Line #16 BreakTheCutie/WebOriginal


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9	* Finn of ''Roleplay/{{AJCO}}'' suffered one before he even appeared in the AJCO storyline, having once been a perfectly normal human that was cursed, killed, turned into a man-eating demon, and then accidentally summoned and bound-by-soul to a clueless witch. He does his best, but [[TheWoobie the poor guy]] has been through a lot.
10	** Three-eyed, foul-mouthed cactus alien Kube may not be a conventional "cutie", but they become pretty upset when Vinnie gets [[spoiler:their throat ripped out by the above-mentioned demon]], snapping at people that tried to help them and fretting constantly. Seems to be getting better having made amends with Egg, though Vinnie's situation hasn't improved much.
11	** Of all the characters on the server, Egg gets the closest to the DespairEventHorizon after she is nearly forced to [[HeroicSacrifice commit suicide to save her allies]] following several more minor [[HeroicBSOD BSOD moments]]. Her time away from the Crew and in Katton with her friend [[spoiler:or lover?]] Kube is healing her, however.
12	* Blog/AskKingSombra has this happen to Coffee Talk [[spoiler:via her situation and Sombra's EnemyWithin giving her a BreakingLecture]] and Caribbean Splash [[spoiler:when his best friend Whistler is killed in the fight with the Crystal Wolves]].
13	* WebVideo/BennettTheSage tries to break WebVideo/JesuOtaku twice ForTheEvulz, first by making him review ''Eiken'' and then later on with ''Anime/MasterOfMartialHearts''. In the latter case, JO admits to being broken after seeing [[TorchTheFranchiseAndRun the ending]], [[SubvertedTrope but quickly recovers]] once he realizes that it's just a bad work of fiction and that he has better things to do than let it get to him. He then skips out the door to enjoy a beautiful, productive day outside. Sage, on the other hand, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard quickly spirals into despair]] once he starts reflecting on what ''Anime/MasterOfMartialHearts''' existence says about [[HumansAreBastards the state of humanity]].
14	* This trope is not only performed brutally and horrifically in ''WebAnimation/BrokenSaints'', it's part of [[spoiler:the BigBad's plan: Shandala is raised in paradise by a loving, nurturing family, then taken away from said paradise and had bad thing after bad thing happen to her, all so that her empathic abilities would become fully realized and used to the BigBad's advantage]].
15	* For a LetsPlay example: LetsPlay/DeceasedCrab's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qcTBp8gpNM&feature=channel_page playthrough]] of ''VideoGame/{{Eversion}}'' slowly [[DarthWiki/{{Eversion}} but surely]] traumatizes the normally happy-go-lucky [=LPer=].
16	** Actually, he was already long-since broken. All the way back to the [[VideoGame/LaMulana second game he LP'd.]] And in particular, it's a BonusLevelOfHell.
17	* Want to see a cutie and TechnicalPacifist break onscreen? Watch the end of Act II of ''WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog'', an [[http://www.drhorrible.com/index.html online Supervillain Musical]] by Creator/JossWhedon. (Meet Dr. Horrible, struggling geeky gadgeteer supervillain, and his archnemesis Captain Hammer, corporate tool and JerkJock super"hero", who regularly and casually beats up Dr. Horrible and then steals his [[WideEyedIdealist girl]]. But when he finally [[VillainousBreakdown snaps]], Dr. Horrible learns that EvilFeelsGood.
18	** Act III takes this so much further, with his breaking marking his [[StartOfDarkness ascension to true villainy]].
19	** And then there's [[LoveInterests Penny]]. She starts as a WideEyedIdealist who tries to makes up for her bad life by improving others' lives. Then, in act III, she finds out that [[HeroAntagonist Captain]] [[JerkAss Hammer]] is actually a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk who carries a speech/song about how much he is [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech better than anyone else]] (especially the homeless) and telling everyone she slept with him, with nobody in the crowd calling on his jerkish behavior (even joining the song), the place being attacked by a [[VillainProtagonist supervillain]], and THEN the villain is revealed to be her [[DoggedNiceGuy cute]], [[ShrinkingViolet shy]], nerdy [[LaundromatLiaisons laundry buddy]] Billy. Really, after all that, "Captain Hammer will save us" sounds more like she's trying to comfort herself.
20	* The UglyCute and adorably innocent Yellow Guy of ''WebVideo/DontHugMeImScared'' goes through absolute '''hell''' in Episode 6. For starters, he's completely alone now that both of his friends are gone (keep in mind, he was ''forced to eat one of them'' in the preceding episode), and he's left to endure yet another song from a crazy teacher by himself. Throughout the number, it's clear that he desperately wants to escape, fully aware that it isn't going to end well, and once the nightmares kick in, he ends up drowning in oil ''twice''. If that wasn't enough, he's then subject to [[spoiler:endure every single previous teacher (excluding the Notepad) along with several new ones, and it's so overwhelming that the poor guy can do nothing but scream and cry, slowly falling into insanity until Red Guy saves him by pulling the plug]].
21	* The ''WebVideo/DreamSMP'', being a CrapsackWorld, has absolutely no shortage of these, to the point that ''if'' there is someone who can arguably be TheCutie, they ''will'' be broken down to be an IronWoobie in a best-case scenario, and a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds in a worst-case scenario... and occurrences of the best-case scenario appear to be few and far in between. In chronological order:
22	** Wilbur initially believed in pacifism and fighting with words as opposed to violence. After [[RebelliousRebel Eret's betrayal]], though, his naivety as the leader of the L'Manburgian revolution [[CynicismCatalyst became shattered]], triggering the beginning of his [[SanitySlippage mental spiral and paranoia]], and him to [[spoiler:become an outright DeathSeeker who ended up begging his father to end his life by the end of the [[TheExile Pogtopia arc]]]]. And even then, after [[spoiler:spending what felt like [[AndIMustScream thirteen and a half years]] in the Afterlife (taking the form of a train station platform that he couldn't leave), he was brought BackFromTheDead... and although he evidently does ''not'' want to return to the Afterlife, he still retains his [[BlackAndWhiteInsanity delusional worldview about good and evil]]]].
23	** Tubbo also used to be one of the more peaceful members of the server, but between [[spoiler:being publicly executed, [[AChildShallLeadThem dragged into a leadership position]] that he was woefully unprepared for, and having his country blown to bits three times]], it's no surprise that he's a StepfordSmiler who ended up developing [[NuclearOption nuclear missiles]] for protection.
24	** Tommy is a somewhat less traditional example of this, being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold... who has also been through an extensive TraumaCongaLine consisting of being a {{Child Soldier\|s}}, watching his BigBrotherMentor go through SanitySlippage and [[spoiler:eventually dying]] and his best friend being [[spoiler:publicly executed and almost sacrificing himself]], being abused and gaslighted [[spoiler:to the brink of suicidality, having his home destroyed three times, being locked in prison with his abuser for a week only to be [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutally beat to death]] and then brought BackFromTheDead from a [[AndIMustScream torturous Afterlife]], among many other things]]. However, despite the sheer magnitude of his trauma, he still manages to keep [[RousseauWasRight his more idealistic beliefs]] after everything, though becoming more somber and [[WiseBeyondTheirYears worldly through his experiences]].
25	** Ranboo entered the SMP during the Reconstruction Era as a bright aspiring politician who wanted to make L'Manburg a better place, but now, he's a nervous wreck who lives in constant stress after being tossed dead-center into the conflict between Tommy and Dream, all because he tagged alongside Tommy to grief George's house.
26	** Quackity started out as an aspiring, [[WideEyedIdealist idealistic]] politician who believed that RousseauWasRight and preferred words to weapons ([[NotSoDifferentRemark much like his former political rival, Wilbur]]), but [[spoiler:ends up [[JadeColoredGlasses jaded]] to the point of [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis having many of his beliefs turned around entirely]] after going through a trainwreck of a TraumaCongaLine over the course of seven months, including and not limited to a toxic relationship, several wars, and severe injuries to the point of disability, as well as the resultant psychological effects]].
27	** During the Red Banquet, Captain Puffy is forced to [[spoiler:see her son, Foolish, be ritualistically sacrificed to [[BotanicalAbomination the Crimson]], before giving into her instincts and [[MamaBear brutally murdering Antfrost in revenge]]]]. After this, she turns away from the path of the [[KnightErrant knight]], and embraces the path of distrust.
28	%%* ''Literature/EntirelyPresentingYou'': It seems to be a major theme of the story. %%examples??
29	* [[VideoGame/YumeNikki Madotsuki]] was already a broken wreck before, but ''WebAnimation/TheFrolloShow'' traumatizes her to near-''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' levels of cutie-breaking.
30	** In ''Frollo Gets Flashed by a Gothic Lolita'', she witnesses [[spoiler:numerous deaths of both allies and villains alike during the final battle. Later, she struggles against her fight against Wilford Brimley, while recalling those moments. Wilford then rubs salt in the wound by asking where her mother is, triggering flashbacks]]. After that flashback, she [[spoiler:summons an alternate dimension to kick Wilford's ass in... but the way she did it looks like she was going to [[DrivenToSuicide kill herself]]]].
31	*** It gets worse for her later on. The next episode, [[spoiler:Wilford had created an entire dimension after absorbing her sorrows, and the only way for [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDameDisney Frollo]] and his allies to find him is to break her even more, sometimes by accident or forcefully (the latter giving a WhatTheHellHero moment to Frollo from [[EvenEvilHasStandards even the villains]])]].
32	** VideoGame/{{Ib}} suffers in the same episode when she witnesses [[spoiler:[[Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand Batiatus]] killing [[BigBrotherInstinct Garry]]]]. This enrages her and prompts her to deliver a brutal beatdown on Batiatus, [[spoiler: only for Batiatus to kill her in the end]]. [[Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt Stocking]] and Madotsuki slaughter him in response, the former appalled at his actions.
33	* In ''Roleplay/TheGamersAlliance'', Marya Aurelac is a kind character but after her husband [[AntiVillain Kagetsu I]]'s sealing she is forced to live her life as a wandering prostitute. Things get better for her for a while when she is reunited with Kagetsu but then the warlock Arawn kidnaps and rapes her both for pleasure and to keep Kagetsu from rebelling against him. Marya is saved but only gets to spend a little while with Kagetsu who is later killed in battle. Marya is an immortal but her beloved Kagetsu is now dead so she realizes that she has to [[WhoWantsToLiveForever live her life without him for all eternity]]. This finally makes her snap, and she turns into a cold, ruthless individual who later kidnaps and corrupts Prince [[EvilPrince Geraden Aurelac]] of Maar Sul, her descendant, going even so far as to [[{{Ephebophile}} boink]] him in order to control him. Once she's made sure Geraden can take over Maar Sul without needing her to guide him any longer, Marya suffers from guilt of all the nasty things she's done and finds a way to properly commit suicide with poison which bypasses her curse of immortality in order to finally be reunited with Kagetsu in the afterlife.
34	* ''WebVideo/HeroHouse'' gives us He-man, who goes through hell and back in Season Four.
35	* A lot of characters in ''WebAnimation/InanimateInsanity'' have been broken by the show’s sadistic nature, but the standout is Suitcase, [[TheIngenue a kindhearted, gentle soul]] and the only contestant who trusts [[ReformedButRejected Balloon]]. Eventually, '''''everything goes to hell'''''. [[spoiler:She just so happens to be in an alliance with Nickel, a cynical {{Jerkass}} who manipulates her into stealing a battery for the eighth challenge (and later goes KarmaHoudini by surviving that episode’s elimination), and she’s unlucky enough to encounter Mecintosh while doing so, and his words cause her to become paranoid and doubtful of her alliance. It all culminates into HearingVoices and {{Hallucinations}}, and one of her panic attacks nearly causes her to drown during the eleventh challenge. During the same episode, Balloon, who she can trust and view as a genuine friend, is eliminated 5 to 1, and she didn’t even vote for him.]]
36	** This also happens to Marshmallow. After forming a truce with Apple once they realize how trivial their conflict was, Apple becomes clingier by the episode, while Marshmallow, sweet as she is, just wants some space. [[spoiler:Apple (who was later revealed to have been possessed by Bow) eventually reveals that she was using their friendship to get farther into the game, and a furious Marshmallow ends their friendship once again, but she eventually begins to regret this, slowly developing an insecurity on “what’s real”. She then confesses to Bow that she hates competing on the show thanks to the toxicity it produces and negative impact it leaves on the contestant’s mental and emotional states, so she quits competing entirely and decides to live with Bow and Apple in Purgatory Mansion.]]
37	* [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11086033/1/Creepypasta-Origin-Stories Laughing Jack]] from Creepypasta Origin stories can also be considered this, all he wanted to do in the beginning was help a sad little boy smile, but due to a series of events, the boy was sent to a boarding school for a number of years, leaving Jack locked in his box for years, until he was corrupted/driven insane (Depending on your interpretation) from being left in there for so long.
38	* In ''[[ComicBook/LessThanThreeComics LessThanThree Comics]]''' Brat Pack, resident Cutie Pixel tries to take on the psychopathic villain with a grudge, Gauss, all alone, while her teammates go home to change into their uniforms. Naturally, when they find out who she's fighting (the team's precog only knew something big was about to happen), they rush back, but are too late. Gauss and his teammate Helix, a sadistic psychic, had already done their worst to Pixel, leaving her a sobbing mess.
39	* [[http://narutofanon.wikia.com/wiki/Hibiki_Ōtori Hibiki Outori]] from a ''Naruto'' RP. Similarly to Sasuke Uchiha from the canon, Hibiki was a sweet, naive child, loved by his parents and just wanted to do his best. After witnessing his parents murder, he not only killed the murderers, but now flashes back to it from time to time, and, aside from his teammates and his adoptive mother, he can be quite cold and heartless, which he certainly was not as a child.
40	* In the ''Website/{{Neopets}}'' "Tale of Woe" plot, Sophie the Swamp Witch started out as a sweet and innocent child, but TookALevelInCynicism when her hometown was cursed and she was forced to flee into the woods. She was separated from her family for years afterward. [[UsedToBeASweetKid Sophie is now SolitarySorceress.]]
41	* Sparadrap gets a couple such moments in ''Series/{{Noob}}''.
42	** The first is Season 3 finale when [[spoiler:Roxana kills his pets in front of them]].
43	** It happens again to a lesser extent in the Season 4 finale during [[spoiler:Arthéon's "Reason You Suck" Speech about the guild]].
44	* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick was a sweet kid too, with friends, a love for honorable men and wanted a huge wedding when she was six. But due to a lot of disappointments, she's now a lonely alcoholic who needs to abuse people to make herself feel better.
45	* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic. Apparently he was a sweet enough kid to get into the Boy Scouts but his [[AbusiveParents parents were abusive enough]] to be drawn as monsters, his eighth-grade classmates pitied him for being a brat and he hid in the cupboard whenever he got scared. He once broke up with someone three times and they went [[StalkerWithACrush psycho-stalker]] on him and he got date-raped (and it would have to be similar to how Spoony acted on ''Spooning With Spoony 2'' so...ouch) on his prom night. With all that, wouldn't you be cynical and not doing so well on sanity?
46	** Hammered home in the Commercials Special. When he's on the verge of [[DespairEventHorizon giving up completely]], he takes out a picture of him as an eight year old and angsts about how he had such promise. But then, [[HesBack he]] unbreaks himself. At least for the moment, he's "[[IronWoobie pathetic but proud]]".
47	* Ruby Rose in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' goes through this bad. A major WideEyedIdealist, she gets a major whiff of real life when [[spoiler:Cinder infiltrates and attacks the Vytal Tournament, leading to the deaths of Pyrrha and Penny, Yang [[AnArmAndALeg losing an arm]], Blake disappearing and Weiss being dragged back to Atlas]]. Though she gets better, the Atlas arc goes full throttle: [[spoiler:when Cinder infiltrates Atlas, Ironwood goes JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope in his attempt to protect Atlas, fights with Yang over their course of action and has Cinder hijack their plan to save everyone in Atlas and Mantle, sending her team and Jaune into the Ever After. While in the Ever After, the Curious Cat manipulates the already hurt Ruby into falling further and further, not helped by her team seemingly ignoring her for their own problems, culminating in her drinking tea mixed with leaves from the tree needed to leave, [[DrivenToSuicide believing it to be a way to end her life]]. Thankfully, she gets much better]].
48	* Himei from ''Literature/SailorNothing'' is a "[[WideEyedIdealist cutie]] that already has been broken".
49	* Poor Maion from ''Literature/TheSalvationWar'' gets hit with this trope bad: she's a young angel who, when we first see her, has been addicted to heroin and forced to beg for more, then she gets forced into exotic dancing and later prostitution, then [[spoiler:she ends up in a concentration camp where she gets tortured to the brink of death and she and her mate have to flee to Earth to seek medical treatment from humans. Then it turns out her shattered wings are never going to heal properly and they have to be cut off. Fortunately for her, angels have a HealingFactor in this 'verse and they grow back]].
50	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBQ-IoHfimQ This viral video]] by Save the Children UK shows the effect of war on a little girl through a year's worth of single-second clips.
51	* ''WebAnimation/{{Sodor}}'': Bill and Ben. The mischievous, childlike little twins endure some major trauma in the first episode, and it's all downhill from there. Bill, being the one that crashed, is especially put through the wringer; the now jaded and bitter engine not only [[spoiler: resents his brother, but is also destined for scrap]].
52	** Flora in "The Vicarstown Gambit". The sweet, shy and timid engine is pushed to her limits when dealing with the Troublesome Trucks. When Scruffey goes so far as to savagely insult her friends, [[spoiler: she snaps and smashes him to pieces]].
53	** Paxton in "Last Chance", to a lesser extent. He finally forms a genuine mutual friendship with Diesel, only for Diesel to [[spoiler: completely ignore him as he seemingly leaves Sodor for the last time]].
54	** Skarloey. After [[spoiler: almost being scrapped by Arry and Bert and learning Rusty’s story was false,]] he goes from a outgoing friendly engine into a much more cynical engine when we see him again in “ A Message For Peter Sam.”
55	* Parodied in ''WebVideo/SupernaturalTheAnimationAbridged'' when Dean realizes [[Series/{{Supernatural}} his show]]'s tendency towards this, remarking "I can already taste the guilt".
56	* ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' may as well be titled ''BreakTheCutie: THE ROLEPLAY'', for obvious reasons, due to the site's premise.
57	* The CerebusSyndrome-laden fourth step of ''WebAnimation/ThereSheIs'' just devotes itself to breaking poor Doki. As if getting harassed for dating Nabi wasn't bad enough, [[spoiler:she gets beaten to a pulp by an angry mob, who (whether it was an accident or not is never made clear) kill her pet hedgehog, and just to top it off, Nabi dumps her for her own safety]].
58	* [[{{Creator/Amoridere Toki}}'s past, if they are to be believed, started as this, particularly when she tried to run away from them and, as Brownie put it, [[http://akaichounokoe.deviantart.com/gallery/?q=rose#/d4n5qoy she was once sweet]] and only wanted to be loved. Let's see. Here they are:
59	** She was abused and then neglected, causing her to almost die of leukemia during the events of "[[http://akaichounokoe.deviantart.com/gallery/?q=flashbacks#/d5j8gg1 Flashbacks I]]", something that caused something in her to drive her insane in the next incident (see below).
60	** She returned to the place where she was once abused so she could get a hold of the inheritance money, but went insane during the events of "[[http://akaichounokoe.deviantart.com/gallery/?q=Insanity#/d4z8cib Insanity and Resentment]]" and has had issues ever since.
61	** Frailine (the one Toki abused) is also an example as per these statements:
62	*** She was imprisoned for being criminally insane after the events of "[[http://akaichounokoe.deviantart.com/gallery/?q=little+girl Little Girl's Revenge]]" when she almost killed Toki and damaged the border between this world and the next. Kind of a DisproportionateRetribution, compared to what Toki did to her (abused her and then, sometime afterward, sent her to Alaska attached to a bus by a magnet with no means of getting home).
63	*** Sometime after being imprisoned, she almost kills herself twice and is never seen again, as stated in "[[http://akaichounokoe.deviantart.com/gallery/?q=Frailine#/d5ha37q Diary of a Borderline Schizophrenic]]", driving Toki into more self-hate because of it.
64	* ''{{Literature/Touch 2017}}'' seems to live and die off of heavily subverting this trope. In the story thus far, we have seen instances of rape, familial violence, and battlefield trauma, and that's just the characters young enough to automatically qualify as cute. And yet the story has yet to make a single [[TheWoobie woobie]] from any of them. While horrible things happen to a number of cute people throughout a large portion of the story, they remain definitively unbroken.
65	** James, a plucky twelve year old boy who likes football, anime, and making pancakes for his little sister, was violently raped shortly prior to the beginning of the story, and goes on to use this trauma as a fuel to grow and expand himself on the road to heroism.
66	** Casper, a kindhearted and relatable thirteen year old, who goes out of his way to make life better for those around him. Three months prior to the story, his father beat him badly enough to break his arm, and he is currently being [[spoiler: pursued by the leader of a powerful crime syndicate for any of a hundred really terrible reasons.]] He's still as kind and giving as ever.
67	* Elena in ''Literature/TwistedCogs'' goes though ''a lot'' of stuff, though she is still a {{Pollyanna}} through it all! creating a {{subversion}}.
68	* ''WebAnimation/ViridianDreamsQuests -- Vampire Quest'' is basically one long string of heartbreak with the player character we, in our foolishness, made a lovely, normal girl trying to bring a little happiness to the CrapsackWorld setting. Surrounded by pre-broken cuties and heading that way herself very quickly.
69	* Many, many innocent people in ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' undergo [[CrapsackWorld life-changing trauma]], but the nearest thing to this trope during the time of the story is probably [[spoiler:Parian]].
70	** [[spoiler: Bonesaw]] also underwent this in her past. The [[{{Sadist}} Slaughterhouse]] [[TheDreaded Nine]] broke into her house and attacked her family, causing her to [[spoiler: gain her surgery powers.]] She was then forced to heal the injuries the Nine inflicted on them, only for the Nine to hurt them again, and so on, for ''hours'', which continued until she had to let them die from sheer exhaustion. On top of that, they [[KickTheDog forced her to say she didn't love them]]. Afterwards, she [[spoiler: joined them to survive, leading to her BecomingTheMask]].
71	%% * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R7HCAXFBQY This animation.]]
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Context BreakTheCutie / WebOriginal