Woobies Wanted

[thefourthvine]

brown_betty and I have been discussing woobies. Further research - for the good of science! - is now required, and so I come to you for help. I need a list of woobies.

TVTropes has a great page on woobies [Warning: cherry_ice and I have determined that TVTropes is a black hole. If you click on this link, there is a chance you will never escape from the website. Leave a message for your loved ones before you click. Also it's a good idea to pack a lunch.], which features this definition:

"[The woobie] is that character you want to give a big hug, wrap in a blanket and feed soup to when he or she suffers so very beautifully."

And there is, of course, a huge long list of woobies attached, but a lot of those people are woobies in canon more than in fan fiction, and I want the fannish ones. I'm looking for the person in a given fandom who is always being hurt (and then comforted), the person who you just know is going to have a secret shame or a secret trauma or a secret disease, probably while he is being raped and beaten in prison by Nazis with spiky boots. In other words, I want to know who, in your fandom, is the character who you'd immediately think of if you read this header:

Title: Recovery and Revelations Part 7, 1/???
Series: Hold Me Tight Tonight (Confronting the Darkness)
Author: I <3 Woobies!
Summary: To protect the ones he or she loves, Character X sold his or her body to evil slaver alien wizards. Now Character X is finally back home. Can the [team/family/friends/loved ones/etc.] help him or her recover?
Warnings: Noncon, dubcon, torture, past child abuse and incest, betrayal, cutting, slavery, underage sex, involuntary drug use, porn, some swears.

In the future, there will be a poll. But first, I need the names to go in the poll. So tell me: in your fandom, who is the woobie? To make this extra-challenging, especially for you people in Harry Potter and Supernatural: you can only nominate one person per fandom. I want to hear about the Woobiest in All the Land.

Comments

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

I think you need some anime and manga:

Bleach - Ishida Uryuu (repeated beatings! Emo-ness! Getting shot in the chest by his own father!)
Gorgeous Carat - Florian (rape! forced opium addiction! slavery! whipping! Being called "Amethyst Eyes" by everybody!)
Samurai Champloo - Jin (mysterious past emo-dom! bleeding! Hopeless fights! Dealing with Mugen!)
Loveless - Oh, geez, so many of them - and certainly both main characters, Ritsuka and Soubi. Seriously, the woobiness is epidemic here.
Princess Tutu - Mytho. His whole story is one huge pit of woobie.

[califmole.livejournal.com]

-John Crichton in Farscape.

-Spencer Reid in Criminal Minds.

-Mulder in X-Files (though honestly Krycek's name came to mind when I read that plot summary, and I'm pretty sure I've read more than one XF fic that matches that exact plot description. Heck I've probably read more than ten.)

-Frasier in Due South, in part because he would never think of himself as a woobie.

-Ianto Jones in Torchwood

-Tony Dinozzo in NCIS

-Nick Stokes in CSI

-Kirk for Star Trek reboot

-John Sheppard in Stargate Atlantis

[califmole.livejournal.com]

How could I forget to mention Xander for Buffy? Again, another one where I'm sure I could dig up story links for a Xander story with that exact plot line.

[oaktree89.livejournal.com]

ST:XI Chekov gets this a lot in fic. Also any of the hobbits in LotR fandom.

[starlurker.livejournal.com]

All three main characters from Supernatural. Dean and Sam have already been mentioned a couple of times, but there's an entire subgenre of Dean/Castiel where Castiel the angel is loses his powers, gets abducted, beaten, tortured and raped in hell by other demons.

A rare person of colour woobie, at least in cartoon form: Zuko from Avatar The Last Airbender.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Zuko from Avatar The Last Airbender.

HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN HIM? It's like they ordered him from WoobieCentral, checking "all of the above" under "features requested"!!

No, really!:

1. only parent who truly loved him is dead

2. the other parent scarred his face

3. his emo!pain is constant as the tide

4. everyone thinks he's the bad guy

5. every victory turns to ashes in his mouth

6. he Needs Love! with Love he could be a Good Person, we know it!!

You're right, he's up there with Lex Luthor on the Woobie scale.

[hradzka.livejournal.com]

Snape, Snape, Snape, Snape, Snape, Snape, and Snape. Spike, in BTVS. Dick Grayson, in DCU, though I don't think he approaches the woobieness of either of the previous two. To me, it's not just that woobies suffer; it's that they *are terribly misunderstood while suffering,* and possibly even have to do really terrible things for reasons that nobody else but the fanfic writer really understands and empathizes with AND THEY FEEL SO GUILTY ABOUT IT.

(SMALLVILLE's Lex Luthor, of course, is The Canonical Woobie.)

I suspect that there are no female woobies, and that woobiedom is inextricably intertwined with manpain.

[seekergeek.livejournal.com]

... woobiedom is inextricably intertwined with manpain.

I suspect that you might be right.

[svollga.livejournal.com]

Ianto Jones, Torchwood. (The Duracel Bunny of ANGST!)
Severus Snape, Harry Potter.
The Tenth Doctor, Doctor Who. (Have you seen David Tennant all beaten up? I don't know ANY person who wouldn't want both to comfort him and to have him beaten up yet again, at the same time!)
Dean Winchester, Supernatural.

[travels-in-time.livejournal.com]

I don't know ANY person who wouldn't want both to comfort him and to have him beaten up yet again, at the same time!

THIS, SO MUCH.

The Master agrees with you as well. :D

[karitawyr.livejournal.com]

I's agree with Daniel Jackson for most of the run of SG-1. However, for the final two seasons I'd suggest Cameron Mitchell.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that too. Daniel is very woobie, but the last few seasons he kinda hardens and Mitchell picks up a fair bit of it in his place.

[iamrosalita.livejournal.com]

I can't decide who's woobier: Daniel Jackson or Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. It's a damned close call. Daniel died more, but Wes actually stayed dead.

And then there's Fox Mulder who is the woobiest woobie who ever did . . . woob.

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

Bwee--I voted Fox and am now scanning up the list to see who else there is sensible! But this story description--

To protect the ones he or she loves, Character X sold his or her body to evil slaver alien wizards. Now Character X is finally back home. Can the [team/family/friends/loved ones/etc.] help him or her recover?

--is Fox Mulder and I AM JUST RIGHT ABOUT THAT OMG.

[cpt-untouchable.livejournal.com]

LOL, I ♥ you, IV.

AI RPS, Adam Lambert. Kris Allen gets his share, but Adam, man. Adam can't catch a break in fanon unless it's a bone.
Dresden Files (novels), Harry Dresden. The wizard gives good woobie.
Doctor Who, Ten. Poor, poor Ten.
... BRB, making soup for Ten.

Supernatural, Dean Winchester.
Psych. Fandom loves to torture Shawn Spencer. Which is odd, considering that the source material is a comedy.
SGA. Such a toss-up between McKay and Sheppard ... Enh, McKay.
Lord of the Rings, Legolas just barely edges out Strider, I think.

[moosesal.livejournal.com]

Wow. I think people have pretty much hit most of mine. I have to agree to Lex Luthor, Spencer Reid, Dan Rydell, Xander Harris, and Tony DiNozzo. I'll add...

Dawson's Creek -- Pacey Witter
Fringe -- Peter Bishop
Gossip Girl -- Chuck Bass

(We could throw in Charlie from the Mighty Ducks to give Joshua Jackson 3 noms, but if anyone is writing Mighty Ducks torture fic, I don't want to know about it.)

[moosesal.livejournal.com]

I would like to add Richard Hammond (Top Gear RPS), Ianto Jones (Torchwood), and Jack (Kings).

[ravenbell.livejournal.com]

I think pretty much the whole [i]moe[/i] concept from anime fits into this - cute little girls who are meant to evoke protective, fuzzy feelings in guys. Some of these would include:

Rei Ayanami - Neon Genesis Evangelion
Sakura Kinomoto - Card Captor Sakura/Tsubasa
The entire casts of Lucky Star, Strawberry Marshmallow, Poptan, etc.

In Western shows I can only think of a couple:

Sierra - Dollhouse
Kaylee and River - Firefly

Maybe I've just been watching too much Joss Whedon?

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Okay, most of mine have probably been mentioned...

Blakes 7 - Kerr Avon (never mind that if you tried he would KILL you...)
Magnificent 7 - two of 'em, Ezra Standish and Vin Tanner :)
The Sentinel - Blair Sandburg
Primeval - Connor Temple
Criminal Minds - Spencer Reid
Stargate SG1 - Daniel Jackson

[cupidsbow.livejournal.com]

OMG, I think Avon got raped in every B7 fic I ever read... except the ones where he comforts Tarrant or Vila after they are raped (sometimes by him).

[jenna_marianne]

American Idol RPF: Kris Allen
Buffy: Xander Harris
Criminal Minds: Spencer Reid
CSI: Nick Stokes
due South: Benton Fraser
Fast and the Furious: Brian
Harry Potter: Remus Lupin
Heroes: Peter Petrelli
Angel: Wesley Wyndam-Price
Highlander: Methos
Magnificent 7: Ezra Standish
Man from UNCLE: Illya Kuryakin
NCIS: Tony DiNozzo
Oz: Tobias Beecher
Sentinel: Blair Sandburg
SG1: Daniel Jackson
SGA: Rodney McKay
Smallville: Lex Luthor
Star Trek DS9: Julian Bashir
Star Trek Reboot/XI: Jim Kirk
Star Trek TOS: Spock
Star Wars Prequel Trilogy: Obi-Wan Kenobi
Supernatural: Dean Winchester
Torchwood: Ianto Jones
X-Files: Fox Mulder
X-Men: Scott Summers

[strina]

I second ALL BUT ONE OF THESE. Because after seeing 3243276 stories where the Dursleys keep Harry in a CAGE and RAPE HIM and FEED HIM FROM A DOG BOWL and ALSO HE HAS A LEARNING DISORDER and A HEART CONDITION and THEN HE GOES TO AZKABAN, Remus can only ever be the woobie silver medalist for me. But hey, a Potter fandom silver medal is, like, platinum in most other fandoms!

[japanimecrazed.livejournal.com]

Shuuichi Shindou from Gravitation. I cannot think of a character more abused in fanon.

[(Anonymous)]

From Angel: Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, greatest woobie of all time. The more he suffered, the more beautiful he became.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that Benton Fraser is probably my ultimate Woobie (and have written Fraser and Rodney McKay friendship fic which has to be something special in the Woobie stakes).

BtVS: Rupert Giles. He's got all the hurt and rarely any comfort, dammit.

AtS: Wesley Wyndam Price. If he, Daniel Jackson, and Blair Sandberg got together, there would be a critical mass of canon Woobitude that might crack the planet.

Farscape: I'm going to part from consensus here and say Bialar Crais ends up being my Woobie, on the whole "kidnapped from his home planet and raised as a warrior" thing just for starters (I know, or rather knew, Farscape Fans who woobified Scorpie. That's just wrong).

Babylon 5: Michael Garibaldi, how has anyone missed this?

Burn Notice: Michael Westen bruises so pretty.

Leverage: may have the only all-Wooby cast ever.

Fringe: is another challenge, but with the last episode Peter just moved into first place by a nose, with Olivia as a rare female woobie in second place. This is aided by the fact that Pacey was as woobierific as anyone ever.

Flashpoint: is another show where the mantle of woobitude is passed around, although Ed Lane is probably the most frequently woobinated. (If it were possible to woobify Mike Sweeney, Hugh Dillon would be ahead on points, but at the moment this ties him with Ben Browder).

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

Do you think Giles is that woobified by the fandom, though? I agree that he gets all the hurt and none of the comfort, and that he would be the woobie if it was just about who's most bashed around in canon, but in the end I think both Xander and Spike are much bigger fandom woobies. If I saw thefourthvine's sample fic header, I'd immediately assume it was a story about one of them, not Giles.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, as fandom woobies tend to be the subject of a bajillion badfics) I think one of the major qualifications for woobiedom is being young and pretty.

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

Posting without first reading the others for authencity's sake but to me it is OBVIOUS: FOX MULDER.

[seekergeek.livejournal.com]

It's still in the baby fandom stage, but I predict that Joseph Adama in Caprica will likely become that fandom's woobie.

[zillah975]

Dean Winchester from Supernatural

Rodney McKay from Stargate Atlantis

Legolas from Lord Of The Rings (movie-verse - there is no book-verse woobie for LoTR as far as I know)

Faramir might make a close runner-up for Legolas there.

Eliot from Leverage (that's a tough call, but I chose Eliot because he's the protector and the one most likely to sell himself for the people he loves)

[laylee.livejournal.com]

Dan Rydell - Sports Night
Benton Fraser - Due South
Ray Kowalski - Due South
Dean Winchester - Supernatural
Spike - Buffy/Angel
Ianto Jones - Torchwood
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce Buffy/Angel (more so in Angel, IMO)
Xander Harris - Buffy
Luke Danes - Gilmore Girls
John Crichton - Farscape
Josh Lyman - The West Wing
Duck McDonald - Wilby Wonderful
Geoffrey Tennant - Slings & Arrows
Tobias Beecher - Oz
Spock - Star Trek reboot
Odo - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

I'm sure I can think of a few others, but last nights' cocktails have dampened the brain cells somewhat :~\

[gossymer.livejournal.com]

Seen this happen quite a bit to Duo Maxwell (Gudam Wing) - Wildflower and then the Ion Series by Sunhawk in particular XD

[bibliokat.livejournal.com]

Ianto Jones for the woobie!win. Poor baby!

[bibliokat.livejournal.com]

Oooo, as seen above: Wesley Wyndam-Pryce comes in at a close second.

[http://users.livejournal.com/tesserae_/]

G Callan from NCIS: LA

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

Oh, good one! They never even gave him a first name! *wipes away a tender tear*

[msilverstar]

Lotrips: Orlando Bloom definitely (hey, it's a bijournal fandom). He's the girl, see, and Viggo (or Sean Bean, or both) swoops in to save him.


LOST: Charlie is canon woobie!

[blackletter]

In Harry Potter fandom, Snape is the character who is most woobie in fanon with the least woobieness in canon . In other words, he has the highest fanon to canon woobie ratio.

Doctor Who fandom loves Doctor pain. (Especially Ten and Five. They are both so pretty and so much fun to torture.)

Ianto Jones is Torchwood's woobie, hands down.

Bertie Wooster is usually the hurt woobie in Jeeves and Wooster fandom. (And Jeeves provides the comfort.)

QED

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

In other words, he has the highest fanon to canon woobie ratio.

FANDOM MATH FTW! \o/