History Main / ShellShockedVeteran

* Batman in ''Comicbook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'', at least in the first series. He somewhat softens up and chills out in the second series, at least enough to fall in love with girl-Robin and ''actually admit it directly'' to her.
** Franchise/{{Batman}} in all DC continuities. You know that he's shocked by the deaths of his parents when he goes out [[ComicBook/TheKillingJoke and dresses like a flying rat]].

* Any long-lived old-timer mutant in the Comicbook/XMen series such as ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, ComicBook/{{Magneto}}, or ComicBook/{{Cable}}.

** Rachel Summers came from a future where mutants were outlawed, hunted down by the military or locked into concentration camps. She was drugged, brainwashed and forced to use her telepathic abilities to track down mutants. Wolverine once compares her to Holocaust survivors.

* ComicBook/BuckyBarnes, especially under his Winter Soldier identity. Captain America himself to some extent has shown shades of this in recent years.
* In ''Adventures in the Rifle Brigade'', we eventually see that Captain Hugo Darcy's father is a WWI veteran who lost all his limbs after going over the top and has been ranting about it ever since. "''Hand grenades'', they said! ''Artillery'', they said! ''Machine guns and barbed wire'', they said! Stuff and nonsense! ''Poppycock'', I told them!"
* Marv from ''ComicBook/SinCity'' is implied to be one. He says he fought in a war, he has a gruesomely scarred face, has an unnamed mental condition, is extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat and tends to fly into psychotic rages.
* Jackie acts this way in ''ComicBook/AdolescentRadioactiveBlackBeltHamsters'' when pretending to be a Red Baron, a ShoutOut to [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown]].
* The [[CanonDiscontinuity discredited]] ''[[VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh Tron: Ghost In the Machine]]'' started out with this. The combination of literally living through a first-person shooter and the implications of what being a User means hit Jet like a speeding lightcycle. When the story opens, he has gone from a brilliant programmer and former PlayfulHacker to a technophobic shut-in, hunkered down in the remains of the old arcade.
* ''The ComicBook/UnknownSoldier'' was once assigned to impersonate a presumed dead American soldier who was known to be so ferocious in battle, he was nicknamed "The Edge." Eventually, the soldier found The Edge was alive, but a prisoner of the Japanese, with his mind utterly shattered with battle fatigue.
* PlayedForLaughs in one ''ComicBook/AchilleTalon'', where he comes across a BananaRepublic soldier crying on a log. His traveling companion notes that it must be a fresh-faced newbie... or a very hardened veteran, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.
* In ''ComicBook/TheFlintstones'', the men of Bedrock were guilt-tripped into fighting a war against the Tree People who were allegedly a threat to their families. Fred and Barney are still messed up from it, and the [[BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes]] is a support group for them and other participants.
* Ishmael of ''ComicBook/{{Copperhead}}'' seems to be one: in addition to his literal scars, he specifically avoids larger conflicts (though he's up for a fight now and then) and has retreated to a hermitage outside town to limit his contact with other people.
* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel'':
*** The UK series' introduction of Kup details that troops suffer from "combat fatigue", where they're simply unable to fight anymore. Since ThereAreNoTherapists, command gives them a spaceship and lets them wander off into space for their final years. And Kup is no exception, though an encounter with Hot Rod gives him a HesBack moment.
*** Dogfight's ADayInTheLimelight issue suggests he's got some of this going on.
---->'''Dogfight:''' We live and breath warfare day in, day out. For some of us, it's the only life we've ever known! We know exactly how to fight - we just don't like doing it.
** ''ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW'' winds up with a lot of such characters due to being a darker look at the effects of a species going through a ForeverWar. Characters range from the psychotic war criminal Sandstorm who turns into a serial killer to the hilariously dysfunctional Scavengers who'd just like it if they could be left alone (except for one, who thinks maybe it'd be a good idea to start up a support group, which the others mock him for).
** ''ComicBook/Transformers2019'' turns Cyclonus into this. He's a veteran of the last war who lives in seclusion and is haunted by images of his dead comrades, who chide him over his failings and sometimes urge him to get therapy.
* ''ComicBook/{{Saga}}'' has Prince Robot IV, who fought at the battle on Threshold None and was seriously wounded in the fighting which also claimed the lives of many comrades. Even long after the battle, his personality has been seriously destabilized. He also suffers flashbacks and night terrors of the battle [[spoiler:as well as an orgy he participated in during his time there]].
* Sheriff in ''ComicBook/Duster2015'' has a flashback to his days in the war when he discovers the tunnel he and Jo tried to escape the Nazis in caved in.
* ''ComicBook/StarWarsPurge'': Roblio Darte shows hints of this, stating that the Jedi strayed from their path when they became generals and solemnly describing an ugly battle in his earlier appearance in ''ComicBook/StarWarsRepublic''.
* ''ComicBook/IronFist1975:'' Warhawk, who fought in the Vietnam War and come out the other end completely insane, going on a spree shooting in the States and abducting Colleen Wing under the belief she's his Vietnamese wife. Being turned into a cybernetically enhanced super-soldier didn't help in this regard. After plunging into a river, he returned a short time later over in ''X-Men'', his trauma fixed by Emma Frost, albeit at the cost of making him a minion. And as it turns out, even without the trauma-induced insanity, Warhawk's not a terribly nice person anyway.
* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'':
** Vitalstatistix is the chief of the last free Gaulish village, kept safe by Getafix' magic potion... But he's also a survivor of Alesia, where [[ShockingDefeatLegacy Caesar's tactical and strategic masterpiece broke the great Gaulish revolt]]. While he got away with his life and Vergingetorix' shield, the experience broke him to the point he can't conceive chasing the Romans out of Gaul even with the magic potion, and is implied to have fattened up due to stress eating.
** The two Belgian chiefs in ''Recap/AsterixInBelgium'' and their tribe are initially proud of their courage and capable of picking a fight with the Romans... But the news of [[TheDreaded Caesar]] coming ''immediately'' breaks them, as they all remember that when the Eburones angered Caesar he ''killed the entire tribe'' and realize that now it's ''their'' turn.
* ''ComicBook/JessicaJones'': Jessica still has lingering trauma as a result of her time as a slave of the Purple Man, whose effect on her with his ability was essentially MindRape.
* In ''ComicBook/WesleyDoddsTheSandman'', Edward Dodds came back from World War I with a bad case of what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a consequence of seeing his fellow soldiers die gruesome deaths from exposure to mustard gas. Edward vented his fears onto his young son Wesley, who tried to conquer his own fear of gases by studying them to find a gas that could incapacitate people without harming or killing them. This led to him trying out the gas on criminals, which in turn led to him becoming the Golden Age Sandman.

* It's hinted that [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]] is this in ''WebAnimation/SuperMarioBrosZ'' -- and given what happened to him and everyone on Mobius at the hands of Mecha Sonic, one can hardly blame him.

In fiction, this character [[WarIsHell went through hell]] and has [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone done things]] that no amount of ([[ThereAreNoTherapists fictional]]) therapy will heal, and it has left them so irrevocably scarred that they have trouble [[TheStoic feeling, emoting]], or [[SafetyInIndifference caring about the people]] around them and even themself. If they continue to feel anything, it's usually restricted to SurvivorGuilt. Thus they're usually the first to [[IDidWhatIHadToDo do what must be done]] and ShootTheDog. Most Shell-Shocked Veterans will, at some point or another,have a flashback or be seen exhibiting the classic ThousandYardStare; with a blank, emotionless expression and unfocused, empty eyes. The war clearly never ended according to them.

"Shell shock" is a nickname for what was eventually termed [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posttraumatic_stress_disorder post-traumatic stress disorder]], a [[TruthInTelevision real]] condition [[note]] the name is from UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, where it was thought that the concussive force of artillery shells exploding caused the condition. Hence the soldiers were "shocked" by artillery "shells" [[/note]] that participants in a war commonly acquire, but that can also be caused by a multitude of other means, often involving high-stress situations.

* On the ''WebVideo/DreamSMP'', by Season 3, ''multiple'' people on the SMP have experienced trauma to the point of developing PTSD, many of which originated from the wars that have occurred on the server.
** Wilbur's mental health was on the decline even back during the L'Manburg War for Independence, which had [[CynicismCatalyst left him traumatized]]. Wilbur, a man who is very much [[NonActionGuy not a fighter]], found himself in the role of a general and experienced [[spoiler:the infamous betrayal in the [[LuredIntoATrap Final Control Room]] from one of his comrades, Eret, the deaths of himself and his friends]], and only won thanks to [[spoiler:Tommy giving up his discs to trade for independence]]. [[StepfordSmiler He hid how badly it affected him in front of others during his presidency.]] His mask slowly chipped away during the [[ElectionDayEpisode Election Arc]], momentarily dropping it in front of Quackity during their heart-to-heart several days before Election Day, and permanently dropped it a few days into exile as he [[spoiler:[[SanitySlippage spiralled]] to the point of [[DeathSeeker suici]][[SuicideByCop dality]]]].
** Tommy's experience from [[spoiler:the betrayal in the Final Control Room]] left him heavily traumatized as well, as when he and Techno stumbled across the room during an undercover trip to L'Manburg, it caused him to have a full-on panic attack, hyperventilating and scrambling for an exit. His time spent in exile (both in Pogtopia and [[TraumaCongaLine Logstedshire]]) and [[spoiler:his death and revival in Pandora's Vault]] did him no favours either.
** Heavily {{implied}} with Fundy, who had spent most of his life around war (if going by the claim that he was the first L'Manburgian citizen by birth), and his reaction to finding out [[spoiler:he and the other attendees were trapped during the Red Banquet]] was terrified screaming and trying to escape... a situation eerily similar to [[spoiler:the Final Control Room, where he and his war comrades were similarly LuredIntoATrap to be slaughtered mercilessly]]. And this isn't even going into [[spoiler:him being haunted by [[DreamingOfThingsToCome nightmares of things to come]]]]...
** Quackity's an interesting case, as he was apparently diagnosed with PTSD (due to the fact that he was able to name the disorder outright) from being on the receiving end of Techno's [[CurbStompBattle rampages]] during [[CerebusCallback Minecraft Mondays]] before he even joined the server. It's implied that he was handling it fairly well in his early days on the SMP... [[spoiler:until the [[DomesticAbuse Schlatt adminstration]], combined with [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Techno]] joining the server, which caused even more trauma for him... and then [[TraumaCongaLine everything just went downhill from there]], to the point that he, following in Wilbur's footsteps, ended up [[DespairEventHorizon snapping]] as well and turning into a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds]].

* On the ''LetsPlay/DreamSMP'', by Season 3, ''multiple'' people on the SMP have experienced trauma to the point of developing PTSD, many of which originated from the wars that have occurred on the server.

* ''ComicBook/JessicaJones'': Jessica still has lingering trauma as a result of her time as a slave of the Purple Man, whose effect on her with his ability was essentially Mind Rape.

WarIsGlorious? [[WellThisIsNotThatTrope Not to this one.]]

* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KtyMcb86go Action Man: Battlefield Casualties]]'', a PSA presented as a BlackComedy parody of ''Toys/ActionMan'' commercials, has PTSD Action Man. "Danger lurks behind every turn!" (mistakes his reflection for an intruder and punches the mirror), and [[DrowningMySorrows drinks heavily and does cocaine to drown out the pain]]. "PTSD Action Man now comes with ThousandYardStare action!"

--> '''Bill:''' ''[as the dolphin]'' You weren't there, man. You weren't there.

WarIsGlorious? [[WellThisIsNotThatTrope Not to this guy.]]

In fiction, this character [[WarIsHell went through hell]] and [[AlwaysMale he]] has [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone done things]] that no amount of ([[ThereAreNoTherapists fictional]]) therapy will heal, and it's left him so irrevocably scarred that he has trouble [[TheStoic feeling, emoting]], or [[SafetyInIndifference caring about the people]] around him and even oneself. If he continues to feel anything, it's usually restricted to SurvivorGuilt. Thus he's usually the first to [[IDidWhatIHadToDo do what must be done]] and ShootTheDog. Most Shell-Shocked Veterans will, at some point or another,have a flashback or be seen exhibiting the classic ThousandYardStare; with a blank, emotionless expression and unfocused, empty eyes. The war clearly never ended for him.

In an [[{{Ensembles}} ensemble show]] or a FiveManBand, the Shell-Shocked Veteran is usually [[TheQuietOne the Quiet]] [[TheBigGuy Big Guy]] or [[TheLancer Lancer]]. This often crosses into AloofBigBrother territory if he insists on being a loner. The Shell-Shocked Veteran is usually, but not always, older than most of the cast; it seems war, like prison, doesn't take long to change you.

If the Shell-Shocked Veteran is out for revenge expect him to become an {{Antihero}}ic HunterOfMonsters, with [[IneffectualLoner varying degrees of success]] and [[LonersAreFreaks sanity]]. Many a ZenSurvivor has elements of the Shell-Shocked Veteran in his BackStory, though the Shell-Shocked Veteran is likelier to eventually prove he's a JerkWithAHeartOfGold or a KnightInSourArmor. Expect him to have a SympatheticMurderBackstory. They may be an OldSoldier, but are probably not a BloodKnight, and definitely not a PhonyVeteran. Some may go FromCamouflageToCriminal and take up a life of crime due to the mental distress they've been put under, while others step into the role of the MentorInSourArmor to impress on the young cadets that war is ''not'' glorious.

''WebAnimation/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicCinematicUniverse'': In the alternate backstory of [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Yuthura Ban]], her Jedi father joined the Mandalorian Wars under Revan's banner, but he was so traumatized by what he had seen and done that instead of following Revan and Malak into the Unknown Regions, he returned to Yuthura and his mother to, in Yuthura's words, hide from the horrors that haunted his dreams. He trashed objects as he woke from his nightmares until he ended up [[PsychicStrangle Force choking]] Yuthura's mother and turning on Yuthura as well when she tried to stop him. As her mother died, Yuthura used her Force potency to kill her father and left to join the Sith.

In fiction, this character [[WarIsHell went through hell]] and [[AlwaysMale he]] has [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone done things]] that no amount of ([[ThereAreNoTherapists fictional]]) therapy will heal, and it's left him so irrevocably scarred that he has trouble [[TheStoic feeling, emoting]], or [[SafetyInIndifference caring about the people]] around him and even oneself. If he continues to feel anything, it's usually restricted to SurvivorGuilt. Thus he's usually the first to [[IDidWhatIHadToDo do what must be done]] and ShootTheDog. Most Shell-Shocked Veterans will, at some point or another, be seen exhibiting the classic ThousandYardStare; with a blank, emotionless expression and unfocused, empty eyes. The war clearly never ended for him.

* "Born In The U.S.A." by Music/BruceSpringsteen.

As war is an incredibly common fact of life throughout history, real life examples are too numerous to count. Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease.

* ShellShockedVeteran/RealLife