LogFAQs > #925229839

Today's trope is Trauma Conga Line. Here is the link: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TraumaCongaLine

"If traumatizing a hero once can earn the audience's sympathy, then what better way to earn your audience's love for the character than to lay trauma after trauma on them like a falling row of dominoes?"

The usual results of a Trauma Conga Line are:

The hero perseveres over the trials of life, rises above it and becomes a better person for it all. Defining term: Iron Woobie
The protagonist throws off his hero mantle, tramples it, and in a cold rush of unrelenting cynicism becomes a villain just as bad, if not worse, than the antagonist. Defining term: Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds
The hero curls into a figurative or literal catatonic ball in a cold dark corner, then proceeds to give up on life and the world. Defining term: Despair Event Horizon
Goes out in a blaze of bloodthirsty rage realizing that the best way out is by taking it out on everyone. Defining term: Roaring Rampage of Revenge
The protagonist loses their sense of idealism, but not their morality. Most Anti Heroes who started out as an Ideal Hero are Type E. Defining term: Knight In Sour Armor
Rarest one: the protagonist just shrugs their shoulders at the Deus Angst Machina. No lessons are learned nor does the character behave differently. All that's changed is that the Bunny-Ears Lawyer now sleeps in a cardboard box and eats out of dumpsters. Defining term: Angst? What Angst?
Somewhere between the Despair Event Horizon and unbreakable resolve of the Iron Woobie is a common middle ground, where the survivor is clearly damaged by the ordeal, but is not lost completely or rendered insane (and thus has hope of recovery to Type A). Defining term: The Woobie
Loses all will, drive, ambition, or capacity for emotion from being broken so much. Defining term: Empty Shell

TL,DR: These characters suffer numerous horrific, traumatic events.

Nominations:
Shinji (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
Otacon (Metal Gear Solid)
Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender)