Adaptational Angst Upgrade / Fan Works

Adaptational Angst Upgrades in Fan Works.

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Authors:

• In any work by Dakari-King Mykan, the characters of Davis Motomiya and Beast Boy are given this over the mere fact that they didn't end up with Kari and Terra. It gets to the point where this is their only character trait.

Works:

Crossovers

• All For Luz:
  • Not only is Luz Noceda a social outcast at school for being a weirdo but out of racism for her Latina heritage and ADHD. And the one teacher that's nice to her has led to rumors at school that they're having a sexual affair. She's also been physically assaulted and subjected to cruel pranks. Luz doesn't tell her mother any of this because she doesn't want her to worry anymore than she already does, who has taken up drinking and ended up having a massive argument the night before she goes to Reality Check Summer Camp. And it only goes south from there...
  • King was kidnapped by All For One and a swarm of Nomu when he was a much weaker child for his Titan's Blood. During the Ten-Year War, he suffered Facial Horror and witnessed his adoptive mother, Eda, get mortally wounded on the battlefield and almost died.
• Ben 10: Unlimited: In canon, no matter how bad things got for Ben, he had his cousin, his best friend, his girlfriend, his family, and the Plumbers to back him up. Yeah, not here. In this fic, the story starts out with everyone Ben has ever loved being murdered by Vilgax. This is after a smear campaign led by Will Harangue made Ben one of the most hated individuals on the planet. Things got so bad that Ben was trying to commit suicide, only being stopped by Professor Paradox catching him in a portal and sending him to the DCAU, where he met the Justice League, helped them save the Earth from the Thanagarians, and regained his will to live. Still, the trauma he's faced haunts him for years, and is only made worse when he's exposed to Black Mercy and has to watch the people he loved die in front of him...again.
• BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant:
  • Luna and Sena were orphaned when the Branwen tribe raided their village, leaving them to fend for themselves to survive.
  • Penny is a Murakumo Unit on the run from her creators and is caring for her ailing father.
• The Butcher Bird: Admiral Akainu, of all people, gets one via one of the Decks of the World intervals. It reveals that he used to be a noble Marine and genuinely good person until his crew landed on an island whose people had been brainwashed by an Artifact of Doom. After said people took advantage of his kindness and killed his entire crew, he became the merciless Knight Templar he is today.
• Codex Equus:
  • In Warhammer 40,000, the Emperor of Mankind's well-meaning yet xenophobic, cruel, and ruthlessly pragmatic behavior is explained here as the result of fighting Morning Star and his forces of Fallen Alicorns for ten Ages (i.e. millions to perhaps billions of years). Fighting for that long, combined with prolonged isolation and no proper psychological treatment, would turn Golden Scepter into an extremely Shell-Shocked Veteran, resulting in a slew of mistakes that got him wounded during a coup against him and sealed away in the Imperium era. He also had to deal with the pain and guilt of his many mistakes, including his former relationship with Morning Star himself/ Fortunately, with Luminiferous' help, he would atone for his actions and walk down the path of benevolence again.
  • In contrast to canon, where he acted like a Jerkass Prince Charmless to Rarity, the Codexverse version of Prince Blueblood behaved that way because he dated mares who either loved the romanticized version of him or wanted him for his money and status, which led to messy breakups, scandals, and heartache. He was also constantly roadblocked by corrupt Canterlot nobles whenever he tried helping their Equestrian subjects, forcing him to act as bad as them in order to get around them no matter how miserable it made him feel. And unlike his canon counterpart, Prince Blueblood grew up with emotionally abusive parents who tried indoctrinating him into becoming the "ideal" Unicorn noble (i.e. canon Blueblood), which thankfully ended early when Princess Celestia discovered this and had Blueblood's parents investigated and arrested by royal decree.
  • Unlike what happened to Peter in Mary and The Witch's Flower, Crystal Prism reacts to being kidnapped, experimented on, and turned into a monster as well as one would realistically expect — he becomes withdrawn and melancholic, and he has nightmares about actually dying instead of being revived by the magic he devoured. He would also develop a hatred towards Noble Grace and Bubbling Beaker (both expies of Madam Mumblechook and Dr. Dee), to the point of having "terrifying" rages whenever he encounters similar people. Fortunately, he's getting better through divine psychiatric help and the support of his friends and family.
  • Many things were given to make Midnight Bell fit in the Codexverse, things that her character inspiration, Mary, did not have in the movie. She was sent to the Grittish Isles because her mother wanted to protect her from her tribalist relatives, who would disapprove of her being an Earth pony on top of being illegitimate. This is what would give her an inferiority complex on top of being bored and lonely with nothing to do. Her adventures were also more or less the same as Mary's, save for one difference — she would come out of it extremely traumatized, and for a time would develop a guilt complex towards ruining her young neighbor's life with her lies.
  • Blacktip is portrayed in the Codexverse as an intelligent and good-hearted Dragon who hid his true self with masks in response to bigoted, anti-intellectual Dragons scorning him for wanting to become a scholar. He also suffered from self-loathing for being born a Dragon and initially believed that all Dragons are destined to be greedy, civilization-destroying savages.
  • Urtica was bullied by other young Changelings for being shy, having a stutter, and wanting to become a historian despite Changelingkind's reputation for secrecy, which led to her becoming a Shrinking Violet by the time she meets Princess Twilight in the Convocation of Creatures. This wasn't apparent in the IDW comics.
  • In My Little Pony 'n Friends, Knight Shade hated himself for being Arabus' minion and broke down crying over it when captured by the heroes. While that still happened here, it's noted that he spent exactly two years as Arabus' slave and was so miserable during that period that he was tempted to commit suicide to escape. His father's abandonment of him and his mother spurred him to become a musician, but also became a sore spot for him and led to him being a 'blank flank' until his teens since his desire to perform was based entirely around supporting his mother.
  • The Third Age's Rarity, now Princess Arcus Unicornia, was deeply affected by both the cataclysmic end of the Third Age (including the destruction of her home kingdom, Unicornia) and her realization that absorbing the Rainbow Nexus gave her so much power, she could potentially end the world if she didn't master it. She fell into a Heroic BSoD and remained in the ruins of Unicornia, until her friends found her and helped her grieve, allowing her to move on. This didn't happen to the canon version of Rarity.
  • All of the Stardust Crusaders have gone through their own tragedies and hardships, though unlike canon, the implications of their backstories are treated much more seriously.
    • In canon, Jotaro Kujo went from a sweet young boy to a stoic Jerk with a Heart of Gold, possibly out of anger towards his absent musician father. Here, Gotaro Kujo was bullied for being autistic (among other things), and while he became a Bully Hunter to make his bullies stop, deep down he was sickened by his actions. He also has PTSD from his ordeals in Neighgypt while the pressure he felt to cure his sick mother is made more prominent. And unlike Jotaro, who knew of Avdol's Faking the Dead plan, Gotaro was kept in the dark, leading to him having a meltdown when he does find out.
    • Unlike his canon counterpart, Hol Horse was abused by his father as a colt, which led to him suffering Trauma-Induced Amnesia when he manifested his Stand and shot his father dead. Hol Horse's time as a Tarot Assassin is also expanded upon here — despite being one of Godly Brand's more trusted agents, Hol Horse was frequently and horrifically abused by him. When Hol Horse later tried betraying and killing him, Godly Brand used The World to overpower and beat him within an inch of his life. The experiences were so traumatizing that even after breaking himself free with the Stardust Crusaders' help, Hol Horse was left with intense PTSD, and never revealed the full extent of his abuse until after Godly Brand died out of shame over his own "weakness".
• As bad as Hiccup had it in How to Train Your Dragon, he shrugs off a lot of the hardships he had in the first film after going from zero to hero. This isn't the case in The Dragon and the Butterfly. First, he was a constant target for physical and emotional abuse. Second, he had to rescue Toothless from a public execution, rather than being used as a tool to find the nest. Third, after making a home in the Encanto, Hiccup is Improperly Paranoid at the thought that one false move or bad decision will cause everyone to hate him. This even leads to him trying to keep Mirabel from confessing her feelings to him under the assumption that he would somehow hurt her beyond repair. By the time the Madrigals meet Stoick and the others, they are all immediately hostile towards him just from the number of times they had to help Hiccup move on from their abuse.
• Dragon Blade: Toushiro is psychologically scarred and has PTSD due to the events of the Winter and Thousand Year Blood Wars. When Aizawa tries to get him to open up, Toushiro has a breakdown and cries. In Bleach, he keeps it together and has no severe psychological issues.
• Harbinger (Finmonster) :
  • Gideon plays this straight. In Gravity Falls, he was well off and loved by the town before his villainous nature was revealed. Here, he's practically an outcast and is seen as a weirdo on the same level as Norman.
  • Played straight with Dipper and Mabel. In Gravity Falls, the Pines Twins were just staying with Stan for the summer. Here, their parents died in some kind of accident, and Stan was the only relative available to take them in.
• If Wishes Were Ponies: Harry Potter in canon was treated terribly by his aunt and uncle, but the abuse is played up in this fic. The first chapter starts with Harry being beaten within an inch of his life by Dudley's gang (Harry was only nine). He manages to find his way (completely by accident) to Equestria, where the CMC find him and get him to the hospital, saving his life. Even though he's in an environment that's a thousand times safer than his old one, Harry is still terrified and suspicious of any/everything around him, even having a panic attack when he meets Pinkie Pie because she got in his face, shouted that she was happy to see him, and tried to shake his hoof (Pinkie apologizes immediately after, not realizing that this would scare him).
• Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail:
  • In Pokémon Journeys: The Series, Chloe Cerise's major problem is feeling pressured by her fellow classmates about getting a job involving Pokémon, resenting the idea of everyone thinking she'll follow in her father's footsteps while she's still trying to figure herself out. There, she eventually becomes less apathetic towards Pokémon and decides to become a trainer. In this story, Chloe starts out as a complete bundle of insecurities. She's outright bullied by her peers for having interests outside of Pokémon (being an aspiring horror writer), sees herself as the Black Sheep of her family because she's not interested in the creatures, feels abandoned and hurt that Goh is obsessed with capturing Pokémon (especially Mew), is jealous that Ash has essentially taken over being Goh's BFF, and is frustrated by her father not noticing her emotional turmoil and seemingly only caring about getting her being interested in Pokémon.
  • Blossoming Trail basically piles down an avalanche on angst to this haughty cult as a result of them having to learn the reprecussions of their actions the hard way: Grace has to deal with the reveal the Apex's quest has been rendered All for Nothing thanks to her boast of "knowing" how the train works, the children realize they were not only serial killers but they're stuck on the Train for a year at least, with thousands of denizens hating them, the realization that they considered their fun more important than their families back home, and the fact that they might've been killing former humans in those denizens, and Simon... is Simon.
    • Alongside Grace Monroe canonical realization that everything she did was wrong, she also knows that Passengers reincarnate into Denizens because she once saw Mark Kessler kill himself, then be revived as Ogami, with the same happening with Arianna (Oleana's sister) resurrected into Romsca.
    • The worst that the Apex got was from the finale of Book 3 which had, in order: Simon became a tyrant, they were forced to follow him, having to see Simon and Grace fight, Grace nearly dying when Simon attempts to wheel her and then Simon turned to ash by a Ghom. Here, they have to see Chloe die after Simon turns into Destruction (which they're very apathetic to), learn that one of their own has been killed, see Simon drown via The Phantom / Sean and then learn the horrible horrible truths about their actions that they become sobbing wrecks at the end, and then go off to separate in the smallest of chances to redeem themselves and go home.
• The J-WITCH Series: Will's unwillingness to have a birthday party isn't explained in the cartoon, but here the reason is that her old "friends" threw her a surprise party where they told everyone about her secret crush, making her a laughing stock even to said crush.
• My Huntsman Academia: The RWBY characters' individual issues are explored in greater depth.
  • Pyrrha is constantly annoyed and troubled by her fame. Her old manager tries to harass her into returning to the tournament circuit, she's constantly stopped by fans asking her for her autographs and laments that she was a Slave to PR and couldn't do things she wanted to do like wolf down greasy hamburgers or just hang out with people her age.
  • Blake is implied to have committed actual murder, direct or indirect, during her time in the White Fang. Her self-esteem is even worse than in-canon because of this and she constantly pushes people away when they try to help her.
  • Nora is terrified of pushing Ren away and Cannot Spit It Out because she doesn't want to change the dynamic between them.
  • Yang's Parental Abandonment issues are more pronounced and she struggled with the pressure of keeping her remaining family together after losing both Raven and Summer. She also feels betrayed by her father and uncle Qrow for not revealing that Raven was excited to have her and letting Yang feel as though she was the reason why Raven vanished for years.
• Light's Song: Thanks to being a Winchester in this story, Luz has been through a lot more trauma than her canon self by the time she reaches the Isles, Bobby's death just before the story starts being just the tip of the iceberg.
  • She also ends up even harder on herself about inadvertently helping Belos, since she blames her family curse for causing pain to her new loved ones.
• The Myth of Link & Zelda: Breath of the Wild adapts the events of the namesake game, and gives a hell of an upgrade to the already-horrible agony that its lead duo suffers.
  • Link. In canon, he has to deal with the pressures of being Hyrule's chosen hero, which he does so by being stoic. His Age Lift grants him time to learn to cope with it, but with this extra time comes greater agony. The fanfic goes into greater detail about his emotional reaction as he slowly recovers his memories. At one point, he almost breaks down because he realizes he had a daughter...100 years ago, meaning she must have died in the interim. His daughter isn't dead, because her mother is Mipha of the long-lived Zora. That comes with its own pain: the pain of knowing that his daughter will spend a massive chunk of her life without him. 100 years earlier, he pained over knowing that he'd never see her grow up because of this lifespan difference.
  • Zelda. Her emotional turmoil over her failures is expanded upon to include the pain and resentment towards her father for never really being the father that she needed. She lashes out at him viciously for this, calling him out on it. This leads into her regrets when she leaves for Mount Lanayru, where she expresses profound sorrow for her last interaction with her dad, and admitting to exaggerating the negative. And because she's in a romantic relationship with Link, when he dies in her arms, after losing her father, kingdom, and friends to Calamity Ganon, Zelda doesn't just cry...she gives up and waits to die.
• The New Recruit: Because of how Chronicle was filmed, there's an implied Time Skip between the movie's big battle and the final scene in Tibet, so it's open to interpretation what happened to Matt in that time. Here, it's shown that an APB was put out for him after he was forced to kill Andrew and fled the city. He couldn't go home (lest he implicate his family), he couldn't show his face in public (using a run-down drug store to get supplies with the cash in his pockets), and lived in a cave for nine days with little to no food. It's revealed by Coulson that not only were the police looking for Matt, but so was the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, etc. To top it all off he's still dealing with Steve's death and his trauma over what happened to Andrew. He's lucky Agent Coulson showed up...
• Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!: Izuku is a borderline invincible teenage Kryptonian. But when his powers first manifested at the age of four, he got into a fight with his pugnacious best friend, Katsuki Bakugou, which ended with Izuku accidentally throwing Katsuki through a concrete wall. If that was't enough trauma to fuel a guilt complex, his Super-Hearing ends up forcing his parents to tell him that he is in fact an alien on an Earth that hates aliens. He immediately brands himself a monster and swears off his dream of becoming a Hero out of fear of hurting others.
• The fanfic series Peter Parker Needs A Hug takes place immediately after the events of No Way Home. Peter has not only lost his friends, family, and mentors, but thanks to a Trapped in Another World scenario, he's in a completely different universe with no records or resources. A good portion of the stories show how all of the traumas Peter's been through have been eating at him, to the point where he worries that letting anyone help him will simply get them hurt.
• The Spectacular Spider-Man: Lost in Gotham: Spectacular Spider-Man already had enough angst to deal with (many of his traumas are listed in the first full paragraph of the fic). Now, he not only has to deal with the remaining trauma from those events, but he now has to face the fact that he's in another dimension with no way to send a message to his loved ones, as well as the fact that, with him gone, villains like the Sinister Six can rampage New York, and he can't stop them. He's also shown a few times to still be dealing with all of the traumas caused by the symbiote.
• In canon, Marinette still has her friends' support in and out the mask, even Adrien’s, though not much when it comes to Lila’s lies. However, In The dark never consumes all, for the light remains within its core, she’s subject to bullying and gaslight in and out the mask, thanks to Lila's lies, and that’s not taking into consideration the prophecy, which dictates that her death, at a young age, would lead to the end of the world, a prophecy that practicaly no one but the jury of Nine knows.
• Scoob and Shag: In addition to being a lot smarter than in the cartoon, Dee-Dee is much more aware of her lack of useful skills, and a flashback shows her crying as other people, including Dexter, point this out at various turns. The events of Part 1 also leave her with PTSD after she nearly dies and loses her right eye, which leaves her frozen in fear the first time she enters combat again.
• A Triangle in the Stars:
  • Bill Cipher gets this treatment, especially when he starts regrowing his empathy.
  • As if Pearl didn't have enough to suffer over, she has to deal with wanting to know exactly what happened in the Zodiac Temple, starting in Chapter Thirty-Eight, but no one, particularly Garnet and Keyhole, will tell her and keeps her Locked Out of the Loop, adding to her frustration. And it also involves Rose.
• Universe Falls doesn't hesitate to play up the fact that the Mystery Kids (Dipper, Mabel, Steven, and Connie) are children, facing all sorts of physical and mental trauma in investigating the mysteries surrounding either the town of Gravity Falls or the Crystal Gems. And among other things, the Odd Friendship between Lapis Lazuli and Dipper makes the former's sacrifice in "Jailbreak" and the latter's desperate bargain with Bill Cipher in "Sock Opera" all the more hard-hitting.
• Remnant's Bizarre Adventure
  • Poor Koichi. Even in canon Diamond is Unbreakable, he didn't see much value in himself. Put him in a universe where he's known about Stands as a reflection of the soul for pretty much his whole life, and has grown up on legends of strong Stands and their users, and you only manage to make his problems even worse. Thankfully, he gets more self-worth over time.
  • Pyrrha gets quite a bit of this as well, due to the fic exploring her backstory more than canon RWBY. Apparently, leaving your family behind because you're bored with your life and not talking to anyone about it isn't exactly good for your emotional state, especially when you don't feel that much more fulfilled about your new life and are worried you might do the same thing again.
  • Blake is also given a lot more internal conflict regarding her past as a White Fang than in canon, starting with the "Lock and Key" arc. Jotaro, of all people, ends up giving her good advice later on.
  • Josuke's Bastard Angst is much more prominent than in canon as the Joestar family is The Paragon of Morioh, which meant his parents' affair is not only public knowledge but had a massive society-wide impact. He has a feeling of worthlessness from thinking of himself as a burden to both the Higashikawa and the Joestar families.
• Rick and The Loud House:
  • Lincoln's low self-esteem is far more pronounced in the story than it is in canon; he feels stuck in the shadows of his more successful sisters and grandfather and believes that helping other people is the only thing he's good for.
  • Luna's nervousness with asking Sam out to the Sadie Hawkins dance results in the accidental destruction of the Earth, forcing her and the rest of her siblings to move to a whole other dimension. This also damages her relationship with Luan, since moving to a new dimension costs Luan her boyfriend, and later chapters show that Luna is still wrecked with guilt over the incident despite trying to move on.
  • Similarly, Luan's insecurities from canon are given significant attention in the story than canon. She's more openly disheartened when she learns that her siblings find her annoying, and expresses frustration at the fact that living with Rick is preventing her and the rest of her family from being able to live a normal life. In addition, as noted before, she loses her boyfriend Benny as a result of having to switch dimensions. The Benny of the new dimension unfortunately doesn't share the same feelings as the Benny from the old dimension.
  • The story goes more in-depth on the fact that Lucy is viewed as abnormal by her siblings; whereas in canon, she got over it by learning to just be herself, the story shows that she's deeply hurt by it.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

• What Leads You Here: The story covers the events that take place between the final battle of the game and the epilogue, the latter having been framed as a happy ending originally. This story shows however that the journey it took to get to that point was difficult on account of the massive, existential implications of the game's ending, including the prior-extinction of humanity and the reveal that the protagonists' entire lives were a simulation.

Aladdin

• Queen of Diamonds;
  • Not only is Jasmine forced to see the man she loves being decapitated (It was actually a body double set up by Jafar, but Jasmine didn't know that at the time), she has to hear people in the palace calling Aladdin a dirty thief and rapist who got what he deserved for carrying a princess away.
  • Aladdin lived for two years with a wonderful woman only to learn she was the princess when the palace guards arrested him, leaving him to wonder during his time in the dungeons if she genuinely loved him or merely toyed with a street urchin's feelings out of boredom.

Amphibia

• A Moth to a Flame
  • Sprig has a massive example of this after arriving on Earth, due to Sasha and Marcy's betrayals giving him massive trust issues with the Boonchuys unlike in canon. Marcy trying to kill him resulted in recurring nightmares of his death. One version has the Boonchuys kill the Plantars for dinner. Discovering the Chili Curry Frog dish in the menu when working that Thai Go didn't help at all and he nearly breaks off with Anne as well.
  • Anne has a much harder time maintaining her secret keeping because of Marcy's betrayal. Her constant mental episodes eventually results in her being periodically tormented by a hallucination of Marcy.

Animorphs

• All Assorted Animorphs AUs:
  • Peter is even more depressed over his wife's "death" in "What if Marco was Deaf?" than in canon. Instead of having a stable job, he lives on disability checks and barely takes care of himself.
  • In "What if Rachel's mom was a controller?", Naomi is even more distant from her daughters than in canon, meaning that Rachel was Promoted to Parent as a tweenager. This causes Rachel to reveal her secret to her sisters early on, and as a result, Jordan feels frustrated about how messed-up her life is.
• In canon, Cassie had the fewest problems in her personal life. In Dæmorphing, she feels a lot of guilt about coming up with the plan to kill David, and in Welcome Home, her mother gets taken by the Yeerks because she couldn't evacuate her in time.

Arrowverse

• Blackbird (Arrow):
  • On top of what she went through in canon (Oliver and Sara's infidelity and "deaths", her mother abandoning her, and her father's shoddy treatment of her), being handed over to the League by her own mother has left Laurel in a much worse state than her show counterpart.
  • Sara as well, who is still traumatized by the Amazo and has been eaten alive by the guilt over what happened to Laurel for years.
• Vigilantes' Dawn: Not to say Laurel had it all that easy in canon, but here she has canon Sara's backstory, due to Oliver inviting her instead of Sara like in canon. That means she has all of Sara's hangups, including being gaslighted and suffering Stockholm Syndrome under Ivo's care, the guilt over her time in the League of Assassins — everything. In exchange, this is inverted for Sara, who only suffered grieving for the "deaths" of her older sister and another close friend.

Beastars

• Protector: This happens across the board. Multiple characters get Dark and Troubled Past backstories when there was none.
  • In canon, there's no sign Pina has a particularly hard life, and even after being kidnapped by Riz, he's still pretty much fine. In this fic, aside from having a troubled home life due to a strained relationship with his father and finding the body of his mentally unstable mother after she killed herself when he was a child, he seems to have gotten PTSD from being kidnapped by Riz to a degree where he has a panic attack when kissing a female bear and running through the campus in shock until he could find Bill.
  • Bill in the manga is generally a guy whose biggest worry is the desire to be taken seriously and to perform his duties as club leader when Louis leaves that position to him, in this story, he has a lot of emotional baggage. His home life is a mess as he has a religious fundamentalist father that is physically and emotionally abusive towards him, a brother than ran away from home when Bill let it escape to their father that he was in love with his male, herbivore roommate, a promise to said brother on the night that he ran away that he'd never fall for a man, leading to internalized homophobia when he realized he was attracted to a man. Furthermore, a lot of actions he got over in canon are now deeply haunting to him, specifically the fact he almost ate a baby chick if Pina hadn't stopped him and that he ate an old man's finger at the start of the story.
  • Agata's backstory is relatively simple, he had too much pressure in his life from being a lion and ended up having a rebellious face that led him to become a member of the Shishigumi. In this story, we learn that through his interactions with his younger brother Hikaru that his mother was extremely abusive and that he ran away to get away from her.
  • Els, who didn't have any dark secret revealed in the manga, is revealed to have serious anger management issues to the point of having medication for it. When they visit Pina, she admits to Bill that she was transferred to Cherryton after she attacked a bully of hers with a baseball bat.

The Brittas Empire

• Just another one of those days…
  • Unlike in the series proper, the death of Brittas' mother is explored in slightly more detail and he's shown to have been affected by it more so than in canon. He is also given an abusive wife before Helen who never existed in the show proper. Finally, whilst in canon, Brittas seems blissfully unaware of the true feelings of his staff towards him, here we see that he's fully aware, even discontinuing his Good Behavior Points system under the realization that people were doing anything to not have dinner with him.
  • Whilst the show implies that she didn't have the best upbringing, at no point does it ever suggest that Laura's father walked out on her when she was younger as this fic would suggest.

Danganronpa

• Danganronpa: Paradise Lost: Monaca Towa is a lot more sympathetic, morally sound, and above all, angsty than she was in canon. There, she gleefully confessed to having no intention of going through with the Suicide Pact made by her fellow Warriors of Hope, showed no remorse for her mistreatment of them, and only abandoned the cause of despair out of boredom. Here, on the other hand, she confirms that she was genuinely planning on killing herself, is guilt-ridden over how she treated the Warriors of Hope to the extent that she breaks down in tears when apologizing to them, and displays severe trauma over being raped by her own brother Haiji.

Disgaea

• Wolf in the Streets, Sardine in the Sheets readjusts the Canonical traumas many of its cast members endured, tailoring them to fit the new setting:
  • Kurtis goes from an adult who lost his wife and child in a tragedy to a teenager who's lost his parents, baby sister, and loving grandfather, followed by being framed for a crime he didn't commit by his foster father Carter.
  • Fuka and Desco were nearly killed by a lab accident that did claim the lives of their mother and Desco's twin sister, and got their father tossed into jail for involuntary manslaughter. Both are suffering from PTSD as a result, with Fuka insisting the accident was all just a dream and that their father is just absorbed in another one of his projects.
  • Emizel's father used to be the Mayor, but was busted for corruption. He threw his son under the bus while bargaining for a lighter sentence, though Emizel insists that he still had his best interests in mind.
  • Laharl and Etna ended up on the streets after his father died, struggling to scrape together enough to get by and to stay connected with Sicily.

Dragon Age

• In the Dragon Age: Origins series, the Sisimka Chronicles:
  • Aedan is still haunted by the death of his family as well as the decisions and actions he’s made over the course of his journey. Those include murdering Rendon Howe in cold blood, conceiving a child with Morrigan, and watching Delilah Howe (his first love) die during her joining ritual.
  • Alistair is also subject to this, as the countless battles he's fought weigh heavy on his conscious.

Ed, Edd n Eddy

• Peach Creek: All of the characters receive this in one way or another, given the more mature tone. Using just the Eds as an example:
  • Double D seems to have developed depression from his parents never being around.
  • Eddy is now a smoker, cusses more, and has fallen back on old attitude habits since Big Picture Show.
  • Ed has grown tired of his parents' blatant favoritism, to the point of running away.

Encanto

• The Two Seers:
  • While Bruno's exile was self-inflicted in the movie, having left to protect Mirabel from the supposed consequences of his vision, here Alma kicked him out before her gift ceremony even happened because she thought he was bad luck.
  • Being a Muggle Born of Mages in canon, Mirabel wasn't exactly free of angst herself. Here she actually did get a gift, but it led to her family's matriarch evicting her at a young age, separating her from her parents and sister and being forced to live with her Black Sheep uncle. When their home become uninhabitable, they move into the walls of the family Casita where Mirabel grows from adolescents into her teen years with nothing but rats and each other for company.
  • Consequentially, while the Family Madrigal were all Stepford Smilers due to the pressure of their duties to the communities slowly getting to them, here Abuela disowning Mirabel was The Last Straw for a lot of them, her parents and sisters taking months at a time for fruitless searches to find them.
• Since Bruno was Isabela, Luisa and Mirabel's father in ⫚ - His Daughters, The Miracles of the family, the three of them have to deal with their youngest not receiving her gift (instantly turning her into a Penny Among Diamonds as far as Abuela is concerned) and their parents disappearing immediately afterwards. When Alma forbids even discussing the issue, the three of them turn to each other (and later Dolores) for support.
• El Encanto A Travez de mis Flores:
  • While Isabela was pressured into being Abuela's "golden child" and marrying a man she doesn't love in canon, here they add on the self-imposed pressures of trying to be the "perfect wife" for Mirabel.
  • While Mirabel doesn't have the pressures of being the only Un-Sorcerer in the Madrigal Family in this version, Alma is much more open about her contempt towards her due to not being her granddaughter, mixed with having a wife who acts aloof because she doesn't want to burden her with her own aforementioned perfectionist-angst.
• Guiding Light (AuroraRose2081):
  • This version of Mirabel wound up separated from her family for years and lived in an Orphanage of Fear for ten years, living in squalor under an abusive Evil Orphanage Lady. She will sometimes suffer from panic attacks based off of traumatic experiences and has blocked off how exactly she was separated from her family. Also, she didn't have glasses, so she had to learn how to live with extremely bad eyesight.
  • On top of all of the underlying issues being a Madrigal brought them, the entire family had to live with not knowing what became of Mirabel (assuming that the Black Sheep of the family had kidnapped her), each of them feeling on some level for her disappearance. When she returns, over half of them tail her under the paranoid belief that she could disappear again.
• Returning Home: When Mirabel runs away, her mother Julieta suffers from a perpetual malaise. Add onto the fact that Alma enforces an Un-person policy due to how distressing the topic was, she is forced to sit there and watch as everyone has to pretend that her younger daughter never existed while her two remaining daughters slowly wear out from their constant work and the unfair expectations they're under. When Alma gets it in her head that Mirabel is still to blame for their miracle dying, Juliet snaps and calls her out on anything, essentially disowning her own mother after casita collapses.
• Having been separated from their youngest daughter with no idea where she went, Julieta and Agustín from Two butterflies: gone with the wind. are much more dower in this version. It's especially worse for Agustín because he has no idea what's going on (Julieta having talked it over with Bruno before he left), nearly having a meltdown when Mirabel refers to Bruno as her "papa".
• While Isabela isn't free of angst in the movie, she has it even worse in How Far Do These Roots Go Down? as she got Bruno's gift, turning her into the Black Sheep of both the family and the town.
• With Alma being more open for her contempt towards her, Mirabel in A little dinner scandal has it worse, constantly being reminded and put down for not having a gift. It had gotten to the point where she plans on moving out when she turns sixteen, moving in with the local seamstress who had offered her an apprenticeship.
• Extended Family is Still Family starts out with Mirabel willfully missing Isabela and Mariano's engagement dinner because Alma told her too, Mirabel finally giving up on trying to be a proactive contribution to the family and "taking the hint."

Fallout

• Better to Reign in Heaven:
  • In the original "Tranquility Lane" mission of Fallout 3, most of the residents have lost access to their memories thanks to Braun's control over the simulation, so all of their angst comes from the torture. Even Dithers, who can remember everything, restricts herself to agonizing over the horrors that Braun has inflicted on them. By contrast, this story takes the time to focus on the residents in a point in time before the brainwashing took place, during which all of them are grieving for various losses in the wake of the Great War; in particular, Dithers is mourning for her girlfriend.
  • In canon, the Lone Wanderer generally isn't given a lot of dialog choices that can convey angst over everything that's happened to them. In the fanfic, Matthias - AKA Mattie - is doubt-ridden, homesick, conflicted over all the morally ambiguous things he's had to do in order to survive, and is gripped by imposter syndrome whenever he hears Three Dog calling him a hero.

The Familiar of Zero

• In story Enslaved the usually cheerful Derflinger is often more melancholic than in canon because he forced himself to remember his entire history, knowing it'd be important in the future. This also means he remembers being used by Brimir's familiar Sasha to kill the man who then killed herself with Derflinger as well. Even worse, so far as Derf is concerned the two were his parents, making him a parricide.

Fate Series

• Fate/Gamers Only: Compared to Gudako, Rikku has many more self-esteem issues resulting from her darker personality traits, such as wondering if killing people to save others is really the right thing or not or taking issue with not being able to fight on the front lines like her Servants.
• Something Lost Something Found:
  • Morgan in Fate/Grand Order rarely dwells on her past in the Fae Kingdom, with it not coming up very much in her My Room Lines or in her appearances past Lostbelt 6. Morgan in the fic is shown to be haunted by the memories of losing all her close friends and allies, to the point of being kept up at night regularly unless she blows off steam in the simulator beforehand.
  • Ritsuka himself is hinted quite heavily at being far more haunted by his past actions than he seems to be in the game, what with having Kiara as a regular therapist and Ivan The Terrible mentioning that finding him wandering the halls or breaking down in the cafeteria at night is a semi-regular occurrence.

Friday Night Funkin'

• In Prologue, it's revealed that Boyfriend/Keith's mother has been hospitalized for an unknown condition. It's also shown that he feels guilty about having fun while his mother is stuck in a hospital bed.

Futurama

• Love Can Surprise You At Any Time In Your Life begins during the second movie and plays several plot elements more seriously than canon, mostly by referencing the events of the previous movie (which ends on a fairly angsty note in canon). While canon mostly plays Leela's implied jealousy of Colleen and hesitancy towards Yivo for laughs, the fic writes her as grieving Lars and still struggling with her feelings towards Fry. It also complicates things further with the main deviating factor that Leela is pregnant with Lars' child, who is thus genetically Fry's child, giving her even more reason to be concerned about Fry and Yivo.

Godzilla

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): Once Godzilla vs. Kong came out, this fic's version of Mark Russell (Madison’s and Andrew’s father and husband of Emma) ended up being more angsty post-Godzilla: King of the Monsters movie than his MonsterVerse canon counterpart. On top of the grief of brutally losing half his family one-by-one to Titan attacks over five years, and having missed out on a big chunk of his now-Shell-Shocked Veteran daughter's childhood because of his own mistakes; Mark in Abraxas has also developed Survivor Guilt post-King of the Monsters, and he knows that a lot of people in Monarch are bitter that he lived while Vivienne Graham (seemingly) died when she went back to save his life and got spotted by Ghidorah in Antarctica, neither of which are angst that the Godzilla vs. Kong portrayal of Mark has suffered. On the plus side, it's hinted that this is one of the major factors — alongside a painful "Reason You Suck" Speech from Mariko, being proven wrong about the Titans being universally nothing but trouble, and a stern pep-talk from a revived Vivienne herself — that do motivate Mark to improve himself as a parent and a person by the fic's end; and he eventually becomes an all-round nicer and more balanced person and father than his movie counterpart ever did.
  • In the Recursive Fanfiction "Shi" Alternate Universe original notes, Vivienne Graham and a lot of her loved ones have it much rougher than in either MonsterVerse canon or the Abraxas fic's canon.
    • Vivienne Graham, instead of getting fused to San after they've been cut off from Ghidorah and getting held captive by eco-terrorists in an underground chamber for months; gets transformed into Ghidorah's new, fourth head: she's constantly tortured by Ichi and Ni while having no time nor room to process her trauma, forced to watch as Ghidorah's other heads relentlessly slaughter all traces of humanity around them. Vivienne's torment gets so bad that she snaps, multiple times over, and ends up indulging in the slaughter with Ghidorah's other heads herself just to ease the constant pain a little. Unlike the Vivienne of Abraxas, this Vivienne even after getting severed from Ghidorah is all alone without a Face San as her brother, and she has the murders of thousands of innocent civilians (instead of merely asshole victims) on her conscience — and she hasn't even found out that Serizawa is dead yet (which her Abraxas canon counterpart did not take well at all at first).
    • Vivienne's former Monarch colleagues and friends are appropriately a lot more distressed and bewildered in the recursive AU to learn that Vivienne has been brought back assimilated and mutated into Ghidorah's fourth head, and when they've only had a few days to even begin processing her seeming death by Ghidorah's jaws in Antarctica while juggling desperate efforts to save the world from certain extinction by Ghidorah as well. Worst of all, instead of merely bursting into tears at the realization Vivienne is alive as a half-Ghidorah Titan, Dr. Ling has a complete mental breakdown when she's one of the first to realize that Vivienne has been turned into Ghidorah's newest head in this AU. Most painfully of all, as a result of the reveal, Serizawa is a lot more hesitant to detonate the nuke that will revive Godzilla, because he knows Godzilla will most likely kill Vivienne with the rest of Ghidorah; and when Serizawa does go through with it anyway, his last words, instead of a touching farewell to Godzilla as in the movie, are a broken plea for Vivienne to forgive him for signing her death warrant.

Gravity Falls

• Since Mabel suffered from Bill's possession instead of Dipper in Reunion Falls, it left some underlying trauma for her.

Hellaverse

• Octavia’s misery and loneliness from her parents’ dysfunctional marriage was hard, but it's nothing compared to what happened to her in Owl's Hell That Ends Well. Kidnapped as a child by a mad imp, she was kept naked in a cage, regularly abused, mistreated and humiliated, all while she was being gaslit into believing her parents had allowed her kidnapping and had viewed her as nothing but a burden. This continued for three months before Octavia finally escaped and was rescued by Blitzo. And while Blitzo has done a good job of making her feel loved and safe despite their low income, Octavia remains traumatized and haunted by these memories well into her teens, never forgiving Stolas for supposedly abandoning her.

Henry Stickmin Series

• Begrudging Assistance Requests: Naturally because it is a Dark Fic of a series known for a nigh complete comedy. All of the chapters have a somber tone and the characters are shown to be internally conflicted all the time.

High School D×D

• The Lone Dragon Emperor:
  • Issei loses his parents at the age of six to a devil attack in Kuoh. His first love interest is killed by members of Genesis in Chapter 10. Instead of the Issei from canon, this Issei is cold, jaded and a snarker who could rival Koneko.
  • Raynare is reduced to a terrifed, broken, crying wreck upon having her wings stripped and then abandoned by her allies. While Issei does take her in on Asia's request, he makes it very clear that he doesn't even trust her, leaving her with thoughts that she is no more than a slave to Issei, only kept alive by Asia's kindness.

How to Train Your Dragon

• In How to Train Your Dragon, Hiccup usually responded to his village's scorn with a clever quip and went on with his day. In What Lies Beneath, continued psychological abuse from the villagers and his father turned him into the quiet, cynical and anti-social young man he is today.

InuYasha

• Bonds Through Time: The Adventures of Inuyasha and Kagome: Inuyasha is more prone to angst and crying than his canon counterpart, especially regarding his childhood and relationship with Kikyo.

K-On!

• In Broken Chords Can Sting A Little, Yui is revealed to be insecure over her over-dependence on her friends and family. Things get worse for her when she ends up in a railway accident, losing her arm in the process, turning the once bubbly and cheerful young girl into an irritable, depressed, and outright suicidal wreck.

Land of Oz

• Ozma Sees Herself is about Ozma, who previously liked being a boy, trying to adapt to her new role as queen. In the original Oz canon, Ozma takes to the change just fine. In the story, Ozma tries her best to avoid her queenly duties, acts as a Tomboy Princess, and doesn't even recognize her own reflection anymore. Ozma runs away and it takes the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger's persuasion (along with Ozma gaining a near-narcissistic appreciation for her own beauty) to make her go back home.

The Loud House

• It's (Not) Your Fault: Sam gets this due to her Dark and Troubled Past involving her family, something that is never implied in the show.
• Reversal of Fortune (TLH): In The Loud House itself, Lincoln was more annoyed than showing general outrage, and it was heavily implied through Mr. Grouse that few if any would have taken the events of No Such Luck seriously. Here Lincoln breaks down in tears, and the Sweetwaters are so horrified by what they hear that they plot revenge.
• Syngenesophobia: Granted, anyone would fear and resent their family if the said family has beaten them badly within an inch of their lives. But even before Lincoln's beating, his relationship with his sisters was already strained from their bullying and using him. While in the show, Lincoln shows only exasperations and annoyance.
• Tomboy Blues: Stella suffers from a lot of Tomboy Angst in this fic, whereas she never did in the show.
• What is a Person Worth?: While in the show, Lincoln was more annoyed than showing general outrage. Here Lincoln explodes in rage towards his family and questions if his family ever loved him in the first place. Forcing him in the suit for several days didn't help either.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

• letmetellyouaboutmyfeels' MCU Rewrites:
  • Age of Ultron: Redux adds more detail as to what happened to Wanda and Pietro Maximoff after they were left orphans as children when a missile made by Stark Industries hit their home. This includes: being beaten and kicked out of foster homes; being accused of stealing; and being bullied because they were Romanian or Jewish or both. Wanda even goes on a rant about how horrible her and Pietro's lives were because of what happened.
  • New Avengers does this to Pietro's death. Wanda nearly killing her brother's murderer adds tension to the Sokovia Accords and the general public is feared by what Wanda's capable of. The other Avengers are shown to be devastated by Quicksilver being killed, especially Sam and Rhodey, who think that they practically sent Pietro to die and deeply regret it.

Miraculous Ladybug

• Cheshire (Miraculous Ladybug): In canon, Marinette was Loved by All her classmates, had a stable family life and a large circle of friends, despite her issues with anxiety and Chloe's bullying. Here, Chloe masterminded a campaign to make Marinette miserable, ranging from bribing or threatening anyone who wanted to be her friend, to creating her own circle of bullies to harass her, to push such an amount of catering work on her parents to keep them away. As Cheshire, Marinette is routinely hounded by all miraculous users (Master Fu's heroes because of the Black Cat's bad legacy and Hawkmoth for his own agenda). This results in a sweet and selfless girl with massive self-esteem issues.

Monsters vs. Aliens

• God Help the Outcasts
  • Susan gets this the hardest, as the fic covers the month between her transformation and the monsters fighting the robot probe. She struggles with her new size and being imprisoned, as well as being isolated from her family and friends. She even gets shot at due to a misunderstanding, leading to her realizing that most people don't even view her as human anymore.
  • Dr. Cockroach, despite having long come to terms with his transformation, has moments of this, such as when he reflects on the life he left behind and his crush on Susan.
  • Link gets this as well, as he admits that he's alone in the world. On top of that, he clearly feels guilty about how he killed numerous soldiers that tried to capture him during his rampage at Coco Beach.

My Hero Academia

• #14: After causing Izuku to commit suicide, Bakugou is rendered mute from the guilt, and begins writting him letters as part of therapy.
• Crimson and Emerald: Hawks is shown to be psychologically scarred by his treatment by the Heroics Commission especially when it comes to his lack of choice with his career.
• Emerald Furnace - Path Of Storms:
  • Having a powerful Quirk that society views as villainous has not done any favors for Izuku's mental health.
  • Slice is friendless due to her Quirk, and her lack of a decent education means that she cannot get any high-paying jobs.
• Emerald Furnace - Path of Waves: Having a powerful Quirk that society views as villainous has not done any favors for Izuku's mental health.
• King: While Shouto already had a Dark and Troubled Past, it gets expanded upon courtesy of Fujimori Hiroji, who was hired by U.A. to ensure that Endeavor's treatment of his family wasn't exposed after the incident that gave Shouto his scar. To this end, Fujimori isolated the five-year-old Shouto, grilling him about the incident for hours on end and Gaslighting him until he gave a version of events that satisfied him. This led to Shouto's twisted-around testimony being used to ensure his mother was blamed for everything while Endeavor got away clean, with full custody of his children.
• Live a Hero:
  • Izuku was abandoned by his parents and raised by the League of Villains to be a murderous Hero Killer. He was beaten, malnourished, and forced to watch his sister get gruesomely murdered right in front of him and having a Quirk forced on him immediately after. He wouldn't have any brightness in his life until he was saved by Ingenium and adopted by Inko. Even then, all the torture he went through has reduced him to an emotionally stunted wreck who's completely unable to smile.
  • Kirishima suffers from neurosis, has to deal with the circumstances of his adoption, as well as the pressures of being All Might's successor.
• In Locked In Digital, being sealed in a virtual program for nearly a year to play nine horror games in a row while dying repeatedly doesn't give Izuku the best mental health when he finally comes back.
• Izuku receives a major one in Viridian: The Green Guide - whilst he had confidence issues in canon, here he blatantly thinks of himself as complete garbage both as a person and a son, with the only thing keeping him from committing suicide being that it would negatively affect Bakugou's chances of becoming a Hero.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• In the Aftermath of the Games Universe, Starlight Glimmer's backstory (as shown in "The Cutie Remark") is expanded by the author to make her more sympathetic. Instead of simply losing her Only Friend when he got his Cutie Mark before her, this version of Starlight is an orphan who grew up in extremely neglectful conditions, and that friend was literally the only one who cared about her.
• Friendship is Witchcraft: Pinkie's parents are dead and she has deep issues due to growing up in an orphanage where she was looked down upon for her ethnicity and Earth pony background, Applejack and Rarity are Shell Shocked Veterans, Fluttershy had a Hilariously Abusive Childhood, Spike is all-around hated by everypony, etc. They don't tend to actively angst too much due to the comedic nature of the series.

Naruto

• The Echo Remains, But The Song Is Not The Same:
  • Naruto is hit much harder by Mizuki revealing his status as the Nine-Tailed Fox's jinchuuriki, as he struggles with the notion that he is actually monstrous. He also leans harder into acting like a Stepford Smiler as he sees how Shikamaru is punished for trying to protect him from the open, flagrant abuse he receives from most of Konoha's residents.
  • Hinata lost her status as the Hyuuga clan's heiress shortly before graduating from the Academy, and lives in fear of her father completing the process by having the Caged Bird seal tattooed onto her forehead and shunting her off into the Branch house. She blames herself for enemies who covet her family's Byakugan targeting her teammates, and grapples with guilt over how she avoids going home as much as possible, knowing that leaves her little sister Hanabi to deal with their clan's cruelties all by herself.
  • Asuma swiftly realizes that Hinata was assigned to his team as a political power play, straining his already awkward relationship with his father — he didn't want to become a jounin instructor, but has to stick with Team Eight in order to offer Hinata some protection from her abusive clan.
  • Kiba lives in fear of his mother, who's become an Abusive Parent towards him. This is so severe that Kiba has been secretly stockpiling supplies in his room in case he ever needs to become The Runaway.
  • Ino's mother passed away when she was younger, and she's not especially fond of her stepmother, seeing her as an unwanted replacement.
• The Moon Cries in Reverse has this happen to Naruto, Sakura and especially Shikamaru after they're assigned to Anko after graduating from the Academy. Their new jounin instructor swiftly decides that they're all potentially dangerous, since Shikamaru's intelligence reminds her far too much of Orochimaru. Ibiki and Hiruzen agree, so the trio is put through Training from Hell, effectively held hostage by T&I and forced to learn torture and interrogation techniques. It takes nearly half a year before anyone else who actually gives a damn about Team Ten to learn what they've been going through.
• Team 8 is am Alternate Universe fic with an altered history that makes Naruto and Hinata's life struggles significantly worse. The villagers are even more antagonistic to Naruto and there is even hinted to be a conspiracy against him, and Hinata's parental abuse is far worse. Consequently, both of them start out much more cynical and insecure than in canon. At separate points, they both even have suicidal thoughts.
• your move, instigator (draw your weapon and hold your tongue):
  • Zig-Zagged with the members of Team 14: Sakura, Kiba and Tenten. While the three have been press-ganged into service as Child Soldiers, they retain a surprising amount of youthful innocence mixed with Troubling Unchildlike Behavior. All three have been Conditioned to Accept Horror to some extent, and while they recognize the unfairness of their circumstances, this has also been all they really know of the world, so they don't really realize that their lives could be better... at first. And even when they do, they don't fall far into despair, focusing instead on continuing to survive.
  • Sakura, for instance, is introduced carrying the fallen Neji's eyes back to safety. While this gives her an obsession with eyes, doodling several in the margins of whatever paper she has handy with the optic nerves still attached, she doesn't act particularly haunted by eyes, treating a nightmare she has about all the balloons at Ino's birthday party being replaced with eyes as nothing more than a surreal dream.
  • Played straighter by the adults; the Third Shinobi War has worn them all down, with the Sandaime allowing Danzo to get away with churning out a Propaganda Machine and turning Kushina into a Person of Mass Destruction, leading to other villages crossing the Godzilla Threshold with their own jinchuuriki. Unlike the kids, the adults remember what life was like before the war, and are not happy with the direction Konoha has taken.

OMORI

• Time to Disinfect: While the game implies that canon Mari wasn't quite as well-adjusted as she appeared^note  via details such as her worsening perfectionism and possibly suffering from insomnia, she was generally remembered as a cheerful and easygoing person. This fic meanwhile not only brings her issues to the forefront, but compounds them with an emotionally abusive upbringing that leaves her with repressed neurotic tendencies and self-loathing. She eventually has a full-blown mental breakdown that drives her to Self-Harm.

One Piece

• Played With in This Bites! with Gecko Moria's backstory: whilst the fact he had been the Sole Survivor of his crew after they were brutally slaughtered by Kaido is part of the canon, the anime and manga actually don't focus on this facet of Moria's history very much, and the Straw Hats barely learn anything about it. In this fic, far greater emphasis is placed on how this has screwed Moria up and left him a twisted shadow of his former self, with little left to him but pain and hate. It even results in him undergoing a Villainous BSoD... followed by a Traumatic Superpower Awakening.

The Owl House

• A Blight on Bonesborough: Luz has a lot more self-doubt than she does in canon. Having inherited Eda's curse, she blames herself for Eda and Camila spitting up, she sees herself as a monster and she's scared that Willow and Gus will stop being friends with her if they learn the truth, even (initially) thinking she's not their best friend until Amity says otherwise.
• Hail To The Queen:
  • Luz was raised by Belos, who was an Abusive Parent to her. She's prone to having nightmares and even suffers from similar debilitations that Belos did, needing potions to maintain herself.
  • Nothing is known about Odalia's past, but here, she's stated to have wanted to run away from her family as a child out of fear, hinting that her parents were abusive to her.
• What Big Claws (To Protect You With, My Dear)
  • Luz already had trouble fitting in among her human peers in canon, but before she went to the Boiling Isles in this fic, she struggled with the additional schoolwork that came with being a gifted child in high school and never told her mother about how unhappy she was. Being sent to Camp Reality Check was a lot more upsetting for her than it was in canon.
  • Both Lilith and Raine have had troubled relationships with Eda, and the misconception that Luz is her child has only added to their guilt over what happened.

Persona 5

• Downplayed with Sumire in Royalty-free Rerun. While her depression was mentioned in canon, it's far more prominent here due to her being the main character.

Pokémon

• As Fate Would Have It does this to both Nate and Yancy.
  • Nate from the 2nd chapter onward starts out as a Broken Ace who was humiliated following a huge loss against Red during the PWT Champions Tournament, and has, up until the point he met Yancy in person, refrained from Pokemon battling altogether. Later in the story, he also exhibits signs of PTSD, particularly when facing against the Shadow Triad and Kyurem again.
  • Yancy here begins falling for Nate the more they spend time together much like in the original games, but she initially rejects him and ends up crying and running away from him during his Love Confession for her. In Chapter 34, it's revealed that this was due to having been an arranged marriage with Curtis, which she definitely wasn't happy with given her actions. Thankfully, her father manages to call the whole thing off.
• Guys Being Dudes: Along with several characters gaining Emo tendencies, Arlo and Candela's previous relationship and its weight on them both is given more elaboration than the source material.
• Happens quite a lot in Pokémon Reset Bloodlines.
  • Misty's backstory is considerably sadder than it was in the anime. She was the least favorite child, is confirmed to be an orphan, got kicked out by her sisters as soon as they were able to do so, and she has to deal with anti-bloodliner prejudice. Really, it's no wonder she's falling for Ash, he was the best thing to happen to her in years.
  • While Brock's not as badly off as Misty, both of his parents are dead.
  • Not much is known about Red yet, but if his dreams are any indication, his past is full of anguish, moreso than his counterpart in either the games or Pokémon Adventures.
  • As detailed in a side story to Reset, Johanna also had a rougher life than her canon counterpart.

Psychonauts

• Razputin Vodello AU:
  • This version of Razputin was separated from his family at age five, suffering from retrograde-amnesia, leaving him unaware of his origins except for his first name. While he doesn't remember it, him surviving falling off a cliff had left him with basophobia, or a fear of falling, giving him panic attacks whenever its triggered. Later chapters reveal that his experiences had left his obsessions with learning the truth of who he is to manifest as a Maligula-esq Superpowered Evil Side named Razgado, which manifests when he finds the Aquatos.
  • In-turn, the rest of the Aquato Family believe that one of their children had died, falling off a cliff and drowned in a river, their belief in the Hand of Galochio preventing them of finding them. Dion feels immeasurable guilt for it since he was the one trying to watch out for him. By the time they discover that he's alive and well, they have to accept that they can't have him back because if they took it to court, the courts would favor Milla both because of the living conditions she provides and the circumstances of their separation.

Rick and Morty

• Rest In Piss: In episode "Analyze Piss", Piss Master's Daughter was fooled by Rick into thinking that he was her father and that he was ok. Rick took Piss's Master's identity and repaired his reputation, eventually setting up a battle where it appears that Piss's Master heroically sacrificed his life to save lives. Rick planned work, and it was shown that Piss Master's Daughter was proud of him, saying that my dad when it appeared that he sacrificed himself on tv. In this story, Piss Master's Daughter knows right from the start that someone is impersonating her father and puts two and two together and realize that her father killed himself. Piss's Master's Daughter suffers from the guilt of not comforting her father when he is humiliated by the human on the internet. Piss's Master's Daughter does not have any closure about her father's death because she does not have a note or know where his body is. Finally, Piss Master's Daughter is heartbroken that the man pretended to be her father doing hero work to repair his reputation, feeling that people love a fake version of her father.

RWBY

• Can One Change Fix All of RWBY?:
  • Team RWBY endures considerably more pain and justified angst than their canon selves do from the Fall of Beacon onwards. Instead of briefly becoming fugitives in the Kingdom of Atlas due to their own invokedunintentionally unsympathetic antagonism and Ironwood's sanity slippage, they're branded as wanted fugitives across the entirety of Remnant just after the Fall of Beacon, and they look set to remain so for a much longer length of time. They're also forced to work with very morally-dubious people and take very morally-dubious actions themselves which "fuck people over" in order to save the world, causing them a lot of discomfort and guilt.
    • Ruby Rose-specific extra angst that she didn't go through in canon includes: her accidentally killing Pyrrha herself, finding out that someone she greatly looked up to is actually a monster who killed her mother and who was trying to engineer Ruby's death every step of the way, being hunted and attacked by people she considers her friends due to the villains' machinations painting her as a treasonous murderer and fugitive, and being under the pressure of knowing that the fate of the world hinges on her due to her Silver Eyes' necessity to retrieving the Relics. Unlike her canon self, Ruby is stated to be horrified by watching everyone both hero and villain rob Penny of her autonomy and free will when she's infected by Watts' virus.
    • Yang Xiao-Long, on top of losing her arm, in this iteration ends up being forced to work with people who are indirectly accountable for her trauma, to her discomfort.
  • Team JNR go through the loss of one of their own, Pyrrha Nikos, like in canon, but in this iteration, they're led to believe that their friend on their sister team, Ruby, murdered her and betrayed the kingdoms alongside the rest of Team RWBY.
• In Your Wildest Dreams: In canon, Weiss says that she saw friends and acquaintances of her family disappear due to the White Fang murdering them when she's recounting her trauma to Blake. Here, it's revealed that one such victim of the White Fang was her own uncle, and that she and her siblings once narrowly avoided being caught in a White Fang attack when they were all still children.
• Ruby and Nora has more death and destruction than in canon, even before the Fall of Beacon.
• Every character in RWBY: Scars.

Sonic the Hedgehog

• In the Sonic Unleashed rewrite The Heart Of A Monster, Sonic is much more traumatized by his werehog form than in the original game. Being a werehog just feels wrong to him.
• Tales of Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sticks the Badger, thanks to her actual backstory being explored here. She grew up under the thumb of her father Jebediah Badger, a Corrupt Corporate Executive who groomed her into taking over his empire. Having only seen the bad side of Mobius' citizens through him, eventually Sticks ran away, shedding her birth name and becoming the Wild Child she is.
  • Sonic’s adventures get to him in this story along with having the world on his shoulders and his failure to save Kat and her family on the Death Egg. This eventually leads him to start taking therapy.

Star Wars

• The Desert Storm: Unlike his canon counterpart, this fic's version of Obi-Wan Kenobi is extremely traumatized by his experiences in Clone Wars and the ensuing Jedi Purge. His struggle to overcome his PTSD is a major recurring element of the series.
• From Precipice, Captain Rex is hit with this. In canon, he was able to get his inhibitor chip removed before he had the chance to kill any Jedi. In this fic, he led the attack on the Jedi Temple and killed dozens of Jedi and younglings. The weight of what he did hits him hard, as he spends the next few years moving from place to place and suffering from frequent PTSD induced nightmares about how he murdered the men and women he fought alongside as well as several innocent children.

Super Mario Bros.

• In Super Mario Sunshine after his defeat at the hands of Mario, Bowser was about to tell his son, Bowser Jr. the truth about Princess Peach, only for Junior to beat him to it, revealing he knew the truth all along. He didn't explain how he knew the lie or why he just went with it, nor did he seem too bothered by it or asked why he lied in the first place. The novelization, Super Mario Sunshine: A Sprite of Light has Junior find out the truth through eavesdropping on Ludwig, Wendy, and Iggy talking about it, and he is devastated upon finding out and refused to believe it at first. From that point onwards, Junior went through a downward spiral questioning his loyalty to his father and found it hard to look at Princess Peach when he sent her to Bowser. It culminated in him taking his rage out on Delfino Plaza by having it get devastatingly flooded by boiling hot water from the volcano, endangering many innocent lives. After a DNA test directly confirmed that Peach wasn't his mother after all, Junior furiously lashed out at Bowser for his lie and quickly disowned him soon after. Two weeks later after their community service sentence was up, Bowser expressed his remorse for what he had done and revealed that Bowser Jr. never had a mother at all. It turned out that he was just the result of a long line of koopas cloning themselves using magic instead of finding a heir. Bowser was only trying to make his son have a mother figure in his life. The two then reconcile and promise to fight Mario again one day.

Sword Art Online

• Sword Art Online Abridged gets into this despite being a primarily comedic series:
  • The fate of Sachi and her guild did serve as a Downer Ending for one episode of Sword Art Online, but as it was originally a side-story in the Light Novel it didn't have a lot of effect on the rest of the storyline. In the abridged series, it serves as My Greatest Failure for Kirito, gives him a case of PTSD that takes him many episodes to bring under some semblance of control, and is central to his Character Development from Heroic Comedic Sociopath to The Snark Knight.
  • Unlike in canon, Kirito and Silica aren't able to revive her pet Pina in time, driving her to a screaming rampage.
  • The blacksmith Lisbeth is given a tragic past in which her eagerness to get some rare materials led to the death of her guild, leading her to become a socially-awkward reclusive. Which ends up making similar to Kirito.
  • In canon, the Kirigaya siblings drifted apart somewhat after Kazuto dropped out of kendo, and then discovered that he was actually adopted by his aunt after his birth parents died, but he and Suguha still cared about each other. In the Abridged Series, the "Not Blood Siblings" angle is Adapted Out while the rest is emphasized for drama: Kazuto dropping out of kendo (for what is implied to be health reasons) to study computers destroyed his close relationship with Suguha, who suffered through their sexist grandfather's Training from Hell in a vain effort to entice her brother back into the sport. This turned Suguha into a Little Sister Bully who constantly belittles his failings and interest in "stupid nerd shit," while Kazuto despises her as a Jerk Jock who seemingly exists solely to make him miserable.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)

• The Chronicles of Karai Getting Her Shit Together:
  • Karai is a repeat victim of sexual abuse by the Shredder. While she says that he only does it to punish her for failure, it is implied that he does it in a twisted, misplaced affection for her and her mother Tang Shen. It is also explicitly stated that she was trained to kill at a very early age, has done so before she hit her teens and was forced to allow Shredder to rape an underaged prostitute as a "test of loyalty". While she usually hides all of this under snark and jokes, she is clearly not as maladjusted as she says.
  • In his comatose-state, his brothers discover that Leo engages in self-harm, using a knife he keeps hidden to cut his arms and then hides the wounds in his hand-wraps. Raphael even refers to them as battle-scars because "you would have to be battling something to do that." It is implied that his routine self-destructive behavior is rooted in feeling that he is inadequate in Splinter's expectations of him.
  • Raphael has taken up drinking while taking the initiative in taking care of his brothers.
  • While Mikey is the only turtle with no serious issues of his own, watching his brothers deal with various traumatic things has left him with recurring nightmares of horrible things happening to them.
    • In the show, Mikey's gluttony is often Played for Laughs. Here it is a form of Post-Stress Overeating, a quirk he may or may not have inherited from Splinter.
  • In-canon, there is only mention of Casey having a dad and a little sister, both of whom he cares so much for that he takes of vigilantism to protect them. Here, Casey's dad was a cop that committed suicide and his mom routinely physically abuses him.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture by the Foot Clan had rendered Donatello functionally blind with a broken-tail and traumatized cloaca.
• Heroes in the Shadows:
  • While the Shredder's motivation in the parent series was based on a wounded ego and envy over Yoshi's marriage to Tang Shen, all of this culminating in him blaming Yoshi for Tang Shen's death, here his Freudian Excuse is a little more reasonable, thinking Yoshi killed his son in revenge for killing Hamato Yuuta, unaware that he had raised him as a member of his own family.
  • Likewise, Raphael holds fears that he is just like his biological father, even willing to turn himself in when he finds out that Shredder's vendetta is over him.
• Underneath the Sakura Tree: Leonardo is portrayed as the least sociable of his brothers, having the fewest friends among them and even partakes in Self-Harm via cutting when the stress of leadership starts weighing on him.

Thomas & Friends

• In Thomas Abridged, Edward is a Shell-Shocked Veteran of the Second World War, whose old wartime friends were tortured to death by Germans.

Total Drama

• A TDA Love Triangle with Betty, Cody, and Gwenny: Bridgette. In canon, after Geoff realized he was becoming a jerk, he apologized to Bridgette and they got back together. In this story Geoff is even worse off-camera, and, while trying to be understanding, Bridgette was at wit end. When she tried to talk to him, Geoff got angry and, after hours of yelling at her calling her a harlot and whore, he broke up with her, leaving her heartbroken. And the producer heard about the fight and reminded Bridgette of the terms of her contract. If she acts any differently towards Geoff during the aftermaths, they can sue her mother. So she's pretty much trapped in an abusive relationship.
• Despair Island: Justified, in the canon show, while the teenage contestants had to compete in dangerous challenges when they lost, they just got voted off and lost their chance at the prize money. Here all the teenagers were kidnaped and forced to compete in a nightmarish new reality show, where if they are voted off, they are killed, and the winner is the only one that gets to live. The contestants are traumas that they have to both fight for their lives and send others to their death so they can live.
  • Bridgette especially has it bad in this story. According to her bio, Bridgette was raised by a single mother who she views as her best friend; she was also very popular at her school, on the honor roll at her school, and did numerous volunteers work around her town and all over the world. While Bridgette's social life is unknown in this story, here, her parents were killed in a car accident not too long before the show. And Bridgette is not only dealing with her depression from losing her parents, but she is also forced to compete in a nightmarish new reality show, where if they are voted off, they are killed, and the winner is the only one that gets to live. Bridgette enters the game already broken and terrified and is sad that even if she does win, she does not have her family waiting for her when she comes home.
• Monster Chronicles: Cody, Duncan, and Tyler all have dark backstories in this story. Cody was bullied heavily during middle school, but then he befriended Cedric and let him use his body, not knowing he was a Serial Killer and using his body to commit murders. Duncan went to juvie with Cedric and was nearly killed by him. Tyler's mother and unborn sister were murdered by Cedric when he was a child.
• Predator and Prey: Bridgette's guilt over allowing herself to be seduced by Alejandro is worsened in this story by the fact that Alejandro raped her, horrifically traumatizing her and causing her to develop Stockholm Syndrome. This also leads to her and Geoff breaking up between her elimination and the first Aftermath, causing her to become extremely depressed to the point of briefly contemplating suicide.
• Reality Collides: The Ezekiel Chronicles
  • Ezekiel's homeschooled life has a tragic aspect to it as his paternal aunt was killed in a school shooting in America as a result of the perpetrator snapped from being bullied for so long. Due to this lack of security and fear for their only son's life, Ezekiel's parents took it upon themselves to raise and educate him on the farm.
  • The fic's version of the "Phobia Factor" goes into explicit details of why some of the characters have their fears to this day and it overlaps with an In-Universe Cerebus Retcon.
    • Ezekiel has a traumatic fear of being Buried Alive (something he shares with Gwen) due to a game of hide-and-seek with his father turning deadly in the past. At one point when trying to find a good hiding spot, Ezekiel found a hole in the ground and accidentally fell in due it being a rainy day. The hole was so deep and so compact that Ezekiel was left completely immobilized and slowly suffocating to death, and he couldn't scream for his parents' help. Just as he was about to give up upon death's door, his father frantically broke into the hole and pulled him out to safety.
    • Duncan's fear of Celine Dion Standees was the result of accidentally walking into a crime scene at the age of 7, where he was visiting his maternal uncle, who was a detective. While he never saw the real body, the cutout of the Celine Dion Standee drenched in blood falling on top of him was enough of a substitute (though his uncle told him he was lucky to have not seen the actual body).
    • Harold's fear of ninjas stems from being beaten up every 3 months by a Gang of Bullies at his school, where they would dress up as ninjas to mock his interest in martial arts. The worst part was that no matter what he did, they always found a way to beat him up.
    • Gwen's fear of being Buried Alive was due to seeing a horror movie that she was too young for, where a Serial Killer is someone who could be anyone with a happy life and the character killed his own wife by burying her alive.
    • DJ's fear of snakes stems from an event in his childhood where he thought a "vine" was approaching from the top of the tree as he slept from underneath it. Only for the "vine" to turn out to be a snake that was falling to the floor.
    • Tyler's fear of chickens was the result of seeing a headless chicken running towards him as a 10-year-old.
    • Bridgette's fear of being alone in the forest stems from a member of the ONG getting lost in the wilderness and nearly dying from starvation and/or getting attacked by wild animals.
    • Geoff's fear of hail stems from personally witnessing a bad hail storm from the backseat of his uncle's car, and how the hail is capable of demolishing property.
    • Courtney's fear of green jello stems from nearly choking to death when she heard her grandmother passed away when she was 13, and the jello she ate was made from an old family recipe that her grandmother made and loved to eat since she was 5.
• Total Drama: Cody's Redemption: Cody's backstory is pretty horrific and rather intense. First we learn that Cody had been suffering from child neglect and bullying which drove him into depression. Second just nearly gave up on his life and almost committed suicide once by shooting himself in the head by his father's revolver, but dropped it at the last second. He later adopted his optimistic persona to combat the world.
• Total Trauma: Many of the unsettling moments that were brushed aside in canon are expanded upon here, such as Duncan's arrest, Alejandro's mutilation, Mike's disorder, and the general idea that millions of people are watching teenagers undergo traumatic experiences before their sense of self has developed.
• Twinning With a Twist
  • Ella, The Pollyanna in canon, is given a significantly more angsty backstory to the point of cutting herself and suffering a Friendless Background.
  • Inverted with Dave. In this story, Dave was voted off second by his teammates for being a jerk. It's later revealed that he was a jerk because he had a bad day prior to the start of the show, which didn't improve during the two days he spent on the island. Despite that, it's implied that things did improve for him after he arrived at Playa des Losers, and he enjoys the rest of his stay there. It's also shown that Dave is on good terms with the other castmates that were voted off. Compared to what happened in canon, with Dave suffering painful humiliation, being rejected by his love interest, and finally losing his sanity and being abandoned on the island, being voted off early was probably the best for him.
• Unbreakable Red Silken Thread: Cody, Heather, Gwen, and Samey.
  • In canon, Cody was a rich kid that grew up in the suburbs and went to private school. It was implied his parent neglected him when it was mentioned they forgot his birthday. But in this story, he went to private school and was a victim of bullying. More importantly, the implied neglect of his parents is outright stated.
  • In canon, it was implied Heather had a strained relationship with her parents, with them implying they disliked having her around, though Heather mentioned she the closest to her mother. In this story, Heather’s parents, in particular her mother, have cast a long shadow over their daughter that at least partially shows how she became the bratty Queen Bee from Total Drama’s first season.
  • Gwen's life went pretty much down the pooper after the events of Total Drama World Tour. Her relationship with Duncan caused a rift to develop between her and her family, which resulted in her mother kicking her out of her house when she turned 18. This was fueled in part by Gwen trying to avoid her mistake with Trent and ditching a great guy too soon because of a few rough edges. But as a result, she's entered an abusive relationship where she has little to no personal autonomy, at least partially by choice. The relationship has weakened Gwen's more noble features while adding to her preexisting negative ones.
  • In canon, Sammy had suffered implied years of abuse from her sister, but in the show, she was quick to stand up to Amy. In this story, all the abuse mostly destroyed her self-esteem. Though Jasmine seems to be helping her slowly recover from that.

Touhou Project

• Compared to canon, Suikakasen puts Kasen through a lot more misery to the point where she could be considered a Broken Bird. She was abandoned by her mother as a child when official materials make no mention of her parents, she suffers from Loss of Identity resulting from the extra backstory given to her, and she is put through so much emotional pain over the course of the story that she cries onscreen, something she has yet to do in canon.

Transformers: Animated

• Quite a few characters in TFA Kaleidoscope are given this.
  • Wheeljack is exiled alongside Ratchet and the others on the Orion Crew whereas in the original, he was still living on Cybertron.
  • Sari was forced to live on the streets after her father died due to not having any legal documentation to confirm her existence.
  • Optimus is no longer the idealistic young bot he was in canon. Here, he's a much older Shell-Shocked Veteran, and the Great War has caused him quite a bit of trauma.
  • Besides living through the Great War, Ratchet also lived through Cybertron's totalitarian caste-system before the war began, and it's clear that he remembers every horrible moment of it.
  • Zig-zagged with Arcee. On one hand, she doesn't remember the war and isn't forced into serving as the Decepticons' access key to Omega Supreme. On the other hand, it's because she doesn't remember her past that she's part of the exiled Orion Crew and her inability to remember who she was causes her a lot of grief and frustration.

Warriors

• Being a Fix Fic, Warriors Redux fixes one issue with Into the Wild: Rusty runs off without second thought about his housefolk. Redux adds drama by showing that Rusty is attached to his new owners and is confused about leaving them. But, he craves adventure and new smells so it's easy for the kitten to run away to ThunderClan. Rusty guesses that his owners aren't too attached to him yet so they won't mind too much if he disappears one day.

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