History DarkAndTroubledPast / VisualNovels

** Miles Edgeworth. When he was 9, Edgeworth along with his father and another man was trapped in an elevator for five hours due to an earthquake. In darkness and oxygen deprivation, a fight broke out between the 2 adults and Edgeworth's father was murdered. He was rescued and adopted by the [[AmoralAttorney honorable and kind]] Manfred von Karma, [[spoiler:who actually murdered his father and planned to ruin his life as well]], and brought up to be a cold and ruthless prosecutor with no regard for whether the defendants had actually done anything wrong. For the next 15 years Edgeworth was led to believe he killed his own father in a daze, and had frequent nightmares as well as a debilitating fear of earthquakes. It's surprising he came out as well-balanced as he did.

** Athena Cykes' cheery personality hides that she spent her childhood isolated because of her overly sensitive hearing, [[spoiler: saw her mother be murdered in front of her eyes]], had to witness her honorary uncle Simon Blackquill take the fall for the crime (and testify in his defense, but [[CassandraTruth not be believed]]), then put her nose to the grindstone to become a lawyer at age 18 so she could save him before he was executed.

** Maya Fey. Her father died early and her mother disappeared in disgrace after the DL-6 incident. While her [[StepfordSmiler cheery attitude]] doesn't let on how much it affected her, it tends to resurface when other tragedies darken her mood.

** Miles Edgeworth. When he was 9, Edgeworth along with his father and another man was trapped in an elevator for five hours due to an earthquake. In darkness and oxygen deprivation, a fight broke out between the 2 adults and Edgeworth's father was murdered [[spoiler:by Manfred von Karma.]] He was rescued and adopted by the [[AmoralAttorney honorable and kind]] Manfred von Karma, [[spoiler:who actually murdered his father and planned to ruin his life as well]], and brought up to be a cold and ruthless prosecutor with no regard for whether the defendants had actually done anything wrong. For the next 15 years Edgeworth was led to believe he killed his own father in a daze, and had frequent nightmares as well as a debilitating fear of earthquakes. It's surprising he came out as well-balanced as he did.
** Godot. In his first appearance, he claims he's come back from Hell to challenge Phoenix, and he's not exaggerating hugely. [[spoiler: He was poisoned by Dahlia and fell into a five-year-coma, during which his beloved Mia Fey was murdered. The poison also took his sight, and is implied to have done other damage as well.]]

** Miles Edgeworth. When he was nine, Edgeworth along with his father and another man was trapped in an elevator for 5 hours due to an earthquake. In darkness and oxygen deprivation, a fight broke out between the 2 adults and Edgeworth's father was murdered[[spoiler:by Manfred von Karma.]] He was rescued and adopted by the [[AmoralAttorney honorable and kind]] Manfred von Karma, [[spoiler:who actually murdered his father and planned to ruin his life as well]], and brought up to be a cold and ruthless prosecutor with no regard for whether the people he prosecuted had actually done anything wrong [[spoiler:just like von Karma planned.]] For the next 15 years, Edgeworth was led to believe he was the one who killed his own father, and had a debilitating fear of earthquakes as well as frequent nightmares. It's surprising he came out as well-balanced as he did.

* Miles Edgeworth in ''Franchise/AceAttorney''. His father was murdered when he was ten [[spoiler:and Edgeworth spent 15 years believing he was responsible for his death.]] He was adopted by the [[AmoralAttorney honorable and kindly]] Manfred von Karma, [[spoiler:the one who really murdered his father]], and brought up to be a cold and ruthless prosecutor with no regard for whether the people he prosecuted had actually done anything wrong. [[spoiler:Just like von Karma planned.]] It's surprising he came out as well-balanced as he did.

** Rika's parents died prior to the series. [[spoiler:Rika has been stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop for centuries. She must live the same month over and over again. By the end, she ends up brutally murdered by either the BigBad (who she doesn't learn the identity of until the end of the series]] or one of her friends. Rika must also watch at least one of her friends grow apart and end up killing the others in each universe.]]

%% Examples are alphabetized by the name of the work. Please add any further examples accordingly.
%%
%%

** Yuuji: [[spoiler:He was not loved by his parents, in fact his father actively despised him. The only person who valued him, her sister, died in accident that caused his family to collapse ending with both of his parents dead. He was taken by a friend of his father who was "a bit of a bad guy" (terrorist, murderer and pedophile). After being rescued from there he was traind as a child soldier, to become a piece of disposable defense equipment, for a secret government organization.]]

** Makina: [[spoiler: Her family, an extremely influential and wealthy one, was completely corrupted, so when the only half-decent person, her father, the only person who ever loved her, decided to come clean and expose their corruption, they had Makina kidnapped, to bait out and assassinate her father. After witnessing the kidnappers execute him, she was left there tied up for a week, where she was forced to watch as her father's body slowly rots away. Getting her hospitalised for 6 years.]]
** Michiru: [[spoiler: She was never a bright student, so when she underpreformed with her private tutors, her father always blamed and humiliated them. Out of petty revenge her tutros took out their fustration on her, abusing her both mentally and phisically, forcing her to admit being comletelly useless, which left her with severe depression and criplingly low self-esteem. Which then lead her parents growing distant with her. When she went to a normal school and finally managed to make a friend, her friend commited suicide. She had a bad hearth, which had to be replaced, however when the hearth donor girl's conscience awakened inside her even being capable of taking controll of her body, she tried to commit suicide, which caused her to be locked in a psychiatry. From where she only got out by faking a different personality.]]
** Sachi: [[spoiler: She had a loving family, however once they started to get buried by work they grew distant with each other. Her best firend abruptly left her. On her birthday when her parents tried to throw a party, in a fit of anger at their previos neglecting behavior, she ran away. Just as her parents found her they were run over by a truck right in front of Sachi's eyes, something she convinced herself to be ultimately her fault. Leading to constant PTSD attacks, which she could only cope with by faking a new personality and developing a severe case of OCD. After getting back to a normal school, her OCD made her obey any and all kinds of requests, after getting an order the get rid off a school test, something she could not reasonably fulfill, she set fire to the school.]]
** Yumiko: [[spoiler: Her father never loved her or her mother, which led her both mentally and physically weak mother to be hospitalised, and her to be shipped to her mother's parents. Her grandparents only saw her as an asset, as only her extermely wealthy father kept their business afloat. It was always bemoand for her not to be born as a boy, because then she would have been able to become a proper heir to her father. When her mother started to get better and they started to get their relationship normalised, first since her birth, her father had concived a bastard, and planned to divorce her mother, of which the mere news of it completely broke her. Then her father took back Yumiko, acting resentful of his actions, only to turn out, that his bastard died and he needed an heir again. Even in school she had to find out that her classmate only pretended to be her friend to screw with her, which led her to attack said classmate with a box cutter.]]
* Every character in ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' starts out seeming normal, but ends up having one of these - even Keiichi:

** Sola di Ryuvia was born the bastard child of a Ryuvian prince, who abandoned her peasant mother before Sola was born. Her mother died while Sola was still young, leaving her to fend for herself. Three years later, Sola was spirited away by agents of her father and she was acknowledged as the Sharr, a warrior-princess expected to fight and die for the Ryuvian Empire… not because her father cared about her, but because he was fighting a civil war and his legitimate daughter refused to risk her life in combat.

** [[SpacePirate Cosette Cosmos]] grew up in an overcrowded slum on the planet Ongess, where constant exposure to toxic chemicals mined from the planet’s surface stunted her growth so that she looks like an eleven-year-old. By the time she was ten she had already killed two men. Her abusive mother would also [[spoiler:whore her out to pedophiles]] for a quick buck, which went on well into her teenage years [[spoiler:until Cosette finally killed her]]. Small wonder that she turned out so vicious and unhinged.

** [[spoiler Rin: Lost her father at an early age, had to take care of her brain-damaged mother until she died as well, was unknowingly raised by the man who murdered her father, and was separated from her little sister, while subconsciously aware she was suffering and conditioned to project an air of unconcern.]]
** [[Sakura WAS the little sister taken from Rin by their father. She was raised by Zouken, who used his horrible Crest Worms to physically and psychologically violate her,had her adoptive brother Shinji rape her, and did everything in his power to torment her in order to mold her into the black Grail.]]

* ''VisualNovel/{{Grisaia No Kajitsu}}'': Everyone has this at Mihama Academy.

** Rena's mother cheated on her husband with another man and later divorced him. Rena moved away from Hinamizawa, which [[spoiler:worsened her [[HatePlague Hinamizawa Syndrome]]. She began hallucinating things afterwards]]. Rena ended up beating up three classmates with a bat [[spoiler:after they tried to rape her (or at least, she perceived it as such)]] and smashed a bunch of school windows in her rage. She [[spoiler:later [[DrivenToSuicide tried to kill herself]].]]

** [[SpacePirate Cosette Cosmos]] grew up in an overcrowded slum on the planet Ongess, where constant exposure to toxic chemicals mined from the planet’s surface stunted her growth so that she looks like an eleven-year-old. By the time she was ten she had already killed two men. Her abusive mother would also [[spoiler:whore her out to pedophiles]] for a quick buck, which went on well into her teenage years [[spoiler:until Cosette finally killed her]]. Small wonder that she turned out so vicious and unhinged.
* ''VisualNovel/{{Demonheart}}'': All of the player's [[LoveInterest love interests]].
** Raze [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil did not have a pleasant childhood.]]
** Brash is a [[spoiler: demonheart experiment]].
** Ari's been trapped in an emotionally abusive relationship for years.
* ''VisualNovel/{{Grisaia No Kajitsu}}'': Everyone has this at Mihama Academy.
** Yuuji: [[spoiler:He was not loved by his parents, in fact his father actively despised him. The only person who valued him, her sister, died in accident that caused his family to collapse ending with both of his parents dead. He was taken by a friend of his father who was "a bit of a bad guy" (terrorist, murderer and pedophile). After being rescued from there he was traind as a child soldier, to become a piece of disposable defense equipment, for a secret government organization.]]
** Amane: [[spoiler:Her entire basketball team were stranded in a ravine for weeks after their bus crashed there, where the situation gradually went to hell. Her classmates died one after another, until starvation drove the rest to resort to cannibalism, and when trying to escape from her crazed classmates she was forced to leave behind her best friend, making her the sole survivor of the accident. Even after being rescued, thanks to malicious media coverage, everyone suspected her only surviving by resorting to cannibalism and leaving everyone else to die, earning her the nickname: The cockroach.]]
** Makina: [[spoiler: Her family, an extremely influential and wealthy one, was completely corrupted, so when the only half-decent person, her father, the only person who ever loved her, decided to come clean and expose their corruption, they had Makina kidnapped, to bait out and assassinate her father. After witnessing the kidnappers execute him, she was left there tied up for a week, where she was forced to watch as her father's body slowly rots away. Getting her hospitalised for 6 years.]]
** Michiru: [[spoiler: She was never a bright student, so when she underpreformed with her private tutors, her father always blamed and humiliated them. Out of petty revenge her tutros took out their fustration on her, abusing her both mentally and phisically, forcing her to admit being comletelly useless, which left her with severe depression and criplingly low self-esteem. Which then lead her parents growing distant with her. When she went to a normal school and finally managed to make a friend, her friend commited suicide. She had a bad hearth, which had to be replaced, however when the hearth donor girl's conscience awakened inside her even being capable of taking controll of her body, she tried to commit suicide, which caused her to be locked in a psychiatry. From where she only got out by faking a different personality.]]
** Sachi: [[spoiler: She had a loving family, however once they started to get buried by work they grew distant with each other. Her best firend abruptly left her. On her birthday when her parents tried to throw a party, in a fit of anger at their previos neglecting behavior, she ran away. Just as her parents found her they were run over by a truck right in front of Sachi's eyes, something she convinced herself to be ultimately her fault. Leading to constant PTSD attacks, which she could only cope with by faking a new personality and developing a severe case of OCD. After getting back to a normal school, her OCD made her obey any and all kinds of requests, after getting an order the get rid off a school test, something she could not reasonably fulfill, she set fire to the school.]]
** Yumiko: [[spoiler: Her father never loved her or her mother, which led her both mentally and physically weak mother to be hospitalised, and her to be shipped to her mother's parents. Her grandparents only saw her as an asset, as only her extermely wealthy father kept their business afloat. It was always bemoand for her not to be born as a boy, because then she would have been able to become a proper heir to her father. When her mother started to get better and they started to get their relationship normalised, first since her birth, her father had concived a bastard, and planned to divorce her mother, of which the mere news of it completely broke her. Then her father took back Yumiko, acting resentful of his actions, only to turn out, that his bastard died and he needed an heir again. Even in school she had to find out that her classmate only pretended to be her friend to screw with her, which led her to attack said classmate with a box cutter.]]

** Yuuyi: [[spoiler:He was not loved by his parents, in fact his father actively despised him. The only person who valued him, her sister, died in accident that caused his family to collapse ending with both of his parents dead. He was taken by a friend of his father who was "a bit of a bad guy" (terrorist, murderer and pedophile). After being rescued from there he was traind as a child soldier, to become a piece of disposable defense equipment, for a secret government organization.]]