History Main / TroubledAbuser

* In ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'', Bruce Banner's father, Brian, beat his son out of envy for his wife Rebecca's attention, and the fear that his son was a monster (simply because Bruce was highly intelligent from an early age, potentially even more than Brian, who was a nuclear physicist). He later directs this abuse [[DomesticAbuse to his wife]] and eventually kills her, which leads to him being institutionalized. He later is released under his son's custody, and reveals that his own father abused him, and considers him a "monster". He later tries to kill Bruce to put an end to the "monster gene". [[SelfMadeOrphan It worked about as well as you'd expect]]. The later run of ''Comicbook/ImmortalHulk'' dives deeper into this further, and explains the extent of psychological damage this causes Bruce Banner for the rest of his life, leaving him unable to comprehend there can be love without pain. [[spoiler:Brian's abuses led to Bruce creating the Devil Hulk as a father figure, who is himself quite unpleasant and rude.]]

* Cain from ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', [[CainAndAbel as the first murderer]], [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality has to live out his part of the story he's part of]] by repeatedly murdering his brother Abel. As both brothers are immortal (being stories), Abel keeps coming back, and Cain keeps murdering him in extremely painful ways on the flimsiest of pretexts. What makes Cain troubled is that he tries to genuinely love Abel as a brother, is partially aware that it's the story that made them both that compels him to keep murdering him, and even tries resisting it. Nevertheless, he can't resist his own nature for long. [[spoiler:When the Eumenides destroy Abel during their attack on the Dreaming, Cain is devastated and the first thing he does upon Dream's transmigration is to demand Abel be restored and insist he won't work for the new Dream without his brother.]]

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' has Asuka, who constantly berates, belittles, and curses Shinji despite sharing an apartment with him and honestly wanting his attention. It's revealed that after an experiment gone wrong, Asuka's mother was driven mad and began treating a doll like it was her child and ignored her real daughter. Meanwhile, Asuka discovers her father is cheating on her mother with her mother's nurse. Asuka then finds her mother hanging from the ceiling, the little daughter doll hanging beside her. Asuka then throws all her desperate affections at Kaji who gently turns her down, but his kindness only feels like pity. She's left trying to pursue Shinji while still trying to keep him from getting close to her, causing her and him no end of stress.

* Popopoka's Blind Girl comics features a recurring bully girl who stops at nothing to pick on the heroine, even encouraging other people to do the same (not like that's hard, since [[CosmicPlaything nearly everyone is an asshole to her anyway]]). One selection of comics shows that this bully actually has severe self-esteem issues of her own, to the point where she's cutting herself, but the reason for it has yet to be revealed. She also seems to secretly crave the Blind Girl's attention, but her insecurities combined with her own self-loathing make her lash out at the girl instead.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Stan Smith is hardly a decent father, but his own parents were even worse. His father was cruel and neglectful and completely abandoned the family when Stan was 8, and his mother expected him to take over the role of man of the house, costing him his entire childhood and leading to a disturbingly co-dependent relationship between them in adulthood.

** For most of the first and second seasons, Prince Zuko is a highly frustrated young man, who in his hunt for the Avatar [[BadBoss frequently lashes out at his own crew]], [[EstablishingCharacterMoment is introduced]] [[KickTheDog threatening a bunch of defenseless Water Tribe peasants]], burns down or damages whatever Earth Kingdom settlement he comes across, and after becoming a fugitive he spends most of his time responding [[UngratefulBastard poorly]] to whatever hospitality the Earth Kingdom citizens show him. He also has a history of emotional and physical abuse [[AbusiveParents at the hands of his father]] Fire Lord Ozai, who heavily favored his more talented and inherently cruel younger sister and is [[ExpandedUniverse in the comics]] revealed to be responsible for his mother's disappearance, too. All of this abuse culminated in Ozai scarring the left side of Zuko's face for life and banishing him until he could return home with the Avatar, [[SnipeHunt unseen for a hundred years]]. Zuko's desperation to "earn his father's love" is the primary reason he has such a one-track mind and can't respond properly to shown kindness.
* WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman's childhood was terrible, especially when he had to contend with Beatrice, his [[AbusiveParents crappy mother]] but when we see her childhood, we find out that it wasn't sunshine and rainbows either, adding to this is that her [[spoiler: lobotomized mother, Honey, said "Promise me you won't love anyone like I loved [=CrackerJack=]"]]. She made good on that promise.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Peter Griffin is an abusive and cruel PsychopathicManchild to his family, especially his daughter Meg. The episode "Peter's Sister" reveals that this is because of his BigSisterBully Karen, who abused and treated him exactly how he treats Meg when they were kids, with their parents [[UselessBystanderParent doing nothing to stop it]], and continues to do so into their adulthood.

* In ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', the eponymous character has a StalkerWithACrush named Helga who is also eager to hide the fact that she has a crush on Arnold... by subjecting him to relentless bullying and harassment that includes physical and verbal abuse. She also has AbusiveParents [[ParentalFavoritism who favor her older sister over]] [[TheUnfavourite her]] [[ParentalNeglect and barely pay attention to her]] (and said sister [[StageMom doesn't have it much better]]).

** Catra was raised abusively by Shadow Weaver, even given death threats as a small child and to say this left an impact [[FreudianExcuse would be an understatement]]. As a result, Catra treats basically everyone around her cruelly: she berates and insults Entrapta, casually threatens even [[IgnoredEnamoredUnderling Scorpia]], and her relationship with Adora had strong AllTakeAndNoGive overtones where Catra would often take advantage of Adora's hard work, encourage her to break rules for her, and get jealous of Adora's popularity with the other cadets (having even scratched her once when they were little after Adora got close to Lonnie). When Adora defected, one of the big motives as her descent into villainy [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope worsened]] was to inflict as much pain on Adora as possible, physical and emotional for her [[SelfServingMemory perceived betrayal]] and Catra's AlwaysSecondBest issues.
** Hordak sees most of his minions as tools to be discarded the moment they cease to be useful, tortured Catra on two occasions after she displeased him, and sent her on a suicide mission. "Huntara" reveals that [[spoiler:Horde Prime saw Hordak and his fellow clones as disposable tools as well. When Hordak exhibited symptoms of a medical condition, Horde Prime neck-lifted him before sending him to die in battle for being flawed.]]

** Light example: Homer frequently abuses Bart physically, but it's shown in plenty flashbacks that his own father Abe was rather aloof and abusive to him as well. Abe was sometimes even seen strangling Homer in the same manner the latter famously does to Bart today.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Lapis suffers from trauma caused by being [[AndIMustScream trapped in a mirror]] for hundreds of years. As a result, she's distant and standoffish to even her closest friends. Lapis took off much of her anger on Jasper by forcing them into an unstable fusion underneath the ocean for several months.

* Sam Puckett commits DomesticAbuse to her boyfriend Freddie on ''Series/ICarly''. One episode reveals that [[DisappearedDad her father]] [[ParentalAbandonment walked out on her whole family]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Mr. Cat regularly abuses Quack Quack, and sometimes Stumpy, for no apparent reason. He also had an abusive and neglectful family.

* In ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'', {{Tsundere}} Louise mistreats Saito, often causing him more injury than the main antagonists. Aside from Saito being a LovableSexManiac, it's suggested that Louise had a long history of being bullied by the other students due to her inability to perform spells properly and used to be on the receiving end of her BigSisterBully Eleonore's (who is one of the few people to ''frighten'' Louise) annoyance.

* Klaus from ''Manga/MaidenRose'' (drug-addicted, with lots of {{conflicting loyalt|y}}ies, a love interest [[TheChainsOfCommanding with]] [[BrokenMessiah his own]] [[WarriorPrince and strong]] [[CantHaveSexEver issues]]);

** "Bull-E" implies that [[MyBelovedSmother Agnes Skinner]]'s mother never once told her she loved her, which is why she became an utterly unpleasable parent herself. When a therapist digs this up by taking a wild guess, she bursts into tears.

** Light example: Homer Simpson frequently physically abuses Bart, it is often revealed in flashbacks that his own father Abe was rather aloof and emotionally abusive to him as well. Abe was in some cases even seen strangling Homer in the same manner the latter does to Bart today.

* ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'': Once upon a time, there was an elderly martial artist called Ougai, the successor of ''Nanto Hou Ou Ken'' (South Star Phoenix Fist) adopted an innocent baby boy. Teaching him everything he knew, he gave the orphan with all the warmth and love of his heart, raising him to the next successor of this mighty battle art. Little did the boy know on his fifteenth birthday, blindfolded for his final test, that [[ThereCanBeOnlyOne the traditions of Nanto Hou Ou Ken demands one slay his own master to inherit his title]]. Driven mad by grief, the innocent boy known as Souther grew up into a heartless tyrant, whom after the world was consumed by nuclear fire, built an Empire on the blood and tears of slave children to renounce himself of the love that tore his heart apart.
* Akito Sohma from ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' fits this trope, her mental problems and abusive behavior being a product of the Sohma clan's [[BigScrewedUpFamily toxic environment]] and conditioning like the rest of the Zodiac members. From the moment she was born, Akito was made to believe that the only reason why she was lovable and important is because she was the Zodiac's "God"; even her own father basically told her he doted on her because the "God" being his and Ren's child was proof of how "special" they were. Akito's mother was [[JealousParent insanely jealous of her husband]] and everyone in the Sohma household showering Akito with attention while she was shunned for being a former maid, so she took it out on Akito by constantly telling her that she was worthless and eventually, everyone would hate and leave her. This all resulted in Akito developing an obsessive dependency on the Zodiac "bond" because she desperately wanted to believe the Zodiac animals would always love her and stay with her. Then, Akito discovered [[spoiler:the bond was ''not'' eternal when Kureno's curse broke]] and this was a big hit to her mental and emotional stability. Ever since then, she has controlled the Zodiac members through extremely cruel physical and emotional abuse, especially the women due to her issues with her evil mother.

* In ''Manga/{{Pupa}}'', the protagonist's violently [[AbusiveParent abusive father]] is revealed to have a horribly abusive upbringing himself, [[spoiler:being an orphan who was adopted by a MadArtist who would regularly strip him naked and whip him bloody in order to get an inspiration for his paintings]].

* [[Franchise/HarryPotter Orion Black]] from ''Fanfic/TheBlackSheepDogSeries'' is an emotionally abusive father towards Sirius, whom he treats with open contempt. He repeatedly humiliates his eldest son, and even blackmails him into falling in line with the family's traditions, which Sirius hates. However, it is pretty much stated that Orion's father, Arcturus, is an even ''worse'' parent to both Orion and his sister, Lucretia; and even as an adult, Orion is still unable to stand up against his father's domineering. This is most evident in chapter 5, where after berating and threatening his eldest son [[spoiler:for infiltrating his own grandfather's birthday party as a spy for Dumbledore]], he immediately becomes timid and obedient when his own father bears down on him. Sirius is not afraid to use this fact to call out his father's injustices.

* ''Fanfic/LastCall'': Lapis has suffered physical and sexual abuse throughout her life, and in turn physically and mentally abused her now-ex-girlfriend Jasper.

* {{Discussed|Trope}} in ''Fanfic/ThePeaceNotPromised''. The main reason why Lily's father starts off being against her relationship with Severus is because he grew up in an abusive household and would be at risk for turning abusive himself (not helped by the fact that he had already called her a highly offensive slur the prior year).
* ''Fanfic/TheGreatAceDetective'' has Barok's brother Klint gaslighting him and making him doubt his perceptions [[spoiler:so that he can get away with murder,]] something which has a clear negative effect on Barok. This is because [[spoiler:Klint knows if Barok finds out about his crimes--which he's being blackmailed into doing--he will turn him in in a heartbeat, and the resultant public backlash could ruin not only Barok, but Klint's daughter as well by association.]] Barok still calls him out on it when the whole truth is revealed.

** In [[Film/Cinderella2015 Disney's 2015 live-action remake]], she confesses to Cinderella that she truly loved her first husband and was heartbroken by his death, and that while she married Cinderella's father for convenience, not for love, she was embittered even more when his death left her in genteel poverty. Again, Cinderella's innocence and kindness remind her too much of her own InnocenceLost. She's also shown to be bitter that Cinderella's father always loved his daughter and the memory of his first wife more than he loved her.

** In ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'', the eponymous character is regularly subjected to loads of abuse by her widowed Christian fundamentalist mother, Margaret White. We later find out that Carrie is a ChildByRape. At one point, Carrie's parents were so hard-line fundamentalist that they were remaining celibate and then Mr. White changed his mind and forced himself on Margaret in a combination of NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization and MaritalRapeLicense. [[DefiledForever She is so ashamed of having "sinned"]] and so unwilling to think of her experience as rape that she refuses to believe that she's pregnant when she is, calling it "a cancer of the womanly parts." Chris Hargensen also counts, being one of Carrie's ''many'' bullies, one of the key players in [[spoiler:the infamous "pig's blood" prank that ends up being Carrie's DespairEventHorizon]], and a victim of DomesticAbuse by her boyfriend, Billy.

** [[WickedStepmother The Queen]] from ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' forces Snow White to work and dress as a servant in her own residence and even tries to have her murdered. In her ''A Tale of...'' novel, the Queen, named Grimhilde, is revealed to have been made insecure about her appearance by her emotionally and physically abusive father who [[MaternalDeathBlameTheChild blames her for her mother dying in childbirth]]. Grimhilde tried to [[BreakingTheCycleOfBadParenting be a good step-mother to Snow]] but she snapped after her husband, the King, died in war. Grimhilde became grief-stricken and began obsessing over the Man in the Mirror. This is due to [[spoiler:the Mirror containing the soul of her father, who Grimhilde desperately wants approval from after years of abuse]]. Eventually, this obsession leads to Grimhilde [[ParentalNeglect neglecting]] Snow White for years and then eventually becoming jealous of her daughter once she grows more beautiful than her.
** ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'' becomes an HourglassPlot. Her WickedStepmother, Lady Tremaine, married Sir Richard, only to find out that he only wed her for her inheritance from her first husband. He forces her to cook and clean and care for Cinderella like a nanny, and is even a WickedStepfather to Anastasia and Drizella, making them do chores and refusing to present them at court while Blanca try favoring Cinderella over them. When Lady Tremaine plans to leave Richard, her InnocentlyInsensitive stepdaughter, blind to her father’s DomesticAbuse, told him her stepmother’s plans. Richard threatened Lady Tremaine and locked her in her room for trying to leave him. Desperate and bitter, Lady Tremaine murders Sir Richard to escape his abuse, and then makes his daughter into a servant like he did her and her daughters, as she blames Cinderella for telling her father, which she believes ways intentionally malicious.

* Comes up more than a few times in ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''. How sympathetic or unsympathetic the person in question is is varies based on the details of the situation, including the severity of their actions and the extent to which they understood what they were doing.

* ''Series/WandaVision'': Wanda gaslights Vision and to some extent keeps him under her control, but not out of active malice. [[spoiler: The Hex started out as Wanda's powers going haywire with grief and everything was originally subconscious. However when she began to realize what was going on she couldn't bring herself to end it because she was finally happy. She convinced herself that she was making things better for the towns people (fixing a marriage, helping a guy shine as a pianist) and making them feel safe. But once she's confronted with the truth of how much pain she's caused she finally ends it, despite it costing her her husband and children. Plus, when she believed that Vision had left her and their sons, she said that if Vision didn't want her anymore she couldn't force him to return.]]

* One could make the argument that Zeus from [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Classical Greek Mythology]] counts as this. Zeus tends to act like a huge dick towards his siblings, his wife and his children. But it should be remembered that Zeus didn’t exactly have a happy childhood or loving parents either. His father Kronos/Cronus treated Zeus and his siblings the same way that Zeus treats his current family, to the point that Kronos/Cronus tried to outright ''[[ImAHumanitarian eat]] [[OffingTheOffspring his children]]''.

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'', [[spoiler:Team Star is actually made up of top-ranked bullies who were all already bullied before at Naranja/Uva Academy, but they rounded up other abused students into becoming Team Star to get revenge on their bullies, driving them out of school that they dropped out. However, things got out of hand when their boss couldn't hope to disband the team themself due to their tight camaradie, and thus all of Team Star ironically became the new bullies of the academy. Operation Starfall is not about putting a stop to them all, but rather to stop the Big Boss's leader friends from continuing with their actions or else they all risk getting expelled from the academy for good.]]

* Makihisa Toono from ''{{VisualNovel/Tsukihime}}'' suffers from a constant risk of being taken over by his family's [[SuperpoweredEvilSide demon blood]] and his only guaranteed method is keeping his mind under control is [[spoiler: forcing an 8 years-old Kohaku into sexual intercourse]]. The same situation later happens to his children [=SHIKI=] and Akiha. That said, the Toono family can be considered one of the most sympathetic examples of this trope, as even their victim acknowledges that they did what they because they had no other choice.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': Having been a victim of abuse herself, Cinder Fall's tutelage of her subordinate Emerald is also abusive as her role-models for leadership and power are rooted in people abusing both power and the people who work for them. A lot of Cinder's mannerisms and instructions to Emerald mimic the mannerisms and instructions Salem inflicts upon her, such as telling Emerald to obey instead of think, something Salem also tells her. [[spoiler:Her abusive adoptive mother is another one of her inspirations, as revealed in her backstory. Her mother used to torture her with a ShockCollar and tell her to "remember her place", while in the present, Cinder says the same to Emerald after hitting her.]]

* Popopoka's Blind Girl comics features a recurring bully girl who stops at nothing to pick on the heroine, even encouraging other people to do the same (not like that's hard, since [[CosmicPlaything nearly everyone is an asshole to her anyway]]). One selection of comics shows that this bully actually has severe self esteem issues of her own, to the point where she's cutting herself, but the reason for it has yet to be revealed. She also seems to secretly crave the Blind Girl's attention, but her insecurities combined with her own self-loathing make her lash out at the girl instead.

* ''Website/{{Springhole}}'': In ''[[https://springhole.net/writing/write-better-abused-characters.htm#people On Writing Abusers, Abuse Victims & Abuse Situations]]'', Syera addresses that abusers are people who have problems just like everyone else, pointing out that the popular depiction of abusers will prompt real-life abusers to bring up their problems when called out on their behavior, while perpetuating the myth that an abuser will stop being an abuser if they experience emotional pain.

* WebVideo/Dimension20's "Fantasy High" features Aelwyn Abernant, the older sister of player character Adaine Abernant, who is heavily favored by the pair's abusive parents and put on a pedestal while Adaine is criticized for every small infraction. Aelwyn does nothing to protect her younger sister from their parents and often actively participates in their antagonizing her, fighting against her [[spoiler: and setting her up to get killed while serving Kalvaxis. When she's broken out of prison by her parents and taken to Fallinel, she winds up being tortured while in elven custody, being kept awake and unable to trance (aka sleep) for months. The endless exhaustion breaks her mind, leaving her a shell of her former self and forcing her to reflect on how truly terribly she treated Adaine. When Adaine joins her in Calethrial Tower, she apologizes for treating her little sister so badly and lies to the guards in order to protect her. When the Bad Kids rescue her and Adaine, Adaine enters her mind to see all the memories of times where Aelwyn wishes she'd been brave enough to stand up for her and eventually comes across a preserved copy of Aelwyn's consciousness from before she was tortured labeled “Despite all of the torment and tribulation, let this be proof, I always knew there was only one person clever enough to find this.” and returns her sister to her former cruel self. Aelwyn returns to her mother, having forgotten the months of torture, but during the final battle turns against her parents and protects her sister. The two reconcile and Aelwyn moves into Mordred Manor with Adaine, and the two agree to try and be real sisters]].

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'': Stan Smith is hardly a decent father, but his own parents were even worse. His father was cruel and neglectful and completely abandoned the family when Stan was 8, and his mother expected him to take over the role as man of the house, costing him his entire childhood and leading to a disturbingly co-dependent relationship between them in adulthood.

** For most of the first and second seasons, Prince Zuko is a highly frustrated young man, who in his hunt for the Avatar [[BadBoss frequently lashes out at his own crew]], [[EstablishingCharacterMoment is introduced]] [[KickTheDog threatening a bunch of defenseless Water Tribe peasants]], burns down or damages whatever Earth Kingdom settlement he comes across, and after becoming a fugitive he spends most of his time responding [[UngratefulBastard poorly]] to whatever hospitality the Earth Kingdom citizens show him. He also has a history of emotional and physical abuse [[AbusiveParents at the hands of his father]], Fire Lord Ozai, who heavily favored his more talented and inherently cruel younger sister and is [[ExpandedUniverse in the comics]] revealed to be responsible for his mother's disappearance, too. All of this abuse culminated in Ozai scarring the left side of Zuko's face for life and banishing him until he could return home with the Avatar, [[SnipeHunt unseen for a hundred years]]. Zuko's desperation to "earn his father's love" is the primary reason he has such a one-track mind and can't respond properly to shown kindness.

* Father from ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' controls the Delightful Children through fear, as they are terrified of incurring the wrath of their father. However, the way Grandfather (his father) treats him is arguably worse than his treatment of the Delightful Children, as he constantly belittles and mocks him for his failures. Numbuh Zero tries to rally Father into standing up for himself, but by the end he can't do it and returns to his mansion to sulk and eat ice cream.

* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': Throughout most of the series, Eddy is a greedy, {{narcissist}}ic {{Jerkass}} who abuses and takes advantage of his friends on a regular basis. The GrandFinale, ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddysBigPictureShow'', reveals what made him this way: [[spoiler:as it turns out, Eddy was emulating his brother, who, far from the CoolBigBro Eddy painted him as, is actually a {{sadist}}ic BigBrotherBully who gleefully abuses him both physically and verbally and freely admits to have treated Eddy as such his entire life.]]

* On ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'', both Clay Puppington and his father qualify for this trope. As a child, Clay inadvertently caused his mother's death. His father Arthur initially responding by lashing out at Clay but decided to simply ignore him instead. Clay became so desperate for his father's attention that he would deliberately provoke Arthur into hitting him. As an adult, Clay would physically and psychologically abuse his own son Orel because he associated abuse with love. This is lampshaded in ''Before Orel'' when Arthur sees what a mess Clay has become as an adult and realizes just how badly his abuse has screwed his son up.

** Catra was raised abusively by Shadow Weaver, even given death threats as a small child and to say this left an impact [[FreudianExcuse would be an understatement]]. As a result, Catra treats basically everyone around her cruelly: she berates and insults Entrapta, casually threatens even [[IgnoredEnamoredUnderling Scorpia]], and her relationship with Adora had strong AllTakeAndNoGive overtones where Catra would often take advantage of Adora's hard work, encourage her to break rules for her, and get jealous of Adora's popularity with the other cadets (having even scratched her once when they were little after Adora got close to Lonnie). When Adora defected, one of the big her motives as her descent into villainy [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope worsened]] was to inflict as much pain on Adora as possible, physical and emotional for her [[SelfServingMemory perceived betrayal]] and Catra's AlwaysSecondBest issues.

As tempting as it is to add '''large-scale criminals''', such as practitioners of genocide, serial killers, etc. who happen to count as '''Troubled''' by virtue of having a DarkAndTroubledPast or FreudianExcuse just because you think they are monstrous for their deeds, exercise great caution before you do. Simply doing evil deeds on a large scale '''does not''' make one an '''Abuser''', which is the other part of the requirement to be listed here. However, that does not mean that large-scale criminals ''can't'' be abusers. Before listing any large-scale criminal, consult our handy [[UsefulNotes/{{Abuse}} Useful Notes page on the topic of abuse]], read it thoroughly, and think carefully about whether or not ''any'' of the character or person's actions count as abuse. If they don't, then don't add them. If you've done your thinking and one or more of said criminal's actions seem to count as abusive to you, go ahead and add them, but give details on ''what they do'' that is abusive in the description.

** Thor is portrayed as an alcoholic father who beats his sons Magni and Modi and [[ParentalFavouritism favours Magni over his brother]] -- when Kratos [[spoiler:kills Magni]], Thor blames Modi for not being able to save him and leaves him severely injured. However, ''VideoGame/GodOfWarRagnarok'' shows that Thor himself was verbally and, according to Mimir, physically abused by his father, Odin, who constantly belittles him as a mindless brute whose only purpose in life should be doing Odin's dirty work by killing giants with no questions or objections, which left Thor with an alcohol abuse and a belief that [[TrappedInVillainy he could never change himself to stop being a monster]]. When Modi [[spoiler:gets killed by Atreus due to being too injured by Thor to defend himself]], Thor and his wife Sif decide to stop drinking to become better parents for their daughter, Thrúd.

** Thor is portrayed as an alcoholic father who beats his sons Magni and Modi and [[ParentalFavouritism favours Magni over his brother]] -- when Kratos [[spoiler:kills Magni]], Thor blames Modi for not being able to save him and leaves him severely injured. However, ''VideoGame/GodOfWarRagnarok'' shows that Thor himself was verbally and, according to Mimir, physically abused by his father, Odin, who constantly belittles him as a mindless brute whose only purpose in life should be doing Odin's dirty work by killing giants with no questions or objections, which left Thor with an alcohol abuse and a belief that [[TrappedInVillainy he could never change himself and stop being a monster]]. When Modi [[spoiler:got killed by Atreus due to being too injured by Thor to defend himself]], Thor and his wife Sif decide to stop drinking to become better parents for their daughter, Thrúd.

** Thor is portrayed as an alcoholic father who beats his sons Magni and Modi and [[ParentalFavouritism favours Magni over his brother]] -- when Kratos [[spoiler:kills Magni]], Thor blames Modi for not being able to save him and leaves him severely injured. However, ''VideoGame/GodOfWarRagnarok'' shows that Thor himself was verbally and, according to Mimir, physically abused by his father, Odin, who constantly belittles him as a mindless brute whose only purpose in life should be doing Odin's dirty work by killing giants with no questions or objections, which left Thor with an alcohol abuse and a belief that [[TrappedInVillainy he could never change himself and stop being a monster]]. When Modi [[spoiler:got killed by Atreus due to being too injured by Thor to defend himself]], Thor and his wife Sif decide to stop drinking to become better parents for their daughter, Thrúd.
** In ''VideoGame/GodOfWarRagnarök'', Gryla neglects her granddaughter Angrboda and is verbally abusive in her presence, declaring that she should have fed her to the wolves as a baby and that no one would remember her. However, this isn't out of malevolence, but out of unprocessed grief for the loss of her son that she suppresses by stealing animal souls, and she is heavily implied to still love her granddaughter. Angrboda even says that she isn't a monster, but just "lost".

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' eventually reveals Kotaro Shimura, Nana's child, to be one of these. His mother gave him up for adoption so she could continue her hero work (and so the villain with a personal vendetta against her wouldn't target her family to get to her, but Kotaro either doesn't know or doesn't acknowledge this). His feelings of abandonment resulted in him forbidding even the mention of heroism or Nana in his house, with harsh punishments if anyone ever broke the rule, like locking his young son Tenko outside and beating him for seeing a photograph of Nana. This still wound up ending really badly for him when [[spoiler: Tenko activated his disintegration quirk after another episode of abuse, and while in a fragile emotional state, murdered Kotaro and the rest of his family, triggering his StartOfDarkness as [[VillainousLegacy Tomura Shigaraki]].]]

* In ''LightNovel/TheFamiliarOfZero'', {{Tsundere}} Louise mistreats Saito, often causing him more injury than the main antagonists. Aside from Saito being a LovableSexManiac, it's suggested Louise has had a long history of being bullied by the other students due to her inability to perform spells properly and used to be on the receiving end of her not - so - tiny {{Tsundere}} sister Eleonore's annoyance. (In fact, Eleonore is one of the few persons who ''scares the shit outta Louise''.) Still '''not''' an excuse for how ''far'' she goes in her abuse of Saito.

->'''Homer:''' He said I was an accident... he didn't wanna have me.\\

* WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman's childhood was terrible, especially when he had to contend with Beatrice, his [[AbusiveParents crappy mother]] but, when we see her childhood, we find out that it wasn't sunshine and rainbows either, adding to this is that her [[spoiler: lobotomized mother, Honey, said "Promise me you won't love anyone like I loved [=CrackerJack=]"]]. She made good on that promise.