Break the Cutie cleanup

Note: This thread's OP was based on the OP of this TRS thread by El Rise.

The correct definition of Break the Cutie is, "a sweet, lovable character (aka The Cutie) suffers at least one horrible experience that threatens to break their spirit".

On paper, Break the Cutie suggests a pattern where any character that is designed in a way that conveys cuteness and has lovable traits is more prone to suffer and angst than any other character in order to increase Emotional Torque. In practice, the heaps of misuse and ZCEs indicate "bad things happen to character(s)", which is frankly what happens in all fiction due to Conflict and Rule of Drama.

Due to the high amount of wicks, it was decided to try taking this trope to Projects after a TRS thread was determined to be too much work.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 3rd 2023 at 1:41:19 PM

I suppose we're keeping examples that fit the definition, regardless of whether they overlap with other tropes?

I guess? I mean, overlap has never really been a problem so long as the concept remains distinct.

Removed the overlap part because this thread's OP was based on the TRS thread's OP, and that part was left over from the TRS thread's argument against keeping the trope, and we're keeping the trope unless this thread ends up hitting a snag, but it's too soon to decide whether that will happen. But yeah, overlap isn't a big deal because something can be an example of more than one trope at a time.

Edit: Speaking of which, neglected to credit that thread's writer in the OP of this thread. That's been fixed.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 3rd 2023 at 1:42:20 PM

Took care of a few items from the misuse section of the wick check. I did find a replacement for the wick on PlayingWith.Evil Stole My Faith.

This is a duplicate page that needs cutting.

Removed blatant misuse while dealing with another TRS effort over at WebVideo.Chuck Dowling.

I feel it could fit another trope...or a Trivia item:

• Break the Cutie: Season 8 had him in the hospital for a short time although no one knew this. Chucks computer broke in season 9 where he was so livid he would've ended the series then and there if the the reviews were not salvagable. Poor guy has had a rough later seasons.
  • Season 11 was even worse. There was a constant copyright issue on Venom, the horror film. It prompted him to constantly fight it. Only for it to completely demonetize his channel. Chuck distraught thought it was the end. His fans however ended up donating money to patreon thus saving the show.

Another "bad things happen to a character, The Cutie or not" example. Snip snip.

Is this an example? It comes across more as The Woobie or Iron Woobie than Break the Cutie (he's already a Woobie example).

• Before Season 9 of Red vs. Blue, few would guess that Agent Washington was anything but a stone-cold, die-hard badass. The more we see of him pre-Epsilon unit, though, the more it seems like he was a Wide-Eyed Idealist he was broken beyond repair between seasons. Then one realizes the breaking kept going even after the Epsilon breakdown and he hid every bit of it. For the rest of his Freelancer career he was hated by most every other Agent in the Project, was forced to harvest equipment/AI Fragments from their corpses after they died along with destroying both their body and armor so that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands, and kept working for a Project he hated more than anything. Then, he had to brutally fight his former best friend on multiple occasions (eventually leading to that friend's death), randomly found a dead friend—who he thought died many years before in a completely different place, and is constantly betrayed by nearly everyone he knows. If there's one thing that goes with Wash, it's tragedy.

Not an example of Break the Cutie because it doesn't say anything on whether the character is The Cutie or not. Seems to fit Trauma Conga Line.

Edited by ElRise on Aug 13th 2023 at 10:34:28 PM

Just out of curiosity, how much of a cutie does a character have to be to qualify as The Cutie? Since “sweet and nice” can very broad out of TVT.

I find The Cutie problematic because its trope description is one of those that seems half-objective and half-subjective.

I've moved the Washington example to Trauma Conga Line, and found some other RvB examples that might be misuse:

Emily Grey's entry seems like it would be better placed under Broken Bird. She's already broken by the time we meet her, and it again makes no attempt to explain how she's an example of The Cutie. The Word of God entry looks like it's just a What Might Have Been example.

• Break the Cutie: It's implied that seeing all her comrades slaughtered in "Cloak and Dagger" did this. She doesn't show this.... directly.
  • Based on an interview with Arryn Zech^note AfterBuzz TV, much of Grey's personality is the result of the years of the Civil War, and her being a doctor in it, making her a full-on Broken Bird.
  • invoked Further expanded upon by Miles Luna^note The Shizno Podcast, saying that an early plan was for Epsilon to find Grey's journals during the evacuation of Armonia, and play them for Kimball to help humanize the Federal soldiers. They would start off resembling the beginning of the journal she was making during the "field trip" (this was originally Foreshadowing), but as the war went on, she could be heard slowly breaking and retreating into her "happy place" until there was no escaping it.

Caboose seems to be best placed under Never Got to Say Goodbye (which he already has an entry for):

• Break the Cutie: In Season 15, he does not take the realization that Church has been Dead All Along, and there's no coming back for him this time, very well.

Again, character gets upset when they realised how screwed they are doesn't tell us anything about how they're The Cutie:

• Break the Cutie: Poor Ohio goes through this hard when she is forced to accept that they were abandoned to die on an ice planet.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Aug 19th 2023 at 9:18:35 AM