favorite shitty dollhouse children from non-gothic-horror media ranked in order of explicitness / depth, from least to most
[criteria: must have significant screentime demonstrating the realities of dv/neglect/incest, with an emphasis on incest; works that actually show the psychological consequences instead of just showing the abuse itself rank higher. focus is on specific characters/arcs and not the stories they're from as a whole, except characters whose stories are dedicated to exploring their abuse will usually rank higher]
11. the delightful children from down the lane, codename: kids next door (literally physically enmeshed but this is only joked about at best)
10. caduceus clay, critical role (not enmeshed, did try to drown himself just to hear god while rotting alone for his family)
9. olivia park, knights of guinevere (still in pilot stage so barely any canonical information, but points for guts and implications)
8. orin the red, baldur's gate 3 (would rank higher because of canonical sexual incest in her lineage and the expectation that she should continue that regardless of consent, but she doesn't get to explore it beyond one meltdown. arguably her mental instability can be read as that of a survivor but it's played up for high fantasy drama and doesn't feel that grounded)
7. zuko and azula, a:tla (not enmeshed, character arcs surrounding their abuse explored in great depth. only lower than zagreus because hades revolves around the abuse)
6. zagreus, hades (not enmeshed but routine patricide and violence counts for something, and his relationship w his abuser is explored in detail. also kills himself casually)
5. steven quartz universe, steven universe (grounded mental breakdown directly related to enmeshment that takes an entire epilogue series to illustrate earns him this spot despite a lack of more "extreme" forms of violence. the caveat is his story is a bit over-idealistic - but that is genre-compliant so w/e. i like that he was abused by non-abusers if that makes sense)
4. the hollow knight, hollow knight (sacrificial lamb, failed at their one job which was to not love their father. repeatedly tries to kill themself about it. their story revolves around the futility of their sacrifice and the continuation of it through the abuse of other children)
3. orel puppington, moral orel (not enmeshed but god i wish. otherwise a raw portrayal of child abuse that balances grim reality with heart, has him directly confronting his relationship with his abuser throughout the show and unpacking it piece by piece. bonus points for going through it all without losing himself - rlly tough narrative to find)
2. thistle, dungeon meshi (even if he wasn't onscreen assaulted by his brother's god while crying for said brother he'd still be one of the most strongly csa/incest-survivor coded characters here, but his relationship w his brother isn't explored outside of a few pages. otherwise a scarily accurate portrayal of what mental illness looks like for someone in that situation - if not for this and his assault scene being well-executed imo he'd rank much lower)
1. helena eagan / helly r, severance (had to be split in two and pit against herself the whole show on behalf of a cult run by her father, just to make it perfectly clear. maybe not the most "graphic" example but the most well-balanced one - her story has a little bit of all the others listed, in the right amounts)