to the duo.

Greetings!

I'm working on the pages of the Mortal Kombat franchise, and I saw that it had its own The Woobie page here. I was going to move all of the Woobie entries to that page until I've found it's locked. So I'm placing them here.

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Edited by AM_NK on Jan 22nd 2019 at 4:33:14 PM

"Long story short, this game made the setting a Crapsack World. It is utterly heart-wrenching to see the domino effect screw over nearly everyone."

This could work better as a header than a woobie entry.

IPP Wick Check created.

Who is Courage?

The main protagonist who was found by Muriel after his parents were sent into space.

His predicament?

He constantly finds himself having to defend his owners from supernatural or creepy threats in every episode. In some, he suffers a beating. One example is "Ball of Revenge" where after Eustace gathers all of Courage's enemies to kill him, he is beaten within an inch of his life by getting pounded with dodgeball after dodgeball. Thankfully he saves the day by screaming loudly causing a hole to form which swallows up the rogues gallery.

Really, any predicament where he goes through harsh suffering is so multiple, it'd be hard to list everything.

Can he defend himself?

Maybe not physically, but he is pretty clever in most situations. It helps that courage means that you press on even when you're afraid. Courage can take great beatings, but he is more than willing just as long as Muriel's okay.

Is he a jerk?

No.

Verdict

Iron Woobie

Edited by AustinDR on Jan 22nd 2019 at 11:38:50 AM

To all I've missed.

IPP Wick Check created.

Courage

Yes to all I missed.

Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread

Chivalry of a Failed Knight Candidate # 1

Hi everyone, I've started a Wikia Account and I'm called PokemonMasterH there, for this interview, I'll be using my username in this effort post and the username of the person I'm interviewing.

PokemonMasterH: Will you explain the work?

DevilSlayer123: Chivalry of a Failed Knight. In this world, there are special people called Blazers who're able to materialize their soul as a weapon and has magic that acts as the source for their powers, however, their magic power is fixed from birth and can't increase it no matter the kind of training that they do. The main characters are Ikki Kurogane a Blazer classified as an F-Rank due to him having the lowest magical power and Stella Vermilion an A-Rank who has the highest magic power. In their first meeting with one another, Ikki walked in on her changing in his dorm room and later found out that they're roommates.

MasterH: Who is Yuri Oreki, what is her predicament?

DevilSlayer: Since Yuuri Oreki has been born with a weak constitution and vomited a liter of blood since childhood. She wouldn't be classified as either jerkass woobie or woobie destroyer of worlds since she cares a lot about her students and wanted them to try their hardest in the matches to qualify for the Seven Star Sword Art Festival; even at the cost of her overworking herself resulting in her spitting up blood suddenly. During his admission into Hagun Academy, Yuuri was able to fight against Ikki wielding her cutlass and use her innate power, which lets her share her own pain with others.

MasterH: Is she sympathetic by the sandards of the story?

DevilSlayer: There hasn't been that much explained about her past. However, compared to either Ikki or Yuuri, then most people would lean towards Ikki considering all the trouble he went through the entire light novel. Though Yuuri has to have at least a liter of blood close by just in case she vomits blood again.
MasterH: Oh, Yuri's illness kept her from doing something about the teachers that mistreated Ikki prior to Kurono's arrival right?
DevilSlayer: Yuuri wasn't a teacher at the time, but the teachers who were involved in that incident were all fired by Kurono.

MasterH: Can she defend herself?

DevilSlayer: She fought against Ikki during his admission into Hagun Academy, due to his low-level magic power compared to the other students. Yuuri also defends herself against an assassin from another school but lost due to her not knowing that the latter can reflect her attacks back against her. Though Ikki gained the upper hand in the end due to his Blade Steal and Ittou Shura. Due to her illness, Yuuri has knowledge in several medicines.

MasterH: Conclusion Time.

DevilSlayer: She would be classed as an Iron Woobie. Though, if you are looking for The Woobie, then you should add Ikki Kurogane.

IPP Wick Check created.

Yuri

"No running in the halls!"

Yuuri

Courage.

Yuuri.

Edited by EmeraldSky on Jan 22nd 2019 at 4:09:58 AM

Yes to Yuuri.

Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread

Yea there... Joseph, if I have time, can I do the EP on Ikki?

"Making screw-ups and mistakes was I ever really good at. Because everything I touch went to hell."

Oh, all right.

IPP Wick Check created.

Yuuri Oreki

Yuri

OK, so the Johnsons (except Isaiah, of course) and the Starmaker seem to have enough votes. The remaining Courage characters need a few more before I can write them up. For now....

• The Strange Thing About the Johnsons:
  • The Woobie: Sidney Johnson is a successful poet and the husband and father of Joan and Isaiah respectively. When Isaiah develops an incestuous obsession for him, Sidney is subjected to 14 years of sexual abuse at his hands. Whilst writing a memoir as a recollection on the abuse, Isaiah threatens him with much worse after discovering it. After getting viciously raped by his son in the bathtub, Sidney mentally breaks down and escapes the house only to then get ran over by a van.
  • Jerkass Woobie: While nowhere near as sympathetic as her aforementioned husband, Joan is aware of the sexual abuse Isaiah forces onto Sidney, but is desperately trying to preserve the image of the perfect family, even if it means not taking action. After losing her husband to the accident, Joan is forced to kill Isaiah when he tried to push her into the fireplace. She then burns Sidney's second memoir, keeping the family's dark secret to herself.

• Courage the Cowardly Dog:
  • The Woobie: The female Starmaker of the eponymous episode loses her mate when he sacrifices himself to protect her and their unborn offspring. Upon crash landing in Nowhere, Kansas, the Starmaker is experimented on by the military, its body slowly withering as its bodily fluids are drained. After its offspring hatch, she crawls out of the lab and becomes a garden upon her death.

Edited by AustinDR on Jan 23rd 2019 at 8:24:22 AM

Okay, Yuri got enough votes and I've shown Bugfragged the rough draft.

And here is his work:

• Chivalry Of A Failed Knight: Y(u)uri Oreki was born with a weak constitution and vomited a liter of blood each day since childhood, requiring her to keep spare liters of blood for transfusion. She cares a lot about her students and wants them to try their hardest in the matches to qualify for the Seven Star Sword Art Festival; even at the cost of her overworking herself to the point of spitting up blood or experiencing seizures. During his admission into Hagun Academy, Yuuri was able to fight against Ikki wielding her cutlass and using her innate power, which lets her share her own pain with others. Her illness, combined with her lack of administrative clout, kept her from doing anything about the teachers that mistreated him.

Edited by MasterJoseph on Jan 22nd 2019 at 6:32:14 AM

IPP Wick Check created.

OK, two more Courage proposals to squeeze out:

Who is he?

The Hunchback of Nowhere, a clear reference to Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

His predicament?

He spends a duration of his time trying to find someplace to stay for the night. However, because of his unsightly appearance, no shows him that act of kindness. Eventually, he ends up at the Bagge residence, and good ol' Eustace is quick enough to slam the door on his face. The Hunchback takes roost in the farm and when Courage realizes that he had nothing to fear, he plays shadow figures with him, and rings several bells with him (another reference to the Victor Hugo novel).

Eventually, he finds himself under conflict with Eustace when Muriel invites him to the table for breakfast. My favorite part of the episode? Eustace tries to take several jabs at him only for the Hunchback to counter by calling him bald. Soon, Courage and Muriel perform a show consisting of bellringing for Muriel. Eustace — who had already had several issues with the Hunchback — realizes that he was wearing his raincoat. He takes no hesitation with breaking the party up. After scaring Courage as he usually does, Hunchback stands up for the dog and calls Eustace out, saying that he was truly ugly on the inside. Frightened, Eustace falls off the farm's roof.

The episode ends with the Hunchback leaving. While bittersweet, the Hunchback is happy to have found some truly caring people and that he was hopeful that there were more people like Courage and Muriel.

Can he defend himself?

Well, he flames Eustace when Eustace tried to make him feel bad for looking ugly, and he later stands up for Courage, angered that someone like Eustace was treating someone who showed him kindness shamefully, so in the means of using his words, he can defend himself.

Sympathy standard?

So, he is a minor character who lacks the domestic abuse that characters like Bunny faced, and he is not to the same level as the Starmaker. However, the fact that the Hunchback was ostracized for his appearance is something that doesn't happen too often in the show.

Verdict

Unsure. I kind of lean more towards Iron Woobie since he does stand up for himself against Eustace, and he did keep the hope of finding nice people despite being constantly turned away.

So....I saved this one for last.

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Who is he?

Eustace fucking Bagge. Husband of Muriel Bagge. Animal abuser of Courage. A gradea asshole. I'm not kidding; I think he is legitimately the worse character in the show because of how he scares Courage repeatedly despite Courage doing nothing to provoke him, and to add insult to injury, he still treats Courage like shit even when he saves his sorry ass in almost every episode. But...putting my personal feelings for Eustace aside, here he is.

What is his predicament?

I will give him some credit: he had a terrible childhood. His mother Ma Bagge didn't even try to hide that she preferred his older brother to him; his older brother would always call him useless instead of "Eustace" whenever he was going to go out deer hunting (and this actually traumatized him to an extent taking the episode where he goes out to shoot some deer into account). Becoming a farmer didn't do any favors for him either because he couldn't plant anything, or nothing would grow even if he tried. So by all means, he does have some reasons for being a major grouch.

Some episodes do dwell on this. For instance, there was one episode where he poked fun of Shirley the Medium, she curses him to have a raincloud over his head at all times. It became so problematic, he eventually is made to sleep on the roof. Becoming insane, he attacks Muriel, forcing Courage to try to use a mirror on him. In his deluded state, Eustace breaks the mirror, and sees a younger version of himself, lamenting that without a hat, his bald head was burning in the sun. Taking pity for his younger self, he removes his hat and places it on what he assumed to be him.

Mitigating factors?

Look at me adding an additional note. Here's the thing; while I am leaning towards the idea that Eustace is a Jerkass Woobie, there are a few points that make it pretty iffy on how much you could feel bad for him. For one, while these moments I listed are genuinely sad, Eustace is often characterized as falling more under Hate Sink because there is hardly any redeeming factors that he possesses. Aside from episodes like "The Mask" where it's shown that deep down, he does care for Muriel, in others, it seems more that he sees her more as a slave or servant even. The worst instance of this? "Ball of Revenge" a very divisive episode which aired during the final season of the show. In it? Eustace gathers all of Courage's past enemies together — such as Katz, Le Quack, the Queen of the Black Puddle — to kill Courage in a game of dodgeball. Why? Because he was sleeping with a blanket that belonged to him. I am fricking serious here. He gathers all of Courage's rogues gallery to eliminate the "stupid dog" just because of something as petty as a blanket. Worse, he is the first to propose that they hold Muriel hostage, knowing full well that Courage would come to her rescue. This spits in the face of the many instances where he was shown to care for Muriel such as "The Mask" or when he was reluctant to use her as bait to catch a sea serpent. And yet here, he has no qualms with using Muriel as bait. Just what the fuck, Eustace?

Is he a Jerkass?

Oh goodness almighty, yes. He treats Courage like garbage; he is bitter towards anyone he comes across; sometimes he takes advantage of his wife's kindness; he acts like a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum because of his seeming belief that Muriel loved Courage more than him. In short, he is an asshole. But it is understandable how he became like this. It doesn't excuse his awful behavior, but it does give a look into his character a bit. That, and he actually does have moments where he does Pet the Dog, showing that he does love Muriel in his own grouchy ways, and he had teamed up with Courage a few times despite making it clear that he dislikes him.

Can he defend himself?

Ha, ha, ha, ha...No.

Sympathy standard?

Eustace is the second character in the show who had an abusive upbringing. It's shown that the mistreatment he had faced growing up had impacted him on a certain level, and he is ultimately an insecure old man. He's not to the same sympathy as say Bunny or even Kitty due to his moments of being just a gradea jackass, but at best, Negative Continuity is in play.

Verdict

Leaning towards Jerkass Woobie, but due to how his character is consistently written, I am unsure.

Edited by AustinDR on Jan 22nd 2019 at 8:27:54 AM

Yes to Austin's two.

Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread

What is the work?

Divinity: Original Sin II is a 2017 video game by Larian studios, where you take between one and four people (godswoken) on a quest to become the new divine.

Who is Sebille?

Sebille, a former assassin, now hunting down her master after breaking free from his control, is one of the seven (or eight, with a custom character) godswoken, destined to become the new divine, or die trying.

What is her predicament?

Sebille's past has been... rough to say the least. Her people, the elves, were largely wiped out by a deathfog bomb Ifan (who probably also deserves to be run through this thread, but one at a time) unknowingly delivered, following which she was enslaved by the lizards. While a slave, she was mind controlled into killing her own people, specifically the leaders of her own race.

Eventually she broke free and decided to hunt down her master, step one being getting sent to Fort Joy, a highly unpleasant place where she could find the one who gave her the scar used to control her.

Is she a Jerkass Woobie?

Jerkass? Yep. Violent and cruel to those who stand in her way, with a fondness for groin attacks and strong blood knight tendencies. Throw on that she's extremely racist against lizards, regardless of whether they had any responsibility in her predicament for added jerkass points.

Woobie? Well, between having 90% of her people wiped out a few years before the start of the game in an attempt to crush a terrorist group and being made into a slave and mind controlled into killing the rest of her race's leaders, it's amazing she's still going, and not a crying wreck, so I'd say hell yes.

Can she defend herself?

Well, it's a little hard to fight against deathfog, which anyone who (is alive and) breathes it in instantly dies, so just surviving that is an accomplishment in itself, though seeing all your friends and neighbors die from it, can't really be defended against.

As to the whole being forced to kill her own kind thing? Well, you apparently can't fight against mind-control music magically attuned to your slave brand, so no, in general, during the worst times of her life she couldn't really defend herself.

Sympathy standard

A pass, though a bit ugly with her jerkish behavior and willingness to kill magisters and lizards for who they are (not that a lot of them don't deserve it, and you try having any sympathy for a group whose only example you know of forced you to kill your own people, but still does hurt her sympathy).

What does help, though, is her response to finding others who were enslaved, which brings out her softer side, in wanting to help them, as well as pressing her berserk button hard. Also, in more private moments (say, on the ship), she can reveal just how much the above events have hurt her emotionally.

Also, she is one of the good guys, although that just means a lighter shade of grey in a world with grey and gray/black and gray morality, and the game treats her sympathetically for the most part.

Verdict

Jerkass Woobie with an emphasis on jerkass.

Edited by Acebrock on Jan 23rd 2019 at 3:49:17 AM

My troper wall

Yes to all the ones I missed.

I still need a few votes for Oscar.

all I miss.

My Chivalry of the Failed Knight candidate... Ikki Kurogane

Who is He/What Has He Done

Okay, so Ikki here is actually the main protagonist of the series who comes from the prestigious clan of White Mage Knights known as the Kurogane clan. Despite this? He is called the "Worst One" due to his rank as an F-Rank. He also studies on an academy known as Hagun Academy as a repeater due to his low rank.

Actually, the reason why he scores a pretty low rank is because his Blazer skills are pretty much peculiar especially for Hagun Academy despite the skill itself is pretty powerful. But even then, Ikki was actually mocked by some of the people in school due to his inferior rank. But that's just a tip of the iceberg.

The reason on why Ikki is a Woobie in my opinion is due to the constant torment that he was put through over the course of the story. This is noticeable in Episode 4 when he fought against one of the top students in Hagun Academy, Kirihara Shizuya. In that fight, Ikki was constantly tortured several times thanks to Shizuya shoot some bows on Ikki and Shizuya wanted Ikki to die painfully (As far as I recall in the anime). Fortunately, he defeated that bastard but his sad story doesn't end there.

In the past, it was revealed that he was horribly abused by other people especially with the likes of a Slimy Politician known as Mamoru Akaza. Why? It's because that his father ignored him. This resulted on Ikki run away from home but even then, he was encountered by his great-grandfather which resulted on Ikki regain confident... That's not where he met with Akaza again.

Akaza, being a dipshit he is, tries many ways to torment or even murder Ikki such as sending a mercenary to murder him or creating a scandal on his relationship between him and Stella. The latter plan succeeded and this resulted on Ikki getting falsely imprisoned by Akaza and was tortured for days by forced him to fight the selection matches which resulted on Ikki having a sleep deprivation and it was implied that Akaza tortured him by giving a poison on his food.

Not even helping that his step-dad, Itsuki Kurogane, didn't acknowledge him and said to Ikki that it's better on to do nothing because of Ikki's lack of talent which resulted on him losing any hope. But even then, he suddenly regains the hope thanks to Stella and his friends at the end of the day and then manages to win the festival so yeah...

Can he Defend Himself

Well, yes. I think Ikki is a stronger case of the Iron Woobie due to despite being tortured physically and mentally, he still gains some respect with other people around him and tries to rise up again and again despite his hardships and it worked to the point that he won some respect by either from his friends or teacher alike so yep.

Sympathy Standard

Being abused in his childhood days to the point you lose hope, being tortured by one of your smug asshole of a school friends, Being tortured again by a Slimy Politician who wants to murder you in order to gain the power that he wants and took a sadistic pleasure in it and being acknowledged by your father? I'd say yes... Ikki deserve so much sympathy despite him being the Iron Woobie due to the torturous live he's been through despite at the end of the day, he regains his dignity and can defend himself.

Final Verdict

Methinks an easy easy keeper for Iron Woobie

"Making screw-ups and mistakes was I ever really good at. Because everything I touch went to hell."