Basic Trope: Everyone has deep seated issues.
- Straight: Bob struggles to suppress his darker sides while enduring the stress of leading the team. Charles is a bloodthirsty berserker who seeks to avenge his Doomed Hometown by any means necessary. Alice had been neglected by her parents and thus is violently infatuated with Bob and is barely hiding her murderous jealousy towards Charles, Denice, Eva, and Frank. Denice is a Ditzy Genius who is growing more paranoid and schizophrenic by the minutes thanks to an experimental drug she was forced to take to increase her intelligence. Eva feels like she's only ever been used as a muscle-bound tool for others due to past parental abuse, forced usage of steroids due to said parents, and has underlying issues of depression and low self-confidence. Frank used to be a sweetheart who's idealistically naive but had his spirits, hopes, and dreams crushed at some point, and is reduced to nothing but an Empty Shell. Even Luke is a former underling of Emperor Evulz who is being driven mad from the "screams" he believes coming from his dead loved ones...
- Exaggerated:
- Everyone has schizophrenia, horrific backstory that Dark and Troubled Past doesn't even begin to describe, all sorts of personality disorders, and god knows what else...
- Conversely, on the Evil side, Emperor Evulz has such a horrific Freudian Excuse (mainly involving the Predecessor Villains that is his garbage parents) and often takes his stress and trauma out on the others, General Draco has outlived his children he never got to see and sees serving Evulz as a second chance on being a father, Princess DeVille seems to be a little too quirky and insane, especially when her boss Evulz is involved, Robert is rather desperate in seeking out any purpose in his life other than "counter Bob's every move" and feels empty as a result, Dr. Crazystein is the Mad Scientist of the bunch but is too focused on the mad part to be even remotely good at his job, Sergeant Adams has some serious delusions of grandeur in which he believes he's the one fit to rule The Empire (which may or may not be the case), but is more often shown to be even more psychotic and maniacal than Charlie, Alice, Dr. Crazystein, and Princess DeVille combined, and Lieutenant Kilter is the Only Sane Man and Token Competent Minion of Emperor Evulz's Legion, though his Sanity Slippage is progressing further and further into making him just as deranged and troubled as the rest of the cast.
- Downplayed: Everyone has some issues, but they more or less deal with it in a healthy way. Oh, and therapists exist for those who can't do it alone.
- Justified:
- The field of work that the characters work in is well known for causing psychological issues.
- The series is about patients in a psychiatric institute.
- The series is about patients in a halfway house.
- The story is set in a Crapsack World.
- The characters can't seek out professional help without risking revealing the Masquerade, and as a result their mental health suffers.
- Even if the characters wanted to get professional help, There Are No Therapists to help them with the issues they develop trying to save the world.
- The characters attempted professional help. Either it didn't work, or the treatment takes a loooooong time (obviously not shown due to The Law of Conservation of Detail).
- Inverted: All characters are some of the most stable, mentally healthy individuals of the world.
- Subverted:
- Bob complains about his parental issues, depression, and unhappy life, but he is actually practicing for a monodrama. His wife, Alice, seems to be dissatisfied with her family life, but after the bad day had passed, she is back to her normal self again.
- Gene is introduced and is noticeably the Only Sane Man (or the only guy without any form of issues) within a cast with some form of mental and/or personal issues...
- Double Subverted:
- ...But, deep down, they're all badly hurting.
- Then they begin to get issues over the course of the story.
- ...Until Gene falls into insanity and becomes just as mentally and/or personally problematic as the rest of the cast is.
- Parodied: Everyone is loaded up with issues and angsts it up like a hammy actor, when not acting Cloud Cuckoo Lander style crazy.
- Zig Zagged: Everyone has issues, except they were just method actors pretending, but they have other issues instead that get therapied away, but resurface later due to a series of suspiciously coincidental tragedies, but it later turns out It Was All Just A Dream in a plot by the Big Bad to break their confidence so he can take over the world, and to get out of the dream they have to truly overcome their issues once and for all, meaning that when they escape to save the world, they are emotionally nigh-invulnerable.
- Averted:
- No one has any issues, and everyone is able to deal with work and day to day life effectively.
- Or at least most people do.
- Enforced:
- "To create more drama, we need the characters to have issues. Lets make everyone from a bad neighborhood, abusive family, or just plain have mental illnesses".
- The author is interested in mental health, and wants to use their work to encourage people to talk about it. Much of the cast is thus given various mental disorders and trauma.
- Lampshaded: "You would think that there would be at least one or two people here without issues."
- Invoked: The Five-Man Band feign this in order to confuse the Big Bad into thinking they're too dysfunctional to be a threat.
- Exploited: The Big Bad uses this to break down the team by using their issues against them.
- Defied: Everyone has issues, but realizing this they agree not to let those problems rule their lives, and use as clear communication as they can.
- Everyone has issues, so they decide to bring aboard a competent therapist with them.
- Discussed: "I think it must be 'misery loves company', there's no other way to explain how all the people we know and befriend are as messed up as we are."
- Conversed:
- "I wonder why those people don't try and get group therapy discounts?"
- "What's amazing isn't that everyone has issues, but that they somehow haven't torn each other a new one or left in search of saner friends."
- Deconstructed:
- Everyone is so screwed up that they're completely unable to do their job, or live day to day, possibly even becoming prone to dying.
- A parent gives their child faulty advice colored by their own issues. This alters the child's view on the world and results in them eventually developing problems of their own.
- Reconstructed:
- ...But they are stoic and strong-willed enough to do their jobs without succumbing to their problems.
- But working together (in a non-Epiphany Therapy manner), they manage to slowly deal with their problems one at a time and heal emotionally/mentally.
- Having company who all have their own issues helps the cast understand that they're not alone, everyone has their own baggage, and that's completely normal and okay.
- Played For Laughs: Dom Coms, especially ones centered on Dysfunctional Families (as seen on Married... with Children, The Simpsons, and Titus)
- Played for Drama: Soap Opera
Maybe you'll find some less neurotic people back at Dysfunction Junction
