Sandbox / The Woobie Re Evaluation Page 21

• Final Fantasy: Unlimited: Most if not all of the characters have tragedies in their pasts, but Lisa and Kumo definitely hold the prize for this one.
  • Lisa Pacifist
  • Shiroi Kumo
  • Clear
• Kaoru Watabe from The King of Fighters starts as such, but by the time we officially meet her she's starting to get better.
• Monoca Towa from Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls invokes this trope. She’s actually not wheelchair-bound, but pretends so because people are easier to manipulate when she looks pathetically helpless.
• Mecha maid (without her armour) in Spinnerette.
• Amara from Keiki, especially when one comic showed her becoming a popular trendsetter, then realizing it was All Just a Dream.
• Lululu Lopez, an impoverished land-based mermaid from Electric Wonderland, might come off as this if not for the moments when she comes off as a Bratty Half-Pint.
• One article in The Onion deals with a young wheelchair-bound boy who prays to God to be allowed to walk again, only to be told that he never will.
• This animation of a boy in a wheelchair who dreams to be able to fly one day.
• In one episode of Blinky Bill, poor little Shifty Dingo breaks his leg and has to be in a wheelchair.
• Family Guy: Joe Swanson is occasionally this when he's not being a Handicapped Badass.
• Subverted on The Proud Family, where Penny starts dating a boy in a wheelchair, who she felt sorry for. But it is revealed that his actually an incredibly bossy jerkass who exploits his handicap and pretends to be more weak and gentle than he is to get people to do what he says. He even uses this to escape punishment. (to clarify, Penny and her friends were suspended because they were suspected of having been the vandals. All he has to do when he's caught? Apologize.)
• On Futurama, Tinny Tim is a parody version of this, an orphaned robotic child with a crutch for one arm and differently-sized legs.
• On Young Justice (2010), Artemis' mother Paula. Losing her mobility in her former career (as a criminal) is just part of what makes her Woobie-ish.
• One episode of The Wild Thornberrys features a character of the week being a girl in a wheelchair. Eliza tries very hard not to treat her any differently than she would any other girl but has a hard time not bringing it up.
• In the fourth season finale of The Venture Brothers, Triana's new boyfriend Raven is one of these. Seeing as he's an Edward Cullen parody, his status as "woobie" may be up for debate.
• Pelswick'' averts this. In fact, the entire purpose of the show is for John Callahan (A handicapped man himself) to say that wheelchair-bound people should not be pitied. Needless to say, this has garnered controversy.
• Blame!: Killy. Good Lord, Killy. Let's see here...he has to go through:
  • Travelling a city that can be best described as multiple galaxy sized megastructure that is filled with hostile Cylicon Life and the Safeguards which are always out to hunt him and anyone close to him down in gruesome way.
  • Constantly having stuff blown out of him. Losing an arm? Headshot? Impalement? Decapitation? Being blown to pieces by explosions that rivals a supernova? Regular occurences. By the end of the series, he had suffered too much physical trauma (that would have easily killed entire cast of your average Shonen fighting series multiple times) that he loses an eye and a leg permanently. Doctors? What doctors, just stick a iron rod down your leg stump and keep going.
  • Having no companions, EVER. Sure, he does meet some comrades along the way but they never last long and they never leave him without making him going through some MORE massive physical trauma. In fact, THE heaviest physical torment he ever suffered was inflicted thanks to one of his friends, who died soon after. He has absolutely NOTHING, other than his objectives, to keep him company. Speaking of which...
  • Going through all that for at least three millenia. His journey has been so long that he can't even remember ANYTHING other than his name, how to use some equipments, and his objective. His goal is only thing that pushes him forward through hellish world of suffering. And the worst of all...
  • Massive suffering with absolutely no hope whatsoever. There's no guarantee that he actually CAN achieve his objective or things would be better once he did. Even when he succeeds, he would get no reward whatsoever, not even internally, for it is shown that he doesn't have any ideal or anything. Yet he soldiers on...
• MM!:
  • Jerkass Woobie: Mio; she gives off such a sad image on several occasions throughout the series.
• Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon. An outcast in his village, even his dad thinks he's a failure, he thinks the only way anyone will respect him is if he kills a dragon, and at the end, even after he's gotten all the respect, love, and friendship he'd wanted for the whole movie. He loses his left leg saving pretty much his entire tribe and a whole lot of dragons from a massive Green Death dragon.
• X-Files: The Greys, who used to be a kind and peaceful race until they were corrupted and twisted into monsters by the Black Oil.
• Sim Earth: The obscure, long-extinct Trichordates were included in the game because the developers "felt sorry for them."
  • One of the most impressive achievements possible in the game (although no special events occur) is developing trichordates into the dominant form of life on the planet, and the resulting "alien" civilization that results from their sentience, given their extreme difference from all the other lifeforms in both nature and appearance.
• Neverwinter Nights: In the realm of fan-created modules, Alexandra de Velan of the Bastard of Kosigan series. Her lover was exiled, and she entered into a relationship with another man afterwards who had her beated until she miscarried once he discovered she was pregnant. Also an example of Beware the Nice Ones.
  • The Darkspear Trolls up until now deserve a mention as a whole. Their entire tribal history is essentially a list of places they used to live and who drove them out until they were relegated to sleeping on Orgrimmar's couch. Come Cataclysm, however, they're officially done taking this crap.
  • And for that matter, much of the Draenei race as a whole, whom the Broken devolved from. Pursued across the universe for centuries and hunted down to near-extinction by the Burning Legion and its minions, simply for daring to reject the temptation of its corrupting power.
• The Frankenturrets in Portal 2, which are made from two turrets and a cube, are creepy, but you can't help but feel bad for them. Not only are they constantly abused by their creator and entirely unaggressive toward you, but they also tremble with fear when you pick them up. Poor little guys...
• Rosenkreuzstilette: And last but not least...believe it or not, IRIS HERSELF, who becomes reduced to a Jerkass Woobie in Tearis. After having lost the final battle to Tia, Iris finds herself under Tia's care, laying in bed thinking that Tia probably hates her for everything she had done in the game and wondering by whose hands she may die. When Zorne and Freu start fighting, Iris, knowing of said battle, desperately asks Tia to end her life to truly end the chaos. Naturally, of course, Tia refuses, because she believes that killing Iris anyway may just make things worse than things already did by her hands in the game.(This is a doushinji and set in a different continuity.)
• The Pikmin. Cute, adorable little plant creatures that gladly put themselves in the line of fire (and water, poison and electricity) and freely face the open maws of carnivorous insects, mollusks, bird-snakes and everything in-between, in order to help you rebuild your ship and profit your capitalist society. But they won't ask you to love them.
• Binding of Isaac: On the enemy side, there's the Mulligans, who also look like sobbing children, but with deformed heads as a result of slowly becoming a walking fly's nest. The lower level ones don't even try to attack you, instead running away and cowering when you approach them, while the higher level ones are slowly rotting alive and coughing up flies.
  • The Darkspear Trolls up until now deserve a mention as a whole. Their entire tribal history is essentially a list of places they used to live and who drove them out until they were relegated to sleeping on Orgrimmar's couch. Come Cataclysm, however, they're officially done taking this crap.
• World of Warcraft Cataclysm: And for that matter, much of the Draenei race as a whole, whom the Broken devolved from. Pursued across the universe for centuries and hunted down to near-extinction by the Burning Legion and its minions, simply for daring to reject the temptation of its corrupting power.
  • The Oracles in Sholazar Basin are a race of simple fish-like creatures (think nicer Murlocs) who revere nature and only want to collect "shinies" to give the great gods, and are constantly attacked by the more aggressive Frenzyheart Tribe who are encroaching on their land and the Scourge, which wants to destroy all life. One particular quest sends you to an Oracle village that has been overtaken by the Scourge to try to rescue any survivors. The Oracles are dragged around attached to chains by these mindless zombie creatures and will give the most heart-wrenching dialogue when you talk to them:
  Please take...my shinies. All done...
  We not do anything...to them...I no understand.
  Use my shinies...make weather good again...make undead things go away.
  We gave shinies to shrine...we not greedy...why this happen?
  I do something bad? I sorry...
• The The Loud House fanfic Requiem for a Loud turns both Lincoln and all his siters into Woobies. Lincoln since he is being diagnosed with terminal brain tumors, and things only go further downhill from there. From being told that he will die in 2 weeks’ time, to finding out how a series of freaky coincidences lead to him being in his current condition, to having to watch his sisters sink into a depression because of this sad news, to having his girlfriend break up with him due to a misunderstanding; the universe really has it out for him. The Loud Sisters meanwhile, knowing that they're going to lose their one and only brother at a very young age, turn into absolute wrecks.
• YMMV/House:
  • Jerkass Woobie: House, occasionally.
    • Chase and Foreman also have their moments.
  • The Woobie:
    • Most especially House himself (e.g first episode of Season 6).
    • Martha Masters whenever House unloads on her.
    • Chi Park fills the woobie role in season 8, especially her rambling at her disciplinary committee.
• The lack of dialogue makes this highly reliant on Alternate Character Interpretation, but in Yume Nikki, Madotsuki's dreams (which make the entirety of the game) are filled with nightmares that may or may not be indicative of a past involving isolation, gender identity disorder, neglectful or possibly abusive parents, and possibly rape. Any of which may help explain why she refuses to leave her room when awake.
• Yume Nikki: Within the dreams themselves, there's Masada, who plays the piano on a spaceship, and generally seems to be very lonely in space, and is completely harmless to the player, and is easily one of the least threatening looking characters in the game. He will also run from you if you equip the knife. Whilst many characters do run from you if you equip the knife, Masada is easily the most obvious in this behavior, and looks terrified when doing so, thus often being assumed to be the only one who does so.
• Thomas the Tank Engine:
  • Peter Sam, especially around Season 4. For proof of his adorable Woobie-dom, see here and here. It doesn't help that he looks really cute with his Giesel ejector-style funnel.
  • Percy gets in on this at times, due to the excessive number of accidents he suffers (only a few being his own fault). He's also one of the younger, more naive engines and frequently gets dismissed or bullied around because of it.
  • Toby becomes one in later episodes, where he suddenly gains a huge inferiority complex and is rather meek and cowardly. He is also occasionally picked on for his outdated build and being a tram.
  • Thomas himself in later seasons. He is extremely loyal to his friends and insists on making them happy and being useful, however his naivete and carelessness almost always leads to him making matters worse, setting up a Break the Cutie moment by getting chewed out by the Fat Controller or upsetting one of the other engines.
• Furrball and Fifi from Tiny Toon Adventures. Furrball is usually homeless or one of Elmyra's pets, and is often abused. Fifi lives in the junkyard and is usually lonely and upset due to every male running away from her because she is a skunk, and usually isn't much better off than Furrball, often also being abused and ignored.
• Death Note: Light Yagami's fellow family members suffer from his actions. Ryuk even says at one point that they are the unluckiest family in the world — and yet their whole purpose was to add a little innocence into what is otherwise a dark, mayhem-and-murder-filled series. In the Live-Action Adaptation, Soichiro is made the Woobie even more in it simply by surviving.
• Advertising: The various rejected cleaning supplies in the Swiffer commercials.
• Black Butler: All the reapers became either this or Jerkass Woobie after finding out that they were all humans who were Driven to Suicide.
• Gundam 00: After learning their full backstory, one has to feel sorry for the ELS. Their homeworld was annihilated in a supernova, and the flashback showing this shows swarms of them flying about in confused, panicky patterns, obviously not knowing what to do in the face of this gigantic wall of fire bearing down from the sky. They then head out into unknown space to find new homes, and when they meet humanity, they started getting shot at and destroyed in large numbers simply for trying to talk to humans (they were unaware that the assimilation process was both extremely painful and usually lethal to humans).
• Phantasy Star IV:
  • Jerkass Woobie: Alys Brangwin. Constantly extorts money out of Hahn? Check. Threatens violence to the principal? Check. Has an attitude in general? Check. Is discriminated for being a female in a male dominated profession? Check. Dies from a painful illness after being hit with a powerful magic attack? Check. Yep, she qualifies as one.
• Alys Brangwin from Phantasy Star IV. True, she often cons Hahn out of his money and one time punched a Dirty Old Man for revealing her measurements but did she deserve to be killed by Zio's Black Wave technique? No, no she didn't.
• Gabriel Belmont in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.
• Xenogears is chock full of them. Ramsus & Hammer stand out the most. Xenosaga continues the tradition with characters like the tortured former serial killer/victim of government brainwashing/cultist/spy Cherenkov & Albedo, whose tragic life as a Tyke Bomb and agonizing over the thought of outliving his brothers turned him into the Ax-Crazy Memetic Molester we all know and love. There's also Virgil, a first-class Jerkass who keeps harassing Shion, but who watched the woman who loved him and saved his life get eaten alive.
• God of War: Kratos, who has spent a good amount of his life as a Cosmic Plaything of the gods.
• Metal Gear Solid:
  • In a way, Sniper Wolf. She's a murderous Stalker with a Crush assassin/terrorist, but she has her kind moments, and her backstory is rather tragic.
  • For that matter, once you hear his Final Speech, Psycho Mantis.
• Also, Midna, in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, except she became a Woobie after becoming much nicer.
• Bowser, especially in Super Mario RPG and the Mario & Luigi series, and most especially in Bowser's Inside Story, where he's the sympathetic Anti Villain Protagonist.
  • Solidified in Super Paper Mario, which reveals that were he ever to actually tie the knot with Princess Peach, they would create the Chaos Heart. That's right. If the one person he's ever been interested in actually accepted him, it would be so cosmically WRONG that the multiverse itself would collapse. Ouch.
  • On a similar note, his son, Bowser Jr., also gets this status in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, where he and his paper counterpart's actions are fueled primarily by a desire to stay friends.
• Super Paper Mario: Why did King Croacus invoke Brainwashed and Crazy on the Cragnons? Because they polluted his people's water and drove him nuts.
• Portal 2: Wheatley after his Face–Heel Turn. He's stuck in space forever and how much of it was really his fault?
• Silver, the rival from Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver. He's a huge Jerkass, but once you realize that his father is the leader of Team Rocket and that the collapse of it in the first game devastated him, it's impossible to not feel sorry for him. He eventually gets a Heel–Face Turn and develops from Jerkass to Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • Cyrus in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (and Platinum) counts. Destroying the universe and betraying his followers? Jerkass. His motivations for doing so? Aw, poor guy (especially in Platinum).
  • Mankey and Primeapes, according to their Pokédex entries in Pokémon Sun and Moon. Mankeys can suddenly enrage and rampage, everyone around it leaves in fear, its loneliness only makes it angrier so on and so forth. Primeapes can die from their stress; they just get so angry that they drop dead. The look on their face is peace and calmness, finally free from their anger.
• The eponymous Alan Wake of the video game, considering the situation he was in.
• In To the Moon, during The Stinger, it's implied that Neil might be dying, and depending on how you viewed his character, he can become this.
• Pretty much most of the Deimos cast in Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits. The Deimos are pretty much social darwinists, finding nothing wrong with flat out murdering each other if it means they'll be stronger. This tends to lead to the Deimos characters' woobie-ish moments:
  • Delma. Darc is probably her only friend, and he kills her brother. Rather than listen to him, she decides to kill him...but manages to get over her revenge spree.
  • Volk. He wants to do terrible things to Paulette to get revenge on her...but because she (And her father) killed his wife and son.
  • Camellia. She used to be young and beautiful, but was tortured and twisted by Tatjana.
  • And that's not to say the humans don't have their woobie-ish moments too, happily willing to engage in Fantastic Racism against Deimos.
    • As was mentioned, Paulette's father was killed by Volk...except that Paulette and Lloyd Would Hurt a Child and Would Hit a Girl.
• In the MMO Wizard101, Necromancy professor Malistaire Drake, who, after going rogue and disappearing from Ravenwood, unleashes armies of Undead upon Wizard City, causes the Death School to fall into Nightside, allies himself with Meowiarty, the most dangerous crime boss in Marleybone in order to steal the dangerously powerful Krokonomicon, severely injures the Emperor of Mooshu in order to gain the Dragonspyre Spiral Key, and attempts to use the Krokonomicon to summon the uncontrollable power of Dragon Titan, who was responsible for the apocalypse of Dragonsypre, and would have been able to use the Krokonomicon to extend his reign of terror over the whole Spiral. It all seems pretty bad until you consider that Malistaire was deeply affected by the death of his beloved wife, Sylvia, and his only goal in all of this was to obtain the power to bring her back to life.
  • Subverted briefly when, just before the player battles him at the end of the original story line, Malistaire arrogantly expresses the belief that, as the Master of Death (essentially the most powerful Necromancer in the Spiral), he can control the Dragon Titan, even though the former Masters of Dragonspyre, who were presumably as powerful as him, could not. In other words, Malistaire has no qualms over causing havoc for Spiral, but does not wish to go so far as enslaving it under the Dragon Titan, although this would have been a direct result of the success of his plan.
    • Played straight again after the battle, when the defeated Malistaire, as a spirit, repents to the spirit of Sylvia, and to his living brother Cyrus, and joins Sylvia in the afterlife, as lovers for eternity.
• Juhani from the first Knights of the Old Republic game is a mild case. She grew up in terrible poverty and suffered from lots of Fantastic Racism on Taris after her parents became refugees from Cathar, which was bombarded in the Mandalorian Wars. Then her father became a drug addict and died in a bar fight. Then her mother starved herself to death so Juhani could eat, and Juhani was sold into slavery to pay her mother's debts, but thankfully a Jedi to whit, Revan saw the Force in her and freed her. Oh, and one of the first things to happen in the game is the destruction of Taris, meaning that Juhani's childhood home, however awful it was, is now gone. And then she had a terrifying brush with the dark side. However, she tends to be really defensive and snappish when you try to get her to open up about these things and has a case of Don't You Dare Pity Me! (although she does apologize for blowing up).
  • In Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, both Fernand and Berkut have quite the dark and troubled pasts, with the first losing his beloved family in horrifying circumstances and the latter being raised by very harsh parents and then by a well-intentioned but duty-bound uncle (who kept a life-wreaking secret from him). However, both lash out at the world in very reprehensible ways, cause lots of misery to the people who care for them, and ultimately die regretting their cruel actions and asking for forgiveness.
• I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream:
  • Benny was morphed into a hideous apelike monster that can't even eat or climb stairs. He was also a merciless Social Darwinist military commander who murdered anybody who showed weakness.
  • Ted was a con artist who used his looks and charm to defraud women. He spent a lot of time fearing his fraud would be discovered and he would be attacked by those very women, a paranoia that is egged on AM, and longs to be a true hero.
• The Na'Khul in Star Trek Online. All they want is their world back, nothing more, nothing less. However, because of their heavy xenophobic leanings, all attempts to help them rebuild have been rebuffed, they blame the Federation for dooming their planet when it was actually the Tholians who did so and they go so far as to use time travel to ruin everything for this very reason.
• Kenny from The Walking Dead is practically the definition of this trope. He is supremely hot headed and often selfish, but that's mostly because the guy has been through a lot, including losing his entire family.
• Detective Pikachu: When interrogating Mimikyu, its subtitle is "Dreams of being popular". Awwww.
• Gundam Seed Bloodlines:
  • Jerkass Woobie: Flay; Asta as well.
  • The Woobie: Melanie/Elle
• Hexyz Force: Surprisingly, Levant's violent monster personality is this.
• City of Heroes:
  • Iron Woobie: Wretch.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Shadow, in Tales of the TMNT #69.
  • Baxter Stockman counts for this in spades. The 80's incarnation adds Unintentionally Sympathetic to the mix.
• The Woobie: The Fugitoid and Splinter.
• The Caligula Effect:
  • Iron Woobie: Kuchinashi. Even in spite of all the awful things that have happened to her, she remains loyal to the Musicians and determined to take down the Go-Home Club.
• Hunter: The Vigil:
  • The Lucifuge are probably the nicest group, despite their demonic ancestry, but no one really trusts them because of it.
  • A meta-example would be the changelings. In addition to their own crappy backstory, they're the most harmless monster in game... and the one that every single Hunter group distrusts. They're seen as liars, Body Snatchers, and evil doppelgangers of the people they've kidnapped, the exact opposite of what they really are. Some hunters actually think they're the vanguard of an alien invasion. They're absolutely justified in their fears— the problem is, they've got the wrong target! The lying, body-snatching, evil invading aliens are oh so very real, but they're the True Fae, not the changelings. The Hunters mistake changelings for some kind of mini-Gentry, instead of the (mostly) harmless refugees they really are. This mirrors the confusion changelings themselves have in identifying True Fae loyalists. Once you see a changeling ravage your wife's mind in her dreams and invite the Wild Hunt to your street, you are to be expected to treat them, as a group, no better than bloodsuckers, shapeshifting human-eaters, and witches.
  • The Merrick Institute are children who were abducted by an US government organization and put through trauma-inducing experiments, gaining dream powers at the cost of being for the most part crippled or vegetative, just because said organization was trying to find a way through them to exploit Beasts as military weapons. Now that they overthrew their captors and organized themselves into their own conspiracy, they have to fight Beasts on regular basis on their own turf, all while still being on the run from their former captors.
• Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids:
  • Jerkass Woobie: Surprisingly, some of the horrible kids.
    • The rude kids from "The Barber of Civil". No matter how rude they were, surely they didn't deserve the outcome they got!
    • Dolores from "Silence is Golden". Never mess with a librarian!
    • Bruce from "It's Only a Game, Sport!" Sore loser or not, he might as well have been Born Unlucky if he cannot win any games, or even a round.
  • The Woobie:
    • Spindleshanks, who's the Butt-Monkey to Uncle Grizzly's pranks and mild abuse.
    • The Chipper Chums, for their grizzly fate, ironically being the most innocent of the sort of characters you get in this series, yet having the worst outcome.
• A literal example is WALL•E. That little guy's spirit is amazing.
• Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption. Despite being falsely accused and sent to a hell hole prison for a crime he didn't commit, he fights to survive and maintains his optimistic hope. It pays off when he escapes in the end.
• Despite having endured events that would have broken lesser peoples the princesses of The Princess Series refuse to give in to despair or anger(mostly). They have even managed to find some happiness and sense of family with each other.
• Jack Bauer from 24. If he weren't such a Badass, he would've killed himself by now. He would need to invent a successful method of killing Jack Bauer first. Considering how many had tried and failed, it stands to reason that it simply cannot be done.
• Sam Tyler from Life on Mars (2006). There's his Fish out of Temporal Water predicament, the ensuing angst and Sanity Slippage, and all the abuse he has to put up with. Yet he's still a capable police officer and unwavering in his principles.
• Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas:
  • Crane Yuzuriha in the Lost Canvas Gaiden.
  • Gemini Defteros's backstory.
• Sweet Blue Flowers:
  • The fact that Fumi has to come to terms with the fact that she's a lesbian gets aggravated by her woefully bad taste in lovers.
  • Kyouko has some of this as well, since she just can't give up on Yasuko, who keeps giving her the cold shoulder.
• Shinobi:
  • Iron Woobie: If the bad ending of Revenge of Shinobi is canon, Joe Musashi would be this in Shinobi III.
  • The Woobie: The first two Oboro's revenant you meet are, respectively a chubby boy and a cute little girl. Who just after appearing pray for Hotsuma to KILL THEM. Poor Hotsuma...
  Hotsuma: "Akagane... Shirogane... not you too!"
• Spiders and Magic: Rise of Spider-Mane
• The Woobie:
  • Peter Parker. Add him Iron Woobie as well.
  • Trixie.
  • And let's not forget a certain Princess of the Night.
• F-Zero:
  • Iron Woobie:
    • Leon. This guy will never lament his lot in life, preferring to stay optimistic. He also happens to be extremely selfless, perhaps more so than any other character.
  Leon: (on the key to his victory) "Racing for someone other than myself."
  • Jerkass Woobie: Zoda in the anime. When it turns out that you're not only an Unwitting Pawn to Black Shadow, but to fate itself, you do become a bit more sympathetic.
  • The Woobie: Misaki Haruka, especially once a) we see the flashback of her reaction to Ryu's "death" and b) she breaks free of Black Shadow's control. She is utterly mortified by her time as Miss Killer.
• Examples from Disney:
  • Nuka from The Lion King II: Simba's Pride is The Unfavorite since Scar has chosen Kovu over him, and his mother Zira treats him horribly. Despite this he tries to kill Simba to gain her approval, and dies in the attempt.
  • Big Baby in Toy Story 3 is also this. He's the scariest villain ever- until this:
    (Looking at tag saying "My heart belongs to Daisy") *sob* Mama?
• Shen of Kung Fu Panda 2 might count as one if the audience takes into account his official biography. Considered too weak and sickly to warrant his parents' attention, Shen was left to the care of the Soothsayer. He strove to earn his parents' approval and ended up discovering the explosive potential behind fireworks. When the Soothsayer foretold his defeat at the hands of a warrior of black and white if he continued down his dark path, Shen slayed the pandas, believing averting his fate would finally earn his parents affection. They instead banished him and Shen saw this as the final sign that his parents did not and would never love him. He spends the rest of the movie killing and destroying out of a desperate need to fill the void in his life, knowing full well there is nothing he can do to make himself happy but also knowing there is nothing he can do to justify his actions. Worst of all, the only reason he goes forward is because to turn back would mean everything he did up until now would be for naught. No wonder he seems to find peace when in the final battle something falls on him.
• The eponymous character of Megamind claims to be this. But he's actually quite lacking in the woobie part (compared to other more broken and less humorous examples at least) and MUCH more so in the destroyer of worlds part.
• Aggie in ParaNorman. She was executed as a child after being accused of being a witch. Her spirit becomes angrier with each passing year, ultimately releasing her rage in the film's climax.
• In Penguins of Madagascar, Dave's sole reason for becoming an evil mastermind is due to the fact that that he feels penguins stole his glory at every zoo and aquarium where he was ever an attraction.
• Rise of the Guardians: Averted with Jack Frost, who remains happy and joyous, making kids happy despite having no one believe in him.
• Takuto Hasegawa from Macademi Wasshoi! when Tanarotte is injured to the point of nearly dying
• Both Celestin and Morgan Le-Fay from Ah! My Goddess The Movie. Celestine's goal was to eliminate suffering as his version of a Rage Against the Heavens, whereas Morgan helps him because she lost her beloved and is lashing out in pain.
• Tetsuo from AKIRA, when he can no longer resist the urge to lash out and employ his full powers.
• Madam Red from Black Butler becomes "Jack the Ripper" to get back at prostitutes for aborting their children after she lost her own, with the help of Grell Sutcliff.
  • Alois Trancy from the second season. He's an Ax-Crazy Creepy Child with a Dark and Troubled Past who only wants someone to love him in place of his dead brother (and likes to gauge out his servants' eyes.)
• Bleach In the Fourth movie, Ichigo lets his Superpowered Evil Side take over so that he can avenge the death of his sister, even though he nearly ends up creating Hell on Earth.
• Chizuru Honda from Bokurano, after snapping due to her love interest and teacher's behavior towards her.
  • And now, in the manga, Jun Ushiro. HOLY GODDAMNED SHIT, USHIRO. What makes it worse is that it's not his world that he's messing with.
• A lot of characters from Deadman Wonderland probably qualify, but the crown here definitely goes to Shiro/Wretched Egg. Despite the horrific things she does on screen, by the time her backstory is fully revealed (and good God is it tragic), even Ganta agrees that his worst enemy isn't nearly as much of a monster as he first thought.
• BlackWarGreymon from Digimon Adventure 02 wanted to destroy the Digital World because he thought that, that was the only way for him to understand his purpose in his artificial life and soothe his pain.
• Digimon Tamers has two characters Takato and Jeri go through this phase at different points as a result of the Heroic BSoD they both suffer when Leomon is killed. With no respawn point in this series. It's always the ones you least expect.
• In Dog Days, the castle-crushing demon prophesized to kill our heroes is really a baby earth spirit, stabbed with an evil sword and forced to eat his mother and then kill everyone around him, until all he wants is death.
• Dragon Ball Z: Fat Buu started as this. Mainly because it's all he knew to do.
• Yomi from Ga-Rei -Zero-. She was not exactly powerless before she become a rampaging monstrosity, but events conspire to bring her down from her height and kick her mercilessly while she's down.
  • Kagura in the original manga is an even better example. It's a Crapsack World for those sisters, yeah.
• Elaine and Diana, the two unbelievably powerful psychic sisters, in Genocyber, who both go through some truly nightmarish crap before transforming into the eponymous Anthropomorphic Personification of destruction, Genocyber. Then they proceed to wipe out Hong Kong, then every single city in the world, then the only post-apocalyptic city that remains. Or maybe not...
• Depending on how you view his character, Alucard of Hellsing may qualify as this. If you look through the axe-craziness, he seems like quite the Death Seeker. Then there's his Dark and Troubled Past...
• Takano Miyo from Higurashi: When They Cry, who grew up in an Orphanage of Fear...Ironically, though, she's aiming at the wrong target in order to become a god. Guess Tokyo's a little too big to take down single-handedly.
• Ryner from The Legend of the Legendary Heroes.
  • Another one in Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force: the Huckebein family seems to have become this. Sure, they have to try to find a way so they could control their Eclipse disease. But their unsympathetic actions, like slaughtering entire villages and communities, massacring the innocent people who had nothing to do with their affair is not a justifications for their reason to survive.
• The Cut Man Brothers of MegaMan NT Warrior.
• Shadow Star: A similar thing happens to the main character, Shiina, but with someone else doing the destroying, right at the end of the manga.
• Naruto
  • Gaara started out as this. He's lucky Naruto is a Warrior Therapist. For that matter, any jinchuriki (such as Naruto and Gaara themselves) is prone to be so.
  • The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox's escape plan is to turn Naruto into one of these.
    • It turns out the tailed beasts themselves are this. All were created by the Sage of the Six Paths, who treated them like his children. Once released upon the world, they were treated as feral abominations (and in the case of Kurama, the embodiment of hatred) only worth pursuing for their immense power.
  • In Part II, Sasuke Uchiha becomes this after hearing the truth about the Uchiha massacre.
• PandoraHearts: Vincent Nightray. Sociopathic Ax-Crazy Yandere with a brother complex and one of the most fucked-up backstories ever.
• Erik from The Phantom of the Opera.
• Judy from Dolls (1987).
• Unbreakable Red Silken Thread: Cody and Sammy. Both characters, at least until Heather helped Cody “man-up,” had sad home lives, shy personalities, and just made you want to hug them. Sammy in particularly elicits this reaction from many characters in the story.
• The hyenas from The Lion King. Their hatred for the lions isn't such a surprise given how they were segregated by Mufasa and forced to live in a barren wasteland with barely any food. They support the main antagonist, Scar, who promises a better life for them (and also revenge against the ruling family who've caused them so much suffering). It's only later that they learn Scar is utterly inept as a ruler and is willing to sell them all out to save his own skin.
• Kung Fu Panda:
  • Tigress as well, at least in the second half of the movie.
  • Depending on your interpretation of him and his Freudian Excuse, Lord Shen of the second movie. Considered too weak and sickly to warrant his parents' attention, Shen was left to the care of the Soothsayer. He strove to earn his parents' approval and ended up discovering the explosive potential behind fireworks. When the Soothsayer foretold his defeat at the hands of a warrior of black and white if he continued down his dark path, Shen slayed the pandas, believing averting his fate would finally earn his parents affection. They instead banished him and Shen saw this as the final sign that his parents did not and would never love him. He spends the rest of the movie killing and destroying out of a desperate need to fill the void in his life, knowing full well there is nothing he can do to make himself happy but also knowing there is nothing he can do to justify his actions.
• Mirage from The Incredibles. Sure, she had a hand in leading numerous superheroes to their deaths, but she's against killing children, nearly dies twice, and her supposed boyfriend, Syndrome, is shown to not care about her when he sadistically goads Mr. Incredible into trying to crush her to death. And Elastigirl punches her in the face when she's least expecting it.
• Shrek: Prince Charming. After enduring grief and humiliation now that he no longer has the power his mama gave him, all he wanted was his own Happily Ever After... which he probably would have gotten had he not stayed a villain by choice.
• A Bug's Life: The ant colony itself as a whole. Sure, they brought the Darkest Hour on themselves by ostracizing Flik and PT Flea's entire circus after they hear the truth about the "warriors". But do they deserve the treatment Hopper gave to them afterwards?
• Lampwick in Pinocchio is a little punk who enjoys destroying property, fighting, smoking, and drinking, but his ultimate fate, like the other stupid boys,( being transformed into donkeys and sold into slavery) is far beyond what he deserves.
• Miss Friezenda, the angel ornament from the Christmas Special movie "Noel" acts like a complete bitch throughout the whole movie but her horrified reaction to getting thrown out for being too old of an ornament kind of makes her pitiful in a way.
• ParaNorman seems to love this trope.
  • Agatha Prenderghast, the Dark Magical Girl who serves as Norman's Evil Counterpart. She was very vengeful to the townspeople for what they did to her, but she was ostracized by everyone for her ability to talk to the dead.
  • Depending on your POV, Norman's father. Yeah, he's intolerant of Norman claiming to be able to communicate with ghosts and actually admits that he wishes his son was different. However, he knows that his son is ostracized by most of town due to his claimed ability to see and talk to ghosts (which makes them think Norman is either lying for attention or genuinely crazy), he honestly has no idea how to connect to his son, and Perry admits at one point that he's scared of Norman becoming just like Uncle Pendergast. His mother also died from an unspecified illness a few weeks before the events of the film and the fact that from his POV Norman is pretending that she's still around as a ghost isn't helping that much with his grief.
• Date A Live
  • Iron Woobie: Shido. He puts himself in danger to protect the Spirits, either from their own unstable powers or people who wish to take advantage of them; but that never stops him from enjoying life with the Spirits at his side.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Miku and Natsumi. The former is Broken Bird who pretty much lost all hope in humanity before Shido came along, and the latter is extremely self-deprecating, taking on a fake appearance just for shallow praise.
  • Stoic Woobie: Origami. The girl's parents were killed by a Spirit, yet she dutifully carries on as an AST soldier, silently waiting until she gets the chance to get back at the murderer. Then she finds out that she was the Spirit.
  • The Woobie: The Spirits in general, but Yoshino fits the description best; a Shy Blue-Haired Girl with Power Incontinence who doesn't even want to fight back against the humans who intend to eliminate her regardless of circumstances? Yep.
• Date A Live - Main Character and Spirits:
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Courtesy of being persecuted by the AST and DEM. And several of them have some kind of (justified) resentment against humanity.
• Date A Live Rinne Utopia: Shido becomes one at the end of Rinne's route. Turns out that she's creating the illusion world and that by kissing her, Shido comes back to reality at the cost of her fading away. The result is Shido crying with a Skyward Scream.
• Date A Re:Live:
  • Iron Woobie: Origami, who goes through much worse suffering than her canon counterpart, and yet still finds something to make her hold onto life.
• Black Bullet:
  • Iron Woobie: Rentaro really take the ride here.
  • Stoic Woobie: Kayo Senju, her death makes it really more tear breaking.
• Woobie Species: You kinda feel sorry for every Cursed Child in this series. Specific mention to Enju Aihara, one of the most kind-hearted characters in the series, has a lovable Cheerful Child personality, and that she's an academic and social pariah and that she only has about 500 days to live as a human makes you want to really hug this poor young girl.
• Tsukihime: Oh where to start? There's all 5 main heroines to start with. Then there's Len, Sacchin, and Nanako.
• Food Wars!:
  • Jerkass Woobie: Akira, Erina and Ryou are highly competitive and can be very arrogant and condescending to their peers, yet each of them had a hard time growing up in their own hellish, rough environments. It's hard not to feel at least a little sorry for them, especially when one of them was explicitly abused by a parent.
  • The Woobie: Akira, Ryou and Erina in Flashbacks as children: Akira was a street kid being mercilessly beaten by a shopkeeper, Ryou had bouts of post-traumatic stress disorder-like symptoms accompanied by the phrase "I have to win. If I don't win, I'll die.", and Erina was physically and psychologically abused by her father as a child in order for him to hone her God's Tongue.
• Characters/Tsukihime: Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The real Shiki.
• The Tigger Movie:
  • The usually happily unique Tigger becomes this when he begins to genuinely consider the implications of being the "only one".
  • Roo only wants to have quality time with Tigger, but he doesn't even get attention until the very end. When Tigger outright turns his back on the others for tricking him, poor Roo spends most of the climax in tears.
• Pokémon Reset Bloodlines:
  • Misty, big time. Between her family's mistreatment, living in constant fear of Fantastic Racism, and getting kicked out at the age of fourteen, it's little wonder she spent some time as a Broken Bird.
  • Johanna. Even winning the Grand Festival isn't enough to save her parents, and she ends up in serious financial straits. And that's before you factor in the implications that the U.T.P. may not have had her best interests at heart.
  • Ash's Charmander. The poor guy first loses his original trainer, and then ends up in the care of Damian. His gaiden shows that his first year as a starter Pokémon was nothing but a Trauma Conga Line.
• Batman: The Killing Joke:
  • Jerkass Woobie: The Joker becomes this after we see flashbacks that detail his slow fall into madness.
• Carnival Phantasm:
  • Lancer gets abused in this OVA, so much so that people might actually start feeling bad for the guy, since most of the time he is just minding his own business.
  • Shirou and Shiki become this in the second half of the Hibi-Chika Special, especially with all the torment their love interests have put them through.
  • Saber has several moments: Not getting to nap with Shirou, getting curb stomped by Berserker, putting up with Gilgamesh in episode 8, having all of her hopes about the Holy Grail War being an honorable battle between knights being shattered, being denied food from not getting 1st place in the Illya Castle Special stages, and having to potentially live on just tea and rice after Shirou spends all his money!
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time:
  • Iron Woobie: Link. On the one hand, he goes through enough crap to potentially drive him insane in terms of issues. On the other hand, being the Player Surrogate and a Heroic Mime, he doesn't seem too concerned with this.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987):
  • Jerkass Woobie Shredder is a Jerkass who wants to Take Over the World, but he's working with a partner who was absolutely no respect for him (even one the rare moments when his successful), is constantly humiliated by the turtles and has his plans thwarted by the sheer stupidity of his two minions.
  • The Woobie:
    • Michaelangelo has his moment of this when he thinks everyone forgot his birthday in "Michaelangelo's Birthday", which makes it even worse when he runs into Shredder.
    • Splinter in "Splinter No More".
    • Donatello in "Donatello's Duplicate" easily counts for this.
    • Leonardo in "Take Me To Your Leader". Even this Leonardo-neutral fangirl wanted to hug him.
    • Raphael in the beginning of "Raphael: Turtle Of A Thousand Faces".
    • Baxter Stockman, even when he was a Jerkass. Some scenes where he's abused and mistreated are actually pretty uncomfortable to watch.
    • Krang sort of was one in "Hot-Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X". It's the sadness in his voice when he tells General Traag how he lost his body when they "banished him to this miserable mud-ball" as well as how upset he was about Traag and Granitor seeing him without his body.
    • The Neutrinos also count considering they're just kids in a war filled world like Dimension X, and are hunted down because they don't want to join in on the fighting. Especially Kala.
  Kala: "You don't know what it's like.... living in a place where everyone wants to do you in....just for the crime of being young." (She starts to cry.)

  • Irma could also be seen as this, seeing as how she can never quite seem to have a decent boyfriend.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds:
    • Macc, the robot from the future when he becomes Brainwashed and Crazy due to Krang's docilizer.
    • Also the Starchild.
• Les Nombrils
  • Jerkass Woobie: Vicky in later albums. Volume 7 pushes Jenny there to, though its almost entirely her own fault.
  • The Woobie: Karine
• Thomas & Friends
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Gordon, James, and Henry, especially in the latter two's Story Arcs. After having Took a Level in Kindness, Henry is now more just a straight up Woobie.
    • A lot of fans think of Smudger this way, thanks to his And I Must Scream fate.
    • Hurricane and Frankie in Journey Beyond Sodor. They are lonely, overworked engines who trick and ultimately force any visitors to stay and help them. When Thomas and James have escaped and seem ready to leave them to their fate, Frankie breaks down sobbing, gaining their sympathy.
• The Woobie:
  • Both Henry and Peter Sam have had their moments.
  • In the episode Dirty Work, Duck could certainly count for this. Diesel's lies, the big engine's accusation, even the Fat Controller seemed to be against him... he really needs a hug, poor guy.
  • Percy is practically the designated chew toy of the show. It's especially apparent in Day of the Diesels and Tale of the Brave.
  • Toby, after his more jittery characterisation was established.
  • Sidney, who spent two years on a hoist in the Dieselworks waiting for a new set of wheels that had supposedly failed to be delivered, to the point even the above Woobie Percy feels sorry for him and takes action.
  • Winston, who has to deal with The Fat Controller's terrible driving.
• Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon:
  • Jerkass Woobie: As cruel as the Boos are in this game, the helpless squeaks they make as Luigi crams them through the Poltergeist's nozzle do manage to make you feel bad for them, if only a little.
• Miraculous Ladybug
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • XY, the young and upcoming pop star in "Guitar Villain". He makes catty remarks about Jagged Stone being a dinosaur, but Guitar Villain trying to kill him for those remarks is Disproportionate Retribution. He also doesn't seem to be much older than Marinette, which could be a factor in him being a Spoiled Brat.
    • Aurore in the scene where she gets akumatised - while her Sore Loser ranting wasn't exactly endearing to the audience, she does earn some sympathy for the fact that she tried to fight off the butterfly out of fear when she saw it coming for her, especially if we assume that she had some idea of what it was going to do to her after the events of "Stoneheart".
  • The Woobie:
    • Master Cheng, Marinette's uncle. He doesn't speak French well, gets his prize-winning soup sabotaged by a bratty teenager, and then gets turned into an akuma. At least the other characters could speak French and knew about Ladybug, but he looks traumatized when he wakes up next to the pool and doesn't know what happened.
    • Nooroo, Hawk Moth's kwami. He, like all kwamis, wants to use his powers to help people, but Hawk Moth basically enslaved him and forces him to do evil.
    • Andre Bourgeois as revealed in "Malediktor" who is severely disrespected by his wife and daughter to the point where it can be considered emotional abuse.
• Justice League
  • Flash, Superman, Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl in "Only A Dream". The four are stuck in dreamscapes of their worst nightmares.
  • The Ultimen become this after they find out their origins. Unfortunately, all but Longshadow become a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds.
  • The Cheetah is one as well (If you don't count her as a Jerkass Woobie that is). Considering that all she wanted to do was be human again, is ostracized by society, and Forced into Evil, it's very tragic she has to live this way. That Poor Cat ...
  • The Cheetah and Ultra-Humanite are not really evil and just want normal lives.
  • The Thanagarians, especially after they lost the war.
• Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!: Izuku might not be powerless this time around, but his deep-set trauma, huge identity crisis, and refusal to follow his dreams out of fear of the harm he can do just makes you want to hug him all the same.
• Sydney White:
  • The Woobie: Sydney, George, Jeremy. Any of the seven dorks and their reason for being in the Vortex, really.
• Kaze no Stigma:
  • Jerkass Woobie: Kazuma Yagami
  • The Woobie: Ayumi Tsuwabuki
• Vinland Saga:
  • Canute, especially after his "My Father harbors no love for me" speech in chapter 42. Not to mention Ragnar's death before that.
  • Thorfinn, big time. To say why would essentially mean summarizing the entire series.
• Futurama:
  • Fry. He's a fish out of water who was transported into the future, and though he doesn't usually admit it, he does get homesick at times and does miss his family and friends from home.
  • Zoidberg, due to being the butt of everyone's jokes and being poor. He usually gets the short end of the stick but otherwise seems like a mostly decent (if somewhat annoying and awkward) guy.
  • Kif Kroker is arguably a woobie, due to working at a job that makes him miserable and being painfully shy and unassertive. His boss and his fiance's parents think little of him.
• Evillious Chronicles
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Riliane, big time. A cruel, selfish despot, but also an incredibly lonely and unhappy young girl with more responsibility than she could ever handle, who finally breaks down when the revolution is in swing.
    • Ney Phutapie/Marlon after her death.
  • The Woobie:
    • Allen, Micheala, Kyle and Clarith in the Daughter of Evil series stand out.
    • And Elluka, who lost everything she held dear in Original Sin Story and keeps on losing friends throughout the franchise.
    • The Clockworker's Doll. The lyrics of "Master of the Court" make her something of a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds too.
  Doll: How can the lifeless me understand? How can the heartless me understand?
• Hunter × Hunter:
  • Iron Woobie: Kurapika.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Well, to be fair, Gon did have to watch the person who inspired him to be a Hunter get his arm cut off, being turned into a puppet, confront the person that did it, broke their arm, and realized that the very same man would be dead this whole time... and that's not covering the battles with Knuckle and Shoot.
  • Wheelchair Woobie: Komugi has a Crippling Overspecialization in Gungi. She is blind and has a running nose. Meruem is apparently the first and only person to act nice to her and she decides to stay with Meruem for his last moments knowing that she will die with him if she does.
  • The Woobie: Alluka. As creepy as she is, it's hard not to feel sorry for her thanks to being constantly left in quarantine and used by her family as a tool. By the end of the Chairman Election arc, even her alter ego Nanika gets some woobie points.
• Tenchi Muyo!: Sasami in the OVAs as the times when she cries are the few times within where a crying character isn't Played for Laughs. After her nightmare in episode 7- especially when she wakes up and Ayeka not being in there with her only makes it worse- and breakdown in episode 9, one just never wants to see the sweetest member of the cast looking sad and give her a big hug.
• Golden Axe: The three protagonists of the first game, given their dark and troubled pasts coming from Death Adder's invasion of their lands in the Firewood Kingdom. Of special note is Tyris, who once was the princess of that place and, as a little girl, suffered the invasion and saw her beloved mother the Queen die before her eyes.
• The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat:
  • The Woobie: You will feel for the Cat after the crap The Grinch puts him through.
  • Jerkass Woobie: The Grinch himself, especially considering how he's pushed to evil by a Jerkass reflection
• Old Harry's Game: Satan, many times throughout the series.
• Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1993): The way Nancy is treated before she grows definitely sets her up for Woobie status.
• Tiny Toon Adventures:
  • Jerkass Woobie: Montana Max is a selfish Spoiled Brat but one can feel sorry for him when Mitzi rejects him and he shows a rare moment of sadness.
• All You Need Is Kill: Shasta, Rita's partly Native American mechanic, is subjected to some wince-inducing hazing due to her ethnicity.
• Assassin's Creed : Forsaken
  • Iron Woobie: Haytham, Jenny, AND Connor. It's a Kenway family trait, really.
• YMMV/Gankutsuou:
  • Jerkass Woobie: The Count of Monte Cristo.
• The Woobie: Albert during the latter half of the series, definitely. And arguably the Count in some specific scenes.
  • Franz. Oh, how beautifully he suffers from his unrequited love...
  • Haydee. Watched the conquest of her planet and her family's deaths, Made a Slave, and that whole business with the Count.
• Moral Orel:
  • Iron Woobie: Considering everything he's gone through, the fact that the ending shows Orel to be a loving father and husband proves him to be one of these.
  • Clay
  • Stoic Woobie: Ms. Sculptham, when you find out about her past.
• The Woobie: Orel, Florence, Bloberta, Nurse Bendy
• YMMV/Bizenghast
  • Jerkass Woobie: The "princess" a.k.a. Brenda from volume 4.
• Birdy the Mighty:
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Nataru and Valic
• Shining Force II: Kiwi, before you name him and he joins you.
• Exo Squad: Poor, poor, Xenobius and Nara Burns …
• Nicholas Nickleby: Smike.