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Break the Cutie/Literature: Difference between revisions
Moved the "Warrior Cats" entry to the "Warrior Cats" subpage, moved other multi-example works to the top of the page with their own headers
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== Subpages ==
{{subpages}}
== ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' ==
*
== ''[[Harry Potter]]'' ==
* The ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series is basically an extended, attempted [[Break the Cutie]] for Harry, beginning with the deaths of his parents, his upbringing by his abusive aunt and uncle, and his repeated run-ins with Lord Voldemort. It's made worse by the rest of the Wizarding world not being able to decide if he's a hero they should support or if he's just a bratty, coddled attention whore (an attitude which even his best friend shared at one point).▼
** Really, I mean he saw his mother murdered when he was only a baby, then was shipped to abusive/neglectful relatives where he had been told that he should have died with his parents, constantly. Then he goes to Hogwarts where his ideal life of Magic is destroyed and he gets so much mental trauma that it's hilarious, getting attacked by a professor physically one of the ''least'' worst things to happen to him at that school. Then at 14 16 he watched {{spoiler|a classmate and his godfather die}} pretty much by his own fault. Then finds out that {{spoiler|he and Voldie have a kill or be killed thing going on.}}. And it keeps going on and on until the bright little boy who was awed by magic and wanted acceptance to an even-more mentally scared teenager who was pretty much destroyed and knew that he actually had to {{spoiler|die}} to save the 'world!'▼
{{quote|'''Harry:''' Hogwarts? It's not the place you left, you know. It's not the same.▼
'''Luna:''' Neither am I. }}▼
== ''[[The Hunger Games]]'' ==
*
== ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' ==
* Both of the Stark daughters, [[Tomboy and Girly Girl|Arya and Sansa]]. Arya lives on the run as a [[Street Urchin]], sees her father, mother and older brother die without being able to do anything to stop such deaths, progressively falls into insanity and is taken in by a murderous cult; Sansa is abused by almost every person she trusts, witnesses several horrific machinations and has to put on a [[Jerkass Facade|bitch facade]] to survive.
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* These books are pretty much 'break everyone', Arya and Sansa just happen to be the only available cuties.
* In the fifth book, {{spoiler|Sansa's friend Jeyne Poole, who is perhaps even more idealistic than Sansa,}} is married off to the [[Bastard Bastard|Bastard of Bolton]]. Rape only begins to describe what follows.
== ''[[Valdemar]]'' ==
{{quote|"The Lackey patented formula for success—make your audience identify with and care deeply for a character then drop a mountain on him!"}}▼
== Other Examples ==
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* The Marquis de Sade loved this, unsurprisingly. ''[[Justine]]'' is an entire novel devoted to this, and without even a hint of sympathy for the character. [[Squick]]!
* Darren Shan from ''[[The Saga of Darren Shan]]'' goes from being unwilling to even drink blood to {{spoiler|very nearly killing Darius, only stopping when he discovers he's his nephew.}}
▲* {{spoiler|Thomas}} of ''[[The Dresden Files]]''. If you thought the mess with Justine was bad {{spoiler|wait until you find out what the skinwalker did...}}
▲** What about what the {{spoiler|Denarians}} did to {{spoiler|Ivy/The Archive}} on the island to try and break her. Granted, it wasn't to the scope of the above, but Harry said something along the lines of {{spoiler|it being petty, cruel and to a kid, the very picture of horror.}}
▲** Don't forget Murphy. This is slightly subverted by the fact that Murphy is a [[Badass]] to begin with, but by Ghost Story {{spoiler|she's completely and utterly broken. She's functional, but only just.}} This is contrasted by {{spoiler|Molly. She looks more broken than Murphy, but is actually much more sane.}}
* Most of ''[[A Little Princess]]'' is devoted to breaking Sara Crewe. From being the richest, cleverest, and most beloved student at her [[Boarding School]], she goes to a friendless and penniless servant after her father dies -- with the news delivered in the middle of her birthday party. The servants and especially Miss Minchin all try their best to break her from that point on. {{spoiler|Sara never breaks, but she does cool off and become much more distant and withdrawn, and almost breaks at one point.}}
* Meredith Host from the book ''[[Friday the 13th]]: Church of the Divine Psychopath'', who's bubbly, innocent and just seems perpetually happy, actually managing to befriend the [[The Ladette|surly]] [[Final Girl]] of the book. Things quickly degenerate when she witnesses her parents be butchered in front of her by Jason, with [[Complete Monster|the leader]] of the [[Religion of Evil|mad Jason-worshipping cult]] they were apart of (thought it was just a regular church group) saying they deserved it; she also winds up dealing with lots of self-hate over being a closet lesbian due to her religious upbringing and near the end winds up [[Attempted Rape|almost being raped]] by one of the aforementioned mad cultists, who had grown steadily more obsessed with her. Though she's saved at the last minute by one the soldiers sent out to track down and kill Jason [[Kill the Cutie|she still dies quite horribly]] when Jason randomly shows up seconds later and splits her head open before the soldier can even get a shot at him.
* Morn Hyland of Donaldson's ''Gap Cycle'' begins the series as a barely of-age, beautiful young soldier. She is subjected first to "Gap sickness," then to violent sexual abuse (resulting in being impregnated by her repulsive, insane abuser), then to horrific psychological abuse, while possessing a brain implant with a remote control that could grant unspeakable power over her to any of the many sociopathic people around her if they were to get hold of it. Her son is "force-grown" to a young teenager and implanted with all of her memories (including being raped by his father), resulting in a multiple [[Mind Screw]] for him as well.
* Lev in ''[[Unwind]]''.
* Diana Mayo in ''[[The Sheik]]''. The titular character hates the English {{spoiler|because his father is actually an Englishman who was very abusive of his mother}}, and he kidnaps her and rapes her with the aim of breaking her just because he can. [[Values Dissonance|She later falls in love with him.]]
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* The [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] ''loves'' doing this to former companions. Susan? Her husband was killed in front of her by the Master. Dodo? Came away borderline-insane with a venereal disease, [[Back for the Dead|and that's not the end of it.]] Victoria? Was possessed by a [[Cosmic Horror]] for twenty years and ended up unable to form relationships. Zoe? Wasted her life working for [[Bad Boss|a boss straight out of]] [[Dilbert]] and had nightmares every night for decades. Jo? Ended up as a divorced single mother wondering where it all went wrong (though ''Sarah Jane Adventures'' says otherwise). Tegan? Nervous breakdown and amnesia. Peri? Backstory filled with childhood abuse, and her marriage explicitly stated to be loveless.
** This could be said to apply to the Eighth Doctor, as well. In the [[Made for TV Movie]], as he has amnesia, he basically proves that [[Rousseau Was Right]] -- he's a sweet [[Ditzy Genius]] who [[The Messiah|attempts to help out three people who all screwed him over repeatedly]]. (Seriously, Grace, why would you ever try to have a man with [[They Would Cut You Up|two hearts]] put on the psych ward?!) In the [[Big Finish]] audios, he turns into the Gallifreyan [[Things That Go Bump in the Night|bogeyman]] and other unpleasant things happen. In the [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] novels... most of the people he loves die (and only one of them [[Replacement Goldfish|comes back]]), [[Real Men Get Shot|he gets hurt all the time]], he gets amnesia again and rather than snog a pretty lady in [[San Francisco]], this time he ends up [[Walking the Earth]] alone for a hundred years... in a bit of a subversion, he certainly gets a bit more cynical and [[Stoic Woobie|stoic]], but he maintains ''most'' of his original cheerful personality.
*** This is also the
* In the book ''This Rag And Bone Shop,'' a little girl turns up murdered in the woods. The last person to see her was an older boy (the girl being his ''only'' friend in the world), the Cutie in this tale, and was interrogated by a [[Jerkass]] cop for ''hours,'' and forced through his horrible mind-games. After nearly an entire day passes, in which the cop practically [[Mind Rape|mind-rapes]] him, accuses him of killing his only friend, and doing a damn good job of breaking an already-cracked Cutie, the boy tearfully confesses to murdering her. {{spoiler|But the twist is, he ''didn't'' kill her; the girl's brother did. The poor boy is so utterly ruined and broken, reduced to a sobbing wreck by the end of the day, that he was willing to say anything to make it stop. The cop feels terrible guilt upon finding out, and seeing the boy's now-dead-looking eyes...and the end of the story has the boy thinking that if he's been called a murderer once, why not murder? And he takes a butcher knife from the kitchen, goes to the park...}}
* Hannah Baker from ''Thirteen Reasons Why''. Hannah suffers from a number of incidents, some minor (a friend blaming Hannah for unknowingly being used to get revenge on her, a guy she trusted stealing her poem and publishing it in his school newsletter, a boy spreading rumours that their relationship, which never went further than making out, was much more) and some major (failing to {{spoiler|prevent a rape}}, being sexually harassed and {{spoiler|later raped by the same person}}) which finally ends in her committing suicide.
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** ''If Tomorrow Comes'' -- Tracy Whitney is engaged to be married to one of the most eligible bachelors in Philadelphia, but then her mother commits suicide after being ruined by a mobster. Her attempt to right this wrong results in a near-rape, false accusations of attempted murder and actual theft, and -- thanks to a crooked lawyer -- a sentence that condemns her to a hellish prison for fiteen years. Her fiance turns his back on her, she has no family left, and she's pregnant...until an assault behind bars leads to a miscarriage ''and'' her being sent to solitary confinement. During her time there, she swears her [[Revenge]] on those who ruined her...
* ''[[The Sparrow]]'': Emilio Sandoz starts the book broken. The rest of the novel shows how he got that way.
▲* The [[Harry Potter]] series is basically an extended, attempted [[Break the Cutie]] for Harry, beginning with the deaths of his parents, his upbringing by his abusive aunt and uncle, and his repeated run-ins with Lord Voldemort. It's made worse by the rest of the Wizarding world not being able to decide if he's a hero they should support or if he's just a bratty, coddled attention whore (an attitude which even his best friend shared at one point).
▲** Really, I mean he saw his mother murdered when he was only a baby, then was shipped to abusive/neglectful relatives where he had been told that he should have died with his parents, constantly. Then he goes to Hogwarts where his ideal life of Magic is destroyed and he gets so much mental trauma that it's hilarious, getting attacked by a professor physically one of the ''least'' worst things to happen to him at that school. Then at 14 16 he watched {{spoiler|a classmate and his godfather die}} pretty much by his own fault. Then finds out that {{spoiler|he and Voldie have a kill or be killed thing going on.}}. And it keeps going on and on until the bright little boy who was awed by magic and wanted acceptance to an even-more mentally scared teenager who was pretty much destroyed and knew that he actually had to {{spoiler|die}} to save the 'world!'
▲*** Other broken cuties in the series: [[Took a Level in Badass|Neville Longbottom]], [[Broken Bird|Ginny Weasley]], [[Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold|Sirius Black]], {{spoiler|[[Took a Level in Jerkass|Severus]] [[Knight in Sour Armor|Snape]], though you'd have to employ a ''very'' broad definition of "cutie" in his case}}, [[Eccentric Mentor|Dumbledore]]... Put it this way: Rowling enjoys breaking cuties almost as much as she likes [[Jerkass|jerkasses]] and [[The Woobie|woobies]].
▲** Luna Lovegood as well. She's introduced as this innocent, open-minded fourth year who believes in nargles and wrackspurts, but at the end of that year, she ends up in the battle in the Department of Mysteries. Not forgetting to mention that in the Deathly Hallows, she was captured by Death Eaters and kept in a cellar for months. This deleted scene from the Deathly Hallows Part Two:
▲{{quote|'''Harry:''' Hogwarts? It's not the place you left, you know. It's not the same.
▲'''Luna:''' Neither am I. }}
▲* [[The Hunger Games]] series brings us Peeta Mellark, the sweet, friendly baker's son. Who is promptly forced into a deadly TV competition, loses a leg, finds out his love interest was playing for the cameras, is forced into ANOTHER deadly competition, and then {{spoiler|is captured by the government, who torture him and alter his memories}} so he'll pretty much never be the same person he used to be. Yeeeeeah.
▲** Not to mention the heroine / narrator, Katniss. There's not enough bandwidth in the universe to list what the poor girl goes through, starting with {{spoiler|losing her father in a mine accident}} and finishing {{spoiler|physically broken, covered in scars and lacking a spleen, her sister dead, racked with guilt, hating the whole human race including herself, in a near catatonic state and rejecting her one childhood friend, perhaps with good reason}}, with just about everything bad happening in between these two points.
▲** Honestly, you can pick any cutie in the series, and if they aren't dead by the end of it they've been ground into a fine emotional powder.
▲** Talia in ''Arrow's Fall.''
▲** Vanyel in ''The Last Herald-Mage.''
▲** [[Mercedes Lackey]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20130317063743/http://www.firebirdarts.com/mercedeslackey/chapters/myste.html brags about it]:
▲{{quote|"The Lackey patented formula for success—make your audience identify with and care deeply for a character then drop a mountain on him!"}}
* This was pretty much [[The House of Tudor|Charles Dickens]]' ''modus operandi'' in his books. Read ''Bleak House, Oliver Twist,'' or ''Great Expectations''. Even though his protagonists are living in a [[Crapsack World]], Dickens heaps progressively more manure on them and then creates a happy ending by having something ''mildly'' good happen to them, which in isolation looks like a massive copout.
* Artyom, in ''[[Metro 2033]]''. He sets out [[Hero's Journey|on a journey]] from his home station of ВДНХ/VDNKh, and ends up seeing just ''how far'' the human race has fallen. {{spoiler|[[It Got Worse|Needless to say,]] [[Downer Ending|he doesn't get a happy ending.]]}}
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** Subverted in [[The Film of the Book]], where {{spoiler|Vika simply [[Plucky Girl|doesn't break]], instead causing the bullies (her "friend" first and foremost) to be deeply ashamed of themselves.}} Instead it's her friend who is broken by experience, though he does get a valuable lesson from it.
* ''[[The Name of the Wind]]'' and its sequels are basically the story of how the main character went from being a cute, happy eleven year old to a young man waiting for death.
▲** Nico di Angelo: Starts out as a cheery, nerdy ten year old then his sister {{spoiler|dies}} and he runs away, then get manipulated by a ghost and trapped in the Labyrinth. He learns that he will never be accepted because he's the son of {{spoiler|Hades}} . When he's twelve he is learns of {{spoiler|his mother's death at the hands of Zeus and the curse that Hades put on the Oracle. Hades then says that he'd rather have had Nico die instead of Bianca. When he's 13, he finds out that Bianca was reborn without telling him. Then he gets kidnapped by Gaea.}} Break the cutie indeed.
* [[Break the Cutie]]: A very disturbing example from ''Dune: House Harkonnen'' is the prolonged and violent forced prostitution (and eventual [[Kill the Cutie|murder]]) of Gurney Halleck's gentle younger sister Bheth. First she is kidnapped by the Harkonnens for trying to protect her brother. Then they cut out her larynx so she can't do more than scream wordlessly. Next she is subjected to 6 years (starting at age 17) of sadistic rape and torture by a recorded 4620 Harkonnan soldiers. Rabban finally kills her in retribution of Gurney's attempt on his life.
* In ''[[The Heritage of Shannara]]'', [[Big Bad]] Rimmer Dall does his best to break Par Ohmsford's mind so that he can bypass his mental and magical defences, and seize control of his body. It's not a pretty thing to watch, and it nearly works, with Par spiralling into near schizophrenic madness before the end.
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