"It's a hard-knock life for us!"
— Annie
An index about characters who have had a hard life, the things that happened to them, and how such things have affected and continue to affect them.
See also Madness Tropes — a tragic past can lead to mental disorder, but not all characters who experience tragedy go mad, and not all madness is the result of a tragic past. The former goes here, but the latter does not.
May be overlapped with the Sympathetic Index.
Tropes:
Related indexes:
- Abusive Parents: Being raised by a terrible father and/or mother can cause a lifetime of angst.
- Affair? Blame the Bastard: Taking out your anger from your spouse's infidelity on the bastard child born of said infidelity.
- The Aloner
- And I Must Scream
- Angst? What Angst?: A character isn't shown to be bothered by a misfortune they've endured when realistically it should upset them at least a little.
- Artistic License – Child Labor Laws: Kids are shown working despite being too young to work in real life.
- Bad Bedroom, Bad Life: The poor state of a character's bedroom reflects their difficult life.
- Badly Battered Babysitter
- Bastard Angst: A child of unmarried parents faces a tough upbringing.
- Being Evil Sucks
- Being Good Sucks
- Born into Slavery
- Break the Badass: The Badass breaks down when put up against odds that are too dangerous even for them.
- Break the Believer: A devout believer is shocked when they realize that their beliefs are wrong.
- Break the Cutie: A sweet-natured, innocent character undeservedly suffers a misfortune.
- Break the Haughty: Someone gets their comeuppance from carrying their head too high.
- Break the Scientist: A scientific expert loses all hope when their research is proven wrong.
- Broken Ace
- Broken Angel
- Broken Bird
- Broken Hero
- Bully Magnet
- Butt-Monkey: A character whose primary purpose is to suffer a constant string of bad luck.
- Byronic Hero
- Caregiver Angst
- Cartwright Curse
- The Chains of Commanding
- The Chew Toy: When their misfortune and suffering is usually Played for Laughs.
- Child Soldiers: When very young people are forced to fight in wars, well needless to say it will ruin their childhoods.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror
- Corrupt the Cutie
- Cosmic Plaything
- Crippling Castration
- Cruel and Unusual Death
- Cynicism Catalyst
- Dark and Troubled Past
- Despair Event Horizon
- Deus Angst Machina
- Did Not Get the Girl
- Domestic Abuse
- Doom Magnet
- Dramatic Sit-Down
- Dreaded Kids' Party Entertainer Job: People who work as entertainers at kids' parties suffer a lot.
- Dream-Crushing Handicap
- Driven to Suicide
- Driven to Villainy
- Dysfunction Junction
- Elder Abuse
- Empty Shell
- Face Death with Despair
- Fallen Hero
- Fatal Attractor
- Fate Worse than Death
- Fictional Disability
- Friendless Background
- Freudian Excuse: A villain, jerkass, or other dysfunctional character became the way they are because of something bad that happened to them in the past.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Whatever happened to them sucked, but it's no excuse for them to not take responsibility for their own misbehavior, let alone a license to mistreat other people.
- Gayngst
- Genocide Survivor: Someone who somehow managed to survive during a murderous campaign to exterminate their people. May suffer from severe PTSD or Survivor Guilt.
- Goths Have It Hard: If someone's a goth, emo, or similar, that means that they've had bad experiences or have a serious psychological problem such as depression.
- Had to Be Sharp
- Heal the Cutie
- Hellhole Prison: A horrible place to be for the people who were imprisoned.
- Her Heart Will Go On
- Heroic BSoD: The hero goes into an emotional breakdown.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood
- Hope Is Scary
- Identity Breakdown: A character has a mental break because of issues and revelations regarding who or what they are
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die
- Immortality Hurts
- Iron Butt Monkey: A character suffers tons of physical injuries, but manages to get through all of them unscathed.
- Iron Woobie: Despite how much their life sucks, this character refuses to give up and just keeps carrying on.
- It Sucks to Be the Chosen One
- Jaywalking Will Ruin Your Life
- Jerkass Woobie: Despite their bad behavior, we still end up feeling sorry for a jerk or villain because of all the bad things they've been through.
- Last of His Kind
- The Lost Lenore: For the person who lost the love interest.
- Made a Slave
- Mentor in Sour Armor
- Never Be Hurt Again
- Out of the Closet, Into the Fire
- Outliving One's Offspring
- Parental Abandonment
- Plagued by Nightmares: A character has consistent nightmares, hinting at deeper issues.
- Rape as Drama
- Redemption Equals Affliction
- Reduced to Ratburgers
- Resurrection/Death Loop
- Revenge Is Not Justice: Whatever happened to them is wrong, but it's no excuse for them to take no responsibility for their own behavior during their revenge quest.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: A soldier is deeply traumatized by all the horrors they experienced from the war they fought in.
- Soulless Bedroom: Someone who lacks emotions has an unnaturally clean bedroom with few or no personal possessions.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside
- Standard Cop Backstory
- Stoic Woobie: An miserable character who tries their hardest to hide how much they're really hurting on the inside.
- Stopped Caring
- Struggling Single Mother
- Survivor Guilt
- Sympathetic Murderer
- Sympathetic Sentient Weapon
- Too Broken to Break
- Took a Level in Cynic: An idealistic or optimistic person lost their positive outlook and became seriously disillusioned after experiencing the harsher aspects of life.
- Tortured Monster
- Tragic Abandoned Toy: A sentient toy grieves after being lost, abandoned, or forgotten.
- Tragic Bigot
- Tragic Dropout
- Tragic Hero
- Tragic Ice Character
- Tragic Monster: A character is transformed into a dangerous monster and is miserable because of it.
- Tragic Time Traveler: A time traveler whose travels through time have brought them no end of misery.
- Tragic Villain: Someone feels they have no choice but to be evil and is miserable because of it.
- Trans Tribulations
- Trapped in Villainy
- Treated Worse than the Pet: Someone's status in their family is so low that even animals are treated better or valued more than they are.
- Troubled Abuser
- Troubled, but Cute
- Troubled Sympathetic Bigot
- Tyke Bomb
- The Unfavorite
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: A villain or jerk was a lot nicer when they were younger, but something happened that caused them to grow up to be the bad person they are today.
- Used to Be More Social
- The Vietnam Vet: American veterans of The Vietnam War are especially stereotyped as being sufferers of PTSD.
- Villainous Breakdown: The villain reacts to defeat by having a psychotic meltdown.
- Villainous BSoD: The villain becomes paralyzed by sudden pangs of conscience.
- War Refugees: War Is Hell, especially for unarmed civilians who get in caught in it, being forced to flee far away from their ruined homes in order to try and survive the bloody chaos.
- Wheelchair Woobie: A character's mental or physical disability is played for sympathy points.
- The Woobie: A character whom the audience feels sorry for because of all the misery and misfortune that's happened to them.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: When someone's misery drives them towards a path of evil and destruction.
- Woobie Family: An entire family full of miserable people who've been through a lot of pain together.
- Woobie of the Week: A one-shot character who needs the hero's help to resolve their personal distress.
- Woobie Species: A whole species full of beings that have suffered a lot in a world out to get them.
