History Main / DarkAndTroubledPast

** Teal'c's father was murdered, and he was the leader of Apophis[[Big Bad]]'s army for decades. He did numerous unpleasant if not outright evil things. It's been made clear that he feels guilty about them.
** While not usually portrayed as a dark character, Colonel Jack O'Neill could have been a Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant. He is ex-Special Ops, and his proffessional backstory falls under 'you don't want to know' territory. But it was stated that he's done some 'distasteful things,' a few allusions have been made to his 'file' and his having a 'strong stomach'. He was also left for dead by his friend and teammate Frank Cromwell, resulting in four months in an Iraqi prison. The Iraqis were not known for being nice to their prisoners, and he carried a grudge for at least seven years, to the extent that he refused to forgive Cromwell even when the planet was about to be sucked up by a black hole. This was never mentioned again. His early life is unknown, but when Sam Carter was trying to get him to empathise with some new Air Force Academy graduates, he made the odd comment that '[He] was never their age.' Finally, his son Charlie accidentally killed himself with O'Neill's sidearm, and O'Neill blames himself. He was suicidal and were it not for the intervention of Daniel Jackson, he would have killed himself with a nuclear bomb and knowingly taken five-thousand people with him.

** And let's not forget his second-in-command on DS9, Kira Nerys, who grew up on Bajor under the ''brutal'' Cardassian Occupation and was participating in the Bajoran resistance movement as a teenager - oh, yes, and her mother [[spoiler:slept with the Cardassian BigBad to obtain more comforts/possible survival for her family]]. Then her lover died in her arms. Then... Aw, hell, Kira should probably be insane by now, mmk?

* [=~Kyon: Big Damn hero~=] has [[spoiler:Michikyuu Kanae]], who, as a slider, has gone through hundreds of worlds, only to have them invaded by aliens and everyone she loves killed. Again. ''[[DoomMagnet Hundreds of times]]''.

* How we came this far without a ''OnePiece'' mention is beyond this troper. Every character that joins the crew (and then some) have a tragic past, as if it's a requirement to jump aboard a ship with Luffy. Most pasts, however, take a usually "boring" subject and draw them out into originality. A good example is Sanji; everyone knows being stranded on an island sucks, but this is hardly an island: it's a mushroom rock that's too far above sea water to fish and incapable of planting anything... because it's a ROCK. Not to mention he realizes that the only other person on this island has a big ol' bag of, what he thinks is, food, much bigger than the one he gave to Sanji. However, it turns out that other guy just had a bunch of money and absolutely NO food, and that instead of keeping any for himself, gave ''all'' the food he recovered to Sanji and instead ''broke off and ate his own leg'' to survive. And on top of all ''that'', the food that Sanji got was barely enought that it should've lasted 20 days (though it lasted 25 days). It took ''eight-five days'' for a ship to find them. One can only imagine how hellish the last 60 days (''two months'') must have been. No wonder Sanji considers wasting food to be a horrible offense.

* This troper is shocked that {{Hellsing}} hasn't made this list, particularly Integra.

* [[BrokenBird Visas Marr]] in KnightOfTheOldRepublic 2. Carth Onasi in the first game has one too.

*** Not if you play Human Noble. (Who is, incidentally, one of only two PCs without a significantly dark and troubled past as well. Being orphaned as an adult sucks, but beats out being [[FantasticCasteSystem branded as worthless from birth]] and forced into crime or prostitution to survive.)

* Quite a few characters on {{NCIS}} - Gibbs with his [[{{DeadLittleSister}} dead daughter]] [[{{MyGreatestFailure}} and wife]] ({{You Should Know This Already}}), Tony with his hints of [[{{AbusiveParents}} parental abuse]], and Ziva with all her siblings dying violently ([[spoiler: [[{{KillTheOnesYouLove}} one by her own hand]]]]) and her father basically a sociopath who raised her to kill people. Even Ducky gets into the act in some episodes. The [[spoiler: late]] Director Shepard also had a screwed-up childhood. Basically the only ones with possible good pasts are cheerful {{Perky Goth}} Abby and {{Hollywood Nerd}} [=McGee=].

* Severus Snape from the ''HarryPotter'' franchise, who fell to TheDarkSide at school and [[TheAtoner then devoted]] [[LoveRedeems the rest of his life]] to [[TheDumbledore Dumbledore]]'s cause.
** Also [[HarryPotter Sirius Black]], who had (let's count!): 1) dead best friend, 2) dead brother, 3) ''likely'' some level of parental abuse (though the specifics are undisclosed), 4) abandoned (disowned) by parents, 5) 13 years in prison (though undeserved), 6) being betrayed by {{Nakama}} Peter Pettigrew!

* Vriska Serket of ''Homestuck''. Being raised by a giant spider who forced her to kill hundreds or even thousands of other children to feed left her pretty damaged.

* [[MadScientist Walter Bishop]] from ''{{Fringe}}'' crossed several ethical boundaries in the name of Science before he was admitted St. Claire's Psychiatric Institution, including experimenting on children.

* The entire main crew of ''{{Cowboy Bebop}}'' has this to some degree. Spike Spiegel used to be an enforcer for the Red Dragon crime syndicate, essentially Space {{Yakuza}}, only to fall out with them and his former best friend and fellow assassin Vicious over a girl named Julia, resulting in him [[FakingTheDead faking his death]]. Jet Black used to be a cop until his own corrupt partner and best friend set him up and tried to kill him, though he got off with merely losing his left arm and needing a cybernetic replacement -- this after the love of his life dumped him for, basically, being too controlling. Faye Valentine lost her family, her memories, and her past after she was placed in cryogenic suspension after a space shuttle accident and after she was revived the one man who seemed to care for her "died"... and left her stuck with a debt reaching into the millions. Radical Edward's father was so absent minded that he was barely aware of her existence, so she spent her entire childhood wandering aimlessly into and out of orphanages and possibly over most of the planet. The only one exempt is Ein, the genetically engineered "data dog."
** I don't know about the real japanese version, but the english dub reveals the reason for Jet's lover turning on him as him being too "together"; all she has to do is smile and do as she's told. Which is a much more acceptable explanation than "boring" since a healthy relationship is about two equals, not something akin to a parent-child situation.

* {{Comicbook/Batman}} has probably the quintessential DarkAndTroubledPast which was his parents getting murdered by an unknown mugger.

** The module creating community has brought up several examples as well. Anera in the Shadowlords arc took a lot of crap from her family (the celestial side) for being too mortal, and eventually entered into a relationship with a necromancer. It did not end well. Alex in the Bastard of Kosigan series has a very troubled one, dealing with the complications involved with being in love with the severely disfavored bastard, and her [[spoiler: abortive relationship with Vlad]]. Pia in A Dance With Rogues has many regrets about her time as one of Vico's playthings.

Stock {{Backstory}} for a character. Much like a MysteriousPast, except more [[{{tragedy}} tragic]] 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 [[TooHappyToLive a happy memory transforms into a slaughter]]. Often used as a FreudianExcuse for an antisocial character's JerkAss tendencies or [[TheQuietOne quiet]] [[TheStoic stoicism]]. Still, it can be understandable that the character wants to keep it secret because, [=~They're Called Personal Issues For A Reason~=] after all.

* Since all of the princesses of ThePrincessesSeries are based mostly on the Grimm Bros. version they all have this, though some more then others.

* Since all of the princesses of The Princesses Series are based mostly on the Grimm Bros. version they all have this, though some more then others.

* Chichiri in ''FushigiYuugi'' has a TraumaCongaLine in his past. His childhood best friend Hikou betrays him by stealing a kiss from his fiancee, who immediately calls off the engagement in [[HonorBeforeReason shame]]. Chichiri [[BerserkButton goes berserk]] and attacks Hikou, but as they are fighting, a massive flood sweeps through the [[DoomedHometown village]]. Chichiri's fiancee ''and'' family are killed in the flood, and although Chichiri attempts to save his former best friend's life, Hikou is lost in the flood before they can make amends. Chichiri also [[EyeScream lost his eye]] in this incident, and in fact, it was getting hit by the driftwood that caused him to let go of Hikou's hand.

*While a majority of ''AxisPowersHetalia'' is silly and cute, the characters are still [[MoeAnthropomorphism countries]], thus all of them have some negetive points of their history. Nevertheless, [[PsychopathicManchild Russia]] takes the cake for troubled pasts; the best example would be the "Bloody Sunday" strip, in which he finally snaps and starts [[NightmareFuel GUNNING DOWN his own people]] as they're rioting in the streets ("If they hate me, they're not Russian.") before turning to [[TheWoobie Lithuania]] and stating "We don't want children who can't play nice, do we?". SoYeah.

* Barbie, from ''[[StephenKing Under the Dome]]'' has a [[MyGreatestFailure greatest failure]] in the time when he [[spoiler: allowed his military unit in Iraq to torture and kill a prisoner for no reason]]. He regrets this for the rest of his life, and his remorse thinking back on it is bad enough [[spoiler: to get an EnergyBeing who sees him as an ant to show pity for him]].