Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds Discussion - Television Tropes & Idioms

Working Title: Woobie Destroyer of Worlds: From YKTTW

The Adversary: Reworked it so the examples would match the description. By the way, we now need a trope for villains that want to end the world to end suffering.

alliterator: Removed the Columbine example, because I really don't think anybody considers them woobies. And I felt really uncomfortable with that example.

And, hang on, who is "that dude in Cowboy Bebop"? Could you vague that up for me?

pawsplay: You don't think the Columbine killers were sad, miserable people trying to take revenge on the world? As for Cowboy Bebop, there's some evil dude trying to kill everyone with a nanite weapon because he's sad and lonely and knows he's been screwed over somehow.

Attilargh: This trope seems awfully vague. Could someone beef the description up a bit?

Fast Eddie: Woo! Yeah, the initial YKTTW description had a bit that was more clear. I copied it in.

alliterator: You don't think the Columbine killers were sad, miserable people trying to take revenge on the world? Yes, but a) they weren't fictional, b) they were sad and miserable because of being bullied, not because their lives had been any worse than what most teens go through, and c) they weren't trying to take revenge on the world, but on the school and their peers. I just think a real world example like that doesn't belong on this page.

And I was attempting to point out that the Cowboy Bebop example was too vague. If you have the information to flesh it out, please do so.

pawsplay: Obviously, the Cowboy Bebop example was too vague. Just as obviously, I don't have the information and can't be arsed. :)

Clevomon: I'm hesitating before mentioning Shion from Higurashi. One or two complications with her: 1) she doesn't have the capability to do even the chunk of the world focused on (Hinamizawa). 2) Her motives are at the beginning about revenge, but then become more and more senseless as it goes on. Not sure if she's directly motivated by the Break The Cutie or not. Also debating adding Takano, but I'm not sure if she'd be considered a Woobie to begin with.

Cassy: I think Takano fits alright. Did you have a look at the arc about her childhood? It's one of the most Narmesque things ever, but she's a woobie of epic proportions when she loses her parents to a train accident and she's put in a foster home where she gets beaten and terrorized so much she seems to gradually go insane. It might even get worse after that, the rest hasn't been made into a manga yet and I haven't watched the whole anime. BTW, the title of this trope is Made Of Win!

Dausuul: Corrected Moral Event Horizon to Morale Event Horizon. A Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds has crossed the Morale Event Horizon (utter despair resulting in permanent character change) pretty much by definition, but also by definition has not crossed the Moral Event Horizon (a crime so heinous as to make the character permanently irredeemable in the eyes of the audience); anyone who has crossed the Moral Event Horizon cannot be a Woobie.

Clevomon: Uh... so Takano goes back off? You'll find plenty of fans (including me) who think she's crossed that one.

ccoa: Removed this example:

Seymour in Final Fantasy X plans to destroy the world of Spira in order to stop what he calls its cycle of suffering, believing that he's doing everyone a favor by putting them out of their misery.

Because Seymour is not a woobie by any stretch of the imagination.

Bob: Despite the name, you don't actually have to be The Woobie for this. Seymour fits the "The Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds either thinks s/he is doing the world a favor" perfect. What doesn't fit is Dr. Horrible. How is he trying to destroy everything?

WebOriginal

How could we have not mentioned Dr. Horrible?

Meshakhad: I'm thinking of putting a picture of Dark Willow up as the trope image. She's a prime example. Any objections?

Plasma Wing: Cutting

Pain, in a sort of twist, kind of sees himself as this. The fanbase tends to disagree.

Pain doesn't really want to destroy the world to end his suffering, or because he thinks people being dead will end their suffering. He wants people to suffer because he believes that it will end war through fear, and even then he doesn't believe that it's a permanent solution. Also

Sasuke seems to be heading this way now. After discovering from Tobi that Itachi murdered all the Uchihas because they were planning to take over Konoha, he decides in his grief at what he's done (he killed Itachi shortly prior to this revelation) that the best course of action is to destroy Konoha himself, rendering Itachi's sacrifice completely moot. Not so much woobie in this case, though, depending on your point of view.

Don't see how this is an example of this trope at all.

Michael: Does Darth Sion count do you think?

Joie De Combat: Cutting the following re: Gundam SEED:

As he was Beam Spamming everything around him at the time, it may not have been intentional. Depends on the viewer's perspective, and probably how much you liked Flay in the first place.

...because it's clearly something he did intentionally just to screw with Kira - he wasn't Beam Spaming at the time.

Willbyr: I like the image of Shinji, but can it be shrunk down? The page formatting looks like crap trying to wrap around the image in its current size.

Meshakhad: I'm not so sure about that image, period. It doesn't evoke the trope at all - it's just a sad face. Nothing about "Destroyer of Worlds".

BritBllt: I laughed at the image, but yeah, it's not very helpful for anyone who doesn't already know Shinji. Still, I'm having a hard time thinking of any way to show "destroying the world for angsty reasons" in a picture. Maybe this pic plus a caption rewrite to get the "destroyer of worlds" bit across would help?

Meshakhad: The best I can think of is a screenshot of Willow holding Tara's body. The pure Dark Willow pic I had earlier wasn't much better.

BritBllt: Trimming this...

Azrael in Dogma: "Human, have you ever been to hell? I'd rather not exist than endure that experience a second longer, and if I have to drag down everyone else with me... so be it". Subverted, because Azrael was an egotistical jerk through the whole movie.

to this...

Azrael in Dogma: "Human, have you ever been to hell? I'd rather not exist than endure that experience a second longer, and if I have to drag down everyone else with me... so be it".

Despite the title, a character doesn't need to be The Woobie to be a Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds, and Azrael otherwise fits it to a tee. Having the unnecessary "subverted by him being a jerk" at the end just feels like the example's arguing with itself.

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