The Woobie Cleanup

For Atelia and Ozpin

Here's the third candidate from Tweeny Witches. Please note that all the lines referenced in my effort posts are taken from the subtitles distributed by Media Blasters.

What is the work?

• For more information about the work, see my effort post for Atelia.
• For more candidates from the same work, see my effort posts for Sigma and Atelia.

Who is Lennon?

Lennon is a mysterious pirate who disguises himself as a witch on the Interdimensional Sea, where he ambushes failed apprentice witches who are sent to the Human Realm. Calling himself Arusu's "mirror", he is behind her visions of a mysterious masked figure (actually one of his living wooden puppets) who sends her to the Magical Realm.

What has he endured?

Lennon was born as the half-human, half-warlock son of Jidan from his first marriage to Atelia and, by extension, the older half-brother of Arusu on the father's side. Even though the law of the witches forbade intermarriage to humans, his parents secretly married for love and lived happily with him in an isolated village. But that changed when his mother decided to deliver the True Book of Spells back to the Grand Master of Witches in order to prevent the warlocks from destroying his father's home dimension with dark magic. As his father knew, she would have to abandon their mixed-race family if she was to carry out her decision, lest they be outcasts in the traditionalist society of the Witch Realm. To protect her from persecution, the man went on board a ship for the Human Realm with the child and the book. An impact on the ship caused the child to fall in the middle of the Interdimensional Sea, separating him from his father for 14 years by accident. Knowing neither the Magical Realm nor the Human Realm would accept him because of his parentage, he had no choice but to live as the lonely, wandering pirate he is today.

He's eventually defeated by Arusu and forced by Jannu (her caretaker in Ludens) to retire from piracy. After the True Book of Spells saves both half-siblings from an explosion of his ship, Arusu takes him to the Magical Realm, where he begins living with the Magical Girl Squad (a trio of Arusu, Sheila, and Eva). At one point, Sheila suspects him of being the traitor among the witches, the person secured by the warlocks to cast dark magic, and lets the warlocks attack him to see if it's right; Arusu saves him, though. When four of them go to a meeting of all the witches in a chapel, his mother recognizes him from afar. Once the meeting ends, the sage summons four of them into her presence and orders them to give her the book. She falsely tells him that she's not the woman he's looking for, but he threatens to burn the book if she keeps denying the truth, so they reveal their family history to the three girls anyway. She tells him about his father's actions and that she wanted to stay with both him and his father if she could, but the boy refuses to accept the truth and tries to kill her, swearing never to forgive her for supposedly abandoning him and his father to be in power.

When the special task force begins their rebellion, the Magical Girl Squad takes him to Dragon Palatium, where the three girls save his mother from possible death. She tells him that she gave him up to protect magic as the successor to the Grand Master of Witches; this causes him to tearfully declare that she's not his mother. When he leaves Dragon Palatium, the warlocks mistake him for Arusu and capture him away, holding his imprisoned father hostage for the whereabouts of the True Book of Spells.

His mother offers herself in exchange for his freedom and pulls a Zero-Approval Gambit, preparing to face mob justice with dignity for hiding her act of treachery from her own people. Arusu promises to give Grande (the leader and general of the warlocks) the True Book of Spells in hopes of saving both her imprisoned father and the former sage. During the half-siblings' journey to Wizard Kingdom across the desert by broomstick, Lennon learns from the wizard Wil that his mother visited the old wizard in a vain search of the family she wanted to stay with forever. This gives the boy a Heel Realization that he's the one who should be apologizing to his mother. After the destruction of Wizard Kingdom, when Arusu asks where Jidan is, the former sage and Luca (a commander of the warlocks) imply the man's death, unaware that he has survived his Heroic Sacrifice and returned home to the Human Realm (as revealed at the very end). Although Lennon's reaction to his father's implied death is unknown, he is seen reconciling with his mother and deciding to stay with her until the eventual destruction of the Magical Realm. In the Grand Finale, his mother is seen coming back to her former position as one of the Three Sages without any visible repercussions against him — presumably by permission of the Grand Master of Witches herself.

Is he a Jerkass?

During his attack on Ludens, his Mouth of Sauron threatens to sink the ship without mercy unless the crew agrees to give him their food and supplies, claiming that he has sunk many ships for the Human Realm before. He shows himself to be a Social Darwinist as well, saying that "The weak will not survive. That's the way of the sea!". Even after his forced retirement from piracy, he's a grumpy, pessimistic boy who acts aloof towards the people around him, though a series of events following his mother's Heroic Sacrifice makes him lose his grumpiness and some of his pessimism. Despite all the magical things around him (such as his half-warlock heritage, his summoning of and interactions with Arusu through visions, and his living wooden puppets), he makes it clear to Arusu and her friends that he hates magic as something that only makes people unhappy; this not only implies that he's a Boomerang Bigot but also causes Sheila to angrily tell him not to treat magic with contempt. When his mother tells him about his father's actions and that she wanted to stay with their family if she could, he refuses to accept the truth and tries to kill her, swearing never to forgive her for supposedly abandoning him and his father to be in power. Nonetheless, the story emphasizes the idea that he's a product of his situation, as shown when Arusu (the in-story narrator) monologues "People can't decide where they want to be born. I can't guarantee that I was never like him" at the end of "Lennon's True Identity".

Can he defend himself?

He has living wooden puppets that hijack Ludens and try to prevent Arusu from breaking in, but by the time she encounters him for real, he's a bedridden Ill Boy as a result of living on the Interdimensional Sea for years. Even after Eva heals him, not only the warlocks have an easy time capturing him but also Arusu calls him out for being easily tired near the end of their journey to Wizard Kingdom across the desert by broomstick. To be fair, he's a Defiant Captive to the warlocks, refusing to reveal his identity or the whereabouts of the True Book of Spells despite their Implied Death Threat towards both him and his imprisoned father ("If you want us to spare your life, then tell us the whereabouts of the book! If you don't, then you might end up dead long before you can save your father, Arusu").

Sympathy standard?

He's the only Half-Human Hybrid Child of Forbidden Love in the entire setting.

Conclusion?

for keeping him either as a Jerkass Woobie or as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. I would like to know how to distinguish both types from each other.

Edited by IukaSylvie on Jul 29th 2019 at 7:29:39 PM

What should we do if we want to add a new entry?

Another effortpost: Shin Tsukimi alias Sou Hiyori from Your Turn to Die for Jerkass Woobie

Who is he?

Shin Tsukimi is one of several participants kidnapped and made to forcibly compete in a death game for some unknown purpose, with the premise being that the other participants must majority vote for the next victim to die in each round. Being a young adult loner and self-professed "job hopper," Sou is viewed with the most suspicion by the other participants and is thus at most risk of being voted out. He gets around this by being incredibly deceitful, lying at every opportunity and taking advantage of the game's rules to keep himself safe from the majority vote, but in the process pushing other people to be voted out and killed instead. He also makes himself useful as a skilled hacker.

What is his predicament?

Everyone in the game began with a unique "first trial" that they could presumably die if they don't complete. Shin's trial was to receive the probability every candidate had of surviving the death game, and to be specifically told in great detail how those numbers were arrived at and how accurate they were. His survival rate was 0.0%, meaning that unlike the others, from the very start of the game Shin knew that 1. Participants of the Main Game were going to vote to kill each other. 2. They were inevitably going to vote for and kill him.

This is why he became so untrustworthy and manipulative of the other players, and he even took up the identity of one of the other (presumably deceased) candidates, Sou Hiyori, to try and avoid his fate—it was purely about how afraid he was to die. His one Point of View segment in the game is essentially him freaking out dreaming about being killed by other people, as well as him being haunted by a shadowy version of the "real" Sou Hiyori. It's implied in this segment that deep down he feels guilty about what he's been doing, too.

Can he defend himself/is he a Jerkass?

Defense: Shin is physically weaker than a lot of the other candidates and doesn't show any self-defense skills. He is in fact knocked out pretty easily by another character in the first part.

Jerkass: Yes. Shin treats the other participants cruelly, constantly lies, and manipulates people to seed doubt and distrust, while acting as if he shows no remorse for it. He also pretty blatantly uses Kanna, a middle-schooler participant, as his personal lackey (though he's also shown to genuinely care about her as well. He will ultimately become revenge-driven to destroy the entire cast if Kanna is killed.) He's intentionally "gloomy" and hard to like.

Sympathy Standard

Through most of parts 1 and 2 of the visual novel, players are encouraged to hate Shin or at least distrust him, as every instance of believing what he says turns out to be wrong and he contributes to the death of one of the player character's best friends. However, the game also makes a point to remind players that the participants of the death game aren't the real villains, but the ones who established the death game in the first place are, and everyone here is really just fighting for their life. Part 2 opens up with hints of Shin's first trial, which also hints about his guilt and fear and ends with him dreaming of the player character violently murdering him. The end of Part 2 finally reveals his "true self" as Shin Tsukimi.

His fear of dying is played with a lot of sympathy and as explaining many of his previous actions, and the player character, admitting how much she hated/hates him, is clearly uncomfortable with herself for it. If he's killed, he dies doing one last good act for the player character. If his friend/lackey Kanna is killed, he rants about how the weak are always hurt by the strong and essentially admits how he, seeing himself as a weak person, was so uneasy around strong people like the player character. He's not "redeemed" in this route, as he starts actively trying to destroy the player character for voting for Kanna, but his rage at her picking Kanna is at least played as being understandable.

There's also a part right before the end of Part 2 where he tries to help everybody in the cast escape from the facility, and is shown as genuinely being upset when the plan fails before slipping back into his defensive ways for the climax.

Verdict

I suggest he be put into Jerkass Woobie. I almost thought of Cry for the Devil except that he's not actually one of the villains of the game.

Edited by Octoya on Jul 19th 2019 at 1:29:02 AM

Shin.

Okay, this is my suggestion. It's an oldie. From /Manga/MW , Father Garai. I briefly considered putting Michio in Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, since Kefka's also there and is a fellow Complete Monster, but I decided against it because he's such a bastard.

Who is he?

Father Garai is a former street thug who has reformed himself into a priest. Unfortunately, Michio Yuki, his Bastard Boyfriend, is constantly meddling with his attempts to live an honest life by forcing him into criminal operations.

What does he have to endure?

For one, he's constantly beaten down and forced into committing evil acts by a man he despises yet is enfatuated with, which, considering his repressed homosexuality, adds to his woobiness.

He suffers PTSD from the horrific sights he saw on an island that was used to test the W.O.M.D. MW, as well as guilt for causing Michio to become who he is.

He's forced to constantly suffer due to Michio's schemes, even as he tries to stop them, and commits a Heroic Sacrifice that turns out to be partially in vain, as Michio, or at least his now-evil brother, survived.

Is He a Jerkass?

Not now, but he used to be an awful piece of garbage. He raped Michio as a teenager, which, although he greatly regrets now, still lingers as an obvious horror in his mind. He also initially helps Michio in his crimes, although this is only because of those lingering feelings of guilt and belief he must save Michio.

Can he defend himself? Physically, he is quite strong and imposing, but internally he is severely broken down.

Sympathy Standard?

While other characters suffer and die plenty from Michio's rampage, Garai gets the worst of it, suffering constant abuse after abuse but refusing to leave Michio's side out of an obligation to "save" him.

Conclusion?

He's either a straight-up Woobie or a Jerkass Woobie.

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Aamin Marritza, from the season 1 episode "Duet", was a filing clerk who worked at the infamous Gallitep labor camp during the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor. The camp was commanded by a cruel psychopath named Gul Darhe'el, who have the Bajoran slaves tortured, raped and killed on his whims. Marritza would cower under his bunk and cover his ears to block the screams from the Bajorans. After Darhe'el died, Marritza arrived on Deep Space 9 pretending to be Darhe'el, pretending to be a genocidal psychopath in hopes of being executed by the Bajorans so that Cardassia will admit its crimes. Though fooling Kira for a while, Kira confronts Marritza with evidence of his lies and Marritza breaks down, blaming his cowardice for allowing those acts of horror to continue in the camp. Kira releases him, but he is later stabbed by a drunken Bajoran, just for being a Cardassian.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: Simon Tarses, from the season 4 episode "The Drumhead", is a medical assistant to Dr. Crusher and enthusiastic young Star Fleet crewman. When J'Dan, a Klingon exchange officer, is found out to be a spy for the Romulans, who transmitting information through medical injects Tarses helped administer, Tarses is immediately seen as a co-conspirator for J'Dan. Admiral Norah Satie, a high ranking Star Fleet admiral who seeks out conspiracies, immediately wants him, his family and friends investigated. Satie accuses Tarses of causing an explosion in the Enterprise's warp core, despite that explosion was proven to be an accident. Satie continues to hound Tarses, discovering that his grandfather was a Romulan, rather than a Vulcan, with Tarses having lied on his application. Satie and her team use that as proof her allegations against Tarses. Even though Picard publically discredits Satie, Tarses's mistake is something he has to live with and his career is ruined in the process.
• Cytus II: PAFF (real name Aroma White) is a Shrinking Violet with a traumatic past. On the day she was to make her debut as an Idol Singer, a car crash left her comatose for months and missing most of her memories after waking up. Although she went on to have a massively successful idol career after her awakening, the amnesia haunted her, to the point where she had an existential crisis: what if she wasn't the person she thought she was? The possibilities haunted her to the point where she ran away from home, leaving behind her life of fame and luxury out of fear that it wasn't hers. And then there are the implications that her fears may be founded and that she may be another person brainwashed into taking Aroma's place, or that she was sexually assaulted or even raped by Noah, who she saw as a parental figure. It's hard to not feel sympathy for PAFF's plight given all she had to go through.
• Ace Attorney:
  • Maya Fey is the current Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique, but before that, she was a timid teenager accused of murdering her beloved sister. After Phoenix gets her off the hook, she feels worthless in Case 1-4 where she fails to channel her deceased sister to help Phoenix defend Edgeworth and feels she should not have woken up when tazed by Von Karma. In Justice For All, she is then accused of murdering a client by a nurse and her aunt. This pretty much shatters her faith in the Kurain Channeling Technique and tries to be strong for Pearl. Then she is kidnapped by Shelly De Killer, forcing Phoenix to defend the truly awful Matt Engarde in exchange for her life. Of course, Engarde is guilty as sin, and until Phoenix finds a loophole, she feels helpless. Then in the third game's Case 3-5, she is accused by Iris (actually Dahlia Hawthorne being channeled by Maya Fey), for murdering her own mother, and the real culprit is someone close to her sister, making it hard to testify against them. Things start looking up for her until she arrives in the Khura'in Kingdom where she is accused of murder by Prosecutor Nahyuta Sahdmadhi and is nearly convicted with Phoenix under the Defense Culpability Act. It turns out the real culprit did it in self-defense and only framed Maya because they felt powerless against the Ga'ran regime. Then she was supposedly kidnapped by Inga when in reality she traded places with the still alive Amara channeling Dhurke Sadhmadhi who it turns out, was Dead All Along. In the end, poor Maya tried to be strong for Pearl Fey but she is hiding deep despair among other things.
  • Apollo Justice is the main protagonist of both the game sharing his name as well as Spirit of Justice, sharing the title with his boss Phoenix Wright. When Apollo was an infant, his father Jove Justice took him to Khura'in for a show but was killed by then minister of justice Ga'ran. Dhurke Sahdmadhi rescued him, but was branded a criminal due to the arson on Amara's residence being blamed on him. After living on the lam with Dhurke and his adopted brother Nahyuta until he was about 10, Dhurke left Apollo in Japan (the US in the localization). There, Apollo met Clay Terran and the two became fast friends. Later on in life, Apollo was mentored by Kristoph Gavin before proving him guilty and gaining disbarred Phoenix Wright as a mentor. In the fifth game, his best friend Clay is murdered by the phantom causing Apollo to take a leave of absence. In Spirit of Justice, he finds that Dhurke has been dead and that Maya and still alive Amara had been channeling him. This young man has gone through hell and almost got killed by the DCA which makes attorneys as guilty as their clients thanks to tyrant Ga'ran.
• The Girl Next Door: Meg and Susan Loughlin go to live with their secluded aunt, Ruth Chandler, after the deaths of their parents. They are subjected to an escalating series of abuse climaxing with Meg getting bound and gagged in the basement, and forced to take punishments reserved for Susan. Meg is beaten, tortured, raped and ultimately given a forced clitorectomy before succumbing from her wounds, while Susan is molested by Ruth one instance of it resulting in her bleeding.
• Houshin Engi: Ki Shou is one of the four rulers that pledge their loyalty towards the Emperor of Yin, King Chuo. However, after discovering the decadence and depravity committed by King Chuo and his current wife, Dakki, he was taken as a captive for 7 years. When one of his son, Hakuyuuko, tries to save him from the Yin Empire's clutches which resulted in Hakuyuuko getting brutally executed by Dakki and his flesh was made into hamburgers, Ki Shou was forced by Dakki to eat said hamburgers which resulted in him seriously traumatized that he has serious trouble ingesting food afterward and eventually dies in his older years.
• Doki Doki Literature Club!: Sayori, the preppy vice president of the Literature Club, is the childhood friend of the player character. Revealing her optimism as a front for her depression, Sayori commits suicide regardless of the player's choice. Possessing the chance of becoming insane and deleting the game without Monika's influence, Sayori's depression is conveyed realistically and serves as one of the first true scares of the game.
• Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids: Chico, from "The Stick Men", is the only child of workaholic parents who care nothing about him. Constantly farmed out to nannies who never take him to meet kids of his own age, he creates friends through crayons. His parents and his nanny find it a nuisance and constantly insult him about it. Fortunately, he gets his happy ending when he lives with his friends, and his parents are killed in a helicopter accident.
• The Strange Thing About the Johnsons: 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 run over by a van.
• Courage the Cowardly Dog:
  • 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.
  • Bunny is the best friend and plausible lover of Kitty trapped in an abusive relationship to Mad Dog. Mad Dog threatens her and Kitty if she dared to come within arms' length of her as a means of keeping her under his paw. He even goes as far as to bury Bunny up to her neck in dirt. When Courage arrives to rescue her, she is nearly mowed down by her vengeful boyfriend's car before being reunited with Kitty.
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: Prior to the story, the Triforce beckoned for people across the land to find it and harness its power. The young man known only as the Flute Boy was one of the people who set off, but he and his companion bird went missing in Death Mountain. Link finds him later in the Dark World, a twisted version of the regular Light World, where he's been transformed into a tapir and unable to leave. Saddened by his inability to return home, Flute Boy asks Link to find his flute for him. When he does, Flute Boy thanks him, but mourns that the Dark World's influence prevents him from playing anymore. Link instead plays for him one last time, and as the music sounds out across the forest, the boy is slowly petrified into a tree. Afterward, Link uses the flute to free Flute Boy's companion bird from the weather vane it was trapped in and informs the boy's worried father that his son has passed away. Fortunately, he receives a happy ending, as Link defeats Ganon and restores the land back to before Flute Boy went missing.
• Mother 3: Lucas is the closest thing the game has to the main hero. At first, Lucas lives a happy life with his family, but all that changes when one of the previously friendly Dragos, controlled by Pokey Minch's army, murders his mother, Hinawa. Then after the news is broken to his doting father, Flint, he breaks down in grief-filled rage and nearly strikes his own sons with a stick. With both his mother and father out of commission or left the village of Tazmily, his brother, Claus, goes to investigate but is kidnapped and brainwashed by the Pigmasks. he goes on a seemingly hopeless journey to reunite with his brother and father. Through this, he experiences many deaths by the Pigmasks including by the end having to kill his own brother, who was the Masked Man, but he couldn't bring himself to do it, and so Claus ended his own life to spare him when Pokey's control proved too much to handle. Throughout the journey, he constantly breaks down in tears and just wants his family back as he is an emotionally crippled pre-teen.
• RWBY: Qrow Branwen is an alcoholic loner, raised with his twin sister, Raven, by a Bandit Clan who named him after the crows they believe bring bad luck. His permanently-active Semblance brings misfortune to all, benefitting him in battle but forcing him to distance himself from loved ones to protect them. Sent by the tribe to Beacon Academy to learn how to murder Huntsmen, Professor Ozpin changes his life by being the first person to ever see past his curse and give him a place in life; abandoning his tribe to become Ozpin's most loyal follower in the Secret War against Salem damages his relationship with his sister, whose mistrust of Ozpin leads her to eventually make the opposite decision. After the Battle of Beacon, Qrow struggles to cope with Ozpin's responsibilities and starts drinking more heavily. He tries to look after Team RNJR from a distance to protect them from his Semblance until they're attacked by Tyrian Callows, where his intervention gets him poisoned when he has to save Ruby from being killed by his own Semblance. When Qrow seeks Professor Lionheart's help, he inadvertently reveals to Salem's forces the secret location of the Spring Maiden: his sister's tribe. Previously neutral, Raven is forced to side with Salem against Ozpin, leading to a betrayed Qrow disowning her completely. Shortly afterward, his entire world collapses when the heroes learn the truth about Ozpin's past; his confrontation with Ozpin devastates both men for the rest of Volume 6, forcing the students to take over as Ozpin disappears and Qrow descends into an ever-worsening spiral of drunken despair.

I could Garai.

I see the Kekfa who appeared in Dissidia as a different incarnation of the character than the one from the main FF series.

Thus, I retain my belief that a character can't count as a Woobie and a CM at the same time.

Edited by MasterJoseph on Jul 20th 2019 at 9:09:44 AM

I spotted some spelling and grammar issues in the two Star Trek examples. I haven't rewritten them, I've just pointed out the worst of the issues in bold below.

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Aamin Marritza, from the season 1 episode "Duet", was a filing clerk who worked at the infamous Gallitep labor camp during the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor. The camp was commanded by a cruel psychopath named Gul Darhe'el, who had the Bajoran slaves tortured, raped and killed on his whim. Marritza would cower under his bunk and cover his ears to block the screams from the Bajorans. After Darhe'el died, Marritza arrived on Deep Space 9 masquerading as Darhe'el, pretending to be a genocidal psychopath in hopes of being executed by the Bajorans so that Cardassia will admit its crimes. Though fooling Kira for a while, Kira confronts Marritza with evidence of his lies and Marritza breaks down, blaming his cowardice for allowing those acts of horror to continue in the camp. Kira releases him, but he is later stabbed by a drunken Bajoran, just for being a Cardassian.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: Simon Tarses, from the season 4 episode "The Drumhead", is a medical assistant to Dr. Crusher and enthusiastic young Star Fleet crewman. When J'Dan, a Klingon exchange officer, is found to be spying for the Romulans by transmitting information through medical injections that Tarses helped administer, Tarses is immediately seen as a co-conspirator for J'Dan. Admiral Norah Satie, a high ranking Star Fleet admiral who seeks out conspiracies, immediately wants him, his family and friends investigated. Satie accuses Tarses of causing an explosion in the Enterprise's warp core, despite that explosion being proven to be an accident. Satie continues to hound Tarses, discovering his grandfather was a Romulan, rather than a Vulcan, with Tarses having lied on his application. Satie and her team use that as proof of her allegations against Tarses. Even though Picard publicly discredits Satie, Tarses's mistake is something he has to live with and his career is ruined in the process.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Jul 21st 2019 at 2:27:47 PM

I don't know if anyone had discussed about Gabby Gabby from Toy Story 4, so I thought I'd put it out here.

Who is she?

Gabby Gabby is a 1950's doll living on a shelf in the Second Chance Antique Shop, who was born with a defect in her voice box, and because of that she was rejected by her previous owner and was never played with ever since.

What does she have to endure?

She was born with a defective voice box and as such, was never played with. When Harmony, the granddaughter of the antique shop owner, started making repeat visits to her grandmother's store, Gabby found real hope that she could belong to someone, leading to her craving Woody's voice box.

However, after she succeeds in getting her voice box repaired, just when it looked like Harmony would take her in, she rejects Gabby without a second thought, crushing her decades long dream of being her favorite toy.

Is she a Jerkass?

At first, she gives off a vibe of being Faux Affably Evil and she does do some questionable deeds, but it was revealed that she only did these action out of desperation of wanting to be loved by a child, specifically Harmony, and that she really is as sweet and friendly as she appears to be.

Also after she was rejected by Harmony, she doesn't turn evil like Stinky Pete or Lotso. In fact she was even willing (if a bit dejectedly) to return Woody's voice box after she was rejected by Harmony. And when she discovers a little girl lost, she helps her find her parents

Can she defend himself?

No, she has her minions, the Bensons, and eventually Woody and his friends help her out.

Sympathy Standard?

Compared to the likes of Stinky Pete, Al, and even Lotso, Gabby Gabby is definitely the most sympathetic out of all of the antagonists.

Conclusion?

She's either a straight-up Woobie or a Jerkass Woobie, with a bit more emphasis on the Woobie part.

Edited by EDav1994 on Jul 21st 2019 at 10:18:18 AM

Gabby Gabby.

Either vanilla or Jerkass Woobie works.

I had to delete this entry from YMMV.Overlord 2012 for being way too wordy:

Even if it somehow makes it past this thread's approval, you'd have to shrink that absurd text length to about a sixth of it. Clear and consise are missing qualities from this entry.

Edited by AnoBakaDesu on Jul 22nd 2019 at 2:45:23 PM

Well, hi everyone, this is the first time I'm here. Got a candidate. OK, I'm dealing with a shocking case. A case that shocked me to the core.

We're going to focus on Blake and Mortimer, and more accurately, on the twenty-second book of the series: The Septimus Wave, the sequel of one of the most popular Franco-Belgian comics of all time, The Yellow "M" who named a trope.

What's the work?

Blake and Mortimer is a Belgian comics series created by the Belgian writer and comics artist Edgar P. Jacobs. It was one of the first series to appear in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Tintin in 1946, and was subsequently published in book form by Les Editions du Lombard.

The main protagonists of the adventures are Philip Mortimer, a leading British scientist, and his friend Captain Francis Blake of MI 5. The main antagonist is their sworn enemy, Colonel Olrik, who has appeared in almost every book. Their confrontations take them into the realms of detective investigation and science-fiction, dealing with such themes as time travel, Atlantis and espionage.

Since the death of Jacobs, new books have been published by two separate teams of artists and writers. A television series based upon the series was produced in 1997, entitled Blake and Mortimer.

The books by Jacobs himself are generally set in the very period of their writing, but those authored by others after his death are set mostly in the 1950s and 1960s.

That said, we're going to focus on a non-Jacobs book (that said, The Yellow "M" was written by Jacobs) thus, Depending on the Writer is played straight.

The Septimus Wave was written by Jean Dufaux. The book was drawn by Antoine Aubin & Etienne Schréder and was released in 2013. As mentioned earlier, it's the direct sequel of The Yellow "M".

Who's the candidate?

The colonel Olrik, of all people. Yes, we're talking about someone who is a Complete Monster in the animated series and a Magnificent Bastard in Jacobs' books. Yes. In this album, you really can't help but pity him.

What happened to him?

In London, several months after the outcome of the case of the Yellow M, four admirers of Professor Septimus - Lieutenant McFarlane, Lady Rowana, banker Oscar Balley and Professor Evangely - are preparing to continue his work in secret. Colonel Olrik found refuge in the Chinese establishment of Miss Lilly Sing, where only morphine injections allow him to forget the torments that subjected him to Septimus. In his panic attacks he sees doctor Septimus (the Big Bad of The Yellow "M") demanding the return of his Guinea Pig (Olrik, who was his brainwashed Dragon in The Yellow "M").

In the Centaur Club, Captain Francis Blake of MI 5 is warned by his deputy Millovitch from the Home Office that a new mad man has been spotted wandering around at the unused hangars at King's Cross station, which were used by major Blanks team of secret agents during the last war. Blake and Millovitch go there and while the police encircle the individual, it is struck by an electric shock. Meanwhile, in a house in Newham, professor Philip Mortimer puts the current in his laboratory. There he rebuilt the invention of Septimus, the Telecephaloscope. He hopes to master it to put it at the service of psychiatry. His faithful servant, Ahmed Nasir, disapproves of Blakes research. After the professor left, the machine activates on its own while Nasir is in the laboratory and Nasir sees a disturbing shape emerge.

The next day, Blake is furious to learn the nature of Mortimer's research. But busy with another matter, he askes the professor to accompany him to the interrogation of the first mad man found near King's Cross. They discover that he escaped from Bedlam Hospice where Major Banks and his men are cared for. The mad man begins to recite a litany. Mortimer recognizes the words as the litanies of Septimus' victims. Afterwards, in the street, Blake and Mortimer become victims of attempted murder by a car driver whose lifeless body was found surrounded by arcs before catching fire. Plagued by a bad feeling, Mortimer returned to his laboratory. Here Nasir tells him about the disturbing shape that he saw emerging underneath the machine. He saw Septimus' spectrum coming out of the Telecephaloscope. Meanwhile, Professor Septimus, brought back by the Telecephaloscope, quietly walks through Bloomsbury in search of his guinea pig. At Miss Sing, Mr Kim Ku-Dum, former interrogator of the Yellow Army, hypnotizes Olrik to help him break free of his demons. Olrik then sees a crowd of Septimus demanding his return and he sees Professor Mortimer reactivating Telecephaloscope. Buoyed by these visions, Olrik tries to escape but Miss Sing is waiting outside to present him to lieutenant McFarlane, who holds Olrik at gunpoint, so that he and his comrades can use him as Guinea Pig again.

At Bedlam Hospice, Blake and Mortimer discover that Major Blanks and his team are immersed in a frenzy as they prepare for enemy attack. Blanks tells them he sent two of his men to the abandoned hangars near King's Cross to find a mysterious machine. Just when Blake and Mortimer decide to leave, Major Blanks and his men fall to their knees and start reciting the litany of Septimus. Blake decides to explore the basement of the abandoned warehouses near King’s Cross in search of the machine. He and his men discover a metal door. After opening it they find a huge cave with a giant unknown craft resembling a spaceship. Inside, Blake finds himself in the British Museum reading room. There are only two things that give away that it is not real. There is a giant glass column in the center and all the books that surround him are copies of the book ‘The Mega Wave’ by Septimus. After touching one of the books he gets an electric shock and falls on the floor. The British Museum has vanished and now there is only the glass column. In there, Blake sees some kind of scuba diver watching him, attached to the ship with wires and tubes.

At the same moment, Mortimer is in a taxi on his way to Lady Rowana who invited him to attend a private party of four admirers of Septimus. He discovers that they too have rebuilt a Telecephaloscope. Then the admirers show they have recovered Olrik as a guinea pig. Knowing their evil intentions, Mortimer damages the machine before being knocked out. Meanwhile, Oscar Balley arrives, late for the party. He has had some troubles outside and he tells the rest to take a look out of the window. A horde of Septimus marches outside the warehouse looking for Olrik, their guinea pig. Oscar has been touched by one of the Septimus outside. Shortly after that he disappears in a cloud of thick smoke and Septimus appears in his place. In their cell, Olrik and Mortimer decide to ally temporarily to be able to escape, but Lady Rowana releases them to show them the whole situation. The professor makes the assumption that there is another mega wave generator that stimulated the Telecephaloscope and that the image of Septimus, kept in memory, wants to replicate indefinitely. The horde of Septimus breaks through the door and they manage to escape via the sewers. Mortimer takes Olrik to his lab in hopes of finding a way to end the phenomenon.

At 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister tells Captain Blake that the mysterious craft, Orpheus, was discovered by Major Blanks team during the last war and that its existence is kept secret in order to be studied by scientists. Without orders or against-orders of his superiors, Blake decides to destroy the Orpheus and gets inside with explosives. In the laboratory professor Mortimer uses the Telecephaloscope on Olrik to give him control over the mega wave (having been previously brainwashed by Septimus, he's the only one who can stop the whole thing), and therefore over the source of the Septimus copies. Via the Mega Wave Olrik enters the spaceship and orders Colonel Blake and his men to leave. The diver tries to get control over the situation amd keeps saying the word ’Asylum’. Olrik manages to resist the orders of the mysterious diver and triggers the explosion. The Orpheus ship explodes and disappears in a column of light. A few days later, Blake and Mortimer discuss their adventure while Olrik, who hasn’t recovered from his experience, finds himself interned in Bedlam Hospice with Major Blanks and his team. All repeat the same word as the diver: 'Asylum.'

What is his predicament?

Olrik suffers Mind Rape after Mind Rape, thanks to people way too eager to use him to their nefarious ends. Heck, when he is introduced, he already suffers a Sanity Slippage, and only doses of morphin stops him from breaking completely. Problem is, he is more and more addicted to morphin as he needs even more doses to calm down. On top of that, he suffers nightmares in which he sees hordes of Septimus telling him "Guinea Pig, come back...". As you can see, it's very unsettling. On top of that, the Big Bad Fourvirate (I spelled it wrong, right?) is hell-bent on capturing him to brainwash him AGAIN. And let's not deal with the scuba diver who also tries (and has seemingly succeeded) to brainwash him for unknown reasons. And you'd think he's done with both of them... NO! By the end, he's reduced to a Madness Mantra in an asylum.

Can he defend himself/is he a Jerkass?

Well, generally, Olrik is skilled in combat and all... But it's much harder when dealing with Mind Rape and people having you on gunpoint.

Well, Olrik is Blake and Mortimer's Arch-Enemy for a reason, so yeah, he's a Jerkass. While he has done much worse in other comics, again, since Jacobs's death, we're facing a case of Depending on the Writer. Here, in The Septimus Wave? His worst act is to try to kill his Arch-Enemy Mortimer when they're both imprisoned... But Mortimer easily reasons with him. Apart from that? He doesn't do anything villainous... Except stealing some morphin when attempting to escape.

Sympathy Standard?

Easily, easily sets it. No other character in The Septimus Wave has suffered as much as him. The closest to that would be Lady Rowana, who lost her husband and who is inconsolable... But it's a case of Informed Attribute, as it's quickly mentioned and she seems fine in the book in itself.

While, at first, Mortimer thought that what happened to him was a case of Asshole Victim, even he takes pity on Olrik's situation, and tells him he's going to miss him when Olrik is about to destroy the Orpheus Ship, at the risk of not coming back.

Verdict?

I think he can make it in the Jerkass Woobie category. It's surprising, really surprising that he, of all people, became sympathetic in this work. Bravo Dufaux. Bravo. Well done.

Edited by GeorgieEnkoom on Jul 23rd 2019 at 10:36:29 AM

Yes to everyone proposed that I missed. Thank you lukaSlyvie for keeping track of the entries for me. I really appreciate it.

Think I'll do Sephiran and maybe Jill shortly. Jill is probably a vanilla woobie because her racism against laguz is because of how she was raised in Daein making her an innocent bigot, and is far more fragile than your average Fire Emblem character emotionally.

Edited by Klavice on Jul 23rd 2019 at 12:35:17 PM

Garai and Olrik. So many candidates have been proposed that I find it hard to track them all down. I'll try my best (especially about the newly-proposed ones), but if I've missed anybody needing more votes or having already been approved, please let me know.

From the two previous pages, Gebel from Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Crowfeather from Warrior Cats, and Count Bleck from Super Paper Mario need more votes.

Also, if you want to do a write-up for my candidates, please contact me.

Edited by IukaSylvie on Jul 24th 2019 at 7:15:20 PM

Well then, easy yes to Bleck and sure to Gebel.

Sure to all of the candidates I missed. Man, I would love to propose Dominique but her CM status ruins the chances for me. Oh well what the heck

What's the work?

Steppenwolf The X Creatures Project is an episodic flash game serial released by Warner Brothers and Sarbakan, following the adventures of Intrepid Reporter Meg Crimson and the titular Steppenwolf, biologist-turned-Wild Man Alan Kane, as they search for cryptids (called "X-Creatures" here) in order to create an antidote for his wife, who has been transformed into a bloodthirsty monster called the Heruka.

Who is Alan Kane?

Alan Kane, aka Steppenwolf, is the deuteragonist of this series, a former brilliant biologist who went into hiding after The Purge of the Gene-X research team at the hands of the crooked, immortality-seeking head of the Donovan Corporation, Reggie Donovan.

What is his predicament?

Unbeknownst to him, his wife Shelley Thompson, upon successfully isolating the X-Creatures' genes, was forced by Donovan to use herself as a guinea pig, transforming her into the Heruka, and resulting in the slaughter of many scientists on the team. Those that survived — Kane among them — Donovan ordered executed by his enforcer, the Albino. Led to believe that Shelley died in a plane crash, Kane went into hiding, living in the Republic of the Congo for a while and tracking the Mokele Mbembe, where he met the other deuteragonist. Sometime later, he took refuge in a Buddhist monastery in Tibet while tracking the Yeti, only for the monks to be gunned down by one of Donovan's men and a terrorist organization that's implied to be on Donovan's payroll.

He flies out to Antarctica to find out more about his wife's accident, and is attacked by more of Donovan's goons before encountering her and uncovering the grisly truth. A few seasons later, after acquiring all the X-Creatures' genes needed, an antidote is used on Shelley, revealing for a fact that she was, in fact, the Heruka. After taking out some more of Donovan's men (the Albino among them) and escaping captivity, he watches Meg get taken away and imprisoned, then is told by the other survivor of the Gene-X purge where he can find Shelley. Once he finds her, the two share a tender moment together, and he tries to comfort her as she dies in agony. When she's gone, he's clearly overtaken by anger and a desire for revenge against Donovan. Which he gets a couple episodes later.

Can he defend himself/is he a jerkass?

Hey, this is a guy who took out the Yeti with just a camera, the Kraken with improvised electric stunners, and the Mokele Mbembe with a sleeping potion he recently made from scratch. Yes, he can defend himself. As for being a jerkass, he might have been one when he first met Meg and refused to have any part of her Secrets of the Wild assignment, but given that the paper she worked for was bought out by the Donovan Corporation, it's understandable. And plus he comes back to join her later, and justifies himself as wanting to see how far she'd get with her assignment first. The only hostility he shows is whenever he's dealing with Donovan or anyone working for him. Otherwise, he's actually pretty nice — albeit stubborn — for a guy who's been living out in the wild for a long time. Plus you can hear the pain in his voice when Donovan tells him that Shelley is the Heruka.

Sympathy standard?

Meg might also count as an Iron Woobie, seeing how she was in over her head and didn't realize just how dangerous her assignment was or what it would spiral into. But she displays a little too much resilience, and the only times she shows a hint of vulnerability is when she sees her partner get fake-executed by one of the Tibetan terrorists and when she's faced by cold nitrogen strings ("There's no way I can get through!"). The former, she shrugs off quickly after escaping custody, and the latter ... she gets through them. And she always manages to avert Damsel in Distress, even getting herself out of a cell where she was imprisoned and zapping the guards with an assault rifle-shaped stun gun.

Shelley ... I'm pretty sure would qualify as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, seeing how she was forced to become the Heruka. She doesn't even remember anything she's done after being cured, and dies in pain shortly after.

Everyone else is either not woobie enough in any regard, either not receiving enough traits to qualify or being outright evil.

Verdict?

Keeper as an Iron Woobie.

Edited by Stellarvore on Jul 24th 2019 at 6:30:40 AM

Sorry for not being active much on this thread. I’ve been very busy lately and I haven’t had time to use the forums or to prepare my Neon Genesis Evangelion effort posts. I still hope to do those EP’s but if anybody else wants to propose Woobie candidates from NGE, I’m fine with it. Anyway, voting on Gebel, Bleck, Kane, and (especially as a fan of MW) Garai.

Sure to Alan Kane.

Sure to Kane

• The Strange Thing About the Johnsons: While nowhere near as sympathetic as her 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:
  • Kitty is the best friend of the Bunny appearing in the two-parter "The Mask." Developing a deep hatred towards dogs because of Bunny's boyfriend, Kitty arrives at the Bagge residence, and viciously beats Courage for no other reason than because he's a dog. When Courage successfully saves Bunny, Kitty learns the error of her ways and genuinely expresses her gratitude towards Courage.
  • Eustace Bagge is the grouchy, elderly farmer and husband of Muriel Bagge. Growing up being compared endlessly to his older brother and being unsuccessful in nearly everything he did, Eustace became an embittered old man who makes a habit out of terrorizing or harassing Courage for no other reason than a mixture of For the Evulz and spite. Despite this, Eustace had shown on occasions to genuinely care for Muriel, and he would team up with Courage with the situation called for it.
• High School DXD: Vali Lucifer is the great-grandson of the original Lucifer and a human mother, as such he was born with talent and the Divine Dividing housing the White Dragon Emperor, making him one of the strongest beings in the world. Due to this, his father feared him, leading to Vali's bullied childhood. His father even kept his mother from making him anything but cooked noddles, resulting in Vali's obsession with them. Vali later ran away from home, knowing his mother's memories were erased. in childhood, exorcists chased him before Azazel found and taught him how to use his powers. Vali grew a desire to fight strong opponents to the point where he even said once that he didn't want to live in a world where the biblical god didn't exist since Vali never got to fight him. Ashamed by his weak rival, he threatened to kill his parents so that Issei would seriously grow stronger. All of it stemmed from his childhood and seeking to grow stronger to defeat his grandfather who was capable of challenging god-class beings. Caring a lot about his allies and the people he had worked with in Grigori. Vali was enraged by Cao Cao injuring one of his comrades. Vali later learned his mother lived with a human husband and that he has a half brother and a half-sister.
• Suterareta Yuusha No Eiyuutan: Katsuragi Daichi is a somewhat pudgy high-schooler that begins the story with a rag shoved in his mouth, being literally used as a mop. This is a relatively benevolent day for him, as he spells out that he's been sent to the infirmary countless times, even with broken bones, yet the teachers and class president don't just ignore his plight, they "help" him by siding with the bullies, even going so far as to physically drag him out of his room and to class so the bullies can have their way. Then the goddess Clare summons the entire class, including himself, to the world of Rostalgia, where his situation hardly improves. Once the class has been magically inspected by King Ginger, he's shoved into the stables, left to his own devices, and treated with derision for failing to improve, even being called "The Useless Hero", while everyone else gets the VIP treatment. Upon their first foray into a dungeon, for live combat practice, Daichi puts himself at risk to save the whole class from their own folly, despite all the crap they put him through, only to find himself being set on fire, kicked down the stairs into the swarm of monsters, and having the exit magically sealed in his face. After waking up from being Eaten Alive no less than five times, he finds a corpse of a classmate and his first thoughts are testing his new "Lich King" ability to resurrect, enslave, and exploit her.
• The World Ends with You: Neku Sakuraba is the 15-year-old snarky protagonist of the game. At first, he's extremely cold to the party members on his journey through the Reaper's Game because as it turns out according to Another Day, he lost his best friend before dying and couldn't handle the grief so he shunted himself off from people. It's only through Shiki Misaki's coercing that he is able to trust anyone again. When they win the first game, Shiki gets taken as his entry fee because the Big Bad knew her connection to Neku and he is forced to play another game. There he examines Yoshiya "Joshua" Kiryu, his enigmatic new partner's memories and finds he was killed by Joshua. When he is about to confront Joshua about this, he is ignored and Joshua instead helps him defeat Sho Minamimoto but is supposedly killed by Minamimoto's Level i Flare, revealing that Joshua was shooting at Minamimoto who apparently shot Neku. Later on, it's revealed Joshua is the Composer and the man who Neku stopped was trying to save Shibuya's UG. Then Neku finds out Joshua really did kill him, and after defeating Megumi Kitaniji, Neku is given a game of quick draw. Despite all the hell, Joshua put him through, Neku is unable to shoot Joshua and gets shot instead... again. Afterward, though Neku returns to life and finally has friends again and truly trusts them now, and lamenting that while Joshua was a jerk, he still spared Shibuya.
• Silent Hill 2: While how sympathetic James is is a matter of debate amongst fans, there is no doubt about the plight of these two characters he meets on his journey through Silent Hill:
  • Even in a game where depression is a central theme, Angela Orosco stands out as an exceptionally pitiful character. From a young age, her alcoholic father Thomas — and her brother, in the novelization — raped her repeatedly, and her mother only exacerbated the hopelessness of her plight by telling her she deserved it. She killed her father in self-defense before fleeing to Silent Hill, struggling with thoughts of suicide, and finds herself tormented by a monster she believes to be her father. The last time she meets James, she asks for him to return her knife and ascends a burning staircase to her demise when he refuses.
  • Maria is a tulpa of Mary Shepherd-Sunderland who shares her memories, personality, and attachments, and unlike Pyramid Head, is an independent entity on at least some level. When she discovers the truth about her nature as a torture implement created by Silent Hill, she nearly shoots herself before accepting her destiny in the hopes of earning James' love. She meets up with him only to get separated from him later, and sobs when she finds him again. Throughout the game, she is killed repeatedly by Pyramid Head before facing off with James and attempting to kill him when he rejects her. Once she's at his mercy, all she can do is repeat his name over and over again. To drive the nail in further, it's implied that even though she got what she wanted from him, she is about to suffer the same fate as Mary.

Maybe change the last sentence of Maria's writeup a little:

"To drive the nail in further in one ending, it's implied that even though she got what she wanted from him, she is about to suffer the same fate as Mary."

Any other vote for Olrik, BTW?