History Main / IronWoobie

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'': [[spoiler:Héctor, the estranged musician who went on a music tour and was never heard from by his family again, who was murdered by his best friend for wanting to return home and spent 96 years trying to see his daughter Coco before he was completely forgotten. Not only did his family refuse to remember him, when his wife Imelda died, she refused to listen to his desperate attempts at apologizing, and it was only through Miguel mistakenly believing his best friend to be his great-great-grandfather that he learned the truth of how he died, got his chance to reunite with his family, and finally see Coco without being forgotten.]]

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** Wolverine has over a century of bad memories starting with his father's murder, and after ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'' he remembers all of them. His present and -- judging by the various bad futures so prevalent in ComicBook/XMen -- his future aren't exactly a romp in the daisies either. He copes with all of this by being an active member of several superteams, fixing past mistakes, sleeping with every hooker in Bangkok, and playing pool.
** His clone/daughter, Laura Kinney AKA ComicBook/{{X 23}}, as well. Bred and raised to be an assassin-for-hire under incredibly abusive and brutal conditions, (she was exposed to lethal doses of radiation at ''age seven'' to forcibly activate her HealingFactor, and having her claws surgically removed to be coated in adamantium in the most painful process possible) forced to kill her mother through her conditioning to enter an UnstoppableRage when exposed to a trigger scent, giving up the only family she's ever known to protect them from her abusive handler -- who periodically catches up to her ''just'' to make her life a living hell -- all the while struggling to control her berserker rage and come to terms with all the death on her hands. She doesn't even have the benefit of Logan's swiss cheese memory to ease the trauma, and remembers ''all of it''. Laura ''wants'' [[IJustWantToBeNormal to be normal]], but she ''will'' keep fighting because, as she once told Daken, she's fighting for something bigger than herself.

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* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'': [[spoiler:Héctor, the estranged music man who went on a music tour and was never heard from by his family again, who was murdered by his best friend for wanting to return home and spent 96 years trying to see his daughter Coco before he was completely forgotten. Not only did his family refuse to remember him, when his wife Imelda died, she refused to listen to his desperate attempts at apologizing, and it was only through Miguel mistakenly believing his best friend to be his great-great-grandfather that he learned the truth of how he died, got his chance to reunite with his family, and finally see Coco without being forgotten.]]

The Iron Woobie is a character who is not just ''a'' [[TheWoobie Woobie]]; they are ''the'' Woobie. Most Woobies are the victim of external circumstance. That may be how it started out for this little guy/girl, but after having to deal with too much guff, they've lost the ability to feel sorry for themselves, and will continue standing in the path of inevitable misfortune. They will RageAgainstTheHeavens in anger for the ridiculous extent of their trials and tribulations, but when it comes right down to it, they're not expecting the big guy to start doing them any favors now.

* ''ComicBook/StrontiumDog'': Johnny Alpha was born mutated to a father running for high public office on an anti-mutant platform. Abused constantly throughout his childhood. Ran away and became a child soldier at age 12. General Armz second-in-command at 17. Watched the deaths of hundreds of his comrades-in-arms in the assault on Westminster. Lived the rest of his life as a bounty hunter. Estranged from his sister, who considered Johnny a threat to her family (not without reason). Watched several friends die. Killed his father and brother. Was cheated out of countless bounties. Faced constant anti-mutant discrimination. And soldiered on. If you don't want to buy the man a beer and give him a hug, you have no heart.

* Franchise/{{Batman}}:

* ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}''. Where to begin? His mother leaves when he is a baby, his father constantly pushes him to succeed so he can have a better life, he is blinded by chemicals and his father is murdered by the mob. Oh and the super senses? Matt can't turn them off and they make life nearly unbearable. In ''ComicBook/DaredevilBornAgain'', his ex-girlfriend sells his identity to the mob, he loses his legal license, he has all his money taken away and is reduced to living on the streets. Then in ''Shadowland'', he is demonically possessed and forced to do horrible things. Lets just say life sucks for Matt Murdock. And yet he never gives up and becomes a stronger person for it.
* Mother of Champions from Franchise/TheDCU's ''Great Ten''. Essentially being prostituted by her country to strange men so that her [[ExplosiveBreeder special gift]] can be exploited is bad enough, but the children that result from these unions have a lifespan of roughly ''one week''. She had never given birth before she had her first 25 boys, and eight days later they were all dead. The fact that she remains the picture of motherly dignity and poise is a testament to her emotional strength. The "strange men" part is occasionally changed; she's slept with most of the male members of her team, though her heart belongs to Socialist Red Guardsman alone.

--->'''Hulk''': [[spoiler: For years... forever... Hulk has listened to Banner, and Banner's friends, talking about how Hulk ruined Banner's life! Hulk made Banner's life! Banner was nothing before Hulk... nothing!...Hulk doesn't want friends, because friends will hurt him. Everyone hurts him. Everyone hurts Hulk.]]
* Some incarnations of [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] qualify especially if he's being TheDeterminator and disregards his health.
* ComicBook/MartianManhunter has one of, if not the most tragic backstory of the heroes of the DCU, and that's saying a lot. J'onn watched his entire species (including his wife and daughter) die a fiery death at the hands of his brother, only survived by cutting himself off from his species, wandered alone over the barren world of Mars for an untold amount of years and was abruptly transported to an alien world. Despite all this, J'onn retained his sanity and remains a noble, wise hero.
* ComicBook/{{Mockingbird}}, AKA Bobbi Morse. In chronological order, she's been framed, shot, caught in an explosion, beaten, raped, killed said rapist, saw her marriage break down, was abducted by aliens and forced to fight for survival, killed a Skrull that took the form of the man she loved, eventually returned but was then haunted by the ghost of her rapist, had her relationship with Hawkeye break down once more, her mother was shot and her brother disowned her, got shot again and turned into an immortal super soldier, then got left behind enemy lines with no memory, had serious MindRape that revealed she had a second personality, left with broken memories and shot at, then finally killed the man responsible for the mind rape before being lost, now missing with no one knowing where she is. All that, you'd think she'd give up, right? Well, she doesn't. She just faces down the problem with a smirk and a sarcastic one-liner.
* ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'': when [[OurVampiresAreDifferent the alien Evronians]] invaded Xadhoom's planet, she lost her boyfriend, and entire race. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge she resolved to exterminate them for it]]. The real kicker? ''She accidentally caused that invasion.''
* The [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} original Captain Marvel]] may be the original poster child for this trope in comics. When Billy was around ten years old, his parents were murdered by criminals and he was separated from his twin sister, Mary, who was also thought dead at the time. The uncle entrusted to take care of Billy kept him around only long enough to legally acquire Billy's inheritance, before then throwing the young boy out of his own home. Billy had to learn to take care of himself, facing the harshness of living on the streets with no one to take care of him. Yet despite this, Billy remained a friendly, kind, optimistic and hopeful young man, eager to help others and never once using his tragedies as an excuse to be cruel or selfish. His refusal to let his bad circumstances make him a bad person wound up being a sort of SecretTestOfCharacter by the Wizard Shazam, who felt Billy's perseverance in such hardship would prevent him from being corrupted the way Black Adam was. As such, Billy was granted the Wizard's power, and as Captain Marvel, Billy has continued to face hardship with a big smile and equally big heart.

* ComicBook/SpiderMan:

* Johnny Alpha of ''ComicBook/StrontiumDog'': Born mutated, to a father running for high public office on an anti-mutant platform. Abused constantly throughout his childhood. Ran away and became a child soldier at age 12. General Armz second-in-command at 17. Watched the deaths of hundreds of his comrades-in-arms in the assault on Westminster. Lived the rest of his life as a bounty hunter. Estranged from his sister, who considered Johnny a threat to her family (not without reason). Watched several friends die. Killed his father and brother. Was cheated out of countless bounties. Faced constant anti-mutant discrimination. And soldiered on. If you don't want to buy the man a beer and give him a hug, you have no heart.
* Franchise/{{Superman}} himself. He lost his homeworld, in all continuities, one or both of the Kents die, and he has to live with the knowledge that he is different from the humans he protects and will never truly belong. His ''ComicBook/{{New 52}}'' adaptation is even a HeroWithBadPublicity at the start of his career. And yet he never stops being an IdealHero. UpbringingMakesTheHero indeed.
** ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}. Compared to Kara, Kal's woobieness is minuscule. He may have lost his planet, but was a baby when it happened and was raised by the loving Kents, while Kara (especially in New Earth) remembers her planet pre-destruction and '''her parents being vaporized and planet being destroyed were the last thing she saw before the suspended animation of her ship kicked in.''' She has to deal with having the memory of what she's truly lost -- family and friends alike, and has survivor's guilt because of it, but still tries to live up to the responsibilities of the S. Batman has told her that, unlike Clark, Kara knows what it's like to be like him because she knew what it was like to see your parents die in front of your eyes and be helpless to stop it.
* ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}

* [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy's]] journey during the ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'' period, which lead to her [[ContinuitySnarl/DonnaTroy Continuity Snarl]] due to the amount of time warping, multiple lives, and memory altering done to her by Dark Angel in order to force her to live out multiple nightmarish existences with tragic ends one after the other with her friends and family (outside Wally and Diana) forgetting she'd ever even lived. Even before Dark Angel started messing with the timeline to torture Donna her marriage failed, and then her ex-husband and young children died in a car accident. Then, once she'd finally been restored to herself and gotten an apartment with her sister Diana she was killed in ''Graduation Day''.
* [[GentleGiant Colossus]] from the X-Men is a very [[ChromeChampion literal]] example. He's seen his brother "die", come back after many years, and exile himself from this realm. He's seen his sister die from the Legacy virus. He then sacrificed his own life to find a cure for said virus. An alien resurrected and imprisoned him, tortured him for two years, and shortly after he was freed, his girlfriend disappeared in space. She came back recently... only to discover that she was trapped in her intangible form, and unable to interact with the rest of the world, including Colossus. And he's still one of the noblest of the X-Men. Later, Colossus's sister also [[CameBackWrong came back]]. She may or may not be a [[DamagedSoul soulless abomination]]. Regardless, she acts more emotionless and detached than before, and endangered the entire world for her own vendetta. Colossus still stands by her. Much later, he took the mantle of the [[TheJuggernaut Juggernaut]], which makes him even more mentally unstable.

* Po in the ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' series. In the first film, Po has to get over both the taunts of his teammates and his own crippling self-esteem issues in order to become the Dragon Warrior. In the second, he learns about how his people were massacred by Lord Shen, including his mother. However, to Shen's astonishment, Po manages to come to terms with his past to achieve an inner peace that enables him to defeat a warfleet armed with cannons by himself.

** [[{{Determinator}} Ruby Rose]]. During the Vytal Festival tournament, she watched a close friend gruesomely dismember another friend, knowing both had been manipulated by the villains but unable to intervene in time to save them. This triggers a cascade of trauma that eventually leads to her apologising to Jaune for dragging him into everything; Jaune tells her that she's actually a source of inspiration and bravery for others because she keeps on fighting even when she's lost so much. However, it's Oscar who later forces her to admit how she really feels and how she keeps going despite it. [[spoiler:Volume 3 involves a battle where she sees her school destroyed, her sister lose an arm, Pyrrha murdered in front of her eyes, and her entire team be disbanded. This leaves her experiencing nightmares of Pyrrha's voice, hinting at SurvivorGuilt. This becomes more obvious when her uncle Qrow intervenes to help her fight Tyrian; when she keeps helping Qrow despite his protests, he has to save her from his own Semblance, allowing Tyrian to poison Qrow. Volumes 7-8 hint at her trauma over her mother's death when she briefly collapses after Salem implies she killed Summer, and again when she realises why Salem wants Silver-Eyed Warriors and what that means about her mother's death. However, she keeps getting back up until Volume 9 where all the trauma from Volume 8 finally overwhelms her; vulnerable to manipulation by both Neo and an Afteran villain, she turns on her companions, breaks down and is ultimately driven to attempt suicide; however, upon speaking to the Blacksmith and learning that her mother wasn't perfect, she realises that she's setting impossible standards for herself and accepts that it's okay to be flawed. This rallies her strength and reinvigorates her, allowing her to return to her friends with renewed resolve.

** [[{{Determinator}} Ruby Rose]]. During the Vytal Festival tournament, she watched a close friend gruesomely dismember another friend, knowing both had been manipulated by the villains but unable to intervene in time to save them. This triggers a cascade of trauma that eventually leads to her apologising to Jaune for dragging him into everything; Jaune tells her that she's actually a source of inspiration and bravery for others because she keeps on fighting even when she's lost so much. However, it's Oscar who later forces her to admit how she really feels and how she keeps going despite it. [[spoiler:Volume 3 involves a battle where she sees her school destroyed, her sister lose an arm, Pyrrha murdered in front of her eyes, and her entire team be disbanded. This leaves her experiencing nightmares of Pyrrha's voice, hinting at SurvivorGuilt. This becomes more obvious when her uncle Qrow intervenes to help her fight Tyrian; when she keeps helping Qrow despite his protests, he has to save her from his own Semblance, allowing Tyrian to poison Qrow. Volume 7 hints at her trauma over her mother's death when she collapses after Salem implies she killed Summer, but she's back on her feet minutes later when she realises how much danger Mantle is in.]]

When their sufferings spring from their heroism, see also the HurtingHero.

Opposite trope to SympatheticSue. Contrast MartyrWithoutACause and AngstWhatAngst, and compare the more snarky KnightInSourArmor. See also DontYouDarePityMe and StoicWoobie. Most InspirationallyDisadvantaged characters are portrayed this way, often with insufficient justification and/or to the point of it being their entire characterization.

** Asami Sato. It's just sad to watch her. To sum it up, and most of this happens within a few weeks time, [[spoiler: her mother was killed by a Firebender when she was six, she discovered her father was an Equalist after spending a whole day defending him, has to turn on her father because she wanted to do the right thing and has to leave the comfortable life she has always known, she finds out that Korra has a crush on her boyfriend and he might reciprocate, she gets arrested because of her father, then has to see her boyfriend go crazy trying to find Korra and neglect her, and when she chooses to confront Mako, since he's [[NoSocialSkills horribly not good with people]], he reacts badly and things go worse]]. And yet she refuses to break for a long time, until "The Sting" when [[spoiler:
Future Industries goes bankrupt after a robbery.]] She also witnesses the near death of Korra, her close friend, and for three years, was the only one to know how much Korra was suffering while recovering far away from her, since Korra only wrote letters to her. During the final fight with Kuvira, she watches [[spoiler: her father]] perform a HeroicSacrifice for her. And her company is destroyed in that fight again. And ''then'', she [[PluckyGirl does her best to bring herself back together]].

* ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017'': Alucard, born Adrian Tepes, is Dracula and Lisa's son. In the first episode alone, with everything seemingly going well for his family after a happy childhood, the Church ransacks his mother Lisa's house and condemns her as a "witch" for being a practiced medic. Adrian's mother is burned alive and his father snaps, his one tether to humanity snapped. Adrian pleaded with Dracula but was tossed aside and horribly wounded, forced to go into hiding as his father rose up an army to destroy all humanity. Flash-forward to the present day and Alucard is awakened by Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades. After a battle with Trevor, and eventually, with Dracula's army on the rise, Alucard swears to destroy his own father, remaining stalwart and unflappable through the majority of the second season but with hints of pure misery he holds back like when Sypha talks to him in the Belmont library, described by Sypha as a "cold spot" sucking out all joy in his presence. In the end, Alucard is the one to stop his own father, witnessing Dracula break down before him when their pitched fight takes them into Alucard's own childhood room, using a board from his old bed to stake him before Trevor finishes the job. At the end of it all, Alucard collapses into tears.

** Asami Sato. It's just sad to watch her. To sum it up, and most of this happens within a few weeks time, [[spoiler: her mother was killed by a Firebender when she was six, she discovered her father was an Equalist after spending a whole day defending him, has to turn on her father because she wanted to do the right thing and has to leave the comfortable life she has always known, she finds out that Korra has a crush on her boyfriend and he might reciprocate, she gets arrested because of her father, then has to see her boyfriend go crazy trying to find Korra and neglect her, and when she chooses to confront Mako, since he's horribly NotGoodWithPeople he reacts badly and things go worse]]. And yet she refuses to break for a long time, until The Sting" when [[spoiler: Future Industries goes bankrupt after a robbery.]] She also witnesses the near death of Korra, her close friend, and for three years, was the only one to know how much Korra was suffering while recovering far away from her, since Korra only wrote letters to her. During the final fight with Kuvira, she watches [[spoiler: her father]] perform a HeroicSacrifice for her. And her company is destroyed in that fight again. And ''then'', she [[PluckyGirl does her best to bring herself back together]].

** How bad does Banner's life suck? In ''ComicBook/ImmortalHulk'' one issue of the series draws direct parallels between Bruce and Job. You know, the guy in Literature/TheBible whose life God absolutely and completely destroyed (Home destroyed, livelihood destroyed, family destroyed, riddled with ailments, etc.) as a test proposed by Satan to prove Job's loyalty to God was not bought. Yes, Bruce's life is so awful and absolutely f*#@ed that he can be compared to a guy who is the posterchild for human misery and being a CosmicChewToy.

** What Ruby goes through in this fic's version of the Fall of Beacon makes where her canon self ended the Fall look ''tame'' by comparison. [[spoiler:She has a front-row seat when Nihilus possesses one of her first and closest friends at Beacon and then uses his body to slaughter countless people all around her. She also loses her beloved weapon Crescent Rose ''and'' her beloved uncle and mentor Qrow, ''and'' two of her closest friends, '''and''' her school to Nihilus' rampage before he's finally put down. To cap it off, at the fic's end, Ruby has become the new Fall Maiden, meaning she will most likely have to spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder due to Salem's forces coveting and hunting her]]. Yet despite all of this, because she's Ruby, she never gives in, with Glynda and Winter noting in "Epilogue" that Ruby is displaying remarking resilience after everything she's gone through, even if she's likely repressing severe trauma.

** [[BookDumb Aoi Asahina]], also known as Hina, started off as a talented swimmer until the apocalypse outside Hope's Peak Academy and the headmaster sealed her inside along with the other students of his own classroom. She's then victim of being trapped in Junko's killing game, where she witnesses many of her own classmates murder each other and often feels bad for the deceased no matter who they were. She ultimately almost breaks in Chapter 4 where her best friend [[TheBigGirl Sakura Ogami]] kills herself. Having been lied to by Monokuma in form of a fake suicide note, she wants everyone of the current survivors, including herself, to commit SuicideByCop. After being revealed that Sakura's actual suicide note wanted everyone to live, she very much regrets this action and fortunately is EasilyForgiven. Later in ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'', without her knowing, her brother dies as part of being one of the players of The Warriors Of Hope's game due to trying to escape from it, and in ''Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool'' is victim of another killing game, where she relives the same experience of people killing each other, with one of her friends temporarily dying in front of her. However, even after all of this, she still mantains her bubbly personality, and is always in support of her dear friends, often being the reason why [[BigGood Makoto]] keeps beliving in people.

** '''[[BookDumb Aoi Asahina]]''', also known as '''Hina''', started off as a talented swimmer until the apocalypse outside Hope's Peak Academy and the headmaster sealed her inside along with the other students of his own classroom. She's then victim of being trapped in Junko's killing game, where she witnesses many of her own classmates murder each other and often feels bad for the deceased no matter who they were. She ultimately almost breaks in Chapter 4 where her best friend [[TheBigGirl Sakura Ogami]] kills herself. Having been lied to by Monokuma in form of a fake suicide note, she wants everyone of the current survivors, including herself, to commit SuicideByCop. After being revealed that Sakura's actual suicide note wanted everyone to live, she very much regrets this action and fortunately is EasilyForgiven. Later in ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'', without her knowing, her brother dies as part of being one of the players of The Warriors Of Hope's game due to trying to escape from it, and in ''Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighchool'' is victim of another killing game, where she relives the same experience of people killing each other, with one of her friends temporarily dying in front of her. However, even after all of this, she still mantains her bubbly personality, and is always in support of her dear friends, often being the reason why [[BigGood Makoto]] keeps beliving in people.

** Makoto Naegi was BornUnlucky. He has [[NotMyLuckyDay the worst day ever]] before he receives an invitation to attend Hope's Peak Academy, which sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime...only to then be thrust into a killing game with 14 other students. The girl he has a crush on [[spoiler: dies after attempting to frame him for murder]], the other students [[spoiler: almost get him wrongfully executed]], and to top it all off, [[spoiler: when he and the five survivors finally escape, the outside world is revealed to be a hellhole of despair]]. Yet in spite of it all, Makoto remains a forgiving NiceGuy, still believes the best in people, and encourages his friends not to lose hope. He's such a believer that RousseauWasRight that [[spoiler: when given the chance to kill the fanatical followers of the person who put him and his friends through hell, he instead decides to give them all a second chance through rehabilitation in the Neo World Program]]. It's no wonder he earns the title of [[HopeBringer Ultimate Hope]].
** [[BookDumb Aoi Asahina]], also known as Hina, hangs out with fellow tomboy and MMA master, Sakura Ogami, whom many people, Kiyotaka included, thought was a guy at first until they found out her gender. Hina starts off as a talented swimmer until the apocalypse outside Hope's Peak Academy and the headmaster sealed her inside along with the other students. She woke up two years later forgetting of the times she got to know everyone, and at first, forgets Makoto's name, forcing him to repeat it to her three times. Hina was one of the people who didn't think Makoto killed Sayaka, as she found out Sayaka was planning to kill someone. She finds out her family was killed with possible including of her little brother who looked up to her but is one of the only students to never commit murder or be a victim. She does, however, discover Alter Ego after a mental breakdown of not wanting to kill anyone. Chapter 4 utterly breaks her as she finds out Sakura seemingly killed herself because of the surviving students, and blames them for her best friend's death, attempting to commit SuicideByCop by misleading the investigation and getting everyone killed. However, she does feel horrible for this when Monokuma reveals Sakura's real intention was to stop them from killing each other. In the bad ending, she ends up giving [[BabiesEverAfter birth]] to the children of Makoto, Yasuhiro, and Byakuya living in fear, but deluded happiness, being the only surviving female. In ''Anime/Danganronpa3'', she is supposedly murdered but survives as it was just a prank one of the antagonists played on her. Ultimately, despite being seemingly bubbly and cute, she's got a tough exterior but weak interior, and like quite a few of the class, is very tragic.

** [[Anime/MaryAndTheWitchsFlower Scarlet Bell]] was just a young filly when she noticed that many of her friends/classmates had gone missing, and a personal investigation revealed that the missing foals were experimented on by [[BrokenPedestal her beloved teachers]], Noble Grace and Professor Bubbling Beaker, to uncover the secrets of divine Ascension. She managed to defeat her teachers in a fight despite being outnumbered ''and'' being vastly weaker magically, and saved as many foals as she could from the ensuing fires, but the experience left her literally and figuratively scarred, and she moved to the Grittish Isles. Unfortunately, history would repeat itself years later when a young colt named Page Wheel was kidnapped, and Scarlet Bell's grandniece, Midnight Bell, ran off by herself to go rescue him. This kicks off a series of events that leads to Page Wheel's death and resurrection/Ascension as Crystal Prism, while Scarlet Bell discovers that Noble Grace and Bubbling Beaker had also fled to the Grittish Isles by sheer coincidence, confirming her worst fears. She finally gains some level of catharsis/closure by confronting her former teachers one last time and punching Noble Grace in the face for all the horrible things she did.

** Kúzelník's brother, Phoenix King Naur, didn't fare any better. While not to [[GodOfGood Temnobog]]'s extent, Naur was emotionally abused by his own family for being born a Fire god, with Irminsul and Arvan discouraging him from using his fire magic so he wouldn't burn down the forests they protected. This influenced him to treat Temnobog coldly, yet ended up sympathizing with his younger brother in secret and actually did not want him dead for existing, unlike most of his family. After centuries of observing his family's stubborn pride and hypocrisy, Naur snaps when an Alvslog Deer Realm was destroyed thanks to his family's negligence, causing Naur to get in a literally heated argument with Irminsul and leave, taking yet another portion of the Elternteil Deer Pantheon with him. He becomes the beloved divine ruler/founder of the Caearnarian Deer Realms, but Naur's abusive upbringing gave him a lot of issues that he struggles to control, such as an [[HeroicSelfDeprecation inferiority complex]] and serious anger problems. Thankfully, finding support in both family and benevolent deities who accept him despite his nature is helping him recover, and like Kúzelník, he would also be adopted by Golden Scepter, who has a few fire-wielding sons of his own.
** High King Bogolenya probably has it worst of his siblings. A prophetic vision of mortal Deerkind being led into a GoldenAge by a great Deer King motivated Bogolenya's father, Irminsul, to purify his son of his inner flaws and evil so he would be turned into a perfect ruler and god. ''[[WouldHurtAChild While still in-utero]].'' This not only defiled and killed Bogolenya, but split him up into Belyolen and Temnobog. This led to Bogolenya's halves being mistreated in different ways -- Belyolen is lavished with love and praise for being born good and pure, while Temnobog is shunned, bullied, and abused for being born evil and corrupt regardless of what he actually did. And thanks to Irminsul's hypocritical, bigoted, and toxic teachings, Belyolen and Temnobog [[CainAndAbel clashed with each other]] for a long time until they learned the truth of their existences and reconciled. Despite the trauma his halves went through, Bogolenya nonetheless finds love and support in the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon, and even helps out in the 'Final Ragnarok' arc after Belyolen and Temnobog [[FusionDance fuse]] to save an ally from the Shadowed Ones... but not before giving Irminsul a well-deserved TheReasonYouSuckSpeech for how selfishly and vicariously he treated his children.

** Ralph endured thirty years as a pariah in his game before "going turbo" and even then he planned to return before anything bad happened.

** Obi-Wan Kenobi. His master gets killed before his eyes while he is powerless to prevent it, he becomes a master long before he is ready, he winds up fighting in a war that goes against all he believes in, watches [[AFatherToHisMen his friends and clone trooper comrades]] either be violently killed in battle or live long enough to be [[BrainwashedAndCrazy mentally enslaved]] by the very republic they were fighting for, his padawan and HeterosexualLifePartner turns to the Dark Side and massacres the only family Obi-Wan has, he's forced to fight said former friend to the death, he lives in exile for nineteen years and then is killed by the same old friend he couldn't bring himself to kill years before. And that's not even mentioning the ExpandedUniverse. But he'll never compromise his principles, retaining his status as TheParagon through all the hardship. At the most, he'll [[DeadpanSnarker snark]] about things, and [[StoicWoobie it takes a heck of a lot to get him to show any negative emotion.]]

* Job from ''Literature/TheBible'' could well be the TropeCodifier. He's a kind a decent man who loses everything (including is family members all dying) due to Satan trying to make him [[DespairEventHorizon lose his hope and faith]]. He manages to persist nontheless, and is [[EarnYourHappyEnding rewarded at the end]] with more wealth than before, as well as his family being brought BackFromTheDead.

--> ''I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. (Isaiah 50:6-7)''

* [[spoiler: Lucretia]] of ''Podcast/TheAdventureZoneBalance'' definitely qualifies. [[spoiler: Lost her home plane to an all consuming {{Eldritch Abomination}}, was chased through the multiverse by said abomination for an entire century, had to erase her dear friends' memories in a bid to protect them, treating Barry as an enemy and her captain as her ward, lost the majority of her youth and almost her life in Wonderland, and saw her friends return to danger without their memories of her... all for the Hunger to find them anyways.]]

** Makoto Naegi was literally BornUnlucky. He has [[NotMyLuckyDay the worst day ever]] before he receives an invitation to attend Hope's Peak Academy, which sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime...only to then be thrust into a killing game with 14 other students. The girl he has a crush on [[spoiler: dies after attempting to frame him for murder]], the other students [[spoiler: almost get him wrongfully executed]], and to top it all off, [[spoiler: when he and the five survivors finally escape, the outside world is revealed to be a hellhole of despair]]. Yet in spite of it all, Makoto remains a forgiving NiceGuy, still believes the best in people, and encourages his friends not to lose hope. He's such a believer that RousseauWasRight that [[spoiler: when given the chance to kill the fanatical followers of the person who put him and his friends through hell, he instead decides to give them all a second chance through rehabilitation in the Neo World Program]]. It's no wonder he earns the title of [[HopeBringer Ultimate Hope]].

** Also from ''Franchise/AceAttorney'', we have [[VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney Apollo Justice]]. Over the course of his life, he [[spoiler: loses his biological father, his mother disappears, and the person who takes him in and becomes his adoptive father is a wanted criminal in a country where defense attorneys effectively don't exist. He's sent away from said country and the only family he's ever known because it's simply too dangerous for him to stay, effectively becoming an orphan.]] As he's growing up, he comes to idolize Phoenix Wright as a legendary defense attorney, but then Phoenix is [[spoiler: disbarred due to presenting forged evidence]], effectively ruining the image of his idol. Then his first trial involves accusing his own boss of murder, which costs him his job. His fourth-ever case then involves finding out that said boss who had taken him under his wing [[spoiler: was the reason his idol got disbarred in the first place, and was also a sociopathic, egotistical, manipulative bastard who framed Wright out of petty jealousy and tried to kill everyone who knew about it.]] Then his best friend [[spoiler: is murdered, he's seriously injured in a courtroom bombing during the trial to determine who killed him, and his LivingLieDetector ability points to his new coworker who he had been bonding with over the course of [[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies the game]] as being potentially responsible (though luckily for the both of them, she isn't).]] He then meets [[spoiler: his adoptive brother from his time in Khura'in for the first time in years, but instead of a friendly reunion, it's a courtroom battle to determine the fate of one of his other best friends and (unknown to him) half-sister, where his brother is spouting corrupt ideals that run counter to everything he used to believe and goes against everything Dhurke taught the two of them.]] Then he [[spoiler: nearly drowns, is rescued by his adoptive father, has to take on his new boss in a civil suit that turns into a murder mystery, flies halfway around the world and winds up defending his adoptive father in Khura'in, which as previously mentioned is still filled to the brim with anti-defense attorney sentiment and laws that could get him executed, realizes halfway through that trial that Dhurke had been dead the whole time and was being channeled by Maya and then Amara. Then as he slowly uncovers the truth, he's held at gunpoint and threatened by the queen of an entire nation.]] Despite all this, he's never once backed down or let the despair get to him, and in the end he winds up [[spoiler: overthrowing the ruler of Khura'in by proving that her claim to the throne is illegitimate, undoing decades of anti-lawyer laws and propaganda, taking on his adoptive father's legacy, and stays behind to help fix the judicial system of an entire country.]]