Line #80 Woobie/StarWars


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3	%%If you see a character listed as a Complete Monster, they don't belong here.
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7	Franchise/StarWars has a great number of [[TheWoobie woobies]].
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9	Works with their own pages:
10	* ''Woobie/StarWarsTheCloneWars''
11	* ''Woobie/StarWarsLegends''
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13	[[AC:Introduced in the Original Trilogy]]
14	* Luke Skywalker. He never knew his parents, is stuck on a dustbowl of a planet where all his friends have left, believes he's never going to achieve his dream and wasn't allowed to pick up some power converters at Tosche Station, and sees his relatives were burnt to crisp. Later, he gets the adventure he wants, but has to witness his mentor die in ''Film/ANewHope'', and got cut his hand off by his own father ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. After finding out that Vader is his father, Luke is determined to redeem the latter, only to be tortured by Palpatine during their confrontation in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''; this led to Vader pulling a HeelFaceTurn to save Luke, but at the cost of his own life, meaning that Luke also lost his father at that moment. As if all of this wasn't enough, in the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse books, [[CartwrightCurse almost every love interest Luke has had dies]], and the only notable one who doesn't, left him without warning.
15	** In ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', [[spoiler: it was mentioned that he trained a group of students to lead to a new generation of Jedi only for one of them to turn to the Dark Side and cause another Jedi purge leaving Luke feeling responsible and go into exile like Obi-Wan and Yoda did. It makes matters worse that said student is ''his own nephew'']].
16	** The weight of Luke's time in the war is almost palpable in ''Film/TheLastJedi''. [[spoiler: Luke is presented as a cynical, deeply traumatised man overwhelmed with the guilt of having briefly considered murdering his nephew Ben Solo. A few seconds of weakness and fear, likely based in his trauma, was enough to completely destroy his life, turn his nephew to the Dark Side and ended all hope for the future of the Jedi. By the time of the film, he's a bitter recluse who has exiled himself so he can die alone.]]
17	* Then there's Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke's mentor. His master dies when he's very young and he's plunged into becoming a master when he's not ready. He finally opens up to his apprentice and then his apprentice turns evil and tries to kill him...then he's forced into seclusion and nearly everyone he ever cared for is either dead, a fellow exile or now his enemy. And then, when he comes out of seclusion to try and help the Rebellion... [[spoiler: the aforementioned apprentice ''does'' kill him - although it was a deliberate HeroicSacrifice on Obi-Wan's part. To really cement the Woobie status, Han and Leia named their son in his honor...only for said son to turn to the Dark Side, destroy Luke's efforts to rebuild the Jedi and spend all his time trying to emulate Darth Vader]].
18	* Han Solo. Okay, he's a jerk at the beginning (but less of a jerk than a LoveableRogue by the end of the first movie, and he just got better from there), but come on: He was brutally tortured by Darth Vader (who was using his and Leia's distress to lure Luke to Cloud City), then frozen in carbonite to repay his debt to Jabba the Hutt, ''then'' sentenced to die in the Sarlaac pit because Luke defeated the rancor... And how about the times (at least two) when Han risked his own life to save Luke's? Also, when Leia releases him from the carbonite in ''Return of the Jedi'', how could you ''not'' want to hug Han as he's shivering, blind and scared, having no clue where he is or (because of Leia's mask) who's talking to him? And those are just his woobie moments from the ''movies''. (His biggest woobie moment in the Expanded Universe? The deaths of Chewie and Jacen.) Also: He's an orphan. Orphans are woobies by default.
19	** Let's not forget [[spoiler: how he dies, at the hands of his own son]].
20	** The canon film ''Solo'' does ''not'' make things better for him. He grows up as an orphan in the slums of [[CrapsackWorld Corellia]], forced to work as a petty thief by [[TheFagin Lady Proxima]] and gets starved and beaten if he displeases her. As a teenager, he makes a break for it with his [[ChildhoodFriendRomance childhood sweetheart]]...only for them to be separated when she's captured. He gets kicked of the Imperial Navy Academy for "having a mind of [his] own" and is forced to serve as an infantryman, getting to experience WarIsHell firsthand, all the while desperately trying to find a way to get back to Corellia to save his girlfriend. By the end of the film, his experiences, including [[spoiler: being forced to kill his traitorous mentor ''and'' being betrayed and abandoned by his girlfriend]] [[CynicismCatalyst turn him from an enthusiastic, idealistic young dreamer into the cynical, snarky smuggler we know from the original trilogy]].
21	* Chewbacca. Where do we begin? He's a loyal sidekick to Han Solo and in some ways contrasts the latter's JerkAss-ness. Even though he played as big a part as everyone else in the Battle of Yavin, he is infamously denied a medal (though in all fairness R2-D2 didn't get one either, maybe they only go to ship commanders). Even though a lot of people in-universe (and outside of it) dislike C-3PO, Chewie takes great pains to put him back together in Cloud City. Chewie is also as fond of giving [[BearHug Bear Hugs]] as he is of ripping arms out of sockets- though the hugs are sometimes violent. Early on in life, Chewie was bullied for not being as big and strong as the other Wookiees. His final act was a HeroicSacrifice in order to save Han Solo's son, and the comics story "Chewbacca" (in which C-3PO and R2-D2 travel the universe to collect anecdotes and stories about the late Wookiee for his MeaningfulFuneral) is likely to have you in tears at the end.
22	** Then there's the way that Chewbacca became Han's sidekick. The Expanded Universe holds that Han was once an Imperial officer, but was cashiered with a full dishonorable discharge. His crime against military discipline: striking a superior officer and causing the loss of Imperial property. More to the point, clobbering a superior officer who was fixing to kill a Wookiee slave, then aiding in the escape of said slave... named Chewbacca.
23	** Even though Chewie [[spoiler: survives in the re-written storyline in ''The Force Awakens'', he experiences his best friend get killed by Kylo Ren, leading to him shooting him at the hip, and killing the stormtroopers in a fit of rage and even after the Starkiller's destroyed and saving Rey and Finn, he mourns over his best friend that's gone forever.]]
24	** ''Revenge of the Sith'' also shows that Chewie had to watch his homeplanet be invaded by the Separatists, causing mass death and destruction. And we all know how the Clone Wars turned out...
25	** ''Solo'' borrows elements from the ''Legends'' continuity, with Chewie having been MadeASlave by the Empire, chained up like an animal and subjected to abuse. Han is the first person in years to treat him like a person and show him compassion. To top it off, he reveals that the rest of the Wookiees, including his family/tribe, were enslaved as well and taken from their home. We see other Wookiees, being abused and subjected to hard labour in the spice mines, far away from their homeworld and loved ones, which basically just makes ''all'' the Wookiees Woobies.
26	* Leia is forced to watch as her home planet got blown up, tortured while being interrogated by Darth Vader, who turned out to be her own father, and made a slave by Jabba. That's before we add [[spoiler: losing her son to the dark side, which costs her both her marriage to Han as well as her brother. Then there's how Han dies after they've reunited after so many years, killed by their own son Ben, and being Force sensitive, she feels it as it happens.]]
27	** In the {{Novelization}} of ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', she also feels [[spoiler:the destruction of the Hosnian system]], and it affects her much the same way that the destruction of Alderaan affected Obi-Wan.
28	** [[spoiler:In ''both'' timelines she loses a son to the Dark Side]].
29	** As of ''The Last Jedi'', she [[spoiler: loses her twin brother too]].
30	* Rounding out the main characters, [=R2D2=]. He's been there from the beginning and his memory was never wiped like [=C3PO=]'s. Meaning that he could remember everything...including people he knew, loved and was [[UndyingLoyalty extremely loyal to]] either die or fall into corruption. And the poor little guy was unable to do ''anything'' about it. [[spoiler:In ''The Force Awakens'', Luke's disappearance seems to have been the last straw for him, as it causes him to completely shut down]].
31	* Darth Vader / Anakin Skywalker is a solid example of a JerkassWoobie, given the lengths the movies go to portray him as a sympathetic TragicVillain (especially once his backstory is revealed in the prequels). Born and raised in slavery and separated from his mother at the tender age of nine, he watches her die in his arms when he manages to return for her years later. Drafted into a war and losing an arm, he finds solace in his wife. Foreseeing her death upon the birth of their children, he tears the galaxy in an attempt to save her, accidentally killing her in the process. Later, his best friend dismembers him and leaves him to burn to death at the end of their fight--leaving him as quadruple amputee, and burned to the point of having to spend the rest of his life on life support. His wife dead, and the rest of his friends either killed or driven away, he dedicates his remaining years to service of the Empire, only to learn upon the discovery of his grown son that he had been lied to by Emperor Palpatine. His son eventually convinces him to pull a HeelFaceTurn, and Anakin killed Palpatine to save Luke, but at the cost of his own life. He only manages to gaze upon his son's face for a brief moment while he lay dying in the Death Star.
32	* Owen and Beru Lars, who are both killed in a very horrific and gruesome way, not knowing where their beloved nephew is.
33	* Oola. Lured into slavery with the promise of stardom, she doesn't believe she's in any danger when Luke Skywalker offers to free her. When she realizes the truth, she tries to hold on, but she runs afoul of Jabba and is fed to the rancor a few hours before Luke would have freed her.
34	* The Expanded Universe reveals Greedo to be one. He's basically TheChewToy and the only reason he was a bad guy was because he wanted to become a famous bounty hunter. He promptly got heckled, abused, and tormented due to his incompetence, forced into danger he wanted no part of, and was nearly killed horribly on multiple occasions (including a time he was almost [[ItMakesSenseInContext beaten to death with flowers]]). And [[TraumaCongaLine of course]] the time he ''finally'' got a notable job, it ended in him getting casually shot dead by Han Solo--and that was a UriahGambit by a buddy who'd accepted a bounty on him but couldn't bring himself to ice Greedo in person. Really, given his past, one could almost consider Han shooting him to be a MercyKill.
35	* Zuckuss and 4-LOM eventually became this. How? Well the two HeterosexualLifePartners bounty hunters pulled a HeelFaceTurn near the end of the war with the Empire and worked with the Rebel Alliance. But than on a mission 4-LOM got heavily damaged and a distraught Zuckuss had to give him a memory wipe as part of the repairs. This took 4-LOM's personality along with it and resulted in him becoming a cold and ruthless droid who only cared about his next paycheck. This in turn utterly destroyed probably one of the closest friendships in the galaxy. We're treated to a [[{{Tearjerker}} tearful]] goodbye between the two as their ties are severed, with Zuckuss devastated and 4-LOM walking off without even realizing why this is a bad thing. We don't learn if the two ever patched things up but it's doubtful.
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37	[[AC:Introduced in the Prequel Trilogy]]
38	* Padmé Amidala, to the point where it's hinted she died from a ''broken heart'' due to the crap she'd been through. She faces the responsibility of running an entire planet at only fourteen and shortly after her election, Naboo is invaded, endangering her citizens. She risks her life to travel to Coruscant to plead for assistance from the Senate, with her advisors back on Naboo constantly sending her messages to return or more people will die, which she is forced to ignore for Naboo's sake. And then when she finally arrives at the Senate, she discovers they're mostly a bunch of corrupt, self-serving bureaucrats who um and ah over helping her whilst her people are suffering. She spends much of the Separatist Crisis being threatened by assassins, one such attempt costing the life of her decoy, which she is clearly distraught over. She falls in love with Anakin, the one person she can lower her guard around and be herself, but knows their relationship cannot be. She then marries him in secret anyway after they both nearly died on Geonosis, though this is shown to take a toll on their relationship, with Padme becoming frustrated at constantly having to live a lie. She watches as the galaxy descends into war and chaos and the Chancellor, who she believed she could trust, increasingly moves away from the ideals of the Republic to seize more power for himself. Finally, she watches as everything she worked for her whole life is torn down to be replaced by a dictatorship, many of her friends in the Jedi Order are killed or forced into hiding and her beloved husband and the father of her unborn child turns to the Dark Side. When she confronts him, she tearfully begs him to stop what he's doing, expressing horror when he tries to justify his atrocities as 'protecting her'. He then accuses her of betraying him and chokes her until she passes out whilst she desperately pleads with him. And in spite of all this, she still loves the man he once was; the first thing she asks after waking up is if he's alright (unaware of the horrific injuries he received in his duel with Obi-Wan). She dies shortly after giving birth, never even getting to hold her children (and with the knowlege they're being born into a CrapsackWorld where they will be in danger), and her last words are her assertion that she believes there is still good in Anakin even after what he did to her and numerous others. Even her daughter's only enduring memory of her is that she was "beautiful and kind, but sad".
39	* The Tyrell family, shown in a deleted scene attending the very podrace the family's patriarch, Ratts Tyrell, competes in. After Ratts goes up in a fiery, but admittedly funny death, the Tyrell family was devastated, alongside his homeworld Aleena, who Ratts was its most famous podracer. Ratts' son, Deland Tyerell, would later go on to found an awareness group whose primary goal is to expose podracing as a sport plagued by criminal activity, and to have it outlawed.
40	* At first sight Jar Jar may not be seen as such a woobie even though he lost his closest friends. But the pity kicks in when it's revealed he was persecuted for backing up the creation of the empire so... despite people not wanting to hear it he is indeed a woobie to some degree.
41	* Shmi Skywalker. A household slave to a sleazy junk dealer, who bore and raised a son while having no memory of conceiving one, let alone any help from a husband or lover. Who watched her boy risk his life in deadly pod races, then gave him over to strangers fully expecting she'd never see him again. Who watched her master's fortunes decline, fearing whom she might be sold off to, once Watto couldn't afford a slave anymore. Whose brief HopeSpot as her second master's bride ended in abduction, torture, and a final dying reunion with her son that drove him berserk with grief, precipitating mass murder and tipping him further towards his plummet into the Dark Side, that in time would destroy '''all''' her descendants' lives.
42	* Cliegg Lars. Lost a leg and widowed ''twice''. According to WordOfGod, he died not long after Shmi's death due to his injuries...and [[DeathByDespair a broken heart]].
43	* Sors Bandeam and the rest of the Jedi younglings in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', who are all slaughtered by Anakin, in the midst of terror. Sors' line "Master Skywalker, there are too many of them, what are we going to do?" has to be one of the most heartbreaking lines in the entire franchise.
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45	[[AC:Introduced in the Sequel Trilogy]]
46	* Rey, abandoned by her family as a child on a desert planet, yet even as an adult she's still still waiting for them to come and get her. When she does find a new surrogate father figure [[spoiler: in Han, she immediately loses him when he's killed by Kylo Ren. And all this takes place in just the first movie of the sequel trilogy. You can't help but wonder how much more the girl may have to suffer in the next two films]].
47	** As of Episode 8, things have only gotten bleaker for her. [[spoiler: She discovers Luke has no hope of living up to her expectations as either a father figure or heroic mentor, instead being a depressed cynic who spends much of the film refusing to train her in anything. In her loneliness and despair, she begins reaching out to ''Kylo Ren'' of all people via their Force bond and eventually becomes fixated on the idea she can turn him back to the light. She also finally learns the truth - or rather, ''accepts'' the truth she always knew deep down - about her parents: not only are they never coming back for her, but they were complete jackasses who sold her for ''booze'' and never gave a damn about her (which kind of makes you wonder [[FridgeHorror what on earth her early childhood with them was like]]). Kylo, the one person in the galaxy at this stage who truly understands her and whom she truly believed she could help, saves her from Snoke...only to reveal he's still entrenched in the First Order idealogy, asking her to rule the galaxy with him and making it plain he's not about to run off and join the Resistance with her, despite her pleading. Luke finally stops moping and redeems himself as a hero in her eyes by taking on the entire First Order alone to give her time to rescue the remaining Resistance fighters (of which there are only a handful now)...only for him to die afterwards, leaving her relatively alone in her quest to rebuild the Jedi. As if that weren't bad enough, Carrie Fisher's passing means that Rey's also inevitably going to lose Leia, who she seems to view as a mother figure and is her last living connection to Han and Luke (seeing as Kylo's too busy throwing hissy fits and trying to take over the galaxy to build on the bond they'd developed)]].
48	** Episode 9 makes it even worse for Rey. [[spoiler: She finds out that her parents were murdered and actually were trying to protect her from her grandfather, who just so happens to be Emperor Palpatine of all people who he had an assassin try and hunt down and kill because he was scared that she would grow stronger than him and defeat him. Before learning this, Rey tries to stop a ship that she believes the captured Chewbacca in on using the Force, only to be pushed and use Force Lightning to destroy, making her believe that she killed one of the last connections to Han Solo. When she does find out he's alive and tries to rescue him, Ren attacks her and reveals her heritage, which leads her to becoming conflicted and nearly pull her to the Dark Side and kill Ren until she feels Leia reach out to him and die. She then tries to exile herself like Luke out of fear of her own powers and when she finally does confront Palpatine, this leads to her nearly giving into his plan of striking him down and becoming his new vessel. Then as a final kick in the gut to Rey, she finally succeeds in bringing Ben Solo back to the light and the two even accept their feelings for one another, only for him to die after using his remaining Force energy to heal her.]]
49	* Finn. He was taken from his family and brainwashed by the First Order as a child (he states he was so young, he can’t even remember his family), trained to be a merciless killer, to follow orders without question and not allowed any sense of individuality. He was originally simply known as FN-2187 rather than having a proper name. Despite this, he continued to show compassion towards his fellow Stormtroopers, which was frowned upon. The day he got into his first real battle, he was traumatised by the sight of his comrades dying and couldn’t bring himself to murder helpless civilians. He later risked his life to help Poe escape to start a new life, with Poe being one of the first people in years who treated him with kindness and dignity. And then, he is apparently killed, leaving Finn alone again. He spends a lot of the film from then on as a ButtMonkey, being repeatedly [[DistressedDude attacked and imperilled]] and getting dragged into the Resistance fight when all he wants is to get the hell out of dodge and start a new life. He finally changes his mind when his only other friend is kidnapped. He is then [[spoiler: seriously wounded and rendered comatose by Kylo Ren]] trying to protect her.
50	* Rose Tico. In her ''very first scene'', she’s sobbing over her sister Paige [[spoiler: who was killed not long ago in a battle against the First Order fleet]]. She and Finn go on a very risky mission in a desperate attempt to save the Resistance [[spoiler: [[NiceJobBreakingItHero which backfires horribly]], leading to them being captured and the hacker they unwisely trusted selling out the Resistance, causing nearly all of them to be wiped out]]. And at the end of the film, Rose [[spoiler: seriously injures herself and is left in a coma stopping Finn from sacrificing himself]].
51	* Poe Dameron. In the space of only a few days/weeks, he is captured by the First Order and brutally tortured into giving up information. He carries out a daring attack on a Dreadnaught, which costs the lives of many Resistance pilots and results in him being demoted. Leia, who he greatly admires and looks up to, is badly injured, leaving the Resistance in the command of a person Poe distrusts and views as incompetent at best, and who treats him like a reckless moron even though he just wants to help, causing all sorts of problems between them that weaken the Resistance further. [[spoiler: Poe can also only watch helplessly as many of his comrades are killed, with the gravity of the loss truly sinking in for the first time, and he briefly thought he’d sent two of his friends to their deaths when they’re captured on a mission]].
52	* Vader's self-proclaimed successor and [[spoiler: grandson]], Kylo Ren/[[spoiler: Ben Solo]] is presented as a JerkassWoobie like his predecessor. Despite being a dedicated warrior for the Dark Side, the man is shown to be a tormented, insecure individual, desperately trying to live up to Darth Vader's legacy. As the series unfold, we learn that Snoke [[spoiler:(or rather, Palpatine)]] has been manipulating him [[CorruptionOfAMinor since childhood]], exploiting his poor relationship with his {{parents\|as People}} (who are frequently too busy to raise him properly) to lure him to the Dark Side. At some point in his life, he was sent away to train as a Jedi, but ended up DrivenToVillainy when he saw [[spoiler:his uncle/mentor trying to kill him in his sleep]].
53	* Kylo Ren's rival / {{foil}}, Armitage Hux, also qualifies as a JerkassWoobie. He's a ruthless and power-hungry General of the First Order who ordered the destruction of the Hosnian System and killed millions of people in the process. Yet he's also depicted as a NoRespectGuy who isn't well-liked even among the First Order ranks. Snoke and Kylo Ren frequently throws him around using the Force whenever he displeases them, while many of the other high ranking Officers despise him for his [[BastardAngst illegitimate heritage]] and [[ImprobableAge relatively young age]]. His peers' already low opinion of him plummets further after he lost the Starkiller Base at the end of ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', resulting in him getting repeatedly kicked and knocked down (both literally and metaphorically) in ''Film/TheLastJedi''. In ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', he's finally had enough of Kylo Ren's abuse [[spoiler:and [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal betrays the First Order]] just to spite Kylo Ren, and was summarily executed by a fellow officer when his treachery was discovered.]]
54	** Further Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse materials adds even more tragedy [[DarkAndTroubledPast to his backstory]]. Hailing from Arkanis, he and his father were forced out of their homeworld when it was besieged by the New Republic. Despite acknowledging the boy's potential, his father often called him "weak" and "useless", and regularly abused him to toughen him up. He seems to have very few positive relationships with his colleagues, the only exceptions being Gallius Rax (Palpatine's protege, who is arguably worse than his predecessor), Rae Sloane (the Imperial remnants' second-in-command) and Phasma. With such a violent upbringing, is it any wonder that he grew up to become the vicious, power-hungry fanatic we see in the films?

Context Woobie / StarWars