Random TV Characters With Shockingly Depressing Backstories (17 items)

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  (#13) Logan Echolls

  • Veronica Mars

  TV Show: Veronica Mars

  If asked to name the most loathsome character in Veronica Mars, it's difficult to choose between Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas and Aaron Echolls? It may just be a tie. One was Logan Echolls's father, the other his friend.

  Logan, despite growing up in luxury as a privileged 09er, had a horrible home life. His father used to whip him with a belt while his mother took too many pills, probably to cope with having children she never wanted. Aaron also used to burn Logan with his cigarettes and broke his nose at one point.  Later, Aaron sleeps with Lilly, Logan’s girlfriend, and then kills her and covers it up. No wonder Logan grew up to be the most morally confusing anti-hero of the show.
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  (#4) Tiffany 'Pennsatucky' Doggett

  • Orange Is the New Black

  TV Show: Orange is the New Black

  A lot of Litchfield Penitentiary's inmates have tragic backgrounds, but Pennsatucky’s is probably the saddest portrayed on the series. From a young age, she wasn't taught that that sex was pleasurable for both men and woman, and she frequently sold her body for things like a six-pack of Mountain Dew. Her mother was not the best, basically using Pennsatucky to get more money from the government. She eventually became a meth addict who shot a nurse because she made a snide comment about Pennsatucky getting her fifth abortion. Which ultimately landed her in prison.

  Honestly, going to Litchfield probably wasn’t the worst thing that could happen for a character with such a sordid past. Even with all that abuse from prison guards.
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  (#2) Dr Lance Sweets

  • bones

  TV Show: Bones 

  Both Seeley Booth and Temperance "Bones" Brennan suffer from difficult childhoods on the show, but psychologist Lance Sweets has the physical scars to prove it. Before being adopted by a loving couple when he was six, Lance suffered despicable abuse. In a Season 4 episode, the whip scars on his back are shown. Probably one of the reasons he could empathize so well with Booth, who had an abusive, alcoholic father and with Brennan, who was abandoned by her parents when she was a teenager. 
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  (#9) Ziva David

  • NCIS

  TV Show: NCIS

  Ziva David has always been extremely tough and that’s probably due to her upbringing. Her father was a Mossad Director who trained Ziva in combat tactics and espionage from an early age. At one point, we find out that one of Ziva’s earliest memories is being led blindfolded into a forest and left to find her way back.  

  Moreover, Ziva's best friend was killed when she was 12 and her sister died in a Hamas suicide bombing not long after. Ziva joins Mossad as soon as she is eligible, wanting to revenge her death. All in all, it’s pretty clear that Ziva has seen and done a lot of horrendous things before joining the NCIS team.
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  (#3) Dean Winchester

  • Supernatural, Supernatural The Animation

  TV Show: Supernatural

  The Winchester brothers had probably one of the toughest childhoods in the history of television. After their mom dies in a fire caused by the yellow-eyed demon, their dad takes up demon-hunting and basically gives up on any effort to live a normal, monster-free life due his obsession with avenging her death.

  As a result, the brothers were always on the road, worrying about when their father would come home and having to mature quickly. While other kids were learning about life, love and whatever, they were learning about demons, werewolves, and ghosts.

  And, of course, the brothers are still going through tough times. Thank Chuck they have each other, otherwise they would probably have gone nuts a long time ago.
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  (#12) Perry Cox

  • Scrubs

  TV Show: Scrubs

  Ever wondered why Dr. Cox was so mean to JD? Probably because he's the product of a rough upbringing. He alludes to his father’s abusive and drunken antics more than once during the course of the show. Furthermore, when his sister comes to visit he admits that it’s tough for him to have a relationship with her, since she reminds him some much of his horrible childhood.

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