Which Fictional Character Has Been Through The Worst?

So, as the title suggests, which fictional character do you believe has had the worst hardships they've ever had to go through or cross? It can be in the form of anything. Mental torture, psychological scarring, physical torture, impossibly difficult choices, a complete breakdown of their inner psyche and going through intense phases of existential crises or depression etc.

Which fictional character has had it worst?

Probably Wolverine

Top 5, in no particular order, for me are:

1. Darth Vader (Star Wars)
2. Dr Manhattan (Watchmen)
3. Magneto (X-Men)
4. Gollum (Lord of the Rings)
5. Andy Dufresne (Shawshank Redemption)

For anime watchers you might've heard/know about Subaru from Re: Zero. He's definitely up there imo. Kid's been through hell.

Dean and Sam Winchester.

How many times have they died? Dean has probably died more times than any other character in fiction.

Magneto

Griffith or Guts from Berserk

I doubt any character I can think of right now is close to being the character IN ALL OF FICTION that has gone thru the worst. However Im pretty sure most characters that belong in that list must have lived reaaaaaally long lives (millenias at the very least), the first two that come to mind are Prometheus and The Nameless One (Planescape: Torment), but im possitive there must be others that had it worse.

- Wolverine

- Hulk

- Batman

- Martian Manhunter

- Daredevil

- Kratos

- Marcus Fenix

Immediately come to mind, I think Kratos, Logan and Banner are probably top 3 though.

Isaac from The Binding of Isaac.

My Xialoin Brother Krillin has died like 4 or 5 times.

Harry Potter, Darth Vader, Ellie (TLoU), Magneto, Bruce Banner, and Wolverine all come to mind.

There’s probably SEVERAL I’m either forgetting or just don’t know.

The cookies from Black Mirror, assuming we believe they truly were self conscious which the show seems to try to drive home.

Spawn probably had it worst.

Diavolo by like... alot

Spider-Man

Silver Surfer is also another one.

Can't believe I forgot about him.

I doubt there's any fictional character that's had it "the worst", but I do gotta give a shoutout to Surfer, whose incredibly noble and was forced to commit genocide, repeatedly and then is seen as a genoicdal maniac by people he saved for the rest of his life. He then has to watch it for hundreds of years while phased out of reality. Also has multiple chances to stop said genocides, but has to make the choice not to, and has to defend/commit genocides while not even brainwashed at points.

From a moral torture standpoint, it's pretty messed up.

I wouldn't know the answer to this, but some people worth mentioning:

Itachi (Naruto), Thor (MCU), and Nebula (MCU)

Magneto or Silver Surfer.

Excluding Marvel/DC characters since they die and return to life a lot, I'd say Itachi, Ulic Qel-Droma, Andy Dufresne, and the Master Chief are all solid picks from the material that I'm familiar with.

HAHAHAHAHAHmcu thor HAHAHAHAHAHA

Diavolo is the only correct answer

Wolverine

Theon Greyjoy.

There are a lot of answers in this thread that are just plain laughable.

Harry Potter - really? The kid was handed gift after gift he didn’t earn, had two good friends his whole life, ended up a hero many times over, took out the main villain due to very literal plot armor and ended up happily married?

There are many people out there who would take Harry’s life in a second over their own. Hell he is not even the most tragic story from his own damn books.

Thor has had a pretty difficult time during the MCU movies...

Rick Grimes

Not good enough to make a top 5 list but I'm still gonna give a shout out to Otacon from metal gear. Did you have to rip that poor man's heart out of his ass every game Hideo?!

Short answer: No

Long aswer:

He was raised in a wealthy family by the king of a powerful kingdom, his parents were wise, he was the heir of the throne, he enjoyed peaceful and properous centuries along his parents, friends and brother, he met the Avengers with whom he fought against big threats, acomplishing what he was raised for and wanted to be, a mighty warrior, he made good friends within the Avengers, he found love, he has travelled across the galaxy, discovering places that many people would die to see, he had his revenge against his most hated enemy, etc.

Tbh I think Thor's life is better than 99% of the people on Earth, I would change my life for his no doubt.

Maybe Spawn?

I just remembered how Batman sufferred hellish torment in Emperor Joker, he's up there too.

Harry Potter

Guts has a pretty terrible life

Simba's also up there.

Definitely Vader post-Knightfall.

He has nothing to live for. His life is just pain, endless suffering knowing he was manipulated by his master. He lives off hate but can't even fight back against Palpatine because he'd die.

@sonath: Well, you're ignoring many things...

Thor:

• Odin takes away his power
• Believes his dad is dead
• Finds out Odin was not dead and his brother has betrayed him
• Is forced to fight Loki
• Sees Loki die (He thinks Loki died)
• Is unable to see Jane due to destroying the Bifrost (Or so he believes)

Avengers:

• Finds out that Loki is indeed alive, but is killing people on earth
• Watches Phil Coulson die to his own brother
• Tries to convince Loki to stop, then is stabbed by Loki

Thor: The Dark World:

• Mother is killed before Thor can save her
• Loki "dies" in his arms

Avengers: Age of Ultron:

• Thor sacrifices part of his life to see his vision again

Thor: Ragnarok:

• Thor discovers Loki is alive and that he banished Odin
• Odin reveals that Thor has a Sister that Thor must fight
• Odin dies
• Hela shows up and breaks Mjolnir
• Warriors three are killed
• Thor is held prisoner by the grand master
• Loses his eye and is stabbed numerous times by Hela
• Is forced to destroy his home to save his people
• Thor's Sister dies

Avengers: Infinity War:

• Half of the Asgardians Thor was supposed to protect died
• Thanos beats Thor nearly to death
• Thanos pushes the power stone in to Thor's head
• Heimdall is killed in front of Thor
• Loki is choked to death by Thanos in front of Thor after Loki's change of heart
• Thor is nearly burned to death creating Stormbreaker
• Almost kills Thanos, but fails, and half the universe dies

Avengers: Endgame:

• Thor kills Thanos after realizing his mistake can not be undone

So overall, I'd say Thor has not had it easy in recent years

- Kaneki Ken from Tokyo ghoul

- MCU Thor

- Master Chief

- Marcus Fenix

- Daredevil

@ninetoadclown: To be fair, you can’t only refer to the good things that happened to said character and ignore all the bad. The equivalent would be if I said that Darth Vader had a easy and good life because was freed from being a servant, got the opportunity of a lifetime and became a Jedi, married the woman of his dreams, had beautiful twins, redeemed himself from the dark side, and defeated the evil villain. While yes, all of those things did happen, there’s so much more to the story that is left out in that description.

Both of Harry Potter’s parents were killed because the villain of the story was trying to kill him. He was then raised by his aunt and uncle who both treated him tremendously awful. Throughout the books he is bullied by fellow students, tortured by a teacher, attacked by dementors, and tormented mentally by the villain. He also watched several people die. As I said previously, his parents were killed when he was an infant. From then on he witnessed several friends and companions die (Cedric, Dobby, Fred, Hedwig, etc). He also witnessed several mentors die (Sirius, Dumbledore, Remus, Severus, etc). Harry Potter has been through a lot.

Yes, he did get his happy ending. He kept his closest friends, married the girl, and had some kids; but that doesn’t negate all of the hardship and difficulty he faced.

This topic is “which fictional character has been through the worst” not “which fictional character hasn’t been through any good”.

You are completely entitled to your opinion and I’m not trying to start an argument with you. I’m only trying to clarify why me and several other do think Harry Potter is at least worth mentioning when we’re talking about fictional characters and their hardships. :)

@eslay03:

That is the point, either you don’t read much, like at all, and you don’t even watch television if you actually think that Harry Potter of all people would even be in the discussion of all fictional characters who have had a horrible life.

He is not even in the top 5 of people in his own book series for having a horrible life

I dismiss and insult your opinion because it is outright stupid.

Beta Ray Bill's failure in Stormbreaker was pretty damn awful too, gonna give that a mention

Ellie from The Last of Us.

Sakuri Kunikai. Compared to other names in this thread, it’s not even close.

Yea, it baffles me how many people are name-dropping all these mainstream characters, with such confidence.

Ellie is obviously the only correct answer