[[{{WALL-E}} http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/WOOB-E.jpg]]
[[caption-width:210:All together now: ''Awwwwwwwwwwww''.]]

%% No opening quotes, please. Let's let the folks read the actual article. If you have an example that happens to be a quote, put it in with the examples.

A woobie (named for a child's security blanket) is that character you want to give a big hug, wrap in a blanket and feed soup to when he or she suffers so very beautifully. Woobification of a character is a curious, audience-driven phenomenon, divorced almost entirely from the character's canonical morality.

TheWoobie's appeal lies in how it allows the audience to experience [[EmotionalTorque catharsis]]. The Greek philosopher {{Aristotle}} proposed that tragedy is popular because it allows people to experience and let out their negative emotions, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharsis "cleansing"]] themselves. TheWoobie is popular for this same reason. A story with TheWoobie allows the audience to vicariously experience relief from some pain by fantasizing about relieving TheWoobie's pain. (No, not ''[[IntimateHealing that]]'' way! Well, okay, [[RuleThirtyFour sometimes]].)

Woobification can tie into a disturbing hurt/comfort dynamic, in which fans enjoy seeing the Woobie tortured, if only for the chance to wish the hurt away. This is often made manifest in the curious form of the HurtComfortFic.

A properly executed Woobie inspires deep fannish devotion. A poorly executed Woobie earns scoffing and mockery, perhaps at the same time. The difference between the Woobie and such SickeninglySweet characters as the LittlestCancerPatient is that the audience actually finds the Woobie compelling rather than pathetic. Where you draw the line is sometimes a matter of opinion.

Sometimes a Woobie goes OmnicidalManiac and seeks to destroy the world in a bid to make the pain stop, in which case you're dealing with a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds. Sometimes it's possible to bring such a woobie back from the edge, but other times, only his or her destruction in a ShootTheDog moment will stop things, and is usually a TearJerker when done well.

In LighterAndFluffier fiction, TheWoobie can sometimes [[EarnYourHappyEnding earn his happy ending]] via LoserGetsTheGirl.

In many versions there is also something about the Woobies suffering that is notably heroic or noble. In this case the character is an IronWoobie.

See JonesTheCat and TroubledButCute. In {{anime}}, TheWoobie makes up a large part of MoeMoe characters. Part of their appeal can come from them constantly striving against [[YankTheDogsChain their chains]]. Can be taken to the point of BreakTheCutie, and if the amount of misfortune seems too great it may result in DeusAngstMachina.

Please note that TheWoobie is a specific type of character that is supposed to draw the audience's sympathy. If the character is the ChewToy, ButtMonkey, or is a Jerkass he is not TheWoobie (unless the character is also meant to be sympathetic). If the character doesn't let bad events faze him, he is not TheWoobie. Also note that when adding an example, it should be kept concise. We don't need every bad thing that happened to them, and we don't need a summary of the entire series.

Contrast the ChewToy. If in your opinion the character desperately needs to die, that's likely DamselScrappy. Should '''not ever''' be confused with ButtMonkey. A ButtMonkey is essentially a {{Pollyanna}} that is constantly abused. A woobie is a character who gets tortured badly and sometimes even cries and complains about their situation.

Not to be confused with a species of [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Wookiee hairy bipedal humanoids that inhabit the planet Kashyyyk.]], or [[http://wubi-installer.org/ a Linux installer]].

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!!Examples:

* Woobie/{{Anime}}
* Woobie/ComicBooks
* Woobie/{{Film}}
* Woobie/{{Literature}}
* Woobie/LiveActionTV
* Woobie/VideoGames
* Woobie/WebComics
* Woobie/WesternAnimation
* Woobie/RealLife

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:{{Theatre}}]]
* Eponine from ''LesMiserables'', especially in the musical. She's abused by her parents, is always alone, and falls in love with Marius, who doesn't love her back. After she visits the middle of rebellion to see him, he asks her ''to deliver a letter from him to the girl that he does love''. She ends up taking a bullet during the fighting and dying (although she dies happy because he's there comforting her).
** In the book, she's much more of a StalkerWithACrush, although she's still quite sympathetic. Though that does NOT give her fans white card to bash Cosette for either [[DieForOurShip *daring* to get Marius's love]] or [[RealWomenWearDresses for being girlier than Eponine]] (or better said, the PossessionSue they make out of Eponine).
** You've got to hand it to Cosette, too, when it comes to woobiedom. First, she gets separated from her mother. Then she gets berated, teased, overworked, starved, beaten, and deprived of adequate clothing by the Thenardiers. At one point, she wraps a small knife in rags and sings to it, pretending that it's a baby doll. Things do improve considerably for her, but still.
** Jean Valjean himself. Granted, he dies happy, but throughout the course of the book, all his suffering (and there's a lot of it) is derived from his desire to simply help other people. The man spends nineteen years in jail because he was trying to feed his sister's family (granted, fourteen of those years are his own damn fault) and only gets the law back on his trail because he saved a man's life.
** Bung a vote in for Fantine, too... Falls in love, gets pregnant, man goes off and leaves her as a ''practical joke'', ends up sending the child to be looked after, loses her job because she's trying to look after the kid, so she sells everything she has (including her hair and teeth), and, finally, her body. Gets helped out by Valjean, but dies before she ever gets to see her daughter again.
** What, not the Barricade Boys? The fact that they ''all die'' helps. Mostly a fanon development, as though they do have personalities in the novel, they aren't explored in huge depth. Extra woobie points go to Grantaire, who's cynical, hard-drinking and emotionally wounded, as well as [[HoYay pretty much enamoured with Enjolras]].
** Really, it's right there in [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the title]] that [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters most of the characters]] fit this trope in one way or another.
* Erik (the Phantom) in ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera''. He has huge issues about his physical appearance, exacerbated by being put in a freakshow and beaten by his captors. He eventually escapes and is able to compose his music underneath the Paris opera house until he falls in love with, and gives lessons to, a beautiful young singer who isn't repulsed by him, but, in the words of [[http://cleolinda.livejournal.com Cleolinda]], "prefers the Missing Hanson Brother to [him]." Granted, he's a bit crazy and kills people, but he has a FreudianExcuse. And he's sexy.
** He's only sexy in the movie version with Gerard Butler. In the original novel, the Phantom is ugly as sin and even ''more'' psychotic... but still can come off as rather sympathetic.
** Although when it comes to Woobiefication, even Andrew Lloyd Webber can't beat the take on the character in the Arthur Kopit/Maury Yeston musical, who ''literally'' has lived his entire life under the Opera House, lost his beloved mother at an early age, and only starts getting nasty when an incompetent manager and his shrill-voiced wife start messing things up.
* While its merit otherwise can be debated (and it being canon is... questionable, to say the least), ''TheLordOfTheRings'' musical managed to woobiefy ''Gollum''--or, more specifically, ''Smeagol'' -- largely owing to actor Michael Therriault's performance. Smeagol actually wants to change for the better and physically fights with himself over whether or not to kill Frodo and Sam in their sleep, to the point of holding a sword to his own throat instead of allowing Gollum to stab them, then collapses, sobbing "We ''changed''!" to Gollum's accusation of cowardice, and finally curls up to sleep by Frodo's feet. All made sadder by most of the audience knowing that he will eventually lose out to Gollum... about thirty seconds later.
* Yonah from Stephen Schwartz's ''Children of Eden''. Her song "Stranger to the Rain" is especially {{anvilicious}}. "I'm a daughter of the race of Cain/I am not a stranger to the rain."
* The title character of Benjamin Britten's opera ''Peter Grimes''.
* Jack Point in GilbertAndSullivan's ''The Yeomen of the Guard''.
* Tobias Ragg from ''SweeneyTodd''. A Victorian orphan, possibly mentally handicapped [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation depending on the production]], abused by Signor Pirelli until he's taken in by Mrs. Lovett, for whom he develops a deep and sadly misguided devotion. When he discovers just what's been going into those meat pies of hers, he literally [[GoMadFromTheRevelation goes mad from the revelation]].
** The movie version makes it even worse, since the depictions of Pirelli's physical violence were so much more extreme (and bloody) than it generally is in stage productions. Not to mention the fact that in the movie, Toby really looks like a ''little kid'', whereas he's generally played by a guy in his mid- to late-teens or early twenties on stage, since it's really not child-appropriate material.
* [[{{Wicked}} Elphaba]]. Born into circumstances beyond her control, discriminated against since birth, had about 3 people in her whole life (Glinda, Fiyero, Dr. Dillamond) who cared about her, tried to do the right thing and got persecuted for god-only-knows how long for it.
* Tracie Thom's portrayal of Joanne in the on-stage version of ''{{RENT}}'' made the character into more of a woobie than she had been previously. It's probably her sweet face. In general, Joanne is more of a Woobie in the stage version than in the movie, simply due to some of the dialog removed from the film as well as because of her helplessly annoyed stage play-only solo "I'm Okay".
* ''Everyone'' in ''SpringAwakening'', no matter how much of a {{Jerkass}} they seem to be or how much teenagerly {{Wangst}} they show, makes you want to run down onto the stage and give them a hug. Lots of 'em. It certainly doesn't help any that some of the conflicts of the more minor characters '''[[WhatHappenedToTheMouse aren't even resolved.]]'''
* It's certainly very debatable, but [[YourMileageMayVary depending on where you stand]], Malvolio of ''TwelfthNight'' might well be this, despite having likely been written as a ButtMonkey (understandably, considering how unpopular puritans were at the time). If you're sympathetic to his conservative social views (which really don't seem unreasonable in practice), in particular, you'll likely see him as a very loyal, if somewhat dour, butler who was simply doing his duty in reprimanding his mistress's blatantly rude jester and arrogant drunkard of an uncle...and he gets rewarded by being humilated in front of his mistress, locked up in a mad house (notoriously horrible places at the time, of course), and victimised by his tormentors. And even after his innocence comes out, no one seems willing to offer him any real apology for any of this. May also depend somewhat on how serious or comical the particular production plays his character, but still...
** Similarly, many productions make an effort to play up Sir Andrew Aguecheek, another ButtMonkey and the plucky comic relief, as one of these, the key often being his line 'I was adored once, too', combined with an emphasis on the abuse he recieves at the hands of [[WithFriendsLikeThese Sir Toby]]. Some of the [[DarkerAndEdgier darkest and edgiest]] adaptations have managed to crank him up to an all-out tragic character.
* Go see {{Chicago}} some time. When Amos finishes singing "Mister Cellophane", listen to the crowd (and probably yourself) as they go "Awwww!". Pure woobie.
* Depending on your interpretation, Harry Beaton of {{Brigadoon}}. Forced to stay within his hometown for the rest of his life, can't go and get a university degree and make something of his life, and is forced to watch the one girl he likes marry another man. It's no wonder why he snaps.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Web Original}}]]
* The title character of ''SailorNothing''. Let's face it, when one's happiest moment in her life is realizing she no longer is tempted to ''slit open her wrists with her dad's razor'' when she wakes up, she needs a hug. ''[[ThereAreNoTherapists Badly]]''.
* A lot of abused/outcast characters tend to get this treatment among the users of ''SurvivalOfTheFittest''. For example, in v3 Matthew Wittany tends to receive considerable sympathy from a number of SOTF handlers, primarily because he's just such a complete {{Buttmonkey}} and treated harshly by so many of his classmates when he's mostly just looking for friends on the island. Nanami Nishida from v1, despite being insufferably annoying and nearly killing fan-favourite Madelaine Shirohara, got looked upon this way (if [[spoiler:posthumously]]) in retrospect and after people realized just how hard she had it living in Madelaine's shadow. Especially when [[spoiler:killing her]] caused a HeroicBSOD for Madelaine.
* [[DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog Dr. Horrible.]] He needs lots and lots of hugs.
** Does he ever! That was ''exactly'' my reaction to watching the Blog. Poor guy...it's almost made worse because, [[spoiler:even though he's nominally a villain, none of it was really his fault. He has idealistic motives (at least did in the beginning... who knows, now?), doesn't want to kill people, only tries to kill his arrogant jerk of a nemesis when he has to kill someone... and everyone hates him.]]
* All characters in ''RubyQuest'', more or less, but Tom is a special case even among them. Poor kitty's the sweetest, kindest, the most innocent character in the game by far, and yet he has so far had [[spoiler:his arms mutilated in an accident, received two new mutated arms when they healed, got himself betrayed and murdered by the woman he thought he loved, forgot about everything until now, had an arsenic poisoning, lost his eye, was rejected by his crush, and finally discovered things of his past he wouldn't have wanted to, including that this new companion of his was responsible of his messy death a while back]]. Thankfully, he has gained liberal amounts of hug therapy, and all this doesn't seem to bother him as much as it should.
* [[TheMadScientistWars Andrew Tinker]] had his dad die, his cousin and first friend leave with no explanation (and harsh enough words that he repressed memory of ever knowing him), at ''14''. Not to mention said cousin, Desius, being an even ''bigger'' woobie who had a... [[TykeBomb horrific]] childhood, that ended when he got adopted by Andrew's uncles before having to leave, and forcing himself to deliberately hurt Andrew so as to keep him from getting hurt following him. Let ALONE what happens later in life.
** Chic Geek counts as well, especially with recent developments. Note that she's Cousin to Andrew and Desius- seeing a theme?
* Arguably, Strong Sad from ''HomestarRunner'' jumps between this and being TheChewToy.
** Don't forget Coach Z, no doubt thanks to his {{Flanderization}} from a well-meaning, but somewhat quirky coach into a colourblind, forgetful, perverted moron who thinks he's a mother. In ''Decemberween Short Shorts'', it's been shown that he spends Decemberween locking himself in his locker and drinking nothing but Listerine. Just wait until you see Baby Coach Z.
*** The 2009 Halloween 'toon has Strong Sad alternating between wishing horrible dooms on his "friends" after not being invited to any of their parties, and [[spoiler:staging a surprise party for himself with cardboard cutouts of them]]. However, even he can't come up with a doom for Coach Z besides being Coach Z. "No sense in beating a dead horse."
** Reynold from the ''Cheat Commandos'' might fit the bill also.
** Parodied with the Strong Bad-created character Lil' Brudder. Explicitly designed to be as Woobie as possible— a hard-working, optimistic, unipod dog "with the heart of a champion"— so Strong Bad can abuse others with tales of suffering. However, even Strong Bad feels sorry for the guy. His catchphrase is "I can make it on my own!"
* [[ErikasNewPerfume Erika Swanson]] is someone quite a few fans have mentioned their desire to hug, though she has elements of TheChewToy at the same time.
* ''TalesofMU'' includes the character of Two, an emancipated Golem who, despite her ostensible free will, enters the story with an incredibly flat affect - a sign of severe emotional damage. The cause of this eventually becomes clear; most golems are freed with a full if inexperienced personality but Two was given only one fundamental drive - she wants to do what she is told, whether she likes it or not. This makes her the victim of a horrifying array of abuses, the full extent of which is only implied. Since falling in with some of the kindlier inhabitants of Harlowe Hall, she has gotten better. Still desperately needs hugs, though.
* From the SCPFoundation, [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-231 SCP-231-7]]. Saying anything more here would just ruin [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel how bad]] it is for the girl. Read it yourself, and ''understand'' what the true meaning of TheWoobie ''really'' is.
** ...I hate you now. *cries*
* Agent Blue Photon from ''ProtectorsOfThePlotContinuum''. [[spoiler:His girlfriend is killed because [[HeKnowsTooMuch she knew too much]], he has to flee the PPC in the Reorganization, and some years later, he mistakes a loyal Agent for an enemy and is killed.]]
** Tadkeeta. She has outlived her parents and all her siblings (she learned of her last surviving brother's death less than two weeks before her wedding), a MarySue strung her along on a quest to steal [[ChroniclesOfNarnia Caspian X]] from Ramandu's daughter, on the way to Cair Paravel she was almost raped, and she was marooned on a YearInsideHourOutside world for (from her perspective) six years.
* Alice from ''TheSims 3'' blog ''AliceAndKev''. She just needs a nice loving family to let her sleep on their couch without kicking her out.
** What makes it worse is that she's incredibly selfless, [[spoiler:giving her paycheck to charity rather than spending it on, you know, ''food'']].
* Frances J. Worthington III from ''the Sims 2'' story [[http://strange-tomato.livejournal.com/26887.html Strangetown, Here We Come]] is the epitome of woobie. Especially when [[spoiler:he is rejected by his crush Tank Grunt, who he had secretly been pining over for months, and has a huge emotional breakdown.]]
** It's even worse because of his eyebrows (Okay, so he's Maxis made- but the author puts them to good use!) which make him look perpetually sad.
** Nervous Subject too. Personality-wise, his name pretty much says it all; that, and until [[spoiler:Olive sets their house on fire, killing them]], the people he lives with make a point of subjecting him to pretty much the worst living conditions they can possibly dream up.
* Charlie from ''IAmNotInfected'' sealed his status as a woobie when he spent almost an entire episode with the ConfessionCam crying.
* Felicia Day's character, Codex, in ''TheGuild''.
* Severin from ''[[http://www.fictionpress.com/secure/story/story_preview.php?storyid=2718227&chapter=1 Fragile]]''. When he [[spoiler:confesses his love to Page, Page - who is at this point quite homophobic - rejects him and accuses his love of being lust, even though Severin is later found out to be asexual}}]]. And then of course there's [[spoiler:his incurable insanity and later admittance to an insane asylum]]. All the while, he has some kind of undiagnosed mental disorder that impairs the way he views the world and reacts to it (Page says that he spent most of the time he knew Severin feeling sorry that he could never be normal). To make the situation much worse, it is revealed in the sequel ''Perpetual Change'' [[spoiler:that he was sexually abused regularly by his sadistic aunt starting when he was a child, which led him to develop masochistic tendencies and emotionally scarred him, possibly causing his later psychological problems. It's also heavily suggested that it was an episode of abuse from her that caused his mental breakdown. His psychologist, Dr. Mangum, is also revealed to have given him medication that she knew would only increase his problems.]] As you can see, a lot of bad things happen to this guy. It's rather difficult not to be sorry for him in some way.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Fanfiction}}]]
* The author behind ''[[FanFic/TiberiumWars Tiberium Wars]]'' and ''[[FanFic/{{Forward}} Forward]]'' has a borderline obsession with Woobies, pointing out in one of his author's notes that (paraphrased) "if I like a character, I hurt them. A lot." This is especially prevalent in ''Forward'', where [[{{Firefly}} River Tam]] is regularly put through the wringer, suffering constant mental breakdowns, injuries, and at one point [[spoiler:is tortured by Niska.]]
** In ''Tiberium Wars'', Sandra Telfair becomes a complete woobie, with her being [[spoiler:wounded and captured by the Black Hand for interrogation, then being beaten and nearly raped by a Nod soldier, then having to slit ''another'' Nod soldier's throat and being horribly hurt psychologically by doing so]]. Commander Karrde goes through this too, [[TheChainsOfCommanding regularly beating himself up over the deaths of his own men]].
* Anyone who's read a certain ''{{Pokemon}}'' fiction involving a boy named Tommy will feel horrible, burning sympathy for pretty much every character. Not only for what's happened in their past, but the fact that once the protagonist manages to escape from the deserted island the story takes place on, he can either leave behind his only friends that aren't dead, or live in ridicule by all other humans who know who he is. But hey, his parents would never reject him. Neither his presumed dead birth parents, or his for sure dead adoptive parents. Gotta catch em all.
* [[http://freya-sacksen.livejournal.com freya_sacksen]] likes hurting the ThatGuyWithTheGlasses cast. A lot. Especially of note is her "In Space" fic, where everyone gets broken but probably the main two suffering in that one are MarzGurl and the Nostalgia Critic. MarzGurl is generally like [[{{Firefly}} River Tam]] in an apocalyptic future and as for the Critic? [[spoiler: Well, you try being tortured for centuries by Ask That Guy and Dr. Insano, end up failing to save the world and then actually give Ask That Guy the idea to start the whole thing off anyway and see how you feel.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other]]
* Probably the point of the Grey Faerie in ''{{Neopets}}''.
* New ''TheDailyShow'' correspondent Kristen Schaal is making a career out of being one of these. See [[http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=166245&title=olympic-mascots here]] what happens to her when she learns the truth about Chinese female babies. In another segment, she was forced to strip off an article of clothing for every baseless accusation made against a presidential candidate. Needless to say, that episode, everybody found out that Kristen wears a WonderWoman costume under her suit.
* ''{{Bionicle}}'' has Lesovikk and [[spoiler:Krika]].
* Many of the AlwaysChaoticEvil races in ''DungeonsAndDragons'' are prone to gaining player sympathy, but [[LizardFolk Kobolds]] seem to be the most downright pitied, especially since they're the default ButtMonkey race.
* The Trix Rabbit. You got to feel bad for a rabbit that has to put with years of selfish kids.
* The Dierks Bentley song "Settle For a Slowdown". [[{{tearjerker}} The lyrics]] almost make the poor guy sound like an abandoned puppy...
* The girl from Martina McBride's "Concrete Angel" song and video. Full stop.
* Is This Troper the only one who thinks Hephaestus needs a hug? Stable, hard-working guy who's horribly ugly, born crippled, kicked out of Mount Olympus, possibly by his own mother, married to the goddess of beauty who never cared about him? Eh?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Tabletop RPG}}]]
* Lampshaded in a ''WorldOfDarkness'' sourcebook where they discourage relying too heavily on this trope: "If your character is taunted by classmates everyday, and every night is beaten and/or raped by his alcoholic father while his mother sits around dosed to her eyeballs on tranquilizers, you're laying it on kind of thick." This was in the Old WOD, however. In the New WOD, such a person would have a ''better'' life than most of the games's player characters.
** Not quite. All [[GeistTheSinEaters Sin-Eaters]] are recipients of ThrowTheDogABone (namely, the fact that they ''[[BackFromTheDead aren't]]'' bones), and there's nothing that says you can't have a happy backstory. [[PrometheanTheCreated Prometheans]], on the other hand, would look at the mortal in the above example and [[BlessedWithSuck ask if they can trade lives]].
[[/folder]]

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