History Main / DarkAndTroubledPast

* Belle from ''Podcast/PokemonAdventuresInTheMillennium'' Belle. She came from an abusive home, joined Team Rocket only to realize they were just taking advantage of her, and [[spoiler: abandoned her Pokemon because she felt like she couldn't be a good trainer to them]]. Not to mention the baggage she has with her old partner, [[spoiler: Starr]].

* A dead loved one: parents, siblings, best friend, [[CrusadingWidow spouse and children]], or a whole DoomedHometown.

* [[TheAtoner A criminal past, usually with remorse]].

* Being {{betray|alTropes}}ed by a {{True Companion|s}} or {{Heterosexual Life Partner|s}}/{{Platonic Life Partners}}.

* Killing any of the above, whether in self-defense, recklessly or through a SadisticChoice.

This is a stock {{Backstory}} for a character. Much like a MysteriousPast, except more {{trag|edy}}ic and troubled. Don't expect it to be revealed all at once, or sometimes ''at all''. It usually gets revealed in small doses through a TroubledBackstoryFlashback as the story progresses; possibly in a FlashbackNightmare where a happy memory transforms into a slaughter. It could also be a SomberBackstoryRevelation when the person with the Dark and Troubled Past decides to share their storied history with someone the trust or respect. Often used as a FreudianExcuse for an asocial character's JerkAss tendencies or [[TheQuietOne quiet]] [[TheStoic stoicism]]. If the character's past is as simple as [[TrivialTragedy his pet ant being stepped by his]] AnnoyingYoungerSibling, this trope ultimately [[PlayedForLaughs becomes comedic]]. Still, it is understandable that the character wants to keep it [[DarkSecret secret]] because TheyreCalledPersonalIssuesForAReason, after all.

The step-up of this trope is the DysfunctionJunction, where ''the whole cast'' will have one of these and suffer from it, too (and don't expect them to get better). If the afflicted character is in a law enforcement profession, see StandardCopBackstory. When paired with a NiceGuy or gal with a [[UpbringingMakesTheHero happy upbringing]], you can expect...''[[VitriolicBestBuds interesting]]'' [[ActionDuo results]]. See DeusAngstMachina.

This can lead to either becoming an AntiHero or HurtingHero. For villains, this is a StartOfDarkness. Especially blatant cases of this trope will result in the character being seen as a SympatheticSue.

* A lot of great musicians have had dark and troubled pasts. Music/JohnLennon had serious issues with the way his parents treated him, which he only started dealing with after he met Yoko Ono. Music/NeilYoung similarly had a chip on his shoulder about his parents breaking up (leading him to support Ronald Reagan under the guise of his 'strengthening the family' rhetoric, although he soon became disillusioned). Music/JohnCale was unable to have a conversation with his father until he was seven years old (at his mother's insistence, he was raised speaking only Welsh; his father only spoke English). [[FromBadToWorse Then]] he was molested by at least two older men in his youth, giving him issues that fed into his later substance abuse.

* Music/{{Eminem}} referenced his past countless times in his songs, namely his DisappearedDad, his mother who didn't care enough for him, people who bullied him for being white in a black neighborhood.

This is a stock {{Backstory}} for a character. Much like a MysteriousPast, except more {{trag|edy}}ic and troubled. Don't expect it to be revealed all at once, or sometimes ''at all''. It usually gets revealed in small doses through a TroubledBackstoryFlashback as the story progresses; possibly in a FlashbackNightmare where a happy memory transforms into a slaughter. It could also be a SomberBackstoryRevelation when the person with the Dark and Troubled Past decides to share their storied history with someone the trust or respect. Often used as a FreudianExcuse for an asocial character's JerkAss tendencies or [[TheQuietOne quiet]] [[TheStoic stoicism]]. Still, it is understandable that the character wants to keep it [[DarkSecret secret]] because TheyreCalledPersonalIssuesForAReason, after all.

If the character's past is as simple as [[TrivialTragedy his pet ant being stepped by his]] AnnoyingYoungerSibling, this trope ultimately [[PlayedForLaughs becomes comedic]]. Indeed, it's exceeding rare to be used seriously these days and will almost certainly fall into {{Narm}}.

* A dead loved one: parents, siblings, best friend, [[CrusadingWidower spouse and children]], or a whole DoomedHometown.

* The protagonist from Music/TheRollingStones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash", which has him born and raised in an abusive household and abandoned at some point in his childhood. It's hinted in the chorus that he's gotten over it, albeit not in one piece, given the nature of the song.

This is a stock {{Backstory}} for a character. Much like a MysteriousPast, except more {{trag|edy}}ic and troubled. Don't expect it to be revealed all at once, or sometimes ''at all''. It usually gets revealed in small doses through a TroubledBackstoryFlashback as the story progresses; possibly in a FlashbackNightmare where a happy memory transforms into a slaughter. Often used as a FreudianExcuse for an asocial character's JerkAss tendencies or [[TheQuietOne quiet]] [[TheStoic stoicism]]. Still, it is understandable that the character wants to keep it [[DarkSecret secret]] because TheyreCalledPersonalIssuesForAReason, after all.

* Almost the entire cast of the [[Music/{{Mothy}} Evillous Chronicles]]. Venomania was [[spoiler: locked in a basement]] and horribly bullied because of a small deformity, and then the only person who accepted him turned on him; Conchita's mother [[AbusiveParents was abusive]]; Riliane's parents died and she was forced to ascend the throne while still a little kid; Margarita's true love completely ignored her, which sent her over the DespairEventHorizon; Lukana's family died in a fire; and Gallerian's family was killed by a Giant Octopus[[spoiler: possibly by MA or Nemesis]] while Nemesis never knew her father, [[spoiler: Gallerian]], was abandoned for some time by her mother, and later was forced to kill the man she loved by her boss. No wonder they're all so [[AxCrazy fucked]] [[MoralityKitchenSink up]]. And that's only [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters a few of them]].

[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/{{Batman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/batman_roses_3327.jpg]]]]

* {{DarkAndTroubledPast/Film}}

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!!Other Examples:

* Many of the dancers in ''Theatre/AChorusLine'' have one, but this is especially emphasized with Sheila, Bebe, Maggie, and Paul, who experienced a gamut of issues from ParentalNeglect to [[RapeAsBackstory sexual abuse]].

* Mary in ''Vanities'' has an [[LadyDrunk alcoholic mother]] and [[DisappearedDad runaway father]]; she sings about [[IWantSong her desire to get away from it all]] in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlWsHuukhdE "Fly Into the Future"]].

* In ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'', Elphaba was seen as a freak from the moment she was born due to her green skin. Her mother chews milk flowers in a desperate bid to make sure her next child has a normal skin tone, which technically works, but it causes her mother to experience DeathByChildbirth and her second child Nessarose to be born a paraplegic. Elphaba blames herself for this, not helped by the fact that she is blatantly TheUnfavorite of her father. Elphaba is extremely protective of Nessa due to this and has developed a rather caustic personality in the present day.

* DarkAndTroubledPast/RealLife