| 1 | %% |
| 2 | %% |
| 3 | %%If you see a character listed as a Complete Monster, they don't belong here. |
| 4 | %% |
| 5 | %% |
| 6 | |
| 7 | !! Shows with their own pages |
| 8 | [[index]] |
| 9 | * ''JerkassWoobie/GameOfThrones'' |
| 10 | * ''JerkassWoobie/TheOfficeUS'' |
| 11 | * ''JerkassWoobie/TheSopranos'' |
| 12 | [[/index]] |
| 13 | ---- |
| 14 | * ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': |
| 15 | ** GOB is a total ass to everyone in the family, selfish, and aggressively stupid, but his parents hate him and nothing ever goes right for him. As much of a {{jerkass}} as he is, it's hard not to feel sympathetic towards him. Pretty much every single awful thing he does is done in an attempt to make someone love him, appreciate him, or even ''notice'' him. |
| 16 | ** Maeby. Yes, she's manipulative, greedy, and sometimes doesn't get how wrong or stupid her behavior is, but her own parents forget she exists when they're not using her as leverage in their failing marriage. Much like GOB, a lot of her bad behavior is really a cry for attention. |
| 17 | ** Lindsay is a bad bordering on neglectful mom, but she still manages to be sympathetic thanks to her abusive mother Lucille and criminally stupid husband Tobias. |
| 18 | ** Michael may have become this in Season 4: He was TheWoobie in earlier seasons even if he wasn't as kind or competent as he thought he was, but after [[spoiler:unethical tactics to get releases from the rest of his family, blowing up George Michael's relationship, and possibly murdering Lucille 2]] he's not a good guy anymore and probably falls under this trope. |
| 19 | ** Lucille in Season 4, when she realizes [[spoiler:her kids really do hate her or just don't care]]. |
| 20 | %%* ''Series/AshesToAshes2008'' has Gene Hunt. (Ray has his moments as well.) |
| 21 | * ''Series/BabylonFive'': |
| 22 | ** Londo Mollari is an [[JerkAss abrasive]], [[FantasticRacism racist]], [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] [[LargeHam ham]]. He effectively condoned genocide against the Narns (rendering the Narn homeworld largely uninhabitable may not have been his idea, but he was certainly defending the invasion and occupation). Still, losing his first wife, and implied true love, because of his family's disapproval, losing Adira because his love for her made her a target, and then realising that the one thing he always truly served, the Cantauri republic, is under the control of a lunatic who's going to bring it down around all their ears...it's hard not to feel bad for him sometimes. Doubly so during his occasional PetTheDog moments. |
| 23 | ** Also in the running is G'kar, Londo's personal nemesis, who seems more of an IronWoobie most of the time, but he has a nasty temper and, in the first few seasons, he appears to be one of the more ruthless of the ambassadors (not that he doesn't have reason). Then there's the part where he ''[[MindRape Mind Raped]] Londo'' to extract information. (After his prison sentence for that crime and the accompanying revelation from Kosh, he's pretty much straight IronWoobie.) |
| 24 | %%* ''Series/BadGirls'' has Denny Blood (before CharacterDevelopment), Zandra Plackett (ditto), Maxi Purvis, Snowball Merriman, and Shell Dockley. |
| 25 | * ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'': |
| 26 | ** Admiral Cain could possibly be considered this; she fits the "simultaneously want to punch her and feel really sorry for her" part, at least. She witnessed the genocide of her entire species and then found out that [[HoneyTrap her girlfriend was an artificial construct created by the genocidal robots who were responsible]]. She was [[RevengeBeforeReason about to sacrifice what, as far she knew, was the last surviving human community in the entire universe in a pointless, essentially impotent gesture of revenge]], [[BadBoss killed her own second in command for questioning her tactics]], was a fan of [[ColdBloodedTorture questionably ethical interrogation techniques]], and generally [[AxCrazy appeared to be a few cards short of a full deck]], but under the circumstances, [[FreudianExcuse it's sort of understandable]]. Particularly, [[RapeAsDrama what she all but says she wants the interrogators to do to Gina]] takes on new dimensions when you consider how she probably felt about finding out that she'd been (presumably) [[SexualHarassmentAndRapeTropes unknowingly]] sleeping with somebody who was willingly aiding in the attempted and nearly successful genocide of her entire species (not to mention the {{Squick}} factor of her having every reason to think that Gina is closer to a robot that happens to be made out of flesh than what we'd consider human). |
| 27 | ** A ''much'' less extreme example is Kara Thrace, aka "Starbuck" (at least in the {{Jerkass}} department; in TheWoobie department, she easily matches anyone in the show). She can be a real bitch a lot of times but seeing her backstory (including a DisappearedDad and an abusive EvilMatriarch mother, and to say nothing of how she [[ItsAllMyFault blames herself for her fiance's death]]) and what happens to her during the series, it's practically impossible not to want to hug her. |
| 28 | ** Gaius Baltar is another good example. He has an insufferably large ego and has done a lot of shamelessly selfish acts to save his own hide, but he was inadvertently responsible for enabling the Cylons' genocide of humanity after being manipulated by a woman [[LadykillerInLove he genuinely fell in love with]] and the series seems to revel putting him through a never-ending TraumaCongaLine. |
| 29 | ** Felix Gaeta also qualifies. He starts off as a straight Woobie as a WideEyedIdealist, but after being put through the wringer himself, up to and including [[spoiler:painfully [[AnArmAndALeg losing his leg]]]], he begins turning more cynical, to the point that he launches a full-on [[TheMutiny mutiny]] that would only end up dooming everyone in the long run. [[spoiler:By the time he is executed, his life had gotten so shitty]] that it almost comes as a relief. |
| 30 | * ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': |
| 31 | ** Leonard often makes stupid and selfish decisions to get what he wants, and often tortures Sheldon, but he has ''an entire family'' that treats him like he doesn't exist, his mother Beverly has a better relationship with ''Sheldon'' than she does with Leonard, and has been treated like shit by Sheldon numerous times, it's hard to believe the guy hasn't committed suicide by now. |
| 32 | ** Wolowitz is also a prime example. He always thinks his decisions matter than his own friends', and has always done many relentless things, but he was always turned down by every woman he tried on until he met Bernadette, has an overbearing JewishMother who frequently treats him like a child, has a father who abandoned him when he was 11, and even has a good side, so it's really hard not to side with him sometimes. |
| 33 | ** Sheldon also qualifies to some extent. He's always really hard to deal with, has a huge lack of patience, and is always saying and doing mean things to everyone, but nearly everyone he knows in Pasadena, even his girlfriend borderline hates him, his ''own mother'' has a better relationship with Leonard than she does with Sheldon, and he simply doesn't even know better when he does bad things, along with a somewhat JerkWithAHeartOfGold persona, it's hard to not feel at least tiny bit of sympathy for his whole character in general. |
| 34 | * ''Series/BigTimeRush'': |
| 35 | ** Sandy, who had an obsessive crush on Kendall but did terrible things, including spreading lies claiming that she was his girlfriend, refusing to let him get a word in to Jo, and using him to lie to her real boyfriend. While she has an AlternativeCharacterInterpretation, she ''did'' just want Kendall to herself. Then again, if you were in a boy band, you'd probably run into at least one girl who would probably be like that to you, but still. |
| 36 | ** The Christmas special gives the audience an alternate look at Mr. Bitters. Katie learns that the reason he hates Christmas is because he has nobody to enjoy it with, as the Palmwoods is empty during then. Knowing this, we can understand why he's such a grouch in other episodes. |
| 37 | * ''Series/BlackBooks'': In spite of how hilariously misanthropic and needlessly cruel Bernard Black is, he's bizarrely cute and his girlfriend faking her own death to get away from him or his friends casually turning on him tends to inspire more sympathy than Schadenfreude. |
| 38 | * Avon of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' acts like a [[{{Jerkass}} complete git]] for much of the time, refuses to trust anyone and points out ''repeatedly'' that anyone who trusts ''him'' is stupid. Then we learn that his lover died under torture, protecting him. Still later, it turns out that [[spoiler:she wasn't actually dead, but had been working for the authorities all along.]] At the beginning of Season 4, [[spoiler:the woman he maybe even ''liked'' a bit, who liked him back, dies.]] He spends two years searching for his [[spoiler:lost leader]], going through failure after failure and [[SanitySlippage gradually losing his grip on sanity]]. ''This man needs a hug.'' |
| 39 | * Troels Höxenhaven, the scheming, back-stabbing minister from Danish political drama ''Series/{{Borgen}}'', who among other things manipulates his own party leader into sabotaging his political career in order to position himself as a future prime minister. But not even a SmugSnake deserves to [[spoiler: be outed by a homophobic journalist after 16 years in a sham marriage and as a result be DrivenToSuicide]]. It helps that the actor is very good at pulling tragic faces which pull at the heartstrings. |
| 40 | * ''Series/BreakingBad'': |
| 41 | ** Jesse Pinkman is a meth dealer and starts out as the closest thing the show has to a bad guy, but as the show progresses, the only people he cares about end up dead or injured, and it becomes clear that he's a scared and fundamentally decent kid way in over his head. Crosses into [[TheWoobie regular Woobie]] in Season 5, [[spoiler:when Todd enslaves and tortures him]]. |
| 42 | ** Skyler White has cheated on Walt, had an on-again, off-again relationship with his meth business, and blackmailed him about it in the earlier seasons, but it's hard not to feel bad for her: In Season 2, she gets a lot of undeserved hatred from her son for kicking Walt out of the house, and has to just sit there and let said son curse her out because she can't tell him that his father is a drug dealer. In Season 5, Walt's Heisenberg (read: pure evil) alter-ego begins to show up in their domestic life and she's forced to leave her kids with Hank and Marie for their own safety, again opening herself up to hate from her son with no way to defend herself. |
| 43 | ** Marie is a KnowNothingKnowItAll, refused to apologize for nearly getting Skyler arrested, never shuts up, and generally gets involved in things that are none of her business, but in Season 4 it becomes clear she really loves Hank and wants him to get better [[spoiler:after he's left paralyzed from a shootout with the Cousins]]. Her reward for all of this is constant verbal abuse from her husband. |
| 44 | ** Hank himself. He's rude, obnoxious, could use a refresher course on the 4th Amendment, and not above making incredibly racist jokes around his Hispanic partner. But between his nervous breakdown in Season 2 and [[spoiler:getting paralyzed]] in Season 3, he becomes actually quite sympathetic, especially when it becomes clear that his obnoxiousness is an act to cover up the uncertainty he feels about whether he's doing the right thing and his fear of getting shot or killed on the job. |
| 45 | ** This was the second stage of Walt's transformation. He started off as a regular [[TheWoobie Woobie]], and then became this as his character darkened. After crossing what many consider his MoralEventHorizon at the end of Season 4, he left this territory behind as well. [[spoiler:He reverts to this in "Ozymandias": He has fled the state and done everything in his power to protect Skyler from prosecution, but has Hank's death weighing on his conscience after genuinely doing ''everything'' he could to save him. This continues in "Felina", where he admits that whatever noble intentions he might have had at first were quickly left by the wayside when he became addicted to the rush of being a criminal but tries to make everything right with his family before his death.]] |
| 46 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': |
| 47 | ** Say what you like about Faith's brash and tactless attitude, her willingness and lack of shame at using people like tampons and her psychotic murderous qualities, but even her most zealous of haters (as well as [[BaseBreakingCharacter her most dedicated fans]]) admit that it must have '''sucked''' to be her. To have abusive, alcoholic parents who are strongly implied to be dead, to see your watcher die in front of your eyes and to never of had a real father figure must have stung pretty badly. [[spoiler: And of course, there's the whole being stuck in a coma for months thing, before awakening to find the only person who ever cared for you is dead. Truly the cherry upon the crappy cake that is Faith's life.]] [[BrokenBase The real question among the fandom is]] whether Faith uses all her misfortune as a excuse to be a heartless, violent bitch or if she is genuinely a victim who has been pushed off the rails and needs all the support she can get. Of course, then there are the people who argued that she ''was'' offered support, but chose not to take it, preferring to resume her sociopathic, reckless lifestyle for her own selfish benefit. Or even if she was so unused to being offered friendship and understanding that the poor mess couldn't process it. Either way, definitely a Jerkass, definitely a woobie. |
| 48 | ** Spike spent most of his human life as a ridiculed introvert, rejected by the woman he loved. Then he was turned, and turned his mother out of love and devotion. She promptly tried to molest him, and implied that he was Oedipal, forcing him to stake her. He then spent twenty years or so in the company of three of the most evil vampires in history, often considered bottom of the pack as the youngest, and had to see Drusilla, who he adored, screw Angelus. Then he lost Drusilla and was essentially neutered and mocked, used as a source for information and occasional meatshield by the Scoobies. Despite this, he retained a capacity to feel love (even if he was phenomenally bad at expressing it in a remotely human manner) and affection (e.g. Dawn and Joyce), making him nigh on unique among vampires. After that, Buffy essentially yanks him back and forth for most of series 6. Then he gets driven mad by the First and dies after being re ensouled in a HeroicSacrifice. The Woobie part is very definitely there, especially as the universe is clearly still kicking the crap out of him, judging by Series 5 of Angel and the Season 8 comics. This quote sums it up pretty well; ''"The chip. It won't let me be a monster. And I can't be a man. I'm nothing."'' Did Spike get what was inevitably coming to him? Did he deserve this? Did he bring all or at least most of his suffering on himself? Well, yeah. Does that make him any less ashamed, lonely and conflicted in a way a lot of the audience really connected with? Not one bit. |
| 49 | ** Buffy herself, after she sacrificed herself to save her sister [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl (and the world, though at that point, she cared little about it in comparison)]] only for her friends to bring her back to life. Confused, scared, and hurt, she reveals that she was happy being dead and in heaven, simultaneously pushing people away and using them. |
| 50 | ** And from [[Series/{{Angel}} the Spin Off]], we have several, but one of the most noted is Connor. This is the kid that grew up in a hell dimension, his father figure lied to him about the nature of his real father, he was driven mad with revenge, and was seduced into the service of an EldritchAbomination. Sometimes, you just want to give the little guy a hug, but he was also known for being ''unbelievably AxCrazy...'' |
| 51 | * ''Series/{{Cheers}}'': Cliff Clavin gets a lot of abuse for his KnowNothingKnowItAll attitude. Mostly from Carla, but after a while, Sam also had difficulty hiding just how much he despises Cliff. |
| 52 | * ''Series/TheColbertReport'': [[AlterEgoActing Stephen Colbert]] (but not Creator/StephenColbert) is a delusional SmallNameBigEgo type who takes his own vanity and arbitrary biases to [[InsaneTrollLogic absurd extremes]]. It becomes difficult not to pity him during his more delusional moments. |
| 53 | * ''Series/ColdCase'': Katerina from Season 4 episode ''Cargo''. On one hand, she lied to a vulnerable girl about the girl being abandoned when she was not, murdered the victim and sold his boat to make money. On the other hand, she'd been raped for years, and was about to watch what may have been her only chance at freedom slip away. |
| 54 | * ''Series/{{Community}}'': |
| 55 | ** Pierce Hawthorne in the second half of season two. He is shown to be insecure about how his age is creating a barrier between him and the rest of the group, and much of his attention seeking behavior is an outgrowth of his dysfunctional relationship with his father. |
| 56 | ** Chang in season 2. All he wants is to be part of the group, but he keeps getting shot down. Especially when you consider that they were planning to let him in from the beginning. Though he did spend most of Season 1 tormenting them, so it's understandable. |
| 57 | * ''Series/ControlZ'': Gerry is a cruel and heartless {{Jerkass}} who bullies Luis on a daily basis but whose life is miserable due to having an [[AbusiveParents abusive homophobic father]], which causes him to verbally repress anyone's homosexuality and not embrace his own, not to mention the tragic backstory that came with this in Season 2. He and Luis were originally friends but based on a comment made by his father about said friendship, it rapidly dissipated. |
| 58 | * ''Series/CoronationStreet'': |
| 59 | ** Leanne Tilsley. Despite being a manipulative opportunist, a cheat, [[TheMistress a homewrecker]] and usually a total bitch, things have really stunk for her in her life. Her mother abandoned her at birth, she's forced to abort the child she created with the husband she loves, she gets addicted to drugs and works as a prostitute to pay for said addiction, she suffers a miscarriage with her second husband, [[{{Irony}} who then cheats on her and eventually marries the other woman]], her next husband (who was also her first husband) cheats and slept with his sister-in-law ''on Christmas day'', possibly impregnating her, watches her one-time fiancé die in an explosion and her stepson, who used to love her like his own mother, verbally and physically abuses her. |
| 60 | ** David Platt hovers between this and regular Woobie. For years on the show, he went from a nasty Troll who just tried to get a rise out of people for his own amusement, to a deranged, violent criminal who attacked his own mother and was sent to prison, until he got better (somewhat). Yet things have sucked for him pretty hard. His mother tried to abort him, and then as a child Richard Hillman tried to murder him and his family. He then spent years being TheUnfavourite to his older brother and younger sister. His first girlfriend aborted his child behind his back (which his mother kept secret from him), and his brother sleeps with his wife on Christmas Day (which David's family also plots to keep a secret from him). He was then kicked out of his own house, denied access to his kids and treated like a complete monster in late 2013. All for 'trying to kill' his brother (which was a genuine accident). Just when he seems to be getting his life back on track, his family is terrorised by his wife's drug dealer and his wife is then murdered. |
| 61 | * One hopes this trope doesn't apply to the RealLife Creator/LarryDavid, but the Larry David ''character'' on ''Series/CurbYourEnthusiasm'' exemplifies it. He's a legitimate {{Jerkass}} and extremely self-centered...but the Universe seems determined to make him ''seem'' even worse than that. He also endures ''a lot'' throughout the series and some of it isn't even his fault. |
| 62 | * ''Series/DegrassiJuniorHigh'': Kathleen is a snooty bitch, but her life is such a wreck - alcoholic mom, absentee dad, abusive boyfriend, anorexia... |
| 63 | ** Stephanie is shallow, and mean to people she considers unworthy of her company, but at the end of season 1 tearfully reveals that she just wanted to be loved. |
| 64 | * ''Series/{{Degrassi|TheNextGeneration}}'' has a few, mostly due to having to have antagonistic main characters who can be protagonists at other points in a given season: |
| 65 | %%** Sean spends a while wearing this coat, during his time in the Candy Bandits. |
| 66 | ** Craig has a lot of it too, usually involved with his improbable trouble with girls or his more probable trouble with family. |
| 67 | ** Holly J., when her act of pretending to be a jerk comes into play during Season 8, when we see both her Jerkass and Woobie side by side (it's there during late Season 7 and early Season 9 too.) |
| 68 | ** Riley's {{Gayngst}} causes some of this, mostly during Season 8 and 9 while he tries to date beards. |
| 69 | |
| 70 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 71 | ** The Doctor himself has this a bit: |
| 72 | *** The First Doctor was a contemptuous and evasive GrumpyOldMan who liked to do MaliciousMisnaming and could occasionally be really ruthless, and was usually very rude even to people he liked. The longer his tenure goes on the more we realise that he's secretly very scared and insecure and [[YouCantGoHomeAgain must never]] [[ArcWords go back]]. |
| 73 | *** Is it really any wonder the Third Doctor tends to pick on the Brigadier and Jo when he's [[spoiler: been abused as a BoxedCrook by the Time Lords for centuries]], had TARDIS travel stripped from him and is being forced to co-operate with a military organisation that committed a genocide in its third on-screen story? His rudeness towards his friends is really the only power he has. |
| 74 | *** The Fourth Doctor starts out as a sparkling and hilarious [[TheMadHatter Mad Hatter]] (with occasional moments where his madness would make him a bit disturbing) but by the time of "Logopolis" seems to have [[ReluctantPsycho segued into a more realistic portrayal of mental illness]]. He appears skeletal, temperamental and brittle, barks at his companions and makes insensitive comments to Tegan about her aunt dying - and makes awkward, disjointed plans based on paranoia that make no sense and in a few cases are actively suicidal. He gets over it, but only by making [[TheNthDoctor a big change in his life]]. |
| 75 | *** The Ninth Doctor is much more abrupt and jerkish than his past incarnations. However, most of this is because he thinks he is the LastOfHisKind and he killed his own people to end the Time War. |
| 76 | *** The Tenth Doctor could be mean and petty; not only is he still dealing with trauma from the Time War but also the loss of the woman he loved. |
| 77 | *** The Twelfth Doctor can be mean spirited, insulting and is less likely to weep over the deaths he sees. This is partly because he knows grieving will not help anyone and is likely to get more people killed and partly due to being racked by insecurities and having lost so many people already. |
| 78 | *** The Thirteenth Doctor doesn't start off as one, being generally genial and good-natured and having a LighterAndSofter first season, but in her second season, she gets hit hard with one hell of a TraumaCongaLine, with [[spoiler:the Master returning and revealing that he destroyed Gallifrey again due to finding out a terrible secret hidden by the founders of Gallifrey, a regeneration of herself that the Doctor has no memory of and who has no memory of her showing up and causing quite the identity crisis for Thirteen, and the return of the Cybermen towards the end of the season triggering some of her old trauma about losing Bill Potts to Cyberconversion,]] and as a result, acts much moodier, lashes out at her companions, and becomes much harsher with enemies. |
| 79 | ** Omega, one of the early Time Lords, a deranged megalomaniac who only became that way after aeons of isolation and who just wants to return to our universe. The Doctor treats him more with pity than anger or contempt. |
| 80 | ** Eldrad in "The Hand of Fear" possesses Sarah Jane, and accidentally causes an innocent man to die by possessing them into a murderous frenzy state in which they [[DisneyVillainDeath fall off things]]. She tortures the Doctor for little reason and tortures other people with an AgonyBeam - but at the same time it's difficult not to feel sorry for her due to her (apparently) unjust exile and physical beauty. Upon regenerating [[GenderBender into a male form]] he reveals he's actually just a genocidal megalomaniac, but still inspires pity due to his despair about the other Kastrians cheating him out of his victory. |
| 81 | ** Turlough is this, at least for his first few episodes. He's an alien criminal trying secretly to murder the Doctor, but his boyishness and conflicted nature makes him rather sympathetic. |
| 82 | * Topher from ''{{Series/Dollhouse}}'', by the series' end. Especially after [[spoiler: Bennett, the only girl he could have truly loved, was killed right in front of him]]. |
| 83 | * Thomas Barrow from ''Series/DowntonAbbey''. He's a sly, [[SmugSnake smug snake]] of a schemer, happily willing to throw anybody under the bus if it will help him further himself and be mean for the fun of it, yet, good lord. |
| 84 | ** His plan of running off to valet for his lover is dashed, he's right in the thick of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, he goes back to Blighty with 1 person pleased that he's not dead, he connects with a wounded soldier who promptly commits suicide, he nearly doesn't get his old job back, his business venture ruins him, that friend of his hates him now, 1 of approximately 3 people who've been kind to him dies, he falls for someone whom he is told [[HoneyTrap fancies him back]], said person explodes when Thomas kisses him, that fellow then tries to ruin Thomas's life at the behest of said ex-friend, he's facing either prison or complete destitution, and who has to help him? The one person Thomas hates more than anyone. |
| 85 | ** In Season 5, he's apparently [[spoiler: self-medicating to "cure" his homosexuality]]. Fans are speculating that he's [[spoiler: using Apomorphine, which is a powerful emetic (induces vomiting). Poor, poor baby. No wonder he's been looking like death (barely) warmed over for the last few episodes..]]. |
| 86 | ** Also his suicide attempt in Season 6. |
| 87 | * Ari Gold from ''Series/{{Entourage}}''. He becomes one in "The Beginning Of The End" - when Mrs. Gold tells him that she's started seeing someone else, he looks utterly crushed. |
| 88 | * Lauren in ''Series/FakingIt''. In any other show she would be the AlphaBitch but in the pathologically liberal atmosphere of the school she attends she's the outsider. Throw in the fact that she's [[spoiler: intersex]] and a couple of PetTheDog moments and she easily fits into this trope. |
| 89 | * ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': |
| 90 | ** Scorpius gets into this territory at times- at least, when he's not knee-deep in ThePlan. Despite the fact that he'd spent most of his tenure of the show hunting, torturing and terrorizing Crichton and the others for the secrets of wormhole technology, he still manages to achieve a certain degree of sympathy when his backstory is unveiled: the son of a woman abducted and raped by the Scarran, he was raised by them as part of an experiment to determine if the Sebaceans could be used as ''breeding stock.'' The first eleven years of his life was a virtually non-stop torture session, enduring beatings, dehydration, and a whole host of other techniques designed to punish him for being born sickly; at one point, he was even forced to watch a video recording of his mother being raped. After over a decade of this treatment, he escaped and joined the Peacekeepers; however, it later becomes clear that this wasn't because he wanted power, but because he wanted revenge for what was done to him [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas and his mother]]. It is ''literally'' the only thing he really wants: even when Crichton finally manages to defeat him at the end of season three, Scorpius wearily declines all opportunities to take revenge on him- either by letting his I-Yensch bracelet kill him or by destroying Earth- simply because there'd no point in it now that the vengeance he ''really'' wanted was out of reach. |
| 91 | ** Before him was Captain Bialar Crais, who doggedly pursued Crichton across an implausibly large portion of space because of an honest-to-goodness-accident that lead to his brother's death, repeatedly refusing to believe it was an accident and, even when he does come to terms with that fact, ''doesn't care'' and continues the hunt anyway. This hunt goes further and further against his direct orders, eventually leading to his expulsion from the Peacekeepers and replacement, Scorpius dubbing him a fugitive as well. A prolonged EnemyMine with the crew of Moya turns out that his ENTIRE purpose in hunting down Crichton so dutifully was because, as a child, he'd sworn that he would do ''anything'' to protect his little brother; in the end, Crais simply couldn't accept the fact that- after all the years he spent looking out for Tauvo, he died because of a simple accident that nobody, not even Bialar, could have planned for. All the speeches about revenge were just a cover for the brotherly love he felt that was considered a weakness by [[ProudWarriorRace his people]] and he was never able to properly express. He finally makes up for all the hardship he caused the crew by [[HeroicSacrifice performing a suicide maneuver]] in order to allow the people he [[RedemptionEqualsDeath finally considers friends, who he forgives and who forgive him]], to escape capture. |
| 92 | %%* [[Series/{{FatherTed}} Father Ted]]. |
| 93 | %%* [[Series/{{FawltyTowers}} Basil Fawlty]]. |
| 94 | * Harry Wells, introduced in season 2 of ''Series/TheFlash2014'', comes off as a rude, arrogant jerkass who has very little regard for the feelings of those around him. However, it turns out that [[spoiler: the BigBad has kidnapped his daughter]] and the resulting HeroicBSOD has done a number on his people skills. Add to that the fact that his wife died when their daughter was very young, and it's hard not to sympathise with the way he lashes out at people and pushes them away so he doesn't have to deal with losing anyone else. |
| 95 | * Frasier Crane from ''Series/{{Frasier}}''. Sure, he's a pompous, arrogant, overbearing, snotty jackass a lot of the time, but deep down, he's a very insecure and sensitive man whose deepest desire is to be liked by everyone, whose controlling behavior towards his younger brother Niles and best friend Roz is often symptomatic of a fear that they might stop needing (and therefore stop liking) him, and who desperately wants a meaningful romantic relationship — but he keeps getting [[WeirdnessMagnet slapped in the face by luck over and over and over again.]] |
| 96 | * ''Series/FreaksAndGeeks'': |
| 97 | ** Daniel is manipulative, lazy and seems set on doing as little as possible in life. But his father is sick, his mother obviously doesn't think much of him, his teachers seem set on making sure he never succeeds, he's thought of by everyone as a failure by default and even his closest friends can't see him with any type of future. He seems caught in a vicious cycle: Everyone assumes he's a screwup, he tries to prove them wrong but it doesn't work, he becomes indifferent and complacent, and everyone thinks he just doesn't care. |
| 98 | ** Kim Kelly also qualifies. When We first meet her, She is rude, cold, and utterly horrible to almost everyone especially Lindsey who always tries to be nice. But her family and home life is so horrible you're just amazed She hasn't turned out a lot worse. |
| 99 | * From ''Series/FreshMeat'', [[UpperClassTwit JP]] is ''such a dick'', being smug, completely self-absorbed, and unrepentantly looking down on ''everybody''. However, he also suffers incredibly throughout the show, with his father dying, his mother selling his house without telling him, and his so-called "friends" manipulating him all the time while he desperately struggles for their approval. And he has ''two'' [[ItMakesSenseInContext crying steps]]. |
| 100 | * ''Series/{{Friends}}'': |
| 101 | ** Emily. She turned into a ControlFreak and ClingyJealousGirl only after Ross humiliated her in front of her family and friends ''at her wedding'', the most important day of her life. |
| 102 | ** Phoebe already has a DarkAndTroubledPast (living on the street, a mother who killed herself) and apparently became more of a bitch by the end of the series because of the revelations about her family. Makes perfect sense when you realize that she found out she had a brother her father didn't bother telling her about, her grandmother didn't tell her how to get in touch with her father, she lost a year when she found out she's a year older than she thought, doesn't even know her full name because her sister sold her birth certificate, and found out her mom isn't her mom, but her mom's girlfriend. She probably started being such a bitch when she realized her entire family lied to her almost all of her life. |
| 103 | %%** Ross can also be this sometimes.%% |
| 104 | * ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow'': |
| 105 | ** Benny was a horrible mother to George, no bones about it. But her parents were ''much'' worse, and she had to raise George [[StrugglingSingleMother on her own without help]]. |
| 106 | ** Ricky was Max's delinquent friend who talked Max into a lot of stunts that damaged the Lopez house and drained their finances. But his childhood was pretty much the same as George's, maybe even worse, so George was willing to take him in and give him a better life. |
| 107 | ** Veronica was a spoiled brat who tested George's patience more than once. But her father was a manipulative conman who stole her quinceanera money and abandoned her, and returned again just to steal her trust fund money, her mother died, and it's implied that her spoiled relatives were also poor role models, since her mother Claudia made George a the trustee to her inheritance, and one of them later sued Veronica for her money, forcing her to live with the Lopez family. |
| 108 | ** Zack Powers is a subversion. He may have had a difficult childhood (a negligent father and an alcoholic mom), but his embezzlement of company money, trashing the factory just to spite his father, and his manipulation of Carmen into running away and having sex with him shreds all sympathy you can have for him. |
| 109 | * ''Series/{{Glee}}'': |
| 110 | ** Kurt. He's pretty manipulative and borderline StalkerWithACrush on Finn (which was not condoned), but he's victimised and struggling for acceptance and it's hard not to just want to jump through the screen and give him a cuddle. |
| 111 | ** Rachel. She's conceited and demanding, yes, but she has almost ''nothing'' to hold on to besides her dreams of stardom. A lot of her arrogance is compensating for her insecurities and loneliness. |
| 112 | ** As of "Never Been Kissed", Dave Karofsky, one of [[ThoseTwoGuys Those Two]] [[JerkJock Jerk Jocks]], joins the club when he's revealed to be struggling with his own sexuality and is most likely full of self-hatred. He becomes a card-carrying example after his ADayInTheLimelight episode, "The Sue Sylvester Bowl Shuffle". Also, in On My Way he [[spoiler: tries to kill himself]]. |
| 113 | ** Sue. Let's see, her mom abandoned her when she was little, her dad passed away, and she was left to take care of her mentally disabled sister, [[spoiler:who later heartwrenchingly dies]]. On top of this, she was bullied because she stood up for her sister. Yes, she's a complete bitch most of the time, but she really does have a heart underneath it all. |
| 114 | ** [[AlphaBitch Santana]] as of "Mash Off". After constantly bullying Finn, he finally got fed up and called her out about being in the closet, humiliating her in front of the whole school. Then, one of Sue's opponents in the run for congress outs her in one of their campaign videos, not just to the rest of the school, but to everybody. Furthermore, Finn also made her question Brittany's feelings for her. This is made all the more poignant by the Troubletones' song choice. Their mash-up of Adele's 'Rumor Has It' and 'Someone Like You' involves love lost/unrequited and secrets being outed (duh). This parallels Finn's claim that Santana's afraid that Brittany doesn't love her back and her fears about what people will say behind her back when she's outed being realised. Also, in "I Kissed A Girl", Santana gets kicked out of her grandmother's house after coming out to her and is driven to tears. |
| 115 | ** Quinn: she's kind of bitchy but she's also an intelligent but insecure girl who lost everything she had. |
| 116 | * ''Series/GossipGirl'': |
| 117 | ** Chuck Bass may be a pseudo date rapist, MagnificentBastard, [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]], and ruthless force who will crush anybody just because he feels like it and [[spoiler:sell his soulmate for a hotel]]...But he's also put through more heart-wrenching pain than all the other characters. He's the only male character that's been [[ManlyTears driven to tears]] and that's happened four times over the course of three seasons. |
| 118 | ** Blair Waldorf will destroy you if she wants to, or even if she's just [[AlphaBitch in a bit of a bad mood]]. However, with her low self-esteem, bulimia, neglectful parents, being sold for a hotel, [[spoiler: her failed marriage, and her miscarriage]], it's hard not to feel bad for her, especially what with Leighton Meester's talent for using her big brown eyes to show agony. |
| 119 | * Alex from ''Series/GreysAnatomy'' is a {{Jerkass}}, but he also grew up in and out of foster care, had an abusive, drug-addicted father and an alcoholic mother, had a girlfriend breakdown, and when he finally started to trust someone, she got cancer and left him with her hospital bills over a stupid miscommunication. And he was shot. And he had to commit his brother to a psych ward after he had a psychotic episode and tried to kill their sister. |
| 120 | * Dr. Frederick Chilton in ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'' is a [[SmugSnake smug]], [[{{Slimeball}} slimy]] administrator who manipulates Gideon into believing he's the Chesapeake Ripper. Despite his many sins, it's difficult not to feel pity for him after all of his trials and tribulations. In season 1, Gideon kidnaps him and vivisects him. The ordeal costs him a kidney and leaves him with a limp, requiring him to walk with a cane. In season 2, when he [[spoiler:realizes that Hannibal is a serial killer]], Jack Crawford refuses to take him seriously when he [[spoiler:begs for FBI protection. Hannibal then frames him for three murders he didn't commit. Finally, a traumatized Miriam mistakes Chilton for her captor and shoots him in the head]]. |
| 121 | * ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': |
| 122 | ** Superpowered SerialKiller Sylar had the seeds of sympathy sewn for him toward the end of the first season when we are introduced to his [[EvilMatriarch domineering mother]], probably the root of his [[FreudianExcuse obsession with being "special"]] that drove him to kill, going on to [[GunStruggle kill her accidentally]] when she attacks him with scissors. The season ends with him being run through with a sword, and though the second season, during which he recovered, had less in the way of Woobification, the third and fourth were ''rife'' with revelations of ParentalAbandonment by his [[TurnOutLikeHisFather mass-murderer father]], murdered birth mother, multiple [[GambitPileup twisted and improbable]] [[MindScrew mindscrews]] sending him through the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor; that his first murder [[DrivenToSuicide might have been his last]] if Elle's [[LoveMakesYouEvil betrayal]] hadn't driven him completely AxCrazy, and being [[MindRape manipulated]] by Matt Parkman first into [[TomatoInTheMirror believing he was someone else]] and then by trapping him [[MentalWorld in a living nightmare]] after he realized that [[WhoWantsToLiveForever copying an ability that makes him immortal]] [[IronicHell might have been a ''bad'' idea]] does not help. |
| 123 | ** [[PsychoElectro Elle Bishop]] also qualifies. Essentially imprisoned for most of her life, a subject of cruel experiments, constantly belittled by her father, lonely, and socially oblivious, she's got a whole raft of psychological issues that spawned her love of ElectricTorture. ("When I was eleven years old, the doctors diagnosed me as a sociopath with paranoid delusions -- but they were all out to get me because I threatened to kill them.") [[spoiler: And then she loses control of her powers and is in constant agony...and then Sylar murders her. Poor Elle.]] |
| 124 | * Randy Taylor on ''Series/HomeImprovement'' was a wise-cracking InsufferableGenius, but a handful of episodes either shed a glimpse on or were devoted to his insecurities over his small size or feeling like TheUnfavourite now and then. Plus, there's "The Longest Day" in which he had to cope with the possibility of cancer. |
| 125 | * ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'': |
| 126 | ** Munch. An insufferable, sarcastic jerk he may be at times but so many bad things have happened to the guy (Being dumped by various women, being bullied in school, being clearly traumatized after seeing his friends shot, and feeling guilty over his abusive father's suicide) that you can't help but feel bad for him. |
| 127 | ** Pembleton could be a complete jerk but only a person with heart of stone couldn't feel sorry for him after his stroke. Pembleton's best resource was his mind, so his loss of cognitive function is tragic, added to which his wife just had a baby, making his inability to go and work as well as his need to be cared for by her even more tragic. |
| 128 | ** Felton, again a complete prick but given the way his crazy wife treated him you couldn't help feel sorry for him when he started drinking, turning up to work late (or not at all) and losing key pieces of evidence. And while you kind of agreed (Felton was nowhere near the best detective), Gee telling him that he wasn't good enough for the unit after he'd been shot must've hurt. |
| 129 | ** Bolander could be a cantankerous old man, especially in the way that he treated Munch. But you felt sorry for the way his wife left him, especially since they obviously still loved each and especially since Bolander finds it so difficult to try and rebuild his life outside of work after losing her. |
| 130 | ** Kellerman. His wife cheated on him. His partner (and supposed friend) won't open up to him. He's accused of taking bribes even though he didn't. He has a somewhat abortive relationship with Julianna Cox which basically ends because he's such a mess he can't explicate his feelings for her. He kills a bastard drug dealer pretty much in defence of his supposed partner/friend (how was it going to look if Mahoney revealed Lewis beat him up? Plus, he lowered his gun but he didn't drop it) and what does Lewis do in response? Turn his back on him. He eventually gets kicked off of the Police force for killing a total bastard, and everyone he worked with thinks he's trash. |
| 131 | ** John Lange from "Subway". The man is an asshole, but he is horrifically mangled and slowly and painfully dies over the course of several hours, with only Pembleton for company, all for no reason. |
| 132 | ** Robert Ellison from "Bop Gun". He's grieving the recent murder of his wife, which results in him lashing out at the detectives and desperately trying to put on a show of protecting her now that she's dead, out of guilt that he was unable to do so while she was alive. |
| 133 | * ''Series/{{House}}'': |
| 134 | ** [[DrJerk Gregory House]]. Cuddy [[LampshadeHanging calls him out on it]] in the season 6 finale. |
| 135 | ** Chase is a womanizing pretty-boy who kisses up to House and badmouths patients when he's not meeting with them, but between his AbusiveParents, [[spoiler:dad's death]] in season 2, [[spoiler:nervous breakdown and divorce from Cameron]] in Season 6 and general abuse and disrespect from his boss and coworkers, it's hard not to sympathize with him. |
| 136 | ** Foreman has a God complex, insists that everyone recognize his authority whenever House steps out of the room and generally has a severe case of SmallNameBigEgo, but his mom barely remembers him anymore due to advanced-stage Alzheimer's, his father is cold and unsympathetic, his one attempt to get away from House and have a normal life blows up in his face, and it's revealed in later seasons that a lot of his egomania is because he's very insecure about his abilities and feels he didn't deserve his medical career. |
| 137 | * ''Series/HouseOfAnubis'': |
| 138 | ** Patricia, mostly in the first season. She's a DeadpanSnarker with jealousy and temper issues. However, she does care about her friends, and seems to have insecurities about a few things- which is probably the two things that are what cause her to act badly in the first place. |
| 139 | ** Jerome is manipulative and has a tendency to be rather selfish. He was also a victim of ParentalAbandonment, unrequited love, and loneliness, as well as a target of Rufus Zeno for two seasons. He also has tried to get better, but has trouble shaking his bad habits and is an AntiHero at best. |
| 140 | ** Joy. While she was relentless in getting Fabian to like her and also was a ControlFreak with an ItsAllAboutMe streak, she also went through a lot in her life. She genuinely felt ignored by all of her friends and replaced by Nina, as well as unfairly shut out of Sibuna despite everything that happened in the first season. |
| 141 | * ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': |
| 142 | ** Barney Stinson. Most of the time, he comes off as an unrepentant, petty, womanizing AttentionWhore, but not only is he an actual person, but he's a pretty pathetic and frail one. Especially in regards to his relationships with [[CannotSpitItOut Robin]] or [[DisappearedDad his absent father]]. |
| 143 | ** Billy Zabka. He's a [[TheWoobie Woobie]], because everyone hates him just for playing the bad guy in ''Film/TheKarateKid'', but he's also a {{Jerkass}}, because he tries to take over Ted's position as the best man at a wedding, out of nothing but jealousy. |
| 144 | * ''Series/ICarly'' |
| 145 | ** Sam in the episode "iSpeed Date". A case for a {{Jerkass}} becoming a [[TheWoobie Woobie]] in that episode. Even more so when you remember that her mom is not the most competent parent, her father abandoned her, and most of her family is or was in jail. |
| 146 | ** Nora. She ''was'' a psychopathic kidnapper who tried to outright murder Gibby, but it's hard not to feel sorry for her. The girl's parents left her alone on her birthday (the way she said it implies that this is a common occurrence), she had no friends except her chicken, and her insanity was likely because of it. In-universe, Carly actually feels sorry for her. |
| 147 | %%** Nevel becomes this in "iPity the Nevel". |
| 148 | * ''Series/ImAlanPartridge'': Alan Partridge, absolutely insufferable and yet, sometimes, his haplessness is pitiable. He's an utter twat but, sometimes, you want to give him a mug of hot cocoa and a hug. |
| 149 | * ''Series/TheInspectorLynleyMysteries'': DS Barbara Havers starts out as this in the pilot episode. The woman cannot take a compliment to save her life, nor can she comprehend the idea that someone might actually respect her for her abilities. As a result, she is bitchy, snappish, and defensive, and rather tends to make viewers (and Inspector Lynley himself) want to smack her across the face. But the storyline makes it ''very'' clear just what cause she has to be this way, and as a result, the aforementioned viewers are torn between wanting to slap her in the face and just giving her a goddamn hug already because she needs one ''so'' badly. By the end of the three-hour, two-part pilot, the mask has cracked, and she begins to open up to her partner instead of shoving him away. She becomes progressively less [[CharacterDevelopment bitchy and defensive]] as the series goes on; although she never loses it completely. |
| 150 | * ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': |
| 151 | ** Lestat de Lioncourt is an awful, ''awful'' person, but his backstory is genuinely horrific. He was [[AbusiveParent abused by his father]] and [[BigBrotherBully brothers]], and then was kidnapped by a SerialKiller who turned him into a vampire and then killed himself in front of him, leaving Lestat to figure out the "rules" of vampirism by himself. It doesn't excuse his actions one bit, but still, ''no one'' deserves what he went through. |
| 152 | ** Claudia is a SerialKiller, but only because she's been thoroughly broken and traumatized by her vampire father [[AbusiveParent Lestat]] and the loss of her FirstLove, and the realization that she will ''never'' get to have a normal, healthy romantic relationship. |
| 153 | * In ''Series/KaizokuSentaiGokaiger'', [[spoiler:Warz openly admitted that he wants to prove himself to be more than [[RoyalBrat what people of his homeworld think of him]] and was just using his so-called "lack of competence" as a facade due to secretly listening to Akudos' conversation with Damaras over being his "babysitter"]]. |
| 154 | * ''Series/KirbyBuckets'' has the title character's older sister Dawn. One one hand, Dawn is a massive JerkAss who's very selfish, rude, and vain, and seems to hate almost everyone on the show, including her own family and best friend Belinda. On the other hand, she's the show's biggest ButtMonkey, who rarely, if ever, has any happy moments on the show, with the few she gets [[YankTheDogsChain vanishing by the end of the episode]]. She's also clearly TheUnfavourite with her parents and virtually an outcast at her school, especially compared to Kirby, who is much more well-liked on both fronts. Not helping matters is the fact that Kirby can be as mean to Dawn as vice versa, the main difference being that Dawn is always punished while Kirby [[KarmaHoudini gets away scot-free]]. The writers seemed to have picked up on it midway through the series, and gave her a short but heart-wrenching speech addressing this in the episode "I, Gregory". The final season she does show a willingness to help Kirby in his quests, even if her underlying motivations are still self-centered, and she finally gets a boyfriend in the last episode (and perhaps the most unlikely one imaginable...). |
| 155 | * ''Series/LazyTown'': Robbie is a pretty big jerk, but still a very lovable one that displays occasional hints of loneliness. In an AMA, his actor revealed what he really thinks of the other characters, underneath it all: "I wish I could be their friend." In "The First Day of Summer", everyone but Robbie goes to the beach and Robbie says "I never thought I'd say it, but I really, really miss those guys" when he thinks he made them disappear forever. |
| 156 | * ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'': |
| 157 | ** Sure, show Galadriel is borderline AxCrazy and has a [[HonorBeforeReason dangerous behaviour]], is willing to risk innocent lives for her selfish goals, and threatened Adar to make him watch while she massacres his "children" making her a UnintentionallyUnsympathetic in the eyes of the fandom, but in the end she is just an emotionally broken woman by the death of her brother and the disappearance of her husband. The death of Finrod pains has so much that after confessing to Halbrand her painful memories, even he seems to feels genuinely sympathetic toward her on hearing this. And as if it wasn't enough, the very man she bonded emotionally whether it was romantically, cosmically or both, turns out to be [[spoiler:Sauron taking human form]]. Poor girl, goes even in denial for a few seconds. |
| 158 | ** Adar. He may be a MonsterProgenitor and his methods involve killing and enslaving innocent people, but his story is quite sad. He is a former Elf from the long-lost subcontinent of Beleriand, and was one of the many Elves kidnaped, enslaved and made painful experiments on by Morgoth. In present, he is something between Elves and Orcs. The orcs may be an AlwaysChaoticEvil Race in general, but he shows genuine affection for them. His goal to give the orcs a home is noble, is the means that are entirely amoral. |
| 159 | * ''Series/{{Lost}}'' |
| 160 | ** Ben. Definitely a villain, ManipulativeBastard, unrepentant liar, and murderer, yet his FreudianExcuse and the fact that the writers seem to enjoy having him constantly get the pulp beaten out of him (even though most of the time, he deserves it) have the side effect of making him sympathetic. It also helps that he was redeemed in the episode "Dr. Linus" after his quest for power made him lose everything. |
| 161 | ** Also, Sawyer, at least for the first three seasons. After that, the jerkass part tones down. |
| 162 | ** Locke, at times. He's not a bad guy, but he definitely comes across as one to his fellow survivors on several occasions, most notably after attacking Sayid, killing Naomi and becoming slightly tyrannical once assuming leadership of a group of islanders. He only does all of this, however, because he knows that the Island is special and he feels he needs to protect it at all costs. It's the first time he felt he had a real purpose, as his life before the Island was one big heap of misery. |
| 163 | * ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'': |
| 164 | ** Malcolm is an arrogant dick at times, but he is abused by his parents, bullied by his brothers, is an outcast at school and loses most of his friends in High School. When you realize all this, you want to just hug him and make him feel better. The fact that his increase in dickish behavior coincides with both mid-adolescence and the onset of a pileup of steadily worsening familial problems, combined with the finale strongly implying that his dickish phase was a prelude to an epiphany that inspires him to dedicate his life to working his ass off to use his intelligence to do good, qualifies as something of a FreudianExcuse in hindsight. |
| 165 | ** Reese as well. He's a violent, stupid, uncouth bully, but the sheer number of horrible and patently unfair things that happen to him and the number of times he's been exploited and dumped on due to his low intelligence over the course of the show - and which no one except Malcolm and Lois seem to care about due to his status as a "thug" - is enough to make you want to wrap him up in blankets to keep him safe. |
| 166 | ** Even the boys' mother Lois qualifies (in her more humane moments). She's far from being an ideal mother but dealing with several rambunctious sons and a doormat of a husband has definitely left its mark on her. Not to mention her own mother Ida was ''even worse'' towards her. Episodes like "Lois's Birthday" were clearly created to show the human side of Lois. |
| 167 | * Al Bundy from ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' is mean, egoistical, and hates everyone and life in general, but considering how practically everyone and everything, from his wife who constantly picks on him and refuses to do anything worthwhile around the house to the fat women who make his shoe salesman job hell to the universe [[YankTheDogsChain yanking his chain]] whenever ''anything'' begins going slightly right for him, [[SadistShow craps on him]], you can't really hate him and even have to admire him for refusing to give up even in the face of everything in his life conspiring against him.\ |
| 168 | "...But I'm not a loser...And the fact that I haven't put a gun in my mouth, you pudding of a woman, makes me a winner." (The full speech delivered by Al - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyLmSAnoR6g - is even more impressive.) |
| 169 | * ''Series/{{MASH}}'': |
| 170 | ** Frank Burns could be considered one of these. While he often acts in a way that makes you want to see karma bite him in the ass, karma bites him [[HumiliationConga so often and so mercilessly that it's easy to actually feel sorry for him]]. Particularly after Margaret left him and he became progressively more unhinged; even Hawkeye and BJ eased up on him during that time. We're also given occasional hints that Frank's childhood was [[FreudianExcuse not a happy one]]. |
| 171 | ** His successor at the 4077th, Charles Winchester, occasionally was one of these as well. Particularly in the final episode. Although he's generally a lot less of a {{jerkass}} than Frank Burns was as well. |
| 172 | * Howard Moon from ''Series/TheMightyBoosh''. He's a pompous, deluded, self-absorbed misanthrope who seems to cause more trouble than he's worth, but is put through hell in the course of most episodes, to the point where he more than wins the audience's sympathy. At least once in most live shows, there's a scene where he's cruelly picked on or gets incredibly depressed, and the accompanying sympathetic "''Awww''" from the audience is loud enough to warrant a response from Howard. |
| 173 | -->'''Howard:''' So alone...\ |
| 174 | '''Random Girl from Audience:''' Come back to my place!\ |
| 175 | '''Howard:''' I'm not ''that'' lonely. |
| 176 | * Alan Diaz from ''Series/MightyMed'' is a JerkAss with a visceral hatred of [[{{Muggles}} "normos"]] like Kaz and Oliver. But he is also a sympathetic character as he grew up not knowing his own father, is treated like crap by the staff of Mighty Med hospital, including his own uncle Horace, and is often the ButtMonkey on the show. And many fans agree he has a right to be angry that two amateur "normo" doctors leapfrogged a superpowered boy who spent years working hard and preparing to be Horace's natural successor. Luckily, this is not lost on Skylar, who often emphasizes with Alan's problems and tries to talk others into being more respectful of him. |
| 177 | * ''Series/{{Misfits}}'' (E4 Channel, UK): |
| 178 | ** While Nathan started off as a pretty straightforward jerk, there are moments in which he reconnects with his Mum, has a fight with his Dad, and we see him shell-shocked after barely [[ItMakesSenseInContext surviving an attack by his rabid probation officer in an alterna-present]] all point squarely at him being a classic example of a Jerkass Woobie. The fact that they have cast the rather pretty Creator/RobertSheehan in the role also indicates that this was exactly the IntendedAudienceReaction. But the main factor of his JerkassWoobie status -- aside from some very effective PetTheDog moments, and the casting of a ridiculously charismatic actor with big puppy dog eyes -- is probably the fact that the writers seem to just ''delight'' in punishing him. Although he is a genuine jerkass, the viewer barely has time to hate him before some kind of amusing karmic retribution (often in the shape of Kelly's fist) comes along to knock the crap out of him. |
| 179 | ** Rudy seems to have taken over this position rather nicely, though in a different way. Sure Rudy is a jerkass with little regard for how he hurts people, but the second his other side comes out (rather literally) it's impossible not to feel sorry for the guy. |
| 180 | * ''Series/MonarchLegacyOfMonsters'': Cate Randa is aloof and a little rude towards others around her and her relationship with her mother appears strained and very terse on her end, but after what she's been through, it's very hard not to understand her: a survivor of [[Film/Godzilla2014 G-Day]], she grapples with [[TraumaButton non-marginal PTSD which causes panic attacks]] after she was at ground zero of the Golden Gate Bridge destruction, watched the school-kids evacuees she was looking after as their teacher plummet to their deaths in front of her and subsequently received the cold shoulder from the Monarch mooks who she ran around crying to for help. Cate also thinks the worst about her and Kentaro's presumed-dead father [[DisappearedDad Hiroshi]] and doesn't make much effort to hide it; but considering that the man was chronically absent throughout her life, the last time she saw him alive was in the wake of G-Day, when he approached her ''only to tell her that he was '''immediately''' going away again''; and now she's found out that he was leading a double life for decades with [[SecretOtherFamily another wife and kid]] whom are just as shocked as she is, Cate's view of Hiroshi and her bitter feelings about him are more than reasonable. |
| 181 | * Adrian Monk from ''Series/{{Monk}}'' moves back and forth between the status of TheWoobie and JerkassWoobie. While he's a nice and caring man who's crushed under a debilitating amount of phobias and compulsions, his inability to connect with others on an empathic level makes him an insufferably demanding boss and an outright jerk at times. It should be hard to feel sympathy for a guy who would take candy from a baby if it wasn't unsanitary, but he suffers from a socially debilitating disorder, was basically abandoned by his parents, and his [[AloofBigBrother one remaining relative]] is more neurotic than he is. Not to mention that [[ILetGwenStacyDie his beloved wife]] was murdered in the one crime he can't solve. Of course, it helps that Monk can show his heart of gold ''while'' being a total {{Jerkass}}. |
| 182 | * C.C. Babcock on ''Series/TheNanny''. She may be a horrible, greedy, selfish person and a massive RichBitch, but considering all the crap she takes, you can't help but have a tiny bit of sympathy for her. |
| 183 | * ''{{Series/Nashville}}'''s Juliette Barnes is this in spades - difficult and can be inconsiderate but a genuinely talented performer, and with a rough upbringing at the hands of her drug addicted mother [[spoiler: who ultimately sacrificed herself]] and a penchant for falling for/into bed with any man who gives her the slightest positive attention, not to mention how every time something good happens to her it's always tainted, it's hard to outright call her a beeyotch. [[BaseBreakingCharacter Although that hasn't stopped some people]]...[[spoiler: even after she married Avery and had his child.]] |
| 184 | * Ryan Harper and Rachel Culgrin from ''Series/NightAndDay''. Both seem to delight in being absolutely vile to everyone they know, but neither is deprived of moments of vulnerability or humanity. Ultimately, they have loneliness in common. In-universe, Josh Alexander recognises both of them as Jerkass Woobies and befriends both in an attempt to encourage them to be better people. That's until he himself goes nuts and gets [[DemonicPossession demon-eyes]]. |
| 185 | * ''Series/NorthernExposure'': |
| 186 | ** Joel can be a whiny know-it-all who constantly tries to assert his superiority over other people, but him being forced to be a smalltown doctor for years due to a ReadTheFinePrint contract, suffering from a sense of isolation due to there not being other Jews in Cicely, being dumped by his fiancee, and his CosmicPlaything status can all make him pitiful. |
| 187 | ** Maurice is a greedy and arrogant racist, homophobe, and DirtyOldMan, but some episodes give him major LonelyAtTheTop vibes, and he is incapable of seeing generous and thoughtful actions by important people in his life for what they are and is obsessed with the idea that people have an angle while viewing some of his most selfless actions as moments of weakness. He also has some regrets about his relationship with his late brother and is unlucky in love (although this is often his own fault). |
| 188 | * ''Series/TheOfficeUS'': |
| 189 | ** Michael Scott. He may be an insensitive JerkAss with no internal filter and a massive lack of self-awareness, but when you consider his horrid relationship with the bitchy Jan and his depression after his roast over how much fun he'd have instead of what really happens at a roast and his short-lived romance with Holly (and he still holds a torch for her), it's hard not to sympathize with him. Also, in general, his lack of social skills can be a downer sometimes. |
| 190 | *** Even further than that, throughout the show, it's clear that most of Michael's decisions (becoming a salesman being a big one) are made with the intent of [[IJustWantToBeLoved either making friends or finding romance]]. Unfortunately, failure seems to be the only option for him, as bad luck tends to break up any chance at either that Michael's own thoughtlessness, childishness, obliviousness, or generally self-centered nature doesn't drive away first. It gets really woobie-ish at the brief points where Michael actually realizes this, such as in "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day". |
| 191 | ** Also, Dwight in some episodes. |
| 192 | ** Andy in the ninth season. While he was often a straight woobie, in the ninth season, he [[TookALevelInJerkAss takes a level up in jerkass]] after his father ([[WellDoneSonGuy whom he had spent a long time trying to make proud]]) bankrupted the family and his girlfriend leaves him for another guy. |
| 193 | * ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Both Regina/The Evil Queen and Gold/Rumpelstilstkin have signs of this, both being [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk jerk-hearted jerks]] who have a tendency towards being cruel to the few people they actually care about. But seeing their [[FreudianExcuse excuses]] for their behavior (Regina had a cruel, controlling mother who murdered Regina's fiance, while Rumple gained magic [[LoveMakesYouEvil to save his son]], was corrupted by the magic until his son left their world in disgust, and was manipulated by Regina into believing that his {{Love Interest|s}} [[DrivenToSuicide killed herself]] after he made her leave under the suspicion that she was working for the Queen.) make them both [[CryForTheDevil sympathetic]] to varying degrees. (Note that Rumple seems to fit this trope the best, as Regina has so many KickTheDog moments with other characters and MoralEventHorizon moments that even [[ManipulativeBastard he]] tends to come off as having the more sympathetic background.) |
| 194 | ** Really subject to analysis, as it was Rumple who first intentionally manipulated Regina into her StartOfDarkness for his own plans, so things she does to him later on are kind of karmic considering he started it. In any case, they both give as good as they get to each other, so whose background is more sympathetic is merely viewer's preference. |
| 195 | %%* Victor Meldrew in ''Series/OneFootInTheGrave'' defaults to TragicHero, but his feud with neighbour Patrick Trench makes them ''both'' into Jerkass Woobies. |
| 196 | * ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'': Most of the cast counts, given that they have committed crimes but have also led fairly harsh and disadvantaged lives. Several of the prison staff count as well. Standouts include: |
| 197 | ** Mendez. One of the big causes of his jerkassery is that he's just really, really lonely; he's a jerkass because he's lonely and he's lonely because he's a jerkass. |
| 198 | ** Also Caputo, who is a total asshole to everyone save for newbie officer Fischer, whom he has a blatant crush on. He then buys her flowers right before she introduces him to her boyfriend. The fact, that he is the least apathetic of the workers and wants to improve the prison's condition also earns him redemptive points. |
| 199 | ** Alex when she tells Piper that the latter broke her heart—and then her speech about heroin being "the perfect girlfriend." |
| 200 | ** Despite turning his back on Piper when she could be getting stabbed to death, Healy comes across like this when more of his background is revealed. He hasn't got any real friends, his wife is a mail-order bride who mostly ignores him and he looks genuinely heartbroken when he overhears Soso mentioning that none of the girls like him. Like Mendez, a lot of Healy's jerkassery appears to come from the fact he really is a very lonely person. It's also revealed that Healy had a troubled childhood, and that his issues with women stem from the fact his mother was clinically insane, and he had to try to take care of her from a very young age. Later, we have him calling Katya and leaving a heartfelt message because he just wants someone to talk to. Then he proceeds to walk deeper into the ocean as if he's ready to kill himself, only to be stopped when he hears his phone ring. He goes back, probably thinking Katya is answering him, but it's just work. He may have done some shitty things before, but after witnessing how crappy his life was growing up and how lonely he is, you really can't help but feel bad for him. |
| 201 | ** All of her corruption and callousness towards the prisoners aside, even Figueroa had a woobie moment when it was revealed that her husband is gay and is having an affair with his campaign manager. It is also implied that when she had originally started her job, she was idealistic and optimistic like Caputo, but the years of the prison system's corruption and incompetence that she faced eventually turned her into the cold-hearted bureaucrat that she is now. |
| 202 | ** Pennsatucky in season 2, when her former clique shuns her and she struggles to become a better person, and also in the first season when she landed in Psych - due to actions she committed genuinely believing she's helping people. Plus in season 3 it's revealed that she was raped as a teenager. And at Litchfield, she's assaulted again, by CO Coates. |
| 203 | ** Many fans found themselves feeling sorry for Piper despite her jerkass tendencies in season 4 when [[spoiler:she genuinely tries to make things right between her and other inmates and she's left on her own with no one to spend time with at a dance before Hapakuka turns on her and sells her out to the Hispanic inmates who brand her with a swastika in retaliation for her framing one of them with contraband underwear. The scene was disturbing and tearjerking especially when we see Piper's face contorted in pain and her anguished screams. The next episode shows Piper crying in her bunk and when a now [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone extremely guilty]] Hapakuka asks her if she's okay, Piper responds brokenly "Not even a little bit."]] Piper showed these tendencies before that, it was helped by her crying moments and while some fans thought she complained too much about her first world problems, there are many things she experienced that are genuinely worth crying about. |
| 204 | * ''Series/{{Outnumbered}}'': While Angela starts out as easily the least sympathetic character in the show -- abandoning her father after she promised she would look after him, and generally acting spiteful and vindictive toward Sue and her family -- it's hard not to sympathize with her when she thinks she's finally found true love, only for her new husband, Brick, to turn out to be a manipulative, psychologically abusive sociopath who drove his last wife into an institution. She attempts to flee from him and to protect his daughter, Misty, from his cruelty, only for Brick to respond with a two-fold attack -- first sending his very expensive lawyers after her, then, once she is cornered, calling her up to [[ManipulativeBastard convince her]] that [[BlatantLies he can change and everything will be fine]]. Even after she finally breaks free from his control, her life doesn't get a great deal better, as she becomes stuck in a cycle of disastrous relationships that inevitably end in heartbreak for her. |
| 205 | * ''Series/{{Oz}}'': |
| 206 | ** Shirley Bellinger. She is a criminally insane woman who deliberately killed her daughter with no remorse, racist, and sexually promiscuous. But the scene where [[spoiler: she is to be hanged, in which she freaks out, struggles against the guards, has to be tied up, and fervently prays to God for forgiveness while sobbing uncontrollably]] is nothing short of heartbreaking. |
| 207 | ** Schillinger stands out the most. He's crossed the {{Moral Event Horizon}} God knows how many times but Creator/JKSimmons' acting is so good and the writing is strong enough that he can still be sympathetic while ordering the deaths of children. |
| 208 | ** Dino Ortolani is a violent, short-tempered bigot, but he's shown to legitimately care about his family and he's heavily implied to be suicidal because of his life imprisonment. [[spoiler:He's ultimate burned alive immediately after his first act of compassion.]] |
| 209 | ** You wouldn't think a [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic murderer]] [[SelfMadeOrphan who ate his own parents]] would be at all sympathetic, but it's hard not to feel just a little bit sorry for Donald Groves when he's executed because of his genuine regret for his crimes after his victim's mother forgives him. |
| 210 | ** Miguel Alvarez. He's a violent and callous thug, but he suffers from severe depression and is prone to self-harm, he had his beloved infant son die in his arms, he had to watch his grandfather slowly die after developing Alzheimer's Syndrome, El Cid, Glynn, and Guerra are constantly making his life hell out of spite, and he frequently winds up locked in solitary confinement, which [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes he admits is his greatest fear.]] Even his genuine attempts at redemption are met with nothing but (admittedly justifiable) hostility, [[spoiler:and he's ultimately denied parole out of spite by a man who has somewhat arbitrarily decided he deserves life imprisonment, leading to him crossing the DespairEventHorizon]]. |
| 211 | ** Nino Schibetta is a racist BadBoss, but [[CruelAndUnusualDeath his undeservedly horrific and slow death]] and his code of honor in a place where such a concept is a novelty makes him somewhat pitiable. |
| 212 | ** Peter Schibetta is a [[SmugSnake smug]] {{Jerkass}}, but all the shit that happens to him (being raped by Adebisi, getting driven insane and locked in Psych Ward for three seasons, being gang-raped by the Aryans, developing PTSD as a result) makes it impossible not to feel sorry for him. |
| 213 | ** Jefferson Keane is a cold-blooded killer, but [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes his genuine and surprisingly sweet love for his wife]] makes it heartbreaking when she leaves him out of fear. His subsequent quest for redemption results in him gradually turning into a StoicWoobie. |
| 214 | ** Andrew Schillinger is a cruel Neo-Nazi, but only because the ideology was beaten into him by his abusive father. [[spoiler:Not only that, but he's killed by his own father right after he renounced his racism and stopped taking drugs.]] |
| 215 | ** Burr Redding after [[spoiler:Hill]] dies. His grief is palpable, and he starts making an effort to be a better person, even if he winds up being a WellIntentionedExtremist. |
| 216 | ** James Robson in Season 6. While he undoubtedly deserved some comeuppance, the absolutely horrific things that happen to him and [[HeelFaceTurn his subsequent redemption]] make him rather pitiable, as does the reveal that [[FreudianExcuse he was sexually abused by his own father and his life of crime started after he ran away from home.]] |
| 217 | ** It's hard not to feel at least a little compassionate for Carlo Ricardo. as his connection with his family slowly fades away completely. His humanity and sanity aren't far behind sadly. |
| 218 | ** Tobias Beecher, whenever he isn't being an IronWoobie. He's amoral and unhinged, but the horrific period of abuse that it took to bring him to that point and how his genuine moments of compassion are generally rewarded with more suffering makes it hard not to feel sorry for him. |
| 219 | *** Every Woobie in the show did something that landed them in prison in the first place. |
| 220 | * Tom Haverford of ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' is a [[CasanovaWannabe lecherous]], narcissistic prick. That said, one can't help but feel sorry for him when he discovers he truly loved his ex-wife Wendy (who only married him so [[CitizenshipMarriage she could stay in the US]]). |
| 221 | * Both Mark and Jeremy from ''Series/PeepShow''. You could count the times things have worked out for either of Them on one hand. Jeremy stands out more though. He's a complete dick with practically no morals, motivation or loyalty to his friends and is happy to sponge off everyone around him. But His dad abandoned him, his music career is going nowhere, he doesn't seem to have any other friends aside from an equally pathetic crack addict, he can't form a meaningful relationship and the only woman he loved used him to get a green card and left him, his best friend and roommate sees Him as the living definition of a fuck up and the universe seems set on viciously crushing whatever optimism he can scrounge up around him. |
| 222 | ** Not to downgrade Mark either. He's neurotic, selfish, never thinks of others and is constantly coming up with excuses for his behaviour. Still his life seems determined to crush anything good that comes his way while also putting him in terrible and awkward situations beyond his control. He is also TheUnfavourite of his family, his father is emotionally abusive, his mother had an affair, and pretty much everyone he meets seems to think he exists solely to be treated like crap and be their personal whipping boy. |
| 223 | * ''Series/PicketFences'': Bill Pugen is an enormous MayorPain 90% of the time and guilty of things like building a golf course over sacred Native American land and eventually shooting an unarmed carjacker, but he also has moments that show his confusion and misery as he tries to figure out just what he is doing wrong with his job to make his constituency so hostile toward him, and his spontaneous human combustion fate right after the implosion of his career can evoke additional pity. |
| 224 | * ''Franchise/PowerRangers'': |
| 225 | ** Astronema from ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace''. Being kidnapped and raised by the "Master of all Evil", fighting your own brother and being brainwashed into becoming a ruthless warlord does not make a happy person. |
| 226 | ** Frax from ''Series/PowerRangersTimeForce''. He was a kind scientist who saved [[BigBad Ransik]] from poisoning, who repaid his kindness by insulting and attempting to kill him. Fran rebuilt himself as a robot and joined Ransik with the intent to get his revenge. Near the end of the series, Frax gets a chance to talk with [[AntiVillain Nadira]], who has been conflicted about her father's hatred of humans. In the end, Frax is reprogrammed and destroyed. |
| 227 | ** Camille from ''Series/PowerRangersJungleFury''. Camille has Undying Loyalty to Dai Shi, and is greatly attracted to his host's body. However, he doesn't return her affections and continuously treats her as nothing more than a pawn. While Jarrod grows to care for her, Dai Shi sees her as nothing more than a servant, breaking her heart despite how much she's willing to do for him. |
| 228 | ** Deker from ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai''. Once an ordinary human, he was nearly killed in a fire. His wife made a {{Deal with the Devil}} with [[TheChessmaster Serrator]] to save his life. But, Serrator tricked her into making Deker a BloodKnight human/Nighlok hybrid. For 200 years, Deker travelled the earth to find a WorthyOpponent to [[DeathSeeker end his life]] and [[MercyKIll end his suffering]]. |
| 229 | * ''Series/ThePretender'': |
| 230 | ** Miss Parker is a tough as nails Action Bitch and SmugSnake rolled into one hot package, until you remember what happened to her mother. |
| 231 | ** And of all people, Mr Raines breaking down in tears at the end of "Blue Moon" when [[spoiler: he receives his daughter's locket and finally learns her fate at the hands of a sadistic serial killer]]. |
| 232 | * Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell from ''Series/PrisonBreak'' certainly fits this. He's an unrepentant AxCrazy psychopath, murdered children, is a racist, and is a DepravedBisexual of the highest order who will [[ExtremeOmnisexual get it on with anything that moves]]. But his horrible childhood (being the [[InbredAndEvil product of incest]] and [[ChildByRape rape]], [[ParentalIncest being molested by his own father]], and being forced to memorize entire dictionaries) combined with some of the horrible things that happen to him in the series (having his hand cut off, for starters) really stirs up some pity for the bastard. It becomes more apparent in the fourth season when T-Bag slowly starts BecomingTheMask after taking on a fake identity, genuinely wanting redemption, only for it to just not work out in the end. Robert Knepper (who played him) noted this pretty well. |
| 233 | -->"Around episode 6 or 7, I got so many letters from people saying, 'When I first started watching this show, I absolutely hated you and I wanted you dead. Now I still want you dead, but I'm starting to feel for you.' I think there's something in my eyes, a childlike thing in there. There's still an innocence. There's still a bit of hope." |
| 234 | ** When his character breaks out of prison again in a crossover episode of ''Series/BreakoutKings'', it turns out that his monstrous actions during the episode were motivated solely by [[spoiler: getting revenge on the orderlies who sexually abused his comatose, dying mother]]. During the final chase scene, he is not trying to escape but is actually running to his mother's hospital room so he can see her before her death. Even the marshals who witnessed his horrendous crimes are not able to refuse him that last moment. |
| 235 | * Charlotte on ''Series/PrivatePractice'' is a horrible, thoroughly unpleasant person. And then she was [[spoiler: brutally beaten and raped]] and it became impossible ''not'' to feel sorry for her. |
| 236 | * ''Series/PsychopathDiary:'' Seo Ji-hoon. He's a thoroughly unpleasant person who has people beaten up for annoying him, but by the end of the series he's been kidnapped and almost murdered, held at gunpoint by his brother, seen his brother murder their father right in front of him, taken hostage by his brother (sensing a [[SiblingRivalry theme]] here?), locked up by his brother, and almost murdered ''again''. |
| 237 | * ''Series/AlRawabiSchoolForGirls'': Ruqayyah. Her IAmNotPretty mindset drives a lot of her issues, from feeling like the odd one out because she's the only one of the trio who doesn't have a boyfriend, from her mother telling her that her sisters are much prettier. When it comes to her best friends, even they're not supportive to her at times, like shutting her down from joining the football team because they want her spots, and deserting her when they're going partying while making her carry the drinks. Her self esteem is so bad that Mariam is able to manipulate her into taking off her hijab. When pictures of her circulate online, we see her horribly abusive mother's vitriol increase tenfold, and she forbids her from going back to school because she's DefiledForever. Sure, she's a terrible person who assaulted an asthmatic child, and was part of the gang that brutalized Maryam into needing hospital care. But the way her mother reacts to her photos being leaked is utterly cruel. |
| 238 | -->[[spoiler:'''Ruqayyah's mother''']]''':''' [[spoiler:Nobody wants [[DefiledForever damaged goods]], do they? [[MadonnaWhoreComplex A girl's reputation is all she has. It's just like a glass vase. If you break it, it can't be fixed, and even if you do fix it, it will never be the same.]] And now, Ruqayyah, [[KickTheDog you're just a broken vase]].]] |
| 239 | * ''Series/RedDwarf'': Arnold Rimmer. It's a comedy series, so his problems are usually treated light-heartedly, but given everything, [[FreudianExcuse is it any wonder that he's a mess?]] In particular, he would have turned out like [[TheAce Ace]] Rimmer ([[PhraseCatcher what a guy!]]) had he simply been held back a year instead of being allowed to progress. Even when he gets a break, it turns out for the worst. Of course, the series also takes pains to point out that the Woobie part doesn't automatically excuse or justify the Jerkass part; he's still, in many ways, a loathsome, repellent, hypocritical coward, for the most part. |
| 240 | ** Perhaps no episode highlights both the Jerkass and Woobie portions of his personality better than "[=Me2=]", when we are faced with a second Rimmer Hologram. The second Rimmer is every bit the Jerkass the original was, except he seems to delight in focusing all of his worst qualities against the original Rimmer hologram. [[spoiler: Under the belief that he has been chosen for deletion, the original Rimmer hologram shares a deeply personal, and painfully embarrassing, moment from his life with Lister and Cat. It's revealed after he's finished that Lister had already deleted the second hologram as he'd exited the room.]] What helps further highlight Rimmer's Jerkass status is that, as Lister points out, this is all his own fault: he was the one who stole and hid all of the other hologrammatic disks, going to the extent of replacing the disk for Kristine Kochanski with a second copy of his own, then refused to own up even after Lister had come up with a plan for creating a second functioning hologram. |
| 241 | ** Another good example is Terrorform. {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s of Rimmer's self-hatred and inner demons are bearing down on the ship, which is unable to drag itself out of a swamp representing his despair. His friends take this opportunity to tell Rimmer that, regardless of their past differences, he is a member of the crew and they care about him. This briefly brings back to life the personifications of Rimmer's good-qualities, like his nobility and self-confidence, which hold off the demons and frees the ship from the swamp. [[spoiler: Upon escaping the planet, Rimmer asks the crew whether all of the things they said were just to escape and if they meant any of it. The crew's response? [[WhatTheHellHero A unanimous and immediate "No!"]]]] |
| 242 | * ''Series/{{Revenge}}'': |
| 243 | ** It's hard not to root for Emily Throne after all the Graysons have done to her father, and her by extension. Their actions, however, have led to Emily becoming a Tragic Monster who's hellbent on making sure they suffer, and she cares very little for collateral damage. At first, anyway. |
| 244 | ** Tyler Barrol has a bit of this, when you remember that he's genuinely mentally ill (and when you find out that he only got violent because Emily was deliberately pushing him into a breakdown to get rid of him). |
| 245 | * Guy of Gisborne from ''Series/RobinHood'' stabs unarmed women, leaves babies in the woods to die, burns down houses, and sells his sister to a rapist. He's also arrogant, selfish, and has a vicious temper that causes mass suffering to him and everyone around him. And yet, whenever anyone shows him a shred of kindness, he blossoms like a delicate little flower in the sun...the fact that he's a DracoInLeatherPants doesn't hurt either. |
| 246 | * ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'': |
| 247 | ** Cheryl Blossom seems like a stereotypical and unsympathetic AlphaBitch in the first episode, but her grief over Jason's death as well as her mother's incredibly harsh treatment of her that almost makes ''Alice Cooper'' seem like a loving parent, makes it hard not to feel sorry for her. Her moments of genuine empathy as the show progresses makes her increasingly sympathetic with each appearance, especially once it becomes clear that she suffers from some extreme mental issues that are largely being untreated and ignored by everyone around her. |
| 248 | ** Penelope Blossom herself, to a lesser extent. She’s a god awful human being and a worse mother, but it slowly becomes apparent that she’s faced a lot of hardship in her life. Losing her clear favorite child [[spoiler: at the hands of her own husband,]] being burned to the point of needing a full body cast for weeks, and it’s revealed in Season Three that she [[spoiler: was an orphan who grew up at the Sisters Of Quiet Mercy- which a horrified Sierra notes has violated just about every humanitarian code- until she was adopted by the Blossoms at age nine, afterwhich she was groomed to become Clifford’s eventual wife.]] |
| 249 | ** Chuck Clayton. He's a misogynistic jerk and bully but he didn't really deserve the torture Veronica and especially Betty (who he did nothing wrong to) put him through (said torture was him being ''drugged without his consent'' and ''waterboarded'' with maple syrup while being ''boiled alive in a hot tub''). He then got punched out by Jughead when he revealed it to everyone and when he returns to school from his suspension he genuinely wanted to redeem himself and make amends to everyone he hurt (he even apologized to Ethel in person) only for that to be ruined by Cheryl. |
| 250 | * ''Series/RuyisRoyalLoveInThePalace'': Langhua, Yuyan, Xiyue and the other consorts who plot against Ruyi are thoroughly unpleasant people, and at least one is willing to [[ImperiledInPregnancy poison pregnant women]]. But they're also married to a man who couldn't care less about them, are unable to leave, and the only way they can improve their situation is by trying to win the emperor's favour. |
| 251 | * ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'': |
| 252 | ** George Costanza (Creator/JasonAlexander) is a JerkAss, a moron and an amoral schemer, but man does his life suck. George's status as a Jerkass Woobie is brought home in the Season 8 episode, "The Andrea Doria." There, George is competing with a survivor of the sinking of the S.S. Andrea Doria (a 1956 maritime disaster) for a new apartment. After the survivor tells his story to the apartment board, George follows by telling the board the long list of misfortunes he's suffered over the course of the entire series (such as suffering "shrinkage", being tied up by a woman and robbed for eight dollars, being confused for a Nazi by an angry mob, getting caught holding a marble rye in front of his future in-laws, and his fiancée's death from licking poisonous wedding invitation envelopes). The board unanimously chooses to award him the apartment over the shipwreck survivor (until he himself loses out on the apartment to Elaine's former boyfriend whom she stabbed for making fun of the size of her head). |
| 253 | ** Also, Elaine Benes ([[Creator/JuliaLouisDreyfus Julia Louis-Dreyfus]]) as she's also a JerkAss but she's unlucky in love and BreakTheHaughty plots often happen to her. |
| 254 | * Series/{{Sherlock}} often comes off as cold and unfeeling, but in "The Blind Banker" it's hard to watch him try not to show that hearing how everyone at school hated him upsets him without wanting to give the guy a hug. |
| 255 | %%* Brenda Chenowith in ''Series/SixFeetUnder''. |
| 256 | * Mini from the third generation of ''Series/{{Skins}}'' is turning out to be this. Yes, she is the AlphaBitch with major [[ManipulativeBastard Machiavellian]] tendencies and is bitchy, passive aggressive, and very SugarAndIce. On the other hand, she has an insane longing for control and stability in her unstable life, eating disorders (and probably some sort of anxiety problem), her best friend slept with her boyfriend, her boyfriend took her virginity (painfully), and she generally just seems like a sad, sick girl playing at confidence. On top of it all, her friendship with Franky - the one truly authentic person in her life - has gotten complicated because [[spoiler: Mini has developed a [[LesYay crush]] on her]] while Franky [[AllLoveIsUnrequited only has eyes for Matty.]] YMMV, though. [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Some people]] just see her as a jerkass. |
| 257 | * ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': |
| 258 | ** [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]], thanks to his abusive childhood at the hands of his father, Lionel. |
| 259 | ** [[TheBaroness Tess Mercer]] is an even better example. She may be a CorruptCorporateExecutive, DarkActionGirl, and MisanthropeSupreme, but her brutal childhood, manipulation by Lex and Zod, and [[spoiler:the revelation that she was one of Granny Goodness' orphans]] earn her a lot of sympathy. Unlike Lex, she never crosses the MoralEventHorizon, and remains in WellIntentionedExtremist territory. And, of course, [[spoiler: this is thanks to her abusive childhood due to abandonment by her father, Lionel]]. |
| 260 | ** Even Lionel qualifies. Born and raised in the slums, where his mother was an alcoholic and his father was a thief and murderer, he has to claw his way to the top of the financial spectrum (which he starts by [[SelfMadeOrphan murdering his parents]]). Loses his younger infant son, Julian when (he thinks) Julian's older brother Lex accidentally kills him. Loses his wife, Lillian, who dies while Lex is still a pre-teen. Then Lex is rendered permanently bald by the meteor shower. When an adult Lex discovers what Lionel did to his own parents, Lionel's forced to drive Lex into insanity and erase his memory. Lionel actually feels [[EvenEvilHasStandards a great deal of remorse about it.]] He then learns, long after it's too late to do anything about it or make it up to Lex for it, that Julian was [[spoiler:actually deliberately murdered by Lillian]]. He undergoes a HeelFaceTurn right around the same time Lex does a FaceHeelTurn, ensuring that he and his son will always be at odds. Falls genuinely in love with Martha Kent (and she even [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys seems to return some of that affection]], even if she's a bit freaked out by it), but can never fully win her over because he has to reveal to her that he's indirectly, unintentionally responsible for her husband's death[[labelnote:Details]]Lionel staged a meeting with Jonathan Kent to reveal he knew Clark's secret. Lionel's intention was to form an alliance with the Kents, but his arrogant demeanor combined with Jonathan's quick temper resulted in Jonathan physically attacking Lionel. While Lionel didn't strike back, the strain of attacking Lionel brought about Jonathan's fatal heart attack.[[/labelnote]]. After being knocked out while trying to help Clark defeat Bizarro, is then kidnapped and tortured for several weeks by Lana Lang. He meets Grant Gabriel, the adult clone of his dead son Julian, and starts to bond with Grant...only to witness Grant being murdered on Lex's orders. He can never fully let go of his manipulative tendencies, so when he gets several cryptic threats about Clark, resorts to kidnapping him to keep him safe. Clark shuns him for this, since Lionel's not [[CreatorsPet Lana]] [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality Lang.]] Patricia Swann tells Clark that Lionel killed her father, further deepening the rift between them.[[note]]And the very fact that Patricia's accusation makes no sense since her father died sometime after Lionel's HeelFaceTurn, only makes Lionel even more sympathetic than was perhaps intended.[[/note]] Lionel desperately tries to warn Clark and Chloe about the looming threat of Lex and the coming Apocalypse, [[ReformedButRejected but they'll now have nothing to do with him.]] Is finally cornered by Lex, and when he refuses to divulge Clark's secret, is murdered by his own son, dying friendless and alone. |
| 261 | ** Really, being a JerkassWoobie seems to be a [[spoiler:Luthor family trait]]. You want to hug all three of them, Lex, Lionel, and Tess, then slap them in the face and say, "Stop being such bastards, guys! Even being {{Magnificent Bastard}}s doesn't make up for all the crap you go through for being bastards!" |
| 262 | ** A (milder) example would be Oliver Queen. The {{fangirl}}s apparently find him TroubledButCute, especially in season nine with his self-destructive spiral. However, other than being a {{jerkass}} towards Clark, he also [[spoiler:murdered Lex]]. |
| 263 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': |
| 264 | ** Armus from "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E22SkinOfEvil Skin of Evil]]", especially if he ever got free. He's a black liquid of pure evil made of the discarded negative emotions of an ancient race of highly advanced aliens, but he had no choice in his own creation and his constant state of undirected rage and hatred actually pains him as well. He wants nothing more than to be reunited with his creators for leaving him on a dead planet for millennia, but he will never get the chance. Both Picard and Troi express their pity for him while acknowledging his malevolence, but he angrily rejects it. |
| 265 | ** Gul Madred, Picard's Cardassian torturer in the two-part episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E10ChainOfCommand Chain of Command]]", grew up on the streets as a poor boy, once beaten up over some food. Picard, however, calls him out on it in light of how he became a brutal torturer: |
| 266 | --->'''Picard:''' When I look at you now, I won't see a powerful Cardassian officer... but a small boy weeping because he was powerless to protect himself. |
| 267 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': |
| 268 | ** Apollo in "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E2WhoMournsForAdonais Who Mourns for Adonais]]" is a family-friendly version of the {{Jerkass}} he is in [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Mythology]], and goes on a power trip. However, one's heart still aches for him in the end when resigns himself to going the way of the other Olympians. |
| 269 | * Billy Hargrove from ''Series/StrangerThings'' is a violent, homicidal bully who abuses his stepsister. However, it is hinted in Season 2 that [[spoiler:his father [[AbusiveParents abusing him]] is the reason for his behavior]]. Season 3 [[spoiler:confirms it when Eleven sees into his past]]. Not to mention, in Season 3 Billy is [[spoiler:possessed by [[BigBad the Mind Flayer]] and [[RedemptionEqualsDeath sacrifices himself for the heroes in the end]]]]. Billy is a huge BaseBreakingCharacter for these reasons. |
| 270 | * Jonah of ''Series/SummerHeightsHigh''. He's undeniably a Jerkass (just look at the way he treats a lonely kid assigned to be his buddy for confirmation), but one can't help feeling at least a little sympathetic for him in the final episode when he [[spoiler: is humiliated in front of his entire class by his ''teacher'', and expelled from the school]]. |
| 271 | * ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': |
| 272 | ** Dean Winchester. He can have a nasty temper and is a cocky, self-righteous, judgmental, always-wisecracking {{Jerkass}} manwhore with such low self-esteem that he thought he deserved to go to hell, has an almost obsessive devotion to his family (and he really wanted them back together again, which is never going to happen) and especially his [[BigBrotherInstinct little brother]], an unwillingness to actually stand up for himself (when it came to Missouri, John, and sometimes Sam), has shown an honest willingness to sacrifice himself and his own happiness for perfect strangers, and all that wisecracking is just to "mask all that nasty pain". Not forgetting that he's also the [[TheChewToy show's favourite bitch]], so you've got to give him some sympathy. |
| 273 | ** His brother, Sam. He's self-absorbed, doesn't seem to think much of Dean sometimes even though he'd give anything for him, can be incredibly cruel at times ("You were ''four'' when Mom died. How could you possibly know how I feel?", anyone?), and is prone to self-pity by the bucket-load. He knows just how to twist Dean around his little finger, but he tries a hell of a lot harder to make Dean feel better than John ever did, he falls apart trying to save Dean in Season Three, he's using his demonic powers for good, he really did try to make it up to his father after "In My Time Of Dying" by focusing on the hunt, and much of the bitchiness is leaning towards the affectionate DeadpanSnarker style and not the unsympathetic Jerkass style. His violent streak isn't quite natural in origin and, much like Dean, he [[BreakTheCutie endures a lot of crap]] [[CorruptTheCutie throughout the series]]. |
| 274 | ** Gabriel/[[spoiler:the Trickster]]. Yes, he screws with people and likes to torment Sam Winchester even more than the other antagonists, but he left Heaven because he couldn't stand to watch his brothers kill each other, only for the fight to begin again and to be dragged back into the fight. He then fought for the humans, believing them to be better than the angels, because they at least try to be better, and gets killed by his big brother, Lucifer, who he loved. The look on his face when [[http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l1cii774LI1qb05qfo1_500.png he's stabbed]] will break your heart. [[spoiler:But then it's revealed he faked his own death but was kidnapped by his Norse deity friends and sold to a demon who tortured him every day for years, psychologically breaking him. Seeing the suave and confident Gabriel so helpless-looking and afraid isn't just disheartening, it's kind of disturbing.]] |
| 275 | ** Castiel became this in season six. He has always been a Woobie but, in aforementioned season, he starts becoming a JerkAss. He is fighting a civil war against other angels in Heaven and chose to [[spoiler:make a DealWithTheDevil in order to get the power needed to win the fight]]. Despite that, he still helps Sam and Dean and tries to keep them safe [[spoiler:until he sacrifices even his friends]]. [[spoiler:He is eventually redeemed but this period in the Winchesters' and Castiel's lives was damaging to their relationship.]] |
| 276 | ** Crowley himself, when his [[spoiler:human life as Fergus MacLeod comes to light. He was born to a mother who abused him because he reminded her of the weakness she felt when he was born (we'll get to her), leading to him becoming an abusive father to his son Gavin. Despite constantly denying so, he longed for the love that his mother never gave him, infected with human blood or not. Gavin eventually forgives him and Crowley comes to truly care for his son... only to have him ripped away from him later, back to the past he was wrongfully removed from, leaving Crowley alone again.]] Despite his many terrible deeds, it's hard not to feel a little bad for him. |
| 277 | * In ''Series/ThatllTeachEm'', Vikki Buxton is one of the naughtiest students in the school. She disobeyed the teachers, refused to listen and got the other kids in trouble. She was also in love with Scott Peters, the biggest troublemaker in the school. [[spoiler:Peters was eventually expelled]], and it's hard not to feel bad for Vikki when this happens. |
| 278 | * In ''Series/TheThundermans'', Max is an aspiring supervillain who often pulls pranks on his family and meddles with his twin sister Phoebe's life. But it's hard to hate him because he is often the ButtMonkey of the cast, is clearly TheUnfavourite of the family to Phoebe, rarely ever gets a win on the show, and often does help out his family when they need him. |
| 279 | * ''Series/{{Titus}}'': Ken Titus's own ''mother'' liked to play cruel pranks on him, [[ForTheEvulz just for shits and giggles]], and his father was a drunken womanizing {{jerkass}}, [[GenerationXerox just like him]]. |
| 280 | * Owen Harper from ''Series/{{Torchwood}}''. He's undeniably a jerkass, misanthropic and womanising, but just tell me you don't want to give him a hug in the flashback scenes after his fiancee dies, or in "Adam" finding out how his mother treated him. No wonder he's out to make the whole world hate him. |
| 281 | * In ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'' episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S3E22APianoInTheHouse A Piano in the House]]", the owner of the titular piano is showing being a caustic {{Jerkass}} who delights in being the center of attention by tearing others down -- in this instance, through using a magic piano whose songs bring out the deeper personalities in people. However, when the tables are turned, he zips right into [[TheWoobie woobie]] territory, when he's forced (through the piano's magic) to reveal that he [[FreudianExcuse has an inferiority complex]], and the reaction to his doing that... is for the party-goers to leave, his wife to finally divorce him, and his normally stoic butler to quit, saying, "You're not funny anymore." |
| 282 | * ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'': |
| 283 | ** Despite all of Charlie Harper's JerkAss behavior (Womanizing and mistreatment of women, his treatment of his brother in later seasons, etc.) that makes you want to rip him a new one, his narcissist of a mother is an {{Abusive Parent|s}} who throughout the years abused and neglected him and shows up all the time to guilt trip him. His brother becomes a sponge who happily mooches off of him without remorse, he has a stalker who people try to pair him with. Said stalker ended up murdering him and even after death, he's still treated like crap by his mother. |
| 284 | ** Charlie's brother Alan counts too. Sure, he's a pretty shameless sponge and very cheap moocher, and becomes more of a {{Jerkass}} in later seasons, but he hasn't had an easy life either. Aside from their aforementioned EvilMatriarch mother, Alan also has to deal with his incredibly bitchy and hypocritical ex-wife Judith wringing out every last drop of happiness from him for no reason other than her [[ItAmusedMe own personal amusement]], a DumbassTeenageSon who constantly tries his patience, a string of failed relationships, and the fact that Charlie tends to be a KarmaHoudini who coasts through life rather easily (the occasional HumiliationConga notwithstanding) while he's had to work tirelessly for anything resembling happiness and having next to nothing to show for it. |
| 285 | %%* Damon, from ''Series/TheVampireDiaries''. |
| 286 | %%** Tyler Lockwood and Caroline Forbes before characterdevelopment set in. |
| 287 | * ''Series/VeronicaMars'': |
| 288 | ** ''Logan!'' "Obligatory psychotic jackass" or not, his life just sucks ''so much''. Dead girlfriend [[spoiler:and mother]], horribly abusive father [[spoiler:who was also the one who killed his girlfriend]], falsely accused of murder, and generally, his friends and loved ones keep dying/being evil/breaking his heart/fleeing the country/any combination of the above. |
| 289 | ** [[spoiler:Cassidy,]] [[DracoInLeatherPants who]] has a good FreudianExcuse and massive PuppyDogEyes, so we pity him. [[spoiler: It's so bad that right before he commits suicide, he asks why he shouldn't go through with it, and not even his own brother can think of a reason.]] |
| 290 | ** Even ''Dick'' starts crossing into this late in season 3, when he has something of a HeelRealization [[spoiler:about the way he treated his brother]], [[ItsAllMyFault blaming himself]] for [[spoiler:everything Cassidy did, including his suicide]]. |
| 291 | * ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': |
| 292 | ** Robbie. He gets a few episodes where he is clearly the 'villain' of the piece, then we get episodes like ''Rex Dies'' and the one where he gets his car stolen, where he's woobie-tastic. |
| 293 | ** Also, Jade, to an extent. Sure she's really mean when she wants to be, but it's known that she and her father have a poor relationship and it's implied she has a bad relationship with the rest of her family as well. Sure, she's controlling and jealous to Beck, but once you realize how easy it was for him to kiss Tori as well as how he barely seems phased with other girls flirting with him, it's understandable. |
| 294 | * Ziggy in Season 2 of ''Series/TheWire''. Lampshaded by him explaining to his father that he killed Glekas because he was "tired of being the punchline of every joke." |
| 295 | * In ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'', Alex in the OutOfCharacter Episode "Alex's Logo". Also, since deep down she's an attention seeker, she can be considered to be this in general. |
| 296 | * ''Series/{{Yellowjackets}}'' |
| 297 | ** Jackie. She's portrayed as somewhat spoiled and egotistical, but overall a very nice and charming girl before the crash. Though she TookALevelInJerkass during their time in the wilderness, she dealt with a lot on top of the brutal situation: Shauna cheating with her boyfriend Jeff and then gets pregnant with him, a fact she only finds out because she reads her diary. She goes through SanitySlippage and pettily [[spoiler:tries to throw Shauna out of the cabin in a fit of anger, only for Shauna to turn it back on her and throw her out in a tantrum, forcing her to sleep outside. Jackie then freezes to death and dies a pretty slow and unpleasant death.]] [[spoiler: And if that isn’t bad enough, to rub salt in the wound, her starving teammates resort to eating her corpse after their attempt to cremate her goes wrong and ends up cooking her instead.]] |
| 298 | ** Callie becomes one in Season 2. While the first season had shown her as a standard BrattyTeenageDaughter with only one PetTheDog moment, she quickly realises that [[spoiler: her mother is a murderer and her father is complicit in covering the crimes up]], not to mention she gets strung along by an adult man. While her [[spoiler: lying to the police]] doesn't make her 100% sympathetic, the fact that she spends most of her screen time being used by everyone, and the implications of having Shauna as a mother can't help but make one sympathise with her. |
| 299 | ** Shauna herself follows the same line as her daughter in terms of audience sympathy. Her jerkass credentials include sleeping with her best friend's boyfriend, being responsible for [[spoiler: said friend freezing to death]], and in the present manipulates her teenage daughter, has an affair just to spite her husband, and [[spoiler: murders an innocent man]]. But in the present, it's clear she feels her best years are behind her, she admits that she didn't want to be a mother or married to Jeff, she clearly carries the guilt of [[spoiler: Jackie's death]] and to cap it off, [[spoiler: the baby she gave birth to in the woods was stillborn]]. |
| 300 | ** Natalie is something of a {{Jerkass}} in the beginning, with her BrutalHonesty and penchant for violent solutions, but she becomes a bigger Woobie as more of her backstory is revealed. Her father was abusive, and she had to witness him accidentally killing himself with his own shotgun, it's implied she's been sexualised by adult men, and in the present she is heartbroken over [[spoiler: Travis's suicide]]. Season 2 even reveals that [[spoiler: she was nearly hunted down and killed by the other girls for food, and carried the guilt of letting Javi drown when he tried to save her.]] |
| 301 | * Ingrid from ''Series/YoungDracula'' may be one of the evilest characters on the show, with several murder attempts to her name, but when you look at the way her father (and nearly everyone in her family) treats her it really makes you want to give her a hug. |
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