History Main / TraumaCongaLine

** Poor [[TheOdyssey Odysseus]] is possibly the most famous victim of this accross all media and a TropeCodifier. In the 10 years it takes for the man to reach his home of Ithaca after leaving Troy, Odysseus is put through so much shit that by the time he finally gets home to see the suitors lining up to steal his wife there is no wonder the man [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge snaps]]. He in summary: Is forced to flee for his life after (depending on source) King Agamemnon forces him to kill the [[WouldHurtAChild infant son of Prince Hector]] - summoning the ire of all of Troy's allies, on his way back has his men drugged and is faced with mutiny when trying to retrieve them, is imprisoned by a Cyclops and forced to watch as one by one his 12 companions get their brains smashed against the rocks, is set free only to be antagonized by the god of the sea himself, finally finds help from wind god Aeolus only to have his men piss him off as well - setting their journey back to square zero right when they were about to dock on Ithaca, sees all except one of his ships eaten by sea giants, has his [[TooDumbToLive men]] transformed to pigs by a sorceress and [[QuestionableConsent has to sleep with her under threat of death]], finds his friends and [[DrivenToSuicide mother]] (all except a couple alive when he left) dead in Hades, is tortured by Sirens (though this was his own fault, really), once again has a sea beast eating his men, is trapped and starved for a month on a desolate island, has the remainder of his starving crew mutineer against him by [[CosmicPlaything adding Zeus and Helios to the roster of gods wishing hell upon him]], is left the SoleSurvivor when Zeus subsequently strikes their ship, is saved from the brink of death by goddess [[GoMadFromTheIsolation Calypso]] only to be imprisoned and raped every night for so many years even [[JerkassGod Zeus]] starts to feel sorry for him, upon release has Poseidon send him back to Carybdis to drown, miraculously survives this event and is saved by Phaecians only to have Poseidon turn his saviors to stone as soon as they head back home, has his dog die at his feet upon homecoming, returns to his palace to find the subjects he once treated as a father abuse his wife and hospitality in his absence, is hurt and humiliated ceaselessly for the next few days, has Athena force him to kill men he would otherwise spare when ridding himself of the suitors, and finally - in the impopular sequel - gets killed by his own ChildByRape in an extremely embarassing fashion.

** Poor [[TheOdyssey Odysseus]] is possibly the most famous victim of this accross all media and a TropeCodifier. In the 10 years it takes for the man to reach his home of Ithaca after leaving Troy, Odysseus is put through so much shit that by the time he finally gets home to see the suitors lining up to steal his wife there is no wonder the man [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge snaps]]. He in summary: Is forced to flee for his life after (depending on source) King Agamemnon forces him to kill the [[WouldHurtAChild infant son of King Hector]] - summoning the ire of all of Troy's allies, on his way back has his men drugged and is faced with mutiny when trying to retrieve them, is imprisoned by a Cyclops and forced to watch as one by one his 12 companions get their brains smashed against the rocks, is set free only to be antagonized by the god of the sea himself, finally finds help from wind god Aeolus only to have his men piss him off as well - setting their journey back to square zero right when they were about to dock on Ithaca, sees all except one of his ships eaten by sea giants, has his [[TooDumbToLive men]] transformed to pigs by a sorceress and [[QuestionableConsent has to sleep with her under threat of death]], finds his friends and [[DrivenToSuicide mother]] (all except a couple alive when he left) dead in Hades, is tortured by Sirens (though this was his own fault, really), once again has a sea beast eating his men, is trapped and starved for a month on a desolate island, has the remainder of his starving crew mutineer against him by [[CosmicPlaything adding Zeus and Helios to the roster of gods wishing hell upon him]], is left the SoleSurvivor when Zeus subsequently strikes their ship, is saved from the brink of death by goddess [[GoMadFromTheIsolation Calypso]] only to be imprisoned and raped every night for so many years even [[JerkassGod Zeus]] starts to feel sorry for him, upon release has Poseidon send him back to Carybdis to drown, miraculously survives this event and is saved by Phaecians only to have Poseidon turn his saviors to stone as soon as they head back home, has his dog die at his feet upon homecoming, returns to his palace to find the subjects he once treated as a father abuse his wife and hospitality in his absence, is hurt and humiliated ceaselessly for the next few days, has Athena force him to kill men he would otherwise spare when ridding himself of the suitors, and finally - in the impopular sequel - gets killed by his own ChildByRape in an extremely embarassing fashion.

* Poor [[TheOdyssey Odysseus]] is possibly the most famous victim of this accross all media and a TropeCodifier. In the 10 years it takes for the man to reach his home of Ithaca after leaving Troy, Odysseus is put through so much shit that by the time he finally gets home to see the suitors lining up to steal his wife there is no wonder the man [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge snaps]]. He in summary: Is forced to flee for his life after (depending on source) King Agamemnon forces him to kill the [[WouldHurtAChild infant son of King Hector]] - summoning the ire of all of Troy's allies, on his way back has his men drugged and is faced with mutiny when trying to retrieve them, is imprisoned by a Cyclops and forced to watch as one by one his 12 companions get their brains smashed against the rocks, is set free only to be antagonized by the god of the sea himself, finally finds help from wind god Aeolus only to have his men piss him off as well - setting their journey back to square zero right when they were about to dock on Ithaca, sees all except one of his ships eaten by sea giants, has his [[TooDumbToLive men]] transformed to pigs by a sorceress and [[QuestionableConsent has to sleep with her under threat of death]], finds his friends and [[DrivenToSuicide mother]] (all except a couple alive when he left) dead in Hades, is tortured by Sirens (though this was his own fault, really), once again has a sea beast eating his men, is trapped and starved for a month on a desolate island, has the remainder of his starving crew mutineer against him by [[CosmicPlaything adding Zeus and Helios to the roster of gods wishing hell upon him]], is left the SoleSurvivor when Zeus subsequently strikes their ship, is saved from the brink of death by goddess [[GoMadFromTheIsolation Calypso]] only to be imprisoned and raped every night for so many years even [[JerkassGod Zeus]] starts to feel sorry for him, upon release has Poseidon send him back to Carybdis to drown, miraculously survives this event and is saved by Phaecians only to have Poseidon turn his saviors to stone as soon as they head back home, has his dog die at his feet upon homecoming, returns to his palace to find the subjects he once treated as a father abuse his wife and hospitality in his absence, is hurt and humiliated ceaselessly for the next few days, has Athena force him to kill men he would otherwise spare when ridding himself of the suitors, and finally - in the impopular sequel - gets killed by his own ChildByRape in an extremely embarassing fashion.

* ''Podcast/ThePenumbraPodcast'': Peter Nureyev – Season 1 hurt him enough, but a series of later revelations in Season 4 take this almost [[DeusAngstMachina to the point of parody.]] He grows up as a homeless, starving orphan in an active war zone. As a teenager, he's taken in by [[TheSvengalia manipulative terrorist]] who he's later forced to kill to stop him from blowing up an entire city. Nureyev spends the better part of a year running from the law and losing his grip on reality; just before he's able to commit suicide, he [[spoiler:runs into a drug dealer from his old street gang who offers him protection and a place to stay, and they fall in love. His partner is able to smuggle him off-planet - by putting him into an induced coma that nearly kills him and takes him months to recover from. They're happy... for about two months, until a game of cards at a casino goes wrong, and the other players (a group of executives at a pharmaceutical company) track him and his partner down to exact revenge. As an interrogation technique, they dose Nureyev with a futuristic hallucinogen that traps him in a dream where he spends [[YearInsideHourOutside years]] living with his partner - only to wake up and realize it was all a lie, and his partner, who was already high before the executives dosed him, has overdosed and is now legally brain-dead. Desperate, Nureyev agrees to pay for an array of experimental medical procedures that will keep his partner alive and fund the pharmaceutical company's research towards a way to restore his brain function... and he's spent the last twenty years alone, devoting his entire life to [[WorkOffTheDebt working off that staggering debt]]]].

* ''Podcast/ThePenumbraPodcast'': Peter Nureyev – Season 1 hurt him enough, but a series of later revelations in Season 4 take this almost [[DeusAngstMachina to the point of parody.]] He grows up as a homeless, starving orphan in an active war zone. As a teenager, he's taken in by a manipulative terrorist who he's later forced to kill to stop him from blowing up an entire city. Nureyev spends the better part of a year running from the law and losing his grip on reality; just before he's able to commit suicide, he [[spoiler:runs into a drug dealer from his old street gang who offers him protection and a place to stay, and they fall in love. His partner is able to smuggle him off-planet - by putting him into an induced coma that nearly kills him and takes him months to recover from. They're happy... for about two months, until a game of cards at a casino goes wrong, and the other players (a group of executives at a pharmaceutical company) track him and his partner down to exact revenge. As an interrogation technique, they dose Nureyev with a futuristic hallucinogen that traps Nureyev in a dream where he spends years living with his partner - only to wake up and realize it was all a lie, and his partner, who was already high before the executives dosed him, has overdosed and is now legally brain-dead. Desperate, Nureyev agrees to pay for an array of experimental medical procedures that will keep his partner alive and fund the pharmaceutical company's research towards a way to restore his brain function... and he's spent the last twenty years alone, devoting his entire life to working off that staggering debt]].

* ''Podcast/ThePenumbraPodcast'': Peter Nureyev – Season 1 hurt him enough, but a series of later revelations in Season 4 take this almost [[DeusAngstMachina to the point of parody.]] He grows up as a homeless, starving orphan in an active war zone. As a teenager, he's taken in by a manipulative terrorist who he's later forced to kill to stop him from blowing up an entire city. Nureyev spends the better part of a year running from the law and losing his grip on reality; just before he's able to commit suicide, he [[spoiler:runs into a drug dealer from his old street gang who offers him protection and a place to stay, and they fall in love. His partner is able to smuggle him off-planet - by putting him into an induced coma that nearly kills him and takes him months to recover from. They're happy... for about two months, until a game of cards at a casino goes wrong, and the other players (an group of executives at a pharmaceutical company) track him and his partner down to exact revenge. As an interrogation technique, they dose Nureyev with a futuristic hallucinogen that traps Nureyev in a dream where he spends years living with his partner - only to wake up and realize it was all a lie, and his partner, who was already high before the executives dosed him, has overdosed and is now legally brain-dead. Desperate, Nureyev agrees to pay for an array of experimental medical procedures that will keep his partner alive and fund the pharmaceutical company's research towards a way to restore his brain function... and he's spent the last twenty years alone, devoting his entire life to working off that staggering debt]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'': While every band member has their share of trauma, special recognition must go to rhythm guitarist Toki Wartooth. He spent most of his childhood in Lillehammer being forced into manual labor and punished with physical abuse by his deeply religious father, to the point where Toki goes catatonic upon seeing him. Even within Dethklok he is one of the bigger [[ButtMonkey Butt Monkeys]] of the band, constantly being the victim of horrible things and being forced into the background by lead guitarist Skwisgaar. Everyone that he loves is cursed to die in a horrible way, including his cancer-stricken father with whom Toki had just reconciled...moments before dropping him down an icy mountain and falling into a frozen river where he drowned before Toki's eyes. And in the fourth season, Toki meets the guitarist he replaced, Magnus Hammersmith, who at first seems intimidating and like he may be planning a scheme. Instead he saves Toki's life from a bully's exploits that nearly killed him, and they end up becoming friends, [[spoiler:only for Magnus to reveal himself as a member of the Revengencers and take Toki hostage as part of the group's attack at the end of the season. But not before '''stabbing him in the stomach.''' The only consolation at this point is that he's probably not dead.]]

* Creator/AnneHeche, hoo boy. Her family moved quite a lot during her childhood due to financial troubles. She claimed that she was raped by her father from when she was an infant until she was 12 years old, and she gained genital herpes as a result. Not only that, but she believed that he did so because of repressed homosexuality. Said father then died of HIV when she was 13. Three months after ''that'', her 18-year-old brother Nathan died in a car crash, which Heche believed was suicide. Not to mention that this '''isn't the first sibling death she had to deal with''': she had an elder sister who died of brain cancer in 2006, and another sister, Cynthia, who died at two months old due to a heart defect. This only left one other sibling left, Abigail. Anne then had to deal with much heartbreak from former lovers, mental health problems which she claimed left her "insane" for many years in her life, and Harvey Weinstein sexually harrassing her which impacted her film career. All of this turmoil came to a crashing end when an intoxicated Heche drove her car full speed into a house, leading her to suffer a coma due to pulmonary injury as well as smoke inhalation, and eventually dying.

* Shandala of ''WebAnimation/BrokenSaints'' fame, whose biography reads like something off of the FromBadToWorse page. Washed ashore on a Fijian island and adopted by the tribe, her childhood was peaceful and idyllic until her adoptive mother was viciously murdered and mutilated by white strangers [[spoiler:under the command of (and possibly personally led by) the BigBad]]. Then, as an adult, she reluctantly leaves her home and family and all that she loves to find the truth about her biological parents. Then, her adoptive brother Tui [[spoiler: is accidentally killed due to an [[BuffySpeak big scary empathic rage thing]] on her part]]. Then, she is washed off the ship in a giant storm and [[spoiler:found and brought to the lair of the Shadow Men to be tortured and sealed away in the back of a sleazy strip club]]. Then, after being [[spoiler:rescued, she ends up falling back to her SuperpoweredEvilSide briefly, deciding to go back home, and ends up confronted by TheDragon, who murders and mutilates her EmpathyPet Bula the same way her adoptive mother was, and then kidnaps her]]. ''Then'', in the GrandFinale, [[spoiler: she is turned into an instrument of mass suffering via her empathic powers by her BigBad father, only saved by her friends in time for her to commit a HeroicSacrifice and save the world]]. And yet throughout it all, she retains her purity of heart.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Yang ''really'' gets shoved through the mincer through the latter half of Volume 3. By the end of the Volume, she has [[spoiler:been framed for assault and arrested on global television, effectively told that her MissingMom cares very little for her, watched her teammate get stabbed through the torso, and had her right arm sliced off. To make matters even worse, the best friend she sacrificed her arm trying to save then runs away and cuts all ties not long afterwards. Yang is left emotionally exhausted and bedridden, and brushes Ruby away with very little concern]].

** General James Ironwood is dished out a trauma conga line of his own starting in Volume 4 onward as he is driven insane by the mere threat of Salem. He starts a dust embargo crippling the SDC. It gets worse in Volume 7 when he finds out that not only did Ozpin and Ruby's group lie to him about the Lamp of Knowledge and about Salem's immortality, but since Salem is literally on Atlas' doorstep by this point, after one conversation with Salem herself, Ironwood goes completely insane due to his PTSD from the fall of Beacon, but also Salem herself. Volume 8 makes it even worse when he kills Councilman Sleet and drives everyone away throughout the season with his bridges burned by the end. With Atlas doomed to fall, he is left behind on Atlas as it falls and he dies, ending the entire season.
* The apparent reason why Sam from ''WebAnimation/StarshipGoldfish'' is an IdiotHero, one year ago he used a device to erase his traumatic memories, it removed nearly everything he knew.

* As discussed by the documentary ''Hitler's Circle of Evil'', Rudolf Hess's final actions under Hitler are almost enough to qualify him as a IneffectualSympatheticVillain, but [[SubvertedTrope the fact that he helped Hitler get to power instantly removes said sympathy]]. After years of loyal service, Hess had been DemotedToExtra and felt ignored. He was also going through sanity slippage -- for starters, he began believing in the paranormal, and at least once an employee found him trying to keep a tipped chair from falling over with only his mind. As Hitler and co. were trying to reach England, Hess came up with an idea, which he felt he couldn't disclose to anyone until it was already in motion -- he left a letter that detailed this plan to be left on Hitler's desk the day after his departure. His plan was to fly to Scotland alone, and once there he'd meet with a lord he already knew -- who [[MissingStepsPlan would then introduce him to Winston Churchill]] so [[InsaneTrollLogic Hess could convince England to surrender]]. Needless to say, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome it didn't quite go like that]]. Instead, the weather above Scotland forced him to bail the plane and parachute down. He landed on a field, where a random farmhand found him pretty much immediately, and only minutes later he had been captured. Meanwhile in Germany, Hess's letter had made Hitler ''very'' angry, which combined with the news of his capture led Hitler to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness cut all ties with him and ruin Hess's reputation with propaganda]]. Once Hess realized how badly he had screwed up, he attempted suicide... ''[[BungledSuicide only to fail at that too]]'', as the ledge he had chosen was nowhere high enough to cause damage more serious than a broken bone or two. Once the Nazis fell, Hess was incarcerated and [[DrivenToSuicide later hanged himself]].

** And just when things seemed to calm down under the reign of Mao Zedong, he proceeded to cause two more disasters: the Great Leap Forward, a clusterfuck of industrial and economic planning that killed 30 million people, and the UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution, a campaign of terror and ideological purity that decimated China's intellectual classes and destroyed much of China's cultural heritage. .

** Circuit Breaker. Yes, get trained as a mutant-hunter by a clique of fanatics. Yes, watch your older brother get murdered by your own uncle when he turns out to be a mutant. Yes, discover that you are an intersexed {{Technopath}} mutant yourself and have to flee for your life. Yes, become a homeless orphan on the run from an OmnicidalManiac who lives in the 'Net and murdered your family. Anything else? Get recruited into an order or religious knights with no clear idea of the implications? Sure. Hide in the sewers of Philadelphia only to stumble upon a horrific massacre perpetrated by the cyber-ghost-guy who is out to kill you? Uhm, OK. Get recruited again by the CIA? Why not. Get a [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue AI]] stuck in your brain? Uh huh, what next? See the person who has been your only friend through all this get brutally murdered? Whee! Go insane with multiple personality disorder? Sounds groovy! Get locked up, and have a rogue doctor perform potentially deadly experiments on you? Hey, go for it. Fall in love with a HornyDevil? Sure, sounds fun! Escape and get captured by [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent Therianthropes]] who infect you and turn you into a were-cougar? Neat-o! Get split into two duplicates and have two of your personalities put in one body and the other two in the duplicate? Yeah, ok...

* Creator/MikeTyson is a textbook example of how for some famous people, it seems the only point of their lives is to serve as a warning to others. He entered the world of professional boxing as the phenom of phenoms, [=LeBron=] James, Michael Phelps, and John Elway rolled into a compact, lethal package. He obliterated everyone and everything in his path and became the youngest heavyweight champion ever at the age of 20. But then his manager Cus D'Amato, the only man who could keep his violent aggressiveness under control and focused, died, and TreacherousAdvisor Don King promptly stepped in. A few days short of Tyson's 23rd birthday, he got Rocky Balboa-ed by James "Buster" Douglas, one of the most crushing boxing upsets of all time, with all of his three titles lost in one fell swoop. He seemed to be putting his ring skills back into shape, with several wins including two victories over hard punching slugger Razor Ruddock, when he was sent to prison for rape (which, among other things, cut off his income and would contribute to his massive financial problems later on). After that he had a brief rebound - he gave us some laughs with the Peter McNeely circus and even regained two titles - the last major wins of his career. And then he ran into Evander Holyfield, resulting in the infamous [[ManBitesMan "Bite Seen 'Round The World,"]] that managed to make him look like even more of a savage. And then he got slowly cut to pieces by Lennox Lewis, killing whatever shreds of drawing power he had left, followed by an interview that made him look more idiotic, and finally getting curbstomped in some four rounds by a nobody, and this was on top of his $40 million in debt. Losing one of his children in a freak accident involving a treadmill didn't help matters. It wasn't until his appearance in ''Film/TheHangover'' that he started to get back on track.

* Much of ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'''s first act is a (relatively low-stakes) example of this for Meilin Lee. Her [[MyBelovedSmother mother Ming]] discovers Mei's drawings of a local convenience store clerk she is crushing on, then takes Mei with her to chew out poor Devon and [[MistakenForPedophile denounce him as a 'groomer']] using the aforementioned sketches as "proof". Mei wakes up the following morning to find that she has turned into a giant red panda (which her mom initally [[TheTalk mistakes for her period]]) and has to work out how to revert to human form unaided. Mei forces herself to keep calm and avoid transforming long enough to make it to school only to find a local bully who witnessed the events the previous night was plastering photocopies of her admittedly off-color drawings all over the blasted school. Ming assaults a security guard in full view of Mei's math class after sneaking onto campus and announces that she forgot her pads in front of everyone, which pushes her emotional state over the threshold for a public transformation. Mei runs home crying in broad daylight only to find out ''her parents [[HereditaryCurse knew would happen at some point and made no attempt to warn her]]''. Said parents elect to basically place Mei in lockdown for a month, and [[BadBedroomBadLife her room is reduced to bare walls and a mattress]]. All within ''36 hours''. Poor girl!

* ''Webcomic/ShotAndChaser'': Olly got badly injured at work, had the corperation he worked for deny his worker's comp --claiming that since he got hurt unloading merchandise in the parking lot he was not on company property--, and was then laid off. In addition to his mounting hospital bills and losing the use of one arm the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic makes it difficult for him to find work and he's fallen two months behind on his rent, with his landlord delivering a letter saying he'll have to evict him if he doesn't come up with the money soon. On top of all this he's been isolated since his sister's husband works at a hospital and they're doing everything they can to avoid contamination with a new baby and his SO has been busy making ends meet of his own with them going weeks without seeing each other in person.

* Oh ''God'', Scootaloo in ''Webcomic/MotherlyScootaloo''. The story starts off with her having a TeenagePregnancy her pregnant. ''Then'' we find out that [[spoiler:her [[MissingMom mom died]] several years back, and she ended up being taken care of by a friend of her mother who promised her Scootaloo would go to a good home, causing her to act because of an unconscious hope that that would cause her to return. We also find out that the father of her child left her when he found out (not to mention that there was a lot of teasing, mainly by [[JerkAss Diamond Tiara]]) and Sandy (the previously mentioned foster mom), put her unborn child up for adoption, despite Scootaloo wanting to keep the foal. Then Scootaloo has an argument with Apple Bloom, and smashes her head into a mirror (luckily, Rainbow Dash agreed to watch her along with Fluttershy, giving her and Apple Bloom a chance to make up). ''[[FromBadToWorse Then]]'', during "The Birthing", she gets a MAJOR KickTheDog from [[JerkAss Jet Set and Upper Crust]], who Sandy had been thinking of as adoptive parents for Scootaloo's newborn son, Lightning Blitz, causing her to take Lightning from the hospital just so she can be with him, which causes her C-section wounds to rupture, nearly ''killing her'' (and according to WordOfGod, she ''would have'' if rescue hadn't come when it did). Thankfully, when the JerkAss couple says to Sandy that Scootaloo would be ''better off dead'', she has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment (after giving the couple a ShutUpHannibal speech) about this, which leads to Lightning being taken into a sort-of foster home by a friend (since they don't have the money to take care of him at the moment) and Scootaloo gets clearance to visit him relatively quickly (following a subversion of ThereAreNoTherapists), and Sandy [[HappilyAdopted officially adopts Scootaloo, and their relationship has seriously improved]],]] causing the story to take a turn for the better.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Cleveland_Sullivan Roy Sullivan]] was a U.S. Park Ranger who had been struck by lightning 7 times[[note]] These were only the official strikes documented by Shenandoah National Park. Sullivan recalled him and his wife getting struck before he became a ranger. [[/note]], to the point where [[NiceHat his hat]] bore a prominent burn mark. If the lightning wasn't bad enough, many people from hikers and friends to ''fellow rangers'' avoided him out of fear of getting struck. He committed suicide over an unrequited love in 1983, aged 71.