Line #39 BrokenBird/Film


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3	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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9	!Animated
10	* Red from ''WesternAnimation/TheAngryBirdsMovie'' (no pun intended). On the outside, he may appear as a Jerkass to those around him, but given he [[spoiler:neither knew his parents nor had friends growing up]], who can blame him?
11	* Mittens from ''WesternAnimation/{{Bolt}}''. Being abandoned by her owners made her [[CatsAreSnarkers snarky]] and abrasive.
12	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen\|2013}}'':
13	** Queen Elsa used to be a happy kid, until one night, she hit her little sister in the head with her ice powers. After that incident, she tried to conceal her powers, detaching herself from her sister. She had spent thirteen years of her life in isolation and fear of herself and hurting others. [[spoiler: However, after bringing back summer to Arendelle, she displays this trope less (particularly in the short Frozen Fever.)]]
14	** Princess Anna has shades of this due to being secluded away from the world living with a sister who locked her out for 13 years, [[StepfordSmiler but she tries to hide it behind a cheerful facade]]. Unfortunately, she became a full-on Broken Bird when not only her attempts to talk out her sister regarding the EndlessWinter ended up getting her struck on her heart and then sicced a giant ice monster by said sister that nearly killed her but when she attempts to get a kiss from her fiancee to thaw a frozen heart, said man never really loved her at all and then leaving her behind to die being frozen solid, causing Anna to break down believing that nobody loved her at all.
15	* Megara from Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}''. After making a DealWithTheDevil and becoming a slave to Hades to save her boyfriend's soul, only to have said boyfriend dump her for another girl, she's more than a little cynical, particularly towards Hercules.
16	* ''WesternAnimation/Klaus2019'' has Alva, the local schoolteacher with no children to teach, as the FeudingFamilies of the town refuse to have their kids attend class with their sworn rivals' children. By the time Jesper arrives, Alva has become a fishmonger, converting the schoolhouse into her business, and is slowly saving up to build a new life ''far'' away from Smeerensburg. However, [[spoiler: after Jesper encourages the kids to attend school so they can write letter asking Klaus for presents, [[https://youtu.be/X9-jogNZW5U their genuine eagerness to learn turns Alva's life around]], reigniting her passion to teach, and she winds up spending ''all'' of her savings to provide her new students with the environment they need to thrive]]. As the ArcWords of the movie state - "A true act of goodwill always sparks another."
17	* [[spoiler:Agatha "Aggie" Prenderghast]] from ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'' UsedToBeASweetKid until she became a angry, bitter [[spoiler:and very sad]] VengefulGhost after she was being accused of witchcraft and executed by the townspeople.
18	* Fiona from ''WesternAnimation/ShrekForeverAfter''. For a result of Shrek not rescuing her (in the alternate universe), no longer believes in true love.
19	* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', Ming has been one for many years, starting ''way'' before her daughter was born. However, it's [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] and largely focused on just two aspects of her life and personality: her relationship with her mother, Wu, and anything to do with the red panda. In her teenage years, Ming tried to be a good daughter to Wu, but realized that she would never live up to her mother's expectations. Eventually all of this pressure got to the point that she transformed out of sheer rage, attacking Wu and giving her her eyebrow scar in the first bout and destroying half of the temple during the second due to Wu disapproving of her relationship with Jin, the man who loved Ming for who she is. She's hated the panda ever since due to it causing more harm than good to her. She was determined to not make the same mistake with ''her'' daughter, only to do exactly that when Mei reached that first stage of self-discovery and independence. The fact that Mei's first act of open defiance also involves the panda is too much for Ming to handle.
20	* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'':
21	** Vanellope von Schweetz first comes off as a BrattyHalfPint, but she reveals she is much more in a CrapsaccharineWorld where she is dismissed as a "mistake."
22	** Sergeant Calhoun. Being programmed to [[spoiler:believe [[WidowedAtTheWedding your fiancé died on your wedding day]] due to your mistake]] is definitely going to make you rough around the edges.
23	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'', Nick Wilde is a RareMaleExample. As a child, he was an idealistic dreamer like Judy until his dreams were broken when he was bullied and muzzled for being a fox by prey animals. This made him cynical and bitter, deciding that he was never going to let anyone see that they got to him and [[ThenLetMeBeEvil resign himself to being the shifty, untrustworthy fox he's expected to be]].
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25	!Live-Action
26	* Selena in ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'' has already seen society crumble around her and everyone she knows killed or infected by the time we meet her, and as a result maintains that "staying alive is as good as it gets". [[spoiler: She ruthlessly kills her companion Mark when she suspects that he is infected, and assures Jim she would do the same to him "in a heartbeat".]]
27	%%* The Hatter in Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/AliceInWonderland2010''. Mercury poisoning is only part of what drove him mad.
28	* ''Film/BattleRoyale'': Mitsuko Souma, despite being forced into battle royale and not wanting to play the game, takes great pleasure at killing other students in her 9th grade class for her own survival mainly since she feels no sympathy for anyone but herself regarding an incident from her childhood when her mother pimped her out to a pedophile at age 6.
29	* ''Film/{{Damage}}'':
30	** Veronica Reynolds. She was voted "least likely to succeed" in high school. Determined to prove them wrong, she went to college, which was a bust. Then she got pregnant out-of-wedlock before marrying Matthew who was, in her words "a real grade-A loser". Now Sarah, her only real accomplishment, is about to die due to her heart problems and she can't afford the heart transplant that will save her daughter's life, her only option being to help John Brickner, the man who killed her husband (in self-defense), attain parole so that he can raise the money for Sarah's new heart, which he does by fighting in an underground circuit.
31	** Reno's girlfriend, Frankie, also qualifies. She originally went to nursing school, but decided that she wasn't cut out to work in the medical industry. Young and in need of money to pay back her student debt, she sold herself to Mr. Veltz to be his implied SexSlave. Reno "bought" her from Veltz (he was actually trying to free her, but she didn't know this) and slit her wrists while she was being delivered to Reno. Reno still freed her, but her life doesn't improve all that much afterwards.
32	* ''Film/{{Five}}'': After the disaster that wipes out humanity, the pregnant Roseanne eventually makes her way to her aunt's isolated hillside house and faints when she finds Michael already living there. At first, she is too numb to speak and slow to recover.
33	* ''Film/Gone2012'': Jill is quite damaged as a result of first losing her parents, then being abducted, help captive, escaping and getting disbelieved due to her mental issues plus a lack of evidence to support her claims. She copes by learning fighting skills and keeping a stoic facade much of the time.
34	* Theodore in ''Film/{{her\|2013}}'' begins the film isolated and withdrawn. He's a writer who has always been inside his own head, but completely caves in after his wife divorces him.
35	* ''Film/TheHungerGames'': Katniss Everdeen starts out as one due to her father's death and having to be her family's main source of financial support but after the Games it gets worse.
36	* ''Film/TheInterview'': Sook yin-Park, a North Korean general who turns out to despise Kim Jong-un despite praising him repeatedly up to the point that she has to compliment him through terrible lies. This leads her to turn against her dictator and aid the American protagonists in overthrowing Kim.
37	* Annie Newton in ''Film/TheInvisible''. Call her that, and she'll [[BerserkButton beat the tar out of you]]. Half the movie is spent learning how she was broken.
38	* ''Film/JamesBond'': More than one Bond Girl.
39	** Countess Tracy Di Vincezo (Diana Rigg) from ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService''. She's barely recovering from a traumatic divorce (and her ex husband's death), drug addiction, ''and'' her child's death. [[spoiler: And once she and Bond are HappilyMarried, she's shot to death.]]
40	** Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) from ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', who joins Bond to avenge her parents' deaths with her trusty crossbow.
41	** Vesper Lynd in ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006''. Like Tracy, she's the only girl Bond thinks about leaving [=MI6=] for, but she turns against him by stealing his winnings to pay for her boyfriend's ransom, [[spoiler:but dies during the exchange]]. And what's worse is in ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'', we learn [[spoiler:that her boyfriend was really an agent with QUANTUM, who staged the kidnapping.]]
42	* ''Film/KillBill'':
43	** The plot revolves around The Bride on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge to murder the assassins who crashed her wedding, killed her fiance, and ruined her life.
44	** When O-Ren was seven, she watched her parents be brutally murdered right before her eyes, leading her to avenge them by hunting down their killer. At age [[LittleMissBadass eleven]], she found him and stabbed him to death. That act of revenge proved to be a slippery slope, as she grew up having taken professional killing as her career, joining Bill's Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and eventually becoming a feared yakuza leader. Even after all that, she's still shown to be affected by her parents' death, and insulting the Chinese-American heritage she gained from them is a big BerserkButton of hers.
45	* ''Film/LovingAnnabelle'': Ms. Bradley, who seems depressed and withdrawn over the loss of her girlfriend years ago, plus her repressed attraction to women.
46	* Vera, the main Heroine of ''The Magic Life of V'' is partaking in LARP ("Live-Action Role Playing") after LARP, mostly in badass roles (like A witch or a mutant shooter) to cope with her having very abusive childhood - her father drank a lot and beat both her and her brother, and said brother being retarded led to her being bullied.
47	* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:
48	** Loki. In ''Film/{{Thor}}'', we see that he is actually a relatively nice person deep down, who loves his brother and looks up to him immensely. Sure, he's manipulative most of the time, ruining Thor's coronation just because he thought Thor wasn't ready (he wasn't, but that's not the point), but learning that [[TheReveal his whole life and family is a lie]], and that [[YouAreWhatYouHate he's actually part of a race he's been taught to hate his entire life]] is still pretty devastating. This is what ultimately makes him snap and go about violently trying to prove his [[WellDoneSonGuy worth]] in the worst way possible. After this, the [[BigBadSlippage downward spiral only continues]]... [[spoiler:although he does seem to get some redemption in ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'' and even more so in ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' and ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar.'']]
49	** Bucky Barnes is initially introduced as a very friendly and cheerful guy in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'', but while it doesn't go away entirely, he's noticeably less chipper in the aftermath of whatever Cold-Blooded Torture Zola puts him through. It's later played tragically straight from ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' and onward, where his breaking and the consequences thereof are on full display. By the time of ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'' he's seeing a therapist, but he's deeply withdrawn and still struggles with nightmares due to his trauma.
50	* ''Film/RhymesForYoungGhouls'': Aila. She lost her mother to suicide after accidentally killing her little brother. Her father has been in prison for years. She's reacted by growing into a tough, cynical fifteen year old girl who's also dealing drugs with her uncle. We see that she's clearly never gotten over losing her mother though, who she speaks to regularly (whether an actual ghost or just her imagination is left ambiguous).
51	* ''Film/TheSpirit'': While Sand always has a materialistic streak, the Spirit says "She was a very sweet girl but the world broke her heart." The death of her father and her bitter falling out with her childhood boyfriend (and hearing about his apparent death years later) 15 years ago left her angry, callous and sad. Now, she's a thief who tries not to kill anyone without a reason but is generally apathetic when people do get hurt.
52	* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
53	** Jyn Erso from ''Film/RogueOne''. As a child she watched [[spoiler: her mother gunned down by Imperial troops, and her father effectively kidnapped to work on an Imperial weapons project, and the next time she sees him it's only for him to die in her arms after a Rebel air strike]]. Her guardian turned her into a {{Child Soldier\|s}}, and then up and abandoned her, ostensibly for her own protection since his men were beginning to learn who she ''really'' was. From then on she was on her own, more or less resorting to petty crime to get by, until she ended up in an Imperial labor camp. All of these experiences leave her beaten down and jaded, to the point where she's stopped caring about anything other than her own survival, and is honestly content to just keep her head down and ignore how bad things are for everyone else under the Empire.
54	** Rey from ''Film/TheForceAwakens''. Despite her naive optimism, being abandoned as a child caused some serious abandonment issues, judging by the look on her face when Finn announces his plan to leave and [[spoiler:the flashback it triggers.]]
55	** Addressed more in ''Film/TheLastJedi'', when Kylo Ren deliberately presses this button to try and convince Rey to join him. Rey breaks down crying when he forces her to admit that [[spoiler: she's always known deep down that her parents were nobodies who sold her for drinking money]]. It's implied that she showed so much admiration for Han Solo and Luke Skywalker because she saw them as the father figures she never had (or possibly even believed that [[spoiler: one of them could be her real father]]), making the BrokenPedestal she suffers with Luke even harsher. Throughout the third act, however, [[spoiler: Rey begins to come to terms with the fact that she can be the hero the Resistance needs [[UnlikelyHero no matter where she came from]]]].
56	* ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'': Katana. The death of her husband has driven her mad and she is left with very poor temper.
57	* Kat in ''Film/TenThingsIHateAboutYou'' was once a happy, relatively popular student at Padua High before her social life was ruined by rich, popular jerk Joey Donner. Ever since, she's been a quintessential Broken Bird and DeadpanSnarker who acts disgusted with the inanity of her high school existence and cynically mocks everyone around her, including teachers, her father, fellow students, and her younger sister, Bianca, whom she particularly scorns for all her grasping attempts at popularity. Kat displays many of the traits of the Broken Bird, including a tendency to punch people and a history of having been a "hero" before she became a pariah. She actually has a streak of CoolBigSis for her sister, thought, despite constantly reminding Bianca of how annoyed she is.
58	* ''Film/VisitingHours:'' Lisa is a tough-talking cynic who takes a while to give evidence of Colt's crimes to the police (possibly due to concern that she'll be arrested for breaking into his apartment). Still, she does go to the police in the end and shows concern for Sheila, the nurse who treated her well. The source of her cynicism is hinted at when Sheila treats her at a battered woman clinic. It's mentioned that Lisa is a repeat visitor and had to be brought to the clinic on a stretcher at least once.
59	* Myra in ''Film/WaterlooBridge'' ran away from her AbusiveParents to live in London as a chorus-girl. Unfortunate circumstances come along, so she becomes a prostitute to get by. Not only is she hurt and lonely, she feels ashamed and cheap when confronted with the chance for happiness with Roy.
60	* ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': Time and events have really taken their toll on the younger Charles Xavier. He lost Raven and Erik, Sean had disappeared several years prior [[spoiler:(and is later confirmed dead at the hands of Trask)]], then most his teachers and students were drafted to the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar, leaving him alone except for Hank. He's taking a serum designed by [=McCoy=] that suppresses his powers and restores the use of his legs just so he can sleep at night without feeling other people's pain.
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Context BrokenBird / Film