[quote=Robeatics]
(God, Brovo, you're my hero.)If you wanted to keep a character as close to real life as possible, [b]think about their upbringing and personality before the tragedy/tragedies[/b].
[/quote]

This is what I did with my character Pico. His "tragic" past includes not only his family being killed when he was very young, it also included his exile when the Theocratic "powers that be" decided he hadn't "grieved enough"... which eventually lead to his complete exile, the "moment" when he decided to leave his entire planet behind and find a life "Elsewhere" in the universe. However, due to his upbringing and personality, rather than moping about, he used his personal "tragedy" as a reason to grab all he could out of life. To honor his family, his parents and siblings, by living true to what they'd taught him. And by defying the image of his kind in the eyes of others.

Of course, lots of other details, but that's the gist.