History DysfunctionJunction / Literature

* {{Justified}} in ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''. Only a broken soul can have Surgebinding powers inserted into it, so only the broken can become heroes.

* ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'': There are only four principal characters in the novel due to the ClosedCircle: BattleButler Conseil has so much UndyingLoyalty that considers himself an extension of his employer. TheProfessor Aronnax practically swims in StockholmSyndrome, Captain Nemo has a slow VillainousBreakdown caused by him, a good man, crossing once and again the MoralEventHorizon. OnlySaneMan Ned Land is slowly GoMadFromTheIsolation. This is justified because his adventure is truly extraordinary.

* The Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures were generally like this. The Doctor was constantly TheWoobie, with enough issues to be his own personal walking Dysfunction Junction by the end of the series. He lost a [[spoiler:[[TemporaryLoveInterest wife]] and daughter in two entirely separate incidents, not to mention his [[TraumaInducedAmnesia memory]] and [[BizarreAlienBiology one]] [[OrganTheft of his]] [[HeartTrauma hearts]]]]. Fitz, one of his companions, seemed at times to be competing with him to be the most woobie. He grew up [[ButNotTooForeign half-German]] during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and subsequently in foster homes, because his dad was dead and his mum was crazy. Then he met the Doctor, who [[ShootTheDog killed his mum]] (and before that, he'd seemed to be a rather endearing and justified-by-her-neediness variant on the MommasBoy). [[spoiler:CloningBlues]] and CartwrightCurse ensued. This overload of issues may explain why he never got a chance to [[{{Gayngst}} worry much about his crush on the Doctor]]. After the seemingly wholesome and cheerful SoapboxSadie discovered she had issues too and left, they were joined by a copy of a copy of a copy etc. of a DeadpanSnarker, who started out a BrokenBird and just got worse, really, no thanks to the Doctor. And then there was Anji, who seemed just peachy until [[spoiler:her boyfriend of four years died]]. And then there was the fact that her whole childhood, the other kids picked on her for being Indian. Oddly, Fitz and Anji never seemed to commiserate about that similarity. And Trix pulled a bit of a MultipleChoicePast and was never quite clear about it, and Anji suspected that her BrokenBird act was just a trick to get Fitz to like her, but she also had StickyFingers, and it was implied she'd been a sex worker at some point...

* Most characters in Literature/WingsOfFire are traumatised to some degree, but special mention goes to the Jade Winglet: [[ShrinkingViolet Moon]] is severely socially anxious, can hear other people's thoughts and see futures (normally bad ones), as well as ostracised and hated by her tribe, and smothered by her overprotective mother; [[TragicBigot Winter]] is emotionally and mentally abused by his parents, blames himself for his much-favoured brother's disappearance, to the point that his parents deliberately rig a challenge so that he'll ''die'' in favour of his brother, not to mention being raised with an incredibly bigoted mindset; [[HeroWithAnFInGood Peril]] (although not technically part of the Jade Winglet) was born with a condition that makes her deadly to everyone around her, has been used as a weapon by her sadistic queen (who is the closest thing to a mother she has), and is much hated and feared for this reason, not to mention that she has an ''extremely'' unhealthy codependency on her crush; [[SquishyWizard Turtle]] blames himself for his father's death, is ignored by his mother, believes himself to be useless, was raised in a family that has a terrible tendency for attempting to murder each other, [[spoiler: and in attempt to hide his animus power (to prevent himself from being exploited for it) made his sister an animus, which has resulted in her turning into a unstable, murderous AlphaBitch, who is being taken advantage of by Darkstalker]]; and [[DesperatelyWantsToBeLoved Qibli]] was physically abused by his mother, siblings and grandfather, all of whom were criminals, and generally has an extremely low sense of self-worth. They ''all'' have an extremely low sense of self worth.

* Most characters in Literature/WingsOfFire are traumatised to some degree, but special mention goes to the Jade Winglet: Moon is severely socially anxious, can hear other people's thoughts and see futures (normally bad ones), as well as ostracised and hated by her tribe, and smothered by her overprotective mother; Winter is emotionally and mentally abused by his parents, blames himself for his much-favoured brother's disappearance, to the point that his parents deliberately rig a challenge so that he'll ''die'' in favour of his brother, not to mention being raised with an incredibly bigoted mindset; Peril (although not technically part of the Jade Winglet) was born with a condition that makes her deadly to everyone around her, has been used as a weapon by her sadistic queen (who is the closest thing to a mother she has), and is much hated and feared for this reason, not to mention that she has an ''extremely'' unhealthy codependency on her crush; Turtle blames himself for his father's death, is ignored by his mother, believes himself to be useless, was raised in a family that has a terrible tendency for attempting to murder each other, [[spoiler: and in attempt to hide his animus power (to prevent himself from being exploited for it) made his sister an animus, which has resulted in her turning into a unstable, murderous AlphaBitch, who is being taken advantage of by Darkstalker]]; and Qibli was physically abused by his mother, siblings and grandfather, all of whom were criminals, and generally has an extremely low sense of self-worth. They ''all'' have an extremely low sense of self worth.

** Ashfur and [[LawfulStupid Hollyleaf]].

** Cinderpelt's leg was run over by a car when she was an apprentice, crippling her for life and destroying her dreams of being a warrior. Then, when she [[spoiler:dies, she is reincarnated as her neice]], who then breaks ''the exact same leg'' and is almost subjected to the same fate as Cinderpelt.

* ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'': There are only four principal characters in the novel due to the ClosedCircle: BattleButler Conseil has so much UndyingLoyalty that considers himself an extension of his employer. TheProfessor Aronnax practically swims in StockholmSyndrome, Captain Nemo has a slow VillainousBreakdown caused by him, a good man, crossing once and again the MoralEventHorizon. OnlySaneMan Ned Land is slowly GoMadFromTheIsolation. This is justified because his adventure is truly extraordinary.

%%* ''Literature/GossipGirl''.

* Lampshaded in Peter Watts's ''Literature/RiftersTrilogy'', particularely the first book, ''Starfish'': several of the main characters got their jobs as "rifters" - deep-ocean explorers and colonists - ''by being'' too dysfunctional to fit in anywhere else; the theory is that those conditioned by their upbringing to accept undue stress as a normal living condition are actually more able to cope in extraordinary environments. This backfires more or less exactly the way you'd expect it to. Well, except that it's a Peter Watts book, so it backfires more or less exactly the way you'd expect it to ''except more so''.
** Ironically, the protagonist turns out to be so messed up not so much because her father abused her as because [[spoiler:her employers surgically tampered with her brain to make her ''think'' her father abused her before sending her down there. Her parents turn out to have been fine and upstanding people. Which, in a Peter Watts book, makes them unique.]]
* As [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Stewie Griffin]] put it, Creator/FyodorDostoevsky is "the Mad Russian." This is evident in ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov'', in which the father drives his two wives to premature death via sheer force of personality (he enjoyed the meekness of his second wife so much that he couldn't help having orgies with prostitutes in front of her) and then completely abandons his children, leaving his butler to raise them in his shack. This leads to one brother becoming [[TheMcCoy subject to his passions]], another becoming [[TheSpock highly cold and calculating]] (and eventually [[FreakOut stark-raving mad]]), and the third left to pick up the pieces, which is depressing by itself. Consequently, anyone they come into contact with also happens to have a tragic backstory, whether it's the misunderstood HookerWithAHeartOfGold or the [[TheWoobie shipping captain whose family's condition just screams "Pathetic!"]]

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is interesting in that half the cast are in the process of ''gaining'' their horrifically tragic backstories to become properly accredited as mentally scarred. The other half already has their trauma all sorted, and is busy topping up on additional horror to keep their various issues up-to-code and up-to-date. Westeros is, in short, [[CrapsackWorld not a happy, calm place to be]]. If the outside world doesn't find ways to mess with your psychological make-up (and, it has many, many ways to do that, given the wars, the openly biased (and generally disorganised and dehumanising) social and cultural institutions, the extremely casual violence, the lack of anything remotely like impartial justice, the rise of the dangerously supernatural, etc, etc, etc), [[BigScrewedUpFamily your family]] can generally fill any possible gaps in your screwed-upness education by itself. The Lannisters, Baratheons, Greyjoys, Boltons, Targaryens, Freys and Craster's little incestuously cultish trainwreck are ''particularly'' good at giving each other [[FreudianExcuse reasons]]. But, [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror the Cleganes]], arguably, take the cake by actively, and intensively, training each other to become psychological wrecks of TheBrute variety.

** Stormfur has been an outsider all his life. His mother [[DeathByChildbirth died giving birth to him]], and [[spoiler:his father abandonned him when he was an apprentice, leaving him and his sister as outcasts in [=RiverClan=]]]. Then later on, [[spoiler:his sister, who he was much closer to than anyone else, dies]], he falls in love with Brook and [[spoiler:leaves the Clans to join the Tribe of Rushing Water, which he is soon exiled from]]. He eventually [[spoiler:goes back to live with the Tribe]], but the last few chapters of ''Outcast'' makes it seem like [[spoiler:the Tribe isn't going to be able to survive much longer]].

* Dysfunction is the rule rather than the exception in ''Literature/HarryPotter''. It's most noticeable with the Blacks, the Gaunts, and [[spoiler: the Dumbledores]], but every significant character has some family trauma in their backstory -- and if they don't have it by the beginning of [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Book Seven]], they [[AnyoneCanDie sure will by the end of it]].
** Even the characters with normal families where no one dies will have trauma. For example, if she did it without their consent, what is Hermione going to tell her folks when she restores their memories?

* In the [[Literature/TheWitcher Witcher]] saga the group that helps Geralt in his quest to rescue Ciri has some of it. They're pretty concious about it.
* Done very well in ''Literature/DoctrineOfLabyrinths'' series by Sarah Monette. The main characters are especially dysfunctional; going into detail on how monumentally screwed-up Felix and Mildmay are would take a very, very long time.
* If a character in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' doesn't have a DarkAndTroubledPast, chances are they'll have something traumatic happen to them in the main story, with Count Olaf being the cause of most of it. Most of the adults have a DarkAndTroubledPast due to their involvement from an early age with V.F.D. And the main characters lose their parents in the first book in a fire that burned down their house, spend almost every book being pursued by Count Olaf, a greedy psychopath who is after their fortune, lose countless guardians and friends thanks to Olaf's interventions, face kidnapping, one is almost decapitated by her sibling and if not for her quick thinking is almost made to marry above greedy psychopath (who blackmails her with the life of her sister), they are unjustly accused of murder and forced to commit arson to maintain a disguise, get thrown down an elevator shaft by their "guardian", are forced to do chores for a town that's acting as their guardians, thrown into prison, and are nearly killed by said town by being burned at the stake, accidentally kill a man, nearly ''die'' in the last book from being infected with the spores of poisonous mushrooms while stranded on an island... One almost wishes they died in the fire with their parents so they wouldn't be put through all this... because life sucks in their world.
* ''Theatre/TheGlassMenagerie'': There are really only four characters in the play but three of them, namely Amanda Wingfield and her two children Tom and Laura all have significant problems which seemed to be set into motion ever since the father left and their relationship with each other became strained.
* The Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse Literature/EighthDoctorAdventures were generally like this. The Doctor was constantly TheWoobie, with enough issues to be his own personal walking Dysfunction Junction by the end of the series. He lost a [[spoiler:[[TemporaryLoveInterest wife]] and daughter in two entirely separate incidents, not to mention his [[TraumaInducedAmnesia memory]] and [[BizarreAlienBiology one]] [[OrganTheft of his]] [[HeartTrauma hearts]]]]. Fitz, one of his companions, seemed at times to be competing with him to be the most woobie. He grew up [[ButNotTooForeign half-German]] during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and subsequently in foster homes, because his dad was dead and his mum was crazy. Then he met the Doctor, who [[ShootTheDog killed his mum]] (and before that, he'd seemed to be a rather endearing and justified-by-her-neediness variant on the MommasBoy). [[spoiler:CloningBlues]] and CartwrightCurse ensued. This overload of issues may explain why he never got a chance to [[{{Gayngst}} worry much about his crush on the Doctor]]. After the seemingly wholesome and cheerful SoapboxSadie discovered she had issues too and left, they were joined by a copy of a copy of a copy etc. of a DeadpanSnarker, who started out a BrokenBird and just got worse, really, no thanks to the Doctor. And then there was Anji, who seemed just peachy until [[spoiler:her boyfriend of four years died]]. And then there was the fact that her whole childhood, the other kids picked on her for being Indian. Oddly, Fitz and Anji never seemed to commiserate about that similarity. And Trix pulled a bit of a MultipleChoicePast and was never quite clear about it, and Anji suspected that her BrokenBird act was just a trick to get Fitz to like her, but she also had StickyFingers, and it was implied she'd been a sex worker at some point...
** Their predecessors, the Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures, weren't much better. Over the course of the books, Seventh did quite a few morally questionable things, which would leave him wondering just how close he was to going over to TheDarkSide. While he wasn't quite the woobie Eighth was, thanks to aforementioned morally dubious schemes, he got put through the proverbial grinder quite a few times in the course of events. Ace's parental issues had been established in the TV series, but in the books, the Doctor arranged the death of her current boyfriend, causing her to leave the TARDIS for several books and come back a [[DarkerAndEdgier hardbitten mercenary]] who took a long time to reconcile with the Doctor. Bernice could probably rival Fitz in terms of just how many issues she had, mainly relating to her childhood involving an interstellar war, a dead mother and a DisappearedDad. Roz was seriously unlucky in love; she killed her first partner - a man she loved deeply - when she found out he was corrupt, then [[LaserGuidedAmnesia got it wiped from her memory]] by the BigBad. Another of her love interests turned out to be a murderer; Roz being a by-the-book cop, this did not sit well with her. About the only one who was left untouched was Chris... up until Roz died, anyway.
* Hoo boy, ''Ironman''. (no, not [[ComicBook/IronMan that]] one.) The main character is an antisocial sports nut who suffers an inferiority complex due to his father's borderline draconian discipline policies. And his anger management group? One's a nihilistic JerkAss, one's a confrontational punk with a HairTriggerTemper, and the last one is a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} who is completely incapable of rational thought and can only spout inane gibberish [[spoiler:due to having suffered years of ''horrific'' torture from his psychopathic father.]]
* ''Literature/WickedLovely''. Let's list how: Aislinn has a dead mother and DisappearedDad. Keenan has a dead dad, and an abusive mom. Seth has serious ParentalAbandonment issues. We don't know much about Donia's past, but the curse that put her in constant pain for ''nearly a century'' is hardly productive to a happy life. Leslie has a MissingMom, neglectful alcoholic father, abusive druggie older brother, and was raped before the start of book two. Niall also has RapeAsBackstory, as well as being in love with the one who let it happen, a major GuiltComplex, and ReluctantMonster syndrome. I could go on.
* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''. We have a leader who struggles with his own decisions and has an older brother as the enemy, a Machiavellian-esque SadClown who's willing to kill his own alien-possesed mother, a BloodKnight who's worried about losing control, an emotional wreck who's stuck in hawk form and is happy that way, an animal rights girl who can [[ManipulativeBastard play you like a piano]] and an AmusingAlien who lives in the shadow of his deceased brother. And they're supposed to protect us. [[SarcasmMode Our world is in good hands.]]
* Creator/JonathanFranzen loves this trope, and its readily apparent in all his books including ''Literature/TheCorrections'' and ''Literature/StrongMotion''.
* ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'': There are only four principal characters in the novel due to the ClosedCircle: BattleButler Conseil has so much UndyingLoyalty that considers himself an extension of his employer. TheProfessor Aronnax practically swims in StockholmSyndrome, Captain Nemo has a slow VillainousBreakdown caused by him, a good man, crossing once and again the MoralEventHorizon. OnlySaneMan Ned Land is slowly GoMadFromTheIsolation. This is justified because his adventure is truly extraordinary.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''. The hero is orphaned, abused, betrayed by his father figure and girlfriend, and nearly executed - all by the time he's sixteen. And let's not even go into what happens to him after the books start.
** Leaving that aside, there's also the amount of screwed up families: the Raiths (daughters raped once they hit puberty, sons killed off) and the [[spoiler:[=McCoys=]]] (Gramps is [[spoiler:the White Council]]'s assassin, Mom hung out with an evil crowd and got herself killed, sons have parental issues, crappy luck and crappier love lives, and granddaughter was kidnapped by vampires for use in profane ritual) to name two. The Carpenters are surprisingly well-adjusted considering Dad is always off [[KnightInShiningArmor battling the forces of evil]], but even they've got some major dysfunction in the form of [[spoiler:Charity and Molly. Charity ''still'' has issues stemming from a near-brush with BlackMagic as a teenager, and Molly's teenage rebellion leaves her teetering on the edge of TheDarkSide even before Harry's death in ''Changes'' turns her into a full-on BrokenBird]].
* ''Literature/TheBookOfJoe'' has a cast full of characters struggling with their issues, with Joe still coming to terms with his past, Wayne living with AIDS, Brad's marital problems, Carly disastrous former marriage and so forth.
* Literature/TheFireUsTrilogy is set in a TeenageWasteland where 90% of the characters would be institutionalized [[ThereAreNoTherapists if institutions still existed]]. Among the main cast we have Teacher (TheInsomniac of the obsessive variety who spends all her time writing in their GreatBigBookOfEverything and then forgetting what she wrote, "discovering" it, and interpreting it as prophecy), Mommy (an {{Hikikomori}} with a "screaming spirit" that sometimes overwhelms her, leading her to attack and threaten to kill others), Angerman (a [[HearingVoices schizophrenic ]] who is convinced his [[CompanionCube mannequin]] caused the deadly virus and is now out to kill all of them if they aren't careful), Cory (an ex-cultist), Baby and Doll (two girls who are emotionally and mentally stunted, maybe due to being raised by the older kids), Action Figure (a young boy who's essentially gone feral), Teddy Bear (who's scared of almost everything and in particular of alligators), and Puppy and Kitty (two children who really ''were'' feral and speak only in barks and meows. Then you meet [[PathOfInspiration the Keepers of the Flame]].
* In Creator/CSLewis's ''Literature/TheFourLoves'', he observes that nothing is more natural for a child to feel no love for a parent who isn't loveable.
* Where to begin in ''Literature/TheUnderlandChronicles''? Start with [[PromotionToParent Gre]][[TheChosenOne gor]], whose [[DisappearedDad father]] mysteriously vanished when he was eight and who gets dragged into a war at the age of eleven for no reason other than BecauseDestinySaysSo, then add in [[RebelliousPrincess Luxa]], who [[BrokenBird broke]] when both her parents were killed and suffered even more when [[spoiler: her cousin and close friend Henry betrayed her]] in the first book. Gregor's best friend is [[LonersAreFreaks Ares]], who is unfairly stigmatized from [[spoiler: Henry's betrayal, which left him in the unpleasant position of [[ToBeLawfulOrGood choosing to save his bond or Gregor]]]]. [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Ripred]] is a DeadpanSnarker FairWeatherMentor at the best of times, something of an outcast [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch among his own kind]], whose [[spoiler: wife and children died years ago]]. Even {{NiceGuy}}s [[TheMedic Howard]] and [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Vikus]] have to deal with ever-increasing amounts of horribleness as the series goes on. The most normal person out of all of them is [[CheerfulChild Boots]], who is ''three'', and even ''she'' is forced to deal with some of the realities of death and war [[ChildrenAreInnocent more than her family would like]]. Most of the time it's not anybody's ''fault'' exactly, it's just the natural result of living in a CrapsackWorld where EverythingIsTryingToKillYou.
* The team in ''Literature/TheLeonardRegime''. The entire team demonstrate their own flaws, from Brandon's inability to shut up to Daniel's tendency to spit out sarcastic comments.
* The crew and passengers of the ''Nostalgia For Infinity'' in ''Literature/RevelationSpace'', for the most part, all [[TeethClenchedTeamwork hate each others guts]] and have serious personality issues. Captain Brannigan is a [[DarkAndTroubledPast guilt-ridden]] and [[ManInTheMachine effectively dead]] cyborg. Volyova is a [[VillainProtagonist morally questionable]] engineer, who effectively kidnaps recruits to plug into her [[MindVirus corrupted]] Gunnery interface. Sylveste is so obsessed with discovering more details about Resurgram's [[PreCursors previous inhabitants]] that he loses both his wife and control of the colony government. Sajaki is extremely secretive and untrusting. About the only two characters that ''aren't'' screwed up are Ana Khouri and Hegazi; a [[YouCantGoHomeAgain displaced]] soldier and a [[DirtyCoward cowardly]] cyborg, respectively. [[AnyoneCanDie Those that survive]] become even more dysfunctional in the sequel - [[spoiler: Volyova becomes obsessed with redeeming herself over a crime she didn't commit while extorting the Resurgram colony for Sylveste, and Brannigan attempts to [[DrivenToSuicide slice himself in half]] with a DeathRay after the horror of [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone what he has done]] and what [[LivingShip he has become]] dawns upon him.]]
* Seth, Regine and Tomasz of ''Literature/MoreThanThis'' all died as children, so it's not so surprising that they had tough lives. As Tomasz comments: "Are we not some funny kind of group? [[spoiler:Child abuse, murder and suicide]]."
* Most recurring characters of Creator/IrvineWelsh, in novels such as Literature/{{Trainspotting}}, Literature/{{Porno}}, Literature/{{Skagboys}}, Literature/{{Glue}}, and others. It's a group full of junkies and various psychos.
* {{Justified}} in ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''. Only a broken soul can have Surgebinding powers inserted into it, so only the broken can become heroes.
%%* ''Literature/TheHungerGames''.
* Almost all the Greasers in ''Literature/TheOutsiders'' fit this. Ponyboy, Sodapop and Darry lost their parents in a car accident. Steve has an abusive father. Johnny's parents abuse him and constantly neglect him. Dally has a growing criminal record since he was ten and used to run with gangs in New York. Only Two-Bit seems to have a mostly happy childhood.
* The Swedish police as portrayed in the ''Literature/{{Backstrom}}'' novels is full of barely functioning coppers who all have their own preoccupations and limitations -- the appalling Ewart Bäckström is merely the most obvious one.
* The main trio of characters in ''Literature/TheSpiritThief'' is a GentlemanThief terrified that an abusive character from his past will one day take him back, a demonseed with severe self-hate issues and looming DemonicPossession, and a MasterSwordsman who's unable to match both his and his family's expectations.
* All of the main characters in ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror'' have enough trauma in their pasts to break several people, and the rest of the people in the world aren't far behind: even the ones too young to have experienced [[TheNightThatNeverEnds the Fourth Night]] and [[WarIsHell the First World War of Tellos]] tend to have been [[MadeASlave enslaved]], [[SexSlave raped]], [[IHaveYourWife blackmailed]], and/or [[DepopulationBomb orphaned]].
* All of [[TheExile the Outcasts]] in ''{{Literature/Tasakeru}}'' have their hang-ups. Having a DarkAndTroubledPast is a prerequisite for ''becoming'' one.

* All of the main characters in ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror'' have enough trauma in their pasts to break several people, and the rest of the people in the world aren't far behind: even the ones too young to have experienced [[TheNightThatNeverEnds the Fourth Night]] and [[WarIsHell the First World War of Tellos]] tend to have been [[MadeASlave enslaved]], [[SexSlave raped]], [[IHaveYourWife blackmailed]], and/or [[DepopulationBomb orphaned]].

* In the ComicBook/XWingSeries, the Wraiths are an X-Wing squadron composed initially of nothing but the [[ColonelBadass Commander]], his [[WingMan old wingmate]], and people on their LastSecondChance, in the belief that [[CareerBuildingBlunder they will work hard to prove their worth]]. The author, Creator/AaronAllston, is a big believer in using a CastOfSnowflakes. ''Everyone'' has something wrong with them. Otherwise they wouldn't be a Wraith. The commander does notice that they're actually good for each other, able to help one another get past their pasts and presents rather than making things worse. Still, the reputation sticks. When a new pilot is transferred in who was assigned because of their track record and not because of big screwups, a pilot jokingly says that he's too normal for the Wraiths. The new pilot then proves to be a LargeHam.

* All of the main characters in ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' have enough trauma in their pasts to break several people, and the rest of the people in the world aren't far behind: even the ones too young to have experienced [[TheNightThatNeverEnds the Fourth Night]] and [[WarIsHell the First World War of Tellos]] tend to have been [[MadeASlave enslaved]], [[SexSlave raped]], [[IHaveYourWife blackmailed]], or [[DepopulationBomb orphaned]].

* The main trio of characters in ''Literature/TheSpiritThief'' is a GentlemanThief terrified that an abusive character from his past will one day take him back, a demonseed with severe self-hate issues and looming DemonicPossession, and a MasterSwordsman who's unable to match both his and his family's expectations.

* Those characters who are perfectly fine in ''Literature/HouseOfLeaves'' are those who haven't encountered, spent time in, or explored the titular [[color:blue:house]], or, [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis by proxy,]] read Zampanò's manuscript about the film ''about'' the [[color:blue:house]].

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is interesting in that half the cast are in the process of ''gaining'' their horrifically tragic backstories. The other half already has theirs, and is busy topping up on more horror to keep their various issues up-to-date. Westeros is, in short, [[CrapsackWorld not a happy place to be]]. If the outside world doesn't find ways to mess with your psychological make-up (and, it has many, many ways to do that, given the wars, the openly biased (and generally disorganised and dehumanising) social and cultural institutions, the extremely casual violence, the lack of anything remotely like impartial justice, the rise of the dangerously supernatural, etc, etc, etc), [[BigScrewedUpFamily your family]] can generally fill any possible gaps in your screwed-upness education by itself. The Lannisters, Baratheons, Greyjoys, Boltons, Targaryens, Freys and Craster's little incestuously cultish trainwreck are ''particularly'' good at giving each other [[FreudianExcuse reasons]]. But, [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror the Cleganes]], arguably, take the cake by actively, and intensively, training each other to become psychological wrecks of TheBrute variety.

** Am I the only one who thinks that Cinderpelt and Spottedleaf being so close to Leafpool is ''very'' creepy because they are both in love with ''her father''?
*** And what about Leafpool [[spoiler:naming Jayfeather, her own son, after his father]]? Considering [[spoiler:how similar Jayfeather is to Crowfeather, and the fact that no one was supposed to know they were related]], it becomes pretty creepy if you think too much about it.
*** Firestar did the same thing: Leafpool was named after Spottedleaf.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is interesting in that half the cast are in the process of ''gaining'' their horrifically tragic backstories. The other half already has theirs, and is busy topping up on more horror to keep their various issues up-to-date. Westeros is, in short, [[CrapsackWorld not a happy place to be]]. If the outside world doesn't find ways to mess with your psychological make-up (and, it has many, many ways to do that, given the wars, the cultural institutions, the casual violence, the lack of anything remotely like impartial justice, the supernatural, etc, etc, etc), [[BigScrewedUpFamily your family]] can generally fill any gaps in your screwed-upness education by itself. The Lannisters, Baratheons, Greyjoys, Boltons, Targaryens, Freys and Craster's little incestuously cultish trainwreck are ''particularly'' good at giving each other [[FreudianExcuse reasons]]. But, [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror the Cleganes]], arguably, take the cake by actively, and intensively, training each other to become psychological wrecks of TheBrute variety.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is interesting in that half the cast are in the process of ''gaining'' their tragic backstories. The other half already have them. Westeros is [[CrapsackWorld not a happy place to be]]. If the outside world doesn't find ways to mess with your psychological make-up (and, it has many, many ways to do that), [[BigScrewedUpFamily your family]] can generally fill any gaps in your screwed-upness education, itself. The Lannisters, Baratheons, Greyjoys, Targaryens, Freys and Craster's little trainwreck are ''particularly'' good at giving each other [[FreudianExcuse reasons]]. But, [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror the Cleganes]], arguably, take the cake by actively training themselves to become psychological wrecks.

* Steven Erikson's ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' has a lot of this. It's actually a major theme in the series: the Crippled God creates his own House in the pantheon dedicated to brokenness.