With a show that ran for four seasons and covered some fairly heavy subject matter including rape, addiction, suicide and more, almost every character becomes a Woobie at some point, with most veering into Jerkass Woobie and/or Iron Woobie at some point.
Note: This is a SPOILER HEAVY page.
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Regular Woobie
- Hannah is an easy example of a Woobie who is sometimes a Jerkass Woobie, Iron Woobie and Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. The obvious reasons for this are:
- She quickly gains an unearned reputation as promiscuous from a boy she thought she trusted, and shortly after is included on the "hot or not" list, making her feel objectified. She spends most of the year receiving light-to-serious harassment from most of the guys at her school, and manages to lose what few close, trusting friendships she had with Jessica, Alex and Courtney.
- It is later revealed that while this was occurring, she also knew that her father had had an affair and was forced to confront him about it.
- She's later betrayed by the guy she lost her virginity to and thought liked her for who she was.
- Things really fall apart when she's at Jessica's party and has an unintentionally traumatic experience with Clay, witnesses Jessica being raped while unconscious and gets in a minor car accident with Sheri that she knows resulted in Jeff's death. To cap it off, she's raped by Bryce Walker and has no idea how to come forward, and when she tries, Mr. Porter's approach doesn't make it easy.
- Clay is a particularly big Woobie in the first season who becomes progressively more of a Jerkass Woobie as the series goes on.
- He's lost not one, but two close friends at the start of the series.
- He suffers from anxiety and possibly worse, and feels unable to communicate that guilt to anyone.
- He goes through more physical trauma than just about anyone in the series and gets at least one brutal beat-down per season, often for simply trying to do the right thing.
- He's falsely accused of murder and is made to feel like a monster because he's not mourning a rapist.
- The effects of the past two years of trauma have gotten to him so drastically that he starts experiencing delusions that are often violent and leave him feeling more distressed. They even result in him getting hospitalized.
- Then, his adoptive brother dies a painful, drawn-out death that leaves Clay broken.
- Justin. It's not obvious at first, but he has an obviously terrible home life and has grown up around extremely toxic influences, to the point where he thinks his very unhealthy friendship with Bryce is the best thing in his life. He's also endured sexual trauma from a young age, and when it's revealed that Bryce raped Jessica and Justin (technically) let him, Justin seemingly becomes more of an outcast than the actual rapist and leaves town. He spirals into drug addiction and engages in sex work and has an incredibly difficult time staying clean, he loses his birth mother, and just when it seems his life is turning around and he's gotten into his dream college, he dies an incredibly painful and drawn-out death.
- Jessica is this throughout most of Season 1 (if not a bit of a Jerkass Woobie) and definitely Season 2, when she is still dealing with the fallout of her sexual assault.
- While some of Courtney's Season 1 actions put her more into Jerkass Woobie territory, Courtney is a closeted lesbian who made a drunken pass at Hannah, was rejected, had it photographed and had it spread around the entire school. She's also a transracial adoptee who keeps herself closeted in part because of the abuse her fathers have gone through. Although she tries to both defend and hide behind Bryce's actions, by the second season she has abandoned that intention and is firmly on Hannah's side, but that doesn't stop the defence attorney from outing her on the stand.
- Bryce's mother Nora is this. Unlike her husband, she continually doubted her son's innocence. When he confessed it to her in a condescending manner, she despised her son for what he did, though understandably still stood by her son. She has to live with the pain of knowing he was a rapist for the rest of her life. Then just as she and Bryce start to bond and improve their relationship he's murdered in Season 3, and therefore having to live with the pain of outliving her son. Although her insistent pursuit of Clay might put her into Jerkass Woobie territory, she's a grieving mother who also had plenty of reason to suspect Clay. It helps that she never tries to defend what Bryce has done, she is apologetic to Olivia Baker and she pays for Ani's college education.
- Olivia Baker. She's already having a difficult time keeping her family together financially and functionally, especially after finding out her husband has had an affair. Then her daughter dies by suicide, and Olivia struggles to understand why. The tapes give some closure but also clearly are a poor substitute for bringing Hannah back, and those and the trial also reveal information about Hannah that disturb and distress her – like the fact that Hannah was stalked, bullied and sexually assaulted. All the while, she's dealing with a divorce and watching her husband move on quickly while being apathetic (in her view) about the trial. Oh, and then she's briefly suspected of murder.
- It's also revealed during Season 2 that she was sexually assaulted as a pre-teen by a much older boy.
- Surprisingly, Lainey Jensen becomes this by the end. She works tirelessly as a lawyer and generally has a good heart, while her son not only refuses to open up to her but also makes her worry increasingly as the series goes on, from keeping a few secrets about his relationship to a girl that had died to being arrested and later hospitalized for a violent mental breakdown. Then, her adopted son dies a painful, drawn-out death after they've done everything to help him. She is clearly heartbroken by it.
- Chloe Rice is one of the few woobies with absolutely no Jerkass tendencies – her only real sin is dating and trusting Bryce, who is a very effective manipulator. He uses money and privilege as a way to keeping her trusting him and frequently violates her boundaries. She's clearly traumatized from hearing what he said to Clay about how "every girl at this school wants to get raped" and by the time Jessica's experience is out in the open, it's clear she believes the worst about Bryce too, even if she's not ready to confront it. Then she finds out that she was raped while unconscious and still doesn't feel strong enough to confront Bryce about it. Just as she gains the strength to break up with him she finds out she's pregnant and is harassed on her way to the abortion clinic by protestors who use traumatizing imagery. Meta Example as well – just as her character gets a new lease on life and we could see her moving on and improving her life, her character is almost entirely written out of the series, which feels unjust.
Jerkass Woobie
- Hannah is also considered by many to be a Jerkass Woobie, although she's fairly light on the jerkass quotient.
- Her teasing of Clay has been interpreted by many as a bit worse than regular old light-hearted teasing, often crossing into territory that is just plain verbally abusive.
- She also blames Justin for his inaction when Jessica is raped, but is equally guilty of inaction considering she was in the room (mind you, she admits to this, but nevertheless, acting like it is more Justin's fault than Bryce's is a stretch).
- Then there's the whole act of the tapes themselves, which could definitely be interpreted as psychological torture for some (effectively outing Courtney to everyone, telling everyone that Jessica had been raped, and putting Clay through the ordeal of thinking he'd done something much worse than he did.
- There's also The Reveal that she trusted Tony with the tapes because she was keeping a secret for him that could lead to him being convicted – effectively blackmailing or at least hardcore guilting him into carrying out her wishes (although the blackmail isn't the most effective since she's dead).
- It's also revealed that she was a bully at her old school, although she regrets her decisions and spends the next year of her life trying to make things right with others.
- Clay could be interpreted by some as a jerkass, especially the longer the series goes. He's generally combative with other players and tries to push people to conform to his idea of justice, and has a bit of a sense of entitlement toward girls like Hannah and Ani.
- Alex is this, and occasionally a straight out Woobie. He very obviously exhibits signs of depression and struggling with his self-image and masculinity, and his suicide attempt only leaves him physically and mentally scarred, and he even explains that his TBI has given him a hard time controlling his temper. On the other hand, he feels entitled to sex with Jessica and ruins multiple friendships when he's bitter over that. After she breaks up with him he's a huge jerk to her (and Justin) and voluntarily starts hanging around with Bryce again, despite knowing he raped at least two of his friends. Then he kills him almost unprompted and is perfectly willing to let Clay, one of his most loyal friends, take the fall. He then frames Monty, putting his dad's job at risk.
- Justin is this somewhat in the first season, when he is much more rough around the edges and cruel to the people around him like Clay and Hannah.
- Jessica starts out as a Jerkass Woobie in Season 1, being cruel and defensive and saying unkind things about Hannah, but it's clear she's dealing with the emotional fallout of her own sexual assault. In Season 2, most of her Jerkass tendencies are gone, but she goes hard into Jerkass Woobie territory in Season 3, going on a crusade against men's sports at Liberty because of their promotion of rape culture despite dating the guy who let her get raped, and willingly throwing suspicion onto guys like Clay and Tyler despite knowing Alex killed Bryce (and frankly, not having any reason to protect Alex).
- Zach can be a bit of a Jerkass Woobie. He's lost his father and feels immense guilt over Hannah's death and the part in which he played, but he does actively partake in trying to shut Clay down often through very underhanded means. He also gets way worse in Season 4 - he's clearly been traumatized by the events of the last few years and losing his hopes at a football future, but has turned into a callous ass and is stopped just short of taking advantage of his prom date, physically.
- Tyler would probably be strictly a regular Woobie of not for his stalking of Hannah and circulating of lesbian revenge porn or, even worse, his attempt at a school shooting. But he does endure constant abuse and is treated as The Friend No One Likes and a creepy Camera Fiend despite really just being socially awkward. Clay also makes it worse by circulating a naked picture of him to get payback. And we can't forget that the reason he attempted to shoot up the school was because of the absolutely brutal sexual and physical assault at the hands of Monty, Cameron and the other guys. Considering that by the end of the series, other character actually have killed people, Tyler doesn't seem so bad and is generally one of the kinder people by the third and fourth season.
- Bryce in the third season. Due to being exposed as a Serial Rapist to the public, he's lost all his friends, has been abandoned by his dad, is (seemingly) hated by his mother and is bullied at his new school. He genuinely tries to make things better with the people he's hurt but with mostly negative results. He's nearly shoot dead by Tyler over something he didn't even do and at the very least actively protects Tyler from Monty. He has a relapse doing the homecoming game and injures Zach, leading to him getting a well-deserved beat down but is left to freeze to death afterwards. Upon being helped up by Alex, he has a brief moment of weakness and lashes out in pain, causing him to brutally murdered by getting thrown into the river, with multiple broken bones, and horribly drowning.
- Monty falls into this in the third season. He's still a cruel, violent rapist who does almost nothing to try to redeem himself and never feels any remorse for his crimes unlike Bryce, staying horrible to everyone around him, but at the very least his backstory is quite tragic, having a father who beats him frequently for no apparent reason and being deeply in the closet due to his internalized homophobia from his father. When he's arrested, his father seems more horrified that he raped a boy than the fact that he raped someone.
- Tony can be this at times. He's secretive with people, very short with them, has an explosively violent temper that ended with him sending a man to the hospital (that man was being a homophobe, but still) and is stubborn to the point of alienating his family and boyfriend. But he's dealt with homophobia and racism most of his life and needs to "grow up" much faster than his peers. To top it off, after the dust settles from Hannah's death and just as it looks like Tony's ready to move on with his life, his parents are deported by ICE.
Iron Woobie
- Considering Hannah's year-long Trauma Conga Line described above, she could easily fall into the Iron Woobie classification.
- Clay's repeated withstanding of brutal physical trauma makes him this, not to mention the fact that he's really put through the ringer psychologically with the tapes in the first season only to find out that he in fact did nothing wrong. In Season 2, he undergoes a gradual Sanity Slippage seeing Hannah everywhere and losing his present-day girlfriend. Then in Season 3, he finds out the nice girl that he likes is more interested in a rapist – someone she knows is a rapist – than him.
- Alex clearly shows signs of depression and suicidality early on and is the only one in the group who wants to take responsibility for what happened to Hannah. His suicide attempt leaves him physically and mentally scarred.
- Justin endures childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse from his mother's partner, psychological manipulation from his "best friend," carries the guilt of letting his girlfriend get raped, is ostracized more for the incident than the actual rapist, falls into drug addiction, is sexually abused by men on the streets, relapses several times, loses his birth mother... and then dies of AIDS. At that point, it's almost like the world has it out for the guy.
Woobie, destroyer of worlds
- Hannah. What are the tapes if not that?
- Clay is a light version of this, when he starts his revenge tour in the first season.
- Alex literally kills a guy and lets one, possibly two of his friends take the fall for it and sends his entire friend group into disarray for the next year, jeopardizing almost everyone's future, because of his actions.
- Tyler is almost this with his school shooting plot.
Meta
- Grace Saif (Ani) had to delete her social media accounts after fans reacted so poorly to her character in the third season.
- Justin Prentice has said that playing Bryce was incredibly difficult for him emotionally due to how bad of a person Bryce is, the extremely heavy rape scenes and the reception from young fans who have a difficult time understanding that he is not a monster like his character is.'
