10 Most Tragic TV Show Characters Who Could Not Catch A Break

Summary

• The
  Obi-Wan Kenobi
  series delves into Obi-Wan’s character, highlighting the effects of his past.
• Anna from
  Downton Abbey
  faces constant obstacles before she and her husband settle down with their son.
• Jesse Pinkman in
  Breaking Bad
  suffers constant misfortune due to Walt, causing a series of tragedies.

Some characters on certain TV shows just can’t catch a break; if the series is long-running, and they are always a regular, the feeling that they have suffered too much becomes widespread in the fandom. Some of the longest-running TV show franchises feature characters where the series makes a running gag out of their bad luck. However, several characters from shorter shows also have the worst luck, possibly when considering the events of a larger franchise.

In more comedic series, the character with bad luck is probably played for laughs. On the other hand, major characters in dramatic shows with more dangerous settings experience real tragedies in their lives, some of them more so than others. A few of the most disturbing storylines from Game of Thrones or the most disturbing episodes of Breaking Bad involve the same characters suffering the fallout, demonstrating how the story puts them through worse than most of their co-stars.

10 Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

The Obi-Wan Kenobi series is the first property to truly dive into the toll the events of the series have taken on Obi-Wan, highlighting how he has dealt with a lot throughout Star Wars. In all the movies, Obi-Wan is generally stoic and friendly with little attention paid to what effect Anakin’s actions have on him. Obi-Wan deals with all of his apprentice’s crazy plans for years before Anakin turns to the Dark Side. Obi-Wan Kenobi emphasizes that this was one of the most traumatic events of Obi-Wan’s life, and he has been heartbroken ever since losing Anakin.

This series depicts Obi-Wan being pulled back into the action when he tried to retire from it and discovering that he didn’t kill Anakin, who is still alive as Darth Vader. The Clone Wars series also shows a lot of bad things happening to Obi-Wan, including losing his love interest Satine. Obi-Wan is arguably the longest-suffering character in Star Wars — appearing in six movies and two TV shows — who is given little reward for his efforts before he is killed by Vader. Yet he rarely shows any concern for himself.

9 Anna Bates (Joanne Froggatt)

Downton Abbey (2010-2015)

Anna stands by Mary in Downton Abbey no matter what, which gets her into trouble within the first few episodes. Anna helping Mary carry the corpse of her lover through the halls of Downton Abbey affects Anna’s own life when Mr. Bates’ wife uses the event to keep him away from Anna. Anna and Bates spend around a season and a half trying to be together despite Vera’s blackmail, and then the rest of the time up until the end of season 3 trying to prove Bates’ innocence of Vera’s murder.

Anna and Bates get a few episodes of pure bliss; all they want, and all the audience wants is for them to be peaceful and happy. Anna is then sexually assaulted by a guest’s valet, and her arc for the next two seasons is the result of this. After she is proven innocent of her attacker’s murder, Anna and Bates want to start a family. This doesn’t come easily either, but Mary helps Anna get the necessary medical treatment. Anna deserves the best, but the show puts her through so much before she settles down with her family.

8 Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki)

Supernatural (2005-2020)

In the first episode of Supernatural, Dean reappears to drag Sam away from his regular and good college life; Sam’s girlfriend is murdered shortly thereafter. Both Sam and Dean are killed and tortured throughout Supernatural, making it a close race for who has had it worse. Sam dies eight times in Supernatural, while Dean dies over 100 times. The number of times the main characters die and come back in Supernatural is something of a joke in the cultural zeitgeist and says a lot about how much the characters go through resulting from the story they are in.

The worst things that happen to Sam in Supernatural include losing his loved ones and being imprisoned and tortured by various supernatural beings. The most noteworthy thing that happens to Sam is his soul being caged and tortured by Lucifer for over a year. Additionally, soulless Sam does things that he would later regret, while at another point, he essentially has to watch the same thing happen to his brother due to the Mark of Cain.

7 Charlie Brown (Various Actors)

All Peanuts Specials & TV Shows

Charlie Brown is the pariah of the Peanuts who is supposedly the epitome of uncool, always mocked by the others. The ongoing Peanuts franchise is a series of all the ways Charlie Brown can have ridiculously bad luck or be tricked by his peers. He never kicks the football, ends up with a laughable Halloween costume, never wins a baseball game, is turned invisible, picks the wrong Christmas tree, and so on. Yet Peanuts mostly functions with there still being a kind of comradery between Charlie Brown and the others.

He just has bad luck, tastes that the others disagree with, and is easily tricked by the likes of Lucy or Snoopy.

Suffice it to say, Charlie Brown is picked on by everyone for no particular reason. His being the resident “looser” is just a part of his character, although how he earned this reputation is muddled. He just has bad luck, tastes that the others disagree with, and is easily tricked by the likes of Lucy or Snoopy. Lucy also picks on Linus a lot, who is the friendliest towards Charlie Brown.

6 Regina Mills (Lana Parilla)

Once Upon A Time (2011-2018)

Regina became the martyr of the fandom, despite her actions in Once Upon a Time season 1 not aging well. Nothing ever turns out right for Regina; she has multiple loves who die, she is harshly judged by the other characters despite providing them with vital aid, and the story contrives ways to make her miserable. After being the villain for most of season 1, Regina’s backstory episode reveals that her mother killed her fiancé Daniel. This is also the point where the series starts showing the loving side of her relationship with Henry.

Over the next couple of seasons, Regina gradually wins the other characters’ trust. Just when it seems like everything is working out for her — she has a nice new boyfriend with a kid she gets along with — Emma accidentally brings her boyfriend’s dead wife back from the past. Then Robin is killed a couple of seasons later after the villains try to blackmail her by threatening him. Regina also has to contend with her formerly villainous sister, fight her evil alter ego, almost loses her son, and is cursed again.

5 Miles O’Brien (Colm Meaney)

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) & Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999)

Chief Miles O’Brien dealing with the worst of the adventures became such a staple of Star Trek that “O’Brien Must Suffer” episodes of Deep Space Nine are their own subgenre. The writers intentionally put O’Brien through the wringer once or twice a season, based on the logic that he was a regular guy, and the audience would sympathize with him more than the “larger than life” characters. O’Brien is put in impossible moral dilemmas, afflicted by various illnesses, and repeatedly captured and tortured.

O’Brien is also wrongfully accused of multiple crimes and, in one case, effectively experiences 20 years in prison as a result. His family is also affected by the “O’Brien Must Suffer” mentality when his daughter Molly falls through a time portal and returns as a young adult, leaving her parents to navigate the moral implications of what should be done for her. A character who is intentionally and regularly used to show the harsh realities of the setting will, of course, rarely have a good day.

• 

  Star Trek: The Next Generation

  Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse. The series also had several overarching plots that would develop over the course of the isolated episodes, with four films released in tandem with the series to further some of these story elements.

  Release Date

  September 28, 1987

  Seasons

  7

• 

  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, also known as DS9, is the fourth series in the long-running Sci-Fi franchise, Star Trek. DS9 was created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, and stars Avery Brooks, René Auberjonois, Terry Farrell, and Cirroc Lofton. This particular series follows a group of individuals in a space station near a planet called Bajor.

  Cast

  Avery Brooks , Rene Auberjonois , Cirroc Lofton , Colm Meaney , Armin Shimerman , Alexander Siddig , Nana Visitor , Michael Dorn , Nicole de Boer , Terry Farrell , Andrew Robinson

  Release Date

  January 3, 1993

  Seasons

  7

4 Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner)

Game Of Thrones (2011-2019)

Sansa is one of the characters who is terrorized the most in Game of Thrones, spending the most time helpless and in captivity. Arya at least gets out of King’s Landing and has some control over her life after Ned Stark’s death; Sansa spends a long time effectively a captive tormented by Joffrey. Sansa finds some allies in King’s Landing, but she is constantly terrified and grieving as news of more of her family’s deaths comes in. It seems like Sansa escapes after the Purple Wedding, but she is only headed for a similarly bad situation.

Littlefinger is clearly manipulative, but the audience might have believed he wouldn’t have hurt Sansa. Yet he delivers her into Ramsay’s hands, whose cruelty towards Sansa completely changes her. After this, Sansa trusts only herself with her fate. She ends up in more dangerous situations where she might meet her end but faces them with more awareness of the fact that things will never be easy for her.

3 All The Grey Sloan Memorial Doctors (Various Actors)

Grey’s Anatomy (2005-Present)

The sheer number of catastrophes that take place at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital is well outside any reality. Within a few years, the doctors who work there are victims of a bomb threat, a shooting, a plane crash, and several natural disasters. A shocking number of Grey’s Anatomy characters die young when they are killed in these events. This is not even considering the things that happen to each of them individually, which piles onto the bad luck that runs throughout this entire show.

The doctors are left (or leave someone) at the altar, have multiple accidental pregnancies, are afflicted by extremely rare medical conditions, or have an old love interest show up to ruin a romance. There is no way any individual or workplace group would experience this many misfortunes and tragedies within the time frame that the show depicts. However, plenty of tear-jerking and overly dramatic episodes is one of the most well-known aspects of Grey’s Anatomy, and the characters’ bad luck is unlikely to ever go away.

2 Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham)

The Vampire Diaries (2009-2017)

Bonnie takes the brunt of the fallout of protecting Elena in the early seasons of The Vampire Diaries. She blames the Salvatore brothers for her grandmother’s death, while she constantly taxes herself to perform the magic needed to save the day. She gets another bad break when Jeremy kisses his ghost ex-girlfriend while dating Bonnie in season 3. Bonnie then trades her own life to bring back Jeremy at the end of season 4.

Bonnie spends the next several seasons dealing with the consequences of her death before she officially comes back to life in season 6. Only a season later, she is afflicted by another supernatural illness, right before her boyfriend and best friend are kidnapped by a Siren. Bonnie gets Enzo back, at which point it seems like things might be settling down for her. However, Enzo is killed a few episodes later, completing Bonnie’s series-long arc of getting the worst deals of the entire Vampire Diaries cast.

1 Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul)

Breaking Bad (2008-2013)

Several of the worst things Walt did in Breaking Bad he did to his supposed partner-in-crime. At the beginning of the series, Jesse is a pretty average underachiever. He is hardly a perfect person, but he is just trying to get by and has a kind of moral code. Jesse’s worst luck in life was falling in with Walt, who turned out to be a maniacal genius on his way to becoming the villainous protagonist of the series. As a result, Jesse loses two girlfriends, is imprisoned by Jack Welker’s gang, and is constantly overwhelmed by guilt.

Jesse has one bad thing after another happen to him throughout
Breaking Bad
.

Jesse has one bad thing after another happen to him throughout Breaking Bad. Jane dies, he is beaten up by Hank, he is forced to kill Gale, and so on. He just doesn’t completely piece together that Walt is the cause of all this until it is too late. If Walt is the perfect villain of Breaking Bad, Jesse is the character the audience is supposed to feel sorry for, which is why he ends up being another TV character who just can’t catch a break.