History DarkAndTroubledPast / FanWorks

* ''Fanfic/LivingInAFrogWorld'': Frank Ramirez's life turned upside-down when he was accused of [[spoiler:stealing a pair of shoes that somebody had dropped over a bridge on top of him]]. The store manager knew right away that he was innocent; however, her boss [[CassandraTruth didn't believe either of them]], and forced her to testify against Frank or else lose her job. Even worse, his ''parents'' refused to believe in his innocence. He spent ten months in juvenile hall, while Anne and her friends learned what happened when gossip spread around the school. Finanical troubles forced his parents to sell their house, moving into a rented apartment. When he got out, Principal Murphy was barred from letting him back into school by the Superintendent ([[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections Maggie's father]]), who insisted that Frank was dangerous and shouldn't be around ''normal'' kids. Not wanting to burden his parents any further, Frank moved in with his grandmother after her husband passed away.

* ''Fanfic/LivingInAFrogWorld'': Frank's life turned upside-down when he was accused of [[spoiler:stealing a pair of shoes that somebody had dropped over a bridge on top of him]]. The store manager knew right away that he was innocent; however, her boss [[CassandraTruth didn't believe either of them]], and forced her to testify against Frank or else lose her job. Even worse, his ''parents'' refused to believe in his innocence. He spent ten months in juvenile hall, while Anne and her friends learned what happened when gossip spread around the school. Finanical troubles forced his parents to sell their house, moving into a rented apartment. When he got out, Principal Murphy was barred from letting him back into school by the Superintendent ([[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections Maggie's father]]), who insisted that Frank was dangerous and shouldn't be around ''normal'' kids. Not wanting to burden his parents any further, Frank moved in with his grandmother after her husband passed away.

[[AC:''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'']]
* ''Fanfic/LivingInAFrogWorld'': [[spoiler: Frank's life turned upside-down when he was accused of stealing a pair of shoes that somebody dropped over a bridge and landed on his head. The store manager knew right away that he was innocent, but her boss did not believe either of them and manipulated her to testify against Frank or she'll lose her job. To make matters worse, his parents refused to believe that he was innocent. Frank was sent to 10 months in juvenile hall while Anne and her friends figured out what happened when gossip started to spread around the school. Even before that, Frank's family was having financial trouble, and him being in prison made things worse, so they had to sell the house and move into a rented apartment. After he was let out, Principal Murphy tried to let him back into school, but was overruled by the superintendent (who is Maggie's father), who said that Frank was dangerous and shouldn't be around normal kids. Feeling that he didn't want to be a burden to his parents, Frank moved in with his grandmother after his grandfather passed away.]]

[[AC:''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'']]
* ''Fanfic/ToHellAndBackArrowverse'':
** Barry and Kara, on top of their canon backstories, land on Lian Yu alongside Oliver and suffer some of his canon backstories, including torture and the deaths of Shado and Yao-Fei, [[spoiler:and the assumed death of their adoptive father, Slade]]. And if that weren't enough, they are press-ganged into the League of Assassins after the later saved them from drowning after the sinking of the Amazo, suffering TrainingFromHell to become Ra's' three top enforcers.
** [[spoiler:Slade's past is arguably ''even worse''. On top of losing Shado, he's separated from his adoptive children, captured by Amanda Waller and experimented on in an attempt to replicate and perfect the Mirakuru, and suffers through all of Oliver's post-island pre-series adventures (only one of which ended better than they did in canon). Then, just when it seems he can have a BittersweetEnding by reuniting with his biological children, Waller returns, takes out his eye, and blackmails him into Task Force X by threatening Joe's life]].
** Iris' past wasn't a walk in the park either, though it wasn't as tragic as the above examples; she lost her best friend Barry for ten years thanks to her father's PartingWordsRegret, tried to emulate said best friend in order to cope with his presumed death, suffering ridicule from all her peers along the way, and then learned that her biological mother was alive and that she had a little brother, all of which her father hid from her. One can't really blame her for being cold and slightly bitter as an adult.

[[AC:''[[Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar: The Last Airbender / The Legend of Korra]]'']]
* ''Fanfic/TheSagaOfAvatarKorra'': The Red Lotus are successful in kidnapping Korra and put her through a TrainingFromHell regiment for fourteen years. During that time, Korra believes her parents are dead, and while the Red Lotus promised to be her ParentalSubstitute, they generally abuse her. Only Ghazan and P'li treat Korra even remotely well. She is even more of a FishOutOfWater than she is in canon, and she does not even know when her birthday is or her age.

[[AC:''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'']]
* ''Fanfic/BackToTheFuturePrequel'': Doc accidentally crippled a girl when his flying machine went awry. This accounts for some of his bad reputation.

[[AC:CrossOver]]
* ''WebAnimation/ToBelong'': The siblings were orphaned when Anya accidentally set their house on fire playing with the chandelier. Anya still blames herself for her mother's death and can't [[{{Animorphism}} turn into her lioness form]] without being [[TraumaButton triggered]].
* ''Fanfic/HoneyAndVinegar'' (''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017'' & ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}''): Seras was orphaned after her parents were killed by common thieves, forcing her to live most of her life as a beggar on the streets of Cascaval. She was left as the only survivor of a vampire attack and would have been raped by her attacker had Dracula not killed him. This ultimately left her mortally wounded and she had to become a vampire to survive.

[[AC:''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'']]

* ''Fanfic/TheHumanWhoseNameIsWrittenInThisFanfiction'' ([[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5295023/ link]]): Parodied in Chapter 7 "In which everyone is very tragic":

[[AC:''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' / ''Franchise/KingKong'' / Franchise/MonsterVerse]]

[[AC:''Franchise/MyLittlePony'']]
* Rainbow Dash, in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''Fanfic/LunasPowerAndRainbowsLove'', says that she and Fluttershy do not like to talk about their time in flight school, because it "wasn't a happy part of our lives." it's implied that bullying is the reason for this.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fan fiction ''Fanfic/OurTrueColors'', Pinkie Pie's "hugginess" and tendency to inhale food both derive from her time as [[spoiler: a homeless orphan.]]

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%% Example cuts off mid-sentence * Zuma suffered one of these in the fanfic %%''Fanfic/ZumasFear'': [[spoiler: His first family was [[BeyondTheImpossible (Seemingly)]] murdered by
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* ''Fanfic/{{Juxtapose}}'': A few:
** Katsura Kensei was [[spoiler: raised by the villain Tsuchigumo]] and taught to be a criminal; it was only later that he was rescued and re-adopted by Detective Tsukauchi.
** On account of being bullied as a kid, Monoma Neito was obsessed with getting the Quirks of powerful heroes (via their hair) so that he'd always have some form of power on hand, which only got worse after [[spoiler: he accidentally copied a villain's [[TheBerserker Anger Point Quirk]] and went berserk]], culminating in a full-on NeverBeHurtAgain mentality. It comes to a head when he obsessively searches for Izuku after seeing his Quirk [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower take down a Zero Pointer robot]] - only to enter a HeroicBSOD when he finds out [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway what it is]].

* ''Fanfic/LivingInAFrogWorld'': [[spoiler: Frank's life turned upside-down when he was accused of stealing a pair of shoes that somebody dropped over a bridge and landed on his head. The store manager knew right away that he was innocent, but her boss did not believe either of them and manipulated her to testify against Frank or she'll lose her job. To make matters worse, his parents refused to believe that he was innocent. Frank was sent to 10 months in juvenile hall while Anne and her friends figured out what happened when gossip started to spread around the school. Even before that, Frank's family was having financial trouble, and him being in prison made things worse, so they had to sell the house and move into a rented apartment. After he was let out, Principal Murphy tried to let him back into school, but was overruled by the superintendent (who is Maggie's father), who said that Frank was dangerous and shouldn't be around normal kids. Feeling that he didn't want to be a burden to his parents, Frank moved in with his grandmother after his grandfather died.]]

* ''Fanfic/LivingInAFrogWorld'': [[spoiler: Frank's life turned upside-down when he was accused of stealing a pair of shoes that somebody dropped over a bridge and landed on his head. The store manager knew right away that he was innocent, but her boss did not believe either of them and manipulated her to testify against Frank or she'll lose her job. To make matters worse, his parents refused to believe that he was innocent. Frank was sent to 10 months in juvenile hall while Anne and her friends figured out what happened when gossip started to spread around the school. Even before that, Frank's family was having financial trouble, and him being in prison made things worse, so they had to sell the house and move into a rented apartment. After he was let out, Principal Murphy tried to let him back into school, but was overruled by the superintendent (who is Maggie's father), who said that Frank was dangerous and shouldn't be around normal kids.]]

* ''Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero'' (''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' & Wiki/TVTropes; author DiedDuringProduction): [[spoiler:Michikyuu Kanae]], who, as a slider, has gone through hundreds of worlds, only to have them invaded by aliens and everyone she loved killed. Again. ''[[DoomMagnet Hundreds of times]]''.

* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': [[Characters/AbraxasHrodvitnonMonsterX San]], the former [[MultipleHeadCase left head]] of Ghidorah. Ghidorah as a whole is just as violent, depraved and sadistic in this story as it's ever been, but it has a pretty compelling FreudianExcuse which also applies to San: [[spoiler:San and his brothers were originally just wild animals on some long-gone alien world fighting for survival, until they were captured by [[AbusivePrecursors the Makers]], systematically [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil tortured into evil]], and transformed into a BioweaponBeast. Ghidorah [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters turned against]] and exterminated the Makers in revenge, but [[TerribleTicking the Old Noise]] which the Makers had programmed into Ghidorah's head as a "standing order" continued tormenting the three heads ceaselessly, consstantly and insatiably demanding endless bloodshed and destruction,]] until any trace of goodness in Ichi/Eldest Brother and Ni/Elder Brother was irreversibly "torn apart and forgotten" and Ghidorah's three minds were moulded into the AxCrazy interstellar OmnicidalManiac we all know it as. What's more, before and after the three heads' corruption, San was and always remained the [[TokenGoodTeammate least actively malicious and hateful of the three, and the most curious about humanity and the other "little" lifeforms]] Ghidorah so hated, for which his brother heads were very physically, verbally and emotionally abusive towards him and treated him like little more than dirt.

* ''Fanfic/TheHumanWhoseNameIsWrittenInThisFanfiction'' ([[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5295023/ link]])): Parodied in Chapter 7 "In which everyone is very tragic":

* ''Fanfic/TheDesertStorm'': From the point of view of everyone but himself, the incredibly badass yet [[ShellShockedVeteran even more incredibly traumatised]] Jedi Master "Ben Naasade" is very obviously an example, which [[MysteriousPast he refuses to discuss in any detail.]] Of course, [[PeggySue "past" is not quite the word]]...
* ''Fanfic/TomboyBlues'': Stella had a lot of problems in her old school because of her tomboyishness; she couldn't relate to the other girls and wasn't accepted by the boys because she was a girl. She was alone and bullied as a result, and people questioned whether she was even a girl. This is part of the reason her family moved to Royal Woods.

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%% Example cuts off mid-sentence * Zuma suffered one of these in the ''WesternAnimation/PawPatrol'' fanfic %%''Fanfic/ZumasFear'': [[spoiler: His first family was [[BeyondTheImpossible (Seemingly)]] murdered by
%%
* Seras in ''Fanfic/HoneyAndVinegar'' was orphaned after her parents were killed by common thieves, forcing her to live most of her life as a beggar on the streets of Cascaval. She was left as the only survivor of a vampire attack and would have been raped by her attacker had Dracula not killed him. This ultimately left her mortally wounded and she had to become a vampire to survive.

* Resident Evil fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4725720/51/Darkness-Arises-Reborn Darkness Arises Reborn]]'' has main protagonist Jake Cavanaugh fit to a T, a Hitman, whose entire backstory seems to involve any good thing being taken from him, to list: His father was an abusive drunk, who preyed on his family, culminating in the elder Cavanaugh shooting Jake's mother dead, before attempting to kill Jake, who accidentally killed him in turn. Out of Jakes friends, only the one who moved away, wasn't killed or in jail. The love of his life, killed herself, when her father beat the crap out of her for getting pregnant, and blamed Jake, who then beat him into a pulp. After killing his father, he ran away and joined his criminal brother Ryan, who was then killed by a rival gang in front of Jake, not much later Jake became best friends with a man called Viper, who, in a fit of pure greed, betrayed Jake and his gang, killing them and leaving Jake for dead, only for Jake to hunt him down and kill him. For a hitman, Jake has had such as horrific life you want to give him a hug.

* In ''Fanfic/BackToTheFuturePrequel'', Doc accidentally crippled a girl when his flying machine went awry. This accounts for some of his bad reputation.

* In the ''Star Wars: The Clone Wars'' TransplantedCharacterFic ''Fanfic/ByTheSea'', Obi-Wan Kenobi grew up in an orphanage from infancy where he suffered severe bullying, he watched his only friend, Anakin, die brutally in a war, came away from that war with debilitating PTSD, and holds decades-long internalized homophobia at his own bisexuality on top of all of that.
* ''Fanfic/ShipsAhoy'': It's revealed in Part One that Oprah was a runaway from the American South (possibly as a runaway slave) and was found by whom would become her Auntie May and Uncle Chester at just two years old, with no memory of anything before then outside of her own name. However, her adoptive aunt and uncle, as well as her adoptive cousins Lunette and Molly, weren't very kind to her -- Uncle Chester and Auntie May never cared for her properly, while Lunette and Molly would frequently bully her and disregard her ideas because she was a child who didn't know any better. Her past doesn't affect her much, though, as she has the common sense and know-how to make it by on her own.

* In quite a few works of the 2003 ''Teen Titans'' cartoon, Starfire has a troubled past as a slave. For example, the oneshot ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12306559/1/Deceptive-Protection Deceptive Protection]]'' revolves around Robin learning of Starfire's past as a SexSlave after the episode "Troq". There is some basis in canon to Starfire being enslaved in canon, as she was a Gordanian prisoner and she ''was'' a slave in her original comic backstory, but the cartoon implies she escaped before she became anyone's "servant".
* In the ''Scooby Doo'' series ''Fanfic/ShaggyTheHandler'', Shaggy has a past as a soldier during the Vietnam War. He doesn't like talking about it and averts questions on it, but what's implied to have occured in his past isn't pretty.
* ''Fanfic/LostStormsStormysForgottenPast'': Stormy lived a happy life with her mother until age six, when she was taken by HumanTraffickers and sold to Murky. Murky planned on using Stormy to defeat Rainbow Brite and raised her for years as a servant. To make Stormy complacent, Murky would often make her drink a potion to keep her under his control.

* ''Fanfic/TotalDramaAllStarsRewrite'': [[spoiler:The second aftermath reveals that Gwen's dad was a miner who died after a cave in. Her mother mentions it's where her fear of being buried alive came from, and for the first few nights after his death, Gwen had pretty bad nightmares.]]

* ''Fanfic/BurningCoals'': Neo was orphaned as a young age and spent several years on the streets by herself. She made her first kills as self-defense. Eventually, she was taken in by Roman.

* Pretty much everyone in ''Fanfic/EyesWideOpenAllTheTime''. Haru's the chronically ill child of two abusive drug addicts, Rin's mother was physically and verbally abusive [[spoiler:and knew Gou was being raped and didn't do anything about it]], Sosuke and Makoto have severe PTSD as a result of their deployments in Afghanistan, and Miho lost her husband, job, and children after becoming addicted to morphine, you can honestly take your pick from amongst the cast.

* ''Fanfic/ForestofDespair'' has a lot of characters with one due to living in a CrapsackWorld AftertheEnd. One of the most notable examples is Akita Yamazaki, the protagonist, who has been tortured to the point of having a scar and experienced friends dying before the Killing Game actually starts.
* In ''Fanfic/AWandForSteven'', despite his cheery disposition, Steven harbors much emotional turmoil over the events that happened in his world. He shows homesickness more than once, mentioning his dad and Connie on more than one occasion. He was even apart of the huge epic battle that eventually led to the Gems poisoning the planet. This is best displayed during Lupin's session with the boggart, his fears so intense that the boggart outright attacks him in the form of Jasper and Yellow Diamond instead of just harmlessly scaring him, Dumbledore reasoning that his fears are far more real and deep-rooted than the average student.

* ''Fanfic/PrincipalCelestiaHuntsTheUndead'': Celestia and Luna both. [[spoiler:Their introduction to the supernatural came when Luna fell for a vampire who tricked her, then killed their parents and bit Luna, nearly resulting in her death because Celestia thought she'd been turned and shot her.]]
* In ''WebAnimation/ToBelong'', the siblings were orphaned when Anya accidentally set their house on fire playing with the chandelier. Anya still blames herself for her mother's death and can't [[{{Animorphism}} turn into her lioness form]] without being [[TraumaButton triggered]].

* The oneshot ''Fanfic/ToTryForTheSun'' gives princesses Celestia and Luna tragic backstories. They grew up in times of war and were orphaned as foals. They were always at risk of starvation and [[PromotionToParent the elder sister]] Celestia worked as a gravedigger at only twelve. One day, Celestia somehow rose the sun herself and this feat is what lead to her ascension.

[[AC:''Franhcise/DeathNote'']]
* ''Fanfic/TheHumanWhoseNameIsWrittenInThisFanfiction'': Parodied in Chapter 7 "In which everyone is very tragic":

* In ''Fanfic/TheEndOfEnds'', Beast Boy explains his past to Terra to justify just why he felt depressed after she dumped him.

* In ''Fanfic/WhyAmICrying'', Diamond Tiara is revealed to have had a ''really'' shitty life. She moved away from Ponyville to Manehattan when she was four, separating her from her best friend Apple Bloom. Three years later, her mother was killed in a train accident -- ''while she was pregnant'' -- and her father wouldn't even want to ''look at her'' she looked so much like her and couldn't stand it. Eventually, she was sent to a summer camp near Fillydelphia, where she was relentlessly and sadistically tortured by a group of colts who hated rich ponies (including with Silver Spoon, whom she met there), causing her to develop a persecution complex against lower classes. After her father found out what was happening to her and had the camp shut down, she moved back to Ponyville, and found that [[StrangerInAFamiliarLand none of her old friends remembered her]]. The last straw came when she defended Silver Spoon from some foals who were making fun of her glasses; they just so happened to be friends of Apple Bloom, who had also forgotten about her, and twisted around the events so she could accuse her of bullying them. [[EtTuBrute Feeling betrayed by her best friend]], Diamond was driven to [[ThenLetMeBeEvil become the rich brat she was often perceived as]] and became devoted to making Apple Bloom's life a living hell.
* ''Fanfic/AwkwardSilence'': Riko Shibata [[spoiler:was raped by her uncle when she was younger, her mother who was having an affair with said uncle just slapped her for telling her, and her father left out of anger and never came back. This leads to some very realistic emotional effects on Riko.]]

* ''Fanfic/TheRacketRotterChronicles'': In Arc 5, [[spoiler: Sinbad reveals that he was used in dogfighting matches for a good portion of his life.]]

* ''Fanfic/TimeOutOfMind'' at one point features an in-universe (non-alcoholic) drinking game of the characters' varieties of dark and trouble pasts. (Among other things, leads to one character being distressed at ''not'' having one).

* In ''A New Face In Ponyville'', Joshua Rocket is revealed to have shadows of one of them in chapter 9[[note]]Counteraction[[/note]]. This could also be a case of Mysterious Past since not a lot of concrete details were given and even what WAS said could be put up for speculation considering [[spoiler:it was under heavy sedation after an attack from the Equestrian Pony Alliance]]

* Ciara's backstory in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7831829/1/Looming_Darkness Looming Darkness]]''. [[spoiler: After Zelda's mother revealed there was a prophecy concerning her, she spirited Ciara away to Earth and left her with AbusiveParents while her real parents were murdered by Ganondorf. She'd been abused for her first 13 years of life until Link brought her back to Hyrule to take down Ganondorf.]]
* Rainbow Dash, in the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic ''Fanfic/LunasPowerAndRainbowsLove'', says that she and Fluttershy do not like to talk about their time in flight school, because it "wasn't a happy part of our lives." it's implied that bullying is the reason for this.

* Parodied in Chapter 7 of ''Fanfic/TheHumanWhoseNameIsWrittenInThisFanfiction'' "In which everyone is very tragic":
-->''Don't you just love to read pointless and poorly written garbage about fictional people's problems?''\\
''Well if you do you're a complete sadist but that's okay, you've come to the right place. This is the land where we step over the borderline from "tragic past" to "Loaded up with so many problems it's kind of sick". Sounds like fun huh?''\\
''Take a glance around the room and you will see our first victim. His name is L [[spoiler: Lawliet]]. Although he possesses legions of adoring fans they all seem to be obsessed with torturing him. Let's take a closer look.''\\
''L sat sadly in task force headquarters. He felt his imminent doom hanging over his head as well as the pain of his unrequited love for unnamed love interest/dead love interest. This reminded him of all the tragic things that had happened to him, the things that kept him awake every night for fear of terrible nightmares (because this explanation of L's insomnia isn't complete rubbish at all).''\\
''He thought back to his childhood as a poor orphan boy. He thought about that flashback he was going to have later in the series when [[spoiler: he died]] and how it showed how tragic a character he was.''\\
''It had all started when the young boy had to watch his family be brutally murdered. They were shot/burned/eaten/poisoned/exploded/forced to watch the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' movies. It was a horrifying memory that would haunt the detective all his life.''\\
''After many heart-breaking scenes of carnage Watari brought the young L to Wammy's house. He was very emotionally scarred and had no friends. Then one day Watari brought two new children to the house, A and B.''\\
''L immediately fell in love with A/B/random other chick. Unfortunately they died. All of them. Violently. While still carrying his child. Right in front of him. Other wretched stuff.''
* Alluded to but nothing more in ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/124263/1/songs-uncle-sings/sineva Songs Uncle Sings]]''.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fan fiction ''Fanfic/OurTrueColors'', Pinkie Pie's "hugginess" and tendency to inhale food both derive from her time as [[spoiler: a homeless orphan.]]
* Naruto in ''Fanfic/KitsuneNoKenFistOfTheFox'' has, as his dark and troubled past, the fact that he was part of the Kyuushingai, a group of nine people who were instrumental in 365 days' worth of death and destruction across the continent. [[IHatePastMe It still haunts him]] [[TheAtoner to this day]].

* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11886910/1/Gankona-Unnachgiebig-Unità Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità]]'': Let's see...Rome dying, being abused for hundreds of years—physically ''and'' verbally—by [[AbusiveParents Austria]], Holy Rome dying during the Thirty Years' War...those events ''definitely'' contributed to some [[HiddenDepths issues]] [[StepfordSmiler Italy]] [[InsecureLoveInterest has]].

* ''Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero'' has [[spoiler:Michikyuu Kanae]], who, as a slider, has gone through hundreds of worlds, only to have them invaded by aliens and everyone she loved killed. Again. ''[[DoomMagnet Hundreds of times]]''.

* In ''Fanfic/MegaManDefenderOfTheHumanRace'', Captain Tallarcio had a shady past with Governor Deacon.
* ''Fanfic/StallionsOfHarmonyVerse'' has Prince Blueblood, who lost his parents as a colt, was blamed for it by his entire family and later was betrayed by his so called best friend, who used him to steal treasures from the castle. It took Nightmare Moon and other Elements of Harmony for him to start trusting others again.

* In ''Fanfic/TheSagaOfAvatarKorra'', the Red Lotus are successful in kidnapping Korra and put her through a TrainingFromHell regiment for fourteen years. During that time, Korra believes her parents are dead, and while the Red Lotus promised to be her ParentalSubstitute, they generally abuse her. Only Ghazan and P'li treat Korra even remotely well. She is even more of a FishOutOfWater than she is in canon, and she does not even know when her birthday is or her age.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11772125/1/Metroid-Kamen-Rider-Generations-Full-Series Metroid: Kamen Rider Generations]]'': Revisiting all of [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus Aran's]] past experiences ranging from her parents' deaths, and to losing her closest friends, and all is quintessential to her characterization. But, what really stand out are the backstories of the two Kamen Riders who fought alongside with her -- [[Series/KamenRiderGaim Mitsuzane Kureshima]] (Kamen Rider Ryugen) and [[Series/KamenRiderDrive Gou Shijima]] (Kamen Rider Mach).
** Mitsuzane, during his time with Team Gaim up to betraying them and [[FaceHeelTurn subsequent]] [[TheQuisling alliance]] with his respective series' villains, out of his [[{{Yandere}} obsession]] with Mai, ends up being the UnwittingPawn to them (Sid, Redyue, Ryoma... You name it.). Kouta and Mai dying right before his eyes left him but an apathetic shadow of his former self and slow [[DrowningMySorrows descent into alcoholism]]. Ever since at the start of his [[TheAtoner road to redemption]], his past would continue to haunt him. No wonder why he began making barbed [[DeadpanSnarker sardonic jokes]] that land badly at anyone around him, and as [[StepfordSnarker an excuse to cope with]] [[SadClown his insecurities]]. [[spoiler:When he reaches out to Samus, [[LivingEmotionalCrutch he started to]] [[FlorenceNightingaleEffect get better]].]]
--->'''Mitsuzane:''' The 'Micchy' who used to be shy and friendly member of Team Gaim has been long gone when the whole Helheim situation began to get real. The Mitsuzane Kureshima who was groomed to be an heir of a powerful company and a [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative mastermind]] [[ThatManIsDead is dead as well]]. But, the Mitsuzane Kureshima you see right now is [[BrokenBird a very insecure and isolated man]], who can barely make fun of other people just to see the world becoming so relentlessly unkind.
** Gou, when he learns that his father, Professor Banno, an AxCrazy MadScientist who was ''never'' a father to him, of course. And when Chase was killed at the hands of said mad scientist also counts. He got better when Chase once again [[BackFromTheDead returns back to life]].

* ''FanFic/ToHellAndBackArrowverse'':
** Barry and Kara, on top of their canon backstories, land on Lian Yu alongside Oliver and suffer some of his canon backstories, including torture and the deaths of Shado and Yao-Fei, [[spoiler:and the assumed death of their adoptive father, Slade]]. And if that weren't enough, they are press-ganged into the League of Assassins after the later saved them from drowning after the sinking of the Amazo, suffering TrainingFromHell to become Ra's' three top enforcers.
** [[spoiler:Slade's past is arguably ''even worse''. On top of losing Shado, he's separated from his adoptive children, captured by Amanda Waller and experimented on in an attempt to replicate and perfect the Mirakuru, and suffers through all of Oliver's post-island pre-series adventures (only one of which ended better than they did in canon). Then, just when it seems he can have a BittersweetEnding by reuniting with his biological children, Waller returns, takes out his eye, and blackmails him into Task Force X by threatening Joe's life]].
** Iris' past wasn't a walk in the park either, though it wasn't as tragic as the above examples; she lost her best friend Barry for ten years thanks to her father's PartingWordsRegret, tried to emulate said best friend in order to cope with his presumed death, suffering ridicule from all her peers along the way, and then learned that her biological mother was alive and that she had a little brother, all of which her father hid from her. One can't really blame her for being cold and slightly bitter as an adult.
* ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'' has its fair share of these:
** Red is shown to have {{Past Experience Nightmare}}s, of suffering a lot of bullying as a kid, and it's heavily implied that [[MissingMom he lost his mother]] when their house burned down, [[spoiler: with all hints pointing that ''he'' was the one who accidentally set it on fire.]]
** The resident KnightOfCerebus, Belladonna Tyrian, and her three girlfriends also have this, all of them suffering of ParentalAbandonment or otherwise losing their families to varying degrees, and they only have each other. Belladonna especially is so desperate for a real family that [[spoiler: she quickly accepts the possibility of Ash being her half-brother]] without much question.

* Lexi from ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'' was once a curious book who wished to explore the Train and all its cars, even befriending two teens to be his partners. Unfortunately those teens were ''Grace and Simon'', who gleefully tore him apart and buried him alive for eight years until Chloe dug him out.

* ''Fanfic/ChildrenOfRemnant'': The Claimed were tortured extensively by their "Mother" Salem, which included being starved, denied clothing, and, in Jaune's case, being locked in solitary confinement for several days.

* ''Fanfic/TheDesertStorm'': From the point of view of everyone but himself, the incredibly badass yet [[ShellShockedVeteran even more incredibly traumatised]] Jedi Master "Ben Naasade" is very obviously an example, which [[MysteriousPast he refuses to discuss in any detail.]] Of course, [[PeggySue "past" is not quite the word]]...

* ''Webcomic/ItsNotYourFault'': Sam tells Lincoln that she did not have a happy childhood. Her mother and father started fighting constantly, and eventually, her dad abandoned her causing her mom to become an alcoholic and her brother Simon to become super rebellious. Sam has even hurt herself.

* ''Fanfic/ShipsAhoy'': It's revealed in Part One that Oprah was a runaway from the American South (possibly as a runaway slave) and was found by whom would become her Auntie May and Uncle Chester at just two years old, with no memory of anything before then outside of her own name. However, her adoptive aunt and uncle, as well as her adoptive cousins Lunette and Molly, weren't very kind to her -- Uncle Chester and Auntie May never cared for her properly, while Lunette and Molly would frequently bully her and disregard her ideas because she was a child who didn't know any better. Her past doesn't affect her much, though, as she has the common sense and know-how to make it by on her own.

* In the ''Star Wars: The Clone Wars'' TransplantedCharacterFic ''Fanfic/ByTheSea'', Obi-Wan Kenobi grew up in an orphanage from infancy where he suffered severe bullying, he watched his only friend, Anakin, die brutally in a war, came away from that war with debilitating PTSD, and holds decades-long internalized homophobia at his own bisexuality on top of all of that.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' TransplantedCharacterFic ''Fanfic/ByTheSea'', Obi-Wan Kenobi grew up in an orphanage from infancy where he suffered severe bullying, he watched his only friend, Anakin, die brutally in a war, came away from that war with debilitating PTSD, and holds decades-long internalized homophobia at his own bisexuality on top of all of that.

** Nao was the daughter of a town whore, but she loved her mother. She had the misfortune to witness one of her mother's clients murder her. She fled, and wound up in the home of a head of an elite spy division, who decided to train her in the craft.

* In ''Fanfic/BackToTheFuturePrequel'', Doc accidentally crippled a girl when his flying machine went awry. This accounts for some of his bad reputation.

** Lilith, ''Lilith'', '''Lilith'''. Suffered the same abuse as Eda did, with it being revealed her mother often called her nothing. Then canon happened when she cursed Eda only to learn she was going to throw the fight for her. Then the even ''worse'' thing happens when she meets a woman named Jade, fell in love and married her, only for her to get killed in a raid on a rebel base. The fact that Lilith now knows the rebels are the good guys only makes this cut deeper.

* ''Fanfic/ChildrenOfRemnant'': The Claimed were tortured extensively by their "Mother" Salem, which included being starved, denied clothing, and, in Jaune's case, being locked in solitary confinement for several days.

-->''Don't you just love to read pointless and poorly written garbage about fictional people's problems?''//
''Well if you do you're a complete sadist but that's okay, you've come to the right place. This is the land where we step over the borderline from "tragic past" to "Loaded up with so many problems it's kind of sick". Sounds like fun huh?''//

* [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] in ''Fanfic/TheParselmouthOfGryffindor'', wherein, in Chapter 44, Snape and Dumbledore [[ItMakesSenseInContext argue about whose backstory is ]]''[[ItMakesSenseInContext more ]]''[[ItMakesSenseInContext tragic]].
* ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'' fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11886910/1/Gankona-Unnachgiebig-Unità Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità]]'': Let's see...Rome dying, being abused for hundreds of years—physically ''and'' verbally—by [[AbusiveParents Austria]], Holy Rome dying during the Thirty Years' War...those events ''definitely'' contributed to some [[HiddenDepths issues]] [[StepfordSmiler Italy]] [[InsecureLoveInterest has]].
* ''[[FanFic/{{Bird}} Bird]]'' takes place in an insane asylum for troubled parahumans and elaborates on many canon backstories that were only hinted at in ''[[Literature/{{Worm}} Worm]]'' proper. Special mention to Burnscar and Labyrinth.
* ''[[FanFic/{{BrokenBird}} Broken Bird]]'' Initiates with a somewhat graphic depiction of Kakashi's reactions to his repeated childhood trauma growing up.

* All of the main characters in the fanfic ''FanFic/{{Freefall}}'' have tragic childhoods, to a varying degree of "tragic"; not surprising, since the fic features Creator/{{CLAMP}} characters.

* In [[http://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-3655-3/Anoron+The+Key+To+Marauding.htm#storybody The Key to Marauding]], Dawn has all the emotional baggage of Series 5 of Buffy (dead mother, knowing that the first 14 years of her life aren't real encounters with Glory etc...). In the fic she is [[spoiler: chained up in the dungeon and nearly raped by Lucius Malfoy, kidnapped and tortured by Death Eaters and is torn between her own world and the Potterverse when a way of getting back appears.]]

* Ciara's backstory in [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7831829/1/Looming_Darkness Looming Darkness]]. [[spoiler: After Zelda's mother revealed there was a prophecy concerning her, she spirited Ciara away to Earth and left her with AbusiveParents while her real parents were murdered by Ganondorf. She'd been abused for her first 13 years of life until Link brought her back to Hyrule to take down Ganondorf.]]

* There are quite a few characters from ''FanFic/WhatLiesBeyondTheWalls'' (particularly the [[AntiVillain vermin]]) who have had either a really horrible childhood or experienced something traumatic early on as an adult. Benrath Brugo, however, gets the prize for having the worst DATP of them all: [[spoiler:his parents were murdered by Log-a-Log when he was a child, he's abducted by him soon afterwards, and then his surrogate father proceeded to rape and abuse him for several years]].

* At least one character of ''FanFic/RacerAndTheGeek'' has this. The degrees to which they cope vary.
* Parodied in Chapter 7 of ''FanFic/TheHumanWhoseNameIsWrittenInThisFanfiction'' "In which everyone is very tragic":
-->''Don't you just love to read pointless and poorly written garbage about fictional people's problems?''
-->''Well if you do you're a complete sadist but that's okay, you've come to the right place. This is the land where we step over the borderline from "tragic past" to "Loaded up with so many problems it's kind of sick". Sounds like fun huh?''
-->''Take a glance around the room and you will see our first victim. His name is L [[spoiler: Lawliet]]. Although he possesses legions of adoring fans they all seem to be obsessed with torturing him. Let's take a closer look.''
-->''L sat sadly in task force headquarters. He felt his imminent doom hanging over his head as well as the pain of his unrequited love for unnamed love interest/dead love interest. This reminded him of all the tragic things that had happened to him, the things that kept him awake every night for fear of terrible nightmares (because this explanation of L's insomnia isn't complete rubbish at all).''
-->''He thought back to his childhood as a poor orphan boy. He thought about that flashback he was going to have later in the series when [[spoiler: he died]] and how it showed how tragic a character he was.''
-->''It had all started when the young boy had to watch his family be brutally murdered. They were shot/burned/eaten/poisoned/exploded/forced to watch the ''[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]]'' movies. It was a horrifying memory that would haunt the detective all his life.''
-->''After many heart-breaking scenes of carnage Watari brought the young L to Wammy's house. He was very emotionally scarred and had no friends. Then one day Watari brought two new children to the house, A and B.''
-->''L immediately fell in love with A/B/random other chick. Unfortunately they died. All of them. Violently. While still carrying his child. Right in front of him. Other wretched stuff.''
* Alluded to but nothing more in [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/124263/1/songs-uncle-sings/sineva Songs Uncle Sings.]]

* In ''FanFic/MegaManDefenderOfTheHumanRace'', Captain Tallarcio had a shady past with Governor Deacon.
* FanFic/StallionsOfHarmonyVerse has Prince Blueblood, who lost his parents as a colt, was blamed for it by his entire family and later was betrayed by his so called best friend, who used him to steal treasures from the castle. It took Nightmare Moon and other Elements of Harmony for him to start trusting others again.
* ''FanFic/CoolerRising''. This seems to be true for both Cooler and Zither, or at least as far as they're concerned.
* In ''FanFic/TheEndOfEnds'', Beast Boy explains his past to Terra to justify just why he felt depressed after she dumped him.
* From Webcomic/KillLaKillAU, we have Ragyou's childhood, in which she struck by a car when she six (on her birthday) and the best bid to save her life was to perform a forbidden and experimental surgery on her, [[spoiler: which said surgery is implied to employ life fibers]].
* Nui Harime in the ''Anime/KillLaKill'' fanfiction ''FanFic/MaimDeMaim'' has a very grim childhood in which she was a CreepyChild that went too far [[spoiler: and created a flesh bound kamui made with the flesh of a ten year old girl she met in public]]. She eventually got out of the lifestyle and improved, but unfortunately in Chapter 15, the past came back to haunt her [[spoiler: in such a hard way, it undid all of her improvements made since in a very depressing fashion]].
* Alluded to in regards to Mai-Lin from ''FanFic/KyoshiRising''; she seems to have some bad memories of her family, and a distaste for nobility, but other than a few glimpses her full past has yet to be revealed.
* In ''FanFic/TheSagaOfAvatarKorra'', the Red Lotus are successful in kidnapping Korra and put her through a TrainingFromHell regiment for fourteen years. During that time, Korra believes her parents are dead, and while the Red Lotus promised to be her ParentalSubstitute, they generally abuse her. Only Ghazan and P'li treat Korra even remotely well. She is even more of a FishOutOfWater than she is in canon, and she does not even know when her birthday is or her age.

* In ''FanFic/FourDeadlySecrets'', RWBY and more than a few of the supporting cast. It's the premise of the story, after all.
* In ''FanFic/WhyAmICrying'', Diamond Tiara is revealed to have had a ''really'' shitty life. She moved away from Ponyville to Manehattan when she was four, separating her from her best friend Apple Bloom. Three years later, her mother was killed in a train accident -- ''while she was pregnant'' -- and her father wouldn't even want to ''look at her'' she looked so much like her and couldn't stand it. Eventually, she was sent to a summer camp near Fillydelphia, where she was relentlessly and sadistically tortured by a group of colts who hated rich ponies (including with Silver Spoon, whom she met there), causing her to develop a persecution complex against lower classes. After her father found out what was happening to her and had the camp shut down, she moved back to Ponyville, and found that [[StrangerInAFamiliarLand none of her old friends remembered her]]. The last straw came when she defended Silver Spoon from some foals who were making fun of her glasses; they just so happened to be friends of Apple Bloom, who had also forgotten about her, and twisted around the events so she could accuse her of bullying them. [[EtTuBrute Feeling betrayed by her best friend]], Diamond was driven to [[ThenLetMeBeEvil become the rich brat she was often perceived as]] and became devoted to making Apple Bloom's life a living hell.

* ''Fanfic/LadyInWhite'';

--->'''Mitsuzane''': The 'Micchy' who used to be shy and friendly member of Team Gaim has been long gone when the whole Helheim situation began to get real. The Mitsuzane Kureshima who was groomed to be an heir of a powerful company and a [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative mastermind]] [[ThatManIsDead is dead as well]]. But, the Mitsuzane Kureshima you see right now is [[BrokenBird a very insecure and isolated man]], who can barely make fun of other people just to see the world becoming so relentlessly unkind.

* Fanfic/RWBYDestinyOfRemnant: Hoo boy...

* Zuma suffered one of these in the ''WesternAnimation/PawPatrol'' fanfic Fanfic/ZumasFear: [[spoiler: His first family was [[BeyondTheImpossible (Seemingly)]] murdered by

* Resident Evil fanfic [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4725720/51/Darkness-Arises-Reborn Darkness Arises Reborn]] has main protagonist Jake Cavanaugh fit to a T, a Hitman, whose entire backstory seems to involve any good thing being taken from him, to list: His father was an abusive drunk, who preyed on his family, culminating in the elder Cavanaugh shooting Jake's mother dead, before attempting to kill Jake, who accidentally killed him in turn. Out of Jakes friends, only the one who moved away, wasn't killed or in jail. The love of his life, killed herself, when her father beat the crap out of her for getting pregnant, and blamed Jake, who then beat him into a pulp. After killing his father, he ran away and joined his criminal brother Ryan, who was then killed by a rival gang in front of Jake, not much later Jake became best friends with a man called Viper, who, in a fit of pure greed, betrayed Jake and his gang, killing them and leaving Jake for dead, only for Jake to hunt him down and kill him. For a hitman, Jake has had such as horrific life you want to give him a hug.