Sandbox / The Woobie Re Evaluation Page 20

• A Giant Sucking Sound: President Ann Richards struggles with school violence, a chaotic foreign policy, terrorism, and partisan politics, and feelings of illegitimacy due to her opponent, Paul Wellstone, being assassinated, with a calm face and a cigarette in her mouth.
• Noah from Total Drama gets severely injured in almost every episode he appears in, has a HUGE family in which he's the youngest kid, is generally ignored and made fun of, and yet never complains about it.
• Phineas and Ferb: Ferb comes off this way any time you get the feeling he's sad.
  Phineas: Hey, Ferb, where's Vanessa?
  Ferb: She went off with someone else.
• Optimus Prime in Transformers: Prime doesn't show a lot of emotion and he has had a lot of bad stuff happen to him.
• Kaeloo:
  • Mr. Cat never shows any signs of sadness any time something bad happens to him. In one episode when Kaeloo (who he has a crush on) refuses to kiss him, he nonchalantly turns away and pretends not to care.
  • Almost everything that happens to Quack Quack is terrible (even though he's said to be "lucky").
• Black★Rock Shooter's Kagari counts as more along the lines of a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. Did we mention that there's no medical reason why she can't walk? She just became codependent on her friend, Yomi.
• Hayate Yagami from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, though she gets better, both in terms of mobility and life situation, by the third season. Also qualified as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds for a short while at the end of A's.
• Rock Lee ends up heavily injured by Gaara during the exam and has to use crutches. The others fear that he may be permanently crippled, which would destroy his dream of ever becoming a ninja. He gets better.
• Subverted in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 7 by Johnny Joestar. He's shown as a somewhat frail and even effeminate boy but he's still determined enough to take part in the Steel Ball Run horse race even without working legs to follow Gyro Zeppeli and to find out the secret of his steel balls.
• Subverted in Cross Ange. Ange's sister Sylvia is wheelchair-bound and seems to hit all the aspects of the trope... until later episodes show her to terribly cruel and hateful toward her Norma sister, losing her any audience sympathy she might have had. And in the end, it turns out her paralysis was psychosomatic in nature, as a terrified-out-of-her-mind Sylvia is able to stand up and run away in the final episodes, and is shown standing without assistance in the epilogue.
• This DC Superfriends story. It uses this trope for the younger audience.
• In The Superman Adventures, Jimmy Olsen in "Yesterday's Man of Tomorrow". He was crippled by crossfire because Superman had exiled himself as Superboy.
• Ramon from Mar Adentro is an extreme example in that he is quadriplegic and confined to his bed for most of the film, becoming a Wheelchair Woobie only towards the end.
• Crutchie from Newsies.
• Vriess in Alien: Resurrection. Complete with a scene where Johner throws a knife into one of his numb legs, just to be an ass!
• Subverted in Notting Hill: The story of how Bella ended up in a wheelchair is tragic, and tragic elements continue to unfold, but overall Bella is cheerful, emotionally stable and quite a forceful personality, to the point that she doesn't hesitate to give several other characters a well-needed boot up the arse on occasion.
• The Changeling: The film's ghost is the soul of a tortured little child named Joseph who could not find peace before being vindicated and revealing to the public that he was murdered by his own father because of his crippling sickness.
• In A Christmas Carol, Tiny Tim is a sad little boy who has a bad leg and can only walk with a crutch.
• Briarlight from Warrior Cats, after breaking her spine. Being a cat, however, she doesn't have a wheelchair, making her even more of a woobie.
• Orson from Desperate Housewives after the plane crash during season 6 leaves him paralyzed. He even takes advantage of his condition in order to get his revenge against Bree.
• On Arrested Development, Maeby tries to invoke this trope with her false identity of wheelchair-bound, dying Shirley.
• Artie from Glee drifts into this on occasion.
• When Snoop Dogg hosted Saturday Night Live, he played a mediocre, wheelchair-bound rapper who continually wins battles by reminding the audience that he's in a wheelchair - until he goes up against a blind rapper.
• John Locke from Lost.
• Downton Abbey:
  • Matthew is seen by many as this.
  • Bates, who uses a cane due to an injury he got while serving in the military.
• Friday Night Lights/TV Series: Jason Street
• The Clockworker's Doll in the Evillious Chronicles. Even though the wheelchair has no bearing in her woobie-ness, she's still a major example. Although she did get out of it as of Capriccio Farce.
• The subject of Tom Waits' seemingly carefree Childhood Nostalgia Song "Kentucky Avenue" is revealed to be one in the final verse after the narrator spends the whole song planning all the fun things they're going to do all summer.
  I'll take the spokes from your wheelchair and a magpie's wings
  And I'll tie 'em to your shoulders and your feet
  I'll steal a hacksaw from my dad and cut the braces off your legs
  And we'll bury them tonight out in the cornfield...
• Acro from the second Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game. He lost his brother and his ability to walk to an accident that should have been just an innocent prank! He's one of the series' very few Sympathetic Murderers.
• Diana in Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, though her initial self-pity can keep people from feeling sorry for her in some cases. She quickly sheds her Woobie status once she joins the party, though.
• Coppelion:(Kazuya Prota[All])
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Kanon Ozu, Shion Ozu, Mana Tsuburaya, Meisa Ichikawa, Chimera
  • The Woobie: The Coppelion. All their life they have been training for this one mission, knowing little else. They know that without the situation in the Old Capital, they don't have anything to live for.
  • Iron Woobie: Ibara, who is a Coppelion Super-Soldier.
  • Jerkass Woobie: The Coppelion antagonists shown so far may oppose Ibara and want to blow things up, but do have their tragic reasons for doing so and aren't really evil.^note This doesn't include the three unnamed scientists.
• Pokémon Heroes:
  • Latias. She's beaten up by Espeon, Ariados and Aerodactyl, nearly drowned, and loses her brother in less than twelve hours.
  • Latios, too. He gets curbstomped by the aforementioned Pokémon to protect his sister, is put through Cold-Blooded Torture by Annie and Oakley to power a superweapon, and ends up dying to protect Alto Mare.
• Warcraft: Runty from the Blackrock Caverns dungeon, mainly due to his buff Almost Ferocious. He's trying his best.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1: Two more examples are Dunban and especially our hero, Shulk. Both have lost someone very dear to them, Fiora. Dunban was nearly crippled from using the Monado, and Shulk's an orphan who was taken in by The Dragon. Not to mention he constantly suffers through both his friends who have lost many comrades and carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders since only he can wield the Monado after Dunban is crippled. Later on, it turns out he was a puppet for the Big Bad and is shot in the back and killed by Dickson, the one man who was like a father to him. He's brought back to life, but damn. The Big Bad proceeds to attempt to destroy the entire world because he's god and he can do what he wants. Shulk finally ends up making everything right in the end by wishing for a world without gods.
• Freezing:
  • Holly
  • Satellizer. Kazuya is pretty much the only person who treats her like a human being rather than a wild animal, and because of that, he sees the adorable, softy side to her.
  • The E-Pandoras. One signed on to the project to avoid starving to death and one was sold by her parents. The rest of them are implied to have even worse pasts.
  • Ticy in the First Chronicle.
• Sorcerer Stabber Orphen:
  • Iron Woobie: Orphen, whose quests bring him terrible pain but he refuses to give in; Stephanie, due to the Deal with the Devil
  • Jerkass Woobie: Cleao, since she can be annoying and pushy but has a heart of gold underneath.
  • Stoic Woobie: Childman, due to his emotional baggage and noble heart; not ever showing how it hurts him inside and how deeply he blames himself for the deal with Azalie.
  • The Woobie: Fienna, for being bound to her town and the medium between people and the Dragons no matter what; and later... LYCORIS!
• K: Memory of Red: Though Eric Surt acted like an ass to everyone and tried to kill Mikoto and Tatara, his backstory is quite sad.
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas!(Animated Special): Max gets treated pretty badly by the Grinch for much of the story, almost bordering on Kick the Dog.

Wario Jerkass Woobie: Wario himself, if you take the Nintendo Power Mario vs. Wario comic as canon; his beef with Mario is over Mario being a giant Jerkass to Wario when they were kids, and nothing else.

• Animal Crossing:
  • Jerkass Woobie: Phyllis. She may come off as a Jerkass with some of her scathing comments made to the player character. However, you can't help but feel sorry for her when villagers in Wild World say that they saw her crying from dealing with the failed relationship with Pete and her sister, Pelly.
  • The Woobie:
    • In City Folk, Lyle the insurance-hawking otter went from the most annoying and despicable character in the game, constantly hounding the player to buy his policies, to a chronically depressed sulker in a job he despises, playing a Stepford Smiler for everyone who walks through the doors. Ouch. He was like that in Wild World as well—try running into him at The Roost to see just how world-weary he is when not in "trying to sell the player insurance" mode.
    • Sable's backstory is just as woobie-tastic, if not more so.
  • After hearing Tom Nook's backstory, portraying him as a poor and idealistic boy broken by the realities of business and a failure to become successful, his best friend and possible love interest Sable being unable to see him as the cheerful child he once was... some just find it impossible to hate him.
    • Katie, though her annoyingly slow speed may bug some people.
    • Shrunk is seen as this by some; not only does he have a hard time pursuing his passion in comedy (due to being a terrible comedian), but given the implications that his jokes are true stories, he seems to be quite the Butt-Monkey. His relationship with his wife doesn't seem very happy either.
    • Movie: Ai is thoroughly woobified throughout much of fall and winter.
• Disenchantment
  • Jerkass Woobie:
  • Luci. Despite some of the meaner things he's done to his friends, he's still completely and genuinely loyal to Bean and Elfo. Even he is truly saddened by Elfo's death at the end of Season 1.
  • In-universe, this is intentionally invoked (but more Played for Laughs) regarding the fate of Prince Merkimer, Bean's obnoxious, womanizing fiance who accidentally turns himself into a pig. Several episodes later, it's shown that Merkimer has fallen into a deep depression and wallows in self-pity over his transformation, due to no longer being able to woo women as a sad, fat pig.
  • The Woobie:
    • Elfo, after the poor guy gets shot to death by arrow fire from one of the knights attacking his village.
    • Prince Derek. He's probably the least mean-hearted character on the show, but he lives with a Dysfunctional Family; his parents really don't get along with each other, and he's not very close to his half-sister Bean, who occasionally bullies him.
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask:
  • Jerkass Woobie: Skull Kid. His pranks frequently cross the line between a fun joke and an unfunny one, but he does it because he has hardly any friends, and because the mask he's wearing is gradually taking control of his actions.
  • Woobie Species: The people of Termina in general. Almost anybody and everybody you might come across during the course of the game is a woobie.
• The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures:
  • Jerkass Woobie: Shadow Link.
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess:
  • Midna. Starts off as a Jerkass Woobie, but after she travels with Link for a while, she eases up on him.
  • Prince Ralis, coping with his mother's tragic death.
  • Colin, before he Took a Level in Badass.
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword:
  • Iron Woobie: Link and Zelda, but especially Zelda. Events throughout the game will make you want to hug the both of them.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Scrapper. The last one of his kind (excluding Skipper and his crew, fully aware of living literally on borrowed time), unaware of the fate of his people during the ages, and hopelessly in love with Fi. He's also kind of a dick, especially to the player, but it still sucks to be him, poor Scrapper.
  • The Woobie: Peatrice. She just wants someone to love and understand her.
• The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes: Princess Styla, no question. She spends the majority of the first major trailer (when she isn't explaining the game mechanics) crying or reminiscing about a time when she wasn't cursed. Although...since her curse is all about not being able to wear a Pimped-Out Dress, some people claim she suffers from more Wangst than being a woobie. Fridge Horror still applies here though because not being able to take off the ugly leotard is more than just a crime against fashion.
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  • Zelda is one, if her breakdown over Hyrule being in ruin is of any indication.
  • Mipha. She was Link's childhood friend and fellow Champion and had developed feelings for him, even planning to marry him when Calamity Ganon was defeated. But she never gets the chance to profess her feelings to Link, as she ends up killed by one of Ganon's Blights.
  • In a more humorous way, Bozai. He's running around the border of Gerudo Town trying to attract a lady using his awesome boots, but no one will give him the time of day. Disguised as a "Hylian vai", Link can gold-dig him for both his sand boots and the snow boots he gets loaned for the sidequest. So after getting both pairs, Bozai of course thinks now's the time to make his move and ask the "cute girl" out. Link's response? "Not a chance." He doesn't even let Bozai finish the question. And the poor guy never picks up on the facade. It doesn't stop there. Bozai is trying to pick up women in a warrior culture that's desperate to find suitable men to marry. Most Gerudo's standards for a man are simply: healthy, has a positive work ethic, not obviously desperate. 99% of the male Hylian population meets this requirement. Poor Bozai is in the 1% they automatically reject.
  • King Rhoam of Hyrule. The pressures of dealing with Calamity Ganon's return caused him to be strict and harsh towards Zelda, admonishing her for being unable to awaken Hylia's divine power. And though she finally manifested it, it was too late to save him and the kingdom. Now, as a spirit, he could do nothing but watch his beloved kingdom fall into decay.
  • Mimos thinks he's at Lover's Pond when he actually isn't. He's essentially doomed himself to wait on Ebon Mountain for the sweetheart that will never come.
  • Leekah's only apparent purpose in the game is to get beaten up by a bokoblin at the Rebonae Bridge and then complain that you weren't quick enough to save her.
• Bimble's Bucket:
  • Iron Woobie: Sploot is inexplicably cheerful and sweet considering how much abuse he gets from Dolly and the unpleasant situations he's put in from sticking by her.
• Berserk
  • Iron Woobie: Guts. Despite being a Cosmic Plaything, he keeps on moving forward, even though he may sometimes Freak Out.
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Guts, given his backstory, it's understandable why he became a revenge-obsessed jerk.
    • Even The Scrappy Nina can technically count as this because her two-faced behavior seems to be driven by fear rather than outright malice. And given the Crapsack World she lives in, she is quite justified in being afraid. Also, she's aware of what a horrible person she is, which is quite sad.
  • The Woobie:
    • Both Guts and Casca qualify, especially post-Eclipse. As mentioned before, they just can't catch a break at all.
    • Jill. Let's see she has abusive parents, has to deal with her father's drunken friends, her best friend wants to turn her into an elf whether she likes it or not, and she lives in the Berserk Universe.
    • Theresia. Her mother was murdered. Her father become an evil demon and locked her in a room for most of her life. When she finally escaped her prison, it got even worse.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds:
    • Guts. Heavy emphasis on the "destroyer" part. He just wants to destroy every demon and his former friend Griffith after years of suffering at their hands.
    • Rosine. She snaps and becomes evil after years of abuse by her father.
    • Rosine: Horribly mistreated by her cruel father, she mentally snapped from the abuse and accepted the Godhand's bargain, afterwards using her powers as an Apostle to lash out at the world.
    • Egg of the Perfect World: Suffered at the hands of others through no fault of his own, to the point where he resented the world and lashed out.
• Berserk: Guts. He never asked for any of the crap that's happened to him, from his horrific childhood to the Eclipse, but he utterly refuses to lay down and die, for anyone, no matter what gets thrown at him.
• Captain N: The Game Master
  • Jerkass Woobie: Simon is a self-centered, antagonistic, flirtatious... Butt-Monkey.
• Ai no Kusabi: Riki. Is there any wonder with two Yanderes vying for his affection? Though he specifically qualifies for Jerkass Woobie.
• It:
  • Jerkass Woobie: Henry Bowers starts the book as a vicious bully and ends it as an Ax-Crazy psychopath. But it's hard not to feel for him when we see he was raised by an abusive racist, and then It starts warping his mind.
• The Woobie:
  • Every one of the Losers qualifies, with the possible exception of Richie (as he has a good home life and he invites some of Henry & co.'s bullying by being unable to keep from making smartass comments to them).
  • Poor, poor Dorsey Corcoran. And Georgie.
• It (2017):
  • The Woobie: Poor, poor Georgie.
• Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma: The entire main cast, really.
• Klonoa:
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds:(King Of Sorrow) The "Destroyer of Worlds" part comes full swing after he loses his cool...
• Hyrule Conquest: Ganon. Despite the atrocities he suffered and committed, he just wanted to create a better world for everyone.
• School Days:
  • Sekai and Kotonoha. They were both victims of some really, really dick moves.
  • Kotonoha still gets extra points for being fucked around with by her fellow upperclassmen.
  • Yuki too is a major woobie, because he is the Nice Guy in the entire series and how sometimes the things he do to prevent the tragedy backfire on him.
  • Makoto himself, at least his VN and manga versions, though they often tend to be overshadowed by his Jerkass anime counterpart. His Cross Days manga version is perhaps the only incarnation who's too horrible to be considered either a Woobie or even a Jerkass Woobie.
• Hype: The Time Quest: Voydh.
• Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai:
  • Mai. Because of her Adolescence Syndrome, seemingly everyone but just a scant few people are unable to see her, and slowly this extends to people not even remembering her, including her own mother.
  • Kaede, whose struggles with cyberbullying and Adolescence Syndrome leads to her having deep cuts and bruises appear all over her body. She stops going to school and even leaving the house as a result. Episode 12 even reveals that the incident traumatized her so badly she developed amnesia from it, creating a whole slew of other problems between her present self and her history.
• The Guardians of the Lost Code:
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Garras is the little bird Brije who was abandoned by his master in the Middle Ages.
• Beavis And Butthead
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Principle McVicker. It was heavily implied many times that before duo came into his life, he was happier and less medicated.
    • He's especially Woobie-ish in the Christmas episode, although it turns out to be All Just a Dream.
    • Beavis could be seen as a Jerkass Woobie, as well. Not only is he the (slightly) nicer of the two main characters, he's also the one who puts up with the most abuse. Not to mention, the strongly-implied rape scene in the episode "Drones," and he might be a full-blown woobie.
• Da Capo: A lot of the girls. Just another part of the Utsuge classification most people put this game into.
• Vida: Emma. She can be rude to most people, including her sister, but most of her frustrations stem from her mother sending her to live with her grandmother after finding out Emma is queer, and this only gets worse after Emma finds out Vidalia was married to another woman prior to her death.
• Full Metal Panic!:
  • The Woobie: Both Kaname and Tessa on a few occasions.
  • Stoic Woobie: Sousuke, particularly when considering his backstory.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Xia Yu Fan and Xia Yu Lan.
• Novas Aventuras De Megaman: Roll. The Nightmare Fuel entry above says why.
• One Missed Call
  • And speaking of Beth...
  • Takako in the first sequel. Her twin sister was killed by the curse when they were only children, and she partly blames herself for it.
    • Kyoko in the first sequel also counts. One of her best friends is killed by the curse, and just when she’s about to die herself, her boyfriend Naoto is able to reach her cellphone and take the call in her place. She can only watch as the man she loves dies in order to save her life.