Breaking the Cutie. Some of the most depressing things that can happen to a naive cinnamon roll. If you do it correctly, you might be able to add some valid drama to even a somewhat mediocre work, drive to the point how dire the situation your protagonists are in, and cementing the audience that they will cheer for the blood of the Complete Monster that broke her. Or you're simply a Sadist of an author that you can't wait to see the Cutie becoming more depressed and unstable. Here's a guide on how to make it as inhumane as you would.
Major rules:
Hold nothing back.
If you're really trying to break The Cutie, make sure you don't pull your punches just because they're an adorable, smol cinnamon roll. Give them as rough of a treatment as you would with any other character who's been put into such a situation, and make sure it's as disproportionate as it could. Break the Cutie thoroughly, preferably twisting them to a point of no return. This is so your audience can feel sorry for the Cutie and give her a big hug if they could, and in some cases, get a twisted sense of entertainment over it.Understand the boundaries of the target's mental state.
Do some research on your desired target or be familiar with their characterization if they are your original character. Know what lines you can gladly cross without destroying the character's sanity and what definitely will. This is because even in real life, different people have different standards on what they will tolerate easily and what they will not. Sending a bunch of Angels trying to torture Bayonetta in hopes of breaking her spirit is not only an obviously bad idea, but you're asking her to start a full-blown slaughter against her would-be torturers instead of actually doing anything against her psyche. In contrast, a naive, sweet girl who doesn't even know what death and danger is like Madoka Kaname will fold and break instantly upon seeing her friends getting killed.Understand the nature of your work.
Of course, breaking the cutie might not be the best way to go, especially if the work is out of place for such a situation. Works where this isn't an appropriate trope to use include Lighter and Softer work genres like the Slice of Life story, the dating sim and works with White and Gray Morality settings, unless if there's a Disguised Horror Story twist to it.
Ideally, you'll only want to Break the Cutie in Darker and Edgier works, or works that at least an aspect of bleakness within them — just a little bit of darkness within a work will allow you to pull this trope out effectively.
Related tropes:
Supplementary tropes:
- Broken Bird: For obvious reasons, Breaking the Cutie is always a step to the Broken Bird type of Badass. Broken Birds are cynical, aggressive and/or hardened characters who are coping with some sort of emotional trauma, be it as part of a backstory or a recent incident, so your Byronic Hero or Designated Hero will earn some sympathy and shed light to situations that would otherwise cement them as despicable.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Breaking the Cutie in an otherwise innocent enough work is assuredly going to dramatically alter the tone of a work to a more serious or grim mood (When Beelzemon kills Juri's partner Leomon, the entirety of Digimon Tamers stops playing around to be as dark as possible, and most of the comedic elements seen in previous episodes cease).
- Despair Event Horizon: You'll always want the Cutie to cross this by default. If you have a Wide-Eyed Idealist, make sure she gets exposed to the most depraved, evil thing you can do to her or the most awful truth you can tell her. If you have a Broken Bird with a Dark and Troubled Past, send her to the place where that Dark and Troubled Past occured head-on for a mission. Have her break character entirely and make her a wreck, and make sure it sticks, so others will start viewing her in a totally different light.
- Heroic BSoD: This is to make sure the audience understands the seriousness of the situation whenever a heroic Cutie is broken and burnt into the ground. You can have the character show up depressed and listless for a few episodes, or have them show the most vacant expression they could make upon being thoroughly traumatized. At the worst cases, you could just turn them into The Ophelia for the rest of your work, or at least a huge portion of it. (Casca)
- Innocence Lost: By definition, the Cutie is an innocent character who will make you adore them, root for them, and give them a big hug. Showing that they had lost their innocence entirely to become a wreck or a force of terror to be reckoned with can tell the audience how grim the situation at hand is. (Hikari)
- The Woobie / Iron Woobie / Jerkass Woobie : You'll want to Break the Cutie to garner sympathy towards your character. By making it as brutal as possible, you make sure your audience will want to give the character you're breaking a big hug.
Tropes to avoid / be careful of:
- Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Going out of your way to be as edgy and sadistic as possible sometimes isn't the best thing you can do. If it happens too much, it can get repetitive as you start breaking off and killing the Cuties now, there, here and then. Give at least 1 or 2 of them some room to heal, even if it would be a Hope Spot.
- Trauma Conga Line: Sure, you can place the Cutie to a series of misfortunes that eventually turn her into a wreck. But don't make it too overboard. If your Cutie has to suffer from Abusive Parents, is forced to scrap for goods outside, is abused by her mentor, finds her home burnt by the Big Bad as revenge and gets her Only Friend killed and eaten, that's way too much and your character can look like an edgelord for the sake of instead of someone that garners sympathy. Only one of the aforementioned things is more than enough to break an innocent cutie.
Other useful tropes:
- Complete Monster: If you also have a Complete Monster and have them torture the Cutie, they will cross the Moral Event Horizon by definition and the audience will be more willing to cheer for their blood. (Junko Enoshima's Cold-Blooded Torture death course set up against Chiaki Nanami in Danganronpa 3's Despair arc).
- The Dog Bites Back: If the Cutie breaks down too much, there's a chance that she will fight back, and show her tormentors no mercy. Especially useful if you make it so her tormentors are heinous enough and she still has some power left to fight back.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness / Thousand-Yard Stare: If someone is loudly shouting or crying after being broken, they aren't quite broken yet. In the other hand, if a character vacantly and quietly stares in horror of the mishap that just took place, you really play up the direness of the situation the Cutie is in, especially when they break character to fall into total despair (Hiro Amanokawa's reaction to Regulusmon seemingly killing his stepbrother Gammamon).
- Heal the Cutie: Of course, there are situations where you don't want the cutie-breaking to go too bleak. In this case, you can rehabilitate the Cutie and bring her back to sanity. Have her climb back and slowly recover from all the horror, so she turns back into the sweetheart she once was. (Haruka Kotoura) Of course, she might no longer be the same person — she can become more practical, sensible, intelligent and/or even dangerous, but she will return to the sweetheart she is.
Methods:
- Cold-Blooded Torture: If a villain goes out of their way to torture the Cutie in the most inhumane way possible, it will very likely leave a scar on her that would last through the rest of that show, and that's assuming they survive. It's also one of the easiest ways to generate a The Dog Bites Back response when the Cutie becomes hardened and is more likely to exact revenge.
- Kill the Ones You Love: In settings such as the Zombie Apocalypse, the Cosmic Horror Story or the Lovecraft Lite, turn one of the Cutie's loved ones into one of "them" and force her to kill her now turned loved one.
- Sanity Slippage: The Cutie doesn't need to be broken instantly through multiple of events. Sometimes, it can be a gradual, scheduled breakdown that eventually reaches a tipping point and causes her to end up undergoing a Face–Monster Turn, or worse.
