Works with their own pages:
General
- There is an entire genre of fanfic called angstfic, which makes the characters wallow in angst — especially if the original fic that the fanfic is based on is a wacky comedy or lighthearted. The usual victims are Pokémon: The Series and any comedy by Rumiko Takahashi. It helps that several characters have canonical tragic pasts, dysfunctional lives and relationships in the present, and bleak futures. If the canon series plays these for laughs, the viewers and fanfic writers may see them in a rather different light.
- Quite a lot of Dark Fics in general run on revealing a work's lighthearted and whimsical elements to actually be fabrications hiding a dark and disturbing truth. One of the most well-known examples is The Rugrats Theory, which established that the babies and toddlers from Rugrats (with the exception of Dil and occasionally Kimi) were never alive (e.g. Tommy was stillborn, Chuckie died with his mother, and the DeVilles had an abortion) and that Angelica simply imagined them to be, which was a rather grim justification for how the babies managed to survive their parents constantly and obliviously neglecting them. Some versions of the theory went further and established the events of All Grown Up! as being drug-induced hallucinations Angelica experienced to try and bring her imaginary friends back and that Dil's bizarre behavior was a result of Angelica conking him on the head and giving him severe brain damage when he was an infant.
- Marooned in Madagascar: In Making The Wrong Choice, Julien abandoning his kingdom in the alternate timelines is given this treatment. In the original movies, it was Hand Waved with next to no fanfare, but with All Hail King Julien fleshing out said kingdom and many of its inhabitants, Julien abandoning them and never coming back is presented in a much less flattering light, with Uncle King Julien taking back the crown in his nephew’s absence, and regardless if he goes to the Central Park Zoo or joins Circus Zaragoza, Julien’s still a callous idiot who abandoned his subjects for inane and selfish reasons and effectively gave up his kingship. At least in the third movie's timeline, he found true love with Sonya, but in The Penguins of Madagascar, he’s reduced to little more than the village idiot at Central Park Zoo, with the penguins, Marlene, and the other animals considering him an obnoxious nuisance and/or tolerating him out of simple pity, and even Maurice lost respect for him due to Julien’s callousness, ending the brotherly relationship they once had.
- Death Note Equestria: L's personality and her relationship with Bon Bon becomes this when it's revealed that Bon Bon is actually a changeling. As Twilight explains, this means that Bon Bon was feeding off of L's emotions for years, essentially hollowing her out into a meat puppet.
- Halloween Unspectacular:
- In the third edition, Jazz is taken in as an apprentice by the magician Madame Athena, to learn magic. This continues all the way through to the fifth edition, where it's revealed that Athena foresaw a coming disaster that could only be averted by sacrificing a person of the Fenton bloodline (due to them being descended from King Arthur), and Jazz is the only candidate due to Danny's blood being tainted by his ghost powers, so Athena's been grooming her for a Heroic Sacrifice since they met.
- In the original Myth Arc, a recurring character only referred to as the Bus Driver is constantly made the Butt-Monkey of the main characters' various shenanigans, complete with a new job every time we see him. In the ninth edition, long after that myth arc wrapped up, it's revealed that this series of misfortunes ruined his life; he was unable to get a new job, his wife left him, and he lost his home, which eventually led him to become the Big Bad of the new arc, so he can get revenge on E350 for putting him through it all.
- Honoka's Bizarre Adventure takes some of the details throughout the Love Live! Franchise and apply a darker take on them.
- In School Idol Diaries, it's revealed that Hanayo Koizumi's mother was an idol herself, before retiring to be with Hanayo's father. The fic shows that the exact event was a Teen Pregnancy between them with Hanayo as their child. Hanayo suffers from Internalized Bastard Angst as she believes her own existence cost her mother's dream. However, when Hanayo does confine these feelings to her mother, she tells her that she shouldn't think that way. While Hanayo was unplanned, both her parents choose to keep her as their most important dream, even more that Mrs. Koizumi's goal of being an idol. This helps reaffirms Hanayo's dream of becoming an idol both for herself and her mother.
- In the anime, Rin Hoshizora is shown to have Tomboy Angst with one episode doubting her ability to be the center for a wedding-themed performance. The crossover amplifies these issues by revealing that Rin is a trans girl. Her doubts about her femininity are linked to her belief that she isn't a real girl and a potential threat to µ's reputation.
- In the Jackie Chan Adventures and W.I.T.C.H. crossover fanfic Kage, a number of events from the W.I.T.C.H. cartoon are made Darker and Edgier, like the Battle of Sonder Hill, which is explained to have been a massive massacre.
- No Chance for Fate is this for two series at the same time. While in canon Sailor Moon at least tried to play its story serious despite comedy, Ranma ½ was simple sociopathic comedy. Taking away this coat of comedy (without actually removing humor) reveals how truly fear-inspiring parts of both canons are. On the Sailor Moon side, what was only implied in canon is now shown in its horrific glory. On the Ranma side, absurd canon plots are taken to their logical - and thus horrifying - conclusion. Shown dramatically with Happosai and Konatsu's backstory.
- Tails Gets Trolled: "I'm so mad. I'm gonna have sex with my girlfriend so I won't be so mad." goes from one of Sonic's funniest lines to one of his most tragic, as the consequences of his actions are later revealed. Amy was a victim of chronic rape by Eggman, so when Sonic spends his first time with her out of frustration instead of love, she's not at all happy and breaks up with him over it.
- The Stalking Zuko Series includes all canon events from the last few episodes of The Last Airbender, but often reinterprets them, resulting in this trope.
- At the end of "The Ember Island Players" in canon, the Gaang complains about how bad a play "The Boy In The Iceberg" was. In the fic, it's a way of getting their minds off the traumatic ending, in which all the heroes are killed and the Fire Nation conquers the world, making it a Downer Ending to the heroes.
- At the end of Zuko's Agni Kai with Azula, he's significantly closer to death than he was in canon, resulting in Katara tearfully pleading for him not to die and confessing her love to him, even going so far as to use bloodbending to save him. Zuko's pity for his mentally broken sister is shown to at least partly because he's disoriented and confused as a result of being hit by lightning.
- A minor example from the Calvinverse - remember how Calvin declared himself to be the Earth Potentate to Galaxoid and Nebular in the original strip as a joke? Well, starting with The Movie, this is why he has to fend off aliens, as they still believe this. It loses its darker implications in The Series, as the aliens are specifically told that he's not the Earth Potentate - and they still pursue him.
- At least one Code Lyoko fic takes the Ripple-Proof Memory possessed by the heroes and delves into certain more realistic consequences, including having characters react badly to nearly being Forced to Watch bystanders die while being powerless to stop it and having a severe assault that was Retgoned by the Return to the Past still be traumatizing to the victim, with the added wrinkle that now the assault in question never happened in the first place.
- Danganronpa: The Immersive Learning Program has a scene during its climax where Shuichi reaches out to Kaede while the program crashes around them. In Academy of Discontent, it's revealed that neither of them made it out in time, transforming that hopeful moment into a Cruel Twist Ending.
- The Facing the Future Series does this with the jokes about Danny wanting to be normal and him manifesting new ghost powers when it's revealed that his ghost half has sentience in his subconscious.
- My Deepest, Darkest Secret:
- When Jaan switched from Solon's side to Heli's upon meeting Sooha in It's Nice To Meet You from the canon Webtoon, it was Played for Laughs, even Solon taking it very personally. Go Big Or Go Home deconstructs that moment, since not only was it was mentioned that not only did he think it was a sign that Jaan and the rest didn't love him anymore, which fuels up Solon's insecurities by the way, but later chapters reveal that Jaan and Solon's relationship had soured after a terrible incident involving Noa, and seeing Jaan actually be on the same page as him after what must've been so long must've made him very happy... until Jaan met Sooha.
- The whole fic deconstructing the vampires' canon treatment of Solon has made readers find it much sadder to read after reading this fic.
- In Crumbling Masks
, Saito and Louise's relationship of Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male is taken seriously; but instead of the usual angst one might expect from this type of stories, it ends with both of them realizing they actually enjoy being in a S&M relationship and accepting themselves as the kind of people who would enjoy that kind of thing.
- In the Las Vegas Summer Event, the protagonists rely on Moriarty to come up with a plan to get past the Alolan Knights of the Round to get to Ruler Artoria, with the plan to get past Lancelot involving having Gareth calling out Lancelot for killing her in a mad rage when they were alive, weakening his resolve to fight. Since it was a summer event, it was played for Black Comedy. In this What If from the Guda and Pals series, Moriarty's plan has Gone Horribly Right, causing Lancelot to transform into his Berserker form and try to kill Gareth. Gawain and Gareth fight to get Lancelot back to his senses, but Lancelot is so horrified at what he has done that tries to end his own life in atonement. The end result is that Gareth is horrifyingly traumatized from seeing her idol's fall and both Gudao and Gudako had to be taken back to Chaldea so they wouldn't try to kill Moriarty. Hokusai even admits to Ruler Artoria that she doubts her masters will be able to go through the event anymore.
- Hunting the Unicorn uses this to rip apart Blaine's portrayal. He's compassionate, selfless, and loyal — which means he defends his estranged father from any kind of insult, ignores personal issues until he is literally dragged into therapy by the Warblers, and is so unflinchingly helpful that dropping everything to help Kurt after ten minutes doesn't mean he's a perfect Marty Stu — it means he's a naive little boy that dodged a huge bullet by meeting someone who "only fell in love with him." And he wasn't always that lucky.
- In Canon, resident Alpha Bitch (later revealed to be a Lonely Rich Kid and a Jerkass Woobie) Pacifica Northwest often accompanies her parents during public events, such as "Pioneer Day", in which she promotes the Northwests' accomplishments. However, Quest for the Northwest, the first part of Gravity Falls: Deep Woods, gives a different interpretation of Pacifica's feelings about being used as a mere tool to boost her family's reputation.Pacifica: And my parents drag me to these big publicity things where all I'm supposed to do is wave and watch everyone else have fun... Dad wants me to take over the family's business someday, but I'm not sure if I want to do that, you know?
- In Queen of All Oni, after Jade becomes evil once more, we see that her parents neglected her almost to the point of abuse, painting her being sent to live with Jackie in a new light. In fact, she herself says that before her Start of Darkness, she would have thought being sent to Jackie's as the best thing that ever happened to her.
- In the original Stardust Crusaders, Hol Horse was hit hard with Villain Decay to the point that his final arc was little more than a joke entry with the final punchline of him accidentally shooting himself in the face with his own Stand. In the fanpart Iron Touch, this incident is taken much more seriously, implying that the shot gave Hol Horse serious brain damage that keeps him from properly controlling Emperor's shots.Hol Horse: The last time I saw your old man and his posse of vampire hunters was back in 1988. One thing led to another, and I ended up shooting myself in the head with my own Stand. That put me in a hospital for the rest of the time they were in Egypt. Ever since then, Emperor hasn't worked the way it used to. My bullets are out of control. If I can't land a shot point blank, I won't land it at all. Half the time they just curve back around and try to shoot me instead.
- In Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, we have Misa Torizaki whose most defining trait in Kamen Rider Fourze was her forcing Norio Eguchi to become Cygnus Zodiarts. She got away with it too. What happens here? Word spread about her actions and she's called "Swan Bitch" by people under their breath. Her backstory is her part of a rental company who ran away from home to escape her abusive and alcoholic step-father and the day she met Cygnus, she was going to be raped. Cygnus inspired her to make the Ugly Ducklings be a club that does good deeds and she severed her ties with the rental company...until they found out and put her through some degrading jobs. That, and probably holding onto the Zodiarts Switch, eroded her sanity that ultimately made her activate Norio's switch to become Cygnus.
- There's a surprising number of Kim Possible fanfics with depictions of mental trauma and constant injuries that Kim and/or Ron acquire on a daily basis from their fights with supervillains, including the incident in the Big Damn Movie where Kim kicked Shego off the roof of Bueno Nacho into a charged electrical tower with the intent to kill.
- For His Own Sake applies this to most residents of the Hinata Inn. Keitaro realizes what kind of abuse he's faced at their hands and leaves, causing things to spiral out of control; without his presence as a punching bag, the girls' unaddressed issues destroy their relationships, as the ones who recognize their mistakes cut ties with the more abusive members.
- In Behind the Smile, it is suggested that Hayate suffered sexual abuse in the foster care system before living alone, and her Skinship Grope tendencies were a way of warding off unwanted male attention.
- Game Theory uses this both with elements from canon and the story itself. As an example of the former, Yuuno forgetting to tell Nanoha that he was human leads to a serious case of Poor Communication Kills instead of being played for laughs. As for the latter, the Running Gag of Hayate being obsessed with zombies turns out to be Foreshadowing the early involvement of the Mariage.
- A number of stories such as To Intervene reimagine the post credits scene in Iron Man 3 where Tony tells the entire story to Bruce as the moment Tony decides none of the Avengers are actually his friends and another nail in his growing depression.
- In the Dread String of Fate AU, the reason why Marinette struggles so much with confessing her feelings for Adrien is because the Red String of Fate binding them together is wound around her neck. And while Fate favors Adrien, it doesn't care for her much, causing her to suffer considerably and repeatedly humiliating her whenever she attempts to get closer to Adrien... and punishing her whenever she tries pulling away or just being friends.
- In the first episode of the series, "Stormy Weather", Aurore was Akumatized to the titular Akuma because of being humiliated for losing to her rival Mireille in a contest by half a million votes. In There's More Magic Out There, the lost was because Mireille had used her Incubus powers to brainwash people to vote for her. Mireille has done this several times to get an edge on humans that would look down on her for being an Incubus, and is confused that Aurore, a Succubus, would not only condemn such actions but refuse to do so.
- Phoenix's Tear: Reignition: A Running Gag in the anime involves Tiger threatening to eat Hare's face, forcing him to grab the wolf's jaws and physically hold him off. When Hare disguises himself as Juniper, Tiger tries to expose the facade by attacking him, expecting to be fended off in the exact same way. Instead, Juniper reacts more defensively... and Tiger accidentally bites down on his arm, seriously injuring him.
- In My Life as a Teenaged Von Neumann Device, Jenny's ridiculously human nature is extended to her having a robotic reproductive system... and her discovering all the baggage that comes with sex, up to and including being molested and raped by Cluster guards, and an accidental pregnancy. Also, Brittany Crust's rivalry with Jenny turns into a full-blown paranoid hatred of machines that culminates in a psychotic break where she starts talking to her television, tries to rape her cousin Tiff, tries to murder Tiff's boyfriend in a jealous rage, and ultimately merges with Queen Vexus in a last-ditch effort to get rid of Jenny.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Ask Jappleack, a Character Blog tie-in to Max Gilardi's animated parody PONY.MOV, reveals that Applejack's Mushroom Samba after over-indulging on too many apples is actually an Eldritch Abomination's attempt at making contact with her, which ultimately ends up sending her to Equestria Prime (i.e., the normal Equestria from the show). It also ties in Applejack's comedic obsession with apples with said Eldritch Abomination's attempts to devour all planes of existence.
- Cadance of Cloudsdale:
- Downplayed with the sash Shining Armor wanted to wear in "A Canterlot Wedding". In the episode, his uncle's sash was a throwaway prop to show the fake Cadance being a Bridezilla by demanding it gone. Here, its history is revealed: it's a war medal from the Pegasi passed down from his ancestor, who earned it for suppressing a rebellion in Cloudsdale.
- Candance's Meaningful Name is given her as Mi Amore Cadenza, or 'My Love Song' in Pegasopolian. Later, it's revealed that Aurie named her after the phrase Princess Ladybird repeated after crossing her Despair Event Horizon: "L'mi'amore distrugge tutto," or "My love destroys everything." After a Trauma Conga Line, she dies giving birth, with 'Mi Amore' finally destroying her.
- How I Lost My Mother: The day before Nightmare Moon's return is revealed to have been one of the most devastating moments of Cozy Glow's life, as she was disowned and effectively erased from history by her own mother.
- The Irony Of Applejack: One episode's Flashback showed a previous Apple Family Reunion, where one of Applejack's relatives was surprised to see her as a baby. As it turns out, the reason they didn't recognize her is because she was a changeling who'd been abandoned there.
- The Nuptialverse: Families provides a harsh explanation for Scootaloo's desire to earn her Cutie Mark as quickly as possible, when her mother casually comments on how she's becoming a mare, but has an incredibly long way to go.
- Pony POV Series: Many events in the canonical series are given a deeper and darker explanation.
- In "Hearth's Warming Eve", the Windigos were ice spirits fueled by the three pony tribes' hate for one another and were relatively easily stopped, with their victims becoming unfrozen after their defeat with no harm done. In the universe of the Pony POV Series, they are pieces of Entropy who were unleashed by Celestia in an ill-thought-out attempt to stop the pony tribes from hating each other, and they're explicitly shown to have frozen countless innocent ponies to death, including entire towns. Because of the nature of their creation, even the Alicorns and Draconequi (who are portrayed as gods in this setting) could not directly stop them. Despite trying to help, even they could only watch helplessly as the Windigos doomed Equestria to a frozen end. They were eventually stopped when three ponies of different tribes unleashed the Fire of Friendship on them by becoming friends in what would have been their last moments. And then that eventually resulted in war between the Draconequi and Alicorns, but that’s a different story.
- In "Boast Busters", there is a gag where Rarity gets upset over Trixie turning her hair green and calls it an ugly color, and Carrot Top (whose mane is green in that scene, but usually orange) says, "Well, I never!" In the side-story "Carrot Top: Green and Mean", Carrot Top reveals that her mane is naturally green, but she was bullied for it as a filly and dyed it orange. And when Discord came to Ponyville, he made her an Ax-Crazy maniac with a psychotic hatred of the color green, rampaging through town while destroying anything green with a giant axe and attacking any ponies with green manes, tails, eyes, or clothes.
- That scene in "The Return of Harmony - Part 2" where Berry Punch sneezes and knocks down all the houses around her like they're cardboard standees? When she was a filly, her big sister Cheerilee was the more attractive and confident one, and next to her, Berry felt "like some big cardboard cutout."
- Many, many Naruto fanfics turn Naruto's status as village black sheep into outright hatred and open, often homicidal abuse. So, that scene in the beginning where he's getting chased for vandalism by the equivalent of the Keystone Kops? People are actually trying to kill him over it. The small apartment he lives in by himself? A slum with no hot water that people frequently vandalize. His birthday? A festival in memory of the survivors of the Fox's attack on the day he was born, where he must fear for his life. The Hokage's advisors? Part of a village council made up of clan leaders (a.k.a. the parents of all his friends) who want nothing more than to exile him or publicly execute him. His favorite ramen stand? The only place in the village willing to sell him food. The reason Naruto's so dense? No teacher at the academy was willing to teach him anything. The reason a ninja wears a bright orange jumpsuit? The villagers wanted Naruto to completely fail at stealth and die on his first major mission. Yeesh.
- [B]ran[C]hing p[A]ths: The main game has 21 Non-Standard Game Over that are the results of players diverging too much from the main story, many of which are comedic. This series of one-shots have many entries that expand upon the thoughts of 2B, 9S, and A2 as they perform these actions, either being too hardened by war to see Machine Lifeforms as anything but enemies to be killed or breaking down from trauma built up during and before the game.
- A common theme in Junior Officers is characters making jokes at Shellington's expense (ex. "I'd sooner let him teach {Deborah} how to do quantum physics in Mandarin than how to drive"). "The Swell Shark" reveals that he was taking this so personally, it causes him to have a mental breakdown.
- Dead Men Tell No Tales Redone, a Fix Fic for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, adds weight to Jack Sparrow using the name "Smith" as an alias: turns out, "John Smyth" is his name back when he was a marine in the Royal Navy, before he ended up becoming a pirate, when he was happily married with a daughter on the way. Which also means that A) he's Carina Smyth's father instead of Barbossa and B)he's the one who sacrifices himself to save her from Salazar's crew.
- Ashes of the Past
- The fic applies this to a minor Running Gag from the anime. At the end of the Orange Islands arc, Brock came back to Kanto after spending some time with Professor Ivy; whenever he's asked why, he immediately reacts badly to the mention of Ivy's name. While what happened is a Noodle Incident in the show, the fic gives its own explanation: namely, she got sucked into the Unown dimension, becoming The Lost Lenore to him in the process. Fortunately, Ash's time-traveling antics give him the opportunity to prevent it from happening, which ultimately leads to the two of them officially hooking up.
- The reason why Ash is never shown celebrating his own birthday in the latter seasons of the Anime is explained by the fact that in the fic's original timeline, Ash's thirteenth birthday coincided with the events of Pokémon Heroes and Latios' sacrifice. The painful memory prevented him from celebrating his birthday sice then. In the new timeline however, Ash succeeds in saving Latios, and resumes celebrating his birthdays.
- Ash's Coma holds that the events of the anime are Ash's Adventures In Coma Land after being electrocuted into unconsciousness by Pikachu early on. This is used to explain why he never ages, with the Nurse Joys and Officer Jennies he meets being incarnations of two people he feels safe around.
- Denounce the Evils:
- Jessie's Hilariously Abusive Childhood is shown to have done a real number on her pysche, with her hiding behind an emotional wall.
- Pikachu's prickly attitude throughout Kanto is attributed to two things: his colony abandoning him and an abusive trainer who left him with a fear of Poké Balls.
- In Like No One Ever Was, it turns that Pikachu's constant shocking of Ash and Ash's ditwitted behavior are directly related. Pikachu's electric shocks are causing Ash brain damage and his Trainer career is slowly ending to the resulting muscle deterioration.
- Prerugrats: In the episode "Chuckie vs the Potty", Chuckie mentions that getting potty-trained was the worst thing that happened since his mom put him on the bottle. Here, Chuckie reveals why he considers that to be so bad: he associates it with Melinda's death.
- RWBY ABRG: Weiss' aggressive Fantastic Drug peddling starts off as just a gag related to her rich family being involved in the Dust trade. The gag stops being as funny after episode 9. Weiss reveals that she has been forced into selling drugs by her emotionally and physically abusive father for years.
- The Sonic Adventure-based fanfic Fallen Angel has Amy's optimistic and friendly nature being a way of coping with her loneliness and abandonment issues.
- Some Things Never Change explains why Squidward’s moments of kindness towards SpongeBob seemingly ceased after the third season. Early on, despite his annoyance, Squidward sincerely thought that SpongeBob was just a youngster acting out and would mature over time, only to later realize that this wasn’t the case; SpongeBob was just a delusional Manchild who would never change and/or improve himself.
- The Eye of the Storm: Within canon, Amethyst and Greg's interest in Li'l Butler was obsessive but relatively tame, simply serving as the eventual backdrop for their falling out, while Rose, Garnet and Pearl did nothing to stop them. Eye of the Storm reveals that Rose, Garnet, and Pearl purposefully used the two's love for the show to keep Kay a secret from them while she adjusted to Earth.
- Unbreakable Red Silken Thread: In chapter 25, Noah points out all the moments Gwen was ungrateful to Cody and treated him with disdain during Total Drama's first three seasons, the only ones that happened in this story's timeline. In particular, Cody thinks of the Amazon Challenge, when Gwen wouldn't take his EpiPen as seriously as she should have, treating it like holding the shot of adrenaline would give her skin cancer. True, Cody had come on kind of strong in his efforts to convince her, but that didn't change the fact she didn't seem to appreciate that she held his life in her hands.
- Things Jade Hates:
- Jade from Victorious has an obsession with scissors because her favorite movie involves scissors. Things Jade Hates reveals that she Self Harms with scissors.
- Between seasons 1 and 2, Jade dyed her hair from brown to black. Things Jade Hates explains it as Jade distancing herself from her abusive mother's image.
- In "Three Girls and a Moose", Jade says that she loves the movie The Scissoring more than she loves her mother. Jade in Things Jade Hates hates her mother because of past Parental Incest.
- In Between My Brother and Me: Mors Omnibus, Yvonne Maxa is known for snark, puppets, killing people and trolling the hell out of people along with her barbed remarks at Yusho (who she idolizes but has now become a Broken Pedestal because of his very stupid decision to not explain his trip to hop dimensions to his family). In 15th Show (the chapter after she murdered Yusho), it's revealed that she truly idolized him, wanted him to stay in Carroll City and not go on this stupid quest along with how she didn't want to murder him, but had to in order to stop Zarc.
