History Main / TroubledBackstoryFlashback

*** Don't forget Jet's flashback to seeing his family burned in front of his eyes. And Katara's flashback to her mother's death.

* When mad scientist Heinz Doofenshmirtz from ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' captures his secret agent nemesis and starts [[EvilGloating monologuing]] about his latest evil scheme, he often explains his motives with a troubled backstory flashback. (For example, "Back in Gimmelschtump in the days of my youth, the Doofenshmirtzes were a proud family. But those were lean times for my father, and our beloved lawn gnome was repossessed. Who would protect our ancient garden from witches, spells, and wood trolls? From a tender age, my father decided that it will be me. While the other kids played kick the schumptel and ate doonkelberries, I would stand for hours. All through the cold night, as the spitzenhounds howled... My only companion was the moon. And my neighbor Kenny. So, since my lawn gnome was taken from me, I will destroy every lawn gnome in the entire Tri-State Area!")

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:FanWorks]]

[[folder:Film - Animation]]

* Manny has one in the first ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' movie in the form of an animated cave painting showing a tribe of humans killing his family.

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

* Manny has one in the first ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' movie, explaining what happened to his family. It was done as [[ArtShift animated cave paintings]].

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* Creator/SamRaimi's ''Film/TheQuickAndTheDead'' has a flashback of the heroine's childhood that does the reveals-slightly-more-each-time thing, which I remember noticing because some iterations are misleading (one early one shows her being chased by a man, who is revealed in a later flashback to be a friend shepherding her to safety because the real villain is coming).

** The fourth and final arc finally goes in depth on TheChessmaster of the team, Laurent: [[spoiler: A poor kid from Brussels, he was recruited by the original leader of Team Confidence, Dorothy, and fell in love with her. Unfortunately, she was captured by Yakuza boss Suzaku and [[ForcedToWatch murdered in front of him,]] leading him to start an ''extremely'' LongCon, masterminded by Makoto's father Ozaki, to get his revenge.]]

** The fourth and final arc finally goes in depth on TheMastermind of the team, Laurent: [[spoiler: A poor kid from Brussels, he was recruited by the original leader of Team Confidence, Dorothy, and fell in love with her. Unfortunately, she was captured by Yakuza boss Suzaku and [[ForcedToWatch murdered in front of him,]] leading him to start an ''extremely'' LongCon, masterminded by Makoto's father Ozaki, to get his revenge.]]

* In ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'', Chloe has a recurring dream of being in a car with her father driving. Each time it ends with them being hit by a truck. It refers to her father dying in a car accident a few years before (in reality, she was not personally involved).

* A HowWeGotHere narrated flashback that takes up half of ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove''.

* '' Disney/WreckItRalph'' plays this for laughs, explaining Sergeant Calhoun's 'dark past' through a quick flashback of her wedding day when her husband-to-be is unexpectedly eaten by a Cy-Bug that came out of nowhere, and Calhoun responds to this by pulling a ''minigun'' out from her wedding skirt. Fitting with the film's video game setting, Calhoun's backstory was just 'preprogrammed' into the game and never strictly happened in her arcade game itself.

* ''Series/{{House}}'' does this in the episode "Three Stories", where House is holding a class and presents three cases of patients with various maladies to their legs. One of those cases is actually Dr. House's, with his case ultimately resulting in his chronic leg pain and compromised mobility.

** Evne some of the villains have these, as [[spoiler: Charlotte Pudding]] shows in 862.

* ''Series/{{Medici}}'' zig-zags. Cosimo's flashbacks generally show a happier, more innocent time but one still tinged with [[StartOfDarkness serious regret]] as he betrayed several friendships, ruined lives, lost love and never wanted to become the family patriarch anyway.

* Zuko from ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' gets two of these that show his life before he became angry, bitter and obsessed with catching Aang. The first consists of Iroh telling the ship's crew how Zuko got his scar and was banished, and the second comes in the form of Zuko reminiscing about his family when he was a kid... and then his mom mysteriously disappears and his dad becomes Fire Lord. And it kind of went downhill from there.

* ''Film/{{Arrival}}'' has Louise regularly flash on memories of her daughter, who died from cancer as a teenager. Sometimes they're general happy times, sometimes they're part of her thinking about the main plot, as when she remembers her daughter asking what "a zero-sum game" means at the opportunity. [[spoiler: TheReveal is that these are not strictly flash''backs''.]]

* ''Fanfic/OldWest'': When Rattlesnake Jake finds his lover Grace Glossy [[DomesticAbuse bruised and at the mercy of her estranged husband]] Benjamin Hares, he remembers how his mother laid bruised from the last beating her husband gave to her and [[AlcoholicParent his intoxicated father]] saying that Jake would grow to be like him. This amplifies to [[ExtremeMeleeRevenge the bloody retribution]] Jake subjects Benjamin to.

* In {{The Silence of the Lambs}}, we see glimpses into Clarice Starling's past, twice. Once where she greets her father after his long day at work, and [[spoiler: another when we see her at her father's funeral. The rest of her back story is explained on screen in conversation. [[JustifiedTitle It's also where the title comes from]].]]

* Used frequently in ''SilentHillHomecoming'', usually to demonstrate all of the tender moments that Alex and Josh shared. They eventually culminate in [[spoiler: a flashback to the latter's accidental death.]]