Line #162 DysfunctionJunction/WesternAnimation


1	* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', despite being a show high in comedy, is very much this. Finn is a human who is secretly depressed about being the LastOfHisKind (and may have issues with being sexually aroused by violence), Jake's parents are dead (and may have kleptomania issues), Princess Bubblegum has the stress of ruling a kingdom and never being able to be a kid, Marceline has daddy issues, the snail is possessed, the Tart Toter is insane, the Ice King suffers from severe dementia, Cinnamon Bun is brain-damaged, Peppermint Butler is borderline satanic, Lemongrab is a lemon in every sense of the word, LSP is SurroundedByIdiots, in addition to being a bratty teenager (or possibly an adult with a bratty teenager [[{{Manchild}} personality]]), the list goes on.
2	* The cast of WesternAnimation/{{Archer}} are all terrible people in their own ways, their issues and indiscretions including, but not limited to: substance abuse, infidelity, assault, sexual assault, murder, arson, alcoholism, trust issues, childhood trauma, binge eating, piracy, torture, drug trafficking, and more.
3	** Archer himself has PTSD, compulsively sleeps with almost any attractive woman who will have him, has extremely poor impulse control, harbors a deep-seated dependence on his mother as a result of her simultaneously neglecting and abusing him throughout his childhood, constantly self-medicates with copious amounts of alcohol, and admits that he's largely never emotionally matured past an adolescent level.
4	* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': The point of the BeachEpisode was to get the four dysfunctional teenaged [[AntiVillain villains]] together and spill their guts about their personal issues a la ''Film/TheBreakfastClub''. Or maybe that was just an excuse to provide us with {{Fanservice}}. The teenaged heroes [[ParentalAbandonment aren't much better off,]] but being main characters, they handle it with more grace. Although Azula takes her issues perfectly in stride until The Boiling Rock, which shakes her and starts a downward spiral that ends in the finale, at which point [[spoiler: she has a psychotic breakdown, turning into TheCaligula and hallucinating that her MissingMom is talking to her- and violently ''attacking'' the hallucination upon being told "I love you"]].
5	* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'''s heavy focus on Hollywoo mental complexes results in this. The title character is a deeply depressed and unpleasant man who is discovering that having AbusiveParents, substance abuse issues and fundamentally good intentions [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse doesn't justify his unlikeable behaviour]] - and that's just the beginning of his problems.
6	** Princess Carolyn's career makes her miserable and lonely, but she can't leave it due to her addiction to pulling other people out of crises. She also suffers from an inability to have kittens, which has ruined several of her relationships.
7	** Diane's high intelligence and great potential as a writer contrasts with her job ghostwriting celebrity memoirs and tweets, and even her relatively stable love-life is full of bad communication. Her family treated her awfully when growing up, and her inability to be let go and "just be happy" in her marriage takes a continual mental toll on her. She also suffers [[spoiler:Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after moving to a warzone for a job, and witnessing young children being killed. Upon her return, her failure to do something that matters also weighs heavily on her mind.]]
8	** Todd and Mr Peanutbutter are the more well-adjusted members of the main cast, but Todd's a directionless millennial whose achievements are systematically sabotaged by [=BoJack=] out of terror Todd will ever leave him, and Mr Peanutbutter is able to thrive in Hollywoo simply because it's as shallow, superficial, attention-deficit and cynical as he is.
9	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Centaurworld}}'' is this to a T - absolutely ''everyone'' has some sort of tragic backstory, with clues dropped here and there as to what happened in their pasts and how they try to [[StepfordSmiler mask their traumas underneath their silly, fun-loving demeanors.]]
10	** Horse comes from a ravaged, war-torn wasteland and struggles with expressing her emotions and healing from the horrors she's endured with her rider during the war.
11	** Wammawink loves her friends but is almost exceedingly overbearing, going out of her way to ensure her friends remain safe from even the slightest danger. [[spoiler: This is because when she was just a child, her entire tribe was killed in the GreatOffscreenWar that ravaged Centaurworld a long time ago along with her family, leaving her an orphan. Suffice to say, her overprotective nature stems from a fear of losing everything she knows again.]]
12	** Durpleton is a kind-hearted people-pleaser who seeks validation from others whenever he can. However, it's implied this is because he grew up with a verbally abusive father and ''constantly'' struggles with it. In fact, some of his behavior is a textbook case of someone who's been abused; he hears his father's voice in his own flatulence to the point of cowering and sometimes even apologizing to his own farts - [[spoiler: only with the help of the Tree Shamans does he find a way to alleviate the lasting pains of his childhood by making the voice of his father much kinder to him.]]
13	** Zulius takes great pride in his looks and is highly flamboyant in nature, though it's revealed that this is because he was apparently disqualified from a talent show for being too old, and the humiliation and defeat he endured still affects him to this day.
14	** The NervousWreck Glendale is prone to experiencing anxiety attacks so severe she can't even speak, ''on top'' of having kleptomaniacal tendencies, habitually hoarding things in her pocket universe.
15	** Ched ''hates'' Horse and horses in general for no good reason, but he hints that when he was younger, his mother had an affair with a horse centaur that would go on whenever his father was out of town. Because of his parents' completely destroyed marriage, he's developed a resentment towards horse centaurs and anything similar to them.
16	* Every character in ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' can be defined by various neuroses. (or just being [[TheDitz plain stupid]]).
17	* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', despite being a straight comedy, has this in spades:
18	** Ed is a LethallyStupid CloudCuckooLander who's TheUnfavorite to his [[AbusiveParent emotionally-abusive mother]] and [[ParentalNeglect apathetic father]].
19	** Edd, the OnlySaneMan, is a ObsessivelyOrganized DramaQueen who only goes along with his two friend's poorly-planned schemes because they're his only friends and he's too meek to stop them. His parents [[ParentalNeglect are almost never home and communicate with him through a mass amount of sticky notes.]] Although they are implied to be very caring when they're actually there.
20	** Sarah is an [[HairTriggerTemper ill-tempered]], {{Spoiled\|Brat}} BrattyHalfPint who seems to hate her older brother for merely ''existing''. Her only redeeming quality is her friendship with [[MoralityPet Jimmy]], and is frequently shown to, if not hate, then to be angered with nearly everyone else in the Cul-De-Sac as well, [[JerkassToOne particularly Jonny]], who she treats almost as bad as the Eds, with the other kids being exasperated at her violent behavior and rotten attitude.
21	** Jimmy started off as a ProneToTears kid who couldn't go two steps without getting horribly injured. CharacterizationMarchesOn to make him a ManipulativeBastard who gave [[DisproportionateRetribution disproportionate]] and [[MisplacedRetribution misplaced retribution]].
22	** Kevin is a classic JerkJock who belittles everyone except Rolf and Nazz.
23	** Nazz is one of the more levelheaded one of the kids, but always proves herself to be NotSoAboveItAll, along with some DumbBlonde attributes.
24	** Rolf is a FunnyForeigner who is without a doubt the nicest kid to the Eds and everyone else. [[BerserkButton Unless they (normally without knowing it) mock his old country's customs,]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes in which case mercy is forgotten.]]
25	** Johnny would be a harmless CloudCuckooLander, if not for the influence of his CompanionCube Plank, who manages to commit quite a few violent acts despite being a hunk of wood.
26	** The Kankers are [[StalkerWithACrush stalkers with crushes]] on the three Eds, as well as generally AxCrazy to anyone who has the misfortune to cross their paths, with all the kids running away from them in sheer terror, [[EvilerThanThou as even Sarah and Kevin are terrified of them.]] It's implied to be caused by their neglectful mother who ReallyGetsAround (they may or may not each have different fathers).
27	** Last, but most certainly not least, is Eddy. Eddy is a ConArtist with [[SmallNameBigEgo an ego bordering on narcissism]], [[{{Greed}} a love for money]], [[HairTriggerTemper a short temper]] and a NapoleonComplex) and wrapped up into a SnarkKnight look on the world. All of which would make him utterly irredeemable, except [[TrueCompanions he truly cares for his true friends and all the effort to get rich and popular is for them, too.]] [[spoiler:TheMovie shed light on ''why'' Eddy acts like this: he was physically tormented by his sadistic older brother (previously said to be TheAce, which Eddy admits was all a lie, up to the point where ''[[BelievingTheirOwnLies he]]'' [[BelievingTheirOwnLies started believing it]]), making Eddy grow up to believe that [[HiddenHeartOfGold acting like his brother]] would help him make friends.]]
28	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Every member of Planet Express has some kind of issue.
29	** Fry - the series's UnfazedEveryman -- isn't the sharpest knife in the kitchen because of a TimeParadox that makes him [[MyOwnGrandpa his own grandfather]], and he lost his whole family when he accidentally [[HumanPopsicle froze himself]].
30	** Leela is a {{cyclops}} orphan with some serious anger issues.
31	** Bender is a suicidal, criminal, alcoholic smoker who has barely a bit of conscience.
32	** Professor Farnsworth is the MadScientist who is so senile one keeps wondering how he keeps the company up and running.
33	** [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Zoidberg]] is the resident ButtMonkey and a really incompetent doctor whose dreams of being a comedian were crushed by his mother.
34	** When he isn't available, the role passes to [[TheDitz Amy]], AsianAirhead who comes from a rich family but has mean and greedy parents, her father being the worst one.
35	** The one worker who is [[OnlySaneMan relatively sane and happy]] is [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Hermes]], and he takes strange delight from his job as an ObstructiveBureaucrat right into the point that he is {{Workaholic}} and borderline OCD-patient. Also, his [[UglyGuyHotWife wife]] is constantly cheating on him with his [[SitcomArchnemesis former athletic rival]] Barbados Slim.
36	** {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d when Fry tries to convince Leela that getting phaser eye surgery (to split her one eye into two) is a bad idea:
37	--->'''Fry''': The rest of us aren't normal and that's what makes us great! Like Dr. Zoidberg, he's a weird monster who smells like he eats garbage and does.\
38	'''Zoidberg''': Damn right!\
39	'''Fry''': And the Professor's a senile, amoral crackpot.\
40	'''Professor''': babbles nonsensically\
41	'''Fry''': Hermes is a Rastafarian accountant...\
42	'''Hermes''': Tally me banana!\
43	'''Fry''': Amy's a klutz from Mars...\
44	'''Amy''': Drops drinking glass Sploops!\
45	'''Professor''': And Fry, you've got that brain thing.\
46	'''Fry''': [[CloudCuckoolander I already did!]] So Leela, do you wanna be like us? Or do you wanna be like Adlai, with no severe mental or social problems whatsoever?
47	* The characters of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' have gradually been revealed to be this throughout season two.
48	** Dipper is a borderline NightmareFetishist with some major self esteem and trust issues. He tries to hide his insecurities by being TheSmartGuy.
49	** Mabel is an energetic StepfordSmiler who is secretly afraid of growing up and growing apart from her brother, so much so that she was willing to [[spoiler:freeze time]] so that he couldn't leave her. She can also get extremely emotional, showing severe depression in "The Time Travelers Pig" after losing Waddles.
50	** Stan is a shyster and conman who has done some very shady things in the past, including being in prison on more than one occasion. [[spoiler:"A Tale of Two Stans" reveals he was kicked out of his house as a teenager, and accidentally caused the disappearance of his twin brother, and that those questionable things he did were all done either to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, because his father's parting words about not being allowed to come back until he earned a fortune instilled an obsession with money in him, or both.]]
51	** Soos spent years waiting for a [[DisappearedDad father that wanted nothing to do with him.]]
52	** Wendy has a calm demeanor, but reveals that she is actually stressed 24/7 due to her family and just tries to hide it.
53	** [[spoiler:The author of the journals, Ford Pines,]] held a petty grudge against his brother for many years and only bothered contacting him when he needed his help. He originally went to Gravity Falls to study the paranormal, but his search for answers got him more than he bargained for, and events regarding [[spoiler:the portal and Bill Cipher]] eventually drove him to near insanity, to the point that when his brother did show up at his doorstep, said brother was greeted by him wielding a crossbow and screaming "HAVE YOU COME TO STEAL MY EYES?!"
54	** Old Man [=McGucket=] was once a highly intelligent, if slightly eccentric, inventor with a family and a fairly normal life... That is until he was exposed to [[spoiler:the portal]]. This lead him to create [[spoiler:the Society of the Blind Eye and erase his own memories]], which in turn drove him more insane and left him as the infamous town kook who lives in the dump.
55	** [[spoiler:Pacifica Northwest was trained like a dog by her parents and conditioned to obey them every time she heard her father ring a bell, leaving her TERRIFIED at the thought of disobeying them.]] It's entirely as messed up as it sounds.
56	* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'': For a children's show, a lot of characters have issues that seem so much more messed up when thinking about it as an adult:
57	** The titular protagonist is a CosmicPlaything who constantly gets dealt a raw deal, his parents [[NeverFoundTheBody vanished]] years ago while exploring UsefulNotes/SouthAmerica, causing him to live in a rundown boarding house with his grandparents.
58	** His grandmother is a delusional CloudCuckoolander, and his grandfather is the OnlySaneMan who is constantly driven up the wall by the antics of his wife and his kooky tenants, which considering how eccentric he can get, says a lot about them.
59	** Said tenants include a UsefulNotes/{{Vietnam}}ese immigrant who suffers from chronic depression due to ''severe'' family issues, a short tempered construction worker who is obsessed with breaking things and is a closet fanboy of the town's local jazz singer, a greedy deadbeat who constantly blows his money on gambling, much to his wife's chagrin, and a secretive man who is heavily implied to be a government agent.
60	** Among Arnold's friends, Gerald is mostly normal, but his father is an overbearing penny pincher, his younger sister's a SpoiledBrat, and his older brother's a JerkJock.
61	** Helga acts like the resident bully, but this ends up being an act as she is in fact ''in love'' with Arnold, but [[LovingBully acts like a bully towards him]] out of both fear and as a result of having lived in a broken home. Her mother's a jobless, chronically depressed drunkard, her father's a greedy, emotionally distant ManipulativeBastard who is obsessed with advancing his beeper company, and her older sister is a hugely successful business woman whose constant success has given Helga a massive inferiority complex, which was made even worse by the fact that [[ParentalFavoritism their parents were always giving her attention 24/7]], [[ParentalNeglect which led them to neglect Helga in turn]].
62	** Said older sister also has severe problems of her own, thanks to her dad always pushing her to strive for the top, and [[TheBGrade had a breakdown when she thought she had a B+ on her report card due to Helga tampering with it]].
63	** Harold, like Helga, acts like a bully to mask his own insecurities, primarily his weight.
64	** Eugene is quite possibly the unluckiest person on the planet.
65	** Sid is mostly normal, but tends to have severe overreactions whenever something bad happens to him (see the germ episode and "Sid's Revenge" for examples).
66	** Rhonda is the resident RichBitch whose arrogance is kept in check only by her best friend.
67	** Stinky is a dirt poor hillbilly.
68	** Curly is a maniacal schemer who constantly gets in trouble due to his zany schemes. And that's just the ''main'' characters.
69	** Lila looks [[ParodySue perfect]] at first glance but comes from an improvised family with a single father. WordOfGod is that she has a hidden darker side but it's never completely shown.
70	* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'': Zim is a delusional megalomaniac with sociopathic tendencies; Dib is an obsessive,vicious AntiHero with no friends; Gaz will cause you immense pain for the sake of video games and pizza; and GIR.... is just bat-shit crazy.
71	* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', we have [[Franchise/{{Batman}} an orphan who saw his parents shot in front of him when he was eight]], TheExile who was [[Franchise/WonderWoman forced to leave her home]], [[ComicBook/MartianManhunter two]] [[Franchise/{{Superman}} aliens]] who are the LastOfTheirKind, TheMole, [[ComicBook/{{Hawkman}} Hawkgirl]], who first betrayed Earth then did a HeelFaceTurn on her home planet and was subsequently banished from there, and [[Franchise/GreenLantern a man]] who's serious about his duty most of the time. In fact, [[Franchise/TheFlash Flash]] is the only one from the Original Seven who doesn't quite fit here... which could tie into the strong implication that without Flash, the entire team would go off the deep end.
72	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Everyone on the show is seriously messed up in some way.
73	** Kaeloo is obsessed with perfection.
74	** Stumpy is an [[TheDitz idiot]] who has no sense of reality, who has even [[TheyKilledKennyAgain gotten himself]] ''[[TooDumbToLive killed]]'' on more than one occasion by doing stupid things.
75	** Quack Quack is addicted to [[GRatedDrug yogurt]], and is still traumatized by the death of his parents.
76	** Mr. Cat, the worst of the lot, is an AxCrazy preteen sadomasochist who murders people for fun and has been arrested at least once.
77	** Pretty is a shallow, superficial AlphaBitch. Her {{narcissis\|t}}m causes her to endanger herself by doing things like buying a dress that was several sizes too small and forcing herself to lose enough weight to make it fit her, and she screams at, abuses, and manipulates anyone who dares to stand against her.
78	** Eugly is a shy ExtremeDoormat who spends her time being abused and ridiculed by the other characters.
79	** Olaf is a megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur who wants to TakeOverTheWorld. One episode even has him build a giant statue of himself and force the citizens of [[CrapsaccharineWorld Smileyland]] to worship it.
80	* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'': Every character in the series, with the exception of Orel and a few other characters, is seriously messed up. And considering everything that happens to him, the fact he's not seriously messed up is a testament to Orel's emotional and psychological fortitude.
81	* The cast of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' are a more downplayed example; while they can go crazy, they’ll help one another out. With that being said...
82	** Twilight Sparkle is a neurotic perfectionist NeatFreak who must always do everything by the book and according to plan -- and she will be sick if something deviates from them -- which are clear signs of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. She also displays an obvious InferioritySuperiorityComplex, her outwardly confident and (occasionally) [[InsufferableGenius know-it-all attitude]] belying a pony with serious self-esteem issues underneath. She tends to doubt herself, belittle her own achievements and suffer from crippling fear of disappointing her mentor or failing her friends. On several occasions, this drove her into full-fledged mental breakdown. Also -- particularly at the beginning of the series -- she [[NoSocialSkills often fails to grasp basic social rules]], having spent [[FriendlessBackground most of her life as a loner]].
83	** Pinkie Pie is [[GenkiGirl hyperactive]] to the point where she’s nearly [[InnocentlyInsensitive incapable of censoring herself]] or [[CloudCuckoolander communicating her thought patterns to others]], and occasionally has displayed a profoundly paranoid side that once resulted in a fully psychotic breakdown (complete with full on hallucinations).
84	** Fluttershy was [[KidsAreCruel bullied as a child]] and as a result, she is [[ShrinkingViolet very withdrawn]] and avoids interacting with others [[NeverBeHurtAgain out of fear of being ridiculed or rejected]]. At the beginning of the series, she was unable to speak to a pony she didn’t know (Twilight, when they first met, couldn't even get her to ''introduce herself'' properly). Even seemingly innocuous things -- like two ponies nearby laughing for reasons totally unrelated to her -- may cause her to [[TraumaButton relive traumating experiences from the past]] and turn her into [[BrokenTears sobbing wreck]]. She later admits to living her entire life in a state of nervous anxiety. Paradoxically, she may also display a disturbing HairTriggerTemper when pushed, and [[BewareTheNiceOnes has physically assaulted other ponies]] on a few occasions.
85	** Applejack displays obvious signs of [[{{Workaholic}} workaholism]], spending her very first DayInTheLimelight episode working herself to the bone (and suffering from severe sleep deprivation) simply because she wouldn't accept other ponies' help in a chore that's obviously too much for one person, turning what was meant to be noncommittal competition on a family meeting into a marathon of olympic proportions and wasting her free time she's supposed to spend relaxing in the spa because ''of course'' she had to fix the plumbing at the place.
86	** Rainbow Dash, despite being a showoff, ultimately suffers from performance anxiety that at one point left her shuddering in the TroubledFetalPosition -- but she [[CharacterDevelopment ultimately got over it]] and hasn't had problems in that area since, leaving only comparatively mild issues such as {{narcissis\|t}}m.
87	** Rarity is a textbook example of a DramaQueen (to the point of serving as a page image) and therefore seems to be suffering from histrionic personality disorder. While reasons behind her [[FreakOut Freak Outs]] are sometimes understandable -- like being humiliated in front of the person she needed to impress to advance her career -- most of the time she will go into meltdown over even tiniest, most inconsequential things, like the fact that she lost a ribbon she planned to adorn her new dress with or that she forgot to pack the plates for a picnic. What is the most jarring is that she can [[MoodWhiplash instantly switch]] between over-the-top freakout and being totally calm (not to mention, act completely unfazed when facing an ''actual'' danger, like a giant monster attacking her), further indicating that while she ''could'' easily recover from a failure, she apparently just has an inner need to make a drama out of it every time.
88	** Spike is plagued with an inferiority complex, given that at times he's seemly being [[ButtMonkey ignored/harassed/outperformed]] by ponies or even being ''replaced'' by a better pet sidekick. At most times, he just [[{{Wangst}} mopes about]]; at his worst, [[TemporarilyAVillain he disintegrates into a]] IneffectualSympatheticVillain.
89	* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'':
90	** Rick is often drunk and almost completely detached from what you and I would call morality due to his SuperIntelligence and experience with things far beyond humanity, as well as an inability to find meaningful happiness [[spoiler:to the point of [[BungledSuicide attempting suicide at least once]]]].
91	*** There's a commercial starring Rick and Morty for Film/AlienCovenant in which Rick is attacked by a facehugger, which dies within seconds of attaching to Rick. Rick explains that this is due to all the drugs and alcohol in his system.
92	** Morty is a whiny, horny, teenager who likely has a learning disability and has no experience with the nature and BlueAndOrangeMorality of the bizarre things Rick works with and the repercussions thereof.
93	** Jerry is an incredibly pathetic man in a failing marriage whose insecurity leads him to believe things that aren't real. As much as he wants to be a decent family man, just about every meaningful or validating moment turn out to be some sort of alien fake.
94	** Beth, while not as pathetic as Jerry, has similar difficulties swallowing her pride. She is deeply affected by Rick walking out on her when she was little, and as a result tries to gloss over the craziness Rick beings upon the family.
95	** Summer somehow manages to be least dysfunctional of the family, even though she's a typical teenage girl. Even then, weirdness of Rick's dealings does cause her a fair bit of ache. As did the revelation that her parents were going to have an abortion, but didn't go through with it because they got a flat tyre on the way to the clinic.
96	* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'': One meme: [[https://www.reddit.com/r/PrincessesOfPower/comments/cwbxsw/baby/ My Baby needs Advanced Therapy]]. Most of the major characters are kind of messed up.
97	** Catra is the most obvious example: her [[DarkAndTroubledPast abusive upbringing]] has left her with [[DrivenByEnvy an envious streak a mile wide]], symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder, and enough self-destructive tendencies to blow up the world. [[spoiler:Literally - in the throes of a VillainousBreakdown, she decides to end the world because Adora wants to save it, and she refuses to let Adora have even that much of a victory.]]
98	** Adora's own abusive upbringing was more subtle in its damage, but it left her with PTSD symptoms, an obsessive fear of failure, a guilt complex that takes three seasons to even ''begin'' to recover, and an overall tendency to view herself less as a person and more as a tool for realising the greater good, no matter the cost to herself. This causes her a ''lot'' of trouble; both her relationship with Catra in the early seasons and her relationship with Glimmer in season 4 are severely damaged by her tendency to claim responsibility in all situations and fence others in to protect them, which Catra takes as attempts to once again claim the spotlight and put Catra in Adora's shadow, and Glimmer takes as challenges to her own authority.
99	** Glimmer has insecurities relating to her difficulties with her seemingly perfect mother. While the relationship begins to heal when Angella admits to her own faults and starts encouraging Glimmer to follow her own path rather than insisting she model herself on Angella, [[spoiler:Angella's subsequent death and Glimmer's ascent to the throne cause those insecurities to start exploding out of control, which combines with other stressors to split Glimmer up from her TrueCompanions and start making some really bad decisions.]]
100	** Scorpia's education in the Horde, which insisted that the Horde was the only place she would ever be accepted, left her bordering on ExtremeDoormat, putting up with Catra's worst abuses for three and a half seasons while endlessly pining for her, and [[ThePollyanna rationalising her entire messed-up situation as being for the best]] (she goes so far as to insist that her grandfather surrendered her to the Horde because he knew, when she barely possessed object permanence, that she would have been happier as a soldier). [[spoiler:Her realisation that she deserves better than putting up with Catra's shit, combined with her decision to rescue her closest ''real'' friend, leads to her HeelFaceTurn.]]
101	** Angella's pose of perfection is a mask for her consuming regret over her husband's death in a battle she ordered, and a lot of her issues with Glimmer come about because she's trying to sculpt Glimmer into someone more like her and less like Micah in order to keep her safe. [[spoiler:Just before she makes her HeroicSacrifice, she admits that she kind of hates herself for being a coward, and views her sacrifice as a chance to make up for it - that today, she chooses to be brave.]]
102	** On the surface, Entrapta seems cheerful and free of angst. However, [[spoiler: she secretly feels insecure about the perceived failures of all her friendships. During a moment of despair triggered by the signal on Beast Island, she blames herself, concluding that she isn't meant for friendship.]]
103	** Even Hordak, the BigBad for four seasons, is eventually shown to be essentially a lonely child striving for the approval of a father figure who will never give it. His prior life [[spoiler:as a clone soldier under Horde Prime]] has seriously damaged his sense of self-worth, and his attempted conquest of Etheria is an effort to prove his worth [[spoiler:to Horde Prime]]. [[spoiler:The apparent "betrayal" by Entrapta, the only person he's ever truly cared for]], ''does not'' help his mental state. He spends a decent whack of season 4 in a deep depression, barely able to function without [[spoiler:Entrapta]].
104	* WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons were, in the early years, considered the epitome of dysfunction on television. UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush famously gave an address during which he stated that Americans needed to be 'less like The Simpsons, and more like Series/TheWaltons' [[note]]The show responded with Bart claiming that they were ''just'' like the Waltons, [[TakeThat waiting for an end to the depression, too]][[/note]]. Today, they are one of the more stable examples of a family on TV, which says a lot when you consider that...
105	** Homer has been in a downward spiral ever since his mother left to protest evil and his father kept bringing him down when he was little, leaving him a gluttonous, lazy, stupid oaf addicted to TV and beer. The only time he's not doing a half-assed job at home or work, he's going on some crazy, poorly thought-out adventure.
106	** Marge is a {{housewife}} constantly frustrated by Homer's boorishness, Bart's hell-raising, and her older sisters' belittling. She often goes on crusades to make everything around her as wholesome as possible, and has made several attempts at realizing her talents beyond the home only for them to fall through by way of StatusQuoIsGod.
107	** Bart constantly raises hell to cope with the fact that he knows he'll never achieve well academically due to genetic predisposition and a lack of focus that not even his best effort can counter. Both parents and teachers offer him little to no faith or support, and often drop everything to be there for Lisa.
108	** Lisa routinely grapples with [[IntelligenceEqualsIsolation depression and social anxiety due to her above-average intellect]]. Her preachy attitude and inability to accept the less than perfect grades that come from a genuine challenge stem from desperation for as much emotional gratification as possible.
109	** Maggie seems to be a clean slate, but the fact that she can effectively handle weapons before she's fully learned to walk or talk casts a lot of suspect about her upbringing.
110	** Really, almost everybody in [[CrapsackWorld Springfield]], from Ned Flanders being a Bible-thumping double widower, Police Chief Wiggum being a lazy, corrupt, incompetent boob, Krusty the Clown being a drug-addled sellout, and many more, is messed up in some way.
111	* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', some of the characters had issues involving their families. Cartman's mother is a prostitute and he killed his own biological father. Stan has a father who, [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything despite being a geologist]], is a complete idiot who constantly takes up crazy activities and careers for the sake of being happy. Kyle has an overprotective mother and a strict father, later revealed to be an infamous internet troll responsible for someone killing herself. Kenny and his family are poor, and his dad is sometimes battered by his mom. It could be worse, because... Butters is raised by AbusiveParents, end of story. And Craig's tendency to [[FlippingTheBird flip the bird]] [[ItRunsInTheFamily runs in the family.]]
112	* Basically everyone in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' is varying degrees of traumatized by the series' dark {{backstory}}:
113	** While Garnet is the most strong and stable, she admits that she masks her own weaknesses to bear TheChainsOfCommanding, made worse by the void Rose Quartz has left due to her DeathByChildbirth.
114	** Amethyst has an inferiority complex regarding the circumstances of her creation.
115	** Pearl was in love with Rose and tries to get over it by transferring her suicidally obsessive desire to protect from Rose to her son Steven.
116	** Steven has shown issues with [[MissingMom never having had a chance to know Rose]] and with the stress of [[KidHero being at the epicenter of all this]] and its consequences. It even goes so far that he eventually gets [[ShellShockedVeteran diagnosed with what amounts to post-traumatic stress disorder]].
117	** Lapis Lazuli is a victim of a spectacular TraumaCongaLine: severely traumatized by her years being used by the protagonists as an inanimate object and subsequent being used not much better by the villains, she made a vaguely suicidal attempt at stopping Jasper by [[FusionDance fusing]] with her and [[TakingYouWithMe trapping them both]] at the bottom of the ocean. Their time spent fused is treated like an abusive relationship, where the way they treated each other was extremely toxic and Lapis admits that she took out thousands of years of frustration on Jasper, but she also admits to missing Japser despite how wrong it all was. The incident also caused Lapis to want to "take a break from water" despite her powers revolving around it. [[spoiler:As Earth continued to be under more and more threat, she eventually fled to the moon in panic when she heard the Diamonds themselves were getting involved, not wanting to deal with any more terrible things, although she eventually came back.]]
118	** Onion might have abandonment issues from his father being at sea most of the time, but [[TheVoiceless it's hard to tell]].
119	** [[spoiler: Peridot]] is neurotic and has NoSocialSkills, and is also, to a point, [[spoiler:a de-powered Gem due to having been created during a resource shortage on Homeworld. Before discovering her ferrokinesis, she had a massive inferiority complex compared to other Gems, and most of her character arc is about dealing with the baggage of FantasticRacism instilled in her on Homeworld.]]
120	** [[spoiler: Jasper is arguably even worse. She belonged to Pink Diamond, but now Pink is gone, leaving Jasper to serve a Diamond she wasn't made for and thus doesn't care about. Her personal hangups were damaging enough to lead to her fusing with a corrupted Gem and becoming corrupted herself.]]
121	** [[spoiler:Even Rose isn't safe from this. While initially being presented as an ethereal goddess-like leader and the ultimate BigGood, she was over time revealed to have poofed and bubbled Bismuth for wanting to shatter the Diamonds, and then she was said to have shattered Pink Diamond sometime after. It eventually turned out that she ''was'' Pink Diamond and [[FakingTheDead faked her own death]].]]
122	** Bismuth turned into a WellIntentionedExtremist who was willing to go against the Crystal Gems' ideology to assassinate the Diamond Authority out of sheer hatred and resentment.
123	* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'': Most of it in [[AllThereInTheManual the manual]] (and by manual, we mean [[ComicBook/TeenTitans original comic book]] and occasionally the ''ComicBook/TeenTitansGo'' comic). Raven's DarkAndTroubledPast is the only one which gets any detail, though. Cyborg's, Beast Boy's, and Robin's are only implied through dialogue and visual cues. Starfire seems to be the only one with a normal past until the episode "Go" which {{retcon}}s it into her tragic comic book origin.
124	** Robin has a pretty obvious traumatic past as he was raised by Batman after his biological parents were killed.
125	** Beast Boy was infected with a deadly virus in a jungle, then his parents found him a cure that had side effects which turned him ''green'' and made him unstable for a very long time, then his entire family was murdered in front of him, all this when he was just a kid. While he did get taken in by the ComicBook/DoomPatrol, the leader Mento cut him no slack for being a kid who wasn't ready to make tough decisions. At least Robin had the chance to live with Bruce Wayne, who was like a parent figure to him. Raven, too, who lived in a peaceful place like Azarath during her childhood. And let's not talk about Cyborg, whose case is worse than Beast Boy's.
126	** Cyborg. Victor Stone was the athletically inclined son of a pair of genius scientists, and his relationship with his father was...not great as a result. It got worse when he visited his parents' lab and arrived just in time to see his mother ''eaten alive by an EldritchAbomination'' that was accidentally brought to Earth by his parents' interdimensional portal invention. Then said Abomination got its tentacles on ''him''. After his father managed to teleport the thing away, he rebuilt Victor using cyborg prosthetics he had invented. Victor did not take being turned into a cyborg very well, to put it lightly. Then his long-time girlfriend dumped him because she couldn't handle the changes. He's only able to reconcile with his father after finding out [[spoiler: his dad is dying of radiation poisoning because of the monster that destroyed their family]] -- and they can only spend a few days together before the inevitable. And all of this still pales in comparison to what the rest of the series puts him through.
127	** Starfire didn't know what the word "nice" was until she came to Earth, and the closest word she had on her planet was "weak", she had a CainAndAbel relationship with her sister, and she was sold into slavery by people who experimented on her before attempting to bring her to live out her days as a servant on another planet!
128	** Raven is half demon. Her father at his nicest just wants her to join the family business of destroying the universes. Her Dangerous16thBirthday involved her father trying to destroy the universe, using her to open a magic portal. Oh, and [[ChildByRape her mother didn't give consent]].
129	* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'': Many of the contestants have gone through a traumatic experience, have a disorder, aren't in a good mental place, and/or have parents who do/can not act in the best interest of their child.
130	** Unpleasant bits and pieces of Chef's past are brought up every now and again. In "[[Recap/TotalDramaAlienResurreggtion Alien Resurr-eggtion]]", it's suggested he's still haunted by having accidentally killed someone. In "[[Recap/TotalDramaMastersOfDisasters Masters of Disasters]]", he brings up his manifesto, which has gone unpublished because his life story was deemed too much. And "[[Recap/TotalDramaBasicStraining Basic Straining]]" all but confirms he's fought in a war, which his ''World Tour'' biography backs up with the mention that he is not to be asked about the war.
131	** By the looks of it, Amy has been bullying and dominating Samey since birth, breaking her confidence one cruelty at a time. It's important to Amy that Samey is the lesser twin, but the reason for this is not given. Interestingly, in "[[Recap/TotalDramaABlastFromThePast A Blast From the Past]]", Samey imagines telling Amy that their mother hates her, but because Samey is pretending to be Amy, there's ambiguity as to who their mother hates.
132	** Cody's parents are implied to not spend any time with him and compensate by buying him stuff. In "[[Recap/TotalDramaAwwwwwwDrumheller Awwwwww, Drumheller]]", Cody mentions that they forgot his birthday last year and it's such a neglected day in his yearly routine that he forgets it himself this year.
133	** Courtney goes through life needing to be the best in whatever she undertakes. Her primary tactic is to flawlessly play by the social rules, but when push comes to shove, nothing is sacred in her pursuit for success and any semblance of peace of mind. "[[Recap/TotalDrama2008ASpaceOwen 2008: A Space Owen]]" opens the possibility she has this behavior from her mother and she also mentions she's been studying meditation for years, meaning her perfectionism has been affecting her for at least as long.
134	** Duncan is a troublemaker who in "[[Recap/TotalDramaAfricanLyingSafari African Lying Safari]]" admits that dying in the gutter is within his expectations. In "Video Message From Home to Duncan", his father openly questions if he and Duncan's mother love their son. His mother only says that's a horrible thing to say, not that she disagrees. As well, in "[[Recap/TotalDramaOneFluOverTheCuckoos One Flu Over the Cuckoos]]", Duncan's "very best friend" is revealed to not be any family (as is the case with everyone else), but his parole officer.
135	** According to her ''Island'' biography, Eva moved from Europe to Canada at age seven and immediately became a target for bullying. Just as quickly, her rage and superior strength put an end to that, only for her to become a bully herself. Her anger issues continue to this day.
136	** As per his ''Island'' biography, for most of his youth, Ezekiel has been effectively cut off from anyone but his family. He is homeschooled because his parents want to give him the best education possible and to prevent him from associating with anyone deemed beneath them. Competitions are among the few times he is allowed to speak with peers. This is the reason Ezekiel is severely socially inept, unable to accept defeat, and for the longest time under the impression that subways aren't real.
137	** Gwen's ''Island'' biography suggests that her family unit struggles financially. She and her brother are raised by a single mother and Gwen plans to use the prize money to help her out.
138	** As mentioned in her biographies, Heather used to be a "fat, brace-faced, pimply, style-challenged" child that was brutally bullied until one day she decided she was going to become popular. Everything Heather does these days is calculated to prevent her from slipping back into being a target, from the care she puts into her looks to bullying others. In "Video Message From Home to Heather", it's suggested her behavior is so appalling even to her parents that they throw a party when she's away for the show.
139	** Izzy is functional but mentally unstable. She experiences extreme happiness and rarely other emotions, she dabbles in alternative personas and constantly shares odd life stories that may or may not be true, and her consideration for the physical and mental wellbeing of others is diminished. Of the tales she tells, at least her history with the RCMP and the army has truth to it, as evidenced by "[[Recap/TotalDramaUpTheCreek Up the Creek]]", "[[Recap/TotalDramaCelebrityManhuntsTDAReunionShow Celebrity Manhunt's TDA Reunion Show]]", and "[[Recap/TotalDramaJamaicaMeSweat Jamaica Me Sweat]]". They're keeping an eye on her.
140	** When confronted with a possible serial killer in "[[Recap/TotalDramaHookLineAndScreamer Hook, Line, and Screamer]]", rather than run, Leshawna tells him that she's "got 16 years in the projects" and isn't afraid.
141	** Rodney's mother is for unrevealed reasons not part of the family unit anymore. Rodney has therefore stepped in as parental figure to his five or seven younger brothers and also takes care of their father. His biography suggests a connection between his home situation and his serial romance delusions.
142	** Sugar's childhood participation in pageants has left its mark. She dislikes Ella because, as mentioned in "[[Recap/TotalDramaILoveYouGreasePig I Love You, Grease Pig!]]", she believes from experience that anyone that nice is faking it. Equally, she delights in the pageant-like cutthroat rivalry she and Sky could come to engage in in "[[Recap/TotalDramaPahkdWithTalent Pahk'd With Talent]]". The episode also implies the pageant life was forced on her by her mother.
143	** Trent reveals in "[[Recap/TotalDramaBrunchOfDisgustingness Brunch of Disgustingness]]" that his parents used to hold him down and force-feed him broccoli "for his own good". It left such an impact that when his team uses the same tactic during the gross food challenge, Trent mentally reverts to infancy. As well, his fear of mimes in "[[Recap/TotalDramaPhobiaFactor Phobia Factor]]" is tied to the perceived disappearance of his mother, and the loss of his grandfather at a young age has left him with stress-induced OCD centered on the number 9 as explained in "[[Recap/TotalDramaAftermathITrentsDescent Aftermath I: Trent's Descent]]".
144	** Alejandro has been bullied all his life by his older brother José, who disparages anything Alejandro likes, punches him constantly, pranks him in unhygienic ways, and makes it a point to be better than him at everything, from sports, to academics, to personal grooming. It's to the point where Alejandro considers José his worst fear, and being called Al (José's nickname for him) results in a near murderous reaction. Alejandro's need to one-up everyone, be adored, and unwillingness to accept defeat stem from this.
145	** Sierra's mother is a LoonyFan of Chris, right down to their house's guest room being a Chris [=McLean=] museum. Sierra herself inherited this attitude, only she directs it at Cody.
146	** Jo has body image issues which she covers up with extreme aggression, violence, and [[FemaleMisogynist misogyny]].
147	** Mike has an exaggerated case of [[SplitPersonality Dissasociative Identity Disorder]], which has caused him social problems all his life. It's unknown why he created his alternate personalities, but one of them turned out to be an evil troublemaker who got him sent to juvenile hall.
148	** Ella is a song-obsessed teenage girl still in her PrincessPhase. She's naïve, well-meaning, and doesn't have it in her to be mean, but her commitment to being a princess annoys people and got her banned from the mall when she wouldn't stop singing. An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaRama'' reveals she used to be a "full-on monster" according to Gwen, until she was sent to Sweetie Pie Etiquette School to straighten her out. How canon this is to the main series is questionable, but the episode implies that this is the reason why the teenage Ella hasn't matured since the age of four.
149	** Lightning's father sees no worth in his son if said son isn't a winner. As a result, Lightning became a JerkJock, and his frequent sports injuries have left him so stupid he can't identify others' genders.
150	** Cameron is a genius, but also a BubbleBoy whose first time outside is a SadisticGameShow that he's very unequipped for. He gets sick easily and can be outweighed by bugs.
151	** Scott grew up poor and on a farm. He literally eats dirt and has pillows stuffed with live animals.
152	** Staci is a compulsive liar who never shuts up.
153	** Shawn watched so many zombie movies that he became a CrazySurvivalist convinced that the ZombieApocalypse is just around the corner. Talking to him will inevitably redirect any conversation to zombies.
154	** Priya's parents have been training her for ''Total Drama'' from the ''literal moment'' she was born. She's survived traps, wild animals, obstacle courses, and disgusting food for years, and her parents refuse to let her follow her own ambitions.
155	** Ripper mentioned that his dad dropped him and his three brothers on their heads. He also says that two of them came out okay.
156	** Nichelle is a teen actress who deluded herself into thinking she really was the badass she is onscreen. When the challenges prove otherwise, she has a mental breakdown on the spot.
157	* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'', nearly every character with a backstory is tragic. Optimus [[spoiler: lost his friend Elita-1 (now Blackarachnia) to giant monster spiders]] and was thrown out of the Elite Guard despite being qualified for the rank of Prime, Ratchet has PTSD from the Great War, and more specifically having to [[spoiler: mindwipe Arcee to save her from Lockdown]], Blackarachnia was turned into a half-organic freak [[spoiler: because of said monster spiders]], Bumblebee was taken out of the running for Elite Guard training because of something that wasn't his fault [[spoiler: and also wound up getting the innocent Wasp arrested for treachery]], Bulkhead was mercilessly teased for his size and clumsiness during boot camp, and Prowl saw his master die before his eyes, with his last words admonishing him for his attempts to save his life.
158	** In fact, the fates of Elita-1 and Arcee led [[WordOfGod the writers]] to promise that they would make at least one female character without a tragic past during the second season. [[spoiler: Unless you count being cloned from Starscream as tragic.]]
159	** Franchise/{{Transformers}} having tragic pasts and psychological issues is a constant no matter WHAT continuity you look at; in fact, many of the minor and toy-only characters, Autobot and Decepticon alike, are defined primarily by their neuroses. It's not like you'd expect a group of aliens who've been fighting for eons on end to stay well-adjusted. ''ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' (in the Comics section) is so popular because of how it delves into this.
160	*** Autobot triple-changer Broadside takes the cake, though. He easily gets seasick and is afraid of heights, so what does he turn into? An ocean-going carrier and a jet fighter!
161	*** The Stunticons, the second Decepticon [[CombiningMecha combiner team]], are a five-member Dysfunction Junction, being made up of a fatalist, a psychopath, a schizophrenic, a win-at-all-costs egomaniac, and a tyrannical bully as the leader. When they unite into Menasor, the giant's personality is so messed up that he's not a warrior to command, he's a weapon to point at the enemy and get away from as fast as possible.
162	* This trope is a defining feature of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'', where every major character and most of the minor ones are profoundly damaged. Rusty Venture and his father, Jonas Venture Sr. Rusty endured kidnappings and [[ChildrenForcedToKill was forced to kill people at young age]] (once to save his father) among other things. His dad called him ungrateful for not liking his life as a boy-adventurer. Now he's a "SeenItAll" AntiHero[=/=]VillainProtagonist and a bit of an AttentionWhore. He puts his sons through the same adventures (as a result of having his dad's old life forced upon him) [[spoiler: and [[ReplacementGoldfish clones them after they die]].]] He also made a LotusEaterMachine or "Joy Can" PoweredByAForsakenChild.

Context DysfunctionJunction / WesternAnimation