History Main / DarkAndTroubledPast

* On {{Stargate SG1}}, Dr. Daniel Jackson's cringe-worthy backstory explains how he can keep going in the face of the constant perils he faces on the show. He lost his parents to an accident (which he witnessed) as a kid, and his own grandpa was too busy to take him in so he went to foster care. He was ridiculed for his (true!) archaeological theories and was about to lose his apartment before he joined the Stargate program. There, he falls in love with a woman on another planet and stays with her, but she's kidnapped one year later and he leaves to go tramping around the galaxy trying to find her (which remains his motivation for continuing with SG1 until she dies, possessed and almost succeeding in killing him). Add that to what happens to him during the actual run of the show, and he's still the first one to give anybody the benefit of the doubt.

* Pink from Pink Floyd's TheWall. His father died in the war, his mother is over-protective, he was tortured by sadistic teachers... no wonder that when his marriage collapsed he isolated himself from the rest of the world and became a fascist dictator in his own imaginary world...

* When you put them all together, even though they're played for [[BlackComedy dark laughs]], a lot of bad things have happened ([[JerkassWoobie that weren't actually his fault]]) to TheNostalgiaCritic. AbusiveParents, hiding in the cupboard when he got scared, breaking up with someone three times and getting stalked for it, pitied by his classmates for acting like a brat and date-raped on his prom night and that's just what we know so far. No wonder he's a weepy PsychopathicManchild with issues.

** While usually ([[{{HiddenDepths}} but not always]]) portrayed as more of a [[{{KnightInSourArmor}} jaded]] [[{{DeadpanSnarker}} goofball]] than a dark character, Colonel Jack O'Neill doesn't have the most pleasant background. He is ex-[[{{ElitesAreMoreGlamorous}} Special Ops]], and his professional backstory appears to fall under [[{{YouDoNOTWantToKnow}} 'you don't want to know']] territory. It was stated that he's done some 'distasteful things,' and a few allusions have been made to his 'file' and his having a 'strong stomach'. He was also left for dead by his friend and teammate Frank Cromwell, resulting in [[{{HighOctaneNightmareFuel}} four months]] [[{{FateWorseThanDeath}} in an Iraqi prison]]. The Iraqis were not known for being nice to their prisoners, and he carried a grudge for at least seven years, to the extent that he refused to forgive Cromwell even when the planet was about to be sucked up by a black hole. [[{{TheyreCalledPersonalIssuesForAReason}} This was never mentioned again]]. The specifics of his early life are unknown, but when Sam Carter was trying to get him to empathise with some new Air Force Academy graduates, he retorted that '[He] was never their age.' That one has about even odds of being a joke or a hint-within-a-joke, but it's a wierd thing to say if it doesn't have any basis in fact. Finally, his son Charlie accidentally killed himself with O'Neill's sidearm, and O'Neill blames himself. He was suicidal and [[spoiler: were it not for the intervention of Daniel Jackson, he would have killed himself with a nuclear bomb and [[{{MoralEventHorizon}} knowingly taken five-thousand people]] with him.]] All this before the show happened. At a later date there was [[{{HighOctaneNightmareFuel}} a little episode]] called [[{{ColdBloodedTorture}} Abyss.]]

* Admiral Al Calavicci of {{Quantum Leap}}

[[MetalGear http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tragicpast_8463.PNG]]

* Prince Zuko of ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has [[WellDoneSonGuy parental issues]]. His past, revealed via {{Whole Episode Flashback}}s, involves a MissingMom, being TheUnFavourite, and an [[AbusiveParents abusive father]]. Needless to say, he's the EstrogenBrigadeBait of the series.
** On a lesser scale, Katara and Sokka's peaceful and happy life was destroyed when the Fire Nation raided their village, killed their mother and later led their father to go away to fight in the war. They may not show the effects as much as Zuko does, but it catches up to them later on (Sokka risks his ass breaking into a Fire Nation prison, Katara has her dark night of the soul tracking down her mother's killer). Aang also has a variant of this; [[spoiler: while he had a happy childhood with the Air Nomads he made the fatal mistake of freaking out and running away from his responsibilities, being frozen in ice for a century, and finally paying dearly for it when he discovers the corpse of his beloved mentor]].

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* AvatarTheLastAirbender ''lives'' on this trope. Let's look it over;
** [[AntiHero Zuko]]: Father always favoured Azula over him, and then planned to murder him to get the throne. His loving mother sacrificed her life/freedom to prevent this. Zuko one day speaks out against a horrible plan, and his own father burns his face for insolence. He then gets banished and put on a SnipeHunt for the Avatar.
** [[TheHero Aang]]: ran away from his home and destiny, allowing for a century long war.
** [[TheChick Katara]] and [[BadAssNormal Sokka]]: Mother killed in a Fire Nation raid when they were little, and their father and all the men of the tribe left three years prior to the show's start. This left Katara with abandonment issues, and Sokka feeling that he wasn't good enough as a warrior.
** [[BadAssGrandpa Iroh]]: Was once a very powerful warrior and general in the Fire Nation army, leading a siege on Ba Sing Se. Then, his son died, he went into a HeroicBSOD, and 'betrayed his nation'.
** All this isn't even counting the pasts of more minor characters such as Jeong-Jeong, Pakku, Hama, Jet and hell, even [[MagnificentBastard Azula]].
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** Not to mention Harry himself: both parents murdered before his eyes at age one, nine years living with abusive guardians, being bullied at school by his cousin and friends, a dead godfather, a dead mentor, the most evil person in his world has a connection to him, a life and death battle every year, and sometimes his friends turn their backs on him (cough Ron cough).

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* In ''{{Bleach}}'', two of the female leads have BreakTheCutie pasts. Rukia blames herself for the death of [[TheObiWan her beloved mentor]] Kaien. Meanwhile, not only did Orihime have AbusiveParents, but she was also bullied in school and her brother Sora died in a car accident. Early in the story, Sora unwillingly comes back as [[TheHeartless a Hollow]], and finally commits suicide so he can move on to the Soul Society as a spirit.

** The anime, thanks to its GeckoEnding, makes things a bit better for Chrona by [[spoiler: having her finally [[CallingTheOldManOut decide to stop Medusa]], end up [[TakingTheBullet dying to save Maka]] and finally [[NotQuiteDead being saved]] in time to give out a bit of {{Narm}} in the finale]].

* A lot of the characters in ''PandoraHearts''. A lot of them don't remember their pasts. They just know it was bad.

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* The emotional turmoil brought on by the childhood abuse of Tim Robbins' character is the main crux of ''{{MysticRiver}}''.

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* Most of the vampires from {{Twilight}} seem have dark and troubled last minutes of their '''''human''''' lives, the terrific pain of the transformative venom probably doesn't help matters.
* Vin from {{Mistborn}}. Born the daughter of a skaa (peasant) woman and an Imperial nobleman (a death sentence from the get go), her earliest memory is of her insane mother killing her little sister [[spoiler: and performing Hemalurgy to transfer some of her soul to Vin]], before being rescued by her older half-brother. Said half-brother genuinely cares about Vin, but he's a cynical, abusive {{Jerkass}} who hammers into her head the idea that she can't trust anyone because everybody is selfish and manipulative. They spend the next several years working as petty thieves on the lowest rung of society, until the half-brother runs out on her [[spoiler: though it turns out he was actually captured and executed]], leaving Vin without a protecter in a den of scum. Of course from there she gets recruited by LaResistance, finds out that she's an ExtraordinarilyEmpoweredGirl, and [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level in badass]], but still. Is it any wonder the poor girl spends most of the trilogy wrestling with crippling paranoia?

* [[TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden]]. [[DeathByChildbirth Never knew his mother]], his dad died when he was a kid, bullied at an orphanage, adopted by an abusive EvilMentor who tried to turn him to TheDarkSide, had to kill him in self-defense, arrested by the White Council, barely escaped the death penalty for violating the Laws of Magic, and is still under the Doom of Damocles and being stalked by an InspectorJavert type at the beginning of the series.
** Of course, taking into account the things that happen to him during the actual ''series'', his backstory honestly isn't depressing so much as it's "a ''very small'' taste of what's to come.''

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* [[MadScientist Walter Bishop]] from ''{{Fringe}}'' crossed several ethical boundaries (including experimenting on children) (see below)in the name of Science, before he was admitted to St. Claire's Psychiatric Institution.

** AND let's not forget Olivia in all this. Military brat who moved around a lot, abused by her stepfather, lost her mother at a young age, and, oh yeah, experimented on in Jacksonville by none other than Walter Bishop.

* Jack Harkness gets a lot of this in {{Torchwood}}. The audience knows a bit of it due to remembering his origins in DoctorWho, but his actions over the last 100 years without the Doctor include [[spoiler: giving up twelve children to aliens who wanted to use them for substance abuse in exchange for a cure to a deadly virus, earlier being a member of a less than morally outstanding Time Agency, turned Con man,]] and there are probably a few other things we haven't been made aware of.

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* {{Dark and Troubled Past}}? Oooh that means Kevin E. Levin from {{Ben 10}} and ''{{Ben 10}}: Alien Force''! Let's see he was 1)Probably abandoned as a young child because of his power 2)Became a criminal probably at first just to '''''survive''''' then because he got addicted to the thrill of it 3)Became a literal monster by the age of eleven and 4) Got sent to a hellish prison dimension, thus becoming a felon.

** Okay. I admit that that info blows my theories to smithereens but he still mentions a stepfather and I'm telling you he was not living with his mother when we, and the Tennysons, first met him in NYC. Or the Void for that matter. Dark and Troubled Past just because of his criminal record. It wouldn't be sealed until he was eighteen. Ergo he still belongs on this page.

* Casey Jones was given one of these for his [[TMNT2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] 2k3 incarnation, in order to explain his vigilantism: when he was a kid, the Purple Dragon gang, led by a teenage Hun, burned his father's store before his very eyes. Afterwards, when Arnold Casey Jones Sr. tried to extract retribution, he was killed. Eventually, writers for the [[ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles Mirage comic book]] integrated a modified (and considerably less sanitized) version of story into the original canon.

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<<|SadnessTropes|>>

* A dead loved one: parents, siblings, spouses, best friends, or a whole DoomedHometown.

** While usually ([[{{HiddenDepths}} but not always]]) portrayed as more of a [[{{KnightInSourArmor}} jaded]] [[{{DeadpanSnarker}} goofball]] than a dark character, Colonel Jack O'Neill doesn't have the most pleasant background. He is ex-[[{{ElitesAreMoreGlamorous}} Special Ops]], and his professional backstory appears to fall under [[{{YouDoNOTWantToKnow}} 'you don't want to know']] territory. It was stated that he's done some 'distasteful things,' and a few allusions have been made to his 'file' and his having a 'strong stomach'. He was also left for dead by his friend and teammate Frank Cromwell, resulting in [[{{HighOctaneNightmareFuel}} four months]] [[{{FateWorseThanDeath}} in an Iraqi prison]]. The Iraqis were not known for being nice to their prisoners, and he carried a grudge for at least seven years, to the extent that he refused to forgive Cromwell even when the planet was about to be sucked up by a black hole. [[{{TheyreCalledPersonalIssuesForAReason}} This was never mentioned again]]. The specifics of his early life are unknown, but when Sam Carter was trying to get him to empathise with some new Air Force Academy graduates, he retorted that '[He] was never their age.' That one has about even odds of being a joke or a hint-within-a-joke, but it's a wierd thing to say if it doesn't have any basis in fact. Finally, his son Charlie accidentally killed himself with O'Neill's sidearm, and O'Neill blames himself. He was suicidal and [[spoiler: were it not for the intervention of Daniel Jackson, he would have killed himself with a nuclear bomb and [[{{MoralEventHorizon}} (''knowingly'') taken five-thousand people]] with him.]] All this before the show happened. At a later date there was [[{{HighOctaneNightmareFuel}} a little episode]] called [[{{ColdBloodedTorture}} Abyss.]]

** While usually ([[{{HiddenDepths}} but not always]]) portrayed as more of a [[{{KnightInSourArmor}} jaded]] [[{{DeadpanSnarker}} goofball]] than a dark character, Colonel Jack O'Neill doesn't have the most pleasant background. He is ex-[[{{ElitesAreMoreGlamorous}} Special Ops]], and his professional backstory appears to fall under [[{{YouDoNOTWantToKnow}} 'you don't want to know']] territory. It was stated that he's done some 'distasteful things,' and a few allusions have been made to his 'file' and his having a 'strong stomach'. He was also left for dead by his friend and teammate Frank Cromwell, resulting in [[{{HighOctaneNightmareFuel}} four months]] [[{{FateWorseThanDeath}} in an Iraqi prison]]. The Iraqis were not known for being nice to their prisoners, and he carried a grudge for at least seven years, to the extent that he refused to forgive Cromwell even when the planet was about to be sucked up by a black hole. [[{{TheyreCalledPersonalIssuesForAReason}} This was never mentioned again]]. The specifics of his early life are unknown, but when Sam Carter was trying to get him to empathise with some new Air Force Academy graduates, he retorted that '[He] was never their age.' That one has about even odds of being a joke or a hint-within-a-joke, but it's a wierd thing to say if it doesn't have any basis in fact. Finally, his son Charlie accidentally killed himself with O'Neill's sidearm, and O'Neill blames himself. He was suicidal and [[spoiler: were it not for the intervention of Daniel Jackson, he would have killed himself with a nuclear bomb and [[{{MoralEventHorizon}} knowingly taken five-thousand people]] with him.]] All this before the show happened. At a later date there was [[{{HighOctaneNightmareFuel}} a little episode]] called [[{{ColdBloodedTorture}} Abyss.]]

** While usually ([[{{HiddenDepths}} but not always]]) portrayed as more of a [[{{KnightInSourArmor}} jaded]] [[{{DeadpanSnarker}} goofball]] than a dark character, Colonel Jack O'Neill doesn't have the most pleasant background. He is ex-[[{{ElitesAreMoreGlamorous}} Special Ops]], and his professional backstory appears to fall under [[{{YouDoNOTWantToKnow}} 'you don't want to know']] territory. It was stated that he's done some 'distasteful things,' and a few allusions have been made to his 'file' and his having a 'strong stomach'. He was also left for dead by his friend and teammate Frank Cromwell, resulting in [[{{HighOctaneNightmareFuel}} four months]] [[{{FateWorseThanDeath}} in an Iraqi prison]]. The Iraqis were not known for being nice to their prisoners, and he carried a grudge for at least seven years, to the extent that he refused to forgive Cromwell even when the planet was about to be sucked up by a black hole. [[{{TheyreCalledPersonalIssuesForAReason}} This was never mentioned again]]. The specifics of his early life are unknown, but when Sam Carter was trying to get him to empathise with some new Air Force Academy graduates, he retorted that '[He] was never their age.' That one has about even odds of being a joke or a hint-within-a-joke, but it's a wierd thing to say if it doesn't have any basis in fact. Finally, his son Charlie accidentally killed himself with O'Neill's sidearm, and O'Neill blames himself. He was suicidal and [[spoiler: were it not for the intervention of Daniel Jackson, he would have killed himself with a nuclear bomb and [[{{MoralEventHorizon}} ''' knowingly ''' taken five-thousand people]] with him.]] All this before the show happened. At a later date there was [[{{HighOctaneNightmareFuel}} a little episode]] called [[{{ColdBloodedTorture}} Abyss.]]