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Curated playlist

Fictional characters with post-traumatic stress disorder

  • BatmanIn September 2024, Batman became the first fictional superhero to receive a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
  • Obi-Wan KenobiAlec Guinness later said he begged George Lucas to kill Obi-Wan Kenobi. Lucas agreed.
  • Luke SkywalkerLuke Skywalker was originally going to be named Starkiller. George Lucas dropped the surname months into filming.
  • Tony Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe)Marvel's Tony Stark was created in 1963 to be the quintessential capitalist. Stan Lee based him on Howard Hughes.
  • Frodo BagginsFrodo Baggins reached Mount Doom and then claimed the Ring. Gollum bit off his finger and fell into the fire.
  • Darth VaderThe actor inside Darth Vader's suit never knew his voice would be replaced. James Earl Jones voiced him instead.
  • Wanda Maximoff (Marvel Cinematic Universe)Wanda Maximoff, the character played by Elizabeth Olsen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, spent two days buried in the rubble of her family's apartment in Sokovia, a country in Eastern Europe. A missile had just killed her parents. Her…
  • Solid SnakeHideo Kojima once planned for Solid Snake to die in Metal Gear Solid. Disappointed staff led him to change it.
  • Madoka KanameMadoka Kaname ends her anime by rewriting the laws of the universe. Her wish frees magical girls from becoming witches.
  • Dante (Devil May Cry)Dante of Devil May Cry was almost a Western policeman. His early name was Tony Redgrave.
  • Jason ToddJason Todd, the second Robin in DC Comics, had his life or death decided by a telephone poll in 1988. Readers of the Batman comics were handed two 1-900 numbers. One meant the boy would live. The other meant he would die. They had only a…
  • Leon S. KennedyLeon S. Kennedy is late for his first day of work, and the reason is a fight with his girlfriend. That detail comes from the manual of Resident Evil 2, the 1998 survival horror game from the Japanese company Capcom. Leon is a rookie police…
  • Big Boss (Metal Gear)In the original 1987 Metal Gear, the friendly radio voice guiding the player was the enemy.
  • Billy ButcherBilly Butcher hunts gods, and he does it with no superpowers of his own. He is a fictional character, one of the two main protagonists of the comic series The Boys, created by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. He leads a group of…
  • Max RockatanskyIn Mad Max, a highway patrolman hunts down the biker gang that killed his infant son.
  • Jessica JonesJessica Jones is a Marvel Comics superhero who spends much of her story trying not to be one. She runs a detective agency called Alias Private Investigations, and she is usually its only employee. Yet Marvel eventually placed her in a high…
  • Cloud StrifeCloud Strife's heroic identity was built from a dead friend's life.
  • Spawn (character)Spawn, the antihero of Image Comics, debuted in Spawn #1 in May 1992, and that first issue sold 1.7 million copies. The hero is Albert Francis Simmons, called Al, who is better known simply as Spawn. Todd McFarlane created him. Simmons…
  • Soldier BoySoldier Boy is a superhero name worn by three different men in the comic series Herogasm and The Boys, created by Garth Ennis and John McCrea. On television, the name belongs to a single man who combines all three. One comic version is a…
  • Kratos (God of War)Kratos, the scarred, ash-white Spartan at the center of Santa Monica Studio's God of War series, began as a set of rough drawings on restaurant napkins. Charlie Wen had forgotten his sketchbook, so he drew on whatever the table offered.…
  • CammyCammy, the blonde British commando from Capcom's Street Fighter series, once won a fan vote by a margin that startled the company. In 2008, Capcom asked which character fans most wanted in Street Fighter IV. Cammy collected almost as many…
  • Nico RobinNico Robin, a fictional character in the One Piece franchise created by Eiichiro Oda, is known to the world's authorities as the "Devil Child". The name sounds like a warning about a monster. The woman behind it is an archaeologist and…
  • Monkey D. LuffyMonkey D. Luffy is the rubber-bodied hero of the manga One Piece, created by Eiichiro Oda, and his story starts with a promise made by a small boy. In Windmill Village, in the Goa kingdom, young Luffy befriends a pirate called Red-Haired…

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