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* [[BreakTheCutie/{{Audio}} Audio & Radio]]
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* [[BreakTheCutie/AnimatedFilms Films — Animated]]
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* BreakTheCutie/{{Music}}
* BreakTheCutie/{{Opera}}
* BreakTheCutie/ProfessionalWrestling
* BreakTheCutie/{{Theatre}}
* BreakTheCutie/{{Opera}}
* BreakTheCutie/ProfessionalWrestling
* BreakTheCutie/{{Theatre}}
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[[folder:Manhwa]]
%%* Rei and Jin went through a ''serious'' case of this as kids in ''Manhwa/AreaD''.
* ''Manhwa/CavalierOfTheAbyss'': Learning how her mother died drove Iffrita insane with hatred for the Demon Clan, especially [[FirstGirlWins Serin]].
* ''Manhwa/JackFrost'': [[spoiler:Why exactly is Noh-A dead in the first place? She committed suicide in life after realizing she was a DoomMagnet and being unable to stand the loneliness and the rumors.]]
* ''Manhwa/TheLegendOfMaian'':
** [[spoiler: Felix got hit ''very'' hard by Felicia's sacrifice. And it's implied that something bad happened to the Regis Knights during the TimeSkip.]]
** [[spoiler: Ruby gets this treatment also as her formerly kind, loving master turns into a {{Jerkass}} who abuses her.]]
%% * ''Manhwa/LetDai''
%%* ''Manhwa/{{Priest|1998}}'': Poor Nera. [[spoiler: Becomes KillTheCutie once she gives up hope.]]
%%* ''Manhwa/ShamanWarrior'': Yaki [[spoiler: after surviving the [[TheSpartanWay Butcher Camps]] Yaki loses the remaining people she cares about in rapid sucession.]]
%%* Bang Ja and Sando from ''Manhwa/ShinAngyoOnshi''.
%%* Rei and Jin went through a ''serious'' case of this as kids in ''Manhwa/AreaD''.
* ''Manhwa/CavalierOfTheAbyss'': Learning how her mother died drove Iffrita insane with hatred for the Demon Clan, especially [[FirstGirlWins Serin]].
* ''Manhwa/JackFrost'': [[spoiler:Why exactly is Noh-A dead in the first place? She committed suicide in life after realizing she was a DoomMagnet and being unable to stand the loneliness and the rumors.]]
* ''Manhwa/TheLegendOfMaian'':
** [[spoiler: Felix got hit ''very'' hard by Felicia's sacrifice. And it's implied that something bad happened to the Regis Knights during the TimeSkip.]]
** [[spoiler: Ruby gets this treatment also as her formerly kind, loving master turns into a {{Jerkass}} who abuses her.]]
%% * ''Manhwa/LetDai''
%%* ''Manhwa/{{Priest|1998}}'': Poor Nera. [[spoiler: Becomes KillTheCutie once she gives up hope.]]
%%* ''Manhwa/ShamanWarrior'': Yaki [[spoiler: after surviving the [[TheSpartanWay Butcher Camps]] Yaki loses the remaining people she cares about in rapid sucession.]]
%%* Bang Ja and Sando from ''Manhwa/ShinAngyoOnshi''.
to:
%%* Rei
* ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'': If you think Ten and
At the start he's the nicest, most cheerful Doctor in a couple of decades. He saves his newest companion, Charley from the doomed airship R101, thus creating a paradox. In a heartwrenching scene Charley begs him to kill her in order to save our Universe from anti-time, which breaks free through
* ''Manhwa/CavalierOfTheAbyss'': Learning how her mother died drove Iffrita insane with hatred for the Demon Clan, especially [[FirstGirlWins Serin]].
* ''Manhwa/JackFrost'': [[spoiler:Why exactly is Noh-A dead in the first place? She committed suicide in life after realizing she was a DoomMagnet and being unable to stand the loneliness and the rumors.]]
* ''Manhwa/TheLegendOfMaian'':
**
* ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'' can sometimes be FULL of this, most notable with Cecil Palmer and his interns.
* Really this could apply to most characters in ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'', so a few examples:
** Callum Brodie is heavily implied to have had an abusive father, and at only 12 years old was kidnapped by The People's Church of the Divine Host to be used as the vessel for the reincarnation of Maxwell Reiner. It didn't work, but later in the fear-apocalypse he's seen reigning over a domain dedicated to torturing children with visions of dark monsters,
** Agnes Montague was created solely to be an avatar of the Desolation. Her childhood was lonely, with her unable to be around other children or people not already associated with the Cult of the Lightless Flame for fear of setting them on fire accidentally. At about 11 she was sent to live at a halfway house on Hilltop Road, all the while knowing that
** Gerry Keay's mother killed his father when he was too young to remember him. For the rest of his childhood, he grew up with a mother who never seemed to care for him beyond what he represented for establishing a supernatural legacy. He tried running away numerous times, but being raised so entrenched in the supernatural left him unable to fit into the normal world and he always came back. In 2008, he walked in on his mother brutally mutilating herself in an attempt to bind herself to and fully control the Catalogue of the Trapped Dead. He panicked and ran away, so when his mother's corpse was discovered by the police he immediately became the primary suspect in her murder. However, she was partially successful in her attempted binding to the
** Timothy Stoker was a cheerful, goofy, flirty guy who was forced to watch as an avatar of the Stranger wore his dead brother's skin and peeled it off of itself. This drove him to quit his successful job at a publishing house and join the Magnus Institute so that he could learn about whatever strange being killed his brother. While working at the institute, he's attacked by flesh-eating worms during the
** [[spoiler: Ruby gets this treatment also as her formerly kind, loving master turns
%% * ''Manhwa/LetDai''
%%* ''Manhwa/{{Priest|1998}}'': Poor Nera. [[spoiler: Becomes KillTheCutie
%%* ''Manhwa/ShamanWarrior'': Yaki [[spoiler: after surviving
** Martin K. Blackwood, with his high-pitched voice and awkward demeanor, is probably the closes the Magnus Archives main cast has to a "cutie," and boy does he break. His mother got sick when he was very young, causing his father to leave the two of them. He spent his whole childhood caring for his mother, who always treated him like a pest. He was actually forced to drop out of high school so that he could care for her, and thus was never able to get the qualifications needed for a job that paid enough to take care of her sufficiently, so he had to lie on his CV to get a job at the Magnus Institute. Eventually, she
%%* Bang Ja
** Jonathan Sims, the Archivist himself. His parents died when he was very young, leaving him to be raised by a grandmother who wasn't cruel but clearly didn't feel like raising another child in her retirement. When he was 8, he accidentally came across one of Leitner's books, which lead to him watching his childhood bully be eaten by a giant spider. While working as Archivist, he puts on an air of haughtiness and pretends not to believe any of the supernatural statements he receives in order to distance himself from the fear, but eventually concedes during the Prentiss attack, which he survives with quite a few scars from the worms (both physical and mental) to prove it. The whole next season he's a wreck, convinced that one of his coworkers killed his predecessor. His paranoia grows so extreme that he starts stalking his coworkers and realizes that one of them was killed and replaced by a doppelgänger during the attack. He destroys a table that he thinks will kill the monster, but only succeeds in freeing it from its prison. He's saved by Leitner, who tells him about the fear entities and is brutally pipe murdered as soon as he leaves the room. Obviously, this leaves him as a prime suspect in the murder, so he hides out at his ex Georgie's house for a time to avoid the police. While staying at her apartment, he's kidnapped and nearly murdered by Daisy Tonner before Basira Hussein is able to stop her. He's kidnapped again, this time by Nikola Orsinov, who threatens to skin him for the Unknowing if he's unable to retrieve an ancient gorilla skin for her. He's rescued again, and then, shockingly, kidnapped for a third time, where he meets the ghost(?) of Gerry Keay, who explains the entities to him in greater detail. Later, he discovers that he's developed a physical dependency on taking statements, and will get sick if he goes too long without them. He's able to stop the Unknowing, but the resulting explosion puts him into a coma. During the coma, he dies and comes back, now fully an avatar of the Eye. When he comes back to the institute, he finds it changed. Basira and Melanie King have moved in, as they're in too much danger of being attacked by the fears. Peter Lukas now runs it after Elias was arrested for Gertrude and Leitners' murders, and Martin is now working for Mr. Lukas just as Jon is starting to realize his feelings for him. He goes to Jared Hopworth to remove one of his ribs as an anchor so he can enter the Buried and save Daisy, but it ends up not working and he becomes trapped in there with her. He's only able to leave when Martin piles tape recorders on top of the coffin he entered from, and rescues Daisy. It's revealed that Jon has been taking statements from random people off of the street, traumatizing them in order to feed his dependency, and his coworkers start to see him as a monster. He stops for a time, but is left weakened by the withdrawal. When Martin is sent into the Lonely, Jon follows after him, killing Peter Lukas and saving Martin. Cue the three weeks of domestic bliss, the apocalypse, and convincing Martin to stab him in the heart and release the fears from their reality. His fate is left unknown.
Changed line(s) 80,82 (click to see context) from:
[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
* OlderThanFeudalism: The Literature/BookOfJob of Literature/TheBible is one long tale of horrible misfortunes that beset a decent, pious man because God and the devil made a bet on whether he could be broken. He ''did'' break, but not quite as far as the Devil wanted him to. Satan's goal was for him to [[DespairEventHorizon give up on life, curse God and just sorta stop living]], as a subtextual request for a mercy-killing (or as his wife puts it, "Why don't you just curse God and die?"); he settles for cursing his own existence.
* Echo in the Greek Myths was initially a funny, witty, spirited nymph known for her entertaining and humorous stories, and her talent for music. When one of the said stories distracts Hera from avenging a different nymph having an affair with Zeus, Hera takes away Echo's voice. Subsequently, she falls in UnrequitedLove with Narcissus, and spends the rest of her life pining away for him. In some versions, she is the victim of an AttemptedRape and successful Murder by the repulsive woodland god Pan.
* OlderThanFeudalism: The Literature/BookOfJob of Literature/TheBible is one long tale of horrible misfortunes that beset a decent, pious man because God and the devil made a bet on whether he could be broken. He ''did'' break, but not quite as far as the Devil wanted him to. Satan's goal was for him to [[DespairEventHorizon give up on life, curse God and just sorta stop living]], as a subtextual request for a mercy-killing (or as his wife puts it, "Why don't you just curse God and die?"); he settles for cursing his own existence.
* Echo in the Greek Myths was initially a funny, witty, spirited nymph known for her entertaining and humorous stories, and her talent for music. When one of the said stories distracts Hera from avenging a different nymph having an affair with Zeus, Hera takes away Echo's voice. Subsequently, she falls in UnrequitedLove with Narcissus, and spends the rest of her life pining away for him. In some versions, she is the victim of an AttemptedRape and successful Murder by the repulsive woodland god Pan.
to:
* 5 from ''WesternAnimation/{{Nine}}'' is a very sweet and
* OlderThanFeudalism: The Literature/BookOfJob of Literature/TheBible is one long tale of horrible misfortunes
* Fievel from ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'', who suffers disappointment after disappointment as he searches for his family in New York, to the point where he completely gives up trying to search for his family and decides to become a
-->''"This is my home now..."''
* Remember all those baby birds from ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBirdsMovie''? Well, this trope happens to some of them in the [[WesternAnimation/TheAngryBirdsMovie2 sequel]]. You see, one of them, Zoe, wants to have fun with her friends re-enacting the war between the Birds and Pigs, and tried to make the whole thing more authentic by [[spoiler:bringing her yet-to-be-hatched sisters into the scenario as the eggs to rescue. Unfortunately, they happen to be playing right on the edge of the beach near her house, and the
-->''"[[spoiler:I want my unborn sisters back!]]"''
* You have to feel sorry for
* The eponymous character of ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'' after losing his mother.
* The Joker did this in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyondReturnOfTheJoker'' where during Bruce's time he [[spoiler:kidnaps Tim Drake and tortures/{{Mind Rape}}s him into giving up Batman's secrets (including SecretIdentity) as well as making him into a miniature version of the Joker known as J.J. (Joker Jr.) to fit into a sick excuse of a family unit with Harley Quinn and him]]. This is shown as enough to convince Batman to try and kill Joker (which would mean that the Joker finally broke Batman, too), [[spoiler:which he fails to do... but is saved by the still-broken Tim killing the Joker after Joker tries to get him to kill the subdued Batman. This only further adds to his trauma]]. Although he does get better, Tim is forever traumatized and never again becomes Robin in the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse.
* ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'': Hiro completely snaps when he learns that [[spoiler:Callaghan, the man his beloved brother Tadashi died trying to save, not only set the fire that killed Tadashi but also (at least superficially) feels no remorse for
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'':
** Manolo is mocked by townsfolk for not killing bulls. Looked down on and basically disowned by his own
** [[spoiler:Maria breaks into sobs when she learns Manolo has died]].
*
* Happens to Mater in ''WesternAnimation/Cars2'' after he discovers that everyone else views him as a clueless [[TheDitz ditz]], good only at distracting others while ''real'' heroes get things done.
* Danny from ''WesternAnimation/CatsDontDance'': He arrives to Hollywood with big dreams and is met with nothing but scorn and cynicism from every other character. [[spoiler: He doesn't break, he instead rallies the other animal actors until he rekindles their own dreams.]]
* The eponymous ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle'' has been ridiculed all because the sky was "falling". Hell, they even made a '''movie''' about the incident. It gets worse when he warns the town again about the aliens (who are looking for their only son), only to be ridiculed once again. You can’t help but want to hug and snuggle the poor little guy.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'': Miguel has been put through the wringer several times, but the scene where he discovers that his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz, is a fraud really stands out.
* In Creator/TakashiYanase's book and anime ''Anime/RingingBell'', a lamb named Chirin starts out as [[SweetSheep cute, friendly, and happy-go-lucky]] until [[spoiler: his mother is eaten alive by a wolf]]. So he seeks revenge, but realizes that he's too small and weak to do any damage. Thus he convinces the wolf to make Chirin his apprentice and he goes through TrainingFromHell until he becomes a deformed ruthless killing machine. In layman's terms: a ram version of [[Characters/StarWars Darth Vader]].
* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe1'': When the girls have fulfilled their dreams of being adopted, they start to enjoy their exciting new home - until Dr. Nefario, worried that they're too much of a distraction for Gru, has them returned to the orphanage. Agnes begs Gru not to let Ms. Hattie take them back, while Margo just quietly thanks him for everything, and Edith gets really pissed with her arms folded. And even then, the three of them still hope that he'll make it to the recital...
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'' revolves around this. Throughout the film, the title character is ostracized for his big ears ''just shortly after'' '''''birth''''', has his mom locked up after defending him from a group of [[KidsAreCruel monstrous brats]], [[FromBadToWorse inadvertently causes the circus tent to collapse in his first major act which he gets blamed of, is made a clown as a result, undergoes further humiliation from]] [[MonsterClown the other clowns]], [[PinkElephants and gets]] [[DisneyAcidSequence accidentally]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking drunk]]. The crows ostracizing him and Timothy proves to be the final straw for both; after Timothy [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech snaps]], [[HeelFaceTurn the crows turn supportive]] [[HealTheCutie and help Dumbo]] [[EarnYourHappyEnding earn his happy ending]].
%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample* The sprite from ''WesternAnimation/Fantasia2000''. She gets better though.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'': Tod and Copper evolve into a {{Woobie}} and a HeroAntagonist through the course of the film. They start out as best childhood friends, and one of them is supposed to kill the other. Tod especially gets it bad; he is abandoned by the only family he knows to live in the
* The ''Franchise/{{Frozen}}'' franchise:
** Anna and her
** In ''WesternAnimation/FrozenII'', first it happens to Elsa, and then Anna:
*** Elsa breaks into tears when [[spoiler:blaming herself for the death of her parents]].
*** Anna is deeply heartbroken when she finds out that [[spoiler:Elsa died, and then when Olaf dies as well]].
%%Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * The main characters of ''Anime/GraveOfTheFireflies'' are an example of how truly tragic this trope can be.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'': Megara. She pledged service to Hades to save an old boyfriend's life - only to have said boyfriend run after another girl shortly afterwards. Plus, she's implied to [[RapeAsBackstory have had some run-ins]] with boys who don't understand the word "no". ''OUCH''.
* Joy and Sadness get this treatment in ''WesternAnimation/InsideOut''. Joy and Sadness are both dedicated to doing their jobs, but Joy's ignorance and Sadness' self-doubt see them forcibly ejected from Headquarters and completely helpless as they watch Riley's self-identity and mental health crumble away piece by piece. The absolute lowest point for both of them is when [[spoiler: Joy is stranded in the Memory Dump, in danger of being forgotten and having failed at her job of making Riley happy, and Sadness, while not in the dump, watches Joy fall to her doom after being told by Joy in no uncertain terms that she's a danger to Riley's well-being, and after being treated as a liability for most of the movie. Both Joy and Sadness suffer a massive HeroicBSOD that sees them both, temporarily, completely losing hope. This all contributes to Riley's BreakTheCutie treatment as well, since she has neither Joy to make the best of her new situation, nor Sadness to properly address the pain she's experiencing, ultimately leading to her sinking into depression and trying to run away back to Minnesota]].
* When Littlefoot in ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'' suffers the death of his mother partially by his own doing. This continually happens when he suffers nothing but disappointment after disappointment.
* Unikitty mourning [[spoiler:the destruction of Cloud Cuckooland]] is by far one of the
* Simba of ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'' loses his beloved father Mufasa in a horrifically tragic "accident," which is followed by a heartbreaking PleaseWakeUp scene when he finds Mufasa's body. Then Scar convinces him that Mufasa's death was his fault and sends him running away from
* ''WesternAnimation/Madagascar3EuropesMostWanted'': In the third act, Stefano suffers a major breakdown after realizing Marty and the others aren't actually circus animals, and can barely stand to go on without his cannonball partner. He recovers when Vitaly and Gia decide to rescue the four from the zoo.
* The title character of ''Film/{{Midori}}'', a fantastically gory and disturbing 1992 short movie, faithfully based on Creator/SuehiroMaruo's manga ''Manga/MrArashisAmazingFreakShow''. The film was made almost entirely by one Hiroshi Harada over the course of five years, is the ultimate example of this -- her parents die, she is taken in by a freak show where she is routinely beaten and raped by the workers, and -- well, if not worse, it certainly gets [[MindScrew more bizarre from there]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Migration}}'': [[spoiler:Gwen temporarily goes through this after Mack, Pam, Uncle Dan, Delroy and the other ducks are kidnapped by The Chef.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Gwen:''' He's gonna cook Mom and Dad, isn't he? And he'll come back for us...and he'll cook ''us'' too! I WISH WE TASTED AWFUUUUUUL!!]]
* Susan Murphy of ''WesternAnimation/MonstersVsAliens''. Hit by a meteor on her wedding day, she begins glowing green and turns into a monster, sending everyone she knows fleeing in terror. She's captured by the military and locked away ''permanently''. She's with
* (Human) Twilight Sparkle in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsFriendshipGames''. Already struggling with
* Michelle, the badger in ''WesternAnimation/OnceUponAForest''. When the toxic gas spreads trough the woods, Michelle ends up passing out while her mom and dad end up at Death's doors. When she
* ''Literature/ThePlagueDogs'' is basically one long story of the two protagonists, dogs Rowf and
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirlsMovie'': The Girls send themselves on a self-imposed exile after becoming pariahs in the eyes of Townsville and even the Professor. As they commiserate on a lone asteroid, Bubbles is left bawling, Buttercup channels her sadness into rage, and Blossom stares up at the earth with tear-filled eyes, buries her head in her hands and cries to herself.
* ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'': Briar Rose grows up in the woods with virtually no human contact because her "aunts" are terrified that [[BigBad Maleficent]] would find her. She doesn't seem to mind, as she has [[FriendToAllLivingThings woodland
* This apparently has happened to [[spoiler: Peni Parker]] in ''WesternAnimation/SpidermanAcrossTheSpiderverse''. When we see her in ''WesternAnimation/SpidermanIntoTheSpiderverse'', she's a peppy GenkiGirl, full of smiles and an energetic attitude. But by the time it's time for Miles' YouCantFightFate talk, an [[PlotRelevantAgeUp aged up]] [[spoiler: Peni]] just addresses him by name and gives him a cold and saddened stare, apparently having gone through her fair share of [[spoiler: canon events]] herself...
* ''WesternAnimation/SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron'' has the titular horse gets taken from his family and abused by white American colonizers with the intent of breaking him for riding. He rebels against them and escapes with a Lakota boy named Little Creek, but they recapture him with the intent of building a railroad that would threaten his home. This is the point where he nearly breaks and loses hope in seeing his family ever again, but with the help of Little Creek, he sabotages the project and makes it back home. In fact, [[DefiedTrope defying this trope]] is the core theme of this movie, made explicit at the end with Little Creek calling him [[{{Determinator}} Spirit, Who Could Not Be Broken.]]
* The normally cheerful and adorable little she-squirrel in ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'' is tragically left heartbroken and in tears when Arthur is turned back from a squirrel into his human form.
* [[CuteGiant Big Baby]] from ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3''. [[spoiler:He gets taken away from his previous owner by Lotso, who convinced him she never loved him in the first place. He was also manipulated into doing his dirty work, and when Woody shows Big Baby the [[TragicKeepsake Daisy locket]] to remember his owner, Lotso [[KickTheDog cruelly taunts the toddler and smashes the locket in front of him]], unsurprisingly sending Big Baby to tears. Not to mention that Lotso even ''[[WouldHurtAChild hits him hard in the stomach]]'' with his cane during his StrawNihilist rant. This ''thankfully'' causes Big Baby to [[TheDogBitesBack get his payback to Lotso by throwing him into the dumpster.]]]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', Mei starts the movie as a cute, smart, confident girl who honestly believes she's in full control of herself and her life. Then in short order [[spoiler:she gets horribly and publicly embarrassed by her mother ''twice'', discovers the red panda transformation (which she finds horrifying), finds she has [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting no control at all over the red panda transformation]], has to run home across town in broad daylight in her monstrous panda form, and discovers her parents knew about the red panda and didn't warn her. Finally, she finds herself facing solitary confinement for a month, living in an empty bedroom, cut off from friends, school, and everything she enjoys in her life.]] She doesn't regain her confidence until after her friends promise [[TrueCompanions they will never abandon her]] and she learns how to properly control her panda form.
* ''WesternAnimation/WallE''. Let's see, the main character gets rejected by his love, multiple times, and ends up risking his life to help her; said girl is called dysfunctional, is classified a rogue robot, and watches the robot she finally loves get squashed; and that's not counting the myriad of possibilities in the repair ward. [[AngstWhatAngst He's still a pretty cheery guy.]]
* James and Hilda Bloggs of ''ComicBook/WhenTheWindBlows'' are a nice retired British couple who could be your grandparents. They really don't understand the implications of surviving WorldWarIII, so we're going to see them die of radiation poisoning, still believing that the Government will collect them.
* The ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh'' series of all things does this to not just one but ''two'' characters in ''WesternAnimation/TheTiggerMovie''. First Tigger starts to become lonely over the lamentation he's "the only one" and begins searching for a family, to no avail. The others attempt to cheer Tigger up by disguising as a family of Tiggers, but when Tigger finds out he was tricked he storms out of the Hundred Acre Wood to search alone in heartbreak. For most of the film's climax, poor Roo is in inconsolable tears from his idol having told him he never wants to see them again.
* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph''
** Vanellope Von Schweetz gets this treatment quite a lot. She is persecuted by the other racers of ''Sugar Rush'', her game world, and not allowed to race as she is glitchy and clumsy and players may think the game is broken if she glitches when being played, which may cause the arcade to "unplug" the system (which would mean something of an apocalypse to the game's inhabitants). As an outcast, Vanellope lives alone in a secret, unfinished level; a volcano full of soda and dangerous pop candy. She also has no memory of her past, only that she knows 'racing is in her code', despite never setting foot on a race track. Meeting Ralph helps her cope with this, as they are very much alike in that they exist but don't get enough love from their peers.
** Both Vanellope and arguably Ralph himself [[spoiler:go through a straighter breaking later, after King Candy convinces Ralph to wreck Vanellope's kart for the good of both herself and the game as a whole - all part of the main villain's plan, as he had messed with the programming with only his own interests in mind. Ralph was only able to un-break Vanellope after he realized that something was amiss in the first place, due to her picture being on the side of her game console.]]
Added DiffLines:
[[folder:Manhwa]]
%%* Rei and Jin went through a ''serious'' case of this as kids in ''Manhwa/AreaD''.
* ''Manhwa/CavalierOfTheAbyss'': Learning how her mother died drove Iffrita insane with hatred for the Demon Clan, especially [[FirstGirlWins Serin]].
* ''Manhwa/JackFrost'': [[spoiler:Why exactly is Noh-A dead in the first place? She committed suicide in life after realizing she was a DoomMagnet and being unable to stand the loneliness and the rumors.]]
* ''Manhwa/TheLegendOfMaian'':
** [[spoiler: Felix got hit ''very'' hard by Felicia's sacrifice. And it's implied that something bad happened to the Regis Knights during the TimeSkip.]]
** [[spoiler: Ruby gets this treatment also as her formerly kind, loving master turns into a {{Jerkass}} who abuses her.]]
%% * ''Manhwa/LetDai''
%%* ''Manhwa/{{Priest|1998}}'': Poor Nera. [[spoiler: Becomes KillTheCutie once she gives up hope.]]
%%* ''Manhwa/ShamanWarrior'': Yaki [[spoiler: after surviving the [[TheSpartanWay Butcher Camps]] Yaki loses the remaining people she cares about in rapid sucession.]]
%%* Bang Ja and Sando from ''Manhwa/ShinAngyoOnshi''.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
* OlderThanFeudalism: The Literature/BookOfJob of Literature/TheBible is one long tale of horrible misfortunes that beset a decent, pious man because God and the devil made a bet on whether he could be broken. He ''did'' break, but not quite as far as the Devil wanted him to. Satan's goal was for him to [[DespairEventHorizon give up on life, curse God and just sorta stop living]], as a subtextual request for a mercy-killing (or as his wife puts it, "Why don't you just curse God and die?"); he settles for cursing his own existence.
* Echo in the Greek Myths was initially a funny, witty, spirited nymph known for her entertaining and humorous stories, and her talent for music. When one of the said stories distracts Hera from avenging a different nymph having an affair with Zeus, Hera takes away Echo's voice. Subsequently, she falls in UnrequitedLove with Narcissus, and spends the rest of her life pining away for him. In some versions, she is the victim of an AttemptedRape and successful Murder by the repulsive woodland god Pan.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Music]]
* "Janie's Got a Gun" by Music/{{Aerosmith}} - Janie is [[ParentalIncest sexually abused by her father]] multiple times. She's told people, but [[BystanderSyndrome nobody has listened or helped her]] (the music video takes this farther, by showing that her mother is well aware of what her husband is doing, but is choosing not to act). She finally just snaps and puts a bullet in his head, later showing no remorse or guilt.
* "Alison Hell" by Music/{{Annihilator}} tells about a girl who hallucinates monsters. She tries to tell people about it, but no one believes her. Her fear eventually developes in Schizophrenia and she becomes a hollow shell of her former self.
* "Another Rainy Day" by Music/TheCrystallineEffect: ''How much hurt can she tolerate?/How many times can she hit the floor?/How many times can she lie to herself/and keep coming back for more?/She remembers an innocence/of a purer time/she remembers how it was before she learnt to cry''
* "Happiest Girl" by Music/DepecheMode (from the ''World in My Eyes'' EP): ''And I would have to pinch her / Just to see that she was real / Just to watch the smile fade away / See the pain she'd feel''
* "Façade" by Music/{{Disturbed}} is basically about a girl hiding abuse and slowly coming to the point where killing her abuser is sounding like a pretty good idea. Further, "Inside the Fire" is about a boyfriend (the singer and songwriter, incidentally) coming home to find his girlfriend had committed suicide, and being told by Satan that she's in hell for doing so. If he ever wants to see her again, he'll have to join her in hell... and the easiest way would be to commit suicide.
* "Lonesome Organist Rapes Page Turner" by ''The Dresden Dolls,'' which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: An idealistic teenage girl who just wants to be a musician is seduced, drugged, and raped by her piano teacher. And since he roofied her she isn't even sure it was him who raped her, and she ends up having to be his page turner for YEARS.
* The video for "Ne Nado" by Kis-Kis. And how! The protagonist (played by the band's drummer, Alina Olesheva) starts out smiling and innocently talking to a man she met at a party. Then when she starts to leave, he and his friends force her to stay, [[ViolenceIsDisturbing brutally]] [[ColdBloodedTorture beat]] her, and [[RapeAsDrama gang rape]] her before leaving her for dead.
* "Good Old Girl" by Music/MarianCall (from ''Got to Fly''): ''She's lived too long and seen too much / All over scabs and scars and such / But she's a pretty girl / Kinda pretty girl / If you cock your head and squint / If you recognise the prints of space and time...''
* "The Lunacy Of Duke Venomania" by ''mothy'' featuring Kamui Gakupo. Duke Venomania was teased in his childhood, especially by Gumina Glassred. With the help of Irina Clockworker, he obtained the Venom Sword and made himself irresistible to women. He then set himself to build a harem in his own basement composed of women who were lured outside of their homes.
** And what about the Clockwork Doll? In her first POV song, she's a WheelchairWoobie, and seriously adorable. Cue [[KillItWithFire her house being burned down]], her [[KnightTemplarParent father]] being DraggedOffToHell, and although she's seriously injured and in great pain, she isn't dead. [[spoiler: Then [[MagnificentBastard MA]] puts her in suspended animation [[AndIMustScream while she's still injured.]]]] Next we see her, she's a HangingJudge and the BigBad of a villainous group that is planning on creating TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Or create Utopia]]. [[MindScrew It's not clear which]].
* ''Music/RebootMe'' Has [[BenevolentAI Ele]][[CuteMachines .OS]]. [[DownerBeginning The titular song]] has her being abandoned by her owner [[spoiler: because said owner was careless and downloaded a ComputerVirus onto her]]. The song itself is pretty tearjerking, and ''Please Subscribe''[[note]] which is non-canon, but still[[/note]] shows that [[StepfordSmiler she's still pretty affected by it]].
->'''Ele.OS:''' Maybe you're not what I want\\
Maybe that person's absence is what haunts\\
me to this very day\\
I should move on and [[OminousVisualGlitch saaAaaAAaAy]]''
* "And She Sang" by Music/ThePuppiniSisters tells of an innocent young woman who believed in fairy tales and the new man in her life. He basically had some fun with her, and then he left without a trace. That's when the music suddenly changes from witty and magical to a loud instrumental breakdown. Then as the music calms down again, it feels a little sadder, signifying that the woman was merely a shadow of her former self.
* "Breaking the Girl" by Music/RedHotChiliPeppers (from ''Blood Sugar Sex Magik''): ''Twisting and turning / Her feelings are burning / You're breaking the girl...''
* "Pretty When You Cry" by VAST: pretty much the whole song.
* "I Was A Flower", by Music/{{ABBA}}'s Agnetha Fältskog: ''I was a flower / Now look at what you've done / You've made my colours fade / Too close to the sun / Once I was innocent, beautiful, life had just begun / I was a flower / Now look what you have done...''
* Mordred from Music/TheMechanisms' ''High Noon Over Camelot'' starts the album as an optimistic young man, the only person in town willing to push for peace with the Saxon Gauls. He was raised by a Saxon woman after his traveling party was killed, and when he returned home to Camelot his own father didn't recognize him. When he finally managed to set up a peace meeting between the townspeople and the Gauls, a too-eager shot from Gawain forced him to fight and kill the people that raised him, seeing the face of the woman who saved his life in every one. By the end, he was so broken that he decided that driving all of Fort Galfridean into the sun was a better option than letting his rotten world live.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Opera]]
* Opera in general is well known for this trope, as there are so many female characters who really get broken throughout.
* Aïda from Verdi's ''Theatre/{{Aida|Verdi}}'' definitely counts. An Ethiopian princess-turned-slave for Egyptian Princess Amneris, she is torn between her love for Egyptian warrior Radamès and her loyalty to Ethiopia and her father Amonasro, and tries to help him escape from Egypt along with Radamès. This being opera, the plan fails, Amonasro is killed, and Radamès is charged with treason and sentenced to be buried alive, so Aïda sneaks into the tomb to die with Radamès.
* Lakmé from Delibes' ''Lakmé''. A sweet Hindu priestess who falls in love with British officer Gérald, Lakmé wants to make their love everlasting by having him drink magical water from a spring with her. However, when Gérald is reminded of his duties, he becomes indifferent to Lakmé, who becomes so devastated that she consumes a poisonous leaf to commit suicide. This makes Gérald change his mind and drink the water, of course, just before Lakmé dies.
* Poor, ''poor'' Lucia di Lammermoor. After her lover Edgardo leaves for France, Lucia is forced to marry Arturo after her brother Enrico forges a letter claiming that Edgardo has taken a new lover. To make matters worse, Edgardo shows up at the wedding and curses Lucia before trampling the ring that she gave him. All of this culminates in Lucia going mad and stabbing her new husband to death on their wedding night before interrupting the celebrations by wandering around in a blood-splattered wedding gown and singing her famous aria in which she believes that she's living a happy life with Edgardo. And after all of that, she dies from madness. The universe really has it in for her.
** Donizetti loved doing this to the heroines of his tragic operas. Other examples include:
*** Anna Bolena (Anne Boleyn) from ''Anna Bolena''. Based on Anne Boleyn, the wife of King Henry VIII, Anna is neglected by her husband and rumours of him being interested in another woman are flying around the court. Even worse, the new lover is Anna's chief lady-in-waiting, Giovanna Seymour (Jane Seymour). Anna is eventually accused of infidelity and convicted of such, and she temporarily goes mad just before her execution.
*** Maria Stuarda (Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots) from ''Maria Stuarda''. Even before the opera starts, Maria has been forced to abdicate the throne and flee from Scotland after a rebellion, and tries to seek asylum in England from her cousin Elisabetta (Elizabeth) but ends up imprisoned. When the opera starts, Maria is still imprisoned but is trying to petition her release, unintentionally having Roberto of Leicester falling in love with her, much to Elisabetta's anger. Sadly, Elisabetta refuses to let Maria go free and signs her death warrant, and the opera ends with Maria dying.
* Poor Gilda from Verdi's ''Theatre/{{Rigoletto}}''. The daughter of court jester Rigoletto, Gilda falls in love with the sleazy Duke of Mantua, and sacrifices her life to save him from assassins hired by her father. He really doesn't deserve her.
* Dvorak's ''Rusalka'' has the titular water nymph suffering so much for love. She gives up her voice and immortality to fall in love with the Prince, but the Prince grows bored with her because she doesn't speak and instead goes after the manipulative Foreign Princess. He even kisses her in front of Rusalka! Even worse, when Rusalka cannot bring herself to stab the Prince in order to turn back into a water spirit, she cannot return to the lake and is condemned by her sisters, so she ends up as a demon of death trapped at the bottom of the lake.
* ''Tosca'': Floria Tosca is a sweet, religious girl, though a bit prone to jealousy. Corrupt police boss Scarpia uses this jealousy to not only get her to accidentally betray the artist Mario Cavaradossi, who she loves, to him, but then forces her to both tell him where Mario might be hiding Angelotti to stop him from being tortured, then ''agree to be raped'' to keep him from being executed in Scarpia's [[ScarpiaUltimatum namesake ultimatum]]. Poor Tosca has a complete breakdown at that point, asking God why he would do this to her, who lived only for art and love, and tried only to serve him. She manages to palm a dagger and kill Scarpia when he returns to rape her -- but, when she goes to meet up with Mario, the [[DisneyDeath false execution]] that Scarpia arranged... turns out to be [[KilledOffForReal not so fake after all]]. As she breaks completely, and the troops can be heard coming to arrest her for the murder of Scarpia, she takes the only action left to her, and [[DrivenToSuicide throws herself over the parapet]].
** Puccini certainly put his cuties through the wringer. Poor Sister Angelica, forced to live out her days in a convent for the crime of having a child out of wedlock seven years prior: one day her rich aunt comes and tells her, "Your younger sister is about to get married to THE MAN YOU SLEPT WITH, you brazen slut, and you have to sign over your inheritance to her, since you won't be needing it. Oh, and your son died a couple of years ago. Bye," after which Angelica, devastated, brews up a poison out of the plants in the garden she tends, drinks it, and then realizes that she's committed a mortal sin and therefore has condemned herself to hell.
** ''Theatre/{{Madame Butterfly}}'': Poor Cio-Cio-San. She marries an American lieutenant, only for him to abandon her for three years on the cusp of poverty, during which she fervently believes that he will return to her. When he does come back to Japan, it's with his new American wife in order to take her son Sorrow back to America. Realizing this, the heartbroken Cio-Cio-San commits suicide in order to restore whatever honour she has left.
** Poor Liù from ''Theatre/{{Turandot}}''; a slave girl who cares for Prince Calaf's blind and ageing father, she gets tortured on the account that she knows Calaf's name, yet she refuses to tell Princess Turandot. Instead, she sings "Tu che di gel sei cinta" while being tortured, telling that love is her resolve before committing suicide with a guard's dagger.
* As that distinguished opera critic, Bugs Bunny said in '''What's Opera, Doc?''', "What did you expect from an opera? A happy ending?"
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* WWE seem to be doing this to Wrestling/AJLee as well. She got eliminated from NXT despite being one of the favourites to win, showed up on ''[=SmackDown!=]'' only to be betrayed by her friend and mentor Natalya for being a "perky little princess", was mocked for being in a romance with Wrestling/{{Hornswoggle}}, got attacked by Maxine who messed with her head and now it seems like her best friend Wrestling/{{Kaitlyn}} is turning on her as well for all the matches she's lost.
** Moreover, she's been recently injured after Wrestling/BigShow (who was facing her boyfriend [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]]) ran into her in a No-Disqualifications Match for the World Heavyweight Title.[[note]]Though, it's possible that Bryan simply manipulated poor AJ into the situation so that he could keep the World Title.[[/note]]
** And finally, this Cutie finally broke after Daniel Bryan mentally abused her. When he got kicked in the face and lost his World Title, he summarily broke up with her, which made her snap.
* Kaitlyn. AJ Lee, her former friend, had just humiliated her with sending false secret admirer's messages and gifts, plays mind games with her, and beat her at [=Payback=] of 2013. And the way Kaitlyn was sobbing about the humiliation and attacks the new Divas' Champion...you can't help but feel sorry for the poor girl.
* Wrestling/KellyKelly was probably the poster girl for this trope. Let's see, Mike Knox abused her, her friends mocked her for dating Wrestling/BallsMahoney, [[Wrestling/{{Layla}} a member]] of her dance group [[TheStarScream turned on her]], {{Wrestling/Kane}} was after her blood, Wrestling/VickieGuerrero fired her for helping [=Edge=] retain his title, Wrestling/BethPhoenix turned on her for no good reason, and then Beth and Wrestling/{{Natalya|Neidhart}} seem very fond of locking her in a painful-looking submission hold and holding up the house microphone to her face so the arena can hear her scream.
** Crosses into real life when you remember her then-boyfriend {{Wrestling/Test}} died in 2009
* On one episode of Raw, Wrestling/{{Lita}} was overjoyed to reunite with Wrestling/MattHardy and Matt said there was a special question he wanted to ask her, hinting strongly that he was going to propose. The same night the two of them were booked in a tag match that said Lita would lose her job if she lost. Matt turned on her and cost her the match, then dumped her on the spot for choosing the Women's title over him. Fired and dumped in the space of two minutes, and good God the poor girl was a convincing crier.
** Outside the ring. she got a huge amount of abuse from fans after the Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}} situation. Matt apparently encouraged the fans to chant obscenities at her, not helped by WWE turning it into a storyline. According to Lita. she couldn't even leave her house without someone screaming "you screwed Matt" at her. thus forcing her to retire from WWE.
* Nearly literally, with the incredibly sexy Wrestling/MariaKanellis. She had forcibly been placed in a match against Wrestling/{{Umaga}} – all for spilling coffee on Eric Bischoff's coat, and she was told to take the match or lose her job – and endured a brutal beating[[note]]Eric probably also made that match to get revenge on Maria's defense during his trial last year. and by that, we mean that she did a ''complete'' 180 on him[[/note]]. Just before Umaga made good on his mission [[KillTheCutie to make Maria the hottest woman ever to lie in state at her hometown's funeral home]], Wrestling/JohnCena ran in to save the day. There were many other instances, however, where Maria was placed in extreme danger, only for a face wrestler – usually, Cena – to run in and save her in the nick of time.
** And a year before that, Maria was just asking him a question and Eric put her in a match with Wrestling/KurtAngle, who proceeded to beat her around with the Angle Slam. Poor girl didn't catch a break.
* Wrestling/MissElizabeth, the valet (and one-time real-life wife) of [[Wrestling/RandySavage Randy "Macho Man" Savage]], was the poster girl for being placed in extreme danger – or at the very least, having her name splattered in mud – many times throughout her run (1985-1992). The short list:
** Savage himself often grabbed Elizabeth's head and arm during his first heel run, usually when she didn't handle his robe properly or was perceived to be looking at another guy too long. He also tried using her as a shield to ward off attacks (usually by Wrestling/HulkHogan).
** Wrestling/HonkyTonkMan shoved her to the mat during a match against Savage, after he attempted to break a guitar over his head. Later, he cornered her in several matches and made suggestive gestures toward her.
** She was handcuffed and had her wrist severely bruised by The Wrestling/BigBossMan (and he threatened to club her in the stomach with a nightstick).
** She was accused of "doing favors" for WWF President Jack Tunney by [[Wrestling/AllenCoage Bad News Brown]].
** Wrestling/AndreTheGiant (more than once) grabbed her by the ankle – and on one other occasion, by the hair to forcibly pull her into the ring – after he became frustrated by her constant complaining to the referee about his choking out Savage.
** She was a frequent target for Wrestling/JakeRoberts. At her wedding, she opened a gift package that hid a snake. Two months later, when Roberts lured Savage to the ring and allowed his snake to bite his arm, Elizabeth ran to the ring to stop it, but Roberts nearly sicced the snake on HER! A month later, he slapped Elizabeth in the ring (during the "Tuesday in Texas" pay-per-view").
** In her final major WWF angle, Wrestling/RicFlair claimed that she had an affair with him behind Savage's back. The angle never progressed past showing Photoshopped photos of Flair with Elizabeth (and later, the same photos with Savage in them in place of Flair), as Elizabeth left Savage in RealLife in the summer of 1992.
* "Piggy" James. To elaborate, when Wrestling/MickieJames was drafted to ''Smackdown'' the duo Wrestling/{{LayCool}} didn't enjoy her stealing their thunder so they decided to make her life hell. Their attempts ranged from the ridiculous (taunting her backstage and cutting up her clothes) to the downright nasty - making fun of her weight and calling her Piggy James. This culminated in a segment where she got triple teamed and pig cake shoved down her throat and punch poured all over her. She got her own back though by winning the Women's Championship from Michelle in twenty seconds and then smashing a massive cake all over them.
* Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr. After his best friend Wrestling/EddieGuerrero died, he won the Royal Rumble...only to lose that shot to Wrestling/RandyOrton. That's just one of many storylines including his son finding out he was not his biological father, his best friend turning on him and brutally attacking him, his daughter getting scared by Wrestling/CMPunk (on her '''birthday''') and the number of times he's won the world title only to have it ripped away in ridiculous ways.
* While the WWF's announcers routinely and roundly condemned male wrestlers who even so much as mildly threatened Elizabeth with harm, they enthusiastically cheered whenever villianous female valet/wrestler [[Wrestling/SherriMartel Sensational Sherri]] was struck by a male wrestler, most often after she tried interfering on Savage's behalf during his matches (Savage took on Sherri as his valet-manager after his falling out with Elizabeth over her [[CrazyJealousGuy overly-friendly behavior]] toward Hogan) The most frequent Sherri-beaters were Hogan (who once struck Sherri [[HoistByHerOwnPetard with her own loaded purse]] at ''[=SummerSlam=]'' 1989), Wrestling/HacksawJimDuggan (at least once) and most often the Wrestling/UltimateWarrior.
** In the Ultimate Warrior's case, his most extensive beating of Sherri came during his 1991 steel cage match against Savage at Madison Square Garden. Sherri repeatedly interfered in the match on Savage's behalf, causing Warrior to repeatedly beat her back or smack her head against either the steel bars or Savage's head. After Sherri ultimately caused Warrior to lose the match, he stalked Sherri and, after [[TheJuggernaut shoving aside numerous WWF officials and security officers]], grabbed her by the neck and press-slammed her as hard as he possibly could to the mat. (Fortunately, real or kayfabe, Sherri was a top-shelf worker and not seriously injured.)
** Sherri also was spanked by Wrestling/AndreTheGiant in a 1991 skit that aired on ''WWF Superstars'', although this was a comedy skit -- Sherri was trying to seduce Andre, who replied by bending her against the bar and swatting her behind five times with a hilarious trollface expression.
* Wrestling/ZackRyder and Wrestling/EveTorres...poor them. You think that after all the push that Ryder got to become the US Champion, it'd be fine. No; [=Kane=] has to come in and destroy him in order to goad John Cena into embracing hatred and Eve has become another target once Zack was out of the way. And then when Cena tries to play hero and save Eve from Kane's wrath on 2/13/12, they (accidentally) kiss in front of Ryder. Ryder is pissed, Eve has taken much of the blow for the crumbling relationship and Cena...[[CorruptTheCutie is about to become embodied by hatred.]]
** As of 2/20/12, everything was revealed. Zack was nothing but Eve's meal ticket and she was going to dump him for Cena. As if WWE had to twist the knife for Zack even further. Thankfully Cena chewed Eve out about this, but what happens to Cena and Ryder's friendship is up in the air.
** Coupled with a dose of FridgeHorror - the Raw before Eve kissed Cena it was heavily implied that Kane ''raped her'' backstage. No wonder she got so messed up.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Theatre]]
* Creator/HenrikIbsen has broken many cuties in his production at large.
** Agnes, wife of Theatre/{{Brand}}, suffers a HeroicBSOD when she understands her son is ill, and has to struggle with the fact that she has to stay with her husband for the sake of duty, at the expence of their son's life. Later, she is shut off from his feelings, which he hides, and she passes the DespairEventHorizon. Eventually, she dies.
** Hedvig, TheIngenue from Theatre/TheWildDuck, has lived with Hjalmar Ekdal, whom she believed was her father, and was emotionally attached to him. She breaks when he disowns her, because he learns that he in fact is not her father after all. When Hedvig decides she will prove her love for him, tragedy ensues.
** Aline Solness from Theatre/TheMasterBuilder. She married Solness, then had to go through a massive DespairEventHorizon when her childhood home burnt to the ground, and her sons died afterwards. She never recovered, and is left with a continuous ThousandYardStare.
** Margit from Theatre/TheFeastAtSolhaug, when she realized she married the wrong man. After his death, she retires to a convent.
** Helene Alving from Theatre/{{Ghosts}}, who married a faithless upper class jerkass and bore him a son, who in turn ended up with his father's generic disease and lost his wits.
** Theatre/HeddaGabler is broken by the rules of society, well on the way to BrokenBird territory.
** The female characters from Ibsen's plays that doesn't break, are either willful determinators, {{action girl}}s, or completely insane.
* Several examples from ''Theatre/TheTwentyFifthAnnualPutnamCountySpellingBee'':
** Schwarzy, already the most adorably awkward character in the show with her lisp and overachieving attitude, has to deal with constant stress and pressure to be perfect from her two dads. She starts out cheerful and optimistic, but eventually complicates a word too much [[spoiler:and is eliminated. Her exit is also played as much more of a TearJerker than the other eliminations, collapsing into Mitch and sobbing as she's ushered offstage.]] [[WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue The ending]] makes it better by saying [[spoiler:[[ThrowTheDogABone she eventually won the Bee in her last year of eligibility.]]]]
** Coneybear, who's [[CloudCuckoolander goofier]] and [[TheDitz more cheerful]] about the Bee than any of the other spellers. [[spoiler:He's also the first speller to be eliminated in the second act, leading to a DarkReprise of "I'm Not That Smart."]]
** Olive, who spends the whole show waiting for her dad to arrive, on top of already dealing with her mom being on a spiritual quest in India with no idea of when she's returning and her dad being borderline-abusive. Comes to a head in "The 'I Love You' Song," where she sings to her mom about wanting her to come home (and, to rub a little salt in the wound, she mentions she had "quietly packed" to join her). There's a HopeSpot when [[spoiler:Panch]] supplies her with the $25 necessary to pay the entrance fee, but some productions have a DownerEnding for her where [[spoiler:she has to come home to an empty house, her dad still at work and her mother still in India.]] Even the show's writers came up with a happier version [[spoiler:where her dad drives her home and she recaps the Bee for him]], since they thought the original was too bleak.
* Shelley in ''Theatre/BatBoyTheMusical''. She is living happily with her veterinarian father and house-wife mother. She falls in love with Edgar, a feral 'Bat Boy' that was found nearby who lived on blood, after her mother makes him civil and caring. All is well. Towards the end of the show, after Shelley and Edgar have already had sex, it's then revealed that while her mother worked as her father's assistant in a lab, he accidentally spilled an experimental pheromone on her, and, driven mad with lust, raped her. Stumbling her way home, [[spoiler:she is then attacked and ''raped by a swarm of bats''.[[PregnancyDoesNotWorkThatWay She got pregnant and gave birth to twins: a mutant]] (Edgar), and a human (Shelley) So, Edgar turns out to be her ''twin brother''.]] In the finale, Shelley watches as her father (Dr. Parker), furious and out of his mind, slits open his throat to tempt Edgar with blood. Edgar pounces on him and begins to drink, and Dr. Parker takes the initiative to stab him multiple times in the back. Trying to get him to stop, her mother rushes in and is also stabbed by her husband. All three of them die, and Edgar dies ''in her lap''. So, no only does she find out her lover is actually [[spoiler:her ''brother'']], she watched her FAMILY get murdered by her father, who in turn bleeds out through the neck. After that, she's very quiet. Nice story, right? I thought so too.
* ''Theatre/{{Elisabeth}}'' starts out as an adorable, willful little girl, who caught the romantic attention of Death after falling from a great height and nearly dying. Her Disney-esque happy marriage to the Emperor breaks down quickly, from both her mother-in-law's interventions, and Death sabotaging it so that she would die and be with him. Minus the personification of Death, all of this is historical (or at least rumors that circulated in real life):
** Her youngest daughter, named Sophie (after the detested mother-in-law) is taken away from her. And then dies from typhus fever at age two, because Elisabeth has begged for her children to be brought along while traveling.
** Her husband turns out to be a doormat regarding his mother, refusing to stand up for his wife at all until it's too late. And then he cheats on her and transmits syphilis to her.
** Her only son and heir, Rudolf, (who is arguably a case of [[spoiler: KillTheCutie]] himself) grows up emotionally neglected and vulnerable thanks to the crippling depression Elisabeth falls into after the death of little Sophie. Which leaves him open prey to Death, who seduces him into leading a revolution, which gets him disinherited by his father, and abandoned by his mother (out of her refusal to talk to the Emperor). Driven to utter desperation, Rudolf [[spoiler: shoots himself]]. A thoroughly broken Elisabeth screams at Death to deliver her from pain, but he refuses to take her.
** And by the end, the Empress is so broken that as she is stabbed by Lucheni and her lady-in-waiting calls for help, Elisabeth pushes her aside - and runs into the embrace of Death for [[spoiler: her fatal kiss.]]
* ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' pretty much pulls this trope on Ophelia. Between his running into her room disheveled, sexually harasses her (in two separate scenes, no less) and finally kills her father under the impression that he was killing Claudius, driving her insane. It could be considered KillTheCutie, since it's debatable whether or not she kills herself or accidentally drowns; either way, it's at the hard dark edge of the two tropes. Indeed, Hamlet himself qualifies as a broken cutie. Many of his friends speak highly of the good and loving man he was before his uncle murdered his brother and married his mother. The brooding, cynical man who is mean to Ophelia and mindlessly manslaughters her father is a different man from the sweet-natured heir to the throne who wrote her love letters and was Horatio's best buddy. We don't see much of him being this guy (because the play begins when he is already broken), but he still has the ability to make us laugh! He's adorable.
* Veronica from ''Theatre/{{Heathers}}'' starts off as a sweet, dorky, snarky, intelligent outsider who just wants to fit in. Then she joins [[GirlPosse The Heathers]], who treat her best friend terribly. Then she gets kicked out of the Heathers and the AlphaBitch promises to ruin her life. ''Then'' it turns out that Veronica's boyfriend is a SerialKiller, who has his eye on said AlphaBitch as his first victim of the school... Cue bodies piling up and Veronica beginning to lose it.
* The 2013 musical of ''Theatre/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'' does its best to break James within the first act. The play starts with James already in an orphanage after his parents died and he's still having nightmares about it. The Matron Nurse in charge isn't interested in his emotional well-being and just hands James off to his abusive aunts without a moment's thought, telling James he can't return to the orphanage. Spiker and Sponge promptly tell James they only claimed him because he's a source of free labor, constantly berate and insult him, abandon him to spend a day at the beach and refuse to believe him when he tells hem he was responsible for the giant peach's growth and- by default- their new-found wealth. James's aunts then destroy his deceased parents' scarf and glasses and tell him he has to sleep outside from now on. Oh, and THEN James finally manages to find his way into the peach and starts his adventure with his bug companions, during which he and the others spend a few hours starving and thirsty before they actually eat some of the peach. And then he has another nightmare not just about his parents' deaths, but Spiker and Sponge chasing after him. Thankfully, Grasshopper and Ladybug take it upon themselves to comfort him with the song "Everywhere That You Are." The two of them end up becoming James's adoptive mother and father at the end, providing him with the love and care James lost at the beginning of the play.
* ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors'': Aww, look at Seymour with his adorable clumsiness, his hopeless little crush on the local abused girl, Audrey, and his quirky way of confiding in his pet plant! The poor guy's lived such a horrible life, and no one's ever loved him--can you really blame him for wanting a little happiness? Or for wanting to off the jerk who beats up Audrey? Or for having to kill off his boss, too, so he won't get ratted on, and then keeping the plant who needs to be fed blood so that Audrey won't leave him and ...well, you see where this is going. Suffice it to say that [[spoiler:his death is probably the nicest thing that happens to him in the whole show]].
* Happens to Rapunzel in ''Theatre/IntoTheWoods''. The Witch's treatment of her, which included locking her in a tower for most of her life with little socialization, then banishing her to a wasteland with little food when she sought company from someone else where she ended up giving birth to twins, on top of the Witch blinding her prince, left the poor girl emotionally traumatized, prone to fits of hysterics, and uncontrollable crying at random moments. [[spoiler:She ultimately [[DrivenToSuicide threw herself under the foot of the Giant, and was crushed to death.]]]]
* Philomele in ''The Love of the Nightingale'' starts out as a beautiful if naïve girl. Her sister and best friend Procne asks her husband Tereus to bring her for a visit. Tereus proceeds to fall for Philomele who in turn has fallen for a captain. Tereus then [[spoiler: tells her Procne's dead, kills her lover, proceeds to rape her after she turns him down and finally cuts out her tongue to keep her from talking. She spends five years alone but with her servant before finally making dolls to re-enact what happened to her to Procne. Tereus tries to kill them but they (as it is a Greek myth) turn into birds, making them a literal BrokenBird.]]
* Kim in ''Theatre/MissSaigon''. Orphaned when her family's village is bombed. Has to go to work as a prostitute to support herself. On her very first night of work, meets and falls in love with a disillusioned GI (who himself may be an example of this trope). He plans to take her home with him, but instead, they are separated in the chaos of the fall of Saigon. She has to endure pregnancy and childbirth on her own. She has to kill her cousin to protect her child from him. After ''3 years'' of pining away for Chris with her faith in him and love for their child being the only things that kept her going, she rushes to his hotel room. . .to be greeted by his wife. Determined to make sure that they take the boy with them to America (as a half-Asian, he would be an outcast in Vietnam), she kills herself. ''Yeesh''.
* ''Theatre/NextToNormal'' is ''Break The Cutie: The Musical''. Diana has been treated for severe Bipolar disorder for 20 years, haunted by manic-depressive episodes, side-effects of potentially lethal medications, and hallucinations of [[spoiler: her late son]]. After undergoing a heavy dose of ECT (which she seems to have enjoyed a bit ''too'' much), she loses most memories of her family. After regaining them, the trauma of [[spoiler: losing her son]] finally rushes back she decides that [[spoiler: the slow and dangerous treatment isn't worth tearing her family apart, so she decides to leave them]].
* Juliet in ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''. Three hours after she marries Romeo, he kills her cousin (who was like a brother to her) and gets kicked out of Verona. The ''next day'' her parents try to force her to marry a man she doesn't love, and threaten to disown her if she refuses. Her father claims that he and her mother "have had a curse in having her". Meanwhile, she's loyal to Romeo, not only because of her inclinations, but because of her religious beliefs (i.e. "I'm already married, it would be wrong of me to get married again") and is fully prepared to kill herself rather than go through with the wedding. She ends up taking a potion that makes her appear dead, even though she's terrified of what it will do to her, as part of an incredibly risky plan to get out of Verona that entails never seeing the people she loves again. Then, when she wakes up in her family tomb, her husband is lying dead with his head on her chest. She runs herself through with his dagger. ''And she's fourteen-years-old.''
* ''Theatre/SpringAwakening'' is also a good candidate for ''Break The Cutie: The Musical'' because ''half the characters'' get broken. Ilse and Martha got physically/sexually abused by their fathers, and they both had crushes on Moritz. Speaking of Ilse, she got kicked out for telling someone about her father and ran off to an artist's colony, only to head back home when one of them ''holds a gun to her chest.'' After heading back and [[ContrivedCoincidence conveniently meeting Moritz,]] who ''also'' got kicked out for failing in school, she offers to take him home -- but he refuses. After realizing he's made a huge mistake, [[spoiler:he [[AteHisGun eats his gun]].]] Meanwhile, Wendla gets pregnant by Melchior and later [[spoiler:gets [[KillTheCutie a botched abortion]]]], which Melchior is unaware of because he got framed by [[SadistTeacher the teachers]] and sent to a reformatory for [[spoiler:his best friend's suicide.]] Then there's Hanschen and Ernst, who... [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse kind of vanish after the second act.]]
* In ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire'' when [[spoiler:Stanley raped Blanche]] the cutie ''really'' became [[RapeLeadsToInsanity broken]].
* By the end of ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'', Johanna and Toby have gone mad due to having been treated cruelly for their whole lives, but also partly because of their first hand discoveries of Sweeney and Lovett's practices.
* In ''Vanities'', Kathy's boyfriend Gary, while she was on the pill, slept with another girl, [[ShotgunWedding got that one pregnant, and married her]]. Kathy is [[BrokenBird utterly and irrevocably devastated]] as a result, to the point of having a nervous breakdown. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwM-toAsrvs Cute Boys with Short Haircuts]] says it all.
* ''Theatre/WestSideStory''
** Maria.
--->"How do you fire this gun, Chino? Just by pulling this little trigger? How many bullets are left, Chino? Enough for you? And you? All of you? WE ALL KILLED HIM; and my brother and Riff. I, too. I CAN KILL NOW BECAUSE I HATE NOW! How many can I kill, Chino? How many -- and still have one bullet left for me?"
** Anita qualifies even more as a Broken Cutie, as she starts out as comic relief -- a snarky but nice girl who's happy to be in America and only wants to live her life in a new country and help Maria and Tony out. Then Tony kills her boyfriend. Understandably she becomes pretty jaded, but she STILL agrees to help Maria get a message to Tony (yes, the guy who killed her boyfriend). Instead she finds his friends, who almost rape her. That's pretty much the last straw, and she tells the lie that leads to the tragic conclusion.) KilltheCutie happens to bother Riff and Bernardo.
* While Elphaba from ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'' isn't exactly a traditional cutie, the Wizard and Madame Morrible do their best to break her by turning her into a terrorist fugitive, murdering her boyfriend, giving her former best friend an important position which seems to be trying to mitigate Elphaba's activities and DROPS a house on her sister. No wonder she finally snaps in epic fashion during "No Good Deed".
* ''Theatre/WhichWitchTheMusical'': Maria is publicly shamed for her love of Daniel and after coming with him to Germany, Daniel suddenly ends the relationship. Then Daniel falls sick, she's accused of being a witch, is tortured in horrible ways and [[spoiler:is later burned at the stake]].
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* BreakTheCutie/ReligionAndMythology
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[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
* OlderThanFeudalism: The Literature/BookOfJob of Literature/TheBible is one long tale of horrible misfortunes that beset a decent, pious man because God and the devil made a bet on whether he could be broken. He ''did'' break, but not quite as far as the Devil wanted him to. Satan's goal was for him to [[DespairEventHorizon give up on life, curse God and just sorta stop living]], as a subtextual request for a mercy-killing (or as his wife puts it, "Why don't you just curse God and die?"); he settles for cursing his own existence.
* Echo in the Greek Myths was initially a funny, witty, spirited nymph known for her entertaining and humorous stories, and her talent for music. When one of the said stories distracts Hera from avenging a different nymph having an affair with Zeus, Hera takes away Echo's voice. Subsequently, she falls in UnrequitedLove with Narcissus, and spends the rest of her life pining away for him. In some versions, she is the victim of an AttemptedRape and successful Murder by the repulsive woodland god Pan.
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* ''Manhwa/ShamanWarrior'': Yaki [[spoiler: after surviving the [[TheSpartanWay Butcher Camps]] Yaki loses the remaining people she cares about in rapid sucession.]]
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!!Other examples:
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[[folder:Manhua]]
%% * Lilo from ''Manhua/BloodlineTheLastRoyalVampire'' is a big victim. Anything that brings flashbacks to what did this trope to her is a Berserk Button.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Manhwa]]
%%* Rei and Jin went through a ''serious'' case of this as kids in ''Manhwa/AreaD''.
* ''Manhwa/CavalierOfTheAbyss'': Learning how her mother died drove Iffrita insane with hatred for the Demon Clan, especially [[FirstGirlWins Serin]].
* ''Manhwa/JackFrost'': [[spoiler:Why exactly is Noh-A dead in the first place? She committed suicide in life after realizing she was a DoomMagnet and being unable to stand the loneliness and the rumors.]]
* ''Manhwa/TheLegendOfMaian'':
** [[spoiler: Felix got hit ''very'' hard by Felicia's sacrifice. And it's implied that something bad happened to the Regis Knights during the TimeSkip.]]
** [[spoiler: Ruby gets this treatment also as her formerly kind, loving master turns into a {{Jerkass}} who abuses her.]]
%% * ''Manhwa/LetDai''
%%* ''Manhwa/{{Priest|1998}}'': Poor Nera. [[spoiler: Becomes KillTheCutie once she gives up hope.]]
* ''Manhwa/ShamanWarrior'': Yaki [[spoiler: after surviving the [[TheSpartanWay Butcher Camps]] Yaki loses the remaining people she cares about in rapid sucession.]]
%%* Bang Ja and Sando from ''Manhwa/ShinAngyoOnshi''.
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'''Phase 3''': DespairEventHorizon.\\]]
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'''Phase 3''': DespairEventHorizon.\\]]
]]
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Nevermind it’s been fixed.
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'''Phase 3''': DespairEventHorizon.\\
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'''Phase 3''': DespairEventHorizon.\\
\\]]
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Alright I accidentally removed the entire caption. :/
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Final part felt unnecessary.
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[[TheWoobie Poor, sweet Madoka Kaname.]]]]
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'''Phase 3''': DespairEventHorizon. [[TheWoobie Poor, sweet Madoka Kaname.]]]]
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'''Phase 3''': DespairEventHorizon. \\
[[TheWoobie Poor, sweet Madoka Kaname.]]]]
[[TheWoobie Poor, sweet Madoka Kaname.]]]]
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On a more constructive note, sometimes breaking the cutie can result in a cute but weak character {{Taking a Level in Badass}} as they [[DidYouThinkICantFeel confront their tormentors]] and [[GrewASpine become more assertive]]. Circumstances may even lead to a cutie [[HealTheCutie making an emotional recovery and regaining their sweet, hopeful nature]]. When the cutie refuses to break, they might become an {{iron|Woobie}} or StoicWoobie, a {{Determinator}}, or a PluckyGirl. If they are simply unbreakable to begin with, they are probably a {{Pollyanna}}.
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On a more constructive note, sometimes breaking the cutie can result in a cute but weak character {{Taking a Level in Badass}} as they [[DidYouThinkICantFeel confront their tormentors]] and [[GrewASpine become more assertive]]. Circumstances may even lead to a cutie [[HealTheCutie making an emotional recovery and regaining their sweet, hopeful nature]]. When the cutie refuses to break, they might become an {{iron|Woobie}} or StoicWoobie, a {{Determinator}}, or a PluckyGirl. If they are simply unbreakable to begin with, they are probably a {{Pollyanna}}.
{{Pollyanna}}. They may be the subject of SpeakingUpForAnother.
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!This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16804921640.29319900 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.
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!This trope is [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16804921640.29319900 under discussion]] in the Administrivia/TropeRepairShop.
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** ''BreakATheCutie/DragonBallZ''
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** ''BreakATheCutie/DragonBallZ''''BreakTheCutie/DragonBallZ''
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** ''BreakTheCutie/{{Berserk}}''
** ''BreakTheCutie/{{Bleach}}''
** ''BreakTheCutie/{{Digimon}}''
** ''BreakTheCutie/DokiDokiPrecure''
** ''BreakATheCutie/DragonBallZ''
** ''BreakTheCutie/MobileSuitGundam00''
** ''BreakTheCutie/{{Naruto}}''
** ''BreakTheCutie/OnePiece''
** ''BreakTheCutie/{{Bleach}}''
** ''BreakTheCutie/{{Digimon}}''
** ''BreakTheCutie/DokiDokiPrecure''
** ''BreakATheCutie/DragonBallZ''
** ''BreakTheCutie/MobileSuitGundam00''
** ''BreakTheCutie/{{Naruto}}''
** ''BreakTheCutie/OnePiece''
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** ''BreakTheCutie/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''
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'''Phase 3''': DespairEventHorizon. Poor, sweet Madoka Kaname.]]
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'''Phase 3''': DespairEventHorizon. [[TheWoobie Poor, sweet Madoka Kaname.]]
]]]]
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'''Phase 3''': DespairEventHorizon.]]
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'''Phase 3''': DespairEventHorizon. Poor, sweet Madoka Kaname.]]
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[[caption-width-right:243:'''Phase 1''': Madoka Kaname, a [[NiceGirl kind and innocent]] NaiveEverygirl.\\
'''Phase 2''': Madoka Kaname during a [[HeroicBSOD traumatic incident]].\\
'''Phase 3''': Madoka Kaname at the DespairEventHorizon.]]
'''Phase 2''': Madoka Kaname during a [[HeroicBSOD traumatic incident]].\\
'''Phase 3''': Madoka Kaname at the DespairEventHorizon.]]
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[[caption-width-right:243:'''Phase 1''': Madoka Kaname, a [[NiceGirl kind and innocent]] NaiveEverygirl.\\
'''Phase 2''':Madoka Kaname during a [[HeroicBSOD traumatic incident]].HeroicBSOD.\\
'''Phase 3''':Madoka Kaname at the DespairEventHorizon.]]
'''Phase 2''':
'''Phase 3''':
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[[BewareTheNiceOnes Be careful about torturing sweet little things]] — sometimes instead of breaking, or when there's nothing left to break, they '''[[TheDogBitesBack snap]]'''. If they snap, you'd better hope your [[UnstoppableRage life insurance policy]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds is up to date]], [[BullyingADragon especially]] if the cutie was a {{badass|Adorable}} to begin with. If they break, but refuse to show it, they could be a StepfordSmiler.
Sometimes it can be CorruptTheCutie, where the character in question breaks it by herself. Frequently a part of a character crossing the DespairEventHorizon or the cause of a HeroicBSOD. Also frequently part of the backstory of the BrokenBird, and instrumental in the FreudianExcuse of a villain who UsedToBeASweetKid. Compare ProneToTears, who may have once undergone this, and WideEyedIdealist. And sometimes this trope can straight-up [[KillTheCutie kill the character in question]].
Sometimes it can be CorruptTheCutie, where the character in question breaks it by herself. Frequently a part of a character crossing the DespairEventHorizon or the cause of a HeroicBSOD. Also frequently part of the backstory of the BrokenBird, and instrumental in the FreudianExcuse of a villain who UsedToBeASweetKid. Compare ProneToTears, who may have once undergone this, and WideEyedIdealist. And sometimes this trope can straight-up [[KillTheCutie kill the character in question]].
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[[BewareTheNiceOnes Be careful about torturing sweet little things]] — sometimes instead of breaking, or when there's nothing left to break, they '''[[TheDogBitesBack snap]]'''.'''''[[TheDogBitesBack snap]]'''''. If they snap, you'd better hope your [[UnstoppableRage life insurance policy]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds is up to date]], [[BullyingADragon especially]] if the cutie was a {{badass|Adorable}} to begin with. If they break, but refuse to show it, they could be a StepfordSmiler.
Sometimes it can be CorruptTheCutie, where the character in question breaks it byherself.themself. Frequently a part of a character crossing the DespairEventHorizon or the cause of a HeroicBSOD. Also frequently part of the backstory of the BrokenBird, and instrumental in the FreudianExcuse of a villain who UsedToBeASweetKid. Compare ProneToTears, who may have once undergone this, and WideEyedIdealist. And sometimes this trope can straight-up [[KillTheCutie kill the character in question]].
Sometimes it can be CorruptTheCutie, where the character in question breaks it by
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* [[BreakTheCutie/AnimatedFilms Film — Animated]]
* [[BreakTheCutie/LiveActionFilms Film — Live-Action]]
* [[BreakTheCutie/LiveActionFilms Film — Live-Action]]
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* [[BreakTheCutie/AnimatedFilms Film Films — Animated]]
* [[BreakTheCutie/LiveActionFilmsFilm Films — Live-Action]]
* [[BreakTheCutie/LiveActionFilms
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A series introduces a [[TheCutie character as sweet and lovable]], a fountain of SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments, who likes nothing more than to pet little creatures. [[{{Moe}} They make you adore them, root for them, love them and want to hug them.]]
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A series introduces a [[TheCutie character as sweet and lovable]], a fountain of SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments, more comic relief than anything, who likes nothing more than to pet little creatures. [[{{Moe}} They make you adore them, root for them, love them and want to hug them.]]
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A series introduces a [[TheCutie character as sweet and lovable]], a fountain of SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments, who likes nothing more than to [[PetTheDog pet little creatures]]. [[{{Moe}} They make you adore them, root for them and love them]].
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A series introduces a [[TheCutie character as sweet and lovable]], a fountain of SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments, who likes nothing more than to [[PetTheDog pet little creatures]]. creatures. [[{{Moe}} They make you adore them, root for them, love them and love them]].
want to hug them.]]
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'''Phase 2''': Madoka Kaname during a [[HeroicBSOD traumatic]] [[WhamEpisode incident]].\\
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'''Phase 2''': Madoka Kaname during a [[HeroicBSOD traumatic]] [[WhamEpisode traumatic incident]].\\
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This technique is often used to build TheWoobie in an attempt to enhance "adorability" points. Writers have to be careful or else TheCutie will become the universe's [[TheChewToy Chew Toy]] or cause DarknessInducedAudienceApathy if too much misery is heaped on them.
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This technique is often used to build TheWoobie in an attempt to enhance "adorability" points. Writers have to be careful or else TheCutie will become the universe's [[TheChewToy Chew Toy]] or cause DarknessInducedAudienceApathy if too much misery is heaped on them.
Toy]].
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[[caption-width-right:243:'''Phase 1''': Madoka Kaname, a [[NiceGuy kind and innocent]] NaiveEverygirl.\\
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[[caption-width-right:243:'''Phase 1''': Madoka Kaname, a [[NiceGuy [[NiceGirl kind and innocent]] NaiveEverygirl.\\
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Added Break The Comedian as a comparable trope
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Contrast BreakTheHaughty, where bad things happen to an arrogant person who had it coming, BreakTheBadass (when a super-strong person is put through the wringer), or the even worse variation, KillTheCutie. On the other hand, it may be possible to HealTheCutie.
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Contrast BreakTheHaughty, where BreakTheHaughty (where bad things happen to an arrogant person who had it coming, coming), BreakTheBadass (when a super-strong person is put through the wringer), or the even worse variation, KillTheCutie.KillTheCutie. Compare BreakTheComedian, when the comedic relief gets made miserable. On the other hand, it may be possible to HealTheCutie.
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!!Examples
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[[BewareTheNiceOnes Be careful about torturing sweet little things]] — sometimes instead of breaking, or when there's nothing left to break, they '''[[FreakOut snap]]'''. If they snap, you'd better hope your [[UnstoppableRage life insurance policy]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds is up to date]], [[BullyingADragon especially]] if the cutie was a {{badass|Adorable}} to begin with. If they break, but refuse to show it, they could be a StepfordSmiler.
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[[BewareTheNiceOnes Be careful about torturing sweet little things]] — sometimes instead of breaking, or when there's nothing left to break, they '''[[FreakOut '''[[TheDogBitesBack snap]]'''. If they snap, you'd better hope your [[UnstoppableRage life insurance policy]] [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds is up to date]], [[BullyingADragon especially]] if the cutie was a {{badass|Adorable}} to begin with. If they break, but refuse to show it, they could be a StepfordSmiler.
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Sometimes it can be CorruptTheCutie, where the character in question breaks it by herself. Frequently a part of a character crossing the DespairEventHorizon or the cause of a HeroicBSOD. Also frequently part of the backstory of the BrokenBird, and instrumental in the FreudianExcuse of a villain who UsedToBeASweetKid. Compare ProneToTears, who may have once undergone this, and WideEyedIdealist.
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Sometimes it can be CorruptTheCutie, where the character in question breaks it by herself. Frequently a part of a character crossing the DespairEventHorizon or the cause of a HeroicBSOD. Also frequently part of the backstory of the BrokenBird, and instrumental in the FreudianExcuse of a villain who UsedToBeASweetKid. Compare ProneToTears, who may have once undergone this, and WideEyedIdealist. \n And sometimes this trope can straight-up [[KillTheCutie kill the character in question]].