History BrokenAce / WesternAnimation

** The Avatars, in general, seem to be this from what we've seen of them over the course of [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender both]] [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra series]].

*** Finally, we have our two main leads, [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderAvatarAang Aang]] and [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraAvatarKorra Korra]]. The former never wanted to be the Avatar in the first place and [[ItsAllMyFault feels intense guilt for running away from his responsibilities, believing that doing so lead to the death of his entire nation and plunged the world into the 100-year war]]. The latter [[HeroicSelfDeprecation believes that she can't ever fully live up to the status of the former Avatars]], tends to cross the DespairEventHorizon OnceASeason when the bad guys get the better of her, [[spoiler:and starts suffering from PTSD after the events of Book 3]]. The point of both series is to eventually evolve the leads from this trope into bona fide [[TheAce Aces]] over the course of their respective shows, [[spoiler:[[EarnYourHappyEnding a goal which, thankfully, works and sticks by the time of both shows' Grand Finales]]]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', all the seasons' villains are broken aces in their own way. However, the most apparent on them all is Book 4's villain [[Characters/TheLegendOfKorraKuvira Kuvira]]. She was discovered and taken in by Suyin as a little girl to be her personal protege. Is foreshadowed all during Book 3 as being the best out of all her soldiers in Zaofu. She's highly intelligent, charismatic, and a badass warrior who created her own version of metal bending. [[spoiler: She also suffers some deep depression and self-loathing, because of her parents abandoning her as a little girl, making her feel like she is worthless, regardless of what she accomplishes. The series finale showed that this was the reason she became a conquering tyrant. Because in her mind, saving the Earth Kingdom was the only thing she had left to hold on to.]]

** [[Characters/TheOwlHouseLilithClawthorne Lilith Clawthorne]], Eda's sister, is the famous head of the prestigious Emperor's Coven and one of the most powerful witches on the Boiling Isles....but it doesn't take much to break her composure, revealing a very flawed, troubled woman with a lot of issues stemming from both her deep-seated jealousy of her [[AlwaysSecondBest much more talented]] outlaw sister ([[NotSoDifferentRemark whom she's more alike than she'd care to admit]]) [[spoiler: and her immense guilt over cursing said sister when the two of them were teens.]]

** [[Characters/TheOwlHouseEdaClawthorne Eda Clawthorne]] is a very powerful and skilled witch--but she suffers from a whole host of personal flaws, many of which stem from her [[spoiler: being cursed as a teen]]. Plus, her refusal to go along with the oppressive Coven System has reduced her to an outcast living on the fringes of witch society. In the season one finale, she admits to Luz that she had been wasting her life before meeting the human.

** Trevor Belmont. Like his family, Trevor is a skilled and accomplished {{One-Man Army}} BadassNormal monster hunter. And at a young age, he had to deal with losing his entire family, surviving on his own, and having many Wallachia citizens badmouth his family. Needless to say, Trevor became more cynical and surlier as a result.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}''. [[Characters/ArcherSterlingArcher Sterling Archer]] is known around the globe as the world's most dangerous spy, and displays almost absurd levels of strength, durability and fighting skill. Also an alcoholic {{Jerkass}} manwhore, is totally incompetent at everything but combat, has a plethora of mommy issues to the point that in the first episode he gets an erection at the thought of his mother dying, has been sexually abused and raped both as a child an as an adult, was bounced around boarding schools growing up since his mother couldn't be bothered to care for him herself and was subsequently bullied so hard that his tormentors put him in the hospital and seeing one of them years later reduces him to terrified stuttering, and openly admits that he dicks around whenever he's on missions due to his crippling fear of his own mortality.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats2011'', Tygra is a HappilyAdopted member of the royal family of Thundera, and is [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter better than]] crown prince Lion-O. At ''everything,'' as he notes loudly and often. Tygra's older, more skilled at fighting, more knowledgeable in military tactics, more popular with their people, their [[ParentalFavoritism father's favorite]], and TheDutifulSon. But to Tygra's great [[TheResenter resentment]], Lion-O, the flakey {{Cloudcuckoolander}} ''[[JustAKid kid]] brother'' gets to take up the sword that OnlyTheChosenMayWield and be the king by dint of RoyalBlood alone, even receiving attention from PraetorianGuard Cheetara, whom Tygra has pined for from afar [[spoiler:(not knowing that Cheetara's feelings lay with ''him'' and not Lion-O)]]. Tygra seethes at the idea that his own HardWorkHardlyWorks while TheChosenOne is undeserving, and struggles to reconcile his [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]] of Lion-O with his genuine BigBrotherInstinct.
** The crux of Tygra's CharacterDevelopment is that he is a perfect ''Thunderan'', and has always lived in a world where Thunderan culture and values held prominence. After Thundera falls, [[BreakTheHaughty Tygra is thrown into a life of survival and desperation]] that's nothing like what he's used to, and he can't quite deal with that -- [[FantasticRacism or the idea that Cats are not innately superior to all other animals]]. Notably, after [[spoiler:Lion-O's death]], Tygra is forced to become leader of the surviving Cats, and he's ''terrible'' at it.
* The Outrider from ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' is like this, though what exactly is broken is not immediately obvious. He's a powerful mage and superhero who is handsome, charismatic, and manages to balance his work with his personal life in a way that his rival Dr. Orpheus (and, indeed, most of the other characters on the show) just can't. However, it's revealed that he was only able to do this by taking risky shortcuts to power that, though they paid off, left him vulnerable in ways Dr. Orpheus isn't. Also, he's a bit of a jerk.

* Beckett Mariner in ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' is an experienced veteran who is good at pretty much everything when she decides to put in the effort, daughter of a captain and an admiral, and her Academy classmates predicted that she would be the first in their year to be made Captain. But along the way she got so tired of Starfleet's VastBureaucracy that she willingly started to flout the rules, was court-martialed more than once, and got herself busted down to Ensign -- a rank she stays at deliberately.

** Boscha is gradually revealed to be this. Sure, she's a star athlete and bully who practically runs Hexside, but it's hinted that she has self-esteem issues and a desperate need for validation. In "For the Future" [[spoiler: Boscha has taken over New Hexside in the wake of the Collector's reign--but it's quickly revealed that she's severely out of her depth and is left feeling lonely and isolated after all her friends have either cut ties with her (Amity and Skara) or have been captured by the Collector (Amelia and Cat). She desperately begs Amity to be friends with her again--both because she genuinely misses their friendship and because she can't handle the pressures of being a leader like Amity could.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}''. Known around the globe as the world's most dangerous spy, and displays almost absurd levels of strength, durability and fighting skill. Also an alcoholic {{Jerkass}} manwhore, is totally incompetent at everything but combat, has a plethora of mommy issues to the point that in the first episode he gets an erection at the thought of his mother dying, has been sexually abused and raped both as a child an as an adult, was bounced around boarding schools growing up since his mother couldn't be bothered to care for him herself and was subsequently bullied so hard that his tormentors put him in the hospital and seeing one of them years later reduces him to terrified stuttering, and openly admits that he dicks around whenever he's on missions due to his crippling fear of his own mortality.

** Though she doesn't really bother with the good publicity part of VillainWithGoodPublicity, Princess Azula still fits. She's a beautiful, extraordinarily talented and extremely intelligent young woman, even if she ''is'' DaddysLittleVillain, but most of her exterior aloofness and obsession with power stems from being desperate to ignore how AxCrazy she is thanks to her thinking that her mother hated her. She has some serious issues with perfectionism, thanks to her desperation to win her father's favor and not turn out like her brother. Same inside, same overcompensation, different shell. In ''ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSearch'', she starts hallucinating visions of her mother regularly, and her only goal at this point (and the reason she went along with Zuko in the first place) is to find and kill Ursa. By the end of Part 3, [[spoiler:she might potentially be on the road to recovery. She had an easy chance to kill Ursa (who didn't know she was Ursa at the time...ItMakesSenseInContext) but Zuko was able to talk her down and she left on her own accord]]. Now, if she finds out what Ursa actually did to lead them to that point...she might snap again, potentially justified in doing so.

*** Finally, we have our two main leads, Aang and Korra. The former never wanted to be the Avatar in the first place and [[ItsAllMyFault feels intense guilt for running away from his responsibilities, believing that doing so lead to the death of his entire nation and plunged the world into the 100-year war]]. The latter [[HeroicSelfDeprecation believes that she can't ever fully live up to the status of the former Avatars]], tends to cross the DespairEventHorizon OnceASeason when the bad guys get the better of her, [[spoiler:and starts suffering from PTSD after the events of Book 3]]. The point of both series is to eventually evolve the leads from this trope into bona fide [[TheAce Aces]] over the course of their respective shows, [[spoiler:[[EarnYourHappyEnding a goal which, thankfully, works and sticks by the time of both shows' Grand Finales]]]].

* The title character of ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' is a famous actor who has a BigFancyHouse, millions of dollars, a great agent, and the distinction of having starred in one of the most beloved sitcoms of the 1990s. He also has crippling depression, serious loneliness, and numerous regrets.

** Before Dipper there was the author [[spoiler:Stanford Pines]] who is implied to have been exactly like Dipper before he [[spoiler:fell out with Stan, was driven crazy with paranoia and spent 30 years trapped in an EldritchLocation.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', all the seasons' villains are broken aces in their own way. However, the most apparent on them all is Book 4's villain Kuvira. She was discovered and taken in by Suyin as a little girl to be her personal protege. Is foreshadowed all during Book 3 as being the best out of all her soldiers in Zaofu. She's highly intelligent, charismatic, and a badass warrior who created her own version of metal bending. [[spoiler: She also suffers some deep depression and self-loathing, because of her parents abandoning her as a little girl, making her feel like she is worthless, regardless of what she accomplishes. The series finale showed that this was the reason she became a conquering tyrant. Because in her mind, saving the Earth Kingdom was the only thing she had left to hold on to.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug,'' [[{{Deuteragonist}} Adrien]] is a kind, intelligent teenage model, speaks multiple languages, is great at fencing...and is also a LonelyRichKid whose [[MissingMom mom mysteriously disappeared]] and whose father [[ParentalNeglect turned cold as a result]]. He's also hopelessly in love with a girl who doesn't reciprocate ([[LovesMyAlterEgo as far]] [[ObliviousToLove as he knows]]), and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking worst of all]], his OnlyFriend growing up was ''[[AlphaBitch Chloé]].'' (Thankfully, he has more now.)

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has Starlight Glimmer. Magical prodigy comparable to Twilight Sparkle? Check. Good leader? Check (The Cutie Map isn't the best example of this, but To Where and Back Again certainly is). Sound communication skills? Check. This intelligent, highly skilled mare would be TheAce if it weren't for the fact that losing her childhood friend shifted her down a villainous pathway, and years of her controlling a village with an iron hoof didn't make her any better. The result was an unstable, bitter and vengeful pony who goes to illogical extremes to deal with an obstacle in her way. Fortunately, post-redemption, as she learns more about friendship and goodness from the Mane Six and supporting cast, the 'broken' part of this trope is gradually being fixed. By Season 9, she's probably among the most level-headed and collected of the cast.

** Eda Clawthorne is a very powerful and skilled witch--but she suffers from a whole host of personal flaws, many of which stem from her [[spoiler: being cursed as a teen]]. Plus, her refusal to go along with the oppressive Coven System has reduced her to an outcast living on the fringes of witch society. In the season one finale, she admits to Luz that she had been wasting her life before meeting the human.
** Lilith Clawthorne, Eda's sister, is the famous head of the prestigious Emperor's Coven and one of the most powerful witches on the Boiling Isles....but it doesn't take much to break her composure, revealing a very flawed, troubled woman with a lot of issues stemming from both her deep-seated jealousy of her [[AlwaysSecondBest much more talented]] outlaw sister ([[NotSoDifferentRemark whom she's more alike than she'd care to admit]]) [[spoiler: and her immense guilt over cursing said sister when the two of them were teens.]]
** Hunter/The Golden Guard is introduced as a TeenGenius who's gifted in magic and combat, having become Emperor Belos' right hand man. It turns out he's a horribly abused kid raised to believe he has to constantly prove he's worthy of love and terrified of ever disappointing his uncle, to the point of even trying to dig his own grave rather than coming back empty-handed.

* Rick Sanchez of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' is a genius scientist and inventor who builds robots for fun and invented inter-dimensional travel. He's also addicted to [[TheAlcoholic alcohol]] and an extensive list of {{Fantastic Drug}}s while being neglectful (if not abusive) to his family. His catchphrase "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub" translates to [[spoiler: "I am in great pain, please help me" which is why he tries to numb his emotions with substances]]. Nevertheless, he almost always is able to save the day (even if whatever puts the world in danger is '''mostly''' ''his fault to begin with'').

** Rose Quartz herself was this as well. As the series progresses, it becomes clear that Rose was far from the perfect hero she was initially made out to be and had a tendency to keep secrets from the other Crystal Gems, leaving them in the dark about a lot of things. For example, she lied to them about what happened to Bismuth, telling them that she had fallen in battle.
** Amethyst is an ace, at least in combat. She manages to hold her own in combat with two far older and more experienced gems just by ''being scrappy'' and using risky tactics. She also has massive issues about having come from the Earth kindergarten, which she thought made Pearl and the others think she was a "bad gem" and a "mistake." It's also implied early and later shown outright that she has deep-seated body-image issues. This is due to being roughly half the size of a normal Amethyst, and it gives a certain subtext to her constant shape-shifting and her towering Purple Puma wrestling persona[[note]]who's about the size of a regular Amethyst[[/note]].
** Pearl is a member of a manufactured ServantRace who reinvented herself as a warrior and fought for her love of Rose Quartz. She became a true ace at sword-fighting and possibly overcame her biology to summon a weapon, despite not being designed to fight at all, let alone have her own gem weapon. ''But'' she's also got major psychological issues due to low-self worth: she feels worthless unless she's risking her life to serve someone else, and is consequently lost without Rose Quartz. She risks her life needlessly, displays [[MyBelovedSmother obsessively]] protective behavior towards Steven, and even projects her self-worth complex onto Connie, leading to an emotional crisis for the latter, as well.
** ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'' shows that even Steven himself has become this over time due to not properly addressing the myriad physical and psychological traumas he's been subjected to since the first episode, and how his magical dest. He keeps trying to be the same PositiveFriendInfluence he was in the first series, but his insecurities about the changes that come with growing up and his inability to deal with stress in a healthy manner [[spoiler: ultimately lead to him losing control of his Gem powers to the point of becoming corrupted]].

*** Yellow Diamond, the first member introduced, is a LadyOfWar who has conquered more planets than any other Gem, has [[ShockAndAwe lightning powers]] that can instantly incapacitate any rebel and is generally considered the greatest warrior in the universe. However, she's also dealt with the loss of her younger "sister" Pink Diamond by repressing all of her emotions and trying to eradicate everything that Pink ever touched, essentially refusing to grieve and therefore heal. She also suffers from [[ItsAllMyFault extreme guilt]] for granting Pink a colony of her own (namely, Earth), which in turn led to the Crystal Gem uprising and Pink's [[spoiler: (supposed)]] death. Later episodes also reveal that she deeply resented Pink as well, as White Diamond (the leader of the Diamond Authority) tended to [[ParentalFavoritism favor the younger Gem]] even though Yellow is the most successful at bringing colonies under Homeworld's control.
*** Blue Diamond is something of the [[RedOniBlueOni polar opposite of Yellow]] -- she is the diplomat and ambassador of the Diamond Authority, is equally powerful and indestructible, and possesses [[EmotionBomb emotion-manipulating powers]] that force every Gem around her to feel what she feels. Unlike Yellow, though, she's dealing with her grief for Pink by ''refusing'' to move on -- she's essentially been in mourning for millennia, preserving everything Pink created and repeatedly making secret visits to Earth to weep for her. She also suffers from the same guilt complex that Yellow does, blaming herself for not listening to Pink's pleas for help and telling her to be a StepfordSmiler instead.
*** Pink Diamond was the youngest of the Authority, and had unique gifts including and [[HealingHands healing]] and [[GreenThumb plant manipulation]]. However, she was horribly babied by Yellow, Blue, and White, with the latter essentially treating her as a child playing games instead of a serious member of their quartet. She also had to ''beg'' for a colony of her own -- and when she finally got it, she realized that she actually cared about organic life and wanted to give it all back, which Blue and Yellow refused to let her do. Is it any wonder she [[spoiler: took on the form of Rose Quartz and faked her own shattering to escape her family and live as she wanted to?]]
*** [[TheDreaded White Diamond]] is ''the'' most powerful Gem of them all -- to the point that ''Blue and Yellow'' fear her -- with incredible mental powers, complete control over her emotions, and the ability to [[AssimilationPlot make others into an extension of herself]] without the slightest hint of effort; in her own words, she is "perfect." Unfortunately, she spends so much time wrapped up in her own mind (a LiteralMetaphor, as her chamber is inside the head of a giant statue of herself) that she's completely unaware of the problems of Homeworld, and absolutely refuses to listen to anyone or anything that clashes with her worldview. When she's eventually forced to confront the fact that she ''isn't'' perfect, she has a [[VillainousBreakdown complete mental breakdown]] and loses her entire sense of identity.

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'': Alejandro is handsome, intelligent, charming, has a myriad amount of skills he's learned that he can rely on if the situation calls for it, picks up new abilities very quickly, and is also a successful villain. He's also suffering from an InferioritySuperiorityComplex thanks to having been inferior to his BigBrotherBully José all his life, which drives his narcissistic insecurity of needing to be the best at everything.

* Susie Carmichael from ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' is shown to be [[WiseBeyondTheirYears wise beyond her years]] and to be better than Angelica at many things, despite only being three years old. In "[[Recap/RugratsS7E14Kwanzaa A Rugrats Kwanzaa]]", Susie worries that she's not a special person because despite her wisdom and talents, she doesn't have a trophy like her parents or older siblings do. She tries to do the same talents that her older siblings have, but it doesn't work out, and her attempt to make a bust of her head is, as Phil would put it, "Really is a bust".