History JerkassWoobie / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/Portal2'' gives us Cave Johnson, the insane CEO of Aperture Science. He is a BadBoss of the highest degree, and doesn't care very much what happens to his employees. Yet still, most of the things he and his company invented were by accident. He wanted to make a diet pudding, he made the propulsion and repulsion gels instead (a pair of gels that are definitely ''not'' to be consumed). He had a similar intention with the conversion gel too, and even tried it on himself...only to find out that it is deadly as all hell and works better as portal conductors. On a related note, he definitely spent more time testing his products than actually marketing them due to how horrible Aperture was at that particular task. This eventually leads to his downfall as he eventually goes bankrupt and, in his last moments, he [[spoiler:uploaded his assistant's consciousness on to [=GlaDOS=] so that she would be able to run the facility in his place (despite the fact that she did not want to)]]. In short, he would have been a millionaire and an everyday hero if he had at least a little more sanity and some marketing ability, and the sense to use that ability.

** [[spoiler:Baldur]] in the PS4 soft-reboot. AxCrazy to the end, sure, but he's been under a curse that provides him invulnerability at the cost of [[SenseLossSadness stripping him of his senses except for sight and hearing]] for over a century, and the only person who ''can'' remove it categorically refuses to despite his begging. It's shown that ''before'' the curse's effect on his mind, he UsedToBeASweetKid, but now it's too late for anyone to do anything but put him down.

** The [[AntiHero main protagonist]], Ragna the Bloodedge, qualifies as well. Though he does have his [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold good sides]] [[PetTheDog and moments]], he is for the most part rude, [[SirSwearsALot foul mouthed]], verbally abusive and is perfectly willing to kill any and all innocent {{Punch Clock Villain}}s that get in his way on his quest to bring down the NOL... In fact, it could be argued that the only thing keeping him from being an AntiVillain [[VillainProtagonist Protagonist]] is the fact that 1) the ''real'' [[BigBadDuumvirate villains]] in the VideoGame/BlazBlue-verse are ''MUCH'' [[LackOfEmpathy worse]] than Ragna could ''EVER'' be, and 2) the most active of the {{Big Bad}}s have seemingly made Ragna his designated victim, and has put lots of effort into fucking Ragna's life up as badly as possible. For example by possessing the earlier mentioned Jin, Ragna's little brother, and, through Jin, cutting off Ragna's right arm.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'':

* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemptionII'':
** Bill Williamson comes off more sympathetically than in the first game. Before joining Dutch's gang, he witnessed the atrocities of war, was dishonorably discharged from the army and lost his father to dementia, something he fears he may have inherited. He tries to pull his weight in the gang but everyone brings up his screw-ups instead. He is foolishly loyal to Dutch as the man had saved him when Bill was at his lowest and refuses to realize that by the end, Dutch isn't as great as Bill believes to be.
** Molly O'Shea may be an AlphaBitch who can be insufferable to the rest of the gang but you can't help but feel a bit bad for her if you take the time to see how life is like for her at the camp. Her lover Dutch frequently neglects her and doesn't take her seriously, as does the rest of the gang. Then [[spoiler: she gets drunk and confesses she is the traitor as a desperate cry of attention to Dutch, only to be gunned down. It's made worse that she isn't the traitor at all and died a pointless death.]]
** Dutch himself qualifies once his SanitySlippage worsens. He begins to cross lines that he normally wouldn't and become suspicious and hostile towards John and Arthur, his two most loyal members. Though it's not hard to see why he is so full of anger, as [[spoiler: he lost his closest friend Hosea]], his plans keep getting the gang into more trouble with the law, he suspects there is a traitor in the gang and [[spoiler: doesn't realize that the traitor Micah is deliberately corrupting him to make more mistakes and turning him against Arthur and John.]]

* ''VideoGame/OdinSphere'''s Ingway is a ManipulativeBastard who curses the man his sister loves with a BalefulPolymorph in order to keep the two of them apart, and who lies to, uses, backstabs and otherwise jerks around a substantial percentage of the rest of the game's cast in the service of his own personal goals. It's hard not to feel some sympathy for him, though, when you know his whole story: he and his twin sister Velvet were forced to renounce their mother and claim they didn't love her in order to avoid being executed along with her by their grandfather, and believe that she cursed them and died hating them for their betrayal. It turns out that Ingway caused [[spoiler:the disaster that destroyed the entire country of Valentine by making the Crystallization Cauldron go out of control]]... which he did in order to keep [[spoiler:his father, King Odin of Ragnanival, from being killed in battle against Valentine's superior forces]], but the effect was much greater than he'd anticipated. To make matters worse, [[spoiler:Odin promptly claimed the Cauldron without showing Ingway any trace of gratitude, affection, or compassion, instead dismissing him with a callous, "Well done, traitor," and leaving him to cope with the guilt of having wiped out his whole country for a man who wouldn't even acknowledge him as his son.]] His actions over the course of the game are one part trying to find a way to escape the curse of death that's on him, one part CallingTheOldManOut, and one part genuine but often misguided selflessness that backfires horribly about as often as it actually helps anything.

* ''VideoGame/ArcTheLadTwilightOfTheSpirits'': Darc was half human and half Deimos. Unlike his brother, Kharg, was unable to hide that he is half human so he was considered a Deimos wannabe. His father dies, and he has to bury him himself. He is then taken in by Geedo and treated as a slave, and treated like crap by the local Orcon. He finally starts to get a friend in the form of Delma, and even gets her brother Densimo to help. Geedo sells him out to the Drakyr, his wings are ripped off, Delma tries to save Darc's life only to be double crossed by the Drakyr, Densimo ''eats'' the pyron that he and Delma kept safe from them...then everyone just taunts him and tries to have him killed for being weak. While anyone would want to hug him...they'd want to squeeze him a little too hard when they see how he acts towards humans...

** The [[AntiHero main protagonist], Ragna the Bloodedge, qualifies as well. Though he does have his [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold good sides]] [[PetTheDog and moments]], he is for the most part rude, [[SirSwearsALot foul mouthed]], verbally abusive and is perfectly willing to kill any and all innocent {{Punch Clock Villain}}s that get in his way on his quest to bring down the NOL... In fact, it could be argued that the only thing keeping him from being an AntiVillain [[VillainProtagonist Protagonist]] is the fact that 1) the ''real'' [[BigBadDuumvirate villains]] in the VideoGame/BlazBlue-verse are ''MUCH'' [[LackOfEmpathy worse]] than Ragna could ''EVER'' be, and 2) the most active of the {{Big Bad}}s have seemingly made Ragna his designated victim, and has put lots of effort into fucking Ragna's life up as badly as possible. For example by possessing the earlier mentioned Jin, Ragna's little brother, and, through Jin, cutting off Ragna's right arm.

** The main "[[AntiHero protagonist]]", Ragna the Bloodedge, qualifies as well. Though he does have his [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold good sides]] [[PetTheDog and moments]], he is for the most part rude, [[SirSwearsALot foul mouthed]], verbally abusive and is perfectly willing to kill any and all innocent {{Punch Clock Villain}}s that get in his way on his quest to bring down the NOL... In fact, it could be argued that the only thing keeping him from being an AntiVillain [[VillainProtagonist Protagonist]] is the fact that 1) the ''real'' [[BigBadDuumvirate villains]] in the VideoGame/BlazBlue-verse are ''MUCH'' [[LackOfEmpathy worse]] than Ragna could ''EVER'' be, and 2) the most active of the {{Big Bad}}s have seemingly made Ragna his designated victim, and has put lots of effort into fucking Ragna's life up as badly as possible. For example by possessing the earlier mentioned Jin, Ragna's little brother, and, through Jin, cutting off Ragna's right arm.

* Anna Williams, of the ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' series. She's a ProfessionalKiller who willingly serves as bodyguard to a member the evil Mishima clan, and is locked into a bitter, violent feud against her sister, Nina. However, unlike the [[IceQueen thoroughly ruthless and cold-blooded Nina]], we get many strong hints that Anna has a very well-HiddenHeartOfGold underneath it all. The original reason for their rivalry was that Anna resented being TheUnfavorite to their father for wanting to have a normal life rather than follow in his footsteps and enter the assassin trade, and she has tried more than once to put the conflict to rest and have a healthy relationship with her sister (with Nina brutally shutting it down each time). Even on the rare occasion where Anna gets a victory over Nina, she's usually content to simply embarrass or show up her sister, as opposed to gravely insulting, injuring, or even [in one non-canon instance] ''killing'' her, like Nina is prone to do instead.

* Anna Williams, of the ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' series. She's a ProfessionalKiller who willingly serves as bodyguard to a member the evil Mishima clan, and is locked into a bitter, violent feud against her sister, Nina. However, unlike the [[IceQueen thoroughly ruthless and cold-blooded Nina]], we get many strong hints that Anna has a very well-HiddenHeartOfGold underneath it all. The original reason for rivalry was that Anna resented being TheUnfavorite to their father for wanting to have a normal life rather than follow in his footsteps and enter the assassin trade, and she has tried more than once to put the conflict to rest and have a healthy relationship with her sister (with Nina brutally shutting it down each time). Even on the rare occasion where Anna gets a victory over Nina, she's usually content to simply embarrass or show up her sister, as opposed to gravely insulting, injuring, or even [in one non-canon instance] ''killing'' her, like Nina is prone to do instead.

* ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza 3}}: Yoshitaka Mine is a genuinely vile figure, but, at the same time, his backstory is just so full of tragedy and emotional trauma you can't shake the feeling that if someone had hugged him literally once when he was a child, he would probably have turned out pretty much OK.

%%Good Evening Editors, If you wish to add more woobies, please consult the cleanup thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=15391212720A38366900&page=1

* Ayano Aishi a.k.a. Yandere-chan, the VillainProtagonist of ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'' is worthy of pity, as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydIf-EAmn0c her backstory is shown in this video]]. Her father frequently took her to doctors in an attempt to explain her [[InTheBlood genetic mental health problems]] and [[EmptyShell crippling apathy.]] From a young age, she knew that she was "different" and [[IJustWantToBeNormal wanted to experience emotions like normal people]], yet still remained frustrated that she couldn't. Also, her parents frequently argued about her condition. Because her father worried and kids bullied her, she soon learned how to ''pretend'' to be normal, but not truly connecting with anyone, as her father probably knew she was faking it. Whenever she talked to her mother about it, she'd just deliberately ignore it, downplay the situation or enable her future {{Yandere}} tendencies. It doesn't excuse anything she does, but anyone can understand why she's so desperate to have Senpai.

** Bill Williamson comes off more sympathetically than in the first game. Before joining Dutch's gang, he witnessed the atrocities of war, was dishonorably discharged from the army and lost his father to dementia, something he fears he may have inherited. He tries to pull his weight in the gang but everyone brings up his screw-ups instead. He is foolishly loyal to Dutch as the man had saved him when Bill was at his lowest and refuses to realize that by the end, Dutch isn't a great person to be loyal to.