History Main / TroubledChild

This has excellent [[TheWoobie Woobie]] potential, but if the writers go too far, they may end up as a serious BaseBreakingCharacter for less "compassionate" viewers. Opposite of the CheerfulChild. Compare CreepyChild, and don't confuse with BrattyHalfPint (although in some cases children act out due to underlying emotional issues). Compare LonelyRichKid. See also HarmfulToMinors, which frequently overlaps with this.

* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk:'' Bruce Banner started off as one, with an insane and abusive father, who blamed Bruce for nearly killing his mother in childbirth, and thought Bruce was a monster simply for being intelligent. Add to that an abusive nanny, and Bruce started suffering from DID before he was even old enough to go to school. Then Rebecca tried leaving Brian and got murdered right in front of Bruce...

The Troubled Child is an innocent-looking youngster who looks cute enough, until you notice they rarely smile, and tend to talk in a broken deadpan when they talk at all. They may inexplicably burst into tears at times. Usually the cause of their trouble is ParentalAbandonment, AbusiveParents, or a congenital impairment of some sort.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* Fard from ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon''. Like most of the other kids, [[spoiler: he lost his parents when the Buff Clan attacked the colony on Solo.]] Spends most of his time moping, cries easily and carries a rag doll with him for most of the series. [[spoiler: Then, he's killed off. Alongside everyone else.]]
* Emile of ''Manga/CountCain'', due to ParentalNeglect, mainly.
* ''Manga/NatsumesBookOfFriends'' is about a Troubled Child finally getting a chance to recover from past trauma he's dealt with.
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * Shinji Ikari from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. Along with [[DysfunctionJunction most of the cast]], for that matter.
* Yuu from ''{{Anime/Noein}}''. At the beginning of the series, it's quite clear he's on the edge of a severe nervous breakdown due to the '''extremely''' controlling nature of his mother. Once his mother gets some sense talked into her and eases up, he starts to slowly improve.
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * The anime ''Anime/{{K}}'' gives us Anna Kushina, the only female member of the superpowered gang HOMRA.
* Eri of ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia''. After being horribly abused by a man who claims to be her father, she is so broken she is unable to smile.

* ''Franchise/TheIncredibleHulk:'' Bruce Banner started off as one, with an insane and abusive father, who blamed Bruce for nearly killing his mother in childbirth, and thought Bruce was a monster simply for being intelligent. Add to that an also abusive nanny, and Bruce started suffering DID before he was even old enough to go to school. Then Rebecca tried leaving Brian and got murdered right in front of Bruce...

[[folder: Film -- Live-Action ]]

* Newt in ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', due to the trauma of trying to survive the aliens' infestation of her colony, either reacts like a frightened animal or is pretty much catatonic after Ripley and the Marines find her. It's only when Ripley takes on a maternal role to her that Newt begins to come out of her shell.

[[folder: Literature ]]

%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * Eff Rothmer, the title character of ''Literature/ThirteenthChild''
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * Sohrab in ''Literature/TheKiteRunner''.

* ''Literature/TheChosen1997'': After the traumatic loss of her mother and best friend Timmy at the hands of a vampire, five year old Rashel basically went into permanent flight-or-fight mode, such as climbing to the top shelf of her aunt Corrine's wardrobe to sleep out of fear. Following Corrine's death in a [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident 'mysterious']] house fire and being sent to foster care, Rashel withdrew from her peers and concentrated instead on becoming strong enough to [[VampireHunter fight back against vampires]] and other monsters only she knows are real. Subsequently, she developed into a rather socially-withdrawn teenager with a fixation on violent revenge.
* Both Jayni and Kenny Fenton in ''Literature/LolaRose''. Jayni suffers from low self-esteem and anxiety, Kenny acts more like a toddler than a six-year-old sometimes is prone to emotional outbursts, and doesn't much like interacting with other kids. They both grew up with a violent father who [[DomesticAbuse beats their mother]] and is [[AbusiveParent verbally abusive]] to Jayni, at the least, as well as having to run away and start a new life from scratch.
* Jaehaera Targaryen in the [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]] of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', as detailed in ''Literature/ArchmaesterGyldaynsHistories'' and ''Literature/FireAndBlood''. She was always regarded as a rather simple and frail child, though also sweet-natured. The TraumaCongaLine she went through didn't help the poor girl's mental state; a civil war broke out that saw nearly her entire family killed and she witnessed [[spoiler: the beheading of her twin brother when she was just six years old; the assassins threatened to rape and kill her along with her brothers unless her mother chose which of her sons would die (they killed the one she ''didn't'' choose), her other brother was killed during a riot and her mother committed suicide]]. At the age of eight, Jaehaera often cried with minimal provocation and still wet the bed. By the time she was ten, she [[spoiler: seemingly [[DrivenToSuicide took her own life]] by throwing herself from a castle window, in the same manner as her mother]].

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* ''Series/DarkShadows:'' David Collins and Amy Jennings. Amy is outright called this by Dr. Julia Hoffman after the girl escapes from a sanitarium. She's an orphan, one of her brothers has died and the other one seems to want nothing to do with her at times [[spoiler:(he's actually worried about her safety, as he's secretly a werewolf)]]. Her cousin Joe also goes crazy and tries to kidnap her [[spoiler: after witnessing her brother's transformation]]. David, meanwhile, has a strained-at-best relationship with his father (with the two being outright resentful of each other at times), was almost killed by Barnabas for getting too close to finding out the truth about him, and was almost burned alive along his own mother by her hand.
* Buffy seems to be one of these when she arrives on Uncle Bill's doorstep in the pilot episode of ''Series/FamilyAffair.'' She's only about six years old and has already lost both her parents, been separated from her siblings (including her twin brother), and is being left there by a relative who doesn't want her. She responds in curt "Yes, sir," and "No, sir," statements, bites French when he calls her a "little clot," and tries to run away when she thinks she'll be shipped off to a school in Switzerland. Thankfully, she's mostly better by the end of the episode - though she still lapses into moroseness at times throughout the series, especially in the earlier episodes. Her twin brother, Jody, seems less troubled, though he also has his fair share of moments.
* Luka, an orphan the team was sent to rescue in "The Stork Job" in ''Series/{{Leverage}}''. Getting used in a scam that sends orphans to loving prospective parents to milk all their money before being forcibly dragged back to an OrphanageOfFear will do that to you.
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * Most kids in ''Series/TheXFiles''.

%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * Cassandra when she first appeared on ''Series/StargateSG1''. The show lasted long enough for us to see her grow out of it and become a normal (i.e. rather bratty) teenager.
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * Tomoya from ''Series/{{Aishiteru}}''.

[[folder: Theatre ]]

* Helen in ''Theatre/TheMiracleWorker'' is a violent child who cannot communicate and frequently puts herself and others in danger. Her parents fear being forced to put her in [[BedlamHouse an asylum for "mental defectives"]].
* Winthrop in ''Theatre/TheMusicMan'', is described by his older sister Marian as "a problem child who can't understand why his father was taken away." He lisps when he talks, too.
* Zoe in ''Theatre/{{Quidam}}'' is a lonely adolescent girl who feels alienated from everyone, including her parents. Her journey into a MagicalLand shows her that everyone feels this way sometimes, and how she can connect/reconnect with others.

[[folder: Tabletop RPG ]]

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' adventure ''Divided Assets'', the {{PC}}'s are hired to kidnap a young boy named Shawn Gaffney. After doing so, they discover that Shawn has psychological problems due to emotional neglect by his parents.

[[folder: Video Games]]
* [[DefectorFromDecadence Britz Strudel]] of ''VideoGame/FugaMelodiesOfSteel''. His dad was coldly executed for treason against the Berman Empire, his family name was persecuted and shunned as a result, he left to be conscripted into the army and watched all the horrors his home country committed in the name of "glory", and in the game itself he [[spoiler:gets tricked into betraying his new friends and potentially ''[[DrivenToSuicide commits suicide]]'' as a result of it]]. While he still tries hard to be calm and approachable to the other kids on the Taranis, his war experiences have given him a gloomy demeanor and some self-esteem issues (as well as a ''brutal'' forehead scar), and he feels like him having served a [[ANaziByAnyOtherName fascist army]] makes him unworthy of anyone's compassion or respect. And he's carrying all of this baggage at the ripe old age of ''nine''.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* [[spoiler:Jeannette]] of ''Literature/FunnyBusiness'' at first appears, both to the other characters and to the readers, to be a CheerfulChild, but she is really this trope. Ironically, a large part of her alienation is self-inflicted, as she doesn't want to burden anybody else with her problems.
* Thanks to abuse, WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic when he was a kid. Just at kindergarten age, he was drawing pictures of his parents as monsters ripping him apart.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Link from the ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' movie ''Is It Fall Yet?'' came out somewhere between this and a MouthyKid--he was clearly miserable (by his own admission) due to a difficult home life, but his attitude was less depressed and more angry as a result.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', [[TheBully Nelson Muntz]], particularly after the 90s, has many a FreudianExcuse—ParentalAbandonment courtesy of a criminal father, constant ParentalNeglect from a mother who strips to support them, and a lifestyle so impoverished that he's been known to eat [[ExtremeOmnivore tadpoles and drywall]].

* Fard from ''Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon''. Like most of the other kids, [[spoiler: he lost his parents when the Buff Clan attacked the colony on Solo.]] Spends most of his time, moping, cries easily and carries a rag doll with him for most of the series. [[spoiler: Then, he's killed off. Alongside everyone else.]]

* Yuu from ''{{Anime/Noein}}''. At the beginning of the series it's quite clear he's on the edge of a severe nervous breakdown due to the '''extremely''' controlling nature of his mother. Once his mother gets some sense talked into her and eases up, he starts to slowly improve.

* Both Jayni and Kenny Fenton in ''Literature/LolaRose''. Jayni suffers from low self-esteem and anxiety, Kenny acts more like a toddler than a six year-old sometimes, is prone to emotional outbursts and doesn't much like interacting with other kids. They both grew up with a violent father who [[DomesticAbuse beats their mother]] and is [[AbusiveParent verbally abusive]] to Jayni, at the least, as well as having to run away and start a new life from scratch.
* Jaehaera Targaryen in the [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]] of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', as detailed in ''Literature/ArchmaesterGyldaynsHistories'' and ''Literature/FireAndBlood''. She was always regarded as a rather simple and frail child, though also sweet-natured. The TraumaCongaLine she went through didn't help the poor girl's mental state; a civil war broke out that saw nearly her entire family killed and she witnessed [[spoiler: the beheading of her twin brother when she was just six years old; the assassins threatened to rape and kill her along with her brothers, unless her mother chose which of her sons would die (they killed the one she ''didn't'' choose), her other brother was killed during a riot and her mother committed suicide]]. At the age of eight, Jaehaera often cried with minimal provocation and still wet the bed. By the time she was ten, she [[spoiler: seemingly [[DrivenToSuicide took her own life]] by throwing herself from a castle window, in the same manner as her mother]].

** Andy has a lot of issues stemming from her parents' recent and acrimonious divorce, which is lampshaded by the family therapist. She is socially-withdrawn and makes little effort to integrate with her stepfamilies (which isn't surprising considering some of them actively exclude her), she has difficulty concentrating at school, often gets into fights with her stepsister Katie (sometimes escalating to violence) and mouths off to her stepdad Bill. Andy begins breaking into a garden near where her old home used to be, though she doesn't want to cause trouble; she just really wants some space of her own. This culminates in her [[spoiler:sneaking out in the middle of night, in winter, to go looking for her lost toy]].

* Winthrop in ''Theatre/TheMusicMan'', described by his older sister Marian as "a problem child who can't understand why his father was taken away." He lisps when he talks, too.

* ''Literature/CanYouSpareAQuarter'': 12-year old Jamie breaks down crying when he is with Graham, overwhelmed by the accumulated pain from being abused at home and having to prostitute himself in the street, a pain that he has bottled up for a long time.

* Thanks to abuse, WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic when he was a kid. Just at kindergarten age he was drawing pictures of his parents as monsters ripping him apart.