History Main / DeusAngstMachina

** Job got better. [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop His children, animals, servants, and so forth apparently don't count for a hill of beans.]]
*** If it's not enough of a MindScrew that the whole thing was a SecretTestOfCharacter, let's not forget: it started out as a '''wager''' between God and Satan! [[CosmicPlaything Feeling toyed with?]]

* We've gone this long without mentioning [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Harry Dresden?]] Guy's had a ''hard'' life. From start to finish: [[spoiler: His mom died giving birth to him, his dad died when he was a kid, his first mentor tried to turn him into a dark wizard, he killed said wizard with dark magic (and thought his first love died in the resultant fire), was put under magical probation for most of his adult life, had his second true love, Susan, turn into a half-vampire, started an entire war over her, lost several friends in said war, learned Susan had borne his daughter and never told him about her, learned she was kidnapped by the Red Court of Vampires...and, oh yeah, to top it all off, he learned of a spell that was supposed to use his daughter to kill him and ALL of his blood relations, and he slit Susan's throat to kill each and every Red Vampire in the ''WORLD''.]] And you think you have it hard?
** [[spoiler: Not to mention he put his daughter in a safe house at the very end... and he said it was better he didn't know where she lived. And his daughter was scared of his face when she first saw him. And then he was so depressed he got his apprentice to kill him. And his best friend lost her job.]]
** [[spoiler: It wasn't depression, and his apprentice didn't kill him. He had his apprentice erase his memory of ordering his own assassination so he could renege on a deal he made with the Winter Court essentially selling his soul to repair his recently received paralysis to save his kidnapped daughter.]]

** Likewise, ''DaysOfOurLives'' seems to hate its characters. If you're not simultaneously [[YourCheatingHeart worrying about your boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse sleeping with someone else]], [[{{Hypocrite}} sleeping with someone else yourself]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone and then feeling guilty]], keeping secrets of who slept with whom for your friends, keeping secrets of who slept with whom for your ''enemies'' because of the collateral damage to your friends, wondering [[WhosYourDaddy who the father of the new pregnancy of the week is]] thanks to [[EverybodyHasLotsOfSex all that sleeping around]], angsting over the LawOfInverseFertility and worrying about [[ButWeUsedACondom being pregnant despite birth control]] [[ButICantBePregnant or lack of fertility]] (bonus points for doing both at once!), getting harassed by a psychopath, or having any number of other [[RuleOfDrama sources of drama]] heaped on you...just wait. [[FromBadToWorse Just you wait.]]

* Very common in DanielleSteel's novels. An example is Gabbie in ''The Long Road Home'', who has a very abusive mother, a father who doesn't help and leaves when she is 9. Her mother then moves to California and leaves her in a convent, where she decides to become a nun and falls in love with a priest. However, they are not allowed to be together, and her lover feels guilty and hangs himself. She is kicked out of the convent and ends up moving into a boarding house. Just as things seem to be moving up, her closest friend is essentially killed by the con-man Gabbie fell in love with and said con man then beats Gabbie almost to death for the money the friend left her in his will.

* {{A Cruel God Reigns}}: Jeremy gets this for pretty much the entire series. His mother, Sandra, falls in love and gets engaged, but it turns out the guy, Greg, [[spoiler: is a pedophile]]. Jeremy refuses Greg, Greg [[spoiler: cancels the engagement, Sandra tries to kill herself.]] Greg comes back at Jeremy's pleading but only if he [[spoiler: will sleep with him and promises it will be a one time deal.]] It's not. Sandra and Greg get married, and Jeremy is forced to move to England where he attends boarding school with his older step-brother Ian. He's saved, right? Nope. [[spoiler: Greg comes to school, and then beats him, threatening him to come home on the weekends.]] Jeremy seeks advice from a psychologist in London and begins to recover. [[spoiler: The psychologist dies.]]and Ian steals the girl he was falling in love with. Soon, a servant mistakes Greg kissing Jeremy as being consenting and [[spoiler: black mails him into giving her money he doesn't have]]. Jeremy has a {{Freak Out}} when Ian's friend tries to kiss him while drunk and [[spoiler: nearly blinds him, resulting in his near expulsion and even more of Greg's wrath.]] Jeremy eventually [[spoiler: tampers with Greg's car and kills him, but it also kills his mother.]] Ian practically {{Mind Rape}}s him to get him to confess, [[spoiler: but when he does in addition to confessing to the abuse with a {{Driven to Suicide}} and {{Bungled Suicide}}, Ian accuses him of lying.]] Jeremy flees back to Boston where he [[spoiler: becomes a drug addict and prostitute to deal with the guilt.]] Ian has a {{MyGodWhatHaveIDone}} and drags Jeremy back to England to help him, but [[spoiler: ends up paying him for sex]] and yelling at him when Jeremy can't recover like Ian would like him to. The poor kid can't catch a break.

Deus Angst Machina is something of the polar opposite of {{Wangst}} in terms of cause, but can come across as no less frustrating. Simply put, the character in question has every reason in the world to retreat into himself and become a brooding, angsty person, because his life really ''does'' suck as much as he thinks it does. However, the circumstances seem entirely too [[ContrivedCoincidence contrived]]. This is a step beyond the coincidences that most stories tend towards to build up drama, as the character seems to have provoked [[CosmicPlaything some sadistic god]] who is now dedicated to making his life as [[ButtMonkey miserable]] (and angst-filled) as possible. Sure, ''anyone'' would be miserable in his situation, but when said situation is less likely than being struck by lightning, it can seem to be outright ludicrous.

* Daniel Jackson in ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' and ''Series/StargateSG1''. Loses both his parents in an accident, has his scientific discoveries rejected and mocked... then, just as he finds that his theories aren't crazy after all and everyone thinks he's going to live HappilyEverAfter on another planet with his new wife, she is promptly taken away by the BigBad and implanted with a Goa'uld symbiote. After he spends three years fighting the Goa'uld, with the hope of seeing her again being his only motivation, he's forced to see her [[ShootTheDog killed]] by Teal'c, one of his best friends. He recovers, only to have ''another'' love interest taken away by another Goa'uld. Not even death stops the chain of unfortunate events: after [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascending]], he's quickly frustrated with his inability to intervene, and finally kicked from the ascended plane after trying to stop another BigBad from [[DroppedABridgeOnHim dropping a planet's worth of bridges]] on Abydos... and ''failing''. The most amazing thing is how he eventually gets over all this...

Let's see... Dead mother, emotionally abusive father, fucked up childhood; Sam's attempt at a normal life ends with his girlfriend's death; their father makes a DealWithTheDevil for Dean's life, leaving Dean to deal with the guilt and anger of knowing his dad's in Hell because of him; he also tells Dean he'll have to either save Sam or kill him, leaving Sam terrified he'll go [[TheDarkSide Dark Side]]. Sam dies, prompting Dean to make his own deal. Dean goes to Hell for forty years; Sam allies himself with a demon; Dean gets raised from Hell by Castiel, an angel... Only to find out that the angels ''want to start the Apocalypse''. And Dean inadvertently broke the first seal and kick-started the whole thing. Dean persuades Castiel to help him, only to get there too late to stop Sam from accidentally freeing Lucifer and ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero starting the Apocalypse]]''. Dean and Sam find out they're vessels for Michael and Lucifer, and if Dean says yes Michael will torch half the planet in 'saving the world'; they try to kill Lucifer themselves, but fail (and lose two close friends in the process); Castiel tries to find God, only to be told that God doesn't give a damn. Dean comes very close to saying yes to Michael out of sheer despair. They eventually manage to find a way of beating Lucifer that involves ''Sam'' going to Hell, and Cas pisses off back to Heaven, leaving Dean pretty much broken. At least he has love interest Lisa and her kid Ben to comfort him, though... Then Sam comes back - except [[spoiler:without a soul]]. He [[spoiler:gets his soul back]], they get sold out by [[spoiler:their grandfather]], and then the BigBad turns out to be [[spoiler:Castiel, who they regard as family]]. Dean's relationship with Lisa and Ben also deteriorates to the point where he gets Cas to ''erase their memories of him''. And Sam gets back his memories of his time in Hell(in which his soul spent around 180 years being tortured by Lucifer and Michael, making his tour of hell much worse than Dean's), which had been blocked to stop them from driving him insane causing him to have hallucinations of Lucifer, so now he's not sure what's real and what's not. Cas absorbs all the souls from Purgatory ''and'' Leviathans which eventually take control of his body and kill him[[hottip:*:Though Misha Collins is coming back, he might not play Cas]], Dean's ready to quit hunting, and Bobby, the character who [[spoiler:has survived for an incredibly long time considering the show's track record, get's a bullet to the brain and dies, leaving Sam and Dean alone in their fight.]]

*** So, to summarize: between the deaths, trauma, abandonment issues, crippling guilt, unhealthy co-dependency, betrayals and lies, 'fucked up' is an accurate description. Bobby, at one point, comes out and ''says'' that the only reason he doesn't put a bullet in his brain is Dean and Sam[[hottip:*:Though admittedly, this is at a time when it looks like he'll be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life and ''the world is about to end'']](also, Dean, Sam, and Castiel have all shown signs of being suicidal/wanting to die at least at one point in the series). [[SarcasmMode How's that for cheerful?]] (And this isn't even the worst of it; Dean gets to time travel to a potential future for one episode, which is [[UpToEleven much]], [[CrapsackWorld much]] [[{{Dystopia}} worse]]. If you haven't seen it, read the above, and try to imagine what, if this is business as normal, the crappy future was like. Try.)

* Oersted, one of the heroes from the SNES game ''VideoGame/LiveALive''. As his chapter starts, he wins the tournament which names him the greatest hero in the land, as well as the hand of the beautiful princess in marriage. As the two make wedding plans, a monstrous demon sent by the Demon King appears and kidnaps the princess. No matter, this happens in video games all the time. Oersted and his best friend Straybow the magician, as well as two older heroes who defeated the Demon King years earlier, set off on a quest to get her back. And then... [[spoiler: The group is barely able to reach the Demon King's palace before one of the heroes is killed. And then the palace collapses, and they are forced to leave Straybow behind. And then, when Oersted returns to the palace, he finds the Demon King there and slays him... oops, that was actually an illusion, and his would-be father-in-law is now dead. Oersted is arrested for murdering the King, and the other elder hero is tortured to death as an accessory, barely able to summon enough strength to help Oersted escape. Oersted flees the kingdom, every citizen in it who once cheered him now calling him a traitor and murderer, and makes a heroic solo effort to take the Demon King down. When he finally reaches the villain... it turns out it was his old friend Straybow all along. Oersted is forced to kill his best friend, and the princess appears. A bittersweet ending? Nope. The princess tells Oersted that she believed Oersted would save her, but it was ''Straybow'' who saved her[[hottip:*: and after all that Oersted went through to try and save her, no less]], declares that she loves Straybow, not him, and commits suicide. Poor Oersted. Is it any surprise to find that the Demon King that the other heroes battled was Oersted himself, embracing the darkness?]]

* [[PunnyName Subplott's]] backstory in ''LifeInAGame'': He finds out he's a prince, but then an evil wizard brainwashes his father, the king, killed his uncle, kidnapped his sister, Zelda, and banished him, then, to top it off, erased Subplott's [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pokédex]].

* John Crichton in ''Series/{{Farscape}}''. First, he gets lost untold light-years away from Earth. Then, he gets tortured, mind-raped, and raped. Then he gets mind-raped and tortured some more, [[spoiler: kills his girlfriend, gets cloned, loses his girlfriend to his clone, dies repeatedly, and also has basically the secret to the ultimate weapon of the universe implanted in his head, ensuring that the weight of the universe falls on his shoulders and that he's going to be pursued by pretty much everyone, all of whom are eager to torture, mind-rape, and rape him some more]].

-->--'''Franchise/SpiderMan''', inner monologue. It's unclear if he means [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall his villains or his writers.]]

* It has become pretty apparent that the writer ''ToLive'''s main objective is to make the protagonist suffer as much as possible, no matter how ridiculous the manner is.

* Jack in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. She is abducted by a terrorist organisation at age four, with her parents believing her dead. Said organisation, Cerberus, tortures and drugs her for most of her childhood, ForScience, in a bid to create a super-biotic. The facility where she is held goes through children in the dozens, which usually arrive half-starved in animal cages, bought by slavers, and end up on child-sized dissection tables. There she was also forced to fight and kill other children in arena fights, being electroshocked when she refused to, which is about the only interaction she has with other people, as she is else locked up and isolated in her room all the time. Escaping from the facility, she immediately ends up with people who abuse her for her powers and her body, only to then sell her as a slave. This starts Jack's long career of criminal activity and violence, where most people indeed only see a tool to be used in her, while Cerberus' agents still hunt her. The only person in all the time who does care for her and loves her - ends up sacrificing himself for her so she can get away after a weapons theft goes bad, giving her a massive dose of survivor's guilt as well. She eventually ends up on 'Purgatory', a prison ship from hell doubling as slave market, where she is gang-raped by a group of wardens and prisoners, and upon taking her revenge is put into constant cryostasis, as she is deemed to dangerous. She joins the game because she is bought free by Commander Shepard's financial backers - which is Cerberus, so she ends up on a Cerberus ship, with the ship's XO (a Cerberus member) flat out rejecting that the organisation made any mistakes. And of course, said ship is heading towards a suicide mission. Many players dislike Jack as too violent and too aggressive but there's a reason for that in the background story. Luckily for her, this also signals things getting better for her (if she survives said mission), as [[MagneticHero Shepard]] shows her she need not subside on anger and bitterness alone. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' her life has gotten somewhat better. Well, except for omnicidal AI killing machines invading the galaxy, of course, but that's a fate everybody suffers then.

* In TheDarkKnight, the Joker unleashes an escalating series of catastrophic events on Gotham City, including murdering cops and public officials, blowing up hospitals, and finally [[spoiler: turning the much admired "White Knight" district attorney Harvey Dent into the crazed killer Two-Face. By inducing a state of desperate panic and fear on the city, he hopes to prove that [[HobbesWasRight deep down, people are savage, selfish and ignoble.]]]]

* Andy Sipowicz from ''Series/NYPDBlue'': his mother was killed in a robbery when he was little. He grew-up to be an alcoholic (like his father), causing his estrangement from his wife and son. He was shot six times and almost died. He sobered up and rebuilt his relationship with Andy Jr., but his son was gunned soon afterwards, causing him to fall off the wagon. And then he got cancer. And then his partner/best friend Bobby died a lingering death from heart failure. And then his new wife was gunned down, too, right in front of him. Oh, and then his new son Theo got sick and was thought to have leukemia. Oh, and then the partner who replaced Bobby was murdered. Oh, and then...

* Subverted: Hayate in ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'' can never seem to get a break. He's got deadbeat parents who steal his money and are willing to sell him to [[strike:the {{Yakuza}}]] some 'very nice people' to clear their gambling debts, and after becoming Nagi's butler, he keeps getting into situations where [[EverythingTryingToKillYou everybody wants him dead]]. Hell, he's the greatest, most gentle kid in the world, and ''Santa'' won't even give him presents! The only thing that keeps this series from becoming a tragedy is that Hayate is used to crap like this happening and that some twist of fate usually occurs to make it so that things aren't quite as bad as they seemed at first.
** ...And, of course, that most of these events are ''[[RefugeInAudacity played for comedy]]''. And ''succeed''.
** This probably works because the protagonist in question has the mental fortitude to match his physical constitution (getting hit by a speeding car, falling off a clocktower without so much as a bruise etc.).
*** Which means that instead of being all {{wangst}}y about his troubles, he usually mentions them offhandedly and cheerfully, as if they were something minor. Other characters, however, are visibly disturbed when they learn of them and Hayate once had his grade school class and the teacher in tears when he cheerfully and obliviously read a report showcasing his crapshack of a home life.
** And just to add to the problems, in the manga he's been forced to decide between Constant Love and Constant Protection by [[spoiler: Santa-Mikado]]. He finally breaks down and angsts for a while, [[spoiler: until the issue is solved for him.]]

* Yamcha of ''Manga/DragonBall Z'' has a large one in the Cell saga which he never recovered from. His girlfriend of 15 years gets pregnant by the {{sociopath|icHero}} who previously killed him and his friends rub salt in the wound by asking if the baby is his. Shortly afterwards he gets impaled by a relatively weak android and realizes he'll never be able to [[CantCatchUp catch up]]. He never recovered either; in Bojack unbounded its revealed he's broke and in his last DBZ appearance he still has no one as a 50 year old man (with his goal in life being to raising a family). His miserable lot in life is parodied in Manga/{{Gintama}}'s 202nd episode.

* ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' is a [[BlackHumor(darkly) humorous]] take on this.

* ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' is a (darkly) humorous take on this.

* ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' is full of this, especially the {{season finale}}s. George gets hit by a bus while Izzie is undergoing a risky surgery for her brain tumor, which ends with them both being in comas at the end of the episode. One of them dies. Another episode has a CodeSilver situation which results in Meredith having a miscarriage and Cristina having her first major incident of PTSD. Later, half the cast is in a plane crash where [[spoiler: Lexie and Mark die, Arizona loses a leg, and Derek has to smash his hand so that he might not ever be able to do surgery again (or [[ContinuityIsGod at least until midway through the last season]]).]]
** In a season 9 episode, a very pregnant Meredith falls while going up the stairs [[SubvertedTrope ... and the baby is completely fine.]]

* ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' is full of this. George [[spoiler:gets smashed to death by a bus]], Izzie [[spoiler:has a brain tumor]], everyone [[spoiler:gets trapped in the hospital with a psycho shooter on the loose]] which results in Meredith [[spoiler:having a miscarriage]] and Cristina [[spoiler:having her first major incident of PTSD]], and then half the cast [[spoiler:is in a plane crash where Lexie and Mark die, Arizona loses a leg, and Derek has to smash his hand so that he might not ever be able to do surgery again]] - and those are just the major traumas I can think of.

* Turin from Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin''. His little sister died when he was 5. When he was 9, his father went off to war and was captured by the BigBad, who cursed his entire family. (Turin didn't know about it and thought his father died.) He then leaves his pregnant mother behind to seek shelter from the Elf king, so he wouldn't be enslaved. When he was 20, he accidentally kills an Elf who attacked him verbally and physically. Believing the king would punish him, he exiles himself. The king forgave him when he found out the truth, and let Beleg, a good friend of Turin, search for him. Turin joins a band of outlaws and becomes their leader. He is captured by orcs and tied up. Beleg finds him at night and cuts his bonds, but his knife slips and wakes Turin up. Turin jumps up and kills Beleg. Later, his mother and the sister that was born after he'd left, Nienor, goes to the Elf king to look for Turin. Obviously he's not there, so they go look for him. Glaurung the dragon puts a spell over Nienor so she forgets who she is. She goes running crazy into the woods until Turin finds her. They fall in love and get married. Eventually Turin goes to slay Glaurung. He fatally stabs him, but the blood makes him pass out. Nienor finds him and thinks he's dead. Glaurung tells her that she's pregnant by her brother and dies, thus lifting the spell. Nienor remembers everything and jumps off a cliff. Turin wakes up and goes home, where he is told about Nienor from her StalkerWithACrush. He commits suicide by impaling himself on his sword which apparently talks to him.
** Tolkien makes the subtle point that most of Turin's troubles can be traced to his angsty self-absorption. As somebody - Beleg? - points out, other people have their problems too. Given that the War Against Morgoth is being lost, that is something of an understatement!
** This series of events is supposed to be abnormally unfortunate, as Morgoth's punishment of Hurin (Turin's father) was to give Hurin the ability to see everything that happened to his family and then to curse said family. Considering that Morgoth helped make the world, it is to be assumed that his curses would actually come true.
** Don't forget how, when he goes to Nargothrond with Gwindor, Gwindor's fiancee falls for him, whilst he remains oblivious and he ends up destroying Nargothrond by persuading its inhabitants to fight. Gwindor dies wishing he'd never met Turin and Finduilas dies because Glaurung hypnotises Turin into letting orcs drag her off.

* The backstories of the StationeryVoyagers and their allies take the HumansAreTheRealMonsters concept to extremes.
** Arnold "Pextel" Rubblindo is ignored by his little sister, treated with complete apathy when worried about his missing girlfriend, discovers that his father has the Stationery being equivalent of Pick's disease, fears his mother might have it also, gets in an agonizing car crash brought on by a police chase gone wrong against a drug smuggler who was working for the company owned by his girlfriend's parents, is transformed against his will into a robot to save his "life," is assigned a job as a ship captain and ambassador to several other planets by an organization that has effectively enslaved him, and is eventually rejected by his own mother because [[HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster no son of hers is a Mechie]].
** Pinkella discovers that her parents have sold themselves and the company out to evil foreign terrorists who want to poison the candy and make children become helplessly sexually compulsive as early on as possible. Then, she finds out her parents have an open marriage and don't care. Then, they turn their backs on everything that they ever taught her in her youth, and try to get her to find someone to have sex with other than her boyfriend, who's "beneath" them. ''[[FromBadToWorse Then]]'', her attempt to escape an unpleasant vacation results in her nearly getting raped by her would-be rescuer. Who is eaten by a shark after he falls overboard. And leaves her looking like a suspect of grand theft boat. Then, her brother turns out to be a DepravedHomosexual whose boyfriend has connections with a SleazyPolitician. The brother proceeds to murder her parents, then make an attempt on her life. Only to be betrayed and murdered by his gay partner, who then takes over the company. She finds herself effectively in almost the exact same position as Pextel, minus the being turned into a robot.
** It's never stated what happened to Rhodney's family. [[NoodleIncident He never discusses them and nobody dares bring it up]]. The safe assumption is that with the war going on, they're all dead. [[ShrugOfGod But it's hard to say]]. Rhodney actually gets off lucky. Other than the possibility that his very small family might all be dead, the worst thing he faces his DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife.
** Likewise, it's never really stated what happened to Oceanoe's family. But they too are probably mostly obliterated. His one for-certain living relative, his brother, steals his music career out from under him. He goes on to join the Voyagers, and to a life of being constantly beat up and chased out of town by mobs throwing molotovs at him. And in one episode, the villains actually poison him with a special toxin to try to ''turn him gay.'' (Instead, it just fills his head with debilitating hypersensitivity to and fear of [[ManlyGay abused masculinity]], made worse by the toxin's propensity toward making everyone under its influence completely obsessive-compulsive. In his case, resulting in a sort of HeroicBSOD.) He also in one episode has to stop a submarine from being sunk by his political enemies, which would drown the whole crew and himself.
** Marlack's grandfather complains of getting too old and of fears of dying, and fears of what it will take to maintain the ranch. Marlack feels unworthy because he's done almost nothing with his life, and wants to prove himself. He wants to join the Voyager program, leave after a few years, then come back and take over only when his father Henry is ready to phantomar-over the reins. But then, Henry is killed during a rodeo stunt gone wrong, leaving Marlack the direct heir to the ranch. Then, Marlack's sister Bonnie is raped and becomes pregnant. And the rapist is in league with the terrorists that are trying to render the country bankrupt. And the grandfather puts pressure on Marlack to restore his sister's honor. But attempting to do so nearly gets Marlack killed - first by evil gangsters and then by a lone psychopath [[IWasJustPassingThrough who happened to be in the area]].
** And none of these schmucks have ''anything'' on Neone. She was kidnapped from her loving parents after ''one month'' of being born. She was then left in a dumpster to die by an EvilSorcerer who was too lazy that evening to get creative with using is evil powers on her. A carpenter rescues and adopts her, resulting in her going from life as fairy tale royalty to a life of poverty in a ratty house in a [[CityNoir corrupt capital city]]. Then, the only father figure she ever grew up knowing is brutally murdered in front of her, with the killers laughing the whole time and forcing her to watch just so they could laugh at her horrified reaction. They then lock her in an unsanitary dungeon inside a mafia-esque compound/industrial warehouse complex. They then make her into a call girl, and threaten to murder any of her customers if the customers fall in love with her. They punish her for crying, or even reacting to pain at all. Her lone friend she makes in the brothels is forced to become a jewelry store thief, who ends up stealing something worth about one dollar less than the estimated value. And is brutally murdered for it. Neone, wishing to escape, does so only to find herself being chased by a psychopath who blames her for all the trauma he faced in grade school. Which included persecution from the teachers and principal, who told him that he would never be remembered for anything other than the stench of his own rotting corpse. She escapes all the madness, only to find herself an envoy on a planet that is completely engulfed in TheWarOnStraw. Where [[CulturePolice her criticisms of the sex industry]] make her the target of ''bomb threats''. Also, she does discover her royal lineage. Only to have a cave collapse on the royal family and kill them all. After which her entire home planet is taken over by a terrorist with a bazooka fetish.
** Easily why Erasaxo is TheWoobie. He was reduced to TheLastOfHisKind. He is generally ignored or becomes the ButtMonkey for other reasons. His only reward? Being shot and killed on an enemy planet [[EarthShatteringKaboom that he helped set to self-destruct]]. And then his body abandoned there to be blown to smithereens along with the entire rest of said planet.
** Liquidon was forced into a SadisticChoice: let his own brother die, or perform a move to save his brother that would surely kill Astriliad if pulled off right. With only seconds to react, he chose the latter. And the consequences were him being unwelcomed by some of the locals of his hometown. And a genocide campaign against his own species launched in retaliation for his lone act. He tries to find redemption by joining the Voyagers, only to have to have his release from jail negotiated after intelligence mistakes him for a terrorist. He joins the Voyagers, only to find himself having to constantly save their sorry behinds from the molotov-throwing DirtyCommunists. He finally gets a girlfriend...[[OurVampiresAreDifferent who cannot be out during daylight and craves iron and potassium]]. And she has to sacrifice herself to stop him from having a SuperpowerMeltdown that could wipe out an entire city, adding to his sense of guilt and shame.
** The sequel ''Final Hope'' is no better about this. Philidrio finds himself the only one the universe will allow to defeat Balontir. His backstory is also very similar to Pextel's. Only instead of his family dying of brain cancer, they are killed by arson. After he is turned into a Mechie, his love interest leaves him for the HeelFaceTurn version of ''[[LovingForce her rapist]]''. He ends up instead with a grown-up Stella-Marie Jenkins, who acts 27 but is really somewhere close to 70. And has a prison record.
** Laura is abandoned by her own family, hunted by Astrabolo's government, betrayed by her own boyfriend, sent to the guillotine, and finds out that she is under an edict from God that will let her regenerate a new body every time she is killed, unless she loses her technical virginity. So she ends up getting to relive the trauma of her own beheading ''[[TheyKilledKenny every single time she is captured]].''
** Verdegal was raped in her own back yard. [[CassandraTruth And nobody believed a word of it]]. She runs away from home, and is nearly killed in the subway. Her rescuer is shot, and is one of the few men she ever loved. Wishing to keep him around for therapeutic sex, she is forced instead to turn him into a robot. After the transformation, their romance begins to fade. After her rapist defects to the good guys' side, she finds solace ''with him.'' And then both of them are brutally murdered just before Judgment Day.