History Main / EveryScarHasAStory

Many times, when an author wishes to identify a certain character as a badass, said character will be given some sort of [[RuggedScar horrific permanent disfigurement]]. Most of the time, the disfigurement will stay unnoticed, possibly out of respect for he that is marked, or because the story behind it is [[YouDoNotWantToKnow too horrible for the others to imagine.]] But there always exists the chance that some bystander will [[SchmuckBait ask about the scar]], in which case the Badass is contractually obliged to explain it. When he is, expect the story to be long-winded, fantastical, and involving at least one SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome. In other words, a RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun moment.

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': In one strip, a sailor is telling another of how he got his peg leg. The other sailor, however, has a peg [[FateWorseThanDeath head]].
** Another comic featured a guy who was ''just a head'', with his wife telling him to stop telling his grandchildren how he got like that.

* The ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' example is spoofed in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/EekTheCat'', where everyone is grossed out by Eek's scar (a paper cut).

* In ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsCloneWars'', Anakin Skywalker receives a scar across his right eye from a lightsaber battle with Asajj Ventress. This carries over into ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', where Hayden Christensen sports the scar over his right eye.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In "Stew-Roids" Meg tells Connie the story behind how her bullying made her cut herself.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'', [[BigBad Professor Pericles]] has a scar over his left eye, cementing his creepiness. At the end of the first season, we learn how he got it: [[spoiler:After they worked together to blackmail the original Mystery Inc. for a piece of the Planespheric Disk, [[BewareTheSillyOnes a young Fred Jones Sr.]] betrayed him and [[InstantSedation knocked him out cold]]]]. It's more or less serves as a reminder that the person who gave him his scar is a MinorMajorCharacter in the show's MythArc.

* ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': Much of Wraith's anger against Wolverine is because of that big scar he left in his face.

* A [[Literature/TheLionKingSixNewAdventures tie-in storybook]] based on Disney's ''Disney/TheLionKing'' actually explained how the villain got his scar in the first place. Scar, then known as "Taka", was jealous of his brother Mufasa and tried to get a wildebeest to attack him. Scar was the one who ended up attacked and was permanently left with a scar of his eye. Afterwards, he renamed himself "Scar".

* Subverted big time in ''The Man with a Scar'' by Creator/WSomersetMaugham. The narrator notices the title man because of the scar and is told a long-winded, fantastical story about him, complete with a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome - which nevertheless has nothing to do with the scar proper. Unlimately, the narrator exclaims: "Yes, but how did he get the scar?!" - "Oh, that was a bottle of ginger ale..."

* In ''Disney/TreasurePlanet'', Jim asks Long John Silver how he became a {{cyborg}}. Silver simply responds, "You give up a few things chasing a dream."

* Inverted in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' fanfic [[http://archiveofourown.org/works/907942 "In the Blood"]]. Sam Vimes [[CoveredInScars has too many scars to keep track of]], which ends up setting up the whole plot because he doesn't realise he's acquired another one during the events of ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant''... [[spoiler: Until he wakes up with twice his usual quota of legs, and eventually figures out he got it from getting scratched by a werewolf's tooth.]]

:: They used the same joke another time, except it was a wooden leg and "The Great White Whale".

* On ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Spike has a scar on his eyebrow, mainly because his actor James Marsters received one in a mugging. Still, in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E7FoolForLove Fool For Love]]", while Spike is telling flashback stories, one of them shows the character getting it during his fight with the Chinese Slayer during the Boxer Rebellion. Apparently, it was a magic sword.

* Tokiko Tsumura of ''Manga/BusouRenkin'', by [[Creator/NobuhiroWatsuki the same mangaka]] as ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', above, has a horizontal scar across her nose. In the series' DistantEpilogue she explains that it marks when she became an alchemist warrior. The subsequent flashback shows her getting gashed across the face by a humanoid homunculus, right before she instinctively activates her busou renkin in self-defense and juliennes him.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'', [[BigBad Professor Pericles]] has a scar over his left eye, cementing his creepiness. At the end of the first season, we learn how he got it: [[spoiler:After they worked together to blackmail the original Mystery Inc. for a piece of the Planespheric Disk, [[BewareTheSillyOnes a young Fred Jones Sr.]] betrayed him and knocked him down cold]]. It's more or less serves as a reminder that the person who gave him his scar is a MinorMajorCharacter in the show's MythArc.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'', [[BigBad Professor Pericles]] has a scar over his left eye, cementing his creepiness. At the end of the first season, we learn how he got it: [[spoiler:After they worked together to blackmail the original Mystery Inc. for a piece of the Planespheric Disk, [[BewareTheSillyOnes a young Fred Jones Sr.]] betrayed him and beat him up]]. It more or less serves as a reminder that the person who gave him his scar is a MinorMajorCharacter in the show's MythArc.

* In the ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' episode "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E09 The Devil You Know]]", it turns out that {{Mafia}} boss Carl Elias' NumberTwo, Anthony "Scarface" Marconi, acquired the scar under his right eye in the process of killing his [[AbusiveParents abusive father]] to protect his mother.

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* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Weiss has a small scar across her left eye. When Weiss's VA was asked about it, she dodged the question, replying that '[the fans] will find out.' [[TheLawOfConservationOfDetail This alone implies that it's significant]]. It was later confirmed that she received her scar as depicted in the ''White'' trailer: A knight slashed her across the eye during a duel. Weiss was fighting the knight to prove to her father that she could go to Beacon.

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* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', when talking to Whitebeard, Shanks points to the scars over his eye and uses it as an example of how dangerous Marshal D. 'Blackbeard' Teach really is, as he was the one who caused the wound.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'''s Weiss has a small scar across her left eye. When Weiss's VA was asked about it, she dodged the question, replying that '[the fans] will find out.' [[TheLawOfConservationOfDetail This alone implies that it's significant]]. It was later confirmed that she received her scar as depicted in the ''White'' trailer: a knight slashed her across the eye during a duel. Weiss was fighting the knight to prove to her father that she could go to Beacon.

** Earlier, Nick Fury told Steve, "The last time I trusted somebody I lost an eye." Years later, in ''Film/CaptainMarvel'', it's revealed that his eye was scratched out by a flerkin.