There are some TV characters who have gone through hell and back. Some of those have literally. (Sara Lance, anyone?)
Even after so much development has been done and the characters grow so much, unknown forces prevent those characters from ever achieving the results they could.
Some achieve their greatness, but don’t live the life they deserve after. They lost so much in the battle.
These characters spend so much time working through a problem, or tragedy, only to be pushed to the sideline, or the character lived such a terrible life that they were never able to recover and live a happier life.
We’ve compiled a gallery of badass TV ladies that deserved better lives than they were granted.
Laurel Lance – Arrow
Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) has led a troubled life, also. When her sister “died” while cheating with her boyfriend, her family fell apart as her father fell into alcoholism and her mother divorced him. Then, Oliver returned, without her sister. The anger she wasn’t allowed to feel over the grief of losing them prevailed, especially when Sara returned home. Her sister had been alive and she was the reason their family had fallen apart. If they had known, things could have been different. As soon as Sara was alive, she was dead again. Murdered. Laurel had an anger inside of her only managed by becoming the Black Canary. Her journey was rough. Oliver gave her no support. Instead, he told her to stop and refused to train her to join him in the field. With rumors of her death circulating after speculation online, it would be a shame to see so much character growth even more underutilized than it is now.
Sara Lance – DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) had a miserable time on Arrow. After being stranded on Lian Yu with Oliver Queen, Sara was forced to join the League of Assassins to survive. 5 years later and her return to Starling City is hardly welcomed by her older sister, Laurel, Oliver’s girlfriend that Sara was sleeping with when the Queen’s Gambit went down. Before they can completely reconnect, Sara goes back to the League after they helped stop Slade from destroying the city, and in a moment, she was dead. Malcolm Merlyn brainwashed his daughter to murder Sara to set Oliver down a path with the League. She was murdered as nothing but a plot device for both Oliver and Laurel, as she started her journey as the Black Canary. Once resurrected, Sara lost her soul, her body a feral creature. Now, soul returned, on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, she is searching for a purpose and redemption, still dealing with the aftermath of her death.
Spencer Hastings – Pretty Little Liars
Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario) has always endured the hardest torment from the liars’ infamous stalkers. She’s been framed and accused of murder, multiple times, drove crazy and locked away in an institution and her life has been hectic, regardless. Her family has always treated her as the pariah: never approving of her choices, not approving of her first best friend, Alison, and comparing all of her achievements to her sister’s. Five years later and Spencer still gets the short end of the stick. Her current boyfriend, Caleb, cheated on her with his ex, and her best friend, Hanna. While this -A has left her alone, Mona and Charlotte attacked her with everything they had, seeing her as the only real competition of the four liars.
Amanda Clarke/Emily Thorne – Revenge
Amanda Clarke (Emily VanCamp), also known as Emily Thorne, had her childhood ruined by the Graysons. Her father framed for terrorism and she was left to rot in the foster care system. Years later, she did what she had to do: she plotted and enacted her revenge against the people who framed her father. She lost many people during the years: Fauxmanda, the person whom she called her sister, Daniel Grayson, the man she used as part of her plan but developed real feelings for, and Aiden Mathis, the only person who understood her revenge. In a strange plot twist, her father returned, alive and free, but his return was shadowed by Aiden’s death. After Amanda partially got her revenge, Victoria fought back, leading to an epic showdown, where Victoria was killed. Soon after, her father died of cancer. She lost so many people, as did the people she loved and trusted, but her father’s death was cruel. She was without him her whole life and hardly a year after he returned, he was dead, again.
Emma Becker – The Lying Game
Emma Becker (Alexandra Chando) fought so hard to have a family. After growing up in foster care, she was reunited with her twin sister, Sutton (Chando), who was adopted by a wealthy family. After Sutton convinces her to pretend to be her for a few days, Emma is sucked into a life of lies. Through that she grows close to Sutton’s boyfriend, Ethan, who becomes her boyfriend, but still has feelings for Sutton. The Lying Game was cancelled too soon after too much murder before we saw Emma get the family she deserved: the family she always craved.
Nikita Mears – Nikita
Another show cancelled too soon, Nikita Mears (Maggie Q) was perhaps the worst off of all characters. Recruited by a secret government agency and forced to kill, Nikita escaped and vowed to take down Division. She fought with Alex, who later turned on her for a short time, and took down Percy, the man who ran Division. Forced by the government again to take over Division, they began to hunt agents who did not come in after an order by the President. But Amanda, another head of Division, and her grudge against Nikita remained, leading to the President being assassinated and Nikita being framed. The show had to wrap up its mission in six episodes, where Nikita took to drastic measures to clear her name, only to lose more and more loved ones along the way. In the end, her and Michael, her boyfriend, were able to settle down, but they couldn’t. Who could sit on a beach, anyways?
Daisy “Skye” Johnson – Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Daisy (Chloe Bennet) is another foster child, who only wanted a family. She spent her whole life searching, becoming a skilled computer hacker to find more information on the birth parents she never knew. Once recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D., Daisy’s objective was to use their resources to discover her lineage, going off one redacted file, only in the process to gain inhuman abilities. Her mother, the leader of an Inhuman group, plotted to use their powers for evil, prompting Daisy’s father to kill her mother, as she tried to kill Daisy. She found her family and lost her family within weeks. All she has left to remember them by is her abilities.
Allison Argent – Teen Wolf
Allison Argent (Crystal Reed) was a normal girl before moving to Beacon Hills. Then she got involved with Scott McCall and his werewolf life, learning her family’s true purpose: they were hunters, tasked with protecting humans from the supernatural. Her family life wasn’t great, either: her mother would get angry, very angry, and unleashed herself, while her father protected her from everything. After too many attacks, Allison took it upon herself to learn self-defense. She quickly became a skilled archer and sought to protect her friends. While trying to protect Lydia, Allison ended up dead in the arms of her ex, Scott, her last words professing the love she always had for him throughout everything.
Mary Stuart – Reign
Mary’s (Adelaide Kane) story took a tragic turn after she was married to Francis and pronounced Queen of France. In a castle seige to kill her husband, Mary was left alone as Francis was away from the castle, leading to her cruel and brutal rape by angry villagers, a scene to harsh for television. Mary struggled to make sense of this attack and cope with the violation she always felt, plagued by the memory every time she looked at her husband. In an attempt to cope, she fell in love with another man, Prince Conde, who betrayed her in the end and plotted with her archenemy, Queen Elizabeth, to become the King of England, and in turn, the King of France. Betrayed, Mary fell back in love with her husband, who died shortly afterward. Now Mary, no longer Queen of France, is left powerless as her country struggles to stay afloat and Elizabeth has her sights set on Mary’s neck.
Leslie Knope – Parks and Recreation
Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) was always the optimistic government employee who saw the best in everyone and wanted to be President. Though that wish was never fulfilled, she went on to become a senator and rule higher branches of government than she could have imagined in Pawnee, Indiana. Not without her share of hardships. Leslie always sought to give the best to her beloved town, which gave her nothing but garbage in return. As she tired to reduce obesity and build a park to bring the community together, she was recalled from City Council and had several obstacles before she finally got her park. She even helped Eagleton, the disgustingly wealthy town next door to Pawnee, of which she hated every citizen for being from Eagleton. Leslie fought so hard to save her city and make it better to live in, but she was never greeted with anything but anger and fear. She had to get out of Pawnee to make a difference. She was basically ostracized from the town that she loved more than she loved her beautiful, talented, brilliant, powerful musk ox.
Quinn Fabray – Glee
From the very moment Glee premiered, Quinn Fabray (Dianna Agron) was an incredibly strong, resilient woman, that didn’t take crap from anybody. She wasn’t the greatest person: she was pregnant and her boyfriend’s best friend was the father. But he eventually forgave her as she was disowned by her family, gave up her baby for adoption, and tried to restart her life. She went through many different phases in high school, desperate for someone to love her back when her family didn’t. The actress’ relationship with the showrunner supposedly almost led to the character being killed off in season three, after a rocky season of her finding her identity, but luckily, Quinn went on to live another day. She ended up in a wheelchair for a short time, showing once again how strong she could be, before going off to Yale and ending up with Puck, her baby’s father. After high school though, we hardly saw her whatsoever. We never knew what she majored in or saw how her life ended up. But it’s safe to say that she led a badass life after getting into Yale after being a pregnant teenager without a constant home.
