Line #3 Main/ShatteredSanity


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8	A person's mind is something that can be quite fragile, particularly if the person happens to be [[BreakTheCutie a cutie]] in a CrapsackWorld. The iconic fragile thing in fiction seems to be glass - very shiny and very fragile. This leads to it and its shattering being used as a metaphor for an individual's broken sanity.
9
10	A popular variant of this is the HouseOfBrokenMirrors.
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12	[[noreallife]]
13	----
14	!!Examples:
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16	[[foldercontrol]]
17
18	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
19	* Occurs during Asuka's MindRape in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' at the end of a repeated montage.
20	* Played with in ''Anime/YuGiOh'', where the Other Yugi shatters Kaiba's mind after defeating him at the end of the Death-T arc. In this case, it's intended to give Kaiba a chance to ''regain'' his sanity as he puts the pieces of his mind back together.
21	* It's very similarly played with in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', during [[spoiler: the [[JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind ritual]] that Schierke and Farnese perform in order to restore Casca to normal. Within her dream world, they discover that what's left of Casca's sanity is represented by a broken doll. And as they progress through her memories, the doll is gradually pieced back together.]]
22	[[/folder]]
23
24	[[folder:Fan Works]]
25	* ''Fanfic/ADiplomaticVisit'': In chapter 11 of the third story, ''Diplomacy Through Schooling'', [[spoiler: Tirek tries to grasp the true might and magic of the Lady of Magic. He not only fails, it leaves his mind broken.]]
26	** The epilogue of the fourth story, ''The Diplomat's Life'', reveals that [[spoiler:Adagio's overuse of her Mantle to sustain herself in the human world had a nasty side-effect when she lost it, as her mind eventually broke. She was returned to Equestria and checked into a charity mental hospital as a result]].
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:Film]]
30	* In the Soviet adaptation of ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'', Miss Brent's SanitySlippage culminates in her throwing her Bible at the glass window (while she is hallucinating and believes her victim Beatrice Taylor is on the other side).
31	* One of the most frequent images in ''Film/SuckerPunch'' is a glass breaking, once just before Babydoll's sister dies (from a light source) and the second time when [[spoiler:Blondie dies]].
32	* In ''Film/{{May}}'', the SanitySlippage of the title character is represented by the slow cracking of the glass case she stores [[LonelyDollGirl her cherished doll Suzie]] in. [[spoiler:It finally breaks when she takes Suzie to a school for blind children that she volunteers at, as they fumble in their attempts to get Suzie out of her case and cut themselves on the broken glass. [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds It's all downhill from there.]]]]
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Literature]]
36	* ''Literature/BruceCovillesBookOf Nightmares'': In ''There's Nothing Under the Bed'', [[spoiler: after becoming one of Weztix's delivery boys, the protagonist takes a lot of bad dreams to his jerkish cousin Harold. The problem is, most of the nightmares weren't actually meant for him, so he winds up getting taken away to get mental help after a while.]]
37	* ''Literature/DoctrineOfLabyrinths'': Felix's mind is shattered alongside the ''Virtu'' in the first book during his rape.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
41	* ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' have the [[TheMadHatter clan Malkavian]], which emblem is a shattered glass, in allusion to [[CloudCuckoolander their]] [[MadOracle own]] [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness mentality]] and [[PowerBornOfMadness set of]] [[MindRape Disciplines]].
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Theatre]]
45	* One very well-known literary usage is in ''Theatre/TheGlassMenagerie'', where the glass unicorn's horn breaking off symbolizes [[spoiler:Laura's breakdown upon discovering Jim's engagement]].
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Video Games]]
49	* In ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'', Ford Cruller's fractured psyche is represented as a broken mirror, and putting him back together requires finding one of the shards of the mirror in each of his mental worlds.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Webcomics]]
53	* In ''{{Webcomic/Narbonic}}'', one of the lenses in [[spoiler: Dave's glasses cracks as he descends into madness. Later he gets a new, uncracked pair, but the madness is still there, just under Dave's control.]]
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Western Animation]]
57	* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': [[spoiler:Azula's SanitySlippage culminates in her destruction of a mirror while preparing for her coronation.]] Her real JerkassWoobie persona is revealed in full at this point.
58	* ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017'': Transmission mirrors are magical devices for communication and transportation, made out of smaller mirror pieces that form together into a larger whole and split apart for easier storage when not in use. The transmission mirror that Dracula used to give his genocidal threat to the people of Wallachia after they burned his beloved wife at the stake pauses for a moment before shattering apart while Dracula's reflection is in it, symbolizing his newfound insanity.
59	[[/folder]]

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