Scars Are Forever: Difference between revisions

Akin to a [[Traumatic Haircut]], but more [[Beauty to Beast|grisly]] and more permanent, the injuries serve as a constant reminder of their sacrifice or failure.

 

 

A few magical series may have the [[Healing Hands]] to completely cure or regenerate these wounds, but an author set on [[Cosmic Plaything|hurting their characters]] can find ways to avoid removing them. A few choose to keep them, or discover the wound is cursed, or is too old to heal. Losing the scar can be just as momentous as well; there are wounds that "[[The Power of Love|only love can heal]]" and will only be healed once an [[Epiphany Therapy|epiphany]] is reached.

 

 

See also [[Death By Origin Story]], [[Every Scar Has a Story]] and [[Scar Survey]].

 

Often [[Achey Scars]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* Mina's scars in ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'', legacy of her encounter with Dracula. Far from being the discreet little hole punches of legend, her entire neck is ravaged. She always covers them up with a scarf and- {{spoiler|until she and Allan start their affair}}- believes she's now so hideous no man could want to touch her.

** She actually still has them after {{spoiler|being rejuvenated and made immortal.}} Allan keeps some scars after this as well -- he theorizes that they were restored to their physical primes, with any damages incurred prior to that point left as is.

* Several ''[[Love and Rockets]]'' characters, especially Casimira, who lost her arm when she was accidentally shot as a child, and Khamo, who was horribly burned when he tried to save his lover [[Tonantz Ã]]­n from burning herself alive.

* Katchoo in ''[[Strangers in Paradise]]'' has Z-shaped scars on her wrists, presumably from a [[Bungled Suicide|suicide attempt]], but there is no official explanation in canon. Tambi seems to have scars everywhere except on her face, but the criss-crossing ones on her hands are the most obvious. There is a canonical explanation for ''her'' scars: {{spoiler|she used to [[Self Harm|cut herself]] to while in the employ of [[Bad Boss|Darcy Parker]].}}.

*** Its implied that Sauron's evil means he is incapable of removing the marks of severe injuries (or possibly, injuries [[Red Right Hand|inflicted by a righteous cause]]). For example, when Numenor was destroyed for its blasphemy by the wrath of God, Sauron was present there in his beautiful form. After its destruction, he was never again able to assume a form that was not terrifying. Same goes for [[Eviler Than Thou|Morgoth]], who received numerous injuries to his body and foot during his duel with Fingolfin, as well as having his face slashed by one of Manwë's eagles, and is described as being troubled by the scars ever afterward, as well as walking with a limp.

* [[JRR Tolkien (Creator)|JRR Tolkien]] also had Beren lose his hand permanently.

* In Ian Watson's novel ''Queenmagic, Kingmagic'', injuries inflicted by magic can only be healed by personally killing the magician who injured you. If someone else happens to kill them first, you're stuck with a permanently unhealed injury for the rest of your life. This can be very nasty if it's something like a broken arm or fractured skull.

* Eragon got a scar on his back in ''[[The Inheritance Cycle]]''. {{spoiler|However, it is later removed by powerful magic.}}

** Then there's Logen Ninefingers (no explanation required), Jezal, Ferro... and pretty much everyone else.

* [[X Wing Series|Garik "Face" Loran]], child actor working for Imperial recruitment, picks up a scar during a botched Imperial raid on an (unsanctioned) Rebel attempt to kill him. He could've had it removed, of course, through [[Applied Phlebotinum|bacta treatment]], but he keeps it for years, as [[The Atoner|a reminder]] of the harm he did indirectly. {{spoiler|After Ton Phanan dies, a provision in his will requires Face to remove the scar (which he does, though he keeps a fake one for a while), which is in turn symbolic of Phanan's help convincing Face that he really shouldn't feel guilty about it.}}

* The vampire Risika in Amelia Atwater-Rhodes' ''In The Forests of the Night'' has a scar that was made centuries ago with a magical knife. Although she has since grown powerful enough to hide it, she still wears it as a symbol of her hatred of the vampire who gave it to her.

* Hester Shaw from ''Mortal Engines'' is hideously scarred thanks to Thaddeus Valentine trying to kill her as a baby. It shaped her career as an assassin and is the principal reason why she is so screwed up, angry and violent.

** The author Sarah Monette seems especially fond of this trope, it appears again in ''Companion to Wolves'' cowritten by her and Elizabeth Bear when both the protagonist and several secondary characters are badly scarred.

* [[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]] is missing [[Expy|an eye and an arm]], though prosthetics means that this isn't usually an issue, and is occasionally a hidden advantage, like when she uses the gun hidden in her finger to {{spoiler|stop an assassination attempt}}.

* Jasper from Stephenie Meyers' ''[[Twilight (Literature)|Twilight]]'' has numerous vampire bite marks on his body and Bella {{spoiler|has a small scar on her hand where she was bitten by James, the tracker vampire}}

** Sam Uley's fiance, Emily, has three long, red scars running down the side of her face, a result of an unintentional attack by Sam, contorting her face slightly.

*** He's not thrilled; he just found it funny in a blackly comic way, and only when Ocelot mentions the resemblance later. When he actually lost it he was pretty annoyed.

** We see how his father lost his eye in the prequel game ''Metal Gear Solid 3'', where it gets burned by the muzzle flash of a gun. Like Solidus he too has problems with it, his depth perception thrown off for quite a while afterwards. He also ends up with the same blind spot issue, indicated by the blackened section of the screen when aiming in first-person.

** Several other characters also have distinctive scars. Drebin on the left side of his head, Zero across his left eye, The Boss on her chest, and Volgin across his entire face.

* Despite being quite darned hard to kill, single-handedly conquering the world, (un)living some thousand years and evolving past his human form, the titular character of ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'' carries a scar from the sword that killed him.

** Zaeed has a huge scar and a discolored eye from when he was shot in the head at point-blank range and [[Determinator|managed to survive through sheer badassery]]. And [[Badass Bookworm|Mordin]] has a prominent X-shaped scar on one side of his face and half a cranial horn missing. Jack also noticeably has a number of scars mixed in with her full-body tattoos.

*** Erm, [[Badass|Garrus Vakarian]] anyone? He takes a missile to the face and boy does it leave a mark (oddly enough, this trope applies to his armour too, which he leaves damaged, presumably to make him even more intimidating).

** Given his personality, Sigma likely sees them as symbolic of his war, and has them purposefully added to his new faces.

** Another prominent example is Bass.exe from [[Megaman Battle Network]]. Being a Net Navi, and there fore made of data, he could have repaired that scar across his [[Chest Insignia|Navi Symbol]] any time he liked, but he got it in the first place when The Official Net Battlers were sent to delete him due to the (false) belief that he was the one responsible for the damage caused by the Alpha Rebellion, and he was told the decision to delete him was unanimous among Sci Lab's scientists, [[Kick the Dog|which included his own creator.]] So he keeps the scar, to symbolize this betrayal and to remind him why he thinks [[Humans Are Bastards]].