Broken Bird / Web Original

• Out of all of Amoridere's characters, Toki's the most overt case, as, she became bitter and cruel in response to her trauma of her Dark and Troubled Past, the which has losing her birth parents, being separated form her twin sister, being subject to an experiment, her being abused by her adoptive mother, almost succumbing to leukemia (her survival of which being miraculous), picking up on some new tricks, and developing mental illness. As we can see in some stories, Toki Used to Be a Sweet Kid.
• Anon: Dani was forced by her mother to have an abortion at sixteen, hiding the pain of what happened behind her happy yet snarky attitude, and she has a tendency to fly into a trauma fuelled rage when it's brought up.
• Max from Camp Camp is a cynical Jerkass, who feels the need to drag everybody else down to his level. But it is made painfully clear, that this is driven by the fact that his parents just don't give a shit about him and dumped him in rundown summer camp without even bothering to sign him up for a specific activity. Underneath that act is a heartbroken, lonely little kid.
• Can You Spare a Quarter?: Due to his history of being abused at hole and being used by most men he's encountered, Jamie is initially very cynical and distrusting and becomes trusting of other people only after some time with Graham.
• Iriana Estchell of Ilivais X lived a life that amounted to abusive rape followed by even more rape, which given her condition meant more like being tortured for 15 years. By the time the story starts, she's desperately trying to cover her mushy, fragile core with stoic badassery and indifferent sadism, but isn't as good at that as she'd like. When she meets someone that loves her (or rather, manipulated into doing so), she's so confused at how she's treated that she tends to respond by hurting her even more.
• The Neopets character Sophie the Swamp Witch started out as a sweet and innocent child, but Took A Level In Cynicism when her hometown was cursed and she was forced to flee into the woods. She was separated from her family for years afterward. Sophie is now Solitary Sorceress.
• The Nostalgia Chick:
  • In a far lighter example, Nostalgia Chick is a twisted Cute and Psycho girl with a big drinking problem.
  • The Makeover Fairy is also pretty bad, trying so hard to be happy and girly and cheerful, but always showing in the end that she's just a Nervous Wreck.
• Red vs. Blue:
  • Agent Carolina, in the present, is one of these, having built up a cold, callous exterior that covers her sadness concerning the fates of her Freelancer comrades. Like Wash below, hanging around the Reds and Blues have helped her immensely recover the kindness she used to have.
  • Agent Washington was once a dorky and friendly Nice Guy, until he had the memories of a tortured AI unit uploaded into his head. This, combined with the betrayals of various friends and allies later in life, led to Wash becoming cynical and no-nonsense. After the Blues help him escape custody, however, Wash begins to recover and becomes something closer to his kinder self.
  • In Season 12, it's implied and later confirmed that Felix's experiences in the Great War against the Covenant have kind of broken him and reshaped him into the cynical, sort of-Sociopathic Hero he is today. Nope, that's his cover story. He did fight in the war and it did have an effect on him, but he was a sociopath even then and arguably only got worse.
  • It's implied that Locus' experiences in the Great War have also left him with some form of trauma, which he hides with his One-Man Army and Consummate Professional mask. Unlike Felix, it's genuine, and Felix was willing to exploit this and keep him from getting help in order to keep him by his side so he could survive their work as mercenaries.
• RWBY:
  • Blake starts the show nervous, suspicious and mistrustful. She hates herself as a coward and has a self-destructive obsession with trying to understand the White Fang's motives and activities. Although Beacon's friendly atmosphere begins to bring her out of her shell, tragedy in Volume 3 regresses her progress until she gets back on top of it in Volume 6. Adam's role in destroying Beacon and maiming Yang makes her flee to Menagerie, regressing back into paranoia, fear, aggression and isolation. Although upset that Sun followed, he helps her climb out of the rut, giving her the confidence to reunite with her team; from there, she is able to stop Adam for good with Yang's help.
  • In Volume 3, Yang is subjected to a Trauma Conga Line that reduces her to a shadow of her former boisterous self. Left with PTSD, she spends Volume 4 recovering but doesn't fully come to terms with her situation until Volume 6. Her reputation is destroyed when she is framed for mercilessly hurting a downed opponent, she watches several of her friends die in the Battle of Beacon, and loses her arm trying to save Blake from Adam. She is reduced to a blank shell who cannot get out of bed or respond to love, and feeling betrayed by Blake. She spends Volume 4 combating PTSD flashbacks and learning to accept a cybernetic arm. Although she returns to form in Volume 5, she remains haunted by Adam until she confronts him with Blake in Volume 6.
• Survival of the Fittest: Thanks to the premise, there are a fair amount of examples of this trope due to how many cuties are broken in each version. It's either that they started out this way and only get more scarred and/or Ax-Crazy, or that they become this way due to the amount of trauma they've suffered. Either way, the island doesn't do well for mental and emotional health.
• Whateley Universe: There are a lot of deeply hurt and troubled teens at Whateley Academy, and more than a few adults, too. Whether it is Nacht's Snark Knight act covering up years of psychological manipulation, Pejuta's rape-driven fear of males, Circuit Breaker's shattering into four Split Personalities, or Generator's slide into giggling psychopathy, these kids have been through a lot, and while there is a team of competent and trustworthy therapists available to them, it is an uphill struggle to keep them all going.
• In Worm, Vista, the youngest member of the Brockton Bay Wards, becomes this after Leviathan's attack on the city kills two of her teammates—including one that she had a childhood crush on—and then seeing the rest of her team slowly collapse, eventually becoming The Fatalist and accepting what she viewed as her inevitable death while still doing everything she could for her teammates.

---