[quote=Valiance]
Because they've evolved beyond being cliché. I'm gonna pull a storm here (Steel knife > Lucas's knife) and say that a not painful backstory is more interesting to me than a painful one.
[/quote]

Huh, weird. Pain is the only think that can invoke some real emotion with me when it comes to backstories. "Oh yeah, I was a billionaire who was blessed by the gods with magical powers and my life is totally hunkey dorey." That has nothing on "I rose to greatness with nothing going my way. I had to claw my way up, and barely evade death along the way." Most of my characters are damaged in some way anyway.