[Sidney Sheldon]] was awfully fond of this trope too. What's worse is that he often likes to cap it off with a Scenario B or C ending.
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* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. Writing everything that happened to that poor girl over the series would result in [[Walls of Text]], but the major ones: Briefly dying and resulting PTSD, Angel turning evil and {{spoiler|killing Jenny}}, having to kill Angel, Angel leaving, her mother's death, her sister's the key, she dies and is ''dragged out of heaven'', and the attempted rape. And I am not touching the other characters.
** The two-part episode "Becoming" is another conga line all crammed into a couple of days that include having a fellow slayer killed, her friends attacked (and one almost killed), being blamed for a murder and chased by the police, having her mother throw her out of the house, and being forced to kill Angel moments after he turned good again. It's really no wonder she fled to L.A. after all that.
* Throughout ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. You would not want to be a Winchester. Or an angel on their side. Or their love interest.
** Dean just keeps getting hit by more and more tragedies and still has to stumble to get up and go on. Let's recap shall we? First off, his mother dies when he's a kid, leaving him to be dragged across the country in pursuit of [[Revenge]], then [[Disappeared Dad|his father goes missing]], so he has to team-up with his estranged brother to find him; next his father dies [[Deal
** Sam went through life fearing he was some kind of freak, and then it turned out he [[Dark Side|really]] ''was''. His fiance-girlfriend dies at the very beginning of the series; every other woman he has ever gotten close to has died a horrible death or betrayed him, leading him to be emotionally scarred and introverted; he never lived up to the expectations of his family; was constantly denied the chance to live a normal life because of [[Corrupt the Cutie|demons]]; was forced into hunting and the family lifestyle; his dad disowned him ''for going to college''; his father ''told his brother to kill him''; he's apparently an abomination of God because his mother made a deal to sell him to a demon when he was born; he never got to know said mother as she died when he was a baby ''because of him''.<br /><br />When Sam's murdered, Dean sells his soul to bring him back (and spends 40 years in hell because of it, while Sam spends that 4-month period [[Death Seeker|suicidal]] and becomes addicted to [[Psycho Serum|demon blood]]); he accidentally starts the apocalypse trying to stop it, and then in season five {{spoiler|finds out he's the vessel for Lucifer and that he was destined to be the [[Anti Christ]]}}; at the end of season five, {{spoiler|he sacrificed himself to lock Lucifer away, knowing he'd be tortured by Archangels Lucifer and Michael for averting the Apocalypse;}} and as of season seven {{spoiler|had some version of schizophrenia/mental illness due to nearly two centuries of torture in which his soul was effectively flayed and then pushed back into him after centuries of mutilation done to it.}} Conclusion: It's not fun to be a Winchester. ▼
Then he is resurrected by [[Light Is Not Good|angels]] to [[Destructive Savior|serve their purpose]], constantly being haunted by the memories of his [[Cold-Blooded Torture|soul-destroying torture]] with ''more'' guilt pertaining to the fact that he broke the first seal for the Apocalypse; next he tries to handle his brother becoming a junkie addicted to demon blood; and finally he fails to ''stop'' his brother setting off the [[Apocalypse How|apocalypse]], resulting in him spending the 5th season hunting down the four horsemen of the apocalypse and {{spoiler|trying to put Lucifer back in his cage, so far losing hope that he agrees to let Michael possess him to defeat Lucifer even though that will raze the world. His brother's faith makes him take it back, but then Dean loses his brother ''again''.}} Also, his childhood was filled with neglect and emotional abuse. Natch. It's no wonder Famine told him that he was dead and empty inside.
* Captain Jack Harkness from ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]''. Between "Exit Wounds" and Children of Earth, it's no wonder he {{spoiler|gave up and left to travel in space}}.▼
** Sam went through life fearing he was some kind of freak, and then it turned out he [[Dark Side|really]] ''was''. His fiance-girlfriend dies at the very beginning of the series; every other woman he has ever gotten close to has died a horrible death or betrayed him, leading him to be emotionally scarred and introverted; he never lived up to the expectations of his family; was constantly denied the chance to live a normal life because of [[Corrupt the Cutie|demons]]; was forced into hunting and the family lifestyle; his dad disowned him ''for going to college''; his father ''told his brother to kill him''; he's apparently an abomination of God because his mother made a deal to sell him to a demon when he was born; he never got to know said mother as she died when he was a baby ''because of him''.
* ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'': Pretty much Connor's entire life up till Season 4 was one long [[Trauma Conga Line]]. (Not that his life was great after that; there was a brief pause, but only so we could see the damage.) In fact, things get even worse in season 4. The pleasant part of his life before a [[Loss of Identity|total memory wipe]] was the time period ''between'' seasons 3 and 4, which lasted about 3 months.▼
▲
▲* Captain Jack Harkness from ''[[
▲* ''[[
* Happens twice in ''[[Scrubs]]'', first to Elliot and then later to J.D.. The difference is, while the show treats Elliot as a poor, sympathetic victim who everyone (especially J.D.) rallies around and supports, it treats J.D. as an annoying, whiny, emotionally over-needy loser who everyone only tolerates because "he's our friend". Probably because [[The Unfair Sex|Elliot has girl parts]].
** Actually, during Elliot's crap, she doesn't try to get help from others and closes herself off. Most of the series has her personally dealing with her issues with some venting from time to time. JD, on the other hand, had become far too dependent on his friends and his constant self-pity had been going on for seven years by that point. It's when he saw just how annoying he could be by watching others does he start to really deal with his problems on his own instead of relying on others. It's easier to help someone when they're trying to help themselves then someone who constantly annoys you instead of dealing with their own life themselves.
** More than once, JD has wryly noted that sometimes the hospital doesn't space out tragedies and disasters so that the doctors have time to pull themselves together after each
* Happens to Tommy in ''[[Rescue Me]]'' nearly every episode, although some are worse than others. He's a Type F, and remains a lying, scheming, womanizing, short-tempered, alcoholic, self-centered asshole for five seasons.
* While not technically the hero, ''[[Dollhouse]]'''s Topher seems to be the definition of this trope. Nothing seems to go well for the poor bloke.
* In ''[[
* The Doctor of ''[[
** The Tenth Doctor attracted [[Broken Base|both extensive praise and criticism]] for suffering everything that could possibly go wrong at every possible opportunity. By "The End of Time", everyone close to him had moved on, voluntarily or otherwise, the closest thing he had to a friend was one old man who still believed in him ({{spoiler|who he dies to save}}), and his almost maniacal desire to [[Screw Destiny]] and avoid his "song" ending was less about self-preservation and more desperately trying to keep hold of the last thing that hadn't been taken from him.
** Amy Pond is the trope's poster girl for the series, going through ''severe'' emotional trauma every two episodes on average. Every possible kind of hardship seems to find its way into her life, and her husband Rory is forced to live with every bit of it as well. The Doctor eventually realises this, dropping her and her husband Rory off home before he gets them killed, but they're confirmed as returning in the following season and Amy's having severe [[My God, What Have I Done?]] feelings over {{spoiler|killing Madam Kovarian}}.
** River Song has been through her share of this. [[Time Travel Tense Trouble|Or will be]]. [[Timey
* ''[[The Wire]]'' has Randy Wagstaff in Season 4 who is only 13 to 14 years old. He confesses to knowing about a murder to his school principal to avoid getting in trouble and the drug kingpin in the streets, [[Complete Monster|Marlo Stanfield]], finds out about it and decides to ruin his life and puts out the word that he's a snitch. Everyone avoids Randy or beats him. Then in the [[Wham! Episode]], his house is firebombed, his foster mother brutally burned, and despite all the help of a police sergeant, he is sent to a foster home where other kids, knowing he's a snitch, beat him daily.
* The backstory of ''[[Veronica Mars]]''. A few months before the show started, Veronica's boyfriend broke up with her for no reason. Then her best friend was brutally murdered. Then her dad got fired from his job as sheriff, and the related events made her a social pariah in school. Then her mom abandoned her without warning. Then she was drugged and raped at a party, and the new sheriff refused to even investigate. The end result is a Type E, turning her from a popular, fun-loving high schooler to a jaded misanthrope [[Kid Detective]] with no respect for authority.
* Tara from ''[[True Blood]]''. She starts out as the [[Hollywood Atheist|rational]], [[Sassy Black Woman|fiesty]], [[Deadpan Snarker|voice of reason]] but complications involving her alcoholic mother, the love of her life murdered, and being kidnapped by a psychopathic vampire [[Broken Bird|reduces her to a sobbing wreck]]. She spends almost every episode crying or contemplating suicide.
* John Crichton of ''[[
* [[ER]]'s Mark Green. Actually happens to many of the characters, but he really stands out.
* [[
* Arguably Izzie Stevens in [[
* Kurt Hummel from ''[[
* Dr. Jack "Boomer" Morrison in ''[[St. Elsewhere]]''. Let's see. His wife dies, his son gets kidnapped (though later returned), he gets raped while volunteering in a prison infirmary, the rapist breaks out of prison and comes after him, his girlfriend aborts his baby over his objections... when does anything go right for Boomer?
== Music ==
* The [[Weird Al]] song "One of Those Days" describes, y'know, [[Exactly What It Says
* [[The Police]] have two songs about this: "On Any Other Day" is [[Played for Laughs]], and "Synchronicity II" is [[Played for Drama]].
** Synchronicity II is definitely [[Played for Laughs]]. If it was a serious song, there wouldn't be reference to the Loch Ness Monster and Rice Krispies, of all things.
* The Half Man Half Biscuit song "National Shite Day" may be the apotheosis of this trope. The first line is "Pulling the ice axe from my leg, I staggered on," indicating that before the story has even properly begun, the narrator has managed to get a mountaineering tool lodged in his leg. It gets worse...
* Happens to [[The Woobie|2D]] in [[Gorillaz]]. Ran over by [[Complete Monster|Murdoc]], causing his eyeball to fracture and him to become comatose. He's then put in the care of Murdoc, who crashes the car again and fractures 2D's other eyeball as well as waking him up. Since then he's been constantly verbally and physically abused by Murdoc (including brutal beatings and chloroforming, both of which have also been seen during during an iTunes interview), who also had an affair with 2D's girlfriend at the time, and he's gotten addicted to painkillers because of it. ''Then'' after the band splits up he's kidnapped by, guess who, Murdoc, who then stops him leaving the island they're on by having a whale guard his room, knowing that 2D is deathly scared of them. Oh, and his [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|his real name is "Stu-Pot"]]. During most of the latest ''Plastic Beach'' arc he's ended up as a Type C, curled up in a fetal position in his room and freaking out about the whale just outside.
** He's also become more of a Type E, as this has finally made him realise that [[Captain Obvious|Murdoc is neither his friend nor a good person]].
== Radio ==
* The Bebop-a-Rebop Rhubarb Pie [[Parody Advertisement|fake ads]] in ''[[A Prairie Home Companion]]'' tend to [[Enforced Plug|appear with barely any rhyme or reason]] after a tale of increasingly (and hilariously) improbable and bad events, told in Garrison Keillor's completely deadpan style in the second person. The suggestion of pie is generally made when you are at the brink of death or [[A Fate Worse Than Death|something worse]], making this both a parody of the
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Warhammer
** Magnus the Red didn't exactly have it easy either, and was not only essentially forced to participate in aforementioned Heresy because of it, but the very reason he did so - to save his Legion - was make utterly pointless soon afterwards. All [[Gambit Roulette|Just as Planned]] for [[Manipulative Bastard|Tzeentch]].
== Theater ==
* [[Miss Saigon]]: Parents killed in a military attack. Forced to work as a prostitute in order to support herself (this is how she loses her virginity). There's a brief [[Hope Spot]] when she meets a nice soldier who falls in love with her and plans to take her back to America with
== Video Games ==
* Setsuko Ohara of ''[[Super Robot Wars]] Z'' is constantly subjected to this. Amongst things that befell on her includes: {{spoiler|Seeing her chief get killed, separated with her only teammate, only for him to come back and shortly after get killed, and then shortly after she herself gets physically and psychologically abused while screaming for help and nobody could save her (implied to be raped), then she sees someone impersonating her dead friend just to spite on her, then the [[Alternate Universe]] version of her dead friend and chief were manipulated that she was behind all the mess she and the world having... All done by a single person called Asakim Dowen.}} Depending on the player's choice, she may raise into the type A, or dwindle into type C {{spoiler|where she ends up losing her sense of taste and slowly dying}}.
* Solid Snake of the ''[[Metal Gear]]'' series. Ohhh god. A few of the more memorable events that happen to
** And Big Boss before him. Betrayed by his mentor; captured and loses an eye during a torture session; forced to kill his not-really-rogue mentor for political reasons; betrayed by his lover EVA; betrayed by the CIA. Forms a powerful conspiracy to ensure this will never happen again, but its members begin to fight among themselves. Leaves the conspiracy in disgust, fully commits to option B and takes up arms against the United States {{spoiler|and its true masters: The Patriots that he helped found.}}
* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'': Before the game even ''starts'', Cloud Strife has already: (1) endured a lonely, alienated childhood; (2) Being wrongfully held responsible for putting his childhood crush, the major's daughter in a coma by the major and everyone in the town (3) been told he's not good enough to become a SOLDIER; (4) watched his hero Sephiroth destroy his hometown, kill his mother and nearly murder both his childhood crush Tifa and his good friend Zack; (5) suffered over four years of sadistic experimentation from a [[Mad Scientist]] which reduces him to a vegetative Type C; and finally (6) helplessly watched Zack die in a gutwrenching [[Bolivian Army Ending|heroic last stand]] to protect him. After all this, Cloud suffers a very understandable case of [[Trauma
** ''Advent Children'' throws him back into C (not vegetative this time, but still giving up) by giving him, and the orphans he was taking care of at the time, a deadly disease, time to think about the promises he'd failed to keep and the lives he failed to save and also giving Sephiroth the time to [[Troll]] him through the earlier mentioned deadly disease. He seems to have snapped out of it by the time ''Dirge of Cerberus'' roles around though.
* The tie-in-comic [[Backstory]] of Darion Mograine, from ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. His brother murders his father, his father gets [[Brainwashed and Crazy|converted]] into a Death Knight, Darion tries to save him without knowing what's happened and is too locked up in horror and disbelief to [["I Know You
* Archer from ''[[Fate/stay
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'':
** Xion in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
** Roxas too, for a lot of the same reasons as above actually, and more. The poor guy has no memories, all he knows is that he can use a Keyblade and it's important he kill Heartless. When he asks questions of his allies to try and figure out the things he ought to know but doesn't, they treat him like an idiot for that reason. At least Xion eventually figured out that the Organization was using both of them, Roxas doesn't clue in until practically the end of the game and thus spends most of his single year of life working for people who exploit his abilities and plan to kill him once they're done with him. The only ''really'' happy time in his life is the last week, when he's implanted with fake memories and is imprisoned in a virtual reality simulation - and once that week is up, {{spoiler|he merges back with Sora.}}
** But first the poor kid had to find out it was all a big lie in the worst way possible. I say again, poor kid.
** The protagonists of ''[[Birth By Sleep]]'' don't fare much better. Special mention goes to Terra, who is tricked by villains (going so far as being possessed and stealing somebody's heart in his ''very first world'') and the game's big bad at every turn, manipulated into believing his friends have left him, manipulated into letting the darkness in, tricked by the villains some more, has a nice brief stop-off at Destiny Islands with a nice little Heartwarming Moment, then inadvertently causes the death of someone he loves, is smacked around a lot in the first part of the final battle and finally {{spoiler|has his body stolen by the big bad at the end of the game}}, with it being implied he's been fighting for control since the end of Birth by Sleep. Ventus doesn't fare much better, having {{spoiler|his Heart ripped in two to create Vanitas}} before the game even begins and ends the game {{spoiler|with his heart being separated from his body after a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to destroy the in-story [[Infinity
** Add to the two above that {{spoiler|Roxas}} is pretty heavily implied by [[Word of God]] to be kind of an incarnation of {{spoiler|Ventus}} and you get the most screwed up existence in the history of existences. Jesus, Nomura, give the poor kid a break!
* Aribeth gets this thrown at her in [[Neverwinter Nights]] and the expansions, leading to a [[Heel Face Revolving Door]] and at various points reactions according to Types A, B, and D.
* A small part of the plot of ''[[
** Special mention to Billy Lee Black who, in addition to his already tragic backstory, goes through an unbelievable amount of crap in less than ''24 in-game hours'' as summarized [http://lparchive.org/Xenogears-(by-The-Dark-Id)/Update%2074/ here].
* Rondo of Swords has a type E in one of the playthroughs. After all Serdic goes through he finally breaks after a [[Friend Or Idol]] decision that ends up in favor of the idol. Now while Serdic does lose a lot of his of warmth and idealism, [[Knight in Sour Armor|his ethics and morals don't really change]]. At the end of the game he does rediscover love again and has a peaceful, prosperous reign as king.
* After half a game of staying cheerful and upbeat [[Angst? What Angst?|desipte the numerous atrocities he witnesses]], main character Jude of ''[[Wild
** Hell, {{spoiler|him becoming a forest ranger in the Epilogue}} was probably his way of ''getting away from it all''.
* In ''[[Silent Hill]]'', the Trauma Train has pulled out of the station [[Late to
* In ''[[
* ''[[God of War (
* Phoenix is a type F in ''[[Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
* Fou-lu in ''[[Breath of Fire]] IV'' is marched down a Type B/Type D
** Oh, and the [[Vestigial Empire]] that summoned Fou-lu in the first place buggered up the summoning, resulting in the god being split in twain and each half of the [[Literal Split Personality]] ending up on opposite sides of the world and temporally displaced 600 years. It's also outright stated that the Fou Empire and its [[Vestigial Empire]] predecessor the Muuru Empire still have not managed how to learn to summon a god in one piece and are involuntarily yanking the entities the world knows as "gods" from their own lives. (Yes, Fou-lu's
* ''[[
** Add the [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|cheating AI]] into the mix and watch anyone who suffers all the above plus the AI crumble into a Type C.
* In ''[[
** Tali has this happen in full force during her loyalty mission in ''[[
* {{spoiler|Faize Sheifa Beleth}} from ''[[Star Ocean:
* The [[Cerebus Syndrome|Bad Boys]] [[Wham! Episode|Love route]] of ''[[
== Webcomics ==
* ''[[
** It seems every almost every update from 1/24/11 onward is dedicated to crushing Karkat.
** Let's just say everyone who isn't [[Dead for Real|a permanant resident of the dreambubbles]], [[Omnicidal Maniac|Jack Noir]], or [[Eldritch Abomination|LORD ENGLISH]] is having one really bad day/week/million-billion years.
** That's not to mention WV. He gets his innocent farm burned down dozens of times, begins a rebellion and watches helplessly as [[Big Bad|Jack]] [[Omnicidal Maniac|Noir]] slaughters every single one of his soldiers. Then, after he parts ways with John, Jack blows up a ship he happens to be riding in, sending him to a post-apocalyptic Earth, that's merely a gigantic desolate desert. He's not done yet. As things FINALLY begin to look up for him when he meets the other exiles, he watches at John gets killed in front of his eyes, gets trapped in a capsule, dreams that he's become Noir - his worst nightmare - only to wake up and realize the embodiment is in front of him. {{spoiler|Jack then proceeds to rip a chunk of uranium out of his stomach, nearly killing him.}} It's yet to be seen whether the conga line will continue.
* ''[http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/great.html Great]'': "Lousy" doesn't even ''begin'' to describe the main character's [[Diabolus Ex Machina|introduction]]. {{spoiler|It appears that he gets better.}}
* Vaarsuvius from ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' since the end of the Azure City arc. First, [[Ambiguous Gender|he/she]]<sup><ref>for convinience, I use 'he' from now on</ref></sup> feels guilty that the battle is lost and the party is split, trying desperately to contact them, [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0504.html failing every time]. He is haunted by [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0623.html bad dreams] because of his failure to save Azure City. Then he gets his family threatened, which results in a [[Deal
== Web Original ==
* Shandala of ''[[Broken Saints]]'' fame, whose biography reads like something off of the [[It Got Worse]] page. Washed ashore on a Fijian island and adopted by the tribe, her childhood was peaceful and idyllic until her adoptive mother was viciously murdered and mutilated by white strangers {{spoiler|under the command of (and possibly personally led by) the [[Big Bad]]}}. Then, as an adult, she reluctantly leaves her home and family and all that she loves to find the truth about her biological parents. Then, her adoptive brother Tui {{spoiler|is accidentally killed due to an [[Buffy
* Ayla Goodkind (Phase) of the [[Whateley Universe]]. In a massive [[Break the Haughty]] event, Phase goes from an incredibly wealthy heir to the biggest fortune on the planet to a despised mutant intersexed freak who is turned over to a [[Mad Scientist]] by ''his own parents'' and on getting out ends up living in a basement. On going to [[Super
* Part of what makes [[
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* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': ''Zuko'' and how! First his mother leaves (to save him no less), then he gets challenged to an Agni Kai by his own father who burns and disowns owns him, then he gets sent on a [[Snipe Hunt]] after the Avatar. During said quest how much happens to our poor banished prince? And then when he finally gives up that quest he has to take a lightning bolt in the chest to save one of his friend's life. He lives through it ''barely''.
** He was even destined to take on all that trauma from birth, {{spoiler|being a direct bloodline to both the fire lord who started the war and the Avatar who opposed him. His destiny was basically to take on all the horrible influences from his father and co. and all the positive influences from his uncle and the avatar, and come out of it with the understanding necessary to make the right decisions and have the right credentials to be the fire lord the world needed to rule the fire nation in the wake of the Avatars defeat of Ozai.}} In a way all this trauma molds him into a much more complex character than the Avatar and allows him to fill a role that the Aang could not, which ends up being almost as important or maybe even as important as Aangs own role in the story.
* ''[[
== Real Life ==
* The surviving crew of the [
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_C._Frank Jackson C. Frank]'s story. A major [[Tear Jerker]] indeed.▼
And just to polish things off, when people started demanding to know why the ship went missing for so long without being looked for, the Navy made a scapegoat of the ship's C.O., Capt. Charles McVay; court-martialing and convicting him of putting his ship "in harm's way" via his failure to maintain a "zig-zag" sail pattern. They even went so far as to call the Japanese sub commander that sank him as a witness (Who pretty much called the "zig-zag" pattern useless). McVay was the only ship's captain in the U.S. Fleet to lose a ship and be court-martialed for it. (He committed suicide in 1968).
▲* [
* Haiti before and after the earthquake. Major tearjerker for those who don't know this already.
* Speaking of natural disasters, New Orleans. First the levees break during Hurricane Katrina killing over a thousand people and leaving countless others homeless and suffering from physical and mental ailments, then the government's response is worse than that of the Boxing Day Tsunami and the Haiti earthquake, then speculators use the destruction to get rid of homes and schools for the displaced poor black community, [[Hope Spot|then they win the Super Bowl]], [[It Got Worse|and then the BP oil disaster kills 11 people and craters the fishing industry]].
{{quote|
* One of the survivors of the Deepwater Horizon oil drill disaster made an escape that sounds almost fictional: The initial explosion sent a three-inch thick metal fire door slamming into him, and as soon as he was able to free himself ''another'' explosion sent ''another'' door straight into him, pinning him to the wall ''again''. By that point he was starting to get angry. After watching all their fire drills go to waste by everyone panicking, he plunged two or three stories into the ocean which allowed him time to think about the fact that he had jumped from a place that wasn't on fire into the ocean, which was. When he got over being stunned by hitting the water, ''hard'', he realized he wasn't dead because he felt a burning sensation all over his body; fortunately he wasn't on fire.
* Wilmer McLean was the owner of the farm that the Civil War battle know as The First Battle of Bull Run took place on. After the Confederates commandeered his house for a headquarters his kitchen was destroyed by a Union cannon ball. After the battle Wilmer decided to move to protect his family and because the proximity of the Union Army was making business difficult for him. He moved near the Appatomattox court house. Robert E. Lee officially surrendered to union general Ulysses S. Grant in Wilmer's parlor. After the signing of the surrender members of the Army looted all his furniture for souvenirs.
* On [[World War II|August 6th, 1945,]] [
* In 2008, a sixteen-year-old cheerleader from Silsbee High in Texas was sexually assaulted by a football star at the school. While the attacker was initially charged, he admitted to misdemeanor assault and served no jail time, instead ending up with a fine, community service and mandatory anger management classes. Silsbee did not suspend or expel him, even continued to allow him to play on the team, whilst telling the girl that she should keep a low profile and avoid attending school-related social events. After being advised by her counselors not to give up on activities she loved, she continued to cheer. At a game in 2009, she remained silent during his free throw, understandably refusing to gleefully chant "put it in!" at her attacker...which got her kicked off the squad. She and her family sued the school for violating her free speech rights, a case which was denied earlier this year on the grounds of being a frivolous lawsuit. Her family is now being ordered to pay $45,000 in legal fees.
* You live in San Bernardino during the late '80s. A runaway train crashes into your neighbourhood at 100
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Heel Face Index]]
[[Category:Example As a Thesis]]▼
[[Category:Sadness Tropes]]
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