Sandbox / The Woobie Re Evaluation Page 14

• Digimon Adventure 02: Ken, for his persistence in knocking down Dark Towers, even while fully expecting the rest of the team to continue hating him, and his concern for the Dark Seed kids, who followed Oikawa of their own volition.
• Elfen Lied: Nana. Despite being tortured, losing all of her limbs, and watching the person she loves most slip into insanity (and back out, fortunately), she still keeps on going.
• Fullmetal Alchemist: This is the defining trope of the series. Every good character in this manga had their woobie moment, like Alex Armstrong who goes through a rather messy breakdown when he sees atrocities done by his troops in Ishbal, Roy Mustang, who starts as idealistic soldier, but is then faced with harsh reality on Ishbal, Riza Hawkeye, who joins army for the same reasons as Mustang, and finds, to her horror, that killing people is not as easy as just pulling the trigger, and many more. The good part, though, is that they're all so badass that they just decide to live with it and continue forward.
  • Alphonse is a literal Iron Woobie. He lost his original human body when he and Ed were trying to revive their dead mother, and now his soul resides in an armor that used to be in their home. He rarely complains and is the sensitive guy to Ed's manly man.
• Sound of the Sky: Filicia Heidemann. She is a Shell-Shocked Veteran who maintains a cheerful facade and keeps her nightmares at bay by focusing on making sure no one else goes through what she had to experience.
• Date A Live: Shido Itsuka 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.
• The Asterisk War: Kirin Toudou manages to retain a positive attitude and gain the friendships of good people even when faced with a Well-Intentioned Extremist uncle who only uses her as a pawn to increase his political influence.
• Dara Brighton from The Sword.
• Cassie Hack.
• Dick Grayson is quite the Iron Woobie too, for many of the same reasons.
• In Gensokyo 20XX, we have Reimu and she is more than willing to put everything aside and endure hell, even going to hell and back, just to look forward even if she was facing the prospect of dying.
  • What really sells this is what she says, post age-regression in chapter 101 of Gensokyo 20XXV:
  Reimu: "[...] I don't want to be sick anymore and all I've done is to cause trouble, just a burden, and you complain! If you despise what is your existence, then end it. If you blame me for your misery, then, fine, end it, end it where it is! Do it! You have nothing left to lose from putting an end to a little girl. You complain of how miserable your life is, when no one wants to be someone else's burden or to be sick or different. I'M DYING, don't you understand that?! Aren't I dying? Aren't I? Nothing can be done about that and I don't complain. I should be complaining but complaining won't do a thing and neither will it make the sickness go away. You complain and bitch, when those that have the right don't!"
• Vanellope von Schweetz from Wreck-It Ralph. Considering everything she's put through, this girl's bravery and spirit is jaw-dropping.
  • Ralph and Sgt. Calhoun also qualify.
• George Bailey of It's a Wonderful Life. Except that the plot kicks off when he finally breaks.
• Dr. Daniel Schreber of Dark City
• The hero of The Karate Kid. Few have such a knack for suffering.
• Barney Coopersmith from My Blue Heaven. Despite the fact that his wife left him for another man, Barney is an FBI agent, and although he seems geeky (he was portrayed by Rick Moranis), Barney seems quite badass with a gun.
• Bruce Wayne from The Dark Knight Trilogy.
• Tony Stark. And boy, does he fulfill the "iron" requirement!
• In To Hell and Back (1955) Audie Murphy plays himself as one. And given how little credit he was willing to take for his real life heroic actions it would appear that he might be a Real Life example as well.
• Tom Bardo from Stuck. The man loses his job, his home, gets hit by a car and spends most of the film in complete agony. But he still manages to be astonishingly resourceful and determined for a man in his situation. Iron indeed.
• Ben Kingsley's portrayal of Gandhi comes off as this, especially right at first. Watch him in the scene where he's burning the passes.
• Jesus from The Passion of the Christ.
• Word of God states that Selena from 28 Days Later is this as a backstory for the character states that she had to kill her whole family in one afternoon including her baby brother.
• Bethany Hamilton in Soul Surfer. The real-life Bethany noted that she was actually more cheerful in the hospital than the film shows!
• Luli starts out as a regular Woobie but by the end of Hick has become this.
• Fantastic Four's Ben Grimm, when he became "The Thing" his life started falling apart, including his girlfriend leaving him.
• Jason Bourne from ''The Bourne Seri
• Lawrence at the end of The Wolfman (2010), when he goes off to kill his father.''
• Jean Paget in A Town Like Alice. Even when being marched by the Japanese with a party of women through the jungles of Malaya she always kept her spirits up.
• Túrin Turambar in J.R.R.Tolkien's The Silmarillion.
• ...who in turn was based on Kullervo in The Kalevala.
• The Dresden Files: Thomas Raith, so much so it's difficult to say whether he or Harry is more of an Iron Woobie. The universe really hates their family.
• Lloyd Henried from The Stand remains determined to stick with his evil ways, even if Randal Flagg scares him.
• Honkai Impact 3rd:
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Celine
• Seraph of the End: Let's just say most of the cast DESPERATELY need a hug...