History Main / DamagedSoul

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* The Corrupted Souls of ''VideoGame/CubeEscape'' are a byproduct of extracting negative memories from dead humans. The result is a featureless shadowy black figure with glowing white orbs for eyes without any memories of their former self and whose every waking momemt is AndIMustScream. They behave accordingly.

* NPC Enaremand in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' has you searching for a necromancer to make a mannequin with the likeness of his deceased wife Alsha more 'lifelike' by summoning the soul of said wife into the doll. It ends with you having to deal with a crazed puppet that both attempts to hurt and heal you, before trying to end it's own existence by casting Fire II on itself over and over. It's up to the player to survive AND deal the finishing blow to truly end the tragedy.
* Latov in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesRingOfFates'' is wounded in spirit by both the manner of his death, having been murdered in his own home to protect his children, and all the other tragedies he'd suffered by the Crystal Temple. Then he is possessed by the Lich, turning him into a being of rage and anguish. His children Yuri and Chelinka, along with his old friends Alhanalem and Meeth, first have to drive the Lich out and then dive into his past to heal him so that he can move on.

** The Returned of ''Literature/{{Warbreaker}}'' could certainly count as this. The process of Returning [[LossOfIdentity erases their memory]] (though not their skills, which is a plot point), and they must consume one Breath (part of the human AnatomyOfTheSoul) per week or die.

* This is the whole premise behind the Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia fanfic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6983682/1/bTwisted_b "Twisted"]], one of the many [[RecursiveFanfiction different sequels]] made to the Financial Crisis Gangbang comic. After America is DrivenToSuicide, England, desperate to atone, brings America back from the dead, only to get a very angry, horrible monster borne of darkness who is absolutely hellbent on getting bloody revenge on his assailants. A slightly lesser example occurs with America's resurrected children Anthony and Emily, who have been dead for over a century and aren't exactly coping well with their new situation.

** ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': Szeth spends too much time dead before his resurrection, so the process doesn't properly reattach his soul to his body. It trails behind him as a glowing afterimage when he walks, though what this means for him has yet to be revealed.

* This is the whole premise behind the Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia fanfic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6983682/1/bTwisted_b "Twisted"]], one of many sequels to the Financial Crisis Gangbang comic. After America is DrivenToSuicide, England, desperate to atone, brings America back, only to get a very angry, horrible monster borne of darkness with a mind twisted anger, pain, and unfathomable powers, and hellbent for bloody revenge. A slightly lesser example occurs with America's resurrected children Anthony and Emily, who have been dead for over a century and aren't exactly coping well with their new situation.

* A similar situation happened with Lori Manning aka Black Alice. In one ''ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey'' story, The Society of Villains attempted to recruit her by partially resurrecting her mother as a zombie and offering to complete the resurrection if she joined them. This backfired -- Black Alice was ''furious'' that they desecrated her mother this way and temporarily stole the magic of the Society mages present to complete the resurrection herself. Unfortunately for whatever reason, her resurrected mother was a listless shadow of her former self who did nothing but make pancakes and say "I love you" to Lori day after day. Her father started hitting the bottle pretty hard, unable to cope with the double whammy of his daughter's powers and his wife coming back from the dead as a mental zombie.

* One comic involves a BadPowersGoodPeople teenage girl attempt to bring back her dead mother who committed suicide, who comes back in the form of a harmless yet seemingly mentally dull zombie. Of course her father doesn't take it well.

* Creator/StephenKing's short story "[[Literature/SkeletonCrew The Jaunt]]" includes a Damaged Soul returnee, a child who spends an eternity with his mind trapped in a void before coming back thoroughly insane.

* The main point of the titular "semetary" in Creator/StephenKing's ''Pet Semetary''. Pets buried there will come back to life, but they'll be profoundly off. When the main character's son is hit by a car and buried in the Semetary, you find out just how off. An ordinary toddler who was still learning to talk when he died, the revived child speaks like a rather erudite adult--and a highly murderous one at that.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' - Rusty thinks his Day of the Dead ritual has brought Brock back from the grave as a murderous monster, but it's just Brock, taken for dead and buried, being his usual self.
** [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] by Doctor Orpheus during the second season premiere; he believes to have accidentally resurrected the Venture twins without being able to find their souls, turning them into horrific zombies. The reality is, the zombie-like Hank and Dean are [[ItWasHisSled actually clones that were released before being completely "reeducated", due to a recent power shortage in the compound.]]

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'':

The loved one's body has been restored, and more importantly their [[OurSoulsAreDifferent soul]] came back too. The good news is they aren't a SoullessShell. The bad news is, their soul got damaged on the way back to the body. Perhaps it was the very act of dying, or the process of being resurrected. Maybe it was being forcibly torn out of {{Heaven}}, or spending any amount of time at all in {{Hell}}. [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness Or perhaps it was just brain damage caused by the body's decomposition]]. Whatever the reason, the loved one has woken up screaming and insane.

This can be subtle or overt: the damage may manifest either as a progressively worsening [[BrokenSmile tic]], [[MadnessTropes a mental illness]], or perhaps a lack of conscience. Or it could manifest as [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge an unstoppable, screaming berserk fury]]. Unlike a SoullessShell, a Damaged Soul is ''extremely'' motivated: if they aren't driven to suicide, they are ''very'' likely to be pissed off at [[IHateYouVampireDad whoever brought them back from the dead]] as well as their own [[WhatHaveIBecome unnatural condition]]. Either way, they'll be [[TogetherInDeath out to put an end to them both]].

* A story arc in ''Manga/TheKurosagiCorpseDeliveryService'' revolves around a girl with the power to bring people back from the dead. The problem is, those who are brought back from the dead are overcome with a feeling of "wrongness" about their continued existence and eventually go AxeCrazy.
* Nae in ''Manga/MermaidSaga'', who was brought back to life with mermaid ashes, couldn't remember anything about her past life except for her promise to Yuuta, and had a tendency to kill people.
* Most resurrectees in ''Manga/FrankenFran'' are either this or a MonsterFromBeyondTheVeil.
* Something akin to this is what happens when you use alchemy to revive the dead in [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime version]] or ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. The homunculi start out as barely living, messed up beyond belief piles of organs, but eventually evolve into TheSoulless who for all intents look completely human. All of them are inhuman sociopaths mentally, however, and have no memories or other connection to their previous lives apart from looking exactly like the deceased.
** Also, what BigBad Dante and Hohenheim do to extend their lifespans does this as well. When they transfer their souls to a new body they aren't complete and as a result their bodies begin to decay faster since their souls aren't enough to maintain their new body. The more they do this the more of their soul is left behind and they're slowing draining the time they can live in their new body. Since Hohenheim doesn't do it as often his body holds up for a lot longer than Dante's. Towards the end of the 2003 anime, Dante's new body begins decaying after only a few months.

* When Javi came back from the dead in ''Negation,'' he was little more than a zombie, who just barely remembered who he was and how he died. Charon had to restore his mind and body to full consciousness.

* ''FanFic/ImmortalitySyndrome'': A ''[[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls Powerpuff Girls]]'' DarkFic, in which several characters are brought back from the dead as mass-murdering psychopaths.

* In ''FanFic/MegaManReawakened'', Robert is this. His human memories are fuzzy and he tends to lash out in rage until Wood man helps heal him.

* James Angelov in ''Film/PracticalMagic'' was a sadistic murderer to begin with, but after his girlfriend's sister accidentally poisons him, and then they resurrect him in a ''very'' improvised ritual to dodge murder charges, he surges back to life as a screaming, incoherent [[AxCrazy psychopath]] who tries furiously to strangle Gilly until her sister brains him with a frying pan. It gets worse.
* Spock has a very mild case of this in ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. His intelligence and memories are intact, but there's just ''something'' missing at the start of the film. Fortunately he's back to normal at the end of the film.
* Julie Walker in ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead3'' had her neck broken in a motorcycle accident, but her boyfriend sneaks her into an army base to use new reanimation technology on her. She comes back, with her soul, but she has an intense craving to devour human flesh and mutilate herself.
* A sci-fi version occurs in ''Film/AlienResurrection'', in which Ripley is brought back from [[Film/{{Alien 3}} a bad case of falling-into-molten-lead]], but as Alien DNA gets into the mix she is now a jerk with violent urges.
* Alice in ''Film/WakeWood'': When she's first brought back, she seems like the normal bright child she was in life, but quickly picks up a habit of mutilating animals and later shows no compunction in killing anyone who gets in her way. Normally, the town's resurrection ritual doesn't have such complications - the reason she came back this way has to do with her having been buried a bit too long.

* This can happen in ''Literature/TheMemoryWars'', and is one of the primary motivators for people to avoid violent or painful deaths. When someone dies, the circumstances of their death can leave a mark on their soul, like a scar, and this can lead them to have unresolved issues and emotional problems in their next life.
** In Silent Oath, it's revealed that [[spoiler: Nathan made a deal with Morrigan, and wound up ritually killing Athamar in a previous life to try and stop him remembering his previous incarnations ever again. He let Elena kill him to get out of his side of the bargain, robbing her of a human host. This left Nathan and Elena so damaged that they weren't reborn for over a hundred years, and when they were, they were born on opposites of the world. The memory of the event drives a wedge between the two, just when they were about to get back together. As revenge for Nathan betraying her, Morrigan found Athamar and released all of his past-life memories, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero driving him insane and ensuring he would want nothing but to make Nathan and Elena suffer]].]]
* In the Grimm fairy tale, "[[http://www.classicreader.com/book/2191/33/ The Three Snake Leaves]]", a young queen comes back, thanks to snake leaves (i.e., resurrection-producing leaves obtained from snakes in her crypt). However, she has no love for the husband who was willing to be buried alive with her and who raised her from the dead, and instead plots to kill him. She succeeds...[[FirstLawOfResurrection temporarily]]. It's never explained why the queen comes back with a Damaged Soul and and the king doesn't; it's implied, however, that he was always the more loving and more generous of the two.

* The Necrons, ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'''s faction of [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot undead robots]], have nigh-indestructible metal bodies that can eventually regenerate/be repaired from just about any harm...but the process damages the Necron "soul" within. The Necron Lords who avoid death are in fairly good (if ghastly) condition, but those who have been smashed up a few times become increasingly unhinged and suffer from delusions of grandeur. Meanwhile, the average Necron Warrior has been regenerated so often it's landed in the SoullessShell category, a mindless automaton.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', when Dolurrh, the Realm of the Dead, is coterminous with the titular plane of existence, resurrection spells have a chance to go awry and either summon a batch of ghosts, have the wrong soul inhabit the body (the original comes back as a ghost), or a demon either [[DemonicPossession possesses]] or animates the body.
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' had the ''Heroes of Horror'' expansion, which featured an optional table on which to roll in order to give PC death a slightly scarier aspect. The side effects range from a smell of grave dirt to extreme recklessness to gaining a random amount of taint (which is basically TheVirus, since if you accumulate too much taint you turn into a psychopath or a monster).
** The book even [[InvokedTrope invokes the trope]], specifically calling this phenomenon "Coming Back Wrong."
* ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' games:

** One possible explanation for why [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem vampires]] are the way they are: emotionally stunted, constantly fighting uncontrollable [[EnemyWithin destructive urges]], not to mention vulnerable to having their souls sucked out and eaten by other vampires. Then there are the implications of how magic that can affect souls doesn't work on vampires. If possible, it gets worse for the Hollow Mekhet: unlike other vampires, they actually spend some time in the grave before rising, which makes the part of their soul that represents self-knowledge [[EnemyWithout split off into a spirit]] that usually wants to make the vampire miserable. One vampire in the Mekhet sourcebook says it best:
--> '''Frances:''' I go cold when I'm hungry ... and when I come to myself, I've done terrible things. Except every time I come to myself, I'm a little less me.

* In one ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' gamebook, a fiction section dealing with the Hollow Ones (think renegade goth mages) included a Technocracy mole failing to infiltrate a Hollower group. They kill him, but catch his soul before it gets away. One body-reassembly and a soul-reinsertion spell later, and the mole's back among the living. But now, he's bound to the service of the Hollow mage who brought him back. It's implied that he's now a mole in the Technocracy, working to protect the Hollowers.

* The Returned of ''Literature/{{Warbreaker}}'' could certainly count as this. The process of Returning erases their memory (though not their skills, which is a plot point), and they must consume one human soul a week or die.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Marjorine" has Butters' parents thinking they have done this in an homage to ''Film/PetSematary'', after burying the pig used to fake Butters' death in an old Indian burial ground.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" has the titular young man (played by a very young [[Series/TheDukesOfHazzard James Best]]) wake up at his own funeral. He can't explain it, but counts himself lucky to be alive, and some of the townspeople are scared that he's actually a demon possessing the man's body. Eventually, after he gives a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming speech, his family and fiance put aside their doubts and trust that it's a miracle and he's the same man they've always known. And then he lights a match without striking it on anything so he can light his pipe. When his fiance points this out, he says she must be imagining things. As they walk off, the gate to their house closes behind them of its own accord.

* [[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate Deadpool]] was originally a [[FantasticRacism mutant-hunter]] killed off in the comics. In ''VideoGame/SpiderManShatteredDimensions'' he's back from the dead, now a CrazyAwesome TV Show Host) ItMakesSenseInContext...kinda.

** This is the basic premise behind ''TabletopGame/DeviantTheRenegades''; the Remade were normal people who were [[PlayingWithSyringes experimented on]] until their very souls broke from the trauma. As a result, they don't even have Virtues or Vices anymore; they can only define themselves by externals things, like a cause, a loved one, or [[PhlebotinumRebel getting back at the bastards who did this to them.]]

** Red Hood: The Lost Days treats him as having contracted sociopathy and violent insanity since dying, mostly from the Lazarus Pit. Particular focus is given to his calm focus in planning various murders, as opposed to killing in fits of rage. R'as al Ghul has dire predictions about the kind of monster Talia's unleashed, but he has ulterior motives to discourage Lazarus Pit use by anyone but him.

* A short story on Sylvanas from ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' seems to indicate this is the case for the majority, if not all, of the Forsaken. On death, Sylvanas experienced the afterlife for a brief time but was torn from it by Arthas; "the pain [was] so intense it [left] her soul forever torn."

* [[ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Ultimate Deadpool]] was originally a [[FantasticRacism mutant-hunter]] killed off in the comics. In ''SpiderManShatteredDimensions'' he's back from the dead, now a CrazyAwesome TV Show Host) ItMakesSenseInContext...kinda.

* The Undead in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' are cursed with a flawed form of ResurrectiveImmortality; they can resurrect from the total destruction of their body and can stay young by consuming humanity, but each death rots their body and soul a little further, eventually turning them into "Hollow" (AKA zombies).